Chapter 11
"Dad!"
Wilson nearly dropped his pen. "Jesus!"
"Sorry," Kate said leaning up against the nurse's station next to Wilson.
"Are you all right?" Wilson asked, giving Kate a look over.
"I'm fine," she said waving away his hand that was going to cannula arm. "I heard Bubba Ray is here?"
"How did you hear that?"
"Again," Kate said gesturing to the station they were at, then pointed to her room. "I hear everything. Move me if you want the overhearing to stop."
"I don't have that power."
"I bet you could if you asked…" Kate asked. "Anyway. Beside the point. Bubba Ray."
"Apparently he's just Bobby now."
"You're on a first name basis with Bubba Ray?"
"He has cancer sweetie; I'm not going to call him Bubba Ray every time I go into his room. Thank you," he said to the nurse with the paperwork he was finished with. "Come on," he said to Kate and she followed him down the hallway.
Kate fell in step beside him. She felt a little spark in her as she looked up at her father. He'd called her 'sweetie'? For some reason that made her feel happy. Kate shook her head to get back to the point at hand though. "Can I meet him?"
"How do you even know who he is?"
"It's Bubba Ray! He changed music forever! Guitar solos, the Ray Guitar? Nightmare Dreams is still one of the best-selling albums of all time and it's nearly 40 years old!"
Wilson frowned. "And how do you know that? Somehow Colleen and Doug don't seem like the types."
Kate paused for a moment at the mention of them. Wilson glanced down at her and Kate recovered quickly, pretending it didn't bother her. "They're not. But good music is good music. I found his album at the library one day and never looked back."
"Really?"
"It's the age of digital music now Dad, I'm not going to have vinyls lying around my hospital room or posters on my walls. Don't even know if they still make Bubba Ray posters actually…"
"I'll find out for you."
"And then I can meet him and have him sign it?" Kate asked practically leaping into the lift after Wilson.
"We'll see. He is really sick."
"What kind of cancer does he have?" she asked as the elevator began to move.
"Bone cancer."
"That sounds bad."
"It is."
"What's the prognosis for bone cancer?"
"Well he's stage 3, so it's not good. Crap."
"What?" asked Kate.
"I shouldn't have told you that."
The elevator doors opened, and Kate and Wilson went out and down to his office.
"Why not?" asked Kate.
"That's doctor-patient confidentiality."
Kate shrugged. "I won't tell anyone."
"That's not the point." Wilson opened the door.
"What is the point?"
"I'm not supposed to disclose medical information."
"And yet we do it all the time," said House from the couch.
Wilson closed the door behind Kate. "What are you doing here?"
"Bubba Ray?"
Wilson rolled his eyes.
"One of the greatest guitarists of all time is a patient of yours and you neglect to tell me? I thought we were friends?"
"Now I know you know about doctor-patient confidentiality."
"Except between doctors."
"I don't need a consult."
"Are you sure?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"In the last 6 months he's deteriorated this fast? Can't just be bone cancer."
"Surprisingly, cancer is a nasty son of a bitch and can make you that sick. Plus, his history of drugs and alcohol, and god knows what else means he's not the healthiest 77-year-old."
"So this may be our last chance to meet him," Kate said.
"She's right," said House.
"He's not a zoo animal," said Wilson.
"No, he's better."
"House…"
"Let me see him."
"No."
"Professionally."
"No."
House stood up and came over to Wilson, he stood abnormally close. "Tell me you are 100% certain that all that is wrong with the great Bubba Ray is 100% only his bone cancer and there is no way it could possibly be anything else eating away at his body and I'll drop it."
Wilson thought for a moment. He looked down at Kate who shrugged her shoulders and smiled at him. "Are you that sure?" she asked in a tone that clearly meant she knew he wasn't.
Wilson shook his head. "Fine."
"Yes!" said House excitedly and stepping back from Wilson's face.
"You're 12."
Kate glared at House and put on her most pleading face.
"I believe it's also bring your goddaughter to work today, isn't it?" asked House.
"It is not," said Wilson firmly sitting at his desk.
"Please!" begged Kate.
"No," said Wilson.
"Daaaad," whined Kate.
"Daaaad," House matched her tone.
"Who the hell are you?" asked Bubba Ray from his bed.
"I'm Doctor House, this is my…" he looked down at Kate, "intern…Intern….James."
Kate raised her eyebrows but said nothing.
"What do you want?" asked Bubba Ray.
"To take a history."
"I already did that."
"A better history."
"Fine. Whatever."
"Great. What were you doing before you came in here?"
"Living."
"I mean specifically."
"Baking bread."
Kate and House were both silent. They shared a glance and then looked back at Bubba Ray.
