Chapter 9

House found that Julia was as good as her word. From then on, they usually spent the nights together either making love or just holding each other. House kept his own cabin, finding that it was better to keep his stuff, little that it was, there and out of Julia's way.

Julia was of two minds on the whole situation. On the one hand was some guilt: why was she enjoying herself? On the other hand, she was enjoying herself. And really, she couldn't find any reason not to.

Greg was a good lover and also a considerate one. Granted, she didn't have a lot to compare him to, but still, why not enjoy her time with an attractive man? She didn't know if he would stay on the island indefinitely, so she might as well enjoy him while she could.

The people of San Paolo had already been nice to him, but once they found that he was with Julia, they were especially nice. She was well-loved there since she found time to help everyone there.

Some of that bothered him. Why did she feel the need to always be helping everyone? Of course, he asked her, but her answer was cryptic.

"Why not? I'm living on a tropical island, I don't really need much money and there are people who need help. What else would I be doing?"

"Relaxing. Building your own life."

"No life to build, Greg. I left all of that behind. This is my world now."

Of course that answer only made him more curious. Why did she have no life? Just because her daughter died and her jerk husband walked out?

The more he thought about it, the more curious he was. Then something she'd said clicked with him and he confronted her.

"The first time we had sex, when I said I didn't have a condom, you said it didn't matter." He said.

"Right, it didn't. Still doesn't. I had my tubes tied, I told you."

"But that didn't mean you couldn't get sick from me. You had no way of knowing my past history."

"You're a doctor. I assumed you were safe."

"You didn't say, 'I trust you.' You said, 'it doesn't matter'. That means you didn't care if I was clean or not."

"What's the difference?"

"You didn't care because you don't care if something happens to you."

"That's ridiculous."

"No, it's not. You said you had no life to build. You don't think there's any value in your life. That's why you give all your time to other people. You think your life is unimportant so you have to help everyone else."

She stared at him and he could see that she wanted to disagree with him, but really couldn't.

"Julia, why do you think your life is useless? It's more than just your daughter's death and your husband leaving, isn't it?"

"You're a doctor, but you're living on an island and tending bar and playing the piano. Why aren't you doing what you should be? You have the capacity to help people and you're not."

"We're not talking about me."

"We are now. This island really needs a doctor. You could practice medicine here."

"That could be a problem."

"You said you're a doctor."

"I am. But I don't have a medical license here."

"Couldn't you get licensed here?"

"They would have to contact my previous employer."

"And that's a problem?"

"That's a big problem. My previous employer isn't too happy with me at the moment."

"Why? What did you do?"

He just looked at her, and she quickly said, "I'm sorry, I promised I wouldn't ask."

He looked away, staring at the ocean for awhile. "I was involved with my boss for a while."

"Your boss?"

"We actually knew each other in college, then years later she hired me. We kind of skirted around a relationship for a long time, and last year we went for it."

He saw the look on Julia's face. "What?"

"It's never a good idea for an employer and employee to get involved."

"Tell me about it. Anyway, it was doomed to fail and of course it did. And there were some unresolved feelings on both sides. Long story short, I drove my car into her dining room."

Julia's mouth dropped open and she stared at him.

"Say something." He told her.

"I – I don't know what to say. Was anyone hurt?"

"No. I made sure no one was in the room. Her daughter was at her mother's house."

"Her daughter? How old?"

"Three."

"Oh my God! You could have hurt that child."

"I told you, she wasn't there."

"Did you know that for sure? Did you check first? What if she didn't go to her mother's that day? What if she was at home? What if she had run into the room just as you were doing your little stunt?"

"Julia, you're projecting because of your daughter."

"No, I'm telling you how one reckless, thoughtless act can destroy a lot of lives. This is something I know."

She got up and walked away. He followed and found her down by the ocean, sitting on the sand. When he got close, he saw there were tears on her face.

"No one was hurt, Julia. I swear, no one was hurt."

"It's not about you, Greg. It just, oh God."

He sat beside her and put his arm around her shoulder.

"Do you want to tell me?"

She swallowed hard, then closed her eyes and leaned her head back.

"My daughter, Megan, was a good kid. I know parents say that all the time, but she was. Good student, never got in trouble, nothing bad. We had a good relationship too. We did things together, talked, all of that. But she made one stupid mistake that destroyed her life.

