"I messed up. I slipped. Everything just became too much, and I exploded," James muttered, looking away; "it's like everything happened all at once and it was like a staircase of things setting me off without any respite to relax in between, until I'm suddenly up way too high to get down on my own and I blew up. I hate this," as he pounded his fist down on the table before leaning back in his chair with a shaky breath.
"Okay, well what happened, James?" Sonia, his therapist, asked.
"So, Greg and I knew this woman back over east, Lisa, and she kept asking to come stay with us; ringing us up separately and together, and we both always said no because our house is kind of smallish and it's already pretty crowded. It's not too bad just having the five of us there- but Lisa has kind of a big, chaotic personality and we just didn't want to have her around. Anyway, one day Lisa just arrives out the front of our house out of nowhere, never mentioned anything, just came without telling anyone. She said she had some big conference thing, and we let her stay because we're good hosts, or stupid, or something. She just complained the entire time about everything. Complained about the house, the cars, the food, the kids, the fact we smoked marijuana a couple of times, everything… she continually complained about everything," James muttered, beginning to fiddle with his hair tie around his wrist.
"Okay, what else?" Sonia pressed.
"She kept trying to convince us to go back over east; like constantly, despite Greg and I both saying that we didn't want to, she just wouldn't listen or respect us. Then it was Tyson's birthday, and we went out and took her with us, and my parents rang… just out of the blue. I had to lie to them and tell them that I was still single in front of Greg, which of course led to a massive fight that night after the kids were in bed; Greg was hurt of course, and I was just trying to protect both of us, so we ended up having a screaming match in the kitchen. He got right in my face screaming and yelling, I told him to back off and he wouldn't… then I hit him down onto the ground. I couldn't believe that I did that. I just blacked out… I'm… I'm not a domestic abuser… I'm not… I was just trying to get some space, and I was cornered in; I could count on one hand how many times I've hit in our entire relationship, and he's hit me too… I'm not a beater, I'm not. I promise," James began spiralling.
"It's okay, James," Sonia started, "I'm not here to judge you,"
"Anyway, that he ended up forgiving me and we kissed and made up, you know?" James shyly scratched the back of his head, "and I went to sleep later on and had this nightmare that I was talking to my dad- who mistreated my mom, brothers, and me, who was basically just taunting me. So, I woke up and went to sit outside to try and get some peace and quiet and have a cone on my own, Lisa follows me out and suddenly begins acting all buddy-buddy with me which I found confusing and suspicious. But I put all that in the back of my mind, convincing myself that I was just being paranoid, and so twice a week, Greg and I go out with two couple friends of ours and play shot euchre… which is euchre, but each time you lose, you have to take a shot,"
"Shot euchre sounds like a recipe for disaster," Sonia frowned.
"Usually, it's a lot of fun; but this time in my stupid, stoned state, I invited Lisa to play. Lisa has never played euchre before and just sucks at card games in general- we've known her a very long time; she's never been able to successfully play any kind of card game. So, she loses eight straight games of euchre, and I'm pretty sure all six of us who are playing all tried to convince her to give up at least once when it became obvious just how horrible at it she was, but she wouldn't quit. After losing at least eight games, she was incredibly drunk. She confessed her love to Greg, stated that this entire visit was all just a rouse, claimed that I had 'changed him into a faggot' but she could 'fix him', and that she thinks about him in bed with her! To top it all off, she then had the gall to kiss him! He pulled away and was completely disgusted, but I just saw red. Most of the rest of it, I don't remember, but I was told that I flipped the table over, told her I was going to kill her, Greg told me that I looked absolutely murderously angry, the next thing I know is that Greg and I are locked up outside, I've pulled the screen off the bathroom window, which is really high… I must've had to run, jump, reach up and swing off it to have done that… They'd rung a taxi to come collect Lisa and take her away to the airport," James confessed. "I just saw red, and the meltdown apparently lasted a really long time, like over half an hour," James admitted.
"Okay, well that's nothing that we can't work through… let's start…" Sonia began.
"Hey Cuddy, how was your trip?" Cameron approached her in the cafeteria while she was sitting down eating her lunch, "did you end up seeing House? Is he coming back?"
Lisa shook her head, "no, he's engaged now," she picked around her fries.
"Aww," Cameron melted a little inside, and sat down, "who's the lucky lady?"
