fic: The Cuckoo -- Chapter 23

[readingrat]

 

Part IV
Chapter 23: Scans and Scams

The radiology technician glared at Pete and Chase when they entered her little kingdom. "I'm sorry, but family aren't allowed in here. There's a waiting area outside."

"It's okay, Moira," Cuddy said from behind them. "This is Dr Chase, who'll be operating on Dr Wilson's carcinoma." She didn't bother to explain Pete's presence. "You know Dr Pearson, don't you?"

Moira and Pearson both nodded.

"How are you doing, Moira?" Pearson said. "Do you have anything for us yet?"

The technician pulled up a few scans on the second screen before returning her attention to the primary screen. Pete leaned over her shoulder, staring intently at the picture that was slowly assembling on her screen. Chase and Pearson discussed a previous scan, their conversation punctuated by the MRI's rhythmic thumps.

"Did Dr Wilson move?" Chase asked the technician.

"No, I don't think so."

"'No, he didn't,' or, 'I wasn't paying attention so I have no idea'?" Pete asked.

"Leave off, House," Chase said. "It doesn't look like he moved, but the tumour is so small that something must be off. We need a high resolution scan."

"That is a high resolution scan!" the technician countered.

"Can we compare it to the previous scans?" Chase asked Pearson.

"Sure," Pearson said. "Moira, how do I pull up Dr Wilson's old scans?"

Moira, looking imposed upon, wheeled her chair over to a computer on the other side of the room and hammered on the keyboard. "Here, Dr Pearson."

"Ah, thank you. Let me see, those scans were made in July – that would be ten weeks ago. … You're right, that tumour has shrunk considerably. Resectioning it shouldn't pose a problem. That's pretty amazing!" He scratched his beard, glancing at Pete from the side. "Pretty amazing. It's nothing short of a miracle."

"Honour to whom honour is due," Pete intoned. "Ascribe it to Wilson's treatment plan, not to the Lord."

So much modesty, Cuddy thought, was decidedly suspicious. The treatment plan had been his, not Wilson's … .

Ten minutes later they were back outside, Pearson clutching a sheaf of print-outs. "I'll take these to Dr Wilson and discuss further options with him. But I see no reason why he shouldn't consent to a resection."

As soon as Pearson was out of earshot, Cuddy rounded on Pete. "What did you do?" she asked him.

"If I tell you, I'll have to kill you."

"You almost did already!"

Pete raised a disdainful eyebrow. "Now let's not get overly dramatic. You're fine."

'Fine' wasn't the adjective she'd choose to describe her present health status, but she let it slide.

"I saw the list of meds that Allison organised," Chase said suddenly. "You manipulated the cetuximab dosage, didn't you? Gave him more than you'd agreed on with him, huh?"

"Doubled it," Pete said tersely.

Cuddy took a deep breath. "You dosed him with an amount he hadn't agreed to, risking his liver in the process?"

"What was I supposed to do: give him a lower dosage that had the potential to beat the crap out of his liver without the ability to shrink the tumour sufficiently?"

If she could have, she would have stamped her foot in exasperation, but just the idea of the jolt it would send through her abdomen gave her the shivers. "You could – I don't know! – have talked to him about it? You know, that thing where one friend tells another what he thinks and feels, and where you come to an open and honest agreement?"

"Woman, you're delusional. Wilson isn't an idiot. If I'd told him how much cetuximab I was giving him, he'd have known that his liver would fail and that he'd need to go to hospital. He'd never have agreed."

"So you chose to dose him behind his back!"

"Yes!" Pete yelled. "Thymic carcinoma ain't no pussycat. You don't go hunting man-eating tigers with an air gun. You take a bolt action rifle. The recoil may leave you with a bruised shoulder, but at least you're not the tiger's next meal!"

"Time out!" Chase said. "Naughty stairs for both of you if you don't stop yelling for all and sundry to hear that you treated a patient without his consent and with a non-approved treatment protocol." He put a restraining hand on Cuddy's shoulder. "Cuddy, it's done. There's no use in ranting about it now. We'll go in and get that bastard of a tumour out once the ICU says Wilson is stable enough for the procedure. Who's the big honcho here now that you're on sick leave?"

