Chapter 23: The Ice is Getting Thinner

House stood in front of his team. "Now, since he is STABLE!" he started, glaring towards Morgan. "We should start trying to figure out why his white blood cell count is so high. We already ruled out infection, and he's negative for leukemia," he explained.

Morgan looked around the room, but noticed that no one was really watching her, or even look ads if they were curious. Looking back to House, she raised her hand.

"The show off in the back," he called, pointing his cane towards her.

"I think we should check and see if there is any internal damage done to the liver," she suggested.

House just looked to her for a moment. "All right, Chase, Reynolds, and Foreman. You three each go run a reasonable test for what ever you think it might be. The first one to come up with something gets to leave early," House announced.

The three men stood up and exchanged looks with each other. They each started to pick up on the fact that there was definitely something going on between House and Morgan. it wasn't anything good, most likely a fight.

As soon as the three had left, House stood there and leaned against the back of a chair as he stared at Morgan, waiting for her to speak.

Morgan had become uncomfortable in his gaze and slightly slumped down in her seat. "Why don't I get to run any tests?" she questioned, trying to hide how nervous she really was right now. She knew that this had to do with the stunt that she had pulled, lying about the patient's condition and asking about death.

"Well gee, in your mind this man is still unstable. I don't think I can trust you to run any tests on him," House stated and then stood up and limped over to the coffee pot. "Maybe we should have you checked out," he suggested.

Morgan sighed as she watched him get his coffee. She knew that sooner or later he would be asking her questions and she was going to have to have the answers. The only problem was that she was having trouble thinking of anything that sounded good to tell him.

"I'm waiting," he stated before taking a sip.

"What?" Morgan asked, hoping to stall a few more seconds.

"You would think that if you graduate med school that you should be able to conduct a conversation. See, this is naturally the part where you respond and tell me why you did what you did," he condescendingly explained to her.

Morgan looked down and nodded, trying to think. "I was just testing something," she stated.

House nodded. "Yes, most people do test me to see how long they can annoy me until I fire them," he responded. He looked down to her, waiting for her to say something else, but there was nothing. Instead, she just sat there, staring down to her hands that were resting on the table. "Listen, I didn't think that I had to tell anyone these rules, but I guess I have to tell you. One, never ever try to get with me. Two, and more importantly, never lie to me about the status of a patient. Ever. Even if I know that you're lying, you can still get fired for that," he sternly explained.

Morgan looked up to him. "Does this mean that I still have a job?" she inquired.

"Just until you screw up, and it doesn't have to be anything major either. A small simple mistake could get you fired," he answered before leaving the room and going into his office.

Morgan sat there for a moment before she figured that it would be best to go and join the others in running a few tests.

ooo

Andy sat in the break room. He took his cellphone out of his pocket and tossed it onto the table. After a moment of staring down at it, thinking about what he should be doing, and what he wants to do, he stuffs his hand back into his pocket and pulls out a piece of folded up paper. The paper with Missy's phone number on it. The number that was given to him in the letter. The one that she told him to use to talk to her.

Taking a deep breath, he reached out and grabbed the phone and started dialing the number. There was no sense in putting it off, he wanted to call her and now was the perfect time. "Hello? Missy?" he choked out as soon as se answered.

Andy slightly laughed. "Yeah. Hey, it's Andy. I thought I would let you know, I am interested in seeing you again," he told her.

ooo

Morgan sat down in the lab with Reynolds as she waited for a result on the spinal fluid that she had taken.

Reynolds sat next to her, and looked over to her. She looked angry, almost ready to lose it at anytime. "What was that about earlier with you and House?" he questioned.

Morgan quickly looked over to him. "None of your business," she hissed.

Reynolds looked back forward and smirked. "Really?" he asked. "Because some of us think that you might be fantasizing about our boss in bed."

Morgan nodded with a slight smile on her face. "What about it?" she implored. There was no use in lying, if she was that obvious about it, then everyone else knew by now. Besides, there was no harm in having others know. It was also a good chance to freak him out and see how he would react.

Reynolds quickly turned to her. "You know that he's married right?" he questioned.

"Of course I do, that's what makes it more interesting," she nonchalantly replied.

"So you're going to keep up on him?" Reynolds asked, finding it hard to believe what he was hearing.

"Of course," she answered and then smiled up to him. "I'm not a quitter."

ooo

Cuddy walked out of the kitchen and stopped in the living room to check on Elisabeth. She was home from school again, today made it a full week that she had missed. Cuddy was now seriously considering just pulling her out of school all together at this point. There was no point in doing well in school for her anymore. It wasn't like she had to concentrate on getting into college or getting a job or anything like that.

She softly walked to the couch and peeked over the back of it, to see Elisabeth sleeping. With a bittersweet smile, she watched her daughter for a moment and then slowly walked away towards the stairs. She figured that she would take this opportunity to go change the sheets in Elisabeth and Jessica's bedroom.