"Lucky man," Cuddy corrected, "he and Wilson are still seeing each other; and they live an absolute shambles of a life in Detroit; I can't imagine how either of them are at all possibly happy,"
"House and Wilson?" Cameron asked, then paused and shrugged, "that's actually not all that surprising… Are they coming back to New Jersey? Back to PPTH?"
Cuddy shook her head, "nope, they have absolutely no intention to. They claim to be happy, I don't know how that's possible… you should see the complete chaotic life they live, Cameron… and the fact that they have kids now as well, it's insane,"
"House and Wilson have kids now?" Cameron frowned, then broke out into a smile, "do you have any photos of them?"
"Just this one," Lisa pulled out her phone, and Cameron investigated and zoomed into it. There were three adults, and two kids crowded around a tiny round old laminate table. There was a big guy with grey hair and a beard who looked slightly older than House, talking and pointing to something on the plate of a little boy, there was House sat next to a toddler girl in a high chair, and someone who looked a lot like Wilson, but his hair was longer and in better condition than Cameron's own hair.
"Is that Wilson?" she pointed at the long-haired man, and Lisa nodded, "who is the old guy?"
"One of House's uncles on his mother's side; his name was Rob, that's all I know. He's super unfriendly, to the point of being incredibly, unnecessarily antagonistic and aggressive. Must be a familial trait," Lisa continued, "House doesn't even work as a doctor anymore, he just takes care of those kids… and those kids are goddamn wild. Absolutely feral. House and Wilson are both completely unrecognisable from who they once were, as people. Total rednecks. They've got three giant trucks in their driveway and car parts scattered all around the front yard, when I first went inside, I had a loaded gun with the safety off pulled on me and waved in my face when the uncle thought I was an intruder of some sort while he screamed at me that he was going to blow my brains out. They live in this tiny, unrenovated, rickety old house that's probably from about the 60s, in a terrible neighbourhood and claim they're happy living that way, and smoking drugs out the back of the home in front of their kids. Have you ever seen the show 'Shameless', Cameron?"
Cameron nodded, "I've watched a fair bit of it, why?"
"Well, that's basically how they live, like in the show, and not just the rotting house part of it. They're all out of control and being held together by House, who seems to be the most stable one out of them all- he's like the Fiona. So that should give you an idea of how unstable and messed up the uncle is and how Wilson is nowadays," Lisa frowned. "I tried bringing it up a couple of times, and eventually Wilson ended up threatening to kill me, and you could see that he meant it, it took five grown men who are House's new friends to carry him outside so he wouldn't kill me. He's like bipolar or something, he's just absolutely out of control all the time. Told me he has borderline personality too, that's similar to narcissism, you know? Wilson beat the crap out of House while I was there too while he was in one of his states. Of course, House forgave him immediately. It's just pure madness there, not to even mention that the neighbourhood they live in I would never want to raise kids there, but they don't care, especially House, who said basically that he'd sooner die than to move house, even though it's all falling apart at the seams, and its pure bedlam there all the time. Not to mention that one of their friends stole 60 dollars out of my wallet while I was asleep on the couch to spend it on God knows what, I didn't even realise it was gone until I was at the airport,"
"Wait, so they actually live like that family does in 'shameless'?" Cameron frowned, "that's devastating,"
"They're choosing to live that way," Lisa frowned, "I gave them chance after chance to leave, and they wouldn't. It's their own fault. I just feel bad for those two kids, they're not choosing that life,"
Back in Detroit, Greg was helping Charlie with a late lunch; while Tyson was attempting to show Greg the latest tricks that he'd learned at gymnastics that Greg had recently enrolled in, hoping that it would get out some of Tyson's extra energy, and that he noticed Tyson had both a passion and interest in gymnastics and dancing. Also, as much as Greg didn't want to admit it to himself, as he was never allowed to pursue either of those as his interests as a child, he was almost vicariously living through Tyson's achievements in the sport.
James picked up Greg's phone on the dining room table and answered the video call coming through; "hello?"
"Wilson! It's Cameron, I've just been talking to Cuddy, and she told me about her trip… I just wanted to make sure that everything is… happy and healthy there," Cameron muttered awkwardly.
