Celeste

Chapter 17

When the plane finally touched the ground, Cuddy was jostled awake. Six hours into the flight she had finally succumbed to sleep, her dazed mind giving in to tiredness. Stretching her legs and arms, she looked outside to see the main building of the Heathrow airport in the distance. Passengers were already buzzing with excitement after eight tiresome hours of being cooped up in too little space. Cuddy closed her eyes and took a deep breath, before reaching under the seat for her purse. Turning her phone on, she sighed in relief when no missed calls but only a couple of message notifications from House and Wilson were blinking up at her.

As she followed the rest of the fliers down the aisle and off the plane, Cuddy was on auto-pilot. Being away from civilisation for eight whole hours, not being able to call someone or be called in case of emergency was one of the worries that were taking over her mind. For six hours of the flight, she had worried herself to exhaustion, thinking about her daughter, her ultimate gesture to end the pain and sorrow. Celeste seemed so strong on the outside, her quirky and bubbly personality perfectly hiding what she was really feeling. That girl had to endure so much in the past year, Cuddy thought: the loss of her mother, her father's illness, being thrown into the arms of her biological mother and then the final straw. Her father's death.

It took Cuddy some time to get her luggage back, but eventually she managed to sashay away from the crowd and towards the exit. Celeste's grandmother had told her someone would pick her up, either her husband or her, so Cuddy looked around for a good ten minutes, not really knowing what to do since she had no idea who to expect. Suddenly a blonde, grey-ish head of wild corkscrew curls came into her vision. A woman in her forties, Cuddy guessed, was walking towards her, a small smile on her lips. She was wearing a flowing orange dress, with an intricate pattern of pinks and yellow, under a thick black coat. She looked radiant, the dress accentuated the golden tone of her skin and her green eyes. The very first impression Cuddy had of that woman was a blur: she was undeniably gorgeous, all curves and curls, but there was something in her that seemed to defy every law known to mankind, dress code included. Plus if that woman really was Celeste's grandmother she had to be at least in her sixties.

"You must be Lisa."

"I am."

"I'm Alexandra, we better hurry or we'll get stuck in the traffic. Plus I'm always worried when my husband and our little girl are left alone in the same house." she paused to look at the obvious confusion on Cuddy's face. "They're both unbelievably clumsy and prone to disaster." Alex continued with a smile. "When Celeste was six, they almost burnt down my kitchen. Needless to say, they're no more allowed to cook. The only thing they can do in there is tea." Cuddy let herself smile at that.

When they finally reached the car, Alexandra helped with the luggage before reminding Cuddy that she should probably go to the other side of the car, unless she wanted to drive. The doctor almost face-palmed herself.

"Ugh, I always forget about this."

"It takes some time, sweetie. I've lived in America a number of years and it took a while when I first moved there and then back here."

Half an hour later, Alexandra was parking in front of Tesco. Halfway out of her seat, she turned to Cuddy and apologized, saying that she needed to buy a couple of things for dinner.

"No need to apologize... go ahead"

"Sweetie, you'll soon find out that British people say sorry and please way too many times in a conversation." she replied smiling. "So, please excuse me. I'll be gone 5 minutes, 10 top." Cuddy chuckled as Alex smiled politely at her before disappearing inside the shop. She got out of the car, fastened her coat and shivered in the cold air. Quietly she stretched her legs and walked around the car a couple of times. She leaned against the side of the vehicle and pulled her phone out.

"House."

"Hey."

"Hey. How are you?"

"I'm good. We're almost there now. How is it going?"

"Good, managed to piss Wilson off but he bought me lunch nevertheless, so..." Cuddy chuckled.

"I have to go, patient's test results are back. Call me when you have talked to her okay?"

"Okay."

"House... I love you." She said so in a whisper, tears stinging her eyes. Cuddy felt so small in that moment, leaning against the wrong side of the car, wishing that her daughter was fine and that the man she loved was with her.

Her proud, fierce and strong Dean of Medicine persona was as far away from her as possible, what was left of Cuddy were all her insecurities and worried. She was scared of Celeste's current state of mind, afraid of scaring House off with her confession. But all she needed right now was to feel something other than worry.

"I love you too."

To her surprise, it wasn't a whisper. His voice was loud and clear through the phone and Cuddy would have done everything in her power to hug him or have him by her side.

"I really do." he continued. "Now go and take care of our kid. If she's anything like her parents, she's in for one hell of a time." he joked, trying to lighten the mood.

"I will." Cuddy concluded the call with a smile, wiping the lone tear from her cheeks. Alexandra stood in front of her, a wicked smile on her lips.

"Was that the famous Dr. House?"

"How do..."

"Celeste. She likes him."

"Really?"

"Of course. She brags and brags and brags about the two of you."

"I... I should probably explain something to you, but I think wait till we get there so that I can talk to both you and your husband at once."

Alex nodded soberly.

"Five minutes and we'll be there."