Hey guys, I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to update, after being in London I was completely wiped out Friday and yesterday. Thank you so much for all the reviews guys, I'm really glad you're liking the story, even with all the Luddy at the moment.
I'm also so pleased you think that it's in character - that was one of my main aims when writing at such a fast pace in such a short space of time. And Jessica, great guess, but hopefully all will be revealed in this chapter!
I apologise for distinct lack of Huddy interaction in this part but believe me, it is necessary for the story!
Enjoy, and please read and review, and also don't be afraid to give me any constructive criticism too! xxxxx
V
"It's not a gastrointestinal bacteria, or if it is, it's hiding somewhere other than her intestines." Thirteen's voice echoed around the morgue as House's three fellows filed into the room with their latest update to find him lying on a coroner's table with his portable TV in his left hand and a Reuben sandwich in the other, his cane lying by his side.
Without looking away from the tiny screen in front of him that he was staring intently at, he answered. "And I take it from the fact that Taub has now rejoined you both, she tested negative for chlamydia? I can only assume he didn't come back and tell me because he didn't want to buy me a Reuben, so I bought my own. Well, technically Wilson bought it for me but..."
"Yes, she did." Taub sounded extremely irate when he cut in, similar to how he usually did when he was proved wrong, although slightly quieter as he was very aware of where they were.
"So if the infection isn't from her yummy parts or her fun parts, where is it? What other infections can cause Reiter's Syndrome?" There was a loud and unexpected crunch that broke the steely and solemn silence that generally resided in a morgue as he took another bite into his Reuben and the bread crumbled.
Foreman shrugged but was waiting for the out break of ridicule that was bound to come when he answered the question. "Nothing else causes reactive arthritis. It has to be chlamydia or food poisoning."
Only then did House look away from his TV show, to give his longest serving employee a look that plainly asked if he were stupid. "Dr. Foreman, I thought we just established that it was neither of those things?"
"But it has to be, there's no other explanation!" He replied, completely exasperated.
"Unless you screwed up the tests." House took another bite of his sandwich and his eyes widened as a tall, busty blonde walked on to the small screen and he held it up to his face. "Wow, she's new…"
Thirteen once again came to the rescue of her boyfriend, but this time out of pity, not out of nobility or chivalry. "We didn't screw up the tests. When they call came back negative and we knew Taub's had too, we redid them, twice. No screw up. She has no infection in her intestine."
Her boyfriend shot her a furious look, humiliated to have been saved by his girlfriend twice in one day in front of another colleague and his boss, but luckily for both of them House was too busy concentrating on the eyeful he was receiving elsewhere to notice their exchange.
"Then Taub screwed up his test, which I agree is a much more likely conclusion but I didn't want to accuse him first because I didn't want him to know I assumed it was him all along, because you two are much better doctors."
Trying not to rise to the bait because he knew it would only make things worse, Taub tried to keep his voiced steady and unchanged. "I did not screw up. I took a urine sample and tested that and to be extra sure I did a pelvic exam and took a swab. I saw no signs of chlamydia and the swab tested negative, as did the urine. It was difficult enough to get the swab from her in the first place so I'm not doing that again. On the other hand, I was right, she isn't a virgin. See, gay people do have sex."
"That has nothing to do with her being gay, all teenagers have sex, gay or straight. They think it's cool. And they're right, it is, and so much fun. But if you didn't screw up, and they didn't screw up, her body must be lying to us. Go take out a piece of her body and make it lie to our faces. Go biopsy her intestine."
