Chapter 20
A/N: WOW! Thanks so much for all those awesome reviews, everyone! It seems the huddy fanbase has just EXPLODED since I was last actively involved. So many videos on youtube, fansites, its nuts and I LOVE IT.
It's great to know you're all enjoying this fic so much, and that I have so many new readers! So thank you cazness, lslazybones, bostonfan, Nicole, confusedsarcasm, Princess-Leasel (he would be a man named Harvey O'Brien. We'll have more on that front later!), jassy2009, Metaphoric.Love, BodiesNBones, anorphirith, Calli1, vipercharmed and Shikabane-Mai, your support is much much much appreciated!! Each review made me smile and brightened up my day so I'm very grateful for your kind words.
I also noticed a lot of people putting this on story alert (not all of whom reviewed), so if you are indeed still reading, I would love it if you could take the time to leave a teensy comment! Doesn't have to be much, just a 'hello, I'm reading' will suffice, or even a guttural sound, I'm not fussed. :)
I'm on some kind of a major roll here (notice how quickly I updated), and have already written the next chapter, so here's hoping I can keep going at this pace!!
And now, where we left off…
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Cuddy could only gape as her older sister – whom she had not seen for several years – stood on her doorstep before her. No one would know they were sisters just by looking at them. Linda was a good few inches taller with only slightly waved oak coloured hair that hung just above her shoulders, and deep brown eyes. She had small facial features, and lips that almost always seemed to be pursed.
"Hi Lisa," she said in a deep, smooth voice.
"L-Linda…" Cuddy stammered.
"May I come in?" she asked casually, hand resting on the pearls around her neck.
"Uh, yeah, of course."
Lisa stood on her sister's doorstep, her hair dripping and clinging to her face, her loose Michigan sweatshirt heavy with moisture and the rain pelting down behind her. She shivered slightly as a cold wind passed, before reaching up, taking a deep breath and ringing the doorbell. She stepped back and clasped her hands in front of her, nervously wringing them. After a few moments the door opened, and Linda met Lisa face to face. She immediately began to angrily shut the door.
"Linda," the soaked girl begged. The door slowly opened. Linda took in her sister's appearance, dripping wet hair, soaked clothes and pooling mascara under her eyes. Those blue eyes pleaded with her, and Linda shifted uncomfortably.
"Mom and Dad told me if I was going to come home with a baby, I shouldn't bother coming home at all," Lisa croaked, her voice deep and heavy with emotion. Linda's heart ached and she let out a deep sigh, touching her pearls as she thought.
"Come in and have a hot shower, then we'll talk."
Linda walked in purposefully, avoiding Cuddy's gaze slightly, not sure how to look her sister in the eye after an almost five year absence. "Your house is nice."
Anna emerged from the living room, having heard her Aunt's voice. A look of disbelief on her face, she walked up to Linda, who smiled and pulled her into her arms.
Suddenly aware that her mother was watching, Anna pulled away, awkwardly tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
"It's nice to see you dear," Linda said, still touching Anna's arm, ignoring Cuddy completely.
"Aunt Linda?" a voice from the hallway called. Emily appeared warily, not sure that what she was seeing was real.
"Emily," Linda smiled, those tight lips stretching and her arms opening, "aren't you beautiful." She wrapped her niece in an embrace, and Emily only just registered the hug in time to react before she had been released.
"Wh-what are you doing here?" she asked, still shocked.
For the first time since she'd walked in, Linda turned to look at Cuddy. It was like someone had just gripped them both in a lock-hold, pushing their gazes against each other until the air was heavy and thick with tension.
She flicked her eyes away with a dismissive smile. "I thought it was time we had a catch up! It's been too long." She ran a finger over her pearls.
"Mom?" Emily turned to Cuddy, who was still staring at Linda in disbelief.
She suddenly snapped out of it. "Girls, why don't you go to your rooms, give Linda and me a chance to catch up."
"No," Anna refused.
"Anna, please -"
"No -"
"Just go!" Cuddy suddenly yelled, her face bursting. Emily and Anna both visibly flinched at the volume. In the one second that followed, no one moved, the room expanded and their feet seemed to all stand on floorboards a million miles from each other. It was like the air had frozen and nobody could move or breath.
They exhaled.
Emily took Anna's arm and guided her down the hallway, leaving Linda and Cuddy alone.
Lisa took in a deep breath and placed her hand on her hip, trying to act casual. "Have you come to apologize?"
