The Ghosts of the Past

by purpleu

That which haunts us doesn't exist only in our minds. As an image on a screen preys on House's psyche, he learns that some who have touched upon his life are in pain, too. When they come knocking, seeking his help, will he slam the door on them, or will he relent and let in "The Ghosts of the Past."

12. Chapter 12

"Ghosts of the Past"

Chapter Twelve – "Scary Reflections"

By: purpleu

Lydia stared at the monitor on her desk at work; her eyes burned as they remained fixed in one place for too long. Between a lack of sleep and crying, looking at a computer was the worst thing she could do right now, but she couldn't help herself. Against her better judgment, she decided to Google Dr. Sara Welles-Henry. It was more morbid curiosity than anything else. House had shown her the newsletter that contained the article about his ex-fiancée; she knew what Sara looked like and where she was working. Lydia also knew that she reminded her boyfriend of the woman who had broken his heart, a comparison that did not make her feel very secure. House had named all positive qualities like intelligence, a quick wit and beauty; but this woman badly hurt and embarrassed him by breaking their engagement a week before the wedding. The callousness she displayed by informing House that she never really was in love with him, changed the way he dealt with females from that point forward. Lydia shook her head in wonder as she thought back on House's personal history, trying to understand what brought things to this point.

No one, not even Wilson, knew that House had wanted to have a family, and despite everything that had happened, deep down he still did. It was as much in response to him living with the horrors that John House subjected him to as anything else. He wanted the 2.5 kids, the house with a white picket fence, and the love that seemed to go along with it. Everyone it seemed… the neighborhood kids, his fellow residents at work… had it but him. Additionally, though, he also wanted to prove to himself that John was wrong when he hurled nasty, cutting remarks at his 'son' when his engagement to Sara fell apart. House was capable of being a loving person, a good husband and father; Flyboy, as House called him, hadn't beaten and battered empathy and sympathy, love and joy, out of him entirely. Those qualities were hidden under the thick scars of years of abuse.

Those scars covered everything very well when he met Stacy. House deliberately turned himself into a boyfriend lacking in a number of areas, so Stacy would be reluctant to ever consider him a viable candidate for a long term commitment. Not that he and Stacy ever discussed anything about the future; each had their jobs, and there were lots of times when they had fun, but no long, insightful discussions. As much as House considered the idea of marriage a completely ridiculous and forbidden subject thanks to Sara, as time passed, he was falling more and more in love with Stacy. And just as he was ready to start considering the subject anew, at least in his own mind… along came the problems with his leg.

The rest of the story, Lydia knew all too well. House pushing Stacy away and out of his life because he knew with the physical scar added on to the deep psychological maladies he carried, there was no way he could ever make her happy. And then she, Lydia, became a part of the picture. House told her last night that while Nolan and the rest of Mayfield did next to nothing to help him, Lydia's actions and words made all the difference in his recovery. She made him feel that he was capable of being loved and giving love in return. She asked nothing from him, other than to be with her, to share music, walks and a sequestered picnic on the institution's grounds, complete with a hidden bottle of wine. He let his guard down with her in a way he hadn't done in a very long time. And when it was time for Lydia to leave for Arizona to allow Annie to continue to recover, they were both honest in saying that they didn't want it to end…..

And it never really did. She was never far from his thoughts as the months passed, nor he from her mind. Now, here they were back together, and very, very much in love. So much so that House was thinking once again about the possibility of making a commitment… with all kinds of doubts and fears in tow. He said he would never be able to feel totally happy; too much had happened in his life. But he felt happier and more contented than he could remember. He acknowledged that it's hard for Lydia to understand, but he wants… he needs… the space to think things out, to make sure his feelings are for the right reasons, he told her. She tried to argue back that feelings are neither right nor wrong; they are what they are and analyzing them can't be done in a vacuum. But he was firm in his need for "me time" as he put it… and Lydia reluctantly agreed to separate, to have him stay at his old apartment for a while so he could sort things out. House's considerations weren't all one-sided, though; he urged Lydia to do some thinking too, to make sure she really wanted to stay with someone as screwed-up as him…..

She returned her gaze to the computer screen; the image of Sara smiled back at her. You are nothing but a cold-heart bitch, Lydia thought to herself. You broke Greg's heart, and hurt him so badly… you have no right to smile and be happy. Lydia stopped herself; she knew she was only thinking that way because was upset. She let out a sigh as she tapped the keys to erase the article from her screen; she had to focus. She had work to do.

Flipping through the voluminous pages of an insurance company's Explanation of Medical Benefits, Lydia was engrossed in trying to interpret the reasons for refusal of payment, when there came a gentle tapping at her door. She looked up from her work and smiled; standing in her office doorway was Wilson.

"Have I come by at a bad time?" he asked.

"Any time I have to review a rejection of claims, it's a bad time," Lydia laughed. "Come on in." Wilson entered the office and sat in one of the two chairs in front of Lydia's desk. Wilson studied her for a moment; to the casual observer, she had done a decent job of counteracting the effects of being up all night and crying. Wilson knew better. He didn't want to jump straight into a conversation about what had happened, so he commented of the insurance rejection Lydia was dealing with.

