"Is she okay?"
"She's asleep. She's been looking for both of you."
"Tell her I said goodnight."
"How are you? How is Lisa?"
"I'm wearing a slang for my arm. Still on the cane. Still on the pills."
"And Lisa?"
"I lost a lot of blood so I had to get a transfusion. You know,"
"Greg."
He paused and breathed heavily.
"I don't know yet."
"And the baby?"
"Your grandson should be fine. Laith missed his head por an inch."
"Boy?"
"Yeah."
"I'm so happy for you guys."
"Of course."
"Gregory Mason House. Do I hear a sense of remorse?"
"More like guilt."
"You saved her and the baby."
"And nearly killed them all the same."
"Honey, remorse or guilt whatever it may be that you are feeling right now--"
"Mom,"
"Is definitely not what you are supposed to be feeling right now."
He was ignoring her. Or at least trying not to before Wilson had knocked on the glass windows.
"Look I've got to go. They have to change my bandages. Bye."
He hung up the phone and turned to Wilson.
"She's out of surgery. The baby's fine. So is she."
House looked at him before taking off all his cords, grabbing his cane and making his way out of the ICU. Wilson just looked at him and waited till he was a few steps away before catching after him.
"You do know you're going to rip out your stitches right?"
"I know."
"Walking around after getting majorly shot isn't really the best idea. Go back to ICU."
"Technically I am."
"She needs rest. And so do you. How's your leg?"
"Fine. Using extra extra vicodin lately ."
"Extra? Like OD extra or Super OD?"
"What do you think?"
"Don't. The last thing we need to deal with is a drug overdose. Go back to your room. Otherwise you'll rip your stitches out."
"I'll take the risk."
"Or I can just rip them out myself. Make it easier on all if us."
Then House yelled as he walked into Cuddy's room,
"It's better if we let them fall on their own, it builds a sense of suspense."
His eyes got big before he vanished behind the doors. He walked in and saw her sleeping on the bed. She was breathing deeply. Her coração rate was at a sinus rhythm. His coração was racing and his breathing intensified as soon as he saw her wound. His pains soon began to throb. He could feel the stitches beginning to tear. Then Cuddy began to open her eyes. They just stared at each other. He rested his cane against the foot of her bed. Cuddy began to scoot herself out of the sheets into an upright position until House stopped her and slowly pushed her back in.
"Why are you here?"
"I wasn't really planning on getting wounded. Actually I was but you know."
"In my room."
"Can't a father see his son and the mother of that son? Frankly I find it rude not to see valuable people like that after they go through a near death experience."
She closed her eyes.
"I had to find out about it sooner or later. And both are unnecessary. I've known. For a long time babe."
Her face grew angry.
"So why didn't you tell me?"
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"You just let me walk around with the guilt?"
"You just let me walk around with the pain?"
"I can't deal with guilt. You know that. You can cope with the pain." Her eyes went bloodshot. She knew she had said something wrong. And so his eyes fell to the floor as she tried to save herself.
"I-I'm. I-didn't mean it like that."
"I know." She sighed and threw him a sympathetic look.
"Don't."
"I'm sorry?" Just--looking at you--God."
"You think it's easier to take a glance your way?"
He paused, rose his head from the floor and just looked at her.
"You've taken away my willpower to stay away from you. You've made me your child's father. And you now have a guilt on me that is reluctant to let go. Don't make this harder than it is."
"So you're gonna blame this on me?"
They began to throw retorts back and forth. Their voices raised with every comeback.
"You ended it."
"You didn't fight."
"You made a choice."
"I had no choice. You did."
"Don't give me that crap."
"Don't give me guilt."
"Stop throwing me pity."
Suddenly Wilson walked in as they stifled their anger.
"Fighting isn't really the best thing to be doing right now."
He didn't look up. He was focused on their charts.
Suddenly House grabbed his leg. He winced inconspicuously, making sure the other two didn't see. He looked down and saw that blood was seeping through his gown. Then a sharp pain occurred I'm his arm.
He began to walk toward the doors, clutching his leg.
"Going back to the room?"
"I think I need to cool off." And he walked out hiding the pain, leaving them to talk.
"He knows this kills us."
"I know."
"Its so hard to live with him sometimes."
"Maybe so. But can you honestly tell me how of feels to live without?"
Wilson just looked at her with sadness in his eyes before taking her hand and holding it in a tight squeeze. Then they looked at his cane laying against the bed, realizing he left it behind.