James rolled his eyes, and Cameron couldn't help but admire his long mane; "everything here is fine, Cameron. I don't know what Cuddy has told you- but we're all fine, happy, and healthy. What did Cuddy say?" James frowned.
Cameron paused slightly, "have you ever watched the show 'Shameless'?" to which James nodded, and added that it was one of Greg's favourite programs, and they rarely missed an episode of it, "well she told me that she had a loaded gun pulled on her when she arrived, that you guys lived in a dilapidated shack that hasn't been renovated since it was built in the sixties, in basically a trailer park. That all you, Greg, and the uncle do is smoke drugs, live in chaos, scream at the kids in your care who she said run around like ferals, that you beat the living daylights out of Greg, and that the kids are starving and you live like a bunch of redneck criminals, that your front driveway is full of trucks and car parts, she also said you were crazy with bipolar and borderline personality, and she thinks narcissism too… she basically compared you guys to the Gallagher family; that there was basically no difference. I just wanted to see for myself before I called CPS, because I know that you and Greg aren't normally that way,"
"She what!" James then had to reign his voice in, "okay, you want to see what's going on right now? I'll show you so it can't be pretended or made to look better than it is on any regular day," James switched the camera around, "I know that it's not much and the house is small, but big enough for the five of us, but it's very clean, especially for having a two-year-old and a six-year-old. Here's the kitchen, and here's Greg helping out our little one, Charlie boo with eating her lunch, don't mind all the ketchup on her tray, she loves ketchup, and this is little Tyson, who is currently practicing his gymnastics inside because it is raining outside and we're responsible parents, and daddy is watching Ty too, aren't you, daddy?" James continued, Greg asked who was on the phone, and James confirmed it was Cameron.
"Of course I'm watching him, I have told him not to do cartwheels or flips because we're inside, but we're mastering our handstands and bend backs without falling over, show Papa," Greg encouraged, as Tyson did a perfect handstand, and then attempted to perform a bend back, but lost his balance and fell over. "We're still perfecting the bend back," Greg smiled, "and this is our little Charlie boo, who is Papa's little girl, while Ty is my little shadow. Say hi to Daddy and Papa's friend in the phone, Char," Greg encouraged, and the little girl, smiled a ketchup covered smile with a mouth full of baby teeth. "She's eating pickle slices, sundried tomatoes, salami, and bell peppers covered in ketchup. It's disgusting and I hope she gets over this ketchup craze soon, she's more ketchup than girl right now, but nothing a quick wipe over and change of clothes after lunch won't fix, hey Char Bear?" Greg giggled, tickling the little girl, who squirmed and squealed in her seat, "oh, and hi Cameron, hope everything is going well," Greg smiled genuinely at her, "expect a wedding invitation soon, not finalised a date yet, but we really hope you will be able to make it… we've been thinking about Niagara Falls, or maybe having it in New York, or Canada. We haven't fully decided yet. Tyson, why don't you take a break from that and help Papa show our friend around the house?"
"Is this the same 'friend' who was mean to me and got me in trouble?" Tyson asked with a frown, "the bossy one, Mrs Cubby?"
"No," James laughed, "not Cubby," and Cameron smiled as she saw the young boy's pout and calling Cuddy 'Cubby'.
"Jesus, he looks like House, doesn't he?" Cameron muttered.
"Tell me about it," James laughed back, "here I've got a photo to show you- I'm showing her the Snowman photo, Greg!" to which Greg protested mildly but then rolled his eyes shortly before James turned away, "this is the kitchen, by the way; it is small, but it's practical," as they entered back into the lounge room where Cameron also spotted a piano taking up a large portion of the lounge room with a couple of guitars, and James grabbed a picture off the wall, "Greg is teaching Tyson how to play the piano and guitar, I'm teaching him French," James explained, then pointed at the photo with one of his fingers, "and this is House, at the age of seven," Cameron could hear the smile in James' voice, "wasn't he SO CUTE!" James yelled back, and Cameron heard a guffaw from the kitchen area. Cameron looked closer at the photo, "the older guy, the teenager, is Greg's uncle Rob who lives with us, wonderful guy, but the little boy is Greg; this photo was actually taken here, out the back," Cameron looked at the photo and felt her heart melt a little bit. There was a little boy, who looked tall for his age, wrapped up in mountains of winter clothes, with a sprinkling of freckles across his nose and cheeks, and shaggy, messy blonde hair, grinning so widely it could show his slightly crooked teeth.