"Arthur Rubinstein," Cuddy said. "I'll take you to him, but getting privileges for the procedure should be a mere formality. Are you sure you still want to do it? This is nothing that my surgeons can't tackle." Or, in other words, Wilson's tumour was now such an easy target that it didn't require House's team of suicide bombers to take care of it. (Goodness, when had she started thinking in military metaphors?)

"No, that's fine, I'll do it," Chase said.

As they walked towards the elevators Chase offered her a supportive arm, for which she was grateful. Now, two weeks after the surgery, she should have been well on the road to normal mobility, but although the pain had subsided somewhat, she was still as fatigued as during the first week. As Pete had commented, Wilson, who should have been loitering at death's door, was recovering faster than she was. He was barely recognisable with his baldness and skeletal physique – Amy had done a double take when she'd seen him a week ago and had shown no inclination to exchange PDAs of any kind – but he was already as mobile as Cuddy was and in considerably less discomfort. She was happy for him, very happy, but she did wish that her recovery would proceed as speedily.

"So," Chase began when they entered the elevator, "when are you returning to work?"

Never! her brain gasped, but she smiled politely (she probably looked like a snarling hyena) and said, "In six weeks. I'll be easing in for a few more weeks after that, but I should be doing a full load by Christmas."

"I heard that you have plans for creating a diagnostic department here," Chase said.

Now that sounded more 'interested' than 'polite'; did Chase have an agenda? "Yes, I've drawn up a proposal and presented it to the board."

"Were you thinking of House for the job?" Chase asked next.

"House doesn't have a licence," she said briefly. Yes, she'd had Pete in mind when the idea had occurred to her, but he wasn't a realistic option. They worked well together, and it was a pity that his undeniable talents were lying idle because of avoidable friction between him and his employers (not to mention his horrendous stupidity in wiping his memory, putting the kibosh on any chances of getting his licence back), but she couldn't save the world and she certainly couldn't save Pete. She decided to cut to the chase. "Are you interested?"

Her direct enquiry didn't seem to disconcert him; she liked that. "I've thought about returning to diagnostics. Surgery is not as challenging and exhilarating as diagnostics. Unfortunately there is no opening for me at PPTH, so I've been looking around. I'd like a department of my own," Chase said, giving her the benefit of a megawatt smile.

Okay, so Pete had baited him into doing the surgeries on Wilson by dangling a diagnostic department in front of his nose. Nice move, that, but it would be helpful if Pete kept her informed of those of his machinations that affected her.

"When are you expecting to get board approval?" Chase asked next.

Much as his confidence in her ability to push her scheme flattered her, she had little hope of success. Her chances of becoming dean had shrunk along with her liver, so it wasn't likely that her project would be implemented. Whoever got the deanship would have pet projects of their own, and the board would think twice before allocating resources to a project that mightn't have her successor's support. But she wasn't about to tell him that.

"I'm not expecting anything to be decided before Christmas. The board will want me to oversee the implementation of the first phase of the project, so they'll put the decision on hold until I'm back full-time," she said instead. "I'll get in touch with you as soon as the board approves."

If Chase was clever, he'd start enquiries of his own. Maybe he had agreed to do both surgeries so as to make contacts and suss out the lay of the land: House's former fellows were a wily lot, and Chase had always known which side his bread was buttered on.

"Thanks," Chase said. "You won't regret putting your confidence in me."

"I'll wait out here," she said to Chase when they got to the dean's office. "It confuses my staff when I turn up here; they never know whether they have to listen to Arthur or defer to me."

Biting her lip, she watched him enter the dean's office. Chase was not as uncomplicated as he seemed. Under that sunny surfer veneer lay a compassionate, but also deeply troubled man. She pushed the twinge of guilt that she felt at bringing Cameron back to PPTH firmly aside; Chase should never have taken up with a colleague, and if she had to consider all the ramifications of staff dalliances when making staffing decisions, she'd never get anywhere. Nevertheless, she hoped that the hints that both Pete and Wilson had been dropping about Chase's problems didn't have any bearing on his decision to look for a new job.

