Chapter Thirteen

Kate didn't knock as she came into House's office. She walked right up to his desk and crossed her arms. "I need to use your computer," she said.

House looked up from appeared to be an actual patient file. "Why?"

"I want to read the news."

"See there's your first mistake: honesty."

Kate rolled her eyes. "How dare I."

"If you'd said I want to use your computer to check my fantasy baseball team I may have let you."

"And because I didn't say that you won't let me."

House thought for a moment. "No." He went back to the file.

"That's crap!"

House blinked, shocked. "Excuse me?"

"Let me use it."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I…" House trailed off. "Because I said so."

Kate laughed. "Seriously?"

House made a face. "Seriously."

"What's the real reason?"

"The real reason?"

Kate nodded at him.

"The real reason is shut up."

"Oh you're so full of sh-"

"What the hell is going on here?" Wilson was standing at the door.

Kate and House had turned at the sound of him, but Kate turned back to face again at the sight of Wilson.

"She's being mean," said House.

Wilson rolled his eyes.

House quickly nodded to his computer, "I told her no."

Wilson shifted his feet. "Ah."

House saw Kate avoiding looking at Wilson. And the fact she wasn't speaking to him made it very clear something was going on. "He asked me not to," House said to Kate.

Kate stared up at the ceiling. "And you do everything he says?"

"No," House said sounding like a defiant child.

"I did ask him," said Wilson coming into the room properly.

Kate kept staring up at the ceiling.

"But I am surprised you're following through," said Wilson.

House shrugged. "I like to keep people on their toes."

"I just want to know what's happening," said Kate to the ceiling.

Wilson looked at House, "Can you give us a minute?"

"It's my office!"

"Oh, was that your name on the door? I could've sworn it was mine," Wilson said flatly. Then put his hands on his hips. "House?"

"Oh fine," House said, getting up, grabbing his cane and going next door and sitting down where he could still see Kate and Wilson.

"Kate," Wilson started, "I really don't want you reading about the trial or anything to do with it. The actual trial doesn't start for a few months so everything's just speculation and people…making up things."

Kate continued to look away from Wilson, but this time at her shoes. "I want to know what people are saying. What everyone else knows."

"What's being written isn't accurate."

Kate's brow furrowed. "So, you're allowed to read it?"

Wilson could've kicked himself. "I've skimmed a few articles."

"Uh huh."

"And besides, anyone who believes everything in the newspapers is an idiot and you don't need to care what they think anyway."

Kate had to stifle a laugh at that, it came out as a weird huff. But as she was looking at her shoes, Wilson saw the slight smile.

"Also, your name is kept out of it, only people who actually know you, know it's about you," explained Wilson.

"Why did they do that by the way?"

"Do what?"

"My name wasn't mentioned in the article I did read…why?"

Wilson shrugged. "I asked the judge not to reveal your name."

Kate blinked. She turned to face Wilson. "You did what?"

"I spoke to the judge, she agreed to keep your name out of it."

"Why?"

"You're a minor, you're still in a pretty severe medical condition, no need for lawyers and reporters to come asking around about things…"

Kate shook her head. "No. No, I mean why did you do…that? Ask the judge?"

"Didn't think you'd want to have lawyers and reporters asking you inane questions and trying to get in her to talk to you and anyone who's passed you on the street."

"But…" Kate was trying to find the words. "But I didn't ask you to do that."

Wilson frowned. "You didn't have to."

Kate shuffled her feet. She was trying to find the question to ask Wilson but he got a page. He checked it.

"It's one of my patients I-"

Kate nodded to the door. "Go. It's fine."

It wasn't until after Wilson had vanished down the hallway that Kate realized that it actually was fine.

House came back into his office. "Ugh, I thought he'd never leave," he said dramatically as he sat down at his desk. Then he saw Kate's face. "You all right?"

"I don't…I don't understand him," Kate said.

"Who? Wilson? It's not hard, morally superior. Simple."

Kate stared out the door to the hallway. "I don't think so."

"He's your father, he's going to do…" House waved his hand around, "fatherly things. And he's Wilson, so he's going to do Wilson-y fatherly things. It's like parenthood on steroids I assume."

Kate turned back to House. "Parenthood on steroids?"

"Hasn't he always been so…I dunno, dad-like?"