---
House was standing barefoot on the cold concrete. The sky was an old gray with a blanket of clouds. He looked up, apparently waiting for something. And he did find something. A rain drop fell on his face. And so did many more. After several minutos he was drenched. His hair was matted and wet. His vestido was completely drenched, not only with the cold rain, but with his blood. The blood had spread all the way down from his shoulder till just before his knee. And soon enough blood began to drip from his leg. After several minutos he was in a puddle of rain and blood. He started to fall back onto the cement but right before he could, he was caught midair.
The hands weren't hands he had felt before. But he'd seen them. They were gentle and soft but they fidgeted slightly as they laid him across a lap. He just looked at the face arching over him in a slight shock.
"I may have Huntington's but I'm still strong enough to save my boss from falling."
"Why are you here." He grunted.
"I was about to leave when I saw you. Come on you've lost so much blood already they need to fix your stitches."
She helped him up from the ground and supported him as she escorted him to the ER.
She left as soon as she dropped him off. He didn't even have time to turn around to even make his last remark.
---
"Stay in your hospital bed. I don't need you ripping apart your stitches again."
Cameron was slightly annoyed as she sewed House's stitches for yet the segundo time. She was sewing his leg stitches as his corduroys stayed rolled up a little bit over his knees.
"Don't need the lecture. Not right now at least."
"I take it you found out about--"
"I was bound to find out sometime."
"So, what are you going to do?"
"If you're expecting me to marry her, you've stitched up the wrong doctor."
"It's the best thing you can do for her--"
"The best thing being to rationalize."
"Then the reasonable thing would be to--"
"Not marry her!"
He winced as she continued sewing into his fragile wound.
"She needs you."
"Or you both are convinced that she needs me."
"I am convinced she needs you. Not only her. Your son needs you."
"If he doesn't know me, then how could he need me?"
"Every kid needs a mother and a father."
"Inconclusive."
He scooted a little higher up on the bed. She stopped stitching and continued talking.
"How?"
"There are a lot of kids who grow up without mothers, fathers sometimes even both."
"That wasn't por choice House."
"It was por either the father, the mother or both."
"But not por the child. Do you want your child growing up without a father?"
She continued to stitch, finishing up his leg.
"It's not my decision."
"Would you want your child growing up without a father? Do you have any idea--?"
"Really wouldn't pose that question."
"You had a father."
"Doesn't mean he was there."
He looked away and she tried giving him a concerned and questioning look. She finally sewed on the last stitch on his leg.
"Arm," and he rolled down his pants and rolled up his sleeve, still avoiding her eyes.
"What do you mean por that?" And she began to stitch his arm.
"He was half a father. He gave the discipline. In the way he thought it should be done. But he showed no compassion. He didn't care. He just wanted things done the way he wanted. No excuses."
"So you had a strict father. A lot of people have fathers like that."
His eyes shot right at her.
"Did your father ever tie you up? Lock you in your room for a couple hours, just because you were two minutos late coming início from school? Make you take a bath in ice for getting an A on a test? Make you sleep in the yard for not having time to clean your room? That's not a father."
"Oh my God House. And your mom allowed this?"
"You really think these things would've happened if she knew?"
"Why didn't you tell her?"
"Unnecessary. Plus, his actions made me who I am."
"And you're proud of that."
He hesitated.
"No. But it's already been done."
"Does Cuddy know?"
He hesitated longer.
"No."
"Why?"
"Her reaction would've been mais worse than yours."
"But that is something to tell your--well, when she was your girlfriend. Have you even told Wilson?"
"Half of it."
He gave a little wince as she finished up the last strands.
"And you told me....?"
"All of it."
"Why?"
She finally finished off the last stitch. He hesitated a little before talking again, while unraveling his sleeve.
"I wasn't venting out to you. You are probably, the last person I would vent to. I was building the conversation. Arguing my point. My side. Which won."
With that said, he got up and limped back right out of the ER.
---
"Stop this."
"Drop it Wilson."
"Do you see what you're doing to him?"
"I'm well aware of the damage I am causing. Now please get out of my room."
"I'm not going to discharge you until you talk to me."
"With what power?"
"My department power. I can hold you back for cancer tests on you and the baby. Even if you are the Dean, your still a patient. "
She sighed. She had a clever retort but she knew he had something to say, so she held her tongue.
He just stared at her at first. Then gave a slight scoff. It wasn't a negative scoff, mais like an entertained scoff. He smiled then slid his hand down his pocket. He clasped something tight in a fist, and waited.
"He was. You just--couldn't wait long enough."
She looked at him curiously.
"What are you--"
He threw the object on the bed. There lay in front of her the very same mahogany box from so many times before.
"He was giving you his life. It's not much, but you know. It's all he's got."
She stared blankly at him before slowly picking it up. Wilson just continued talking.
"You gave him a way to do it. You took away his will to pursue it."
---