"She was with some friends, actually not kids that she usually went with, but one of her close friends was friends with these kids and Megan was invited to go with her friend to a party. It was an afternoon, a pool party, so I wasn't really concerned. I even let her take the car. She'd been driving for about six months.

"Anyway, the kids at the party started huffing. Megan barely knew what that was. They convinced her that it wasn't a big deal, that she would barely feel it. So she tried it. And she didn't like it. So she decided to leave.

"She didn't realize that she was impaired. She'd never done it before, so how could she know? Anyway, she was driving home and she lost control of the car on a busy street. The car crossed lanes and ended up on the sidewalk. She hit two teenaged girls that were walking there.

"One of them was killed instantly, the other was seriously injured."

House had been silent, but finally said, "Wow. That had to suck."

"Yeah, big time. The girl who was killed was really popular, the kind of girl that everyone loved. Our community wasn't that big. Everyone knew the dead girl and they also knew that Megan had killed her. They even erected one of those teddy bear memorials where she died. I had to drive by it everyday.

"All of our friends drifted away. They were either embarrassed to be with us or accusing – how could we raise a child who would do that?

"So that's why your daughter killed herself?"

"No, that happened almost a year later. In the meantime, my son David – he was in college then - couldn't deal with all of the pressure and the ostracism, so he pretty much disowned us. We re-mortgaged our already pretty well mortgaged house to pay all the legal fees for Megan. She was charged with DUI and involuntary manslaughter. She got probation, but it was still on her record. Then there were the lawsuits from both of the other families. Once the trials were over, Megan saw that once she was eighteen, she'd be responsible for the money they won unless she declared bankruptcy. Her college offers dried up, no scholarships and since we were in debt, no money from us and even the loans were chancy. And that was if a college would even accept her. My husband and I started fighting all the time and Megan felt that she destroyed our family and had no future. That when she did it.

"Almost no one attended the funeral. None of Megan's former friends, none of mine. A couple of people who worked with me or my husband were there. We really have no other family. Mostly, just me, my husband Ray, and David,"

She was silent for a minute, then sighed and continued. "Once the funeral was over, my husband took off. He packed up his clothes and his golf clubs and just left. I don't know where he went. He didn't even try to contact me. I was left with credit card bills, the mortgage, car loans, everything. So I sold anything that I could, let the bank foreclose on the house and just left.

"Tom said I could come down here any time, so I took him up on it and here I am."

House wasn't sure what to say after that. It really was a very sad story. Of course, he didn't do emotional scenes, so he tried to be "supportive" without being sappy.

"Sure is a lot of crap to fall on one set of shoulders. I don't blame you for running away."

"There was nothing left for me there. No husband, no children, no home, no friends. What was the point of it?"

He nodded. "Sure."

"And I was responsible for it."

His head shot up. "What? Why? What made you responsible?"

"I was the mother, it was my responsibility to keep the family together and I failed. I let Megan take the car to that party. I drove David and Ray away. I lost everything we had. I have to pay for that."

"Whoa, what the fuck are you saying? Your fault? Your daughter made a mistake, something everyone does. What were the odds that at the exact moment that her car went up on that sidewalk those girls were walking there? If she'd been a few moments earlier or later, she'd have had an accident, but no one would have died. It's just bad dumb luck. But it's not your fault."

She didn't look at him, but he knew that he hadn't convinced her.

"And you're spending all your time helping all these people as payment for what you think you did."

"Greg, there are consequences to everything. Someone has to pay for that girl's death."

"I think your daughter did that when she offed herself."

She shook her head. "Megan was depressed, confused, upset. She didn't really know what she was doing."

"That still doesn't mean you…"

"Don't you see? She was my baby and I didn't protect her! The little that I do here to help a few people will never pay for the way I failed her and the rest of my family."

A/N: As an FYI - the accident that Julia described really happened. The girl who died was a classmate of my daughter's. As a mother, I grieved for her family. But as a writer, I wondered what the fallout was in the family of the girl responsible. For the record, I have no information whatsoever on that girl or her family. Everything besides the actual accident has been created from my imagination. But if it were a one time mistake that girl made, how devastated would she be? What would it do to her life and her family's? I've wondered that since it occurred, three years ago and this is the first time I've been able to include this in my story.

Thanks for reading and reviewing!