Chapter 3 - Goodbye, babe
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Adviser: House/Cuddy's memories from 80's are in present simple and in bold, Italic writing (also stressed by the symbol #). Normal printing and past tense for present time (set in Season 4)
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The silence in the CT room was surreal, like if the three people in there were keeping their breath. Well, Cuddy surely was.
"Here"
Foreman's voice broke the silence as the images began to appear on the screen.
Cuddy's eyes followed Foreman's index and she bit hard on her lower lip, nodding and turning between her fingers the elastic band which had tied her pony tail till a second before. She stared at House's brain. One of the brightest and most exceptional brain in the world now just in a plain white and black image on a screen.
"No extradural hemmorage," she whispered, like she was talking to herself rather than asking for confirmation to the neurologist. The minor fracture of the temporal bone was visible, but there were no signs of intracranial bleeding, brain oedema or, her most fear, transtentorial herniation.
"Nor subdural or intraparenchymal hematoma," Wilson added, arm-crossed, bending down over Foreman's shoulder to have a better look.
"Yeah, it's clean" Foreman confirmed turning his head to meet his boss' look, standing behind him.
He didn't succeed though and he just exchanged a glance with Wilson instead. Cuddy's gaze was focused beyond the glass wall, apparently fixed on House's bare legs, the only part of him coming out of the CT machine. She was clearly not really looking at them but just thinking, looking inside her own brain for an answer she couldn't find.
"What's on your mind?" Foreman asked as she didn't turn to look at him.
"A diffuse axonal injury? "
The question exited from her mouth in a quiver, betraying her anxiety despite her firm posture.
Foreman shook his head as Cuddy caught sight of the neurologist's move reflected in the glass wall.
"He's conscious and he has no signs of intracranial hypertension... no nausea or vomiting nor seizures. He just has headache, drowsiness and confusion... common symptoms after-"
This time Cuddy sighed so hard that caused Foreman to give a start, then turning toward him and giving him a piercing look.
"He's not confused, Foreman! His speech isn't slurred at all! I know retrograde amnesia and transitory anterograde amnesia are common after such a traumatic brain injury, but he didn't just erase the accident from his memory or the day before it. His mind erased TWO DECADES!"
Foreman just stared at her as she ran a hand on her forehead, closing her eyes and then opening them again to look at him.
"So...you two really had a relationship?" Foreman asked out of the blue like someone who hadn't heard a word of her speech "A love one or... er... or just a sexual one?"
He regretted that question as soon as it exited his lips
"How this can be of any relevance, Dr. Foreman?" She replied in a firm tone, slowly articulating this sentence specifying every single word "Unless you're thinking it's neurosyphilis, something obviously isn't since his VDRL is negative"
The silence which followed was almost more embarrassing than Foreman's question.
"Well, it's just that...you and House... House and you... it's, well... " Wilson stammered in an attempt to save the situation but just complicating it even more (if that was somehow possible).
Cuddy just stared at Wilson as he stood in front of her, his hands in the pockets of his trousers. She gave him an annoyed loud sigh, looking at him straight in the eye.
"I'm a woman. He's a man. What's that difficult to comprehend, Wilson? Do you want me to make a drawing?"
Wilson shook his head, giving her an awkward look but she wasn't looking at him anymore. She gave a glance at House's legs again and just headed to the door.
"It's a post-concussion syndrome, Cuddy" Foreman said before she left. She stopped, her hand still on the handle but she didn't turn back "Post-traumatic amnesia should last less than a week" He added as Cuddy just slightly nod, again not turning to look at him.
"Have you ever seen House that nice? Maybe we should just enjoy it while it last"
Probably that comment was supposed to sound funny to lighten the tension in the room but Foreman was definitely not good at it.
-/-
The cafeteria was silent on Sunday morning... less personnel on duty, less patients waiting for scheduled appointments. It was something good since the swirling of thoughts into Cuddy's mind was noisy enough.
"Dr Cuddy?"