She returned to the ICU, where quite a crowd had gathered. Pearson and Wilson were poring over the scans while Pete was idly doing naughty things with a teddy bear and a stuffed duck that Wilson had gotten as presents from the nurses and Chase respectively. Rachel and Tanja were carrying out a heated argument in a mixture of English, Russian, hand signs and grimaces that probably centred around whether Rachel had to go home or not.

In a corner where she could easily be overlooked sat Amy, her stomach now visibly rounded, her expression tense. Just the sight of Rachel, Cuddy knew, could have this effect on pregnant women and young parents; she was living evidence that a child's health was precarious and that parenting could be as much of an ordeal as a delight. Cuddy approached her with a smile and a nod.

"Hey," she said. "You've heard the good news?"

Amy looked blank.

"Wilson's tumour has shrunk so much that it's operable," Cuddy explained. "He should be fine and out of hospital within four weeks or so, depending on how his liver does."

"Oh, yes," Amy said. "I ... Yes, they told me."

Cuddy paused, examining her. Amy looked rather peaked and not as happy as was to be expected on hearing that her boyfriend had been called back from death's door.

"Is everything okay?" Cuddy asked. Amy looked even more mystified, if that was possible. "With the baby, I mean," Cuddy added, thinking she'd scream if she had to spell out every word. Even Rachel was quicker on the uptake than this young woman.

"The baby? Oh, yes."

Cuddy, despairing of starting any sort of conversation, looked around for a diversion that would allow her to leave Amy to her own devices. She remembered Amy as a bubbly, immature girl who bore little resemblance to this monosyllabic bundle of nerves, and she didn't quite know what to make of her. She supposed she should stop Pete from twisting the stuffed toys into pornographic convolutions in Rachel's presence, but she didn't want to draw Rachel's attention to what he was doing for fear of igniting her curiosity in the process.

"Could … could I talk to you for a moment, Lisa?" Amy said.

Cuddy brought her attention back to Amy, who had stood up and was now sidling towards the door. "Sure," she said, following her.

She saw out of the corner of her eye that Pete's head had snapped up and that he was following their progress with interest. She grimaced at him and rolled her eyes, hoping that he'd get the hint and leave the stuffed toys be. He did: he perched them on the window sill with the duck's beak buried in the teddy bear's crotch, and then he ambled carelessly after them.

Amy leaned against the wall outside Wilson's room. "Lisa, I wanted to tell you that I … that James … that I'm happy that he's gonna be fine, but … ."

"But?" Cuddy echoed, trying to look encouraging, but actually wanting to shake a modicum of sensible speech out of the woman. What on earth did Wilson see in her? She mentally struck the question; there was very little doubt as to what had attracted Wilson and it wasn't the unfading beauty of Amy's immortal soul. Men, Cuddy thought, could be massive idiots.

"But I won't be around so much in future," Amy concluded.

It had escaped Cuddy's notice that Amy had been around much before now. She could only remember Amy visiting Wilson once, about eight days ago. Something of that must have shown in her expression because Amy continued hurriedly, "I've been feeling tired and worn out lately, and my doctor said I should take it slow."

"Oh dear, is there a problem?" Cuddy said, feeling for her at once. "If you like, I can ask one of my gynaecologists to give you a quick check-up."

But even as she was making a quick mental check as to which of the hospital's gynaecologists was most suited to reassuring an insecure young woman Amy said, "No, no, I'm fine. Really!"

"She's trying to tell you that she has a new boyfriend," Pete said from behind her. She swung around to glare at him, hoping that his interruption hadn't frozen Amy into complete silence. Pretending to flinch from her glare, Pete took a step backwards. "Isn't that right, Annie?"

"I … yes … it's Amy," Amy said, asserting herself for the first time. "And he's my fiancé," she added defiantly in Pete's direction.

"Oh," Cuddy said, dumbfounded. This wasn't a development she'd reckoned with, mostly because she hadn't given any thought to Amy and her predicament recently. "That's … ." She searched for a phrase that would convey regret (and a hint of disapproval) at Amy's desertion (had she and Wilson been an official 'item'?) while expressing her best wishes for Amy's future. There was no such phrase, she decided. "Well, I wish you all the best," she said rather formally. "Does Wilson know?"

