Chapter 9

A/N: Yay! Thankyou for all the wonderful reviews again! And, I was inspired, so this chapter came in only 10 days (as supposed to several weeks, like last time). Cue: Missy Higgins's music lol aaanyway, I swear, my chapters are getting bigger. This one is over 2000 words! (back in the day my chappies used to be 1000 words each, and at the beginning of this story they were about 1500 each). So, it's good news all 'round.

Thanks to my loyal reviewers GallopGirl, Smiling4eva, Jojo, prinnie, QT Roo and TNIIT. You guys rock my jocks! I love it when you guys let me know what you think of the chapter, it just makes my day! I love you all!

By the way, if anyone was confused on who Linda is, she is Cuddy's older sister. More shall be explained about her and her part in the Cuddy/Anna tension later on in the story.

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Emily Cuddy had been kicked out of her mother's office and asked not to return for an hour, as she had been deemed 'too distracting'. She wandered through the hospital aimlessly – things were pretty quiet as the day was winding down. She stumbled across the oncology area, and as she spotted the office of Dr James Wilson, a cheeky smile broke out across her face.

"So basically, you tell people that they're dieing," Anna confirmed as her and Wilson walked back to his office.

"Well… yeah, I guess," he replied, not so sure he liked his job being summed up in such a cynical manner. But, that was Anna Cuddy. They stepped into this office to find his chair was already filled. Emily sat comfortably, her feet up on Wilson's desk, and an I'm-the-boss look on her face. Wilson broke out into a smile, and Anna just rolled her eyes.

"I was wondering when you'd show your face," Wilson grinned.

"I'm sorry, who are you? If you want to see me you'll have to make an appointment with my very attractive and sexually satisfying secretary, Jill," Emily said, trying to be Wilson. Wilson rolled his eyes.

"I don't have a secretary," he reasoned.

"Well I'm sure any number of the nurses would like to play secretaries in the bedroom…" Anna smirked.

"Yeah alright, that's enough. I can't deal with both of you ganging up on me," Wilson folded. Emily let out a small giggle, and Anna chuckled.

"Well… I'm gonna go wait in the car. It's been a long day," Anna said, letting out a little sigh.

"You got the keys?" she asked Emily.

"Umm… no," she replied as though it were completely obvious.

"Does… she have them?" Anna asked, scrunching up her nose.

"It's her car," Emily replied. Anna made a little aggravated sound before turning to leave.

"Night Uncle Jimmy," she said.

"Night," he replied, as she walked out of the office and presumably off to get the car keys.

"So," Wilson started, hands on his hips, "you've been here over a week and you choose now, when I'm about to go home, to come and see me."

"Of course," she smiled.

"Get out of my chair," he said, shooing her out of his seat, and sitting down in it himself. Emily slid herself up onto the desk and sat down next to Wilson's feet, which had swiftly made their way up onto the desk. She swung her legs carelessly, and leant on her hands.

"So, how was California?" he asked.

"Good," she replied. "Didn't get as many jobs as I hoped, but I wasn't really putting myself out there… I probably spent more time partying."

"Sounds like you," Wilson smiled.

"But yeah, Bettina came down for spring break, which was fun," she added.

"Is she still…"

"Obsessed with the 80s? Yeah," Emily nodded. Wilson chuckled.

"Well, that's one thing about that girl that will never change," he replied.

"Umm… there was a lot of sun, a lot of boys… my laptop got stolen…"

"So I hear," Wilson said, leaning back in his chair, "by your boyfriend, that you were living with, apparently."

"Gee, news gets around fast. How long did it take before she told you?" Emily asked, eyebrow raised.

"She called me the night you got home," he replied with a grin.

"Yeah, she wasn't exactly happy with that one," Emily cringed.

"You know she likes to keep things in her control. When we were kids…" he began, and Emily grinned. She'd probably heard the story a million times before, but there was nothing she loved more than a 'when we were kids' story from her Uncle Jimmy.