"What?" asked Bubba Ray. "A man can't have hobbies?"
House shrugged. "Well…yeah but that's…bread."
"I took it up a couple months ago. It's a very addicting hobby."
"You could be making guitars, writing the next best riff?" asked Kate.
House glared at her. "Ignore her, she's new."
"Can't write the music if I can't use my fingers properly. The cancer might have something to do with that."
"True."
"But you can knead bread?" asked Kate.
"What?" asked Bubba Ray, annoyance in his tone.
Kate shuffled her feet but then continued. "The pressure you'd need to you know, knead the bread is quite high, all the pushing and adjusting of the bread, that doesn't cause you pain?"
House made a face. Impressed.
"No, not really," said Bubba Ray. "Is that important?"
"Could be," said House. "What other hobbies do you have?"
"I read."
House nodded once waiting. "Anything else?"
"Not really."
"Bread and books?"
"Yes."
"All day?"
"Yes."
"Everyday?"
"What the hell is your problem?"
"Nothing I just…"
"I go to AA and NA, and I see a therapist twice a week. You happy?"
"Ecstastic."
"Therapy twice a week?" asked Kate. "What for?"
"I've screwed up every relationship in my life, I figured my 70s were the time to try and better myself or whatever. Plus being clean and sober there isn't much else to fill my time with other than self-loathing. Gets pretty depressing after a few months…or days."
"You don't watch TV or anything?" asked Kate.
"I fall asleep too easily now, I read, I fall asleep, I watch TV I fall asleep. The joys of getting old."
"Thank you for your time, Mr Ray," said House.
"Is that all?" asked Bubba Ray.
"Uh yeah."
House turned to leave, Kate confused, stayed, but House grabbed her arm and turned her out of the room.
"Not much of a cover was it?" asked Kate once the door was closed.
"A man like that only baking bread, reading and getting therapy four times a week seems excessive, no?" House said as they walked down to the elevator.
"He's bored?" Kate offered. "He's old. Do old people sleep a lot more, that's what he said? Reading and bread baking are like…slow activities. Maybe that's why he's falling asleep a lot?"
"Huh. And your point about the bread was interesting."
"It was?"
"Why can he push down on bread every day but not make a chord on a guitar. I'd call that interesting."
Kate shrugged. "Or he has arthritis?"
House paused at the elevator.
"What?"
"Nothing." House pressed the button.
"This is your office," Kate said as she followed House down the hallway.
"Yeah."
"You want me to go to Dad's office?" Kate asked, gesturing back down the hallway.
"No." House opened the door to the diagnostic office.
Kate paused for a moment but went in.
"Take a seat," he said.
Cameron, Chase, and Foreman all exchanged looks and Kate awkwardly sat down next to Cameron.
House went to the board and rubbed it out Kate looked at her hands.
"Tell me how a fourteen-year-old asks better questions than three trained professionals."
"What?" asked Foreman.
Kate stared at her hands harder.
"I told the three of you to find something else wrong with Bubba Ray other than bone cancer and you all came up with nothing."
"That's because it's bone cancer," said Foreman.
"Then how can he bake bread?"
"What?" asked Chase.
"He's been baking bread."
"So?" asked Cameron.
"Did any of you know that?"
The three doctors exchanged glances.
"She," House pointed with his cane at Kate, "pointed out that if he can't play guitar but can knead dough is odd. But also, that he's sleeping more, and his hands could have arthritis instead of bone cancer."
Chase raised his eyebrows. "Narcolepsy? Really?"
"Not by itself, but it's an interesting symptom, no?"
"With his age and the cancer diagnosis, no," said Cameron.
House wrote up on the board:
NARCOLEPSY
ARTHRITIS
CHANGE IN BEHAVIOUR
"What behaviour has changed?" asked Chase.
"The bread baking is a new hobby. And he said it was addictive."
"He's an addict," said Foreman. "Pretty sure he spent most of the 70s and all of the 80s high or drunk or both. Bread baking is just a healthier option."
"He's been clean for…" House started.
"He said 19 months," said Cameron. "That's not that long considering the length of his addictions and the damage that could have caused over decades of abuse."
"I want a lumbar puncture."
"That's insane," said Chase. "He's in here for cancer treatment and end of life care!"
"We're not going to torture him," said Cameron.
"It's not torture, it's medical care," said House.
"Can I leave now?" asked Kate.
The doctors all stopped and stared at Kate who had finally lifted her head.
"No," said House.
"House…" said Cameron.
"Kate is here to shame you all. And she's doing a terrific job."
"House, please?" asked Kate. She didn't want to cause anyone shame.
"Fine. But wait in my office, in view of my pathetic doctors."
Kate rolled her eyes but got up and went next door.