"No." Amy glanced back furtively into Wilson's room, where Pearson was patting Wilson's shoulder jovially. "I was hoping … that you'd tell him."

"Sure," Pete said obligingly before Cuddy could react to such an impertinent demand. "Hey, Wilson!" he yelled back into the room. "Amy's got a new squeeze."

Amy flushed and scuttled backwards so that Wilson wouldn't be able to see her from where he was sitting next to the bed. Wilson merely looked up at Pete, shrugged, and turned back to Pearson; it seemed he wasn't taking Pete seriously.

Cuddy followed Amy. "How do you think this will work, with the baby and Wilson, now that you've got someone else?" She hoped she didn't come across as judgmental, but she felt no inclination to be nice to someone who couldn't find it in herself to deal openly with Wilson after what he'd gone through for the baby's sake.

"Oh, James can come and see Joel anytime," Amy said with a slow return of her usual chirpy confidence.

"Joel? The baby is a boy?"

"Yes. I decided on Joel because James is Jewish, isn't he, and my dad, he loves listening to Billy Joel."

"If you say goodbye to me tonight, There will still be music left to write," Pete sang soulfully from behind her.

"Yes, exactly," Amy said, oblivious to the false pathos in Pete's voice. "Except that I prefer 'Uptown Girl', but anyway."

"Right, anyway," Pete said. "I guess we should be glad Daddy doesn't love Art Garfunkel."

Amy looked blank again, which caused Pete to roll his eyes in despair. Cuddy smiled grimly; he'd never had much patience with out-and-out stupidity. Amy cast a last surreptitious glance into Wilson's room saying, "I guess I'll be going then." And with that she gave a little wave and scurried off.

"Well," Cuddy said, leaning against the wall in turn, "that was …"

"Sensible," Pete completed for her.

"She dumps Wilson the moment his health is compromised, and you call that 'sensible'? I call it callous!"

"She saw that the child's progenitor was dying, so she looked around for a new provider in order to maximise her child's chances of survival. That's what good mothers are supposed to do: give their children that extra edge that they need in order to survive."

Cuddy rolled her eyes. "Good for you."

"Huh?"

She patted his arm. "You've managed to give her self-serving behaviour an unselfish spin. That's a first, coming from a hardened cynic like you. It sucks for Wilson, though. He's put himself through all of this for the baby's sake, and now the child is being snatched away from under his nose."

They both looked at Wilson, who was showing Rachel something on his scans. They heard him say, "And that's the Kohinoor, the biggest diamond in the world. The intrepid Bobby Chase, jewel thief par excellence, and his troupe of master burglars will break into the bank safe at Wilson Avenue and snatch it out, leaving Inspector Cuddy and her police force perplexed and publicly disgraced." Rachel went into fits of giggles.

"Nothing has changed for Wilson," Pete said.

"Everything has changed. Maybe he'll get visitation rights, but what if Amy decides to move away or just be difficult about it? She seems volatile."

His sharp blue eyes pierced her. "You think his life is only worth living if he spends it around a little poop machine?"

"That's not what I think, but I fear he does."

Pete gazed across the room at Rachel, and then down at her, almost tenderly. "Then he's an idiot," he said.

She stared at him open-mouthed. "Is that … are you complimenting us?"

"It's a fact. Let's go bring him the good news!" He stumped back into Wilson's room. "The good news," he said to Wilson, "is that you won't have to change diapers at night. The bad news … ." He tapped his forehead as though trying to remember something. "There is no bad news, is there, Lisa?"

"Amy is engaged," she said gently to Wilson.

"Oh," Wilson said. "That's … great for her. Really great!" He appeared less surprised than Cuddy had anticipated.

"You're okay with that?" she asked slowly. She didn't want to suggest to him that this was a bad development – chances were that it was for the best – but she didn't want him to bury his hurt deep inside from where it would burst out at some inopportune moment.

Wilson plucked at his blanket. "I was a bad choice for her even before I got sick. Now I'm an even worse choice. It's good that she's doing what's best for her and the kid. And it's even better that she is doing it now, before I get used to being around them all of the time. Like this, I know right from the start that I'll only be a visiting dad, not a permanent fixture in my son's daily life. No false expectations, no disappointments."