She knew he'd told her about her surprise well in advance to make her think and wonder about it all day long while she was at work. And there was another thing she was grateful for – as much as she told herself she didn't deserve a boyfriend that treated her even half as well as he did, the idea of a romantic surprise had wiped all other thoughts from her mind. For the first time in a long time, she left the hospital at exactly 6 o'clock, completely ignoring everyone who tried to catch her attention as she left the building. The frost that lay delicately on the ground crunched under her heels as she crossed the car park, and she pulled her Blackberry out of her pocket as she slid into her car. The starting of the engine masked the sound of her cell phone turning off, and she dropped it in her hand bag on the passenger seat as she pulled out of the hospital grounds and on to the dimly lit main road. She usually hated driving in the dark but for the first time since 2am that morning she felt truly calm, and at peace. In the back of her mind she was sure it wouldn't last, because it would never be that easy just to shelve her indiscretion somewhere and never have to think of it again – that wasn't how it worked and she knew it. But right now, it finally was not at the forefront of her mind and she wasn't going to waste this opportunity.
The gravel of her driveway crunched underneath the weight of her car tyres as she smoothly pulled up to her house. Out of pure instinct, she began searching through her bag for her key chain but when she reached the door and tried the handle she found it was already open. She stepped inside and felt a wave of heat sweep over her, locked the door for the night and slipped out of her heels. Now 3 and a half inches shorter than she had been at work, she hung her coat and scarf on the bottom of the stairs and left her hand bag in the hallway, before going in search of her boyfriend and her daughter.
"I'm home!" Cuddy called, as she wandered through the seemingly deserted house, until she heard a familiar giggle from upstairs. Hearing her daughter laugh never failed to make her smile and she broke out in a grin as she began to climb the stairs. "I hear someone laughing! Rachel, I know it's you."
More giggling was followed by her daughter's favourite, and possibly only, word. "Mama!" But then Cuddy heard a male voice that definitely sustained her smile.
"Ssssssh, remember what I told you, we're supposed to be hiding from her!"
As she reached the top of the stairs, she saw the light in the bathroom was on and the taps were allowing water to slowly fill the bath, but the voices she could hear were coming from her daughter's bedroom, where again the light was on and the door was ajar. "Hiding from me, are we? Well, I found you!" She grinned at the sight of her beautiful little girl and her handsome man, when she entered the room. Immediately, she ran over to where Rachel was sitting on the floor with her blanket, and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Was Lucas getting you ready to have a bath? Well, mommy's home now so we can give you a bath together." And then she moved over to give Lucas a kiss on the cheek. "Good evening." And she couldn't resist. "Do I get my surprise yet?"
"After Rachel's had a bath and gone to bed!" But Lucas was determined not to settle for just a kiss on the cheek so turned her face towards him and left a lingering kiss on her lips.
In response, she smacked him playfully on the arm but couldn't help smiling. "Fine, I'll wait." And then she turned and scooped Rachel up in her arms, carrying her to the bathroom. "Come on little miss, let's get those clothes off and get you clean. Where you a good girl for Lucas today while mommy was at work? If you were, you can have your ducks in the bath with you, and some big bubbles!"
Rachel nodded her head vigorously and proudly and sat still as her mom placed her on the floor and gently tugged her t-shirt over her head, and then slipped her socks off her feet and her skirt over her diaper, and tossed all four garments in the direction of the laundry basket.
To check the temperature of the water, Cuddy slipped her whole hand into it and then shook it dry, before resting the back of her hand gently on her forehead. Satisfied that it wasn't too hot, or too deep, she turned off the taps, and added Rachel's favourite rubber ducks and boats to the water. "Lucas, she's ready, where are you?"
"I'm coming…" But the reaction was delayed and it took him more than two minutes to return to the bathroom, and by then Cuddy was struggling to remove Rachel's diaper with one hand, seen as the other one was wet, so he rushed in to help.
"Where did you go?" She asked curiously, as she lifted Rachel up and slipped her slowly and gently into the bath.
They caught each other's eye for a moment and he smiled mysteriously. "Never you mind."
Trying to convince herself not to mention it again, and actually have enough self control to forget about it completely, she grabbed one of the floating ducks and started racing it around the bathtub, jumping over Rachel and big mountains of bubbles and splashing water up slightly as it went. Rachel kept giggling so she continued, faster and faster until it hit the water so quickly that it made a rather large splash that managed to make Lucas quite wet and covered in bubbles. Upon noticing this, Rachel pointed and laughed, who in turn brought it to the attention of her mom, who fell about laughing. "Sorry sweetheart, I didn't mean to."
