A/N: I like actually having a plot. The rating of this might change in a couple of chapters...I'm in a rather dark mood as of lately (more than likely having to do with it being the week of finals) and finished reading "The Deep End of the Ocean" (finally), which is where I got the original idea for this story. Thank you for the great reviews!
Chapter 7 - Alive
It started out like any ordinary day at the hospital. When I say ordinary, I MEAN ordinary. For the first time in the past eight years, things had finally begun to calm down.
Allie had almost completely recovered from her injuries, having gotten rid of her own cane weeks ago. It had been humorous to see father and daughter walking down the halls, a trail of verbal terror following behind both of them, ready to take out any poor soul that crossed it's path. She'd had a hard time adjusting back into the swing of things, but bravely returned to the local public school since then, ditching the cane and ditching the melancholy look upon her face...replacing it with what I assumed to be a very good facade of happiness.
Allie arrived at the hospital the afternoon following her first day, with the daughter of two of my colleuges in tow. It was apparent that they had become fast friends and I was glad for her - even though the girl was a right terror when it came to hyperactivity. The last time I'd seen her, she'd had half the oncology department groaning at her - she'd been parked in the lounge with her feet up on the coffee table, watching the forty or so episodes of "Jackass" that she'd tivo'd...right over the rest of the department's shows. House had come in upon hearing the yelling, and plopped himself down right next to the girl - laughing as one of the guys on the show attempted to play bullfighter.
Since that day though, I'd noticed a big change. Allie had found her own life, away from her parents - and with that, I noticed a big change in Allison and House. I had a hard time finding a time when Allison wasn't smiling or ready to be overly helpful...a total three sixty from the crying mess she'd been not so long ago. House was completing his clinic hours with hardly a complaint and seemed to be almost...cheerful at times - it was odd, but a relief none the less. Cuddy had come up to me just yesterday, astonished that House had gone an entire week without calling her Satan, or making a crack about her funbags heading south for eternal hibernation! Whatever was going on, we were all going to shut up and take it while it last.
House, Allison, Foreman, Chase and myself had been gathered in the conference room around noon that particular day. They'd been working on a particularly hard case for well over a week, when they'd called me in for a consult. I'd finally made a diagnoses of acute Myelogenous leukemia brought on by undiagnosed Polycythemia Vera. House had been mouthing off that they should have called Allie in for a consult and they would have come to this conclusion a LOT faster - she was definitely more useful than Chase and Foreman combined - when a shadow fell over the conference room.
Outside, the clouds had moved over the sun and the echo of thunder signaled an oncoming storm a few miles off in the distance. House and I had gotten up to look out the blinds while the rest of the team helped themselves to more coffee. I glanced at the menacing sky, and was about to ask Allison and House if they'd like a ride home today (they'd come in on House's bike) when the sound of breaking glass erased all thoughts. Allison had turned around to go back to the conference table and was now staring at the doors to the conference room. Cuddy and two uniformed police officers were on their way into the conference room.
The police asked if they could speak to the Drs. House privately, but House immediately spoke up and told them to get to the damn point...and fast, he didn't care who was here to listen.
The officers sat down with the rest of the team at the conference table and told them they were here about the ongoing investigation concerning their daughter, Alexandra House.
Allison paled, and I watched as House grabbed her hand.
They informed us that they'd been searching through the belongings of David and Marie Williams over the past couple of months since the recovery, and had reopened the case due to some very suspicious information. Letters had been found, letters written to David Williams requesting his service on a particular matter. In the same box of papers, they had discovered a bank statement, showing the issue of two million dollars into the personal bank account of David Williams. They had also uncovered a map of Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital and a post it note, stating the hours of the walk in clinic and a list of symptoms...symptoms that described the very condition David Williams was going to be admitted for that very day, eight years ago, under the alias of David Manson.
The last item they had recovered, was the most disturbing of all. They had recovered a series of 6x4 color photos, and produced them on the conference room table, fresh out of a clear evidence bag. The first photo showed a door, clearly labeled "Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital: Employee Day Care Center." The second photo was a photo of a young woman dressed in a colorful set of scrubs, sitting ahead of a large group of small children, the book "Where the Wild Things Are" in her hands. The last photo was a close up shot of young girl with deep auburn hair and blue eyes, wearing a pair of blue jeans and a pink t-shirt that read "My daddy has a cane, and isn't afraid to use it!", listening to the young lady reading - a photo of six year old Alexandra House.
It was at this point, that House broke the silence by asking who exactly, this bastard was.
The officers stood and told him they couldn't give names at this point, but requested they go home immediately to wait for their daughter's return from school. They also said it would be best to install a security system on their home as soon as possible, if they haven't taken the steps to do so already. Alexandra House was not the victim of a spontaneous kidnapping, they said next - she was part of a conspiracy.
David Williams was dead, but the man who planned the entire kidnapping - was very much alive.