"It's great that you're taking this change in your stride," Cuddy said slowly.

Wilson looked up. "Nothing has changed. I'm going to be a father."

	Chapter Index

Comments

[menolly-au.livejournal.com]

I like the slow unveiling of the full extent of Pete's treatment plan for Wilson. He really did go 'all in' didn't he? Failure would have been catastrophic but success is sweet (at least for Wilson, Cuddy fares less well - but looking at Rachel and Wilson having fun together so she may well consider it an even trade to have Wilson in both their lives for a lot longer) And Hurrah for shrunken tumours!

"Hey, Wilson!" he yelled back into the room. "Amy's got a new squeeze."

That's our Pete, the embodiment of tact and diplomacy ;)

Poor Amy - she really does come off badly in this chapter :-) I think Wilson realises that any match between them wouldn't have lasted and it would have been harder for the inevitable break up to happen when they child was older. I hope he realises that she was as much a bad choice for him as he was for her.

And I must admit that, Billy Joel connection or not, I do like the name Joel for Wilson's son :) Much better than Garfunkel :)

To quote the classics "I love it when a plan comes together!"

[readingrat.livejournal.com]

at least for Wilson, Cuddy fares less well
House would say that from her pov it makes no difference. Her choice was whether she'd give Wilson her liver to enable him to survive, not what chemo Wilson was getting. Had House given Wilson less cetuximab she'd never have had that choice, which might have made things easier for her, but not necessarily nicer.

I think Wilson realises that any match between them wouldn't have lasted
He was pretty much aware of it from the start, which was why he wasn't keen to keep the baby in the first place. And unlike Cuddy, who has been preoccupied with her own health and the problem of providing for Rachel, he has noticed that Amy has been conspicuously absent lately. He wanted it to work for the baby's sake, not for his own, but he's hardly surprised that what he gets isn't what he wants. Amy hasn't been acting wisely till now, but exploding the myth of a workable relationship between herself and Wilson was undoubtedly the best thing to do,

Much better than Garfunkel :)
Really? Now that there's competition in the form of 'Precious Harmony' I feel that I should have gone all in. :)

[yarroway.livejournal.com]

Excellent chapter!

Good for Amy. Wilson used her, Amy used him. She's keeping the baby but that doesn't mean she has to pretend to have a romantic future with Wilson.

[readingrat.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

that doesn't mean she has to pretend to have a romantic future with Wilson
No, definitely not. It's probably a good thing that she didn't wait any longer before bursting that bubble. I don't think that Wilson seriously believed it would work, much as he would have liked it to for the child's sake.

Good for Amy. Wilson used her, Amy used him.
I'm not inclined to approve of the way either of them acted, but Amy is certainly under no obligation to stick with Wilson just because he -- or his friends -- feel that it would be nice for him.

[yarroway.livejournal.com]

Well, no, I'm not sure I approve either, but she isn't compounding her mistakes. I'm pleased with her for that.

I'm not sure how nice it would have been for him, either. The reality of being saddled with an incompatible partner can be pretty dire. The whole nuclear family thing sounds lovely...but Wilson's failed at it 3 times. I think it's just not for him.

[readingrat.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how nice it would have been for him, either.
I agree. I can't imagine that it would have been fun for either of them. The situation is bad enough as it is; a messy divorce with a child custody battle on top won't make it any better.

[barefootpuddles.livejournal.com]

I am just catching up here and read this chapter today. It was a really good one. I am really enjoying your Cuddy. And that was a very interesting development with Amy, as well as Wilson's reaction to the news of her engagement. I guess he just wants the knowledge that his DNA will continue on more than he wants to be a day to day father.

[readingrat.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much.

I guess he just wants the knowledge that his DNA will continue on more than he wants to be a day to day father.
I think that he has a very realistic attitude towards the chances of a successful relationship with Amy. He wasn't enthusiastic about her keeping the child precisely because he'd never envisaged a future with her; it was clear to him, if not to her, that their sex was two lonely people seeking comfort in each other. Besides, it hasn't escaped his notice that Amy's concern for his health has been conspicuously below what you'd expect from someone who intends to spend the rest of her life with you.