Hey guys, thanks so much for the reviews! Honestly, your loyalty means so much to me, the fact that you guys are coming back to read, and review, every time I update really makes my day!
You'll probably be glad to hear of no Lucas in this chapter, and also, this is where the first important events of the story occur! And I hope you're all liking the intercepts of the case too - I involve it a lot in my writing because I wanted to keep it as true to the show as possible!
Anyway, enough of my talk, on with the chapter! Enjoy, and please leave a review! xxxxx
VI
"I've found you another case." Cuddy had been waiting all morning for House to finally arrive at the hospital, and today he was even later than usual – it was 12 o'clock noon by the time she heard him, from her office, insulting the male nurse at the nurse's station in the lobby. He can usually manage to make it in for 10am, only one and a half hours later than he should be arriving. Although, she had a sneaking suspicion that he knew that upon her arrival that morning she would find the papers on her desk for the discharge of his patient, and therefore she would make a point of finding him a new one as soon as physically possible. So instead, she gave him forty five minutes after arriving to let him think he'd got away with it, before taking the file up to his office.
House pouted in such a way that resembled a toddler being told to tidy up all of his toys and go and do his homework. "Oh, but muuuuuuuuuuuum. Not yet, I only just finished the last one! Pleeeeeeease?" And he took the file she was holding off her very reluctantly, tossing it on to the glass table at which his employees were sitting.
"If you have a problem with me actually expecting you to do your job, I advise you to go and talk to Cameron about it – she is the one that keeps finding me cases for you when they come in to the ER. Otherwise, shut up and read the file." She folded her arms in front of her chest and then leant against the wall near the door of his office.
Making a rather patronising gesture towards the door, he hinted that she leave. "Okay, and now you've done your job of providing me a case that I neither want, nor care about, therefore you can leave now. I don't need you here to observe my differential diagnosis either; I don't think that's part of your job."
She eyed him suspiciously but could think of absolutely no rational reason for her to stay during the ddx, therefore sighed, pushed herself up off the wall without even uncrossing her arms. She then scowled at him but in a very, very subtle way, and stalked out of the office and down the corridor and to the elevator back to her own office, killer heels clicking almost menacingly as she walked.
He watched her intently as she left and only when he was entirely sure she was completely out of sight did he then begin to limp after her, as quick as his bum leg and his cane would carry him. Just as he walked out the door, he realised he hadn't actually given an explanation to his team, nor had he given them any instructions, so he stuck his head back around the glass door so they could hear him. "As my boss suggested, I'm going down to the ER to have a little word with Dr. Cameron. While I'm gone, just… read the file, bounce a few ideas around, you know, try and be a little bit useful. And whatever you do, keep out of Cuddy's way, and don't tell her where I am." And with that he limped off with a remarkably surprising amount of speed for a cripple. He saw the elevator doors closing in front of him, so as soon as he was close enough he stuck out his cane and jammed it in the doors, to give him the time to get in the elevator before it left. All the doctors, and patients, already packed side by side like sardines in order to fit in, scowled and tutted loudly and obviously to show their displeasure with his stunt. Seemingly oblivious of the angry atmosphere surrounding him, he stood shamelessly humming until the elevator reached the lobby, then made sure he was the first to leave.
Upon entering the ER, he limped towards the nurses' station and leant against the counter. Out of sight to the nurses inside the station, he tapped his cane against the counter repeatedly in order to get their attention, and when one eventually did look up, he acted as if nothing at all had happened. "Er, hello, I'm looking for Dr. Cameron?"
Without a word and with a look that would turn a weaker man into a quivering mess, the nurse pointed to the cubicle in the corner of the emergency room, with the curtains around it.
"Why thank you. And I'll be sure to inform her when I see her, how welcoming and polite her nurses are." Without waiting for a response, he made a beeline towards the area he had been directed to and without making anyone inside aware of his incoming presence, he walked straight into the cubicle to discover the head of the emergency room examining a man's swollen testicle. At this, he wrinkled his nose and moved backwards as if the victim was diseased. "Oh dear, Dr. Cameron, are Chase's not enough for you anymore? Or are they just not mature enough, and you need someone with more experience, that knows what they're doing? If that's the case, you know my services are available whenever you might need them…"
Allison Cameron didn't even flinch. She was so used to his sexually suggestive comments and his incredibly annoying desire to seemingly only want her when he can't have her, that it didn't even warrant a reaction anymore. "Chase's services are just fine thank you very much, so yours won't be required. Now was there something you actually wanted, are you just here to annoy me? Or to hide from Cuddy?"