Cuddy looked at the nurse who timidly approached her, just standing a couple of steps from her as Cuddy handed a bill to the woman behind the counter reaching in turn for her coffee. She looked at the paper cup but didn't take a sip, just savouring the heat warming her palm as the nurse stared at her, probably wondering if it had been a good move to bother her new boss. She was clearly not on call. Well, no boss was on call on Sunday unless it was an emergency. Tomorrow she would probably be in one of her power suits again, but ... how could she look intimidating even in a white T-shirt and a pair of jeans?
Cuddy didn't speak, just waiting for the young woman to speak instead.
"I was in Dr. House's room," the nurse finally began, though stopping like trying to find the right words in front of her boss "I know it's not of my business but... er... is he fired?
Cuddy's eyes opened wide giving her a very questioning look.
"What?"
Nurse Ann's mouth opened in a O-shape, looking at the boss as she put a few coins in the pocket of her jeans not averting her eyes from her though.
"Sorry," she awkwardly said shaking her head "like I said, not of my business" she said again, emphasizing those words with a raise of a hand "Sorry if I bother you, doctor"
Cuddy looked at the nurse as she hesitated for a few seconds then turned to leave.
"Wait"
The nurse froze and turned toward Cuddy again.
"Why do you say that?"
"Er... I'm not sure he was awake or having a sort of nightmare honestly, but... he said, well... 'fucking Dean'," she gave Cuddy an apologizing look like if she was worried she could be punished for having repeated those insulting words, looked down and then at her again "and... 'I'm out',"
Cuddy just held her gaze, her lips turned in a thin line and she swallowed.
Yeah, fucking Dean...
# A shiver awakes her. The sheet is not enough for her naked body and she wraps it more around herself. For a moment she thinks it's been just a sex dream but the pillow still smells of his shaving balm. She closes her eyes again... she needs to sleep... her anatomy test is in a few hours. #
She watched the nurse as she timidly took her leave with an excuse.
# She feels lighter as the sun warms her face and she holds her books tightly against her chest. They made her suffer so much in the past days that burning them crosses her mind for a second, but there is no way she can "hurt" a book. And there's someone she needs to thank instead. She looks around but there's none waiting on the bench in the campus park. Maybe she should be disappointed but she is too relieved for bad feelings right now. #
A bitter smile curled up Cuddy's slip as that thought crossed her mind, but it was just a second before it was replaced with a lump in her throat.
Yeah, fucking Dean... and fucking House.
# The seat behind her is empty. No one is blowing on the back of her neck to distract her from the lesson... none is tapping his pencil on the desk distracting her from taking notes... none is annoying her anymore... He can't be found anywhere... #
... fucking Dean...I'm out...
Yeah, 'out'. Out of medical school and out of her life.
Cuddy knew about that. About how he had been expelled from his first med school. At first she had thought he was just avoiding her. A one-night stand and there goes. No promises. No expectations. Just that. Then rumors had run along the campus hallways till the desks of her class and to be honest none was that surprised he had had his ass kicked.
What she didn't know was...
...'I'm sorry I didn't call you...
She closed her eyes, running a hand on her forehead as those words came back to her mind, together with the sensation of his thumb caressing her hand and his eyes piercing hers.
Was he really going to call her? Maybe to come and see her either?
It was like the pieces of a puzzle finally came into their place.
... You're here...
... I-I'm sorry I didn't call you...
... We- we ok then?...
... May 13th ...
Yeah, May 13th. But a lot of calendars had been thrown in the garbage since that one 'May 13th'.
-/-
House's eyes followed Foreman's finger.
Up. Down. Right. Left.
"It's good, House. Good"
"Good?" House repeated, emphasizing the questioning tone of that word "My eyes aren't good, they're fabulous, bros"
Foreman stared at him as the hint of a smile curled up the corners of his lips. House's humor was definitely a good sign. His loss of memory was the puzzle to solve instead. Apparently there was nothing in his CT which could explain it, but brain's always a mystery. He still thought it was a post-concussion syndrome and that it was a transitory state, but it was clear that a man who erase half his life from his mind was a case which needed an attentive monitoring.