"Are they trying to squirm out of something or are we charging fifteen dollars for an acetaminophen tablet?"

"A combination of things," Lydia said as she continued to look at the paperwork, and then up at her computer screen. "They are trying to avoid paying for things that are normal protocol, but it also looks like we may have made a data entry error or two because the doctor's handwriting couldn't be understood," she said as she reviewed the patient's file. Wilson rolled his eyes.

"House's?" Lydia smiled and nodded.

"It's for that young man who was a firefighter and lost part of his leg due to an infection. Poor guy was ultimately diagnosed with Lyme disease. He was the patient the team and I were dealing with that crazy week when we were mugged, you got shot, and Greg's mother died."

"Not to be morbid, but don't forget the cancer diagnosis, too," Wilson added on.

"How could I forget? That's what sent Greg over the edge and I had to go find him before he took some Vicodin and relapsed," Lydia said as she made some notes on the insurance company's letter. "And I had to try and keep Annie calm." Wilson smiled.

"Then Annie and I announced our engagement and the fact that Annie was pregnant."

"Those were very happy things," Lydia said flipping more pages. She paused at one and a look of exasperation came over her face. "Verdammt! Warum tut er das jedes Mal?" She looked up to see a puzzled expression on Wilson's face.

"Um… House is the one who knows German, not me," he said with a laugh. "And what did he do to tick you off enough to use your native tongue?"

"I'm sorry,' Lydia replied. "I said, 'Damn! Why does he always do this?' I swear he does it deliberately. I've seen him write things down at home, like on the grocery list, and his handwriting is perfectly legible."

"He probably does that so you have to keep making trips to his office; it's the safe way for him to get in his daily dose of on the job ogling of you."

"I suppose now we're going to see a vast improvement in his penmanship," Lydia noted. Wilson closed his eyes and let out a sigh.

"How are you doing? I wanted to text you last night… so did Annie; but we weren't sure how late you two were talking." Lydia smiled, appreciating her friends' concern.

"We talked until about one, one-thirty; of course then neither one of us could fall asleep. Greg stayed at the house last night because he had too much to drink to drive safely. Also… I don't think either one of us really wanted him to go. His leg was killing him, so I massaged it for him. He felt awkward asking me to do it, but it's second nature to me; plus I wasn't going to let him lay there and suffer. We… we're not mad at each other for anything that was said or done. This isn't about ignoring or avoiding each other. He said if so much wasn't going on here right now, he would have taken a few days off to think things through. I wished he could have told me about Sara sooner, but I understand why he didn't. You must have been shocked… you've known Greg a lot longer than I have."

"Shocked… was not the word," Wilson said grimly as he shifted his weight in his seat. "When Annie and I were talking last night, we realized this was going to be difficult with you two working together." Lydia nodded.

"Yes and no. It will be hard not to follow our usual routine of having breakfast together, driving to work together most mornings; then dinner, watching TV, playing the piano, goofing around with the kids… all those wonderful things that we both agree feel imperfectly perfect as Greg put it. The only thing he busted my chops about was my singing around the house all the time. He thinks I have a good voice, it's just he'd like to hear something other than the soundtrack from the 'Sound of Music' all the time." Wilson laughed.

"Annie does the same thing, except with her it's classical selections that I have no clue about. So, how are things going to be falling into place with the kids now?"

"We both agree we want to minimize the upset for the kids, so for this week, we're going to say that's he's staying at his former apartment because it's closer to the hospital, and between Alvie and Cuddy, he'll be working very late. Greg wants to come to the soccer awards on Friday because he knows how both kids would react if he wasn't there. He'll stay at the house Friday night, and we'll talk to them together on Saturday." Lydia dropped her head down. "The funny thing is, when he said good-bye to me this morning, he hugged me for a really long time, and when he pulled back away from me, he… he almost looked scared. He said he doesn't want to leave, but he had to try and straighten out his head on the subject; then he joked around and did an Arnold Schwarzenegger impression…'I'll be back!'" Lydia reached for a tissue. "I'm not ashamed to admit, I cried most of the way to work."

"I…really, really tried yesterday to talk some sense into him, but you know how he is," said Wilson. "Once he makes his mind up about something… "

"Greg is obsessive/compulsive about everything, not just medicine. He's not going to let go of this until he has an answer that satisfies him. I'm just hoping it's an answer that both of us will be happy with." Lydia picked up a pen and began to nervously tap on her desk. "He's been thinking about this for a while. After he decided to build a new house for us and made the plans to go to Germany, he began to realize how very much he loved me and it felt like he was doing things with the intention of planning a future; it made him nervous. But then the newsletter with Sara's picture on it showed up and it triggered all sorts of well-buried feelings. He wanted to tell me the truth about the past and why he always espouses an anti-marriage view. And the more he thought about the reasons he had considered marriage and family in the past, the more he questioned his motives for wanting those things as being wrong."