Ignoring the question, House pressed on with what he suspected most likely came under her first suggestion of his reason to be here. "You know, you really need to sort out those nurses – crack the whip and keep them in line – one of them was so rude to me when I asked where you were."
"There's nothing wrong with my nurses, they are perfectly polite to everyone else who comes into the ER, they just don't like you." And then she looked up at the patient and smiled reassuringly. "You'll just feel a slight pinch Mr. Watkins, nothing to worry about." She then pulled the cap off a syringe with her teeth and inserted the needle in to the swollen testicle, before sucking out some of the puss coloured liquid slowly.
House looked flabbergasted and mortally offended. "Why don't they like me?"
"Stop pretending, House, nobody likes you. I'm not even sure you like you. I'm sure Wilson probably doesn't even like you, he just enables you. Now what do you want?" After getting a decent sample, Cameron removed the needle and put the cap back on before turning to Mr. Watkins, who was now a little green in the face and looked slightly nauseous; probably partially because of the pain and partially because of the puss he'd just seen come out of his balls. "I'll send this off for testing, and I'll come and let you know the results. Let one of the nurses know if you need any more painkillers or assistance and I'll check on you in a bit." And then she walked out of the cubicle, continuing with her job as if he weren't following her around with her every move.
Struggling to keep up with her as a bum leg and a cane weren't really great tools to beat the land speed record, he was finding it hard to follow her around completely but he was doing the best he could. When he fell behind, he resorted to simply shouting at her. "Will you stop finding Cuddy cases to give to me? It's hard enough to keep her at bay, I don't need you being the little teacher's pet that everyone wants to punch at school and helping her out, by handing her things that annoy me. Like work."
Only then did she stop moving, drop the files she had in her hand on top of the counter at the nurses' station, put one hand on her hip and turn around to talk to him properly. "If you must know, I only do it as a favour to you, because the ones I find for her I think you'd find a lot more interesting than the ones she finds. And even if she fails to find one at all, she wouldn't leave you alone so I thought you'd much rather be diagnosing and therefore avoiding her than have her on your back about all the paperwork you've forgotten to do or lost since I left. So if I were you, I'd be thanking me." And with that she walked off again, so fast he had no chance of chasing her.
So instead, he called after her, as loud as he could possibly manage. "Thank you Dr. Cameron, feel free to take advantage of my gratitude in any way you may wish!"
Cuddy was just having one of those mornings. And despite how much of a good mood Lucas had managed to put her in last night, and that morning before she left for work, she was already up tight, stressed out and extremely short tempered. Most likely it was because she'd never left her beloved hospital for longer than a day in a very, very long time and now she was preparing to leave it for a whole weekend, so there was a lot to sort out and get in order. Anyone who had already encountered her that morning was making it their business to stay out of her way as much as feasibly possible, and anyone who was forced to face her was making their visit as quick as possible.
Unfortunately for Wilson, he hadn't already encountered her that morning and no one had warned him of her completely vile mood. If they had he most definitely would have thought twice about what he was about to do. But instead, he walked straight in to the lion's den and opened with a line that set the tone for the rest of the conversation – and it wasn't a pleasant one. "Why won't you just give him a chance? Go on one date, see what happens. If it all goes disastrously wrong, then I promise I'll never ever ask you to do it again."
She looked up with a glare as sharp as daggers. "Not now, Wilson. Not that I ever want to have this conversation with you at all, but now is really not the best time to try, trust me." And she went straight back to sorting her over flowing inbox in to separate piles and in chronological order ready for filing. It wasn't actually a difficult job, she was just so harassed that she wasn't concentrating and was making mistakes, which was making her even more wound up.
Sadly, he also really did not have the concept of when to shut up and walk away. "No, I'm not having it. I'm not having you try and brush me off because you don't want to talk about it or have to face it at all. Well, I'm not going away. I'm not going away until we've had a proper conversation about this and you've either agreed to give him a chance or you've given me a good reason why you won't." And with that, he stood his ground and sat resolutely down on the sofa in her office, determined not to move.
