Silent 26: Hard to Handle
Gabrielle walked downstairs as Andy closed the door behind him. She smiled down to him, knowing that he must have done something for her. "My daddy called me," she announced as she got to the bottom of the stairs.
Andy put his coat away and smiled to her. "Really?" he questioned. "So are you two better now?"
"Yeah. I think you already knew that Cuddy would have made him do something though," she responded.
Andy questionably looked to her. "So, you really feel better? Even though you know that he didn't quite come to this conclusion on his own?" he implored. He thought that if she had found out, that she would be more upset.
Gabrielle shrugged. "I probably shouldn't, but I know that if he really thought that he was right and she was wrong, that he wouldn't have done it," she explained.
Andy put his arm around Gabrielle and started walking her to the couch. "So are things good enough to go back to being mad at me?" he questioned.
Gabrielle slightly laughed as they sat down together. "Like I said a while ago, I'm not going to get mad yet. Besides, you're still here," she informed him. Her smile faded though.
"You decided that you would get upset now?" he asked.
Gabrielle furrowed her brow in confusion as she looked up to Andy. "Maybe I'm making more out of this than I should, but, daddy said something that has me wondering," she explained.
"Well, what did he say?" Andy questioned, starting to get concerned.
"He told me that I could bring back the pills when ever," she informed him.
Andy watched her for a moment, trying to figure out what was so wrong with that statement.
Gabrielle sighed. "He didn't give me pills. This was stuff that I had to get through a syringe," she explained. "Daddy usually doesn't have mix ups like that."
Andy didn't really see the big deal, but he could see that she was getting worried. "Well, maybe he was reading something at the same time or thinking about something else. I'm sure he knows what he gave you," he said.
Gabrielle sighed and sat back. "Yeah. Maybe," she absently responded, trying to convince herself that he was right.
ooo
Elisabeth was feeling a little better, but she knew that there was no way that it could last much longer. That was why she had to talk to Donnie.
With being out of school for over a week, she knew that he would have some questions, and she wanted to be the one to tell him. So far, Jessica had been telling him that Elisabeth was just sick. That was it though.
Sitting up in her room, Rachel was fixing her hair for her. "You sure that you want to do this?" Rachel questioned.
Elisabeth gently nodded, making sure not to mess up what Rachel was doing.
Jessica sat on the bed behind the two and simply watched. Right now, more than ever, she admired Elisabeth. Through out this whole time, she had been the one to hold it together better than anyone else. She had been the one to keep smiling, to go on most days as if there was nothing wrong. Now, she was going on what would be her final date to tell Donnie that she was dying.
"Are you two just talking down in the living room?" Jessica inquired. "Because I'm sure if you wanted, you could bring him up here and talk to him. It's not like you two could actually do anything," she explained.
Elisabeth shrugged. It didn't matter to her where she was, just as long as she got to talk to him, so to speak.
"Done," Rachel announced, stepping back from her.
Elisabeth smiled as she turned back and thanked her.
ooo
Wilson walked into his office, perplexed. He carried the file in his hand and set it down on his desk.
He just had to go change one major thing. Looking up, he saw the patient watching him in anticipation. "Congratulations, you don't have cancer," Wilson said.
The man sat back and let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you!" he exclaimed, grabbing Wilson's hand to shake. "Thank you very much!"
"Well, I didn't actually do anything. It was your body that decided the cells weren't cancerous," he replied.
As soon as the man was gone, WIlson headed over to House's office, but saw that he wasn't there. Foreman was found in the conference room, so he decided that he should talk to him. It might be better that way anyways, since Foreman could be a little more honest.
"Foreman?" he asked, carrying the file over to him.
Foreman looked up from a chart that he was going over and quickly eyed the folder. "Wilson?" he questioned, wondering what he could be doing here.
WIlson stopped at the head of the table and tossed the folder down onto the table. "DId you by any chance screen your last patient for cancer?" he steadily implored. There were times where the patient's results got mixed up with other's or a test could give a false positive, but, he wanted to be sure. For some reason, he was starting to sense that House was just shoving a patient off onto him. Like he had just given up on him.
Foreman nodded. "Yes," he answered. "Why?"
Wilson sighed as he leaned onto the table. "Did it by any chance come up negative?" he wearily inquired.
"Yes. Why?" Foreman asked, starting to grow concerned with the whole situation.
Wilson slid the file across the table to him. "Then this patient, the one that House had told me has cancer, really belongs to you. I ran a second and third test and found nothing," he explained.
Foreman looked down at the file and then quickly back up to Wilson. "He handed this guy to you?" he asked, starting to get angry.
"Yeah," Wilson responded.
"He told us that he had just decided to switch doctors. That he wanted to change to a hospital closer to where his family was," Foreman explained.
Wilson looked to him with interest. "Where's he at now?"
Foreman shrugged. "I think he said something about leaving early. I don't know. We didn't have much that we had to get done today," he explained. "We had no patient so the other's went to volunteer in the clinic while I decided to work on a study being run on a new Alzhiemer's drug."
Wilson just nodded and headed back to his office, wondering what was really going on now.
ooo
Elisabeth sat down on the couch with Donnie. He was excited to see her, but she lacked the excitement.
"When are you coming back?" Donnie implored. The first question that came out of his mouth.
Elisabeth gently smiled to him. She could see how happy he was right now. It was nice to see for a change. That was what made it so hard for her to be the one to wipe it away.