"What… possible nefarious motives could he have for wanting to have something real and permanent with you?" Lydia laughed at Wilson's choice of words.

"He's afraid that if he doesn't clarify in his mind that he wants this simply out of the fact that he loves me, that one day down the road, he'll realize that he stayed around just to get what he always wanted without really giving thought to the person he was with; in other words, at this point in his life, a desperation move. Or he may think that he wanted it just to prove John House wrong." Lydia threw down the pen she had been playing with. "I cannot believe what he said to Greg after things fell apart with Sara. Instead of offering your child sympathy, you belittle him?"

"Well, don't forget, he knew House wasn't really his kid… "

"He was raising the boy!" Lydia exclaimed. "Ben and Elise aren't Greg's biological children, but he has more of a loving, nurturing, concerned attitude toward them than their birth father ever had. Ben's shoulder was hurting him last night to the point he started whimpering in his sleep. I was about to get up to check on him, but before I could even roll over, Greg had gotten up, went into the boy's room, and was sitting on the bed, checking on him." Wilson smiled.

"I know he's very fond of Elise, too, but he seems to have a special connection with Ben. I think he sees himself as a child in him." Lydia smiled.

"I think so, too. To make a long story short, I kept Ben home from school, and after the bus picks up Elise, Greg's driving Ben here to have an ultrasound done on his shoulder. Even though the x-rays showed no breaks, he wants to rule out any ligament tears."

"If he's still in that much pain, it's a good idea." Wilson didn't want to hear the answer to his next question, but he had to ask. "What exactly did John House say?" Lydia closed her eyes; when she opened them, she had a fierce, protective, mother bear look.

"First of all, he couldn't even be bothered to try and show up for the wedding; as it turns out, that was just as well. After everything fell apart, Greg went back home to seek refuge. He hoped that only his mother would be there as John's excuse for not coming to the wedding was there was some sort of meeting out of state. Unfortunately, John came home while Greg was still there, and started in on him right away. His comments were basically was along the lines of Greg wasn't man enough to keep a woman happy, and that no son of his would have ever fail at keeping a woman in line. The kicker was when John said that he always suspected that Greg wasn't his child and this proved that Blythe was a whore who 'spread it around'." Lydia shook her head. "If Greg wasn't so drunk when John said those things, he would have killed him on the spot."

"He actually said something about House not being his child? I thought he never spoke about the subject."

"When Greg confronted him later on, John said he must have misheard him because Greg was so plastered. He admits he had a lot to drink at that point, but he knew exactly what was said to him." Wilson frowned and shook his head.

"There have been so many times when House has pulled stunts, gone well over the line on things… and I've said that there was absolutely no excuse for his actions. The more I've come to know about House recently, the more I realize I'm going to have to amend that statement." Wilson leaned forward and clasped his hands in front of him. "You know, in the midst of all this I'm surprised House didn't bring up Cuddy; although more than once I pointed out that Cuddy was an enigma to us all. And you can't fall in love with someone you don't know… at least not if you want to have a good outcome."

"I think if any proof is needed that Cuddy revealed very little of herself to people, it was the statement her mother made. When Thirteen asked what type of music should be played on the tape recorder to provide stimulation, her mother said, 'I don't know what kind of music Lisa likes.' Something as simple as that was an unknown to her own mother. Oh and Greg did mention her as we were talking." Wilson rolled his eyes. "He said that his relationship with Cuddy was always very frustrating to him. She was a mystery and Greg hated it when he couldn't figure one out. But by the nature of their jobs, they were always hovering around each other," Lydia noted. "If she wasn't sitting by his bedside after one thing or another had happened to him, she was putting tripwires across his office doorway and switching out his Vicodin with laxatives. And when Greg wasn't calling her mother and asking her to send Cuddy's student desk from med school to the hospital when her office was redone, he was enlisting the team to find out what color thong she was wearing and telling her she'd be a lousy mother."

"Actually, he tried to have the team steal her underwear," Wilson pointed out sheepishly. Oddly, he noticed a slight smile spread across Lydia's face.

"I'm not surprised," she said continuing to smile. Not wanting to even consider what private details of their lives put that smile on Lydia's face, Wilson once again focused on House.

"I know House hates the word 'normal,'" Wilson began. "But I think it's fair to say that the two of them never had a normal relationship of any kind. Not as boss and employee, not as friends…or anything else." He saw that Lydia had a far-away look in her eyes. "He didn't say he was thinking about… pursuing her as a possible..." Wilson let his voice trail off.

