Merry Christmas everyone or Happy whatever Holiday it is you celebrate this time of the year!

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Having dispatched Foreman to do the MRI on Soo's father, House went back to the clinic for an hour. He still didn't send any of his patients to Cuddy, but that was ok. He didn't want her mad at him before he had got a blow by blow account of her visit to the Princeton General out of her. Once he left the clinic for the day, he went back to the diagnostics where Foreman was waiting for him with the MRIs and Soo – as instructed.

"So, what have we here?" House put up the images on the light-board and looked at them. Foreman was ready with his analysis but House put up his hand to stop him. "Soo, what do you see in there?"

Foreman was a little startled. House had specifically told him not to discuss the results with Soo, but he had not realised House was still going to quiz the girl. Damn! Had he known that he would have given her some pointers. Not that the images were in any way complicated, but he knew what effect House could have on you, especially when he was breathing down your neck. Though why on earth was he on Soo's case?

Soo hated being put on the spot like this, especially as she could not forget that it was her Father who was under discussion. She was beginning to think she was not paying just for the cane, but something else as well. She wasn't sure yet what it was, but she had a feeling that when she found out, she would have been happier not knowing. But that was for the future. Right now she had to come up with something intelligent to say in front of House. And his fellows, too, true, but somehow the other people in the room just didn't matter, they were mere shadows beside the blue-eyed titan who was focusing on her insignificant self waiting for an answer.

"It's definitely an infarction," Soo said. She went closer and pointed with her finger, "there. And the damage to the muscle tissue is extensive by now." She was swallowing her tears the best she could, she was sure there was no way her father would survive this, unless he agreed to the amputation – and he wouldn't.

"What is the treatment you would recommend?" House asked unrelentingly.

"The safest option for the patient is amputation," Soo stammered out.

"If the patient refuses that, is there another option?" House would not release her.

"To surgically remove the affected tissue," Soo barely got the answer out. She could feel the tears forming in her eyes and starting to roll down her cheeks. She could vaguely here protesting sounds coming from the three other people in the room, but they were peripheral both to her and House. She wasn't sure what the battle between her and the head of diagnostics was about, but she was not backing out. This was her Father's life, the quality of his life his right to decide for himself what he wanted and if she had to make a fool of herself in front of House, humiliate herself or whatever the price was he wanted, she was willing to pay.

"Is there any other options available that any sane doctor would recommend?" House asked.

"No." Soo knew that that was the only honest answer she could give.

"Yet you still want me to present him with a third option? Even though you know it will probably kill him, that it might leave him with brain damage if we don't bring him back soon enough after he flatlines – and he will do that, at least once, - and if it doesn't do either of those things, the odds of him getting his leg back are still minimal at best – to use a stiff-upper-lip British expression." House just went on pressuring her.

"Yes, I still want you to tell him of the third option," by now the tears were falling freely. House ignored them, though Cameron was doing her best to stop him from doing ... whatever it was he was doing. And Foreman and Chase were supporting her efforts, too.

"So you would rather see him dead than crippled? You would make that choice for him?" House asked.

"It is not my choice to make. It's his. I will not make up his mind for him. I will not let my wishes interfere with his quality of life. It is his life; he has the right to know all options available. And I could not look him in the face and know that my silence robbed him of an option that he might have wanted to take, an option that might have restored him to full health. I could not face my mother, if he chose death over being a cripple and I knew that there had been even a slight chance that it didn't need to be." Soo answered vehemently.

"So you are willing to sit by his bed side and watch him die or possibly get brain damage, knowing that overruling his wishes would save his life and mind and give him many years with you and the rest of his family?" House seemed to be totally unaffected by her distress.

"He is my Father. I love him and if that means I have to watch him die, then I will live with it. He knows who and what he is. I do not have the right to overrule the decisions he makes about his own life." Soo was just barely coherent but her determination still shone through.

"Fine then," House nodded like they had just had a pleasant conversation about the weather. "I will go and see your Father, present him with the sane options and we'll see what happens."

