Chapter Sixteen

Kate was reading to Meredith from Huckleberry Finn. "Well, three or four months run along, and it was well into the winter now. I had been to school most all the time and could spell and read and write just a little, and could say the multiplication table up to six times seven is thirty-five, and I don't reckon I could ever get any further than that if I was to live forever. I don't take no stock in mathematics, anyway."

"Oh my god," said Meredith, whacking her hand over her eyes. "Stop."

"That's only the start of chapter four," said Kate from the chair next to Meredith on the couch in the clinic.

Meredith groaned.

"How are you going to do your exam in two weeks?"

Meredith shrugged from under her arm. "Who cares."

"I do," said Kate softly.

Meredith smiled and moved her arm off her face. "That makes one person in the whole world."

Kate shrugged. "One is more than enough. Come on, it's a good book."

"Isn't it racist?"

"It's a good book for its time," Kate clarified. "And if you don't read it, you won't be able to argue about the racism because you'll have no examples."

Meredith groaned. "Okay."

"At first I hated the school, but by and by I got so I could stand it. Whenever I got uncommon tired I played hookey, and the hiding I got next day done me good and cheered me up…"

Kate had finished chapter six when an orderly told her that Meredith had a group counselling session. Kate stood.

"The fun never ends here," Meredith said flatly sitting up.

"Is it helping?" Kate asked, putting the bookmark in the book.

Meredith shrugged and stood. "I mean there are no drugs that get you high here, so it's hard to tell."

Kate raised her eyebrows and handed the book to Meredith.

"Partly. I think," Meredith admitted.

Kate smiled.

"Thank your dad for me," Meredith muttered as she left the room.

The orderly eyed Kate as she left the clinic. Kate smiled at him, but he kept the same flat face. Kate wondered what she ever did to him but as she got into the hallway, Wilson was standing there with his arms crossed and the thought left her mind.

"What?" Kate asked.

"You're late," said Wilson.

"I don't have a watch."

"I happen to know there are clocks in there," Wilson nodded back to the rehab clinic.

Kate shrugged. "I'm going, I'm going," she muttered and headed down towards her room.

"That's not the point," Wilson said, and he fell into step with Kate. "Your dialysis needs to be done at the same time. You're on every other day now, and it's even more important that you get it done every 48 hours."

"I'm not that late."

"Nearly an hour."

"I don't think an hour will kill me," Kate said and hit the button for the elevator.

Wilson didn't say anything.

"Will it?" Kate asked, panic rising in her voice.

"No," Wilson admitted. "But again, that's not the point."

Kate sighed and stepped into the elevator. "Then what is the point?" she pressed for her floor.

Wilson rubbed his face and stepped in.

"Ah yes. Great point," said Kate.

"Oh, shut it," said Wilson and hit the 'door close' button.

Kate smiled.

When Wilson and Kate reached her room, Doctor Woods was there standing at the dialysis machine.

"There you are!" Woods said with a smile. "I was looking for you, but Doctor Finch assured me you'd be here eventually, and he told me just to wait and you'd turn up and what do you know? Here you are!"

Wilson and Kate both took a breath.

"So, come, come," said Doctor Woods. "Come sit," he gestured to the chair and Kate sat down. "Can't be late for your dialysis. Doctor Finch said you're doing better than he anticipated with every other day, but he still wants to do bloods every day to be sure. Oh, and Doctor Finch said there were some people here to see you but that he was waiting for Doctor Wilson. But Doctor Wilson is here now," Woods laughed a little. "So, once I've got you going I guess you can come with me Doctor Wilson and Doctor Finch can tell you all about the people that want to talk with Kate."

"Ah…sure," Wilson said.

Woods set up Kate's dialysis while Kate took a great interest in the ceiling.

"Tell me something distracting," Kate said to Wilson as Woods fumbled with the machine.

"Uh…" Wilson thought. Then it came to him. "House has a 15-year-old supermodel addicted to heroin for a patient."

Kate frowned. "How does a 15-year-old become a supermodel?"

"I actually don't know. Probably creepy old guys with fetishes."

Kate laughed but Woods cleared his throat loudly.

"He's not wrong though," said Kate to Woods but horrifically caught a glimpse of her blood being sucked into the machine as Woods finally got it working. "Oh god," she yelled and turned away to the window. "That's horrific." Kate paled.

"It's lifesaving though," said Wilson.

