"To Have and Have Not"

Chapter One – "Having a Good Time"

By: purpleu

The sound was familiar, yet out of place to House; it was the sound of wheels turning as a cart rolled down the halls of Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. However, this was dulled, more muffled than would usually be heard from a utility cart; it was as if it was being pushed across a cushioned surface, like carpeting. Not willing to yet open his eyes from the restful sleep he had been enjoying, House reached down with his right hand and felt for his leg; no, no operation done yet. Then came the voices… one he did not recognize, the other one belonged to Lydia. Despite his desire to continue in his semi-conscious state, House's curiosity got the better of him; he opened his eyes just enough to see his girlfriend talking to a man who obviously was the one who wheeled the cart into the room. He smiled as he remembered where he was; he and Lydia were staying in the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City. A weekend in the city, plus tickets to the Allen Toussaint concert at Birdland had been part of her Christmas present to him. And unlike most things, House was really enjoying the experience; he was… dare he think it? happy at the moment. He closed his eyes again as Lydia and the man passed by the end of the bed. House heard her let the guy out, and then lock the door behind him. Pausing for a moment as he waited to see what she did next, he rolled some ideas around quickly in his head. He smirked as the perfect thought came to him as he glanced at the serving cart. His girlfriend had gone into the bathroom, probably to change out of the sweats she threw on to answer the door; last thing he knew, she had been laying naked beside him. He decided now was the time to make his move, and had just put his plan into action as Lydia emerged from the bathroom.

"Good morning, Fraulein; I believe you ordered room service?" House was standing next to the cart; he had removed the lid from one of the dishes and was holding it in front of his groin. "Did you want a steak?" he asked, picking up the other silver cover from the tray to reveal steak and eggs. "Or did you want a hunk of something else?" House moved the original lid he was holding to show he was naked. Lydia couldn't even speak, she was laughing so hard as she walked over to her boyfriend. He completely surprised her; she had no idea he was awake.

"How is it you can make me blush and yet completely entice me all at the same time?" she asked as she approached House. She took the two lids he held and placed them back on the food. "Let's not have the food get cold while I say a proper 'good morning' to you."

"Yeah, I stay hot a lot longer than the food does," House said wrapping his arms around Lydia.

"Definitely," Lydia said giving him a kiss. "I was hoping to have the pleasure of waking you up, but you were too fast for me." House gave her a look.

"You've never complained about my speed in the bedroom before."

"And I'm not about to now," Lydia replied, smiling at the fake hurt look House wore.

"You must be really hungry," House noted. "Not only did you not sleep in by much, but steak and eggs? Sounds like something I'd order."

"That is something that I ordered for you," Lydia said. "I didn't want to wake you up to ask, so I winged it. You have the steak and eggs. I have a cheese and mushroom omelet with a side of bacon. We have a basket of assorted baked goods, a small carafe of apple juice and an extra-large carafe of coffee. I don't know why, but I woke up around seven-thirty, absolutely starving. I tried to ignore it, but finally I gave up and ordered for us. I didn't think you'd mind."

"The only thing I mind is being awake and out of bed before ten when this is supposed to be a leisurely weekend," House said running his hands over her back. She had changed out of the sweats like he thought, and back into the pink silky robe he gave her for Christmas. It also came with a slip-style, short nightgown, but House had long ago made sure that was taken off.

"I'll tell you what; let me eat something to get my energy back and I'll make it up to you. Now, go put on your PJ pants I packed so we can eat," Lydia said with a smile. She began to pour glasses of juice and cups of coffee for them; House waited until she filled a cup, then took the coffee right out of her hands.

"This is the only way I'm going to function," he said raising the cup for a moment before taking a sip. "I don't even know why you brought the PJ pants with us… I had no intention of wearing them at any point this weekend."

"I thought they'd keep you warm while we ate. I knew we'd dine in at some point," said Lydia as she placed the plates with their food on the table in the room along with forks, knives, spoons and napkins. She set the basket of baked goods out, and they were ready for a delicious-looking spread. House was feeling a slight chill, so he dug out the PJ pants and a t-shirt. He looked over at Lydia and saw that she was starting to shiver a little.

