Chapter 4: That Time
It was the third day of school. Tommy was in the fifth grade now. He and his friend Charlie sat next to each other in class as the teacher passed out a worksheet for everyone to work on. "Ms. Clark?" he called out.
Ms. Clark, a young, brand new teacher there, stopped and sighed. "Yes Tommy?" she questioned as patiently as she could and then turned to face him.
"Are we allowed to help each other on this?" he implored.
"No, you are to do this on your own," she answered.
Tommy sighed. "All right," he started. "Here's the thing."
Ms. Clark's shoulders dropped. "Here we go," she muttered to herself. The same thing happened yesterday and the day before.
"See, out in the real world, people are allowed to work together. My mom requires my dad to work with other people. And see, it's really more fair that way because everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. In reality, you are actually degrading those of us who can not perform as well with sentence structures as those who can and belittle us with a low grade, completely ignoring the fact that we might actually be amazing at something else," Tommy explained.
Charlie just looked over to him and then to the teacher and nodded. "What he said. I'm tired of getting grades that don't suite me," he stated.
Ms. Clark hung her head in defeat. "Look," she said as she lifted her head. "I am giving this to you so that you can work on your sentence structures and won't need other people to help you with them for the rest of your life," she responded.
"But then you are ripping those who are naturally good at this of their individual talents and telling them that they are no better than everyone else at what they do! You might as well teach everyone to play the piano and tell Beethoven that we don't need his music anymore because everyone can do the same thing that he did now. Why can't you just let Holly be proud of herself for being one of the only people in here to be able to this and then just let me be proud of the fact that I can figure out percentages in my head? You are taking away what makes us stick from each other! You're taking away our identity!" Tommy argued.
Charlie stood up and started clapping. Slowly, the others in the class stood up and joined him.
Ms. Clark just nodded. "This is going to be a long year isn't it?" she questioned.
O o o o o o o o o o o
House casually threw open the door to Cuddy's office and limped in. "All right," he started.
"No," Cuddy responded before he could even tell her what he wanted. She was busy signing a few forms and didn't want to be interrupted.
"I need to get my nineteen year old patient drunk," he announced, ignoring her answer.
Cuddy slowly glared up to him. Quickly though, her expression softened. "You know what, show me how smart you. Find three other tests that you can do and present them to me. Then if you can prove that getting them drunk is the best, you can do it," she offered.
"You are bargaining with a patient's life," he informed her.
"And so are you, by standing here and doing nothing," she responded.
House sat down in the chair. "You're no fun today," he pouted.
"I'm your boss, not your entertainer," she replied.
"Funny, you say boss rather than wife. Does that mean someone needs more control in bed?" he asked, trying to get her more worked up.
Cuddy smirked as she looked up to him. "A gimp can only manage so much in bed before the other person has to step up," she stated.
"Now that was just mean," he replied. He sat there and watched her as she shrugged and went back to her papers. There was something bothering her, and he was pretty sure that he knew what it was. "Elisabeth?" he questioned.
"What?" Cuddy questioned.
"You see all the records of the people that come in and out of this place. You see the people that get the lung transplants. The people that get to go before our daughter. You want to do something to get her higher up on the list, but you can't," he explained to her.
Cuddy set her pen down and looked up to him. This was something that she had been preparing herself for since Elisabeth was born. She knew that something was wrong when she wasn't breathing right away and then when her and House got the call to come to the hospital.
A part of her had to believe that she was going to be fine though. There was still this glimmer of optimism that remained with her. "She's made it this far," she stated.
"Right," he agreed. Really, he knew that this was all just temporary. Not that everyone else's life was permanent, but her existence was destined to be a short one from the start.
Now, he was just wondering if she had been seeing the same things that he had. Things were going downhill just as the doctor had told them when she was little, and there was nothing that they could actually do about it. "And half of her life so far has been spent scaring us," he mentioned.
Cuddy nodded. As much as she loved Elisabeth, she was convinced that the sole purpose of her existence was to give her a heart attack. "Especially when we found out why she wasn't talking," Cuddy responded. "As soon as they found the cyst on her vocal cords, I was pretty sure that she had cancer."
House looked down and started playing with the handle of his cane. "It wasn't though," he replied. "All they did was remove it and it was over with," he explained.
Cuddy looked up to him for a moment. "Doesn't it bother you that she'll never talk?" she implored.
House looked up and shook his head. "Of course not. This way she can't be a mouthy teenager and argue with every little thing I say," he remarked. "You?" he asked. There had to be a reason that she thought to ask him in the first place.
"I think her life would be a tiny bit easier if she could," Cuddy admitted.
O o o o o o o
House and Cuddy got home just in time for dinner that night.
"Hey mom," Rachel said from the couch as the two walked in.
Cuddy smiled over to her. "You're in a good mood tonight," she noted.
"Too happy," House said. "I'd keep an eye on her if I were you," he mentioned to Cuddy and then went into the kitchen.
Rachel just laughed and then got up and headed over to Cuddy. "You'll never guess who sits next to me in my homeroom," she announced.
Cuddy just laughed as she put her jacket in the closet. "Gerald?" she asked.
Rachel nodded as she smiled with excitement. "Isn't it great?" she questioned.