"I don't believe that for a minute." To get his own back and exact his revenge, he grabbed the bubbles on his shirt and wiped them on her perfectly styled hair, and then began flicking more towards her mischievously.
Never one to back down from a challenge, Cuddy collected her own stash of ammunition and tried a new, slightly more inventive tactic – blowing them towards him. And when that didn't work, she reverted to old fashioned wiping them on every place of him she could reach, still unable to stop giggling as her daughter's laughter was infectious.
"Okay, this is war." Lucas grinned and dipped his finger tips into the bath, and began using the water on his fingers to flick at her repeatedly.
She gasped in shock, quite unprepared for the water hitting her. "Oh, you little… Right, that's it." She cupped her hands and scooped some water up from the bath into them – Rachel was also contributing to the water and bubble fight by wriggling and splashing around increasingly excitedly, the more excitable the two adults got – and threw it straight at him the best she could. His face and shirt were completely soaked and he had water dripping from his hair, and at that sight she could control her laughter no more and broke into a hysterical fit, practically falling into his arms as she was unable to hold herself up.
"Oh, I'll get you for that Lisa Cuddy, just you wait, and that's a promise." He shook his wet hair all over her and kissed her on the cheek playfully, watching her in slight surprise as he was caught off guard by how beautiful she managed to look half soaking wet, still in her work clothes, and the other half of her covered in bubbles.
She grabbed the soap from the side of the bath and intentionally stuck her ass out as she leant over the edge to reach in and wash Rachel down, but as she did so, she continued to talk to her boyfriend. "Oh will you now? And how are you planning to do that? Torture me for twice as long about my surprise? Oh, wait, I shouldn't give you ideas…"
Lucas made as if he was seriously considering possibility but then decided to decline that choice of punishment. "No, I can't do that; it would spoil all my fun…" But he spoke rather slower than usual as he was slightly distracted. He knew he was playing to her hands and even though it was obviously exactly what she was intending to do in order to get him to do exactly what she wanted him to do, every truly male part of his body couldn't focus on anything but the way she was leaning over.
"Subtlety was never your strong point Lucas." She grinned as she lifted back up straight, having washed Rachel's hair gently. She then got up and laid a towel on the floor, lifting the little girl out of the water and onto the towel to get dry. "Was that fun sweetheart? Was Lucas silly for throwing bubbles at mommy? Did he get what he deserved? He did, didn't he? Yes, he did…" She was almost talking to herself as she gently rubbed Rachel dry, who kept giggling every time the towel hit a ticklish spot.
After unbuttoning his drenched shirt, and leaving it in the pile with Rachel's clothes to go in the laundry basket, he pushed himself up from the floor and headed for the door, smiling fondly at the toddler. "I'll go and get a clean diaper and her baby gro."
But Lucas, although unintentionally unlike she had, had the same effect on her as she did on him, and she momentarily stopped drying Rachel to catch a glimpse of his bare chest. However, as soon as she realised what she was doing, she jolted back to her senses quickly enough so that he hadn't even noticed anything had happened. "Thanks. On your back Rachel, diaper time!"
Moments later, he returned with a clean diaper and her favourite, softest baby gro in his hands and handed them to his girlfriend, along with a peck on the cheek, before returning to kneeling beside her to lend a hand if necessary.
Once Rachel was ready for bed, Cuddy carried her through to her cot and dimmed the lights in her room. Lucas took this as his cue to leave mother and daughter alone, as he knew she spent her life beating herself up about not spending enough time with her baby, therefore putting Rachel to bed was always a special time for her. But this time, he decided to make use of his spare time and instead of making himself comfy on the sofa and turning on the TV, he stuck his head into her bedroom to check the envelope he'd left was still on the bed and then crept down the stairs. He went in to the fridge, and then one of the cupboards, and poured her a glass of her favourite South African red wine, and one for himself, then carried them both upstairs and set them down on each bedside table, then sat on the bed. By the time he'd finished, he heard he was just in time as there was the click of the catch on Rachel's bedroom door.