"Here… time to give in to the surroundings," House said handing her back the nightgown he had removed from her last night. "That's thin enough that I don't think it'll do much good… I'll see about rubbing a couple of sticks together." He found the thermostat and brought it up from sixty-five to sixty-eight. "Let's see if that's enough to make us comfortable. We probably should have boosted it last night, but I think we were a little pre-occupied with other things," he said with a wicked smile. Lydia returned his look as she wrapped her arms around herself. He realized that she was still going to be cold, so he pulled the blanket off of the bed. "These chairs are obnoxiously wide; they're big enough that we can sit next to each other while we eat and play sharesies. Have a seat." House gestured for Lydia sit down; he draped the blanket over her, then took a seat and covered himself. The two of them reached out and slid their food closer.

"This is nice," Lydia said sipping her juice. "Too bad we can't have a weekend breakfast like this more often."

"Thing One and Thing Two would have something to say about it," House said shaking his head as he took his pills out from his pants pocket. "We'd wind up with them in our laps. Not very conducive to enjoying a meal." House washed down his medicine in one gulp and picked up the utensils to start in on his steak. "This looks fantastic," he noted.

"I hope it tastes as good as it looks. My doneness instruction to the kitchen was 'Moo.'" Lydia watched House's face as he placed the meat in his mouth; his smile said everything.

"They followed your instructions to a T," House said. "This is almost worth getting up early for. Of course, if this was breakfast in bed… "

"If this was breakfast in bed, I'd still be starving," Lydia replied taking a bite of her omelet. "Mmm… delicious! I wonder what sort of pastries they sent… " House looked at his girlfriend in surprise; she was really diving into the food.

"Can I take it that one needs to eat an hour after Thai food, just like they do an hour after Chinese? You're acting like you didn't eat last night… and we had drinks and munchies at the club besides dinner," House said with a laugh. Lydia shook her head as she swallowed some coffee.

"I think I must have overdone it at the holidays. My stomach is used to more snacking and larger quantities of food; now it doesn't know how to deal with it. I've gained about two or three pounds, so it's nothing I can't lose fairly easily, but I don't ever remember having this much of an appetite."

"What did you do… put on extra coats of mascara or something? Because I have definitely not noticed any weight gain on you," House said with a smirk. "Last night or any other time recently." Lydia gave her boyfriend a look.

"Last night you were so over the moon about what happened at Birdland, I could have gained a hundred pounds, and you wouldn't have noticed."

"That, I would have noticed," House said pointing his fork at Lydia. She vigorously shook her head back and forth. "Alright… maybe not. But, do you blame me? First you get me tickets to see Allen Toussaint at Birdland, of all places… the Mecca of Jazz and Blues. Then, I find out we're going backstage for a meet and greet with the guy and all the other musicians he's got with him. And because of that thing, I had people fawning over me all night." House had indicated his piano cane which was leaning against the dresser.

"Oh, like you really minded," Lydia said dismissively. "When Allen Toussaint himself not only asks to see your cane, but inquires where you got it, because 'Mac'… aka Dr. John… would love one just like it, I thought you were going to flip out."

"I did flip out. Toussaint held an actual conversation with me for something like fifteen, twenty minutes while all these other people were waiting to meet him."

"That's because you very quickly indicated you had knowledge of the genre," Lydia noted. "You weren't star-struck; you were respectful and had a true understanding of the music he loves. He appreciated that." House nodded.

"I guess so; I know I enjoyed the conversation with him. Never expected to access to Toussaint like that. I've heard about these after-parties, but I didn't bother to find out about gaining entrance to them."

"I got used to visiting backstage because of Annie and her performances with the Philharmonic. There wasn't a meeting with the artists every time, but when there was, and I had attended the concert, I would go backstage. Then after we settled in New Jersey, we would catch shows in the city and we decided to register for VIP memberships at Birdland. Several of Annie's fellow musicians played there on their nights off, as well as B.B. King's House of Blues. Her membership lapsed, of course, when she became ill and went to Mayfield, but I kept mine going. I needed a break from taking care of everything once in a while, and I loved the music, so it worked out nicely. Then when I got the e-mail notice about upcoming concerts, and saw that Toussaint was coming, I hatched my plan for the tickets and the weekend for us." House shook his head.