"For God's sake, can't you take no for an answer? I've waited for him for years. For years, I've had failed relationships because no one is exciting enough, challenging enough, because no one is him. Every relationship I've had since I hired him back I've compared to him, and I never even had a relationship with him. It was a one night stand over 20 years ago when we were both still students. And you know what, because of that I had a baby without a father. I couldn't settle down because I couldn't settle for anyone that wasn't him. And I'm nearly 39 years old – I can't play this game for the rest of my life. You didn't believe me when I said I'd moved on, and judging by the fact that you're here and trying again you still don't. But it's true. I'm not pining after him anymore. He had his chance with me and he lost it and I'm not living my life based on how it might affect him or you anymore. I have my own life to live. The flirting was fun – it still is – but he isn't a man I could ever have a relationship with." She slammed the files she was sorting down on to her desk with a little more force than seemingly necessary, as if to enforce her point. She was angry, but she wasn't quite sure why, although she had a sneaking suspicion it was directed at herself.
He held his hands up defensively as if to protect himself from her antagonism. Everything she was saying made sense and he knew it and that's why he was so frustrated, but he remained calm and collected, although a little exasperated. "Why not? He's changed Cuddy – detoxing and rehab changed him. This is the best and possibly only chance you'll ever have."
"It's not worth the risk Wilson, not anymore…"
"Why not?" He repeated, this time with even more force and exasperation, as if desperately trying to talk sense into her. "You're still yet to give me a better reason than it being too late. It doesn't have to be too late; you don't have to wait for him anymore. He's here, he's willing and he's as ready as he'll ever be. Only you're too much of a coward to take a chance on him anymore. And I'm surprised to be saying that, because I never ever thought I'd have any grounds to call you a coward." He was trying House's technique of angering her to bring out her emotions and make her see sense.
At that, Cuddy tried her best not to get heated with him because this was not the time or the place, and the subject wasn't worth having an argument with him over but he really rattled her cage. "A coward? You think I'm being a coward for wanting to protect myself from inevitable pain. And you think I'm a coward for trying to protect my daughter?"
Wilson could tell he'd got to her and as much as he didn't like it, he kept telling himself that if it actually did what he intended it to, it might actually make her happier in the long run. So it was all for the greater good, really. "I think you're a coward for using Rachel as an excuse. Rachel isn't going to be there on a date – that's all you need to give him, to prove that he's different now. And as for protecting yourself from pain? Yes, that is cowardly, because we all have to take the leap of faith sometimes."
She was beginning to get frustrated because all her reasons were flimsy, as she couldn't tell him the real reason. She still wasn't ready to make it common knowledge that she was seeing someone else, especially not considering who it was. So she settled for shaking her head distractedly and attempting to keep her temper at bay. "You don't understand, at all…"
"I've got two tickets to a theatre show this weekend, I can look after Rachel for the evening, let him tak-"
"No! What can't you understand about the word no? Now if you've got nothing of importance to say to me then I suggest you get out of my office before I kill you, because I have a lot of things to do and organise before the weekend." She determinedly didn't look at him because she didn't want him to see how much emotion he'd managed to provoke in her, so instead she stared intently at the papers she had returned to sorting and filing.
Resigned to the fact that this was a lost cause and that also this might have not been the best of times to bother her, he stood up graciously and did as he was told. However, when he reached the door, he realised what she had said and turned to look at her, highly confused. "A lot to organize before the weekend, what do you mean? What for?"
She didn't even look up when she answered him, nor did she think about what she was saying, because she was too distracted by what she was doing. "Yes, I'm taking Rachel away for the weekend, up to Spring Lake, and we're going to go to the Petting Zoo and some other stuff. I want us to have some quality time together because I don't want to be one of those mothers that never see their kids." Her voice then became a little muffled as she bent down behind her desk to file the pile of paperwork she'd just sorted.
"Oh, that'll be nice. Well, enjoy yourselves." But he still had a puzzled look on his face when he left the room.
Only when she was sure he was out of the room did she resurface from behind her desk. She was flustered and stressed without being quite sure why. All she knew for the first time in a long, long time, she couldn't wait to get out of there.
Wilson wondered why he hadn't thought of there first. The moment he left Cuddy's office, he went to look for House. When he wasn't in his own office, Wilson looked in his favourite haunts – his office, the morgue, the doctor's lounge, an empty clinic room – predominantly used for hiding from his boss. His final resort was to check the rooms of comatose patients, and in one was where he found his best friend with a packet of chips, playing computer games on the rooms inbuilt TV.
House was so engrossed in the game that he didn't even notice when Wilson came in, and he only did when he noticed someone stealing his chips. "Oi, get your own! What do you want anyway?"
Wilson attempted to look immediately offended. "Aren't I allowed to just come and see you, be social?"