"Not like this."

House made a face. "You've been in close contact for months, that hasn't happened since you were three. It's probably just prolonged exposure."

"Prolonged exposure?"

"Are you just going to repeat whatever I say?"

"If you keep saying weird things? Yeah."

"You know, Kate, he's a wild idea: talk to your father."

"Why can't I talk to you?"

House eyed her. "Because I'm not your father."

Kate folded her arms. "You're my godfather. It's almost the same thing."

"Talk to him. I'm not your middleman."

Kate sighed, "I don't know how."

"Figure it out."

Kate was skulking the corridors. She was an excellent avoider and being a long-term patient at the hospital made her an expert at navigating around. Pretty much all the nurses and a large chunk of the doctors knew who she was, and therefore, everyone assumed someone else was keeping track of her. Unless Kate was getting treatment or was feeling particularly awful, she wore her regular clothes around the hospital. Wilson had even bought her a few of those granny nightgowns so at night she didn't have to the wear the hospital gown. Kate dreamed of wearing regular pajamas again. But for now, Kate was resided to wandering the corridors and avoiding detection by being completely visible. She did her regular loop twice before she headed towards her real destination. Kate waited in view of the nurse's desk, waiting for the switchover and check. Then Kate just walked right into the room and slid the door shut behind her.

"Hey," Kate said as she pulled the chair up to the side of the bed.

Meredith turned and smiled. "Hey." Then she frowned. "You look like crap."

"Have you looked in a mirror lately?"

Meredith laughed a little. "Thank god, no. Gareth says I look 'hollow' whatever that means…"

Kate shrugged. "He's not wrong."

"That bad?"

Kate made a face. "How's the detox going?"

Meredith leaned back in the bed. "Fabulous."

"Did they…did they found out what was in…whatever you took?"

"Levamisole and talcum powder," Meredith answered flatly.

"What the hell is levamisole?"

"Nothing good."

"And talcum powder?"

"The dealer was cheap – trying to make it go further."

Kate twiddled her fingers.

"Ask," said Meredith. "I can tell you're dying to."

"Why did you start taking cocaine?"

Meredith bit her lip. "I honestly can't tell you."

"Why not?"

Meredith shrugged. "I was sick of feeling crappy all the time. He was there, I asked, he gave, I took, I got hooked. Barely lasted two months before this happened."

"So not really worth it?"

Meredith laughed again. "Not really, no."

"Do you know how long you're going to be in here for?"

"Doctor wants me completely clean, then I need a psych evaluation."

Kate grimaced. "If they give you Amy Tran, just say no."

"Is she yours?"

"She won't leave. She seems hell bent on making me talk and making me better."

"Oh how awful," Meredith said sarcastically.

"Have your parents been in?"

"No. And Gareth hasn't told them."

Kate frowned. "Where do they think you are?"

"They haven't noticed."

"How?"

"They don't notice much when I am there, why would they notice when I'm not?"

Kate didn't know what to say to that. "Do you-"

The door slid open. "Who the hell are you?" asked a very angry looking nurse.

Kate turned and smiled. "Friend," she said.

The nurse frowned at her. "You're a patient here, aren't you?"

Kate looked at her jeans, "No…" she tried.

The nurse looked at Meredith, "Only family members, doctor's orders."

"That's crap," said Meredith.

"That's the rules for minors in for drug abuse."

"I'm not giving her drugs!" Kate said, annoyed at the subtle accusation.

"Security will be the judge of that," said the nurse.

"Oh, you're kidding," Kate moaned as the nurse shouted loudly: "security!"

Meredith just laughed.

Kate went to get up, but she wasn't exactly fast and the nurse was now barricading the door of Meredith's room. "I'm really just a friend. And you're right, I am a patient."

"You could have given her some of yours."

"I wouldn't," Kate said firmly. "I'm not an idiot."

"Rules are rules," said the nurse, her hands on her hips.

A rather lanky security man came up. "You yelled, Marion?"

"This one, in a minor OD patient, not family."

"Come with me, miss," said security.

"To where?" asked Kate.

"The nurse's station," he said, as if it were obvious.

Kate sighed and said goodbye to Meredith and followed the security guard with angry nurse following.

"She's a patient here, too," said the nurse.

"What room?" asked the security man.

