Comment on The Kelpie: Rachel's role

[readingrat]

As I wrote the story it struck me how much of the S7 chaos centred around Rachel, even though Rachel was hardly ever shown. IMO the whole break-up arc was not so much about House deserting Cuddy in her hour of need and relapsing, but about House having an addictive relationship (using Cuddy as a drug replacement) and thus representing a danger to Rachel. House himself says as much right at the start: in 'Now What?' he says that he's an insane choice for a mother. Note that he doesn't say that he's an insane choice for an employer because he's her most troublesome employee and screwing him will undermine her authority at the hospital while their work relationship will stress their private one, which is the first thing to come to mind when considering their relationship. That's because House knows what's going to be the breaking point in this.

I know that there are a lot of Huddy fans who thought House bonded beautifully with Rachel, but frankly, I didn't see that. What I saw was a guy who had less of a connection with his girlfriend's kid than with his young patients, a guy who only did things for/with his girlfriend's kid when not doing so threatened the stability of that relationship.

It wasn't that House didn't recognise the necessity of making a connection with Rachel. He's not an idiot and it's one of the first things he realised he had to do, which is why he immediately called Cuddy on it when she tried to keep them apart. But realisation of a fact and acting on it are two different things. There were people who said that Cuddy shouldn't have made him babysit. Goddamn right she shouldn't! - He should have been around and ready to help without being asked for it, because the fact of the matter is that when a single parent gets into a new relationship, it's a 100%-lose situation for the kids unless the new partner is prepared to square up and help out. Because, the single parent now has to divide his/her time between the new partner and the children, so if the new partner isn't prepared to take over some parenting tasks to make up for the mummy/daddy time the kids are losing, then the kids have pulled a very short straw indeed. And House knew all that; he never had any problems making sure that other parents did the right thing by their kids, even if it meant sending Mormon guy home early.

So why didn't House try to connect with Rachel? Because right from her birth he saw her as competition, not as a child like any other. I'm not only talking about sibling rivalry here, but as competition for his drug of choice. House knew that Rachel was the biggest obstruction to a continuing relationship with Cuddy, so he couldn't see her in the neutral-objective light with which he viewed his patients. And by not doing so, he basically ensured that the relationship wouldn't last ...

In the Mayfield arrival chapter I have Cuddy explain that it was worry for Rachel that ultimately made her dump House. I came to that conclusion after analysing her Bombshells dreams and the rest of the episode. She spends a lot of time in the episode making provisions for Rachel and explaining to her sister why House wouldn't be a suitable choice as guardian. Interestingly, we don't see her make any provisions for her other baby, the hospital ... As for her dreams, only one, the 'Butch Cassidy' one, is about her overt reason for dumping House, namely being deserted by him. Two of the four dreams are about Rachel and how House's addiction will influence her - in both dreams he offers Rachel 'candy'. (The last one, 'Get Happy' is where her subconscious tells her that he's already relapsed.) So between what House says in 'Now What?' about being an unsuitable choice and what Cuddy does and dreams in 'Bombshells', I think my assumption isn't all that far-fetched.

So, what has changed? Pete, unlike House, can't remember a time when Rachel didn't exist in Cuddy's life. For him, Rachel always has been part and parcel of Cuddy's life, and he's the intruder. Besides, he isn't addicted to Cuddy, so he doesn't regard Rachel as competition in a wild scramble for his drug. I tried to show the difference between House and Pete in the scene where he decides to stay and look after her while Cuddy takes Wilson to Mayfield. He needn't do so; in fact, given that Cuddy is mad at him and probably won't thank him for spending time with the child she has never introduced him to, it's unlikely to be a good move with regard to his relationship with her. Nevertheless, he stays and looks after Rachel, because he's aware that he just ruined her evening and has been depriving her of her mother regularly over the past few weeks (months, if one counts the time Cuddy spent in England). I wouldn't exactly say that he's trying to make it up to her, but there is a subconscious realisation that if his presence in Cuddy's life is a major disadvantage to Rachel, then he and Cuddy won't go anywhere in the long run.

When Pete breaks up with Cuddy the second time, it's because he says he doesn't want to date a woman who is merely staying with him because she's afraid to leave. It's the truth - but only partly. It's the truth as he sees it at the moment because he's sliding into a depression and can only see the downside of having known Cuddy before. (Fact is that Cuddy would happily date and then dump him again, because she honestly can't see the worst-case scenario happening, even if it has happened before, because she's really optimistic that way. [Feel free to substitute 'dumb' for 'optimistic'.] She doesn't object to his logic, however, because she isn't much of a fighter in personal relationships.) The real problem for him, the one he doesn't voice, because Pete (like House) isn't going to admit his true fears, is his inability to cope emotionally with what happened to Rachel. At that moment he sees himself as a violent bastard whose actions ended up crippling an innocent child.

The final chapter has Pete accepting that although he may not be entirely innocent of Rachel's injury, he isn't necessarily guilty either. Blaming himself is as logical as blaming Cuddy (especially the way Arlene does). One could, at a stretch, even blame Wilson for stepping in front of that tree. Hearing of Arlene's rather ridiculous accusation that Cuddy is to blame because she refused to flee from Princeton helps him to get a perspective on his own culpability. And with that perspective he can, in the long run, try for some sort of normalcy between himself, Rachel and Cuddy.