House left his office and Soo collapsed into Cameron's arms.

"What the hell is going on with House," Foreman exclaimed. "That was just brutal!"

"Shhh, there, there," Cameron tried to calm Soo down. "He can be really horrid, but he will do his best for your Father, he really will. And his best can be truly impressive."

"I know he will do his best," Soo sniffed. "But the question is not what he will do, but what my Father will choose."

"Yeah, ok," Chase was puzzled over the whole scene and situation. "I can see how that could cause problems, especially if your Father is really against amputation, but I still don't see why House was that way with you. Why insist that you are present at all? And why make you miserable over the possible options? It is your Father's call, not yours. Why behave like this is your responsibility? It's not like you are the one asking for it."

"I did," Soo said quietly.

"You did what?" Cameron asked.

"I asked him to talk about the third option with my Father," Soo elaborated.

"But it will still be your Father's decision," Foreman pointed out. "Not really your responsibility."

"That is not all that this is about," Soo finally admitted, but she refused to explain herself any further, though the others did ask.

-----------

House talked with Mr. Park for over an hour. After that he went to see Cuddy.

"So, tell me what happened at Princeton General," House had barely entered Cuddy's office before he asked the foremost question in his mind.

"What could possibly have happened there?" Cuddy prevaricated. "Mr. Park is not the first patient to be transferred from PG to us. Nothing unusual in all that at all."

"Don't try that, not with me, Cuddy," House refused to drop the subject. "If it had been any other doctor than Livingstone, I would accept that you went there to just oversee the transfer. But we are talking about the fool who misdiagnosed my leg, got sacked because of it – in lieu of huge malpractice settlement to me – and now did the same thing all over again, there is no way you would not have rubbed his nose, his face and his whole damn body on that."

"It is true that I consider Dr. Livingstone to be an incompetent doctor, and I do believe he has no business to be anywhere near patients, that somebody should have given him a desk job or something a long time ago, but that does not mean I would stoop to rubbing his nose on anything. I am a Dean of Medicine for crying out loud! I cannot behave like an eight-year-old!"

"Oh, nobody would take you for an eight-year-old. Not with that cleavage," House leered. "Which, by the way, is more prominent now than it was this morning. You changed your shirt before your trip to PG, didn't you? You showed less cleavage when I saw you before, and your blouse was dark green, now you not only show more, you make sure nobody can miss it, because you changed from green to bright red. We both know what Livingstone thinks of your cleavage, idiot that he is, so there is no way you didn't do that on purpose!"

"Fine! I will tell you," Cuddy relented finally. "I didn't do anything overt, really. I behaved like everything was normal, and I was there to just make sure all paperwork was in order and normal courtesies observed – though I naturally made also sure that they did not sift any of their liabilities on us. I just ignored Dr. Livingstone completely. When we went to get Mr. Park, Livingstone was there and he was ready with a tirade about how insulting this was and how I could not just shop for patients from other hospitals. I behaved like he wasn't there at all. I talked to the nurses and other doctors about what treatment Mr. Park had received, I asked about things that Livingstone had just told me, but I pretended I hadn't heard – and still didn't if he was the one talking."

"Ahh! The silent treatment," House gloated. "Low key?"

"Oh yes," Cuddy confirmed. "I didn't give him anything, not even a cold shoulder. I didn't huff like he was beneath my notice; I didn't treat him like he was a pesky insect or anything. I genuinely behaved like he wasn't there. And he turned redder and redder till I was sure he was going to have a stroke! Then when we were leaving and I was saying goodbye to Dr. Meyer, - and Livingstone had followed us still spouting his protests and indignation - I said that it might be a good idea that the hospital made sure all their patients were seen by doctors, not incompetent apes who cannot even diagnose cases that follow the exact same symptoms than cases they have already bungled up once before."

"Way to go, Cuddy," House approved. "What did Livingstone do?"

"He finally got the message and left in a huff. There were a lot of people sniggering behind him, though, so I don't think he can expect a lot of respect from anyone for some time to come," Cuddy smiled. "That is of course assuming he was respected at all even before."