Cuddy rubbed her eyes slightly, tired, as she opened her bedroom door and immediately went to put the baby monitor in her left hand down on the bedside cabinet. When she got there, she saw the glass of wine and smiled softly, turning to Lucas. "Thank you, you didn't have to do that." She sat down on the edge of the bed beside him, and placed a grateful kiss on his lips before beginning to take her tights off under her skirt. As she battled to do so carefully, without laddering them, she cheekily asked, "So is that my surprise you've been harping on about all day?"
"You really think I'd disappoint you that much? You really think I'd hold you in suspense for so long and then only get you a glass of wine at the end?" He managed to make himself look offended by the accusation, but it didn't last for long because he was the world's most terrible liar.
She grinned, intentionally deigning to answer that question and hoping he wouldn't notice. "What is it then? Come on, tell me, please…" Finally triumphing in the battle with her skin coloured tights, she slipped them off completely then discarded them carelessly in to the corner of the room.
He turned and reached behind him, picking up the envelope he'd left lying on the bed, and handed it to her. Although he was smiling, it was quite obvious that he was also extremely anxious and nervous in wait of her reaction. "I hope you like it, and I honestly do hope it's not a disappointment."
"Of course I'll love it." Pressing a reassuring kiss to his cheek, she eagerly fought her way into the envelope in an excited manner that resembled a toddler ripping into the wrapping paper on presents on Christmas morning. Finally reaching the present with him, she found a booking reservation for a double room with a cot at the Chateau Inn, in Spring Lake, from Friday to Sunday, and three tickets for the Peaceable Kingdom Petting Zoo for Saturday morning. She was stunned into silence, not even believing Lucas was capable of organising his own wardrobe, never mind a weekend away with activities included for all three of them, as a family. Feeling so touched by his thoughtfulness and his effort, and once again now plagued by the feeling that she didn't deserve him, or all of this, she had to fight to stop the tears from falling. She looked up at him and smiled widely, still almost speechless. "Wow, thank you Lucas… Wow. That, that's so wonderful, and amazing, thank you…"
He let out a highly audible sigh of relief when she finally spoke, and broke in to a wide grin of his own, and wrapped his arms around her. "Thank God for that… You're very welcome, you deserve it."
At this, she faltered a little bit, but only for a second and she hoped he hadn't noticed. She kissed him slowly, and passionately, possibly as a distraction, just in case he had noticed, and then looked him mischievously in the eyes. "You mentioned sexual favours, too…"
If anyone walked in to House's office at that moment in time, they most likely would have assumed it was empty. All the lights were off, both rooms were sunk in to pitch darkness, both in a cold, stony silence and there was no movement whatsoever in either the outer or inner office. But in fact, that assumption would be completely wrong, because in fact, surprisingly enough at 9 o'clock at night when he'd usually be at home stuffing his face, drinking bourbon and watching porn, House was sitting in his own office. And in fact, he was actually enjoying the darkness, and the silence, and the stillness. He preferred it that way. It gave him a chance to think more clearly, without interruptions and distractions presented by outside influences – namely, other human beings.
He was thinking about his case. The patient had begun presenting with symptoms that suggested Crohn's Disease, but the biopsy had shown that it wasn't Crohn's, which was indicative of Reiter's Syndrome, but they still hadn't managed to find the infection causing the auto immune reaction. Against his usual philosophy and his normal beliefs, he knew the answer must be something they'd already considered, because there were only a handful of causes for reactive arthritis, so they must have been wrong at some point. One of their assumptions must have been wrong. He began talking the case through to himself.