"No, he didn't say one way or another," Lydia replied softly. Wilson saw her eyes were becoming glassy. "Last night, before we went to bed, he filled up his plastic pill case for the week from the bottles we keep in the cupboard; they're up high where the kids can't get at them. Usually he hands me the case and I put it in my pocketbook. He was about to hand it to me after he finished filling it, but then he thought for a moment and said, 'I guess I'm in charge of this now.'" Tears slowly trickled down Lydia's cheeks. "I know this is stupid for me to feel this way because this is his decision to separate, but he looked so sad over a… a measly plastic pill case! I…" Lydia couldn't say anything else; she concentrated on holding back her tears, grateful that she had come in to work extra early and there was no one else around. Wilson felt extremely torn; House was his best friend but Lydia was his friend, too. It wasn't a matter of taking sides; he simply felt that House didn't need to actually move back to the apartment, even temporarily. House said a while ago to Lydia that he was giving up his apartment because if he held on to it, he's always going to have a place he could run and hide if things went wrong. A self-destructive self-fulfilling prophecy if ever there was one. Lydia was pulling herself together as the sounds of arriving workers began to float into the office.

"Do you and the kids want to have dinner with us tonight? It wouldn't be an out-of-the-ordinary activity since we've all gotten together for dinner during the week before," Wilson suggested.

"Thank you… thank you so much" said Lydia as she continued to fix her make-up. "But I'm going to have a hard enough time putting on a brave face in front of Thomas so the kids don't know that anything is wrong. They have off from school on Tuesday because it's Election Day, and Thomas asked me last night if he could stay over another day or two and take the kids to the zoo. Of course I said yes before all of this hit the fan."

"Depending on Ben's shoulder it may not be the best thing for him to go walking around in crowds," observed Wilson.

"True. I'm just playing everything on the fly right now. And literally taking everything one day at a time," Lydia said with a sigh. "I'm having lunch with Annie; I figured she'd at least get me to eat and let me vent. I'll just have to stop at a store and replenish my make-up supply first." Wilson smiled.

"You know if there's anything you or the kids need don't you dare hesitate to call us," he said rising from his chair. Lydia also stood and met him at the side of her desk.

"What I need is Greg in my life; but he's the only one who can give that to me." Wilson stepped forward and gave Lydia a hug.

"Hang in there. He'd be a damn fool not to come back to you. As smart as he is, he needs to do something stupid like this to figure it out." Lydia managed a smile and nodded. Wilson took a few steps toward the door then turned back. "Oh, do me a favor; tell Annie that I should be getting out of here by six. If that changes, I'll call her."

"No problem," Lydia replied as she returned to seat behind her desk. As Wilson turned to leave again, he came face to face with House; Ben was by his side, looking pitiful.

"Well, isn't this a surprise," House said dully as his eyes went back and forth between Wilson and Lydia.

"Just saying hello," Wilson said darting his eyes down to the boy and back up to House, hoping he would get the message to keep quiet. "How are you doing, pal? I hear the shoulder gave you trouble sleeping last night." Ben slowly nodded his head.

"House came in and checked on me 'cause I was making noises in my sleep. I didn't even know I was doing it. He stayed in my room a while using ice packs twenty minutes on and twenty minutes off. It felt a little better and I went back to sleep, but it still hurts really bad." Lydia had left her chair and come over to her son.

"Can he sit in here for a few minutes while I go up to ICU? Got a text from Chase that Alvie had a really bad night; blood pressure dropped sharply several times," said House.

"That's consistent with the virus, isn't it?" Wilson asked.

"Yeah but depending how low it goes, it's not consistent with living," House noted.

"Of course he can stay here" Lydia said running her hand over her son's head. "By the way I tried calling Alvie's girlfriend but I just got her voice mail. I left her a message to call me. Do you want to take Alvie's phone back up to him?"

"I don't think he's in any shape to utilize it. I won't be long; I want to get his ultrasound done before the big pow-wow later. If timing gets close, I'll find someone to take him back to Bell since this one's too big for those wimpy car seats anymore." Ben looked up at House and managed a weak smile.

"I could take him home…" Lydia started to say.

"You have a meeting with the tech department at ten, my meeting isn't until ten-thirty, eleven; I win," House said. "We'll fight over who gets him later."

"No, you won't," Ben said as he leaned against his mother with his good shoulder. "You guys never fight… well almost never." House and Lydia exchanged quick glances before she led Ben to a seat. Wilson held his reaction in check. House turned, left Lydia's office and headed down the hall; Wilson was right behind him.

"Out of the mouths of babes, huh?" he said trying to keep up with his friend. It seemed House was doing his best to set a speed record as he tried to get away from Wilson.

"What are you doing here so early? Foreman forcing you onto a new time schedule… twenty-four hours a day?"

"No, we had to drop Annie's car off to be serviced. The check engine light has been coming on quite a bit recently, and before the thing blows up on her, I wanted it looked at. I dropped her off at the college and then came here." House said nothing as he pushed the call button for the elevator. Wilson looked at him and saw he looked just as worn and drawn-out as Lydia did. As much as Wilson was annoyed… mad even… at his friend for his actions, he wanted to make sure House was OK too.

"Are you going to be up for this meeting later?"

"Don't have much of a choice," his friend replied as the empty elevator arrived and they entered the car.