"… while our sisters were painting their nails and playing dress ups, and my brothers were playing basketball, we used to play doctors. If you were still a little girl, this would be the point where you would come sit on my lap, but seeing as you are now an adult, that seems highly inappropriate," he continued. Emily laughed heartily and gave Wilson a playful slap on the calf, urging him to continue the story.

"Well, when we played doctors she would always make me be the patient, because, of course, I was a year younger than her and wasn't old enough to be the doctor. Or at least, that was her reasoning. She'd put on her dad's old lab coat and wear her little plastic stethoscope around her neck and constantly tell me that I 'didn't look sick enough' and needed to 'pretend better'. She'd stick a copious amount of band-aids on my face, and bandage me up with tea towels and scarves. It wasn't always the most fun practice for me, but in the end we'd always go find our parents and she would beam proudly at her work in 'healing me'. My mother would go all goo-goo gah-gah over how 'cute' I looked, while Lisa's dad would tell her that next time she should let me be the doctor, because I was the boy, and girls were nurses, not doctors. Of course, she never listened, and still stuck to her original reasoning of her being older. But after a while we didn't go see our parents anymore, and sometimes Lisa would even volunteer to be the patient. She didn't like having to be the one that got bandaged up, but she did it because she knew that I liked to be the doctor too. Anyway, this story is getting more and more irrelevant to what we were talking about… and now I can't even remember what we were talking about," he said with a small chuckle and a smile. Emily, however, was still caught up in the story Wilson had been describing. Though he'd definitely told it to her before, he'd never gone as far as Emily's grandfather telling off her mother for being the doctor, and this small bit of information gave her a little more insight into Lisa's non-existent relationship with her father.

"You know, Uncle Jimmy, I don't think Anna knows much of this stuff about mom. I mean, she knows the stuff you told us when we were little, but she doesn't really know about grandpa and everything. You think, maybe if you told her, it might help her mend things over with mom?" Emily asked hopefully, in a quiet voice. Wilson shook his head remorsefully.

"It's not my place to interfere in what's between them. I tried that before, when Linda moved away, but both of them don't want to hear what I have to say on the matter. We have to let them deal with this on their own, Em," he said, placing a caring hand on Emily's knee. They sat for a moment, in quiet reflection, both of them hoping that one-day Anna and Cuddy could shorten that huge gaping chasm between them.

"Well, I better get home to Julie," Wilson said, standing up with a small sigh. Emily mirrored his sigh, and slid off the desk.

"You know, if you wanna talk about things, I'm always here," he offered. Emily smiled and wrapped her arms around his waist in a tight hug.

"I might just take you up on that," she replied, embracing him lovingly.

"Nice seeing you again kiddo."

"You too Uncle Jimmy."

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Lisa Cuddy sat in her car, sunglasses on, driving into the setting sun. Emily, sitting next to her in the front passenger seat, twiddled her thumbs aimlessly and rambled on about something or other that Cuddy wasn't really paying much attention to. Emily looked over her shoulder to see her sister sitting quietly in the seat behind Cuddy, earphones in her ears.

"What are you doing!" Emily asked, slightly flabbergasted. Anna didn't look up.

"Anna!" she said, and the taller girl looked up absent-mindly.

"Anna, what are you doing?" Emily continued. Anna took one earphone out, obviously not able to hear her sister.

"Huh?" she replied. Emily rolled her eyes and let out a frustrated sigh.

"What are you doing?" she asked, for the third time.

"I'm listening to music…" she replied, as if it may be a trick question.

"Well don't, it's rude," Emily whispered loudly, and Cuddy smirked to herself.

"It's the new Pernice Brothers album, I just got it," Anna reasoned.

"Huh, I'd love it if you would 'Discover A Lovelier You'," Emily mumbled. Anna rolled her eyes and went to put her earphone back in.

"Put it away," Emily whispered harshly, "make an effort." Anna let out a deep sigh, pulled out the other earphone and turned off her music. She clasped her hands in her lap nicely, and gave Emily a big cheesy smile, who in turn rolled her eyes and turned back to the front. Acknowledging that Anna was making an effort, and figuring that she'd never have another moment where she would listen, Cuddy decided to take advantage.