"Show her my room!" Tyson grabbed James by the hand and pulled him upstairs; "it's all Deadpool and the Detroit Tigers!" as he ran around the room, pulling different things out, "do you root for the Tigers?" Tyson asked the camera, and Cameron laughed and said sure she did, "okay good. I have a fish too, see? Oh, and look what Daddy and Papa gave me for my birthday the other day!" Tyson pulled a bike out from next to his cupboard, "it's black and red that are my two favourite colours, what are your favourite colours, lady in the phone? Daddy and Papa say I'm meant to keep the bike outside, but I sneak it in, but they don't know I sneak it in," James just flipped the camera around and shook his head as if to say, 'we know he sneaks it in'.
"Anyway, that's Tyson's bedroom," James stated, leaving the room, "this here is Charlie boo's room," and opened the door to a slightly smaller room with a toddler bed, a collapsable Princess castle, a dollhouse, a cupboard, fluffy pink rug, and the walls decorated with horses, unicorns and Disney, as well as a bag of diapers on top of the cupboard, out of reach; "Tyson doesn't go in here, do you Tyson? Believe it or not, but Tyson is actually a tornado in the form of a child… Charlie gets very upset when things are out of place, and this is her safe space to wind down when she gets upset- which happens a lot. She doesn't talk much and has a bit of a delay, she's nearly three and still in nappies, she's sensitive to loud noises and bright lights like in the store, and still needs a highchair to eat, and needs more help than most three year olds; so we're starting to wonder about if she might have mild autism or something if she doesn't catch up soon. Because Charlie is so particular about her stuff, Tyson isn't meant to go into Charlie's room, are you Ty?" to which Tyson shook his head and said he never did, James just rolled his eyes, "yeah, that's cow crap, Tyson. Anyway, on with the tour. This is Rob's room,"
Tyson opened the door, and Cameron flinched as she remembered what Cuddy had told her about this 'Uncle Rob' instead just saw a hefty guy lying on a bed playing on his cell phone in the smallest room she'd seen so far, "hey, Granddad!" Tyson ran and jumped onto the bed, "say hi to the lady in the phone!"
"Hello, lady in the phone," Rob laughed with a deep, booming laugh, "I hope that your little tour guide hasn't given you a headache yet," Tyson began bouncing on the bed, "Tyson," the man sighed, "this is why you have a trampoline to bounce on,"
"Oh right! I have a big trampoline in the backyard, and a little one in the lounge room!" Tyson grinned at the phone, "can we show the phone lady?"
"Maybe another time, Ty, and aside from the bathroom," which James showed Cameron a small, but seemingly functional bathroom, "our washer and dryer are in the kitchen under the bench, that's all for upstairs and downstairs," as James headed downstairs, and then down another flight of stairs, "Greg and I sleep in the basement," which he briefly showed Cameron, "that we really need to tidy up when we get half an hour's spare time to do so, sorry about the messy blankets and clothes on the floor... Tyson doesn't come down here either, do you, Tyson?" James shot the camera around to Tyson who looked away, embarrassed, "at least you're not meant to. And I'll show you out the front," James went back upstairs, popped open an umbrella, and walked outside, where Cameron did see a half parted out white Taurus on the front lawn, "that was my old car," James shouted over the heavy rain, "it blew a head gasket, so I bought that greeny-black truck instead," he pointed out a huge truck in the driveway as he started walking over, "that black one, the sequoia, belonged to Greg's late aunt, Josie, and the red Ford pick up is Rob's. He's also restoring a Challenger, but it isn't going," as James pointed out the cars, "check this out!" he turned the camera around to see Tyson spinning around singing 'I'm singing in the rain' and then sticking his tongue out to catch rain drops in his mouth, "someone is going to need a warm shower to warm up in a minute… I'll quickly show you out the back," as James led the camera around the side of the house and unlocked the padlocked gate, "it's not much, but there's a swing set and trampoline for the kids, and a table where us grown ups can hang out and watch them when we're not down there playing with them. And that is our home," James finished as he walked back in the back door back into the dining room, where Greg was cleaning up the mess Charlie had made on her tray.