"I doubt it," House agreed. "You did well, for you. I still think he deserved more, but maybe PG will see to it."

"I think they will, it seemed that Dr. Meyer had been unaware that Ms. Park had requested an MRI and been refused," Cuddy told him. "Which reminds me, what did the images show?"

"Infarction. Muscle death. You know, you've seen it before," House informed her mildly.

"So it is the same as before?" Cuddy wanted to be sure. House nodded. "What are the odds that that would happen?"

"Infarctions are not that rare and Livingstone is still practising, so two similar cases in eight years, not that impossible." House mused.

"He really is an incompetent ape – no offence intended for the apes," Cuddy sighed. "How are you ... Do you want someone else to take over? I know you will hate cutting his leg off."

"He has refused that option," House said. "In fact one of the reasons I came to see you, is that you need to go and talk with him. He has categorically refused either of the safe options, as his daughter predicted, and wants the third one. You need to go and see him with the hospital lawyer, make sure he knows all the risks and is releasing the hospital of all responsibility. He also needs to name a medical proxy from his family."

"Medical proxy?" Cuddy wondered. "His wife would automatically have the right to make decisions as his next of kin, why would he need to name one?"

"Talk with him, he will explain." House wouldn't go further into the matter. "Once you have the paperwork done, we will do the procedure immediately, I have the OR booked in two hours. Fortunately he hasn't eaten anything since breakfast – the food in PG is as bad as ours, it seems. Once we are sure that the blockage is removed properly and the process in the muscle has started we will put him in coma. That will probably happen late tonight. He will need constant monitoring, and I don't mean nurses checking on him every five minutes, I mean someone by his bedside every second. My ducklings will help with that, but even they need to sleep sometimes."

"Ok, I'll see to that," Cuddy looked worried. "House, this is striking rather close to home for you, are you...?"

"I'm fine," House gave her blankly. "It was a long time ago. My objectivity is not compromised here."

"If you say so," Cuddy was not completely convinced but she didn't think she was going to get anything more out of him, so she let go.

House nodded to her and then started to leave her office, he stopped at the door: "Oh, and Wilson is putting Andie, too, in coma tonight. In case you want to see her before that."

"Thank you for letting me know," Cuddy said. "I think I will go and see her. Her mother too will need all our support."

"Right," House said, and left.

----------

Soo Park was in the cafeteria with some of her fellow students. She didn't have much of an appetite, but she needed some fuel, so she was having a sandwich and a milkshake – soy-milk.

"So your Father is in hospital with an infarction!" one of her girlfriends said. "No wonder you've been crying."

"It wasn't just that," Soo said, but again did not elaborate.

"And House is his doctor? That's so cool," said the boy at the table. He too had been at The Lecture as the one lecture Dr. House had given was known among the students.

"Yes, he agreed to take the case," Soo confirmed.

"You met him?" the others asked. "What is he like? Is he ... you know, are the rumours true about him?"

Before Soo could answer, the noise in the cafeteria was cut by a piercing whistle. Everybody looked up and Soo saw Dr. House at the cafeteria door. He was looking at her and once he saw she had seen him he jerked his head and turned to go, sure that she would follow.

"Sorry guys, I have to run," Soo was on her feet and running before the others even realized what had happened. She could hear their questions follow her, but she didn't have time to turn and give them any answers – not that she really had any. She caught up with House just as he was about to turn a corner.

"What took you so long?" House asked.

"The cafeteria was crowded and as I don't have a cane people don't make room for me that easily," Soo mentally cursed her tongue; again it was running away with her before her sounder judgement could prevail.

"Was that a cripple-joke?" House pierced her with his eyes.

"No sir," Soo denied immediately.

"Too bad," House shrugged. "You might need to practise them as you probably will have one in the family soon enough – unless, of course your Father ends up as a vegetable."

Soo didn't think it was safe to respond to that at all. After a moment she gathered her courage to ask: "Where are we going, sir?"

"To see your Father," House told her. "He wants to talk with you."