"We'll see how great it is after the grades come in," Cuddy responded. Even though she liked for Rachel to be happy, this was not something that she really thought was that great. The last thing that she needed was a distraction at school.
"Don't worry," Rachel said.
"All right," Cuddy responded, wishing it were that easy.
Elisabeth started down the stairs with a note in her hand. Upset, she handed the folded note to Cuddy and then requested Rachel to leave.
"Okay," Rachel replied. "I'll go see what daddy's doing," she stated and then left.
Cuddy took the note and unfolded it. "Dear Ellie," she started reading out loud.
Elisabeth quickly stopped her and then took Cuddy's arm and lead her over to the couch.
"This note's a secret?" Cuddy quietly asked.
Elisabeth nodded and then pointed upstairs.
"It has to do with Jessica?" Cuddy questioned, not quite getting what was going on yet. Elisabeth just motioned for her to read the note.
Cuddy sat there and read it.
Dear Ellie,
Please come to the class picnic with me this weekend. I think you are really pretty and even though you don't talk, I know you're smart. Let me know as soon as you can.
Donnie
Cuddy smiled. She was really happy that Elisabeth got noticed. When she was younger some of the other kids gave her a hard time at first because she never talked. Within the last couple of years she didn't have much trouble, most likely because most of the other kids got used to the fact. That and the fact that Elisabeth got Jessica and a few of their friends to help her get back at a couple of the girls at a slumber party in the third grade by making them believe that Bloody Mary was out to get them. But now, she was just glad to see that she was getting some positive attention.
She looked up and saw how guilty Elisabeth looked. That was when she picked up on what was going on. "This is the boy that Jessie likes isn't it?" she implored.
Elisabeth sadly nodded. The fact that she also liked this boy and badly wanted to say yes made her feel even worse. She had no idea what to do.
"Does she know?" Cuddy questioned.
Elisabeth shook her head. She didn't want to talk to her until she had an idea of what she was going to do.
Cuddy sighed as she folded the note back up and handed it to Elisabeth. "Well, even if you are going to tell him no, I think you should talk to Jessie. He might have already told other people that he was going to ask you, and if school is still the same as it was when I went, then most kids already know he likes you. I don;t think you want her finding out at school through other people," she explained. The same thing had happened with her and her sister. She was the one who liked the guy and her little sister was the one that he liked and she had over heard two other girls talking about it and was pretty upset. She didn't want that happening to Jessica.
Elisabeth thanked her and then took the note and slowly made her way up the stairs. Cuddy just sat there and watched her for a minute, noticing how careful she was on the stairs.
O o o o o o
Gabrielle laid Jason down in his crib and gently kissed him on the forehead. "Good night," she whispered to him as she turned the light off. Carefully, she closed the door and then went down the hall to her bedroom.
"Hey," Andy said, smiling to her. "He's getting to sleep faster and faster lately," he mentioned from his spot in the bed.
Gabrielle laughed as she closed the door behind her. "Either that or I'm just getting better and better at putting him to bed," she stated.
Andy smiled to her as she turned her back to him to get her nightgown out of the dresser. He got up and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Maybe with this upcoming baby I can take over a few of the nights and learn how to get as good as you," he suggested.
Gabrielle laughed. Putting Jason to bed was the one thing that she absolutely had to do. Andy would feed him sometimes, get up in the middle of the night with him, change diapers, or bathe him at times, but she was always the one to put him to bed. That was her guaranteed time with Jason every day and she loved it. She would read him a story and snuggle with him and then put him to bed. "I don't think so," she answered with a smirk.
Andy kissed her neck. "What ever you say," he said and then continued to kiss her up and down her neck and shoulder.
"Andy, I'm a kindergarten teacher. I have to wake up early tomorrow and go into a room full of screaming kids," she protested.
"Fine," Andy said, backing off. "Don't let me have any fun," he said.
Gabrielle just laughed. "You know what, how about tomorrow we just both not show up to work and see what happens?" she suggested. "That way we can just go at it as much as we want for the next twenty four hours."
"Yeah buddy!" Andy cheered.
Gabrielle just rolled her eyes. "Friday night you can have your way with me," she informed him.
"I'll remember that," Andy stated as he went and got back in bed. He looked over to her as she got changed and smirked. "I think you should get another tattoo," he stated.
Gabrielle laughed. "Right," she replied. "I don't think so. I already don't like this one anymore," she explained.
"Why not?"
Gabrielle shrugged. "It was something stupid I did when I was like thirteen. I like to think that I'm a bit more mature than that now," she stated and then got into bed with him. "Isn't that how you would like to think of the mother of your children?" she questioned.
"I guess," Andy answered. He then looked over to Gabrielle. "Why haven't you told your parents your pregnant again? Last time you told them as soon as you found out."
Gabrielle shrugged. "Well," she started. "I found out right around Jessica and Elisabeth's birthday, and then I knew the next time I would see everyone was going to be Jason's birthday. I didn't want to take anyone's day away from them. Now, since their wedding anniversary is coming up, I'm thinking that maybe I'll just wait and tell them then," she explained.
"Makes sense," Andy responded.
Gabrielle just smiled to him. "I would love to stay up and talk to you, but I really have to get some sleep," she informed him and then leaned over and kissed him. "Good night," she said.
"Night," he replied.