"Rest," The neurologist said still staring at House, then writing down something and closing the folder "Whatever it is we're gonna take you back in 2008"
House's gaze followed Foreman's walk till he disappeared beyond the door, replaced instead by another white-coat. Wilson just looked from his friend to Foreman, then shaking his head and letting out a chuckle.
He pointed a finger toward House rhythmically moving it up and down like to say something, but he didn't speak till he was by the bed.
"You know he'd leave you back in 1989 gladly, right?" Wilson said referring to the neurologist as House smirked.
"To run my department?" He asked even if it was clearly a rhetorical question "It's ok for me if I can have the run of the Dean's body instead".
"So... you and Cuddy? Did you two really -...?" He awkwardly asked "I mean... what was it? A one-night-stand? Or..?"
Wilson didn't finish the sentence, just letting it hung as House held his gaze, raising both his eyebrows.
"Wasn't you supposed to be my best friend?" He asked as Wilson's eyes spoke in his place.
It was obvious he never heard about him and Lisa. Why was he so surprised? From the summary his team (whoa! He was a renowned diagnostician with his own team!) had made him of the last years of his (unknown) life he was nothing more than a miserable, grumpy guy who doesn't share his feelings with anyone. No wife (nor a girlfriend either!). No friend, except for Wilson. Honestly, except for being one of the best doctor of the Country, he hadn't concluded a lot in his life.
So, well, what had it been? Nothing more than a one night stand according to the events which followed. He could remember the Dean's call and himself packaging his stuff in a instance of anger, then leaving the campus and rashly getting on the first available bus. Nothing more. It was the last thing he could remember. But he was going to call her. He surely was going to call her...
# The dim light coming from the half-open curtain illuminates her white skin in the darkness of the room. He runs his free hand on his face and turns his head toward the still-made bed on the other side of the room. It looks like Lisa's roommate is having fun too tonight. It's probably 3, at most 4 am. He can't tell since his watch is on the arm trapped under Lisa's body. His fingers have pins and needles and the limb is definitely numb but he definitely doesn't care. And he cares even less about the frozen feet coming out from a too short blanket. After having run after her for a full semester there is not another place he wants to be. Not that he's going to admit it anyway. Better for everyone to think they just casually meet here and there along the hallways. He's not ready to lose his reputation. Not yet. But her scent... he can lose himself in her scent. There is something in this girl that makes him lose his mind.
She slightly moves in his arms and he takes advantage of it to free his arm from under her shoulder. An heavy insensitive arm which hurts like hell as soon as blood comes back to a normal circulation. Well, if there is blood enough to revitalize his limb since a large amount of it has just flowed into a much lower part of his body at the bare rub of her ass against his groin! He resists the idea of waking her up for a third round and instead he just puts an arm around her body, inhaling her scent once again as her curls tickle his nose. She's going to have her anatomy exam in a few hours and he has already worn out her enough. He smiles to himself at that thought and at the thought she is hardly forgetting the twelve cranial nerves after the lesson he has given her on last night. He places a soft kiss on her shoulder than slowly leaving the bed. He gives her once more glance as he picks up his clothes from the floor, careful not to awake her.
Is it a smile the one forming on his own lips?
"Goodnight, babe" he whispers as he closes the door, welcomed by the fresh air of a spring night. #
"Is it what Lisa said?" House asked after a few second of silence, this time staring at the door before meeting Wilson's look again. Wilson couldn't help but blush and run a hand in his hair.
Yeah, once again he forgot that in this decade people wasn't used to hear Cuddy's first name from his mouth.
Cuddy.
Well, technically Lisa Cuddy was right about their one-night-stand. There had been only one night. But he wouldn't have described it as just a one night stand. A crush rather. And honestly a bad one for a guy like him. Something he wasn't used to. There was something in her he couldn't be indifferent at... and it was something more than her long curls and gorgeous ass.
House sighed and close his eyes as a grimace of pain appeared on his face.
"You ok?" Wilson asked as his look moved on the monitor near the bed.
"Like I broke my head" he replied in a murmur.
Wilson just touched House's shoulder (something allowed with the 1989-House) remembering him again that he needed to rest.