"We're assuming she has Reiter's Syndrome. That can't be wrong because they've done the tests to prove it, and symptoms never lie. We're assuming she has an infection that caused the Reiter's Syndrome. That can't be wrong beca-"
He didn't get any further, as he had an epiphany. He picked up the phone on his desk and paged his fellows – Dr. Hadley, Dr. Foreman and Dr. Taub – and then limped as fast as he could towards the patient's room, slightly disappointed by the fact that there had been no one there to witness his miraculous epiphany. When he reached the room, he pulled the sliding doors open and walked straight inside, announcing the conclusion he had come to. "Your daughter is gay."
There was a huge outburst of muttering and then raised voices followed by complete outrage that followed his statement. Both the parents of the teenage girl lying on the hospital bed launched into long winded moral speeches about religion and sin and betrayal of confidence and breaching the terms of their contract, and also asking who the hell he was.
House allowed them to do so for a limited period of time, until he saw his employees walk into the patient's room, and then he held his hand up impressively too silence the two parents. "Be silent, for the Lord is about to speak." He then cleared his throat and began to explain. "Your daughter has chlamydia. Well, she had chlamydia, because if she still had it now, it would have shown up on Taub's vaginal swab. She is suffering from an auto immune disease called Reiter's Syndrome, which is when the immune systems goes into over drive and goes past attacking an infection and instead attacks itself – this particular one causing problems with the eyes, joints and genital regions. But Reiter's Syndrome can only be caused by a very small number of infections, and our tests for every single one came back negative. So the only explanation I can give you is that your daughter-"
"Annie." Thirteen interjected, feeling it may calm the parents slightly if they thought their daughter's doctor even bothered to learn her name.
"-Annie, had chlamydia in the last month. She took the prescription written for her by the doctor, but by the time the infection had cleared up, the auto immune reaction had already begun occurring. And even when the bacteria were no longer there, the immune system didn't stop trying to attack it, hence why the disease has occurred when no current chlamydia infection is present."
Annie's mother, still clearly shaking with anger, spoke only when she was sure House was finished. "I assume this means you are Dr. House, the one we brought our daughter here to be treated by especially and the one whom we haven't seen at all during the course of her stay here up until now. But your reputation precedes you and if that's what you think is wrong with her, then we're just going to have to trust you, and take you on your word. How do you treat it?"
"Usual treatment would be antibiotics for the infection causing the reaction and steroids for the reaction itself. Since there is no infection left, there is no need for antibiotics, and she's already on steroids. So we'll double the dose and hope that works. But this is bad news for you." House couldn't help but have that smug, self satisfied look that he always had when he knew something everyone else didn't.
Annie's father simply looked annoyed; as he looked form the doctor in front of him to his helpless daughter who lay sleeping on the bed, too exhausted to even stay awake through shouting in her room. "How the hell is that bad news? She's going to get better, isn't she? She's going to be okay?"
House braced himself for the explosion that would follow his words. "Because your daughter is gay, didn't I open with that?"After a pause to let the shouting of the parents – who were angry because he was damning their religious beliefs – and his fellows – who had, up until now, stayed silent because they knew just to let House do his thing, but who were now angry because they knew he was just intentionally trying to stir up trouble to see what happened – begin, he then continued on his explanation, consistently talking over all of them loudly until every single one of them had stopped and began listening to him again. "If she was claiming she was gay before even going out with a guy then I would say hey, be sceptical, but to have chlamydia she must have actually had sex with a guy. And if, after that, she still thinks she's gay, I think that's the nearest thing to confirmation you're ever going to get so you might as well accept it." And then he paused for a moment to study the parent's reactions to his words, before becoming thoughtful again. "Why aren't you surprised when I've just told you that your daughter has had sex, and got an STD? You get insanely angry when you think she might be inclined to have relationships with other girls rather than boys, yet when I tell you she's put herself in that sort of danger, you don't even flinch? You knew, that's why, isn't it? You told her to… You thought forcing her to have sex with a guy would make her straight. Well, it doesn't work like that; all you did was give your daughter chlamydia, and almost kill her." And with that dramatic monologue, he turned to walk out the room, and as he passed his stunned fellows, he spoke to them quite loud. "Make sure you report them to child services, they're effectively raping their own daughter."