"I'm sorry," Lisa said, buckling seven year-old Emily's seatbelt as she nestled into it, teetering on the verge of sleep. "I'm sorry to keep doing this to you."
"Its ok," Linda replied, "you've got to work."
"I know, but I can't be dumping the twins on you all the time, not after all you've done for us already," she said, closing the car door on her sleeping daughter.
"They're always welcome here, Lisa. Liam loves having friends to play with."
"I promise soon I'll be able to quit one of my jobs, and then you won't have to worry about us," Lisa insisted, opening the driver's side door.
"Its fine, really," Linda replied, laying a hand on her pearls.
Linda touched her pearls, feigning nonchalance. "Apologize?"
"You know what for," Cuddy said, disdain dripping from her voice.
"I'm here with Ted; he had to come up on a business trip. I thought I'd come too, pay you a visit. I missed the girls," she replied straightly, no betrayal of her real feelings on her face.
"Oh, so it's all okay then, is it? You're just going to pretend it never happened?" Lisa wet her lips and crossed her arms, shaking her head to try and hold back tears that were threatening to emerge.
"Lisa, you're overreacting," Linda tsked, tilting her head. Cuddy scoffed and turned on the spot, running a hand over her face and trying to calm herself.
"Why are you really here?" she asked, hand on hip. Linda took a breath and was about to answer when a knock on the door interrupted her.
Cuddy sighed. "Who is it?" she called.
"Lip service!" said a cheery voice from behind the closed door.
"House," Cuddy muttered, shaking her head in annoyance and moving to let him in.
"Wait, House? Greg House?" Linda asked, turning to the door also. "What is he doing here?"
"I don't know."
"Does he -"
"No," Lisa said firmly, looking her sister straight in the eye, before opening the door. House leant with his back against the doorframe, twirling his cane. As soon as he spotted who was standing behind his boss, however, he stood up straight, eyes widened slightly.
"I don't believe we've been introduced, I'm Greg House," he said, pushing passed Cuddy and extending a hand to Linda.
"Oh I know who you are," she replied, touching her pearls as she took a step back.
"That Lisa," he said, feigning a tsk, "she just can't stop yapping on about me!"
"And you're just as arrogant as I thought," she replied haughtily.
"I'm not the only one," he scrutinized, hooking his cane over his arm.
"Lisa," Linda hissed out of the side of her mouth, "are you involved with him again?"
"No!" Lisa protested, desperately trying to think of a way to diffuse the situation.
"Well, that remains to be seen," House commented, popping a vicodin into his mouth that he had retrieved from his pocket.
Linda pouted.
"House, what are you doing here?" Cuddy sighed.
"It's irrelevant now," he dismissed, "I'm more interested in you." He stared Linda down.
"Me?" she raised an eyebrow.
"Why would you be coming back now, after a five year absence?" he stepped towards her, looking analytically into her eyes. Linda was a little taken aback that he knew of her separation from her sister.
"Is someone dieing? Terminally ill? Come to right a few wrongs before they bite the dust?" he continued.
"No."
"Then you must want something," he stated frankly, standing back and looking between the Cuddy women.
"I'm just visiting."
"Pssh," House twirled his cane in a circle dramatically.
Linda squared her jaw. "Who are you to interrogate me? Who are you to ask me any sort of question? You're the one who -"
"Linda!" Cuddy stopped her, throwing her hands up. "Both of you, just… stop it! I don't know why either of you are here, but I want some kind of explanation right now."
"Anna's really upset," Cuddy said, as her sister packed boxes, "she's blaming me, she thinks its something I've done."
"She knows it's for Ted's work. She knew we weren't all going to live in the same place forever," Linda replied dismissively, carefully packing her fine china.
"Liam's her only friend."
"That's not my fault, Lisa. And it's certainly not my genes," she said conceitedly. Cuddy's jaw dropped and she was momentarily lost for words.
"Aren't you ever going to forgive me for that?" she begged quietly, her voice strained.
"There's nothing to forgive. It's just who you are. You can't help that you're that way."
"That I'm what way? That I 'have to take everything from you'?" she cried. "You know that's not true, you know I didn't mean to get pregnant! You're just letting dad feed you his ridiculous opinions."
"Oh please, Lisa. You could never have it all and do it on your own, you couldn't back then and it seems you still can't now. I had to take you into my home, I practically raised your children for you while you were off pursuing some grand career that you just had to have," Linda contested.
Cuddy suddenly couldn't breathe. It was like a load of bricks had been dropped onto her chest, squashing the air out of her.