"I'm not entirely convinced I couldn't live without my kidneys," said Kate.

"Sure. But not for long."

"All right," said Woods, a little too loudly. "All good now. Sorry about that. I had some of tubes a little too loose, but I've fixed that now and you should be all good for your dialysis now. Doctor Wilson did you want me to take you to see Doctor Finch and all the special guests?"

Wilson sighed. "You all right?" he asked Kate.

"Just scarred from viewing my own blood outside of my body," said Kate.

"Wonderful," said Wilson and followed Woods out of her room.

Wilson and Woods had to go to Cuddy's office to see the mysterious people. Wilson sighed as they got there, because as soon as Woods opened the door Wilson could tell they were two detectives, and a lawyer. Well, technically an ADA. The lawyer he'd been dealing with for the past few months. But that was completely beside the point.

Cuddy was leaning on the front of her desk, Doctor Finch standing next to her.

Wilson closed the door behind him. "What's going on?"

"We need to talk to Kate again," said the first detective, Detective Hernandez? Wilson couldn't remember anymore.

"About what?" asked Wilson.

The detectives, ADA, and Finch all exchanged looks.

"Well, for one, her medical history," said the first detective.

"I thought that was protected?" asked Wilson.

"The case hinges almost completely on the child now," said the ADA. "If we can prove without a shadow of the doubt that Fairchild was testing on his stepdaughter, so many other things fall into place."

"ADA Thomas has explained all the legal jargon behind it," said Cuddy. "About releasing Kate's medical history, but at the moment…" Cuddy trailed off.

"She is still technically a ward of the state," said Thomas. "We can access her records with or without your consent. This is a…courtesy call."

Wilson raised his eyebrows. "Really?"

"Doctor Finch is on board."

"Of course he is."

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Finch.

"Nothing. Look, I don't quite understand. How does access to Kate's medical records prove she was being experimented on?"

"What do you mean?" asked the second detective. This one Wilson didn't recognise at all.

"Doug and Colleen are both licensed doctors, why would they need to bring Kate into to see other doctors? Or the ER? Hell, Kate originally presented at this hospital under a fake name? How can you be sure she didn't do that at other hospitals?"

No one had anything to say to that.

ADA Thomas cleared her throat. "Well then, we'll have to get her testimony."

"Whose?" asked Wilson.

"Excuse me?"

"Your daughter," Thomas said flatly.

"You haven't used her name once."

"Doctor Wilson," Cuddy warned.

Wilson ignored her. "What's her name?"

Thomas glared at Wilson. "Mary."

Wilson scoffed.

Cuddy looked at Thomas. Surely, she wasn't this idiotic. "I think Doctor Wilson meant what she prefers. The name everyone knows her by."

Thomas actually rolled her eyes. "Kate."

"You might want to use her name," Wilson said, "while she's giving you absolutely nothing while you question her." And with that Wilson left Cuddy's office.

What a waste of everyone's time. And why would they think they could get anything more out of Kate? Medical records or by questioning her. Sure, Wilson could guess as to what happened to Kate, what the house could have been like given her reactions over the last few months. But even he barely could get anything more than vague questions or comments out of her. But then again, if Kate didn't give her testimony, Doug might get much less of a sentence, or worse, walk free. Wilson checked on his patients. His mind elsewhere. But thankfully, everyone, was doing well. Medications were working. And one of his patients would be able to go home by the end of the week.

Before he even realized it, Wilson was standing outside of Kate's room. She was reading a magazine. Wilson took a breath, and went in.

"How's it going?" he asked.

Kate shrugged. "My dialysis is done, and I'm not dead," she said flatly and turned the page.

Wilson sighed. "I never said you would die."

"You sure act like it sometimes."

"That's kind of my job," Wilson said and leaned up against Kate's bed.

Kate looked up from her magazine. Her brow furrowed. "What?"

"Nothing," said Wilson. He nervously scratched his head. "Listen…the uh…I think they're going to want your testimony."

"On what?"

"On Doug."

"Ah."

"Yeah."

"Do I get a choice?"

"Well, they're going to look at your medical records, so I'm going to with they'll be here within a couple of hours."

Kate's face dropped. "You said yes?"

"I don't actually get a say."

"Why not?"

"You're a ward of the state."

Kate frowned. But nodded.

"Doctor Finch gets an opinion on what is relevant, Cuddy gets an opinion on where they can take the information, but ADA Thomas gets the final say on all of it."