She went and grabbed her paper and pen off the coffee table and wrote down one word. Never. She folded it and then grabbed his hand as she gave him the note.
Cautiously, Donnie took the note and started to unfold it. The look on her face let him know right away that he wasn't going to like the answer that he was getting. As soon as he unfolded the paper completely, he took his eyes off of her and down to the answer.
Disbelieving what he first saw, he stared at it for a moment, hoping that maybe he was wrong. He wasn't though, the same word was still there. "Really?" he asked, looking up to her.
Elisabeth nodded. She held up her finger, telling him to wait a moment as she pulled a letter out of her pocket. She kept her eyes glued to the paper that had been folded into a small square as she handed it to him. Looking up to his face just reminded her of what exactly she was doing, and right now she couldn't handle it.
Donnie took the paper and unfolded it, and started to read the letter that she had prepared for him last night.
Donnie,
The best way for me to do this, is to be right out with it. I'm dying. Yes, I'm dying. I have this stupid lung disease that I was born with. That's why I can't run, and why I don't do sports and why I get out of breath so easily.
Right now, the doctor's don't see me living too much longer, so I'm just quitting school. There's no need for an education when you're not even going to make it to high school right?
Anyways, I just wanted to tell you. I thought you should know the truth rather than the rumors that you will most likely start hearing. I told Jessica not to tell anyone, specifically so that she can listen for the rumors and tell me what they think. I find all that sort of stuff interesting. The human mind can be very creative when we don't know the truth.
Donnie looked up to her and set the letter down on the couch in front of him. "There's no medicine or anything you could take?" he questioned.
Elisabeth just shook her head. There were a lot of times that she had wondered about that herself. They had something to help fight off cancer, they had immunizations against small pox and measles, but they had nothing to help her breathe. It seemed unfair to her that just about anyone else that she would see with an illness could get treated, and she couldn't.
"Is there anything you wanted me to do?" Donnie offered. Right now, he was starting to feel uncomfortable with this whole situation. He wanted to just get up and leave, but he knew that he couldn't.
Elisabeth softly smiled and shook her head. There was nothing that he could actually do for her. He had already given her something that no one else had, and that to her, was more than enough. He was her friend, he liked her for who she was, and he didn't pity her every step of the way. She leaned forward and planted a small kiss on his cheek.
Donnie offered her a small smile. "I guess I'd better get going," he stated right before he got up off the couch. "See you later?" he requested.
Elisabeth sadly looked up to him and shook her head. She wanted this to be the last time, there was no way that she could handle him seeing her get sicker and sicker after a while.
"I see," Donnie responded. He went over and hugged her. "Bye," he said and then pulled away and headed for the door. As he opened the door to leave, he saw her waving to him and returned the wave before he walked out and closed the door behind him.
ooo
Gabrielle stepped out of the elevator, her hand gripping onto her purse strap as she made her way down the hall. Many times before, she had made this walk down this hall, but never before had it felt so long.
As she approached House's office, she spotted him leaving and hurried over to him. "Daddy?" she called out, trying to get his attention.
"Hey look, it's our sensitive little angel. You got the drugs with you?" he quipped.
Gabrielle stood there, looking to him, desperately hoping that every fear that she had since the phone call were all wrong. "I need to talk to you," she steadily informed him.
House studied her expression for a moment. "Okay," he nodded, seeing how nervous she was.
Gabrielle nodded and lead him back into his office. House sat down in the chair closest to the door as Gabrielle went and stood by his desk, trying to keep her composure. "Daddy?" she softly asked.
"Yes?" he responded, starting to get annoyed with the fact that she wasn't just getting straight to the point.
Gabrielle looked over to him and sighed. "What did you give me the last time that I was here?" she flatly implored, her eyes carefully watching him.
House watched her for a moment. "Sedatives and a note," he answered, attempting to figure out where this was all going.
"Okay," Gabrielle breathed out, hoping that he answered the next question correctly . "What form of sedatives? Pills? Shots?"
House thought for a moment. "Pills," he muttered, expressionlessly starting down towards the floor before him.
Chills went down Gabrielle's back as soon as she realized that he truly did not know. "Daddy?" she asked, getting scared.
House looked up to her. "I said pills," he clarified.
"You really don't know do you?" she whispered, holding back the tears. Every fear that she had, was all just now begin confirmed.
"Pills," House stated, getting irritated with this.
Gabrielle pulled the bag out of her purse. "No daddy! You handed me a syringe with liquid. There is no pill in this bag," she explained.
House just sat back and sighed. There was nothing that he could say to that.
"What about your last patient? Wilson told me that he thinks you just handed him off to him. Is that true?" she cried.
House stood up and looked to her. She knew already, so there was no point in hiding it. "FIne! I did! You happy now?" he angrily responded.
"Why?" she yelled back to him.
"Because! I saw positive while everyone else was saying negative! I remember teasing the patient for things that no one else does! I don't trust myself anymore!" he explained.
Gabrielle looked down and nodded. "I see," she said and then looked back up him. "Are you taking anything that I should know about?"
"No," he answered.
Gabrielle crossed her arms and looked off to the side. "Okay," she replied. All she wanted to do was figure out what to do now, but her mind kept drawing blanks. "Stay here," she instructed, finally getting an idea of what she should do. "I'm going to go get Wilson," she informed him as she started to leave the room.