Kate was going to argue but knew eventually it would come out and make everything worse. "11-19," she said.

The nurse picked up the phone, probably to talk to the nurse's station there.

The security man folded his arms and looked at her. "Did you bring anything to the patient?"

"No."

"We're going to check her bloods again."

"Please do."

"I'm going to need to check your person."

"I'm a minor," Kate said, folding her arms to mirror the man's.

"Do you have a parent or guardian in the hospital now?" asked the man, clearly thinking she didn't.

Kate knew what she had to do. "Yes," she said smugly.

"Who?"

"Doctor Wilson," Kate said.

"Which one?"

"James Wilson."

The nurse hung up the phone. "What's that?" she asked.

"She's Doctor Wilson's kid," the guard said with a nod to Kate.

Kate felt smug for about 1.7 seconds before they're faces changed. It was clear from that answer that they knew. They didn't just know who she was. They knew it all. Or at least, they thought they did. The nurse's scowl suddenly turned sad, pitying. The security man hung his head a bit and relaxed.

"We," the nurse started. "…we still need to check your person. It's protocol," but instead of sounding mean and strong, she sounded guilty. "I'll page Doctor Wilson."

Kate rested her elbow on the arm of the chair and put her head in her hand. The security man leaned back on the wall, clearly thinking Kate wasn't a threat anymore while they waited for Wilson to come up. Part of her hoped he was caught up in a surgery or consoling a dying patient and they'd all give up on the whole thing. But no. It took less than 5 minutes for Wilson to come up to the desk.

He looked warily between Kate, the nurse, and the security. "What happened?"

"She snuck into a cordoned patient's room," said the nurse, some of her forceful tone coming back.

Wilson frowned. "Whose?"

"Uh…" the nurse had to check the patient list.

"It was Meredith," Kate said to Wilson.

"Oh," said Wilson. "Why the security?"

"Miss Green is in for underage overdose, she can only have family visitors on restricted hours. And I'm sure she knows that," the nurse said with a glare at Kate.

Kate pursed her lips, "I…did not."

Wilson raised his eyebrows. He knew she spent a lot of her time wandering the halls of the hospital. Kate knew what all the letters and symbols meant of every patient's room. Not to mention the fact he had said to Kate specifically that Meredith couldn't have visitors at this stage.

"Maybe she didn't," said Wilson.

The nurse eyed both Wilson and Kate. She couldn't seem to work out if they were telling the truth.

"Either way," the security man said, "we need to do a body check, make sure she wasn't smuggling anything into the room."

"I'm sure she wasn't," said Wilson.

"It's protocol," said the nurse.

Wilson rolled his eyes.

The nurse, Wilson, the security man, and Kate all went into an empty room down the hall. Kate had to empty all her pockets, which held her phone, a pen, two paperclips, and $2.55 in various coins.

"Shoes," said the security.

Kate kicked them off and he examined them. Then she had to stand like a starfish and be checked.

"Are we done here?" Wilson asked as soon as the security man had stood up from checking Kate.

"We're all good," said the man. "I'm done," he said and left the room.

Kate slipped her shoes back on and shoved everything back in her pockets.

"We'll need to wait until we get Miss Green's bloodwork back to confirm," said the nurse to Wilson.

"Kate's room is three floors down. And if there's a problem, you know where my office is," Wilson said to the nurse forcefully. He held out an arm to Kate. Kate walked over to Wilson, and he opened the door and led her out with his left hand on Kate's shoulder. He closed the door behind them and walked at an almost breakneck pace down the corridor to the elevators.

"You memorized the nurse's schedule, didn't you?" he asked as they walked.

"Maybe," said Kate. She looked up at Wilson. Did he realize his arm was still around her? She thought he'd be mad, but instead as Kate looked up at him, he was smiling. "It's a simple schedule."

"Clearly; it only took you two days to exploit it."

"I wanted to see my friend."

"I know."

They arrived at the elevators and Wilson hit the down button.

"Next time, maybe just ask rather than just trying to sneak past Nurse Ratched, okay?" said Wilson.

"Next time?"

"You know, believe it or not, I do actually have a bit of pull in this hospital."

Kate smiled a little. "Nurse Ratched didn't seem to like you very much."

"Mildred's mostly harmless."

Kate had to laugh at that. "Her name is actually Mildred?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Isn't that Nurse Ratched's name in the movie?"

