Okay, here's some more…thanks for the reviews. :o)
CHAPTER SIX
Debra quickly shook her head, her eyebrows rose and her eyes flew open in shock. "What are you talking about? I'm not high. God, talk about changing the subject!"
"A little birdie told me they smelled it on you," House said slyly.
Debra sat back in the chair and threw the napkin from her lap onto the table in disgust. She was livid; House thought she put on a very dramatic performance.
"Hmm, I guess since Gregory can't talk yet it was James?" she asked, her voice dry and unemotional.
"Uh-huh."
The waiter came back to take their order, but when House nodded to Debra to tell him what she wanted, she shook her head, said she lost her appetite and stormed off to the bathroom.
House smiled, rolled her eyes at the waiter and said, "She wanted a Big Mac. What can ya' do?"
The waiter looked at him confused and told him he'd come back with another drink and to take their order. A few minutes later Debra's cell phone rang in her purse on the back of the chair. House was curious who it was so he stuck out his cane, hook end out, reached for the strap and expertly pulled the purse toward him. He reached in, grabbed her cell and flipped it open in the middle of its last ring; He saw it was Wilson's number. House never said hello but tapped the water glass with the fork (to be sure Wilson knew someone had actually picked up) then put it up to his ear.
"Hey, Deb, how's dinner going?"
"Oh!" House said; his voice as high pitched as he could make it without cracking his vocal chords. "Just great! I'm having 'the letter racing car food.'"
"House! There is something seriously wrong with you! Where's Debra?" Wilson asked. "Wait...what the hell is 'the letter racing car food?" He shouldn't have, but he asked anyway.
"You know, honey!" House replied, his voice still high like a 'woman' and talking a bit louder. "The escargot!"
"House, shut up and let me talk to my wife!" Wilson snapped as the waiter brought House's second drink and he immediately took a sip.
"Sorry, you can't."
"And why not?" Wilson demanded.
"Uh, because she's in the bathroom," House told him.
"Oh," Wilson answered with a heavy sigh. Why didn't you just say…oh, don't answer that. I think I can guess…"
"Is that Jim?" Debra asked as she looked down at House angrily with her arms crossed over her chest. She'd snuck up on him and had been listening to part of the conversation.
House didn't say anything but quietly handed her the phone, the expression on his face like that of a child that'd been caught hiding brussel sprouts under his plate at the dinner table.
"Hey…" Debra said as she walked away after she grabbed her sweater, but not her purse.
That told House she'd be back so he sat, popped two vicodin, nursed his drink and watched what the others were eating around him. He was about to ask the man at the table next to them what type of dish he was eating when he noticed movement out the window and turned to look. On the shore of the lake, a short distance from the back of the restaurant, Debra had taken a seat on the bench right under the lone spot light, her back to him.
From the gestures she made with her head and free hand House couldn't tell if they were fighting or simply discussing what he'd brazenly and coldly brought up. He could have handled it better – he knew that, more so for Wilson than Debra. But he had never been that kind of person, and he never would be. 'Cut to the chase!' That had been his motto for the longest time.
Debra talked to Wilson for a few more minutes before House saw her take the phone away from her ear and sat motionless for a few minutes. She bent over and hugged her stomach, her arms around her knees.
House was disappointed he couldn't see her face. Something rumbled in his stomach and at first he thought it was because he was still hungry, but he wasn't. If his stomach was his heart, it would have broken by then.
He downed the last of his drink, grabbed an unused thick paper napkins and her purse, dropped a $20 on the table and walked out, around to the back of the restaurant and down the path to the bench where Debra was. By the time he got to her, his leg was screaming at him from the strain caused by the unevenness of the gravel, but he knew it wouldn't last too much longer.
He heard a sniffle from her. He waited a second, took a deep breath and walked in front of her, sitting down to her left. He put his chin on the back of his hand that held the hook of the cane and looked out over the water. Shortly after that he felt Debra shiver beside him and he stood, took off his jacket and handed it to her. She didn't take it. She didn't say anything. She just…sat there and stared at the lake, with an occasional sniff.
"Debra, take it," House pleaded.
"I…don' wan' i'"
"Stubborn woman!" House tiffed.
Even though she had her sweater on, he opened the jacket and threw it over her shoulders then sat back down.
"Jerk," she whispered.
"You're welcome."
House and Debra sat for almost five minutes not saying a word. House couldn't take it any longer.
"You know he loves you, don't you?" House hesitated a moment. "I've been a little mad with you at times."
At that she turned to look at him for the first time. "Uh, first – I know he does; and second - why?"
"Because, since you two married and Gregory came along, Wilson and I haven't been hanging out as much as we used to."
"What? I've seen you and Cameron more since Gregory. I've liked it." With that the lightest of smile came to her lips. "Or are you talking about you and him going to stripper clubs?" Her smile grew wider.
He grinned and nudged her left shoulder.
"Greg, I love him, too. Truly, I've never been happier. And Gregory – Jim couldn't have given me a better gift than that little monkey."
"Actually, I think he looks more like an orangutan."
Debra laughed and a muffled choke came from the back of her throat, as if she were laugh-crying then she snorted.
"Oh, lovely." House handed her the napkin and she took it right away, wiped her nose and dried the single tear with her fingertips.
"I've only gotten high like, four or five times. I was just having bad days."
"We all have bad days, Deb. That's no excuse."
"I know, I know. You've seen Ghost, haven't you?"
House frowned then his face lit up. "Oh, yeah, with Demi-Goddess Moore."
"Right. You know how Sam was afraid that anytime something good was going on in his life, he was waiting for it to all go to crap. That's how I feel with Jim. We don't fight, we have little arguments but we work them out, we laugh. Everything is perfect…I'm just…afraid…"
"Don't be. I've never known you to be insecure…you're a strong person…better than me." He shrugged his shoulders and looked away from her.
"I'm cuter, not better," Debra smiled then grew forlorn. "Greg, can I ask you something?"
"No."
"Jim told me you were clinically dead when you went into cardiac arrest. Did you want to come back?"
House was a little surprised; no, he was flabbergasted. "Wha'? What kind of question is that?"
Debra put her leg under her knee and turned to look at him closely. She explained what she'd experienced after she gave birth to Gregory – about her dying. "It just felt so…real. The funny thing was I remember how I felt right before I died." She hooked two fingers on both hands as quotes around the word, 'died.'
"It was nothing I'd ever felt before, even after a joint. I was numb, but it was refreshing, I guess; I can't think of a better word. It was like I was floating and I literally had no fears, worries, nothing. I think that's what I was looking for when I got high. But it freaked me out."
"How so?"
Debra sighed heavily before she said, "I'm afraid it'll happen again. I don't want to go."
"Oh, Deb." House reached out his hand and lightly rubbed her shoulder. "All we can do is live for today. You don't know what'll happen tomorrow. But don't lose what you have now."
Debra looked into his eyes deeply. She was looking to see if what he'd just said had registered in his own brain. She could only hope he did. She felt tears build up in her eyes again and she didn't want to cry anymore. She had a husband and child to go home to.
She stood up, took off House's jacket and handed it to him, then stretched out her hand for House to help him up. "Come on. Let's go home."