"No, what do you want?" But immediately, House was looking straight back at the game as if his friend was no longer of any interest to him whatsoever.
Knowing there was no point in lying to House, Wilson sighed. "Okay you're right I do want somthi-" And then he noticed that House was actually paying no attention what so ever to anything that he said, and had returned to crashing and blowing up cars violently, with a hint of sadism, on the computer game. "Do I have to unplug that to make you listen to me?"
House tutted but politely paused the game and turned to look at Wilson. "Spit it out then, quickly. What do you want? I'm going for a high score."
"I spoke to Cuddy again." Wilson almost winced as he continued, remembering how painful the conversation had been. "She wasn't very pleased so I wouldn't worry, I won't be doing that again in a hurry."
"Oh for God's sake Wilson – I'm telling you to drop it, she's telling you to drop it. Neither of us wants you to play cupid." He grabbed a handful of chips and shoved them all in his mouth, meaning his next words were muffled and difficult to understand. "When are you going to get the message that we don't want to be set up on a blind date? We're perfectly happy as we are, thank you very much. And your love life is the one that needs significant attention, not mine."
Highly affronted by this insinuation, Wilson was momentarily distracted and went off on a tangent, which of course had been House's intention. "My love life? Why does my love life need sorting out? There's nothing wrong with my love life thank you very much…" And the expression on House's face told him that he'd fallen for his ploy hook, line and sinker, so he rushed to get back on topic. "Anyway, that's not the point. You two are so frustrating, you accidentally kissed because you felt emotional together, what bigger hint do you need?"
At that, House raised his eyebrow questioningly. "I don't think I accidentally kissed her, I think I intended to kiss her…" He paused for effect but when Wilson looked like he was about to explode as he could take sarcasm no longer, from him or Cuddy, this morning, he rushed on. "But okay, I get it, that's not your point. Let's say you are right, which I'm not saying you are, and we do want each other but just don't want to admit it. I think you're missing a fundamental issue in this whole scheme. There must be a reason that we don't want to admit it…"
"Because you're both too bloody stubborn to give in to your feelings and admit that might actually like one another, never mind love one another!"
"Woah, who said anything about love? I just want to hit that…" House clearly no longer found this conversation interesting to returned to playing his computer game – taking it off pause and immediately swerving and diving as if he were the controller. And then he continued to speak, attempting to multi task, which caused his words to come out much slower and his face was tense with concentration. "But saying I was actually going to listen to you, even after last time I listened to you becoming such a total disaster, and actually ask her out on a date, just to humour you. She'd never say yes…" And then he paused the game again, this time to think. "Unless I just turned up at her house this weekend with a bottle of wine… But that might be too forward. I could turn up with a table booked at her favourite restaurant?" By now, he was no longer talking to Wilson, merely talking to himself and thinking out loud.
"You can't, she's away this weekend." Wilson cursed her, and the fact that he may have finally got his best friend to see sense, when Cuddy wasn't going to be here to be on the receiving end of it.
Only that fact made House stop in his tracks and crash his computerised car, causing it to explode and burn in computerised plumes of thick black smoke. "She's going away this weekend? Why, what for? Where?"
Wilson could sense where this conversation was leading and that made him extremely reluctant to reveal any of the information that Cuddy had given him about her weekend away because otherwise it might result in her committing a double murder. "I don't know where she's going, she didn't say, but I know she's taking Rachel away for the weekend to have some quality time together. You know, mother and daughter stuff." It was clear he was very awkward about his answer to the question, but luckily for him, House seemed preoccupied.
"She hasn't been away from the hospital for longer than a day since she chaperoned me to Singapore for that conference, and only then she left the more responsible of her two babies to look after himself for a couple of days because I was unable to be trusted…" House was back into deep thought, as if there was nobody else present in the room.
"House, don't even think about following her out there. I've spent the last god knows how long trying to convince her that you've actually changed since you've come off the drugs and been in rehab, but if you go after her and harass her, trying to find out what she's doing and why she's there, it'll prove the absolute opposite. That's what old, drugged up and crazy House would do. New, rational and calm House waits until she gets back and then carries out his idea just as if she'd never been away." Extremely nervous about House being in deep thought, Wilson hoped that Cuddy meant enough to him – deep down inside where he knew he wanted her and this might be his last chance – to let his curiosity go and leave her alone.
"Yeah…" House answered distractedly, and got up, letting the controller clatter loudly to the floor, and limped out the room without a word.