LEGACIES AND LOLLIPOPS
By MAGDALAPART FIFTEEN - FIRST DRAFT
It was the night before Tink's lecture I had spent most of the day preparing the legal kits for the students and medical staff whom would be attending. My intention was just a quick visit with Greg before heading back to the hotel but he wanted to talk. First we talked about the house that Phillipa had left to us in London.
"It's your house not mine you know that. Julian got his solicitors on to it. I instructed them and it's all sorted out." I said.
"Solicitors?"
"You know that's what they call them over there." I said.
"Just sounds funny coming from you." he smiled.
"I entertain in so many ways."
"Come here, come closer. You could get up on the bed now. I won't break." He wanted to hold me.
"I'm not sure." I was worried I could cause him pain. I knew Tink was still working with him on that.
"Stacy you've done it before. Got up on a hospital bed." Said Greg.
"You watched?" I asked looking at him hard. There was only one time in my life I had done that.
"No. I saw. I couldn't help see. The blinds were open." Obviously seeing me lie beside Mark had hurt him terribly.
I went across pulled the cord and shut the vertical blind. This was the nearest we could come to privacy in the glass hospital. Greg smiled his blue eyes lit with fun.
It felt so good to lie alongside Greg in his hospital bed and inhale the smell of him. My head nestled into his left shoulder as his left arm held me tight against him. It had been a week from his last surgery and the dressing was finally removed. I could touch his chest and stroke my hand down his side. As I felt the outline of each of his ribs with my fingertips I was shocked by his emaciation.
"Skeletal," he said as though reading my mind. "It was all the puking."
"So bulimia really works, huh?" I said lightly.
"Screws the teeth though." he bared his teeth to me they were white and even.
"The dental work's holding up."
"Yeah well I wasn't really dedicated to bulimia. My goal will be obesity once I get away from the lousy food here." he grinned.
"That'll wreck your career as a supermodel."
"I was all washed up when I couldn't do the runway stuff anymore. Will you still love me if I get to be a blimp?"
I laughed. "Even if I have to fight off Richard Simmons and Dr Phil."
"Like they'd worry."
"Richard Simmons would weep. Dr Phil would want you to read eighteen of his books. Then put a whole team in place to help you."
"Thank God I'm not genetically disposed to weight gain." He lifted my chin so he could access my mouth with his and kissed me gently and deeply.
"Your mouth's all better." he said as he opened the top buttons of my blouse and slid his right hand into my bra cupping my breast in his palm as his fingers moved to give me pleasure. But I wasn't comfortable.
"What if someone comes in?" I asked.
"I guess they'll realise we are adults." Said Greg just a Wilson entered stopped short and clapped his hands over his eyes.
"Oh for God's sake," said Wilson, "What do you think you are ... teenagers?"
Greg removed his hand from my blouse and pulled it together.
"It's okay Wilson you can look now." Said Greg. "No Stacy don't move you're fine where you are. Wilson … open your eyes."
Wilson took his hand from his eyes.
"I should get back to the hotel. Greg?" He was holding onto me tightly. "Greg. Let me go."
"It's okay Stacy you are fine there." said Wilson
"Just the hanky panky that worries Wilson." Greg was grinning.
"Yeah. Right." Wilson held up a small paper pill distribution container. Greg's fingers were starting to dig into me and he looked serious.
"The anti-convulsants?" he asked.
"Yes." confirmed Wilson. "Tink want's to make sure." He poured a glass of water from jug.
"Anti-convulsants?" It sounded terrible to me.
"Sometimes the drugs used for seizures and epilepsy help with nerve pain. House found he couldn't tolerate them last time we tried"
"I thought I was going crazy. Maybe you'd better go back to the hotel, darling."
"No. I'll stay. I'll stay here with you."
Wilson smiled at me. Greg took the pills and washed them down with the water Wilson handed him.
"I'll hand out the 'Do not disturb sign' as I go out" said Wilson and then looked at me "If you think he is going crazy call for a nurse and have me paged."
I nodded and Wilson left. I looked into Greg's astonishing eyes they had taken on a gray hue as fear supplanted the fun which had been evident earlier. We tried to talk about the house in England and then about the lecture in the morning. Then we fell silent as Greg waited to feel like he was going crazy and I watched his gaunt face for any signs of heightened anxiety. Greg closed his eyes and I could feel his warm breath against my face. To me it was the gentlest and most intimate touch. And with that thought I fell asleep.
I was woken with a start by the day shift arriving and the noise of the morning routine starting on the ward. I realized Greg's arm still encircled me and he was sleeping peacefully. It was morning and he must have got through the night without going mad. I moved carefully trying not to wake Greg as I got off the bed.
As I buttoned my blouse and tried to straighten my clothes I realized that I felt more rested than I had at anytime since returning to Princeton. Greg's eyes moved under their large crinkled lids and gradually they opened. He smiled seeing me.
"Did we sleep together?" he asked.
"Yes we did." I said smiling back.
Then he started to move. "Ooh."
"Pain? Are you in pain?"
"No not really. My arm. It's gone to sleep." He tried to flex his left hand. "Aagh."
"Do you want me to call a nurse?"
"No. No. Can you just rub my arm?" I picked up his hand and then with both of my hands started to massage his left arm. His eyes closed and I worked my way up his arm to the shoulder. I had always loved his arms the perfect smooth skin, the prominent veins, the musculature.
"Is this helping?" I asked.
"Yes keep going? Now it's all pins and needles."
"This is my fault." I said. If I hadn't sleep on his shoulder it wouldn't have happened.
He opened his eyes and looked directly at me. Those eyes how I had missed those eyes. They looked so different so much more beautiful when he was happy. I hadn't seen his eyes look like this for nearly six years.
"It's not your fault I wanted you with me. I could have moved if I'd wanted to." Sometimes his voice was like a caress. "Will you be alright for the lecture today?"
"I've just got time to go to the hotel take a shower and dress. How's your arm now."
"Fine. Great. Are you going to be wearing one of those power suits?" He asked.
I nodded. "I know they turn you on." I kissed his arm feeling the blood pumping through it under my lips.
"Wish I could be there." He was still thinking about the lecture.
"I wish you could too." I said and I really meant it.
A nurse came into the room. She looked annoyed and judgmental.
"These are not visiting hours."
"It's alright." Said Greg.
"Yes I just popped in for a minute. Yesterday."
As she processed that, I kissed Greg lightly on the mouth.
"See you after the lecture, darling" I said and headed for the door.
"Are you ready for your shower. Dr House?" The nurse had managed to convey in that one sentence that she thought Dr Gregory House was very dirty in every way possible. I laughed.