"Hold the elevator!" a young man trying to juggle several items in his arms called out. House pushed the "close door" button.

"Sorry, we're full; take the next one." House replied.

"House!" Wilson said as he reached over to open the doors for the fellow. House took the handle of his cane and lightly rapped Wilson on the back of his hand. "OW! What the hell did you do that for?"

"Because I didn't want company. I don't even want you in here, but faithful companion that you are, you followed in right behind me." As he was shaking his head, Wilson took notice of the fact that they were headed to the fourth floor.

"Going to your office first?" he asked. House nodded.

"I need another cup of caffeine; I'm not about to poison myself with anything from this place." The doors opened and the two men stepped out and started down the hallway to House's office. "Are you really going to try to play the part of my shadow all day today? Because if you are, I know some really dark corners where no light gets in, thereby making you non-existent."

"I was going with you to see how things were with Alvie. I didn't know we'd be making a side trip," Wilson responded. House shot him a look as he pushed open the door to the conference room. It was empty, but at some point, someone from his team had been up there and started a pot of coffee. Not wanting to wander the halls with his favorite red mug, House took out a Styrofoam cup and poured out some of the hot beverage. After placing a lid on the cup, he turned and walked away. "No thanks, I didn't want any," Wilson said sarcastically as they returned to the hall and made their way back to the elevators.

"Good thing because I wasn't offering," House replied. Wilson usually could put up with his friend's snarky comments; he had gotten used to them over the years. But right now, they were getting on Wilson's nerves.

"House, are you pissed that I was talking to Lydia this morning?"

"You can talk to anyone you want to; I haven't joined the conversation police."

"I just wanted to make sure she was OK… and the kids, too. Annie and I didn't know how you two had decided to handle things, but she's filled me in."

"So you're up-to-date on all the gossip." Wilson rolled his eyes as he pushed the call button.

"No, Lydia simply explained your reasons for wanting to separate for a while, which were the same reasons you told me yesterday. Plus, she told me exactly what an idiot John House was." House closed his eyes; when he opened them, he was looking away from Wilson. "House, I can… understand why you'd want to shove it in his face that you're a better man than he is, if he were still here. But the man is dead," Wilson said as the two stepped into the elevator. "For someone who doesn't believe in the afterlife, why do you even care?"

"Because he's still alive up here!" House said vehemently, pointing at his head. Wilson let out a deep breath; he was about to continue the conversation, when the doors opened onto the second floor where the ICU was located. Any further discussion would have to wait. House's team was waiting for them outside of Alvie's room.

"Where's Foreman? Off sitting on his throne? And by throne, I do mean toilet," House said.

"He said he had some things to take care of before some meeting later this morning. He wants all of us to be at the meeting, too," Chase said. "What's going on?"

"Bringing in some hired guns to help us deal with Dr. Doom," House explained. "He probably feels the more input the better; for once I agree with the King of Pain." He glanced quickly into Cuddy's room and saw all was quiet; not ever Arlene was in there yet. House returned his attention to Alvie. "How many units of blood has he had in total?"

"He had a half bag of O negative before we were able to type him," Taub said. "Since we switched him over to A positive, he's had one full unit and we were waiting for the morning labs to come back before hanging a second bag."

"How long ago were the labs pulled?" House asked as he walked into Alvie's room to look at the bedside monitor; the numbers were still uncomfortably low.

"About half-an-hour ago," Thirteen said. "The rash has become even more widespread and his fever spiked again overnight to 104 plus. We started the cooling IV and bed baths again." House nodded, listening in frustration as he knew there was nothing that could be done except to treat the symptom and try to keep the patient comfortable.

"House, when he was lucid last night, before the fever returned, he kept talking about Carmen, his girlfriend. Were we able to contact her at all?"

"Lydia put in a call to her and left a message," House said. He felt eyes on him, and saw that Thirteen was staring at him. "What?"

"Nothing, you just usually call Lydia, 'Fraulein;' I'm used to you calling me Thirteen rather than Remy or Hadley, but with her… "

"By calling you Thirteen I have a one in infinity chance of getting your name right," House said quickly shifting the focus off of Lydia.

"I heard that the girlfriend is in Florida, but Alvie has a cousin here in New Jersey," Chase said. "If there's any way to contact him, it might be an idea to advise him to come to the hospital." Wilson's eyes widened at Chase's words. He looked at House and saw that he was not happy with the implication either.

"This virus ebbs and flows," House said grimly. "As long as we stay on top of things, he'll make it." House looked in at Alvie, wearing the full oxygen mask; he knew his team was right to be concerned for his ex-roommate's condition. "I'll ask Lydia to make another call." House turned and headed back to elevators without even inquiring about Cuddy.

"Is he OK?" Thirteen asked Wilson quietly.

"Yeah, he and Lydia were up all night with Ben," he answered, thinking quickly. "As a matter of fact, the kid's down in Lydia's office right now. House is going to do an ultrasound on him to make sure nothing happened to the ligaments or tendons in his shoulder. Poor kid was whimpering in his sleep."