Wilson made a face. "I don't remember."

The elevator arrived, and Kate and Wilson stepped inside. It wasn't until Wilson went to turn around that he seemed to realize he still had his arm around Kate. He nonchalantly leaned over to hit the button for his office floor and Kate awkwardly twiddled her fingers again, not having noticed. Wilson's cleared his throat. He didn't know everything about Kate's life with Colleen and Doug, but what he did know wasn't good. He was always so careful not to step over a boundary; make Kate scared of something he would do. He was still kicking himself for the other day when he had reached out to her, and she'd flinched away as if she thought he was going to slap her. But a simple side hug, that should be fine, right? But as he thought it, he looked down at Kate, fiddling with her fingers, he wondered if Colleen or Doug ever hugged her to comfort her. Or worse if they ever just hugged her at all.

"So do I get to know what goes on in the trial at all?" asked Kate.

That took Wilson aback for a moment. "Uh…when it starts I might…give you a reader's digest version of everything."

"What if I have to testify?"

"If it comes to that, and that's a huge if, you won't be doing it in court."

"Why not?" asked Kate. Not because she wanted to be in court, but because, even for Wilson, that seemed like a big favor to pull.

The elevator doors opened. Kate frowned a little as they walked out onto Wilson's floor but followed him along to his office anyway.

"Because I don't think Doug deserves to see you again," said Wilson, surprising even himself with his honesty.

Kate frowned. How much did Wilson know? She hadn't told the cops too much that day they came in. They kept saying they'd be back, but they only ever wanted to clarify things Kate had already said. Had Wilson read that original statement? He seemed like the type to ask police for that sort of information. "But how would they swing that?"

"Can we please deal with that if we have to?" Wilson asked and he went down to his office door. He opened it, gesturing for Kate to go through.

Kate was a little confused as to why he wasn't sending her back to her hospital room, but she went in anyway and sat on the sofa. "I just want to know," said Kate.
Wilson sighed. "The defence and prosecution would submit questions they want to ask and they'd film you answering them with your face and voice distorted and show it in court."

Kate blinked several times, processing what he had said. "You've…you've already decided that?"

"I sat in with the lawyers and judge about a month ago and they agreed."

"But…why did you do that?"

"Why wouldn't I?" It was Wilson's turn to be confused. Kate asked a lot of odd questions. Well, not odd, just questions where the answer should've been obvious but for some reason to her, they weren't.

"You don't owe me anything; why are you so…nice?"

Wilson laughed at sat down next to Kate on the sofa. Kate shuffled a little more to the right to give him more space.

"What's so funny?"

"It's not funny, funny but really? Why am I 'nice'? That's the question you want to go with?"

Kate shrugged. "Yeah."

"It's not 'nice' to do things to protect your kid; it's just what you do."

Kate didn't think that was true.

Wilson read that on her face and added, "It's what a decent parent does," he clarified.

"They're not as bad as everyone keeps trying to make them out to be," Kate said.

Wilson didn't believe that. "How so?" he asked.

"We always have nice places, I always have a nice room, new clothes, every book I could ever want. Some people try and make out they were locking me under the stairs like Harry Potter but that never happened."

"Giving you things isn't being a good parent," Wilson said. "What about extra-curricula activities? Learning an instrument, playing a sport?"

"We moved around too much."

"Family holidays? Amusement Parks? Making memories? Regular school?"

Kate frowned at Wilson. "We moved around too much," she said again.

"Sports teams only sign you up per season, instrument lessons usually happen during the school semesters, holidays are anything from a big trip away, to a road trip to somewhere new, lots of kids change schools every semester. 'Moving' is just an excuse; it's not an actual reason."

"Why do you assume I wanted to do those things?"

Wilson looked down at Kate. "For someone who loves Bubba Ray that much I can't imagine you never wanted to learn the guitar or piano. I've heard you talk about soccer with Chase, but I know you've never played. You were left home alone after Colleen had been away all week, and weren't invited to fundraising events even though kids are invited to some of those."

Kate rolled her eyes.

"Why are you so quick to defend them?"

Kate shrugged. "They look after me...They love me."

Wilson leaned on his knees and rubbed his face. She did not understand. He wondered if she ever would. Those statements should not have been in that order.