"So that's how you've really felt all these years? That I've just been a burden to you, an unwelcome burden? Don't hold back now, tell me how you really feel," she spat.
Linda sighed. "You're my sister; I couldn't leave you out on the street with those sweet girls, could I? I had to help them, it wasn't their fault," she continued casually, still packing whilst Lisa stood there practically coming apart.
"We're moving to Boston, Lisa. You've finally got your wish, you run that hospital. It's the life you've always wanted. You don't need me anymore. I'm sorry Anna's upset," she continued coldly, taping up her last box.
00
"What do you think she's doing here?" Emily asked as she and Anna sat on her bed.
"I dunno," she replied, holding her finger up to quiet her sister. She froze as she strained to hear the voices still echoing slightly in the front entrance way.
"Anna, you shouldn't be eavesdropping," Emily warned. Anna rolled her eyes.
"You say that like you don't have your ear pressed against the door anytime anyone has a private conversation.
"I know you're as anxious to hear what they're talking about as I am, so be quiet and go sneak out into the hall."
"Anna…"
"Oh fine, I will," she huffed, getting up and seating herself right at the doorframe. She leant forward as far as she could without being seen.
"God, I need a cigarette," she muttered, shifting uncomfortably.
"I heard that," Emily disapproved from the bed.
Focusing, Anna closed her eyes and listened.
"Then you must want something," House's voice echoed down the hall.
"House is here!" she turned and whispered to Emily.
"Dr House? When did he get here? I didn't hear the doorbell," she replied.
"Well maybe if you weren't so busy telling me off we would have heard it," Anna chastised.
"And maybe if you weren't talking right now you could hear what else is going on!"
Anna rolled her eyes and turned back to the hallway.
"I don't know why either of you are here," Cuddy's voice resonated, "but I want some kind of explanation right now."
Anna furrowed her brow as she tried her best to listen.
Silence.
"Fine. If you're not going to answer, I want you out. Both of you. Go," Cuddy said sternly.
"Lisa, I hardly think it's appropriate for you to kick me out," Linda said smoothly, her voice still with no hint of real emotion.
"Oh, hardly appropriate, is it? And was it appropriate when you told me how much you hated my constant presence in your life all those years? How you hated the fact that I had more children than you? Was it appropriate when you moved away so I wouldn't have to be a burden on you anymore, Linda?" Cuddy exclaimed, her voice betraying her by shaking slightly.
"I never said you were a burden," Linda tried to laugh off.
"Don't lie to me! How dare you come into my house, pretending you never said all those things to me! Do you have any idea what that did to me? To know that all those years you resented me? My worst fears where realized! You know I moved out of your house as soon as I could, you knew how guilty I felt putting that on you -"
"Oh of course, because you have to do everything all on your own -"
"I had to get out of there because I knew how much my pregnancy hurt you. And every day that I lived in that house, I was rubbing it in your face. You know I'm so sorry for that," her voice was now so hoarse and tired that she had to stop for a moment to compose herself.
House just stood back in disbelief. All of the pieces of the puzzle were out on the table – and coming together right in front of him. He let out a breathy sound, and suddenly Cuddy flicked her head to him, finally remembering he was there.
"Oh God," she muttered, covering her face. She couldn't believe how much she'd said in front of House, the man she was trying to keep it all from.
"I told you what needed to be said," Linda stated coldly. "Those girls were suffering because of you."
"Is that true?" Anna asked from the hallway, now standing and walking towards them. All three adults turned at the sound of her voice.
"Aunt Linda, you told me mom encouraged you to leave. You said that she told you we didn't need you around anymore." Her eyes were wide with shock and her posture stiff and guarded.
"Anna, honey," Linda reached out to touch her shoulder, but she recoiled, "I told you what you needed to hear. I told you the truth."
"No you didn't!" Anna cried, pushing away her Aunt's advances, her eyes brimming with tears.
"Y-you," she stammered, "you made me hate her! You made me hate her for pushing you away!"
Suddenly the weight of what she had done and how she had been over the last few years came crashing down onto her, and her legs became too weak and feeble to hold it all up.
Emily rushed from her room, having heard the shouts clearly. She picked Anna up off the floor, leading her away. Sitting her on her bed, she wrapped her arms around her sister, and for the first time in years, Anna really cried.
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A/N: Well, its all out now! That chapter took a lot of emotional energy to write, so I hope I did it justice and you enjoyed it. Don't forget to leave a review, it is always loved and appreciated!
Coming up next… we find out Linda's real motives, and Chase and Emily get themselves in a predicament…