"Damn, I hope that's not the case," Chase said. "Those kind of injuries are murder to try and come back from."

"Well, I'm sure House won't think to do it, but let us know what the ultrasound shows," Thirteen said.

"Will do," Wilson said, glad he was able to deflect their question about House. "Let me go see if I can grab that elevator with him. I'll see you at the meeting." Wilson headed around the corner of the nurses' station, but as soon as he did, he saw there was no one standing by the elevators. Wilson sighed, resigned to the fact that right now, there was nothing more that could be said or done….

House reappeared at Lydia's office to pick up Ben and take him for the test. She was on the phone requesting a call back from an insurance company rep so she could argue against their refusal to pay. House couldn't help but smile at hearing how strongly she was able to tell them that they were idiots without them even knowing it. When all was said and done, she ended the call and hung up the receiver with a bang.

"You do have a talent for telling people to go to hell in the nicest possible way," House said leaning against the door frame. Ben had fallen asleep, his baseball cap knocked askew when he curled up in the chair.

"Thank you… I guess," she replied with a laugh. "How's Alvie doing?" Lydia saw the expression change on House's face and felt a knot in the pit of her stomach.

"Chase has suggested that we try one more time to get ahold of the girlfriend and see where this cousin of his is hiding. He's supposed to be in-state."

"Are things that bad?"

"With this virus things always get far worse before they get any better. The trick is to survive hitting rock bottom and I'm not even sure he's gotten there yet." Lydia closed her eyes.

"I'll give Carmen another try," she said picking up the cell phone that was sitting on her desk.

"And if you get her… tell her she should get checked out by either her MD or her OB. There are millions of mosquitoes, but with any sort of bad luck she got bitten by one carrying the virus, too. Could be a major problem for both mother and child." Lydia was already dialing the number before House finished speaking. While she was doing that, he started the process of waking Ben up.

"Hey, Doogie," House said, calling him by his nickname. "Ready to go learn some more stuff about medicine, up close and personal?" Ben groaned and opened his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah… can I push some of the buttons?" the boy asked.

"You're already good at pushing buttons," House replied. He looked at Lydia and saw she was smiling at the two of them.

"Any word?" he asked looking away.

"No, I left another message again. There are several names in his phone book, but none of them are designated as being his cousin. I don't want to just start blindly calling people."

"Depending on how things go, you may have to," House replied. Ben had stood up and was leaning on House. "We'll be back." As House and Ben walked down the hall, Lydia came to stand in her doorway. It took everything she could muster not to cry as she watched them walk away together….

"How long will the test take?" House and Ben were riding in the elevator down to radiology. The boy had been asking House all sorts of questions, most of which House answered by simply saying, "You'll see when we get there." Now, as the elevator door slid open, they were there. Ben's eyes opened wider than House had ever seen them as he noted the different areas; MRI, CT scan, X-ray, Interventional Radiology and finally, ultrasound. "Oh, wow!" was Ben's response to entering the testing area.

"This is so cool," the child said as he looked at the equipment.

"OK, first things first; let's get your jacket and shirt off of you," House said. "I know it's cold in here, but I'll put a blanket on you when you're on the table." House helped the child remove both items of clothing, noting that he winced with certain movements. "Can you get up on the table by yourself or do you need help?"

"I can do it," the boy said. He used the step-stool, and almost made it until he lost his balance at the last moment; fortunately, House was there to grab him and ease him onto the table. House retrieved the aforementioned blanket, and Ben settled down. "Can I have a pillow? I can't see the screen when I'm laying here like this." House could appreciate the desire to watch what was happening, so he got two pillows to get Ben to the correct angle.

"Now, since you're officially not here, just like yesterday, we're going to have you use a pseudonym," House said beginning to type. The boy laughed when he saw that House entered ''Doogie Howser" for his name, his real date of birth, and "boy genius" for occupation.

"Won't you get in trouble?" Ben asked.

"Nope. Your uncle-to-be is one of only two people who could yell at me and I know how to handle the other one. Ready to be tested?"

"Ye… yeah. It's not going to hurt is it?"

"There are times when I made have to push down hard to get a clear image. I'm sure you'll let me know if it's too painful, and we can give it a break. Other than that, it's only going to hurt if you give me a hard time. Can you see the screen?" Ben nodded. "Then lie still and let's get this going." House squeezed the gloppy gel onto the wand and began to run the instrument on the front part of the boy's shoulder. He stopped to explain what the different images were and how he decided which ones to focus on to help him determine any injury. While the boy continued to make whimpering noises and little cries of pain, the ultrasound wasn't revealing any damage to the tissue surrounding the joint. House could see fairly severe bruising, but nothing that wouldn't heal in a short amount of time.

"Good job, Doogie" he said to the child as he sat up. "You're going to live." Ben saw House take some paper towels and he began to wipe the boy's shoulder.

"House, are you and my mom going to get married some day?" There were lots of questions House expected the boy to ask him while they were down in radiology, but that was definitely not one of them.