Getting to their room, she went ahead and tackled Jessica's bed first. She climbed to the top of the ladder and pulled off the blankets and the sheets, and pillow cases and tossed them into a pile on the floor. Sighing, she climbed down and started on Elisabeth's bed. The first thing she grabbed was the pillow to take the case off of it. Her mouth fell slightly open at the first sight of the blood on the pillowcase.

Keeping her eyes on the dark red stain, she slowly sat down on the edge of the bed. It wasn't much of a surprise, it was something that she had seen from Elisabeth before when she was sick. She knew why Elisabeth hadn't told her, she wanted everyone to stop worrying about her. What bothered her the most though, was the fact that now, there was no saying that she could get better. There was no hoping that she might make it another year. She was told that this was the end, and here it was, the proof right before her.

Hesitantly, she tossed the pillowcase onto the pile with the rest of the things to be washed. She had to let it go, there was no way that she could just sit there and dwell on it. Instead, she held back her tears and frustration as she removed the sheets and blankets from the bed and then took everything down to the washer.

On her way back up to put clean sheets on the beds, she saw Elisabeth sitting up on the couch. "I didn't wake you did?" she asked.

Elisabeth looked over to her and shook her head. She could see that there was something bothering her, she seemed a little shaky, looking like she wanted to vomit. She didn't ask her what was wrong though, instead she mustered a smile for her, just something to let her know that she was okay.

The door opened, causing them to both turn their heads. House came in with the three kids. "Hope you don't mind, I left early and got them," he explained.

Cuddy shook her head. She was actually glad that he did that. "It's fine," she responded.

While Rachel and Tommy rushed up the stairs to their rooms, Jessica stopped for a moment and looked over to see how Elisabeth was doing. Once she saw that she was sitting up and smiling, she returned the smile and ran up stairs with the others.

"You sure don't seem fine," House observed as he put his coat away in the closet.

Cuddy shrugged. "What do you mean?" she questioned, trying to cover up how shaken up she truly was.

House suspiciously looked her over and then nodded. "If you say so," he replied and then went over to sit down by Elisabeth. The only reason that he didn't keep prying was because he already knew. It wasn't a huge secret around here, Elisabeth was sick, real sick. The only reason that she wasn't at the hospital was because it wouldn't make that much of a difference at this point. Cuddy was there all day with her, watching her, and he knew that any second now, she was going to be coming to him telling him about it.

Cuddy watched him for a moment and then dragged herself up the steps to put sheets and blankets on the beds. She stopped in to Jessica's room. "Hey, I'm going to grab some clean sheets from the cabinet. You mind giving me a hand?" she requested.

Jessica looked over to her and shook her head. "I'll be there in a minute," she answered.

Cuddy nodded and then headed down the hall and opened the cabinet. As she stood there, she felt her breathing starting to become slightly more rapid. Seconds later, she rushed to the bathroom and vomited. After she was done, she sat back against the bathtub and started sobbing.

"Mom?" Jessica called from the hallway. She entered her parent's bedroom and heard Cuddy sobbing. "Mom?" she asked, standing in the doorway. She wanted to do something to help, but she didn't know what to do. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"What's going on?" Rachel asked as she and Tommy rushed down the hall and into the room. They both turned and saw Cuddy. "I'll go get daddy," Rachel offered and then quickly exited the room.

Tommy just remained quiet as he stood by Jessica. They exchanged looks for a second, as if questioning each other what they should do, but neither of them actually did anything.

"You two! Out!" House ordered as he made his way towards the room.

Both Jessica and Tommy obliged and left the room.

House stepped into the bathroom and closed the door behind him. "Looks like someone's having an emotional breakdown," he mentioned as he went and sat down next to her on the ground.

Cuddy looked up to him, her eyes full of pain. "I can't do it!" she cried to him. "I can't do this! I can't sit here and watch her slowly die Greg."

House looked to her with sympathy as he put his arm around her. "Doesn't look like we have a choice," he grimly replied. It was hard for him to hear this. That was his daughter too down there, and he knew that when it did happen, he was going to lose it. He adverted his eyes and looked off to the side. "It's gonna happen whether we like it or not."

Cuddy buried her head in his shirt, her body shaking in his arms as she continued to sob. She hated what she was hearing from him, but she knew that it was true. There was nothing that he could say to her that would change any of this. Nothing. After a few minutes, she pulled herself away, heavily breathing. "I don't think I can handle that," she hoarsely whimpered, her glazed over eyes glued to his.

He didn't think that he could handle it either, and even though he knew that she already knew that, he wasn't about to say it. "Eventually you'll start to move on," he stated, keeping his eyes on her's.

"I hope so," she replied and then laid her head back down on his chest.