She sat down at House's desk, and he pointed at her then looked back at his doctors who all looked at her for a moment before they went back to arguing about Bubba Ray. Kate couldn't make out what they were saying but they clearly weren't agreeing. Kate spun around on House's chair, stopping herself after a few spins because she was getting dizzy. As she stopped she whacked the mouse at the computer and the screen came back to life.
"Oops," Kate said quietly but then saw what the screen was on.
CELEBRATED DOCTOR APPEARED IN COURT TODAY
Kate raised her eyebrows, looked over her shoulder, the doctors were all still arguing. She turned back to the computer.
Doctor Douglas Fairchild renowned neurosurgeon and developer of two drugs that assist in migraines (Firchirmazin and Gallinathanus) was charged three months ago with attempted murder of his daughter [name withheld]. But when investigators went to his house, they found evidence that he had been using his daughter to test his developing medications and chemistry experiments in his drug development. Dr Fairchild argued that both he and his wife were the testers of the products but blood results from him and Dr Colleen Fairchild found the doses in their systems were negligible in comparison to the blood results of their teenage daughter (Jane Doe). Jane Doe was found with rat poison in her system and multi-organ failure and is currently residing in hospital to receive medical care as Doctor Fairchild is in jail awaiting trial and Dr Colleen Fairchild is currently no-contact.
Today's court appearance was a stating of the facts and the charges that are being brought upon Doctor Douglas Fairchild. Some of the charges included:
Attempted murder, medical negligence, and medical malpractice.
Doctor Douglas Fairchild's attorney pled not guilty to all charges. His court date is now set for May 10th of next year.
The prosecutors have a difficult task ahead of them as Dr Colleen Fairchild has stood by her husband in all of this, stating his and her innocence in everything. But also, a spokesperson from the District Attorney's office has said their child is being kept out of the legal proceedings. Her only involvement so far has been in statements given to the police. However, another spokesperson for the DA said that Jane Doe is of consenting age if it deemed appropriate and viable to have her testify.
See video below of Doctor Douglas Fairchild leaving court with Marshalls, and his wife, Colleen (in red) reaching out to him.
Kate bit her lip but hit play on the video.
She hadn't known what to expect really. There was a photo of Doug on the page, his old photo from San Diego. But seeing the video, seeing him in the flesh; his hair grown out, the bags under his eyes, his stubbly face, dressed in a suit it hurt. He looked wrong, and yet so right. He was smiling as he was escorted down the steps with US marshals. Then she saw her mom. Her bright red coat and then her hand reaching out to Doug. He took her hand for a brief moment before the marshals swatted her away. Kate could hear her voice over the yelling reporters, "I love you, honey!". Kate had a flashback. Being held down on her bed as Doug pressed a syringe into her arm.
"We need to know it's safe for everyone, honey," her mother would say. "Be good darling."
The sharp pain as the syringe would go into her arm.
"You're going to save a lot of lives," Doug would say. "You are my most important subject."
The video ended on a freeze frame of Doug looking at the camera, his smile wide.
Kate pushed herself back on the chair, wheeling away from the monitor.
"Thought I logged out."
Kate turned in the chair to House at the door. "Obviously not."
"You shouldn't have read that."
"I thought you were against censorship?"
"This one is a request of a Doctor Wilson."
"He knew?" Kate asked, the anger rising in her.
"Knew what?"
"The court date, you idiot!"
House sighed and came towards Kate a little. "Of course he knew. He was there."
Kate wanted to throw something, but medical textbooks were too big to quickly grab. Instead she just gripped the edge of House's chair. "And he didn't tell me?"
"I'm not sure what you want me to say here…"
"Does everyone know?
"Define 'everyone'?"
Kate scoffed. "Oh great. Fantastic," she stood up. "I've been wandering around this place completely ignorant of everyone knowing all my dirty little secrets?"
"To be fair, not everyone knows that your Doctor Fairchild's daughter."
"I'm not his daughter!" Kate screamed.
Cameron and Chase looked in from next door. Foreman had gone to do the lumbar puncture.
"Say it louder, I don't think Canada heard you," said House. "Besides, it's probably a good thing your parentage has been misrepresented, people can't make the link between Wilson and you if they don't even know. Also, Princeton has been getting thousands of calls trying to get interviews with anyone who even breathed in the same room as Doug. They don't even know you're at this hospital."
"And I'm supposed to be what? Grateful for that?"
House came closer to Kate, nearly at the desk. "You seem very angry for someone who thinks none of this is as bad as everyone else is making. Could it be it is as bad as they're saying? Or could it be you just don't want your lies exposed?"
Kate paused in her anger. "What? What lies?"
House shook his head. "Nothing."
"Now who's lying?"