"Your mom and I are still trying to figure that out," House said as he finished wiping off the gel and reached for Ben's clothing. "Why do you want to know?" The boy did his best to shrug.

"I don't know. I guess because I know you and Mom love each other and lots of times people who love each other get married." House nodded. "Like Uncle James and Aunt Annie. And Uncle Tom and Aunt Marianne."

"Not everyone who loves each other gets married," House replied. "Marriage is a complicated deal." Ben thought for a moment as he dressed.

"Well, I hope you and my mom can become uncomplicated," he said as he buttoned up his shirt. House frowned.

"Why?"

"Because then Elise and me could call you Dad, which would be really cool since you're already like one." House was floored. He didn't even think to assist Ben as the child struggled with his jacket. "House? House can you help me get down?" House's mind was spinning as he moved over to the table, and wrapped his arm around the boy's upper torso. He suddenly felt Ben's right arm around his neck; instinctively, House lifted him up and set Ben down on the ground. The child released his grip on House, and held his hand up for a fist bump. House returned the gesture. "Thanks for showing me how all this stuff works."

"Sure," House said finding his voice. "You were the perfect guinea pig." House started to clear the results off the screen when Ben asked for a favor.

"Can you print out one of the views of my shoulder and have it say 'Doogie Howser, boy genius' on it?" House smirked as he tapped a few keys to honor Ben's request.

"This is so cool," he said after the printout was done. "I'm putting this up on my bulletin board." House grabbed his cane and followed Ben out of the room. Dad? he thought to himself. I don't know anything about being a dad. I know how not to be one thanks to Flyboy. He looked at Ben standing by the elevator, still favoring his left arm, but with a big smile on his face. Maybe the secret of knowing how to do things right, is knowing how not to do them wrong. He had just caught up to the boy and was going to call for the elevator when his cell phone rang. He took it out of his pocket; it was Lydia calling from her cell.

"We were just on our way up to you. No tears, just nasty bruising. He's going to be really sore for a while, but he's just going to have to live with it," House said.

"Thank goodness," Lydia replied. "He'll have to take it easy for a few days."

"Yeah, especially if he wants to go to the soccer awards Friday night." Ben tried to nod his head rapidly, but his neck muscles were too sore.

"Greg, I called Thomas and asked him to come and pick Ben up… " Lydia started to say. House scowled.

"Didn't need to do that. I have plenty time to take him home before my meeting, even with a stop at Dunkin' Donuts thrown in." Ben's eyes lit up at the mention of one of his favorite snack and breakfast places.

"Thomas can stop there with him… "

"That doesn't do me any good," House complained. "They'll have to make a round-trip run just to bring me my order… "

"Greg, there's a situation going on that I think you're going to want to handle," Lydia said cautiously.

"Not very likely," he replied. Lydia paused for a moment.

"I have Carmen Delgado, Alvie's girlfriend sitting in my office." House rolled his eyes. The last thing he needed to deal with right now was a hysterical pregnant woman. And once she got the lowdown on Alvie, he had the feeling she was not going to be calm.

"I thought she was in Florida. What did she do, sprout wings and fly?"

"Practically. When Alvie didn't return any of her calls, she panicked. Her grandmother gave her the money for a plane ticket and she flew up here this morning." House closed his eyes; this was beyond the last thing he needed.

"Be there in a minute." He pushed the call button and waited in silence with Ben. The boy knew something was bothering House, so he accepted making the trip back to his mom's office without speaking. As House came down the hall, he saw Thomas standing just outside the door.

"Good morning!" he said jovially.

"No, it's not," House replied. Lydia stepped forward to hurry along her son's exit.

"You go home and take it easy," she said to her son. "No video games; you get too enthusiastic with them and you'll wind up making your shoulder hurt more."

"OK," Ben said rolling his eyes.

"I was going to make a stop at DD if that's alright with you," Thomas said to Lydia.

"It's fine," she said. "Just don't let him go overboard."

"Can I run anything back over to you?" Bell asked.

No, no thank you," she replied.

"What about you, son?" House shot Thomas a look.

"I'll pass; I've lost my appetite." Lydia leaned down and gave her son a kiss. He accepted it begrudgingly, then turned to House.

"Thanks for teaching me all the medical stuff," Ben said. "And especially this." He held up his printout proudly.

"No problem," House said dully. The day was already wearing him down. He leaned against the door jamb of Lydia's office and watched Bell and Ben leave; just before they turned the corner, Bell reached out, and took Ben's hand.

"He's very taken with that picture of his shoulder," Lydia commented.

"It's not the shoulder, so much as the personal information I created for him." House related what he had label the session on the machine as. Lydia tried not to laugh.

"You do know how to tickle his funny bone," she noted.

"As long as I'm not hitting mine." He looked in at Carmen who was sitting in front of the desk. "Let's get this over with." He and Lydia stepped back into the room.

"Carmen, this is Dr. House. He and his team are the ones who are taking care of Alvie."