"That's our home, I'll pass you on to Greg to say hi, while I get Mr singing in the rain into a shower before he gets sick, come on Tyson, take your shoes off here and we'll get you in the shower, you'll get sick otherwise," as he passed the phone to Greg who smiled back at her, Cameron could hear off camera whining, and then begrudging stomping upstairs to the bathroom.
"So, that's our humble little abode," Greg laughed, "I'm kind of surprised you called out of the blue like that, any particular reason? Not that it isn't great to hear from you, because it is, it's kind of unexpected is all,"
"House, I just have to be honest with you, I was talking about Cuddy's vacation with her today at lunch, and she had some things to say about you guys that I realise now isn't probably the full truth," Cameron began awkwardly, "that she had a loaded gun pulled on her and your uncle threatened to shoot her in the head, that you guys lived in a dilapidated building that was falling apart, your kids were feral and being abused and neglected, that you all just sit around all day and do drugs, that your friend stole 60 bucks from her, and that James attempted to kill her… I had to check up on it myself or she wanted me to report you guys to CPS," Cameron looked away.
"Cuddy is leaving a lot out of that," Greg muttered, clearly annoyed, "firstly, Cuddy rocked up uninvited when she was told not to come, and we've had a violent break in before, so my Uncle Rob panicked and pulled out a gun he keeps locked in a safe, in his room, on her when he thought she was an intruder. The house isn't dilapidated, it's in perfect working order, it's small but it's a fine size for us, the kids aren't being abused in any way, Tyson got told off once for opening the front door because he's not allowed to do that for safety reasons, the kids aren't feral- Tyson has high energy as I'm sure you saw, and Charlie is… well she's Charlie, she's a late bloomer, but neither of them are feral, we don't sit around and do drugs all day- James takes medicinal marijuana for anorexia that he's in recovery from in order to improve his appetite, and sometimes Rob and I have the occasional cone, but never to excess, and never to the point of any dependence- in fact I take less pain killers now than I ever did and I can get around the house and most places without the cane now. My friend, Phil, took 60 bucks because Cuddy needed to replace a window she broke at his house, but wouldn't pay for. And lastly, James got mad because Cuddy got blind drunk while my friends, James and I were playing a card game. Cuddy announced to everyone that James 'turned me into a faggot' but that she could 'turn me back', then she wished James and I would break up, that she fantasied about me in bed, and then proceeded to sexually assault me in front of everyone. James didn't try to kill her by any means; do you think that if someone as big and strong as James legitimately wanted to kill Cuddy that he wouldn't be able to? He yelled at her, and then he and I went and sat away from her outside because we were both super upset because she'd said all those things about me and my fiancée, that she'd come here under false pretences, sexually assaulted me, and this was after several days of putting up with her constant barrage of verbal abuse and talking down to us, calling us disgusting,"
"Wow," Cameron shook her head, "I… that's shocking, no wonder she thought James had borderline personality after having heard all that, I'd snap too,"
"Oh no, he does have BPD, but it's managed with everything from therapy to medications to working at it from home, everything and anything that helps it in any way; he does it. No one suffers more from his BPD than he does, but it doesn't make him a bad father, bad partner or a bad person. He's the same James he always has been," Greg added.
"Coz, Lisa also compared you and your family there to the Gallagher family on 'Shameless'; that you're that messed up," Cameron admitted.
Greg took a deep breath in, and slowly exhaled, "of course she did. She's trying to cause problems for us. But you've just seen our family without any preparation, just as we are on a regular Thursday at lunchtime, do we seem so dysfunctional like the Gallaghers?" Greg asked.
"No, no you don't, you seem like a wonderful little family who looks out for each other, and are doing your best, and your best is an amazing job," Cameron agreed.
"Damn right," Greg nodded, "so Cuddy can stick her 'Shameless' and Gallagher family story right up her ass. If you ever want to visit, Cameron, you'll be more than welcome… just tell us in advance so we can have everything set up for you and don't have to run around like headless chickens getting everything organised for an unexpected guest, okay?" Greg smiled.
"Okay, deal," Cameron smiled back, "I better go, but it's been great seeing you and James again, House, and I hope to see you again soon,"
"Thanks Cameron, and you too. I better get Charlie cleaned up as well. Remember to take over my place and ensure you keep Cuddy on her toes, okay? Can't let her start getting complacent," Greg winked as they disconnected the phone call.