"Great," Kate said. She went back to the magazine. She frowned and held up the page to Wilson. "Is this House's patient?" she asked.

Wilson looked. "Yeah it is. Why?"

"I thought she was fifteen?"

"She is…again, why?"

Kate shrugged. "No reason."

Wilson pager beeped. He looked at Kate.

Kate rolled her eyes. "It's fine. Go," Kate said.

"You sure?" Wilson asked. Kate had a very strange look on her face. One that Wilson couldn't place.

"Yes, Dad," Kate answered, and she turned her attention back to the magazine.

Wilson checked the page. One of his patients was coding. Nothing was going well today.

Kate was curious. And bored. But mostly curious. Once she was sure that Wilson had actually gone to answer the page she got up and wandered down. She stood at the nurse's desk and looked in. Kate hated it when people did this to her, but she had to see for herself. Kate sighed. Alex was beautiful. Kate absentmindedly twisted her hair as she watched Doctor Cameron talk with Alex. Where Kate's was stringy and dull, Alex's was blonde and beautiful. Even lying in a hospital bed didn't seem to give the girl bed hair. Doctor Cameron came out, exasperated.

"What's wrong?" Kate asked.

Cameron looked up at Kate, surprised to see her there. "Oh…just…you don't need to worry about it, Kate."

Kate nodded.

"What are you doing down here anyway? I think House is in his office."

"Oh it's not that," said Kate.

Cameron looked at her. She had her concerned puppy dog eyes glaring into Kate's soul. "What's the matter?"

Kate glanced back at Alex in the room. "I read an article about her, in a magazine," said Kate. "Did you know she's only six months older than me?"

Cameron shook her head. "I didn't."

Kate took a breath. "Why does she get to look like that, and I get to look like…" Kate gestured to herself. Ratty old clothes, messy hair, pale, slightly yellowed skin. "This."

Cameron sighed. "Oh Kate," she said softly. "You're beautiful too." Her tone was sincere.

"Not like that though," Kate said.

Cameron reached out and touched Kate's shoulder before she left.

Kate took a deep breath and went into to Alex's room.

"Can I help you?" Alex asked.

"I just…wanted to meet you," Kate managed to say.

Alex smiled. God, even her smile was gorgeous. "You're a fan?"

"Uh…not exactly," Kate said. "I uh, I'm a patient here too, I'm Kate, and I read an article about you…we're, we're exactly six months a part in age."

"That's kind of cool," said Alex. "But why are you here, in my room?"

Kate nervously scratched her arm. "I was just…I don't know," Kate admitted. "I just, saw you in a magazine, saw what you looked like and…I guess I had to see for myself."

"See what?"

"If you really look like you did the magazine," Kate sighed. "You do."

Alex smiled. "Thank you."

Kate didn't have the hear to tell her that's not what she meant. "When did you know you were beautiful?"

Alex made a face. "Huh, I guess I never really thought about it."

"But you're a model?"

"People have been telling me I'm beautiful for years. And my Dad is my manager and he always said I was beautiful so…"

"But I mean, when did you believe it?"

Alex thought for a moment. Then she gave a sly smile. "When I could get people to do whatever I wanted."

"What?"

Alex shuffled in her bed. "People wanted things from me, and I realized I could get what I wanted, by giving them I what I wanted."

"What do people want from you?"

Alex laughed. "You said you're only six months younger than me?"

"Yeah."

"Sex."

"You're fifteen!" Kate said, shocked.

"And?"

"How many people have you slept with?"

Alex shrugged. "A few."

Kate and Alex were silent for a few moments.

"You know, you could be beautiful too, Kate," said Alex.

Kate frowned. "How?"

"Well, some conditioner to start. Also some hair dye. Your hair washes you out. Also, a tan probably wouldn't hurt."

"I have jaundice," Kate said. "Don't think I'm going to get a tan…just maybe go a bit orange instead."

Alex laughed. "What's jaundice?"

"My liver and kidneys aren't great, they're not filtering waste from my blood properly."

"Oh," said Alex.

"What have you got?"

"They're not sure yet."

"I'm sorry."

Alex smiled.

"Well…thanks," said Kate. "For humoring me."

Alex smiled a genuine smile. "No problem."

Kate smiled and left Alex's room. She felt no better than before. But also, she felt no worse. So that was a win, right?