"So, I was talking to James before we left," she started, eyes still on the road, "and he invited us over for dinner on Thursday night."

"Awww really!" Emily asked excitedly, turning to face her mother. Cuddy chuckled and nodded.

"Yes, so I would appreciate it," she continued, emphasising for Anna's benefit, "if we could all make sure that we don't organise anything else for that night."

"Sure thing," Emily smiled, sitting back straight and nodding. Anna remained silent.

"Anna?" Cuddy asked, looking for conformation.

"Fine," Anna replied in a deadpan voice. "I like Uncle Jimmy, anyway," she added as an after thought.

"Good, it's settled then. So it's just us tomorrow night, then I've got my date on Wednesday, and we're at James' on Thursday," she said quickly, trying her best to skip casually over the 'date' part. However, it did not go unnoticed by Emily.

"What!" she shrieked, jumping and twisting in her seat to face her mother. Anna smirked to herself, and Cuddy jumped at Emily's sudden outburst and had to work hard to keep in control of the car.

"Emily, I'm trying to drive, don't scream," Cuddy said, focusing on the road and avoiding the subject.

"You have a date!" Emily continued excitedly.

"Yes, it's no big deal," Cuddy replied dismissively.

"No big deal! Of course it's a big deal!" Emily cried.

"Oh, thanks," Cuddy spat sarcastically, "you make it sound like I've never been on a date before."

"Well… you haven't in a while," Emily pointed out.

"How do you know?" Cuddy said indignantly, clutching at straws, "I could have gone on dates every night while you were in California."

"Yeah, and Carson Kressley could be straight after all," Emily replied, rolling her eyes. Cuddy pouted and let out a little aggravated sigh, trying to pay her full attention to the road.

"Ohhhh," Emily gasped, eyes widening, "it's that guy!" Cuddy didn't reply.

"You know… ohhh! The docmixer guy!" she shrieked. Anna's ears pricked up.

"Docmixer?" she asked curiously.

"The online dating thing mom does," Emily replied flippantly. Anna snorted loudly and almost started choking as she tried her best to contain her laughter.

"You do online dating?" she asked Cuddy, snickering loudly.

"Yes," Cuddy replied irritably, trying to retain some form of dignity.

"Oh this is gold," Anna grinned, "just wait till I tell Uncle Jimmy.

"Do NOT tell him," Cuddy warned, her palms getting a little sweaty at the thought of her half-brother snickering at her, and threatening to tell House that she actually did use online dating.

"It's just a date," she reasoned, trying to remain calm and casual.

"Yeah, but… online dating?" Anna asked, with a cringe.

"There is nothing wrong with internet dating!" Cuddy defended, for what felt like the thousandth time. "I work long hours and don't usually have a chance to meet nice, eligible men. Thousands of people do it all the time."

"Usually thousands of fugly people," Anna smirked.

"Fugly?" Cuddy asked, eyebrow raised.

"It means extremely ugly," Emily explained, "it's a hybrid of fu -"

"Yeah alright, I get the picture," Cuddy said, quickly cutting her daughter off. "And he is not… fugly."

"How do you know, have you seen his picture?" Anna asked, smug look on her face.

Cuddy hesitated for a moment. "No, I haven't. But he doesn't seem unattractive."

"Oh, come on, like you could tell. I bet he's a fatty," Anna said.

"He is not a fatty! And even if he were, it wouldn't matter to me anyway. I'm not that shallow," Cuddy replied, trying to be mature about the situation, and focusing on the road.

"Oh he's a fatty," Anna smiled.

"He's a fatty," Emily concurred with a grin. Cuddy rolled her eyes and pulled into their driveway, relieved to be able to escape her meddling daughters' clutches.

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A/N: So there you go! I hope you all enjoyed it. Please take the time to review on your way out, it is much appreciated.

Coming up next… Cuddy's date brings with it an unexpected surprise, and Emily getsa surprise of her own…