"Dr. House," she said extending her hand. "Alvie talks about you all of the time. It's so nice to meet the man who inspired Alvie so much." House screwed his face up into a combined look of disgust and confusion.

"I see from when he first showed up here, that he still doesn't know how to properly end a rap. Other than helping him fill in a lot of blanks during our time in Mayfield, I don't think inspiration is the proper word for what I gave him." Carmen smiled. She was very pretty, with shoulder-length black hair and hazel eyes.

"He saw that you were able to leave Mayfield and return to a productive life. He wanted a chance to build one for himself, so he decided to take his meds and behave himself. He's really turned himself around and he says it owes it all to you. Now, we're going to get married and start a family," she said rubbing her slightly puffed stomach. "All sorts of things that he never thought he could do." House continued to look at the young woman skeptically.

"I get blamed for enough things around here; don't try and hang that on me," he said pointing to her belly. "Have you been bitten by any mosquitoes lately?" he asked abruptly changing the subject. Carmen looked taken aback.

"No, not in several months… back in July I think it was. Since I've been pregnant, I've been very careful not to get bitten because I know the can carry diseases. Alvie got bitten very badly when he made a trip down to Puerto Rico to straighten out things with his birth certificate."

"All it would have taken was one bite," House noted. "He has dengue hemorrhagic fever. He was bitten by a mosquito that was infected with it. It's not contagious, so as long as you weren't bitten by a carrier, you and the baby are fine."

"Is Alvie alright? Can I see him?" Lydia saw House's discomfort; she knew he didn't like dealing with patient's friends and families. Normally, she would have jumped right in, but she wasn't sure what her place was in situations like this anymore. Looking up at House, he caught her eye and she knew he wanted her to handle this for him.

"He's very ill," began Lydia. "There is no cure for this virus, so all we can do is treat symptoms and try to keep him stable. He's had several high fevers and several very low blood pressures. He also has a wide-spread rash all over his body. It's not contagious, but he's extremely sore to the touch." Carmen started to have tears roll down her cheeks as Lydia spoke. She reached for several tissues and began to wipe her face.

"Please, please take me to him. I want to see him. I have to talk to him," she pleaded.

"You can talk, but he may not answer or even hear you," House warned. Carmen, who begun to pull herself together, had her tears flow anew.

"Come on, we'll take you up to him," Lydia said, extending a hand to help Carmen stand up. House could see she was maybe five or six months pregnant, but already had significant edema in her legs and feet.

"Are the elephant ankles from sitting too long on the plane?" he asked.

"Yes. I wasn't really having any problems before this." House nodded, but made a mental note to keep an eye on the situation. They arrived at the elevators and waited for one to arrive. Carmen had gotten a call and was busy talking while they waited.

"Thanks for giving a hand with this," House said quietly.

"Of course," Lydia said as she watched the numbers descend for the next car. "There's no reason why I shouldn't." They both were silent for a moment, then against his better judgment, House spoke.

"Did you say anything to Ben about our current situation?" Lydia was shocked as she turned to House.

"Why would I? We agreed we'd talk to the children together on Saturday. No, no absolutely not. What would you ask me that?"

"Because as I was doing Ben's ultrasound, he asked me if I thought you and I would ever get married."

"Oh, my God! What brought that on?"

"No idea. He had a few interesting comments during our time alone."

"Like what?"

"Like the reason he wants us to get married is that so he and his sister could call me 'Dad.'" Lydia rolled her head back. An elevator had stopped at the floor, but they let it go by.

"The both of them have asked me lately when can they call you dad, and I said I didn't think you would be comfortable with that quite yet. Then Ben pointed out that a friend of his calls his stepfather 'dad' and I said that was because his mother was married to the man." Lydia shook her head. "Greg, I'm so sorry that he brought that up to you, especially considering the circumstances. But I swear to you, I didn't say a thing to either Ben or Elise."

"I didn't think you had," House replied tapping his cane end on the floor. "Just wanted to give you fair warning about where the boy's head is at."

"Thank you." House, who had been avoiding Lydia's gaze, now looked her straight in the eyes. He wished he hadn't. Carmen was finished with her call and came over to join them.

"I'm sorry, but that was my friend who's keeping an eye on my grandma while I'm up here. She wanted to know how Alvie was." The doors to the elevator opened.

"In another minute or so, you can give her a first-hand report," House replied. Other people had joined them in the car, and in the confusion, the button for the second floor was not pushed, and it was passed by. After it was only the three of them left and the elevator began to descend again, Lydia signaled for the second floor. This time it worked. As the doors slid open, they were greeted by the sounds of chaos.

"Need a trach set and a standby defibrillator, room three! Stat!" Thirteen called out, then ran back into room.

"Keep her here," House said to Lydia. He urgently rushed forward; he was hoping he had heard Thirteen incorrectly. But as he neared room three, his worse fears were realized.

"What the hell happened?" he asked Taub.

"Alvie was complaining of chest pains… then he stopped breathing."