"You went overboard on a holiday I don't even celebrate. Well, I hadn't celebrated in years until you and the munchkins showed up." He took a drink of his coffee. "The concert, and the mini-vacation, a record player that not only handles 45s and 33 1/3 recordings, but 78s as well, which is hard to find. And it also connects with my computer so I can download the vinyl I own and burn a CD of them all. As an added bonus, you get me a bunch of original pressings from Muddy Waters and other artists that aren't even on vinyl… they're on 78s of shellac and ground slate."

"I had no idea what the old time records were made of until the man in the vintage record shop told me," Lydia said taking another bite of her omelet. "I never would have guessed. I just know he warned me very strongly about handling them carefully because they were so fragile."

"And expensive considering which records you got me," House noted. "Then clothes, books… you know you're crazy," he said giving her a kiss. Lydia looked surprised.

"Me? What about you? You gave me this beautiful nightgown and robe, plus several other outfits I couldn't open in front of the children," she said with a smile. "You replaced my old mixer with a state of the art model, gave me all new bakeware, cookie sheets, mixing bowls… everything I need to open my own bakery if I wanted."

"Those items were sort of a gift to myself," pointed out House. "I get to eat all the goodies you're going to make with them." Lydia laughed as she rolled her eyes.

"True, but then there was the motorcycle helmet I've been wanting so I can finally go riding with you. And you went over to the medical college and got me three of the books I'll use during my first year studies… if everything works out OK. I'll be ahead of the game on everyone else."

"Mmm… yeah… not like you aren't ahead of everyone else already," said House with a touch of pride in his voice. Lydia looked downward and shook her head; House's faith in her abilities always made her feel so good.

"Of course, then there was this." Lydia fingered the necklace that she was wearing. It was an infinity symbol in brushed gold, set with amethysts around the loops and an amethyst heart in the center. "You had already given me that beautiful heart necklace right after we got together when I moved back to New Jersey. I didn't need this, too." House reached over and entwined his fingers with hers on the necklace; he was pleased with what he selected for her… it was beautiful.

"No, you didn't need it," House admitted. "But I heard you mention that you like the infinity necklaces, and after what I put you through when we separated for those few days back in November, I wanted to give you something to let you know that I intend on sticking around." House looked away. "Sorry it's not something more… permanent."

"Greg, I've told you… only when and if both us feel that things are right, that it's something we both really want to do. In the meantime, I know how difficult it had been for you to open up and love someone; so the fact that I feel as loved, and cherished and desired as you make me feel… " Lydia reached up and cupped her boyfriend's face in her hands. "It's the best feeling in the world. I just hope you never forget how much I love you, and how happy I am that you were willing to trust me, and let me love you." Lydia leaned over and gave House a gentle kiss, that slowly multiplied in intensity and volume.

"Tell you what," House said breaking away from the kiss. "If I ever show any signs of forgetting, you have my full permission to remind me, using any and all means necessary."

"Deal," Lydia replied. House gave his head a slight shake; he was amazed at how lucky he was about a lot of things. Right now, the steak sitting in front of him was one of them.

"I'm going to finish this cow so I'll have the energy I need for whatever later on brings. I'd suggest you do the same with your omelet and any other weight busting goodies you may want," he said indicating the basket of baked goods.

"Sounds delicious to me," Lydia said picking up her fork. House cut another bite of steak; he held out the morsel to Lydia.

"Trade you for a piece of bacon." She let him place the steak in her mouth, and as she savored it, she did the same with some bacon to him.

"We really are spoiling ourselves. Staying in a fancy hotel, going out to the Thai restaurant, the show, and now this. And the best part for me is how much you seem to be enjoying everything," Lydia said putting her arm around her boyfriend and starting to rub his shoulders. "You're more relaxed and smiling than I've seen you in a while." House settled back, and put his arm around her as well.

"Look, it's not that I don't enjoy being with you and the kids. I told you when we talked a while ago, you three are part of a package I always wanted. I couldn't have imagined or wished for… brainier, less annoying kids than the rug rats. It's just nice to have some alone time with you, no interruptions or fears of them knocking on the door. Think of it as time for me to properly and thoroughly molest you." Lydia started laughing.

"Molestation time, eh? That's a new way of describing intimacy, even for you. And what about me? Don't I get to have my way with you?"

"Any time you want, Fraulein. It's like you've said before," House replied leaning over to give Lydia a kiss. "Sometimes you feel like making love, and sometimes, you just want to fool around. Of course, the best is when you get to hang around long enough to do both. Like now." The two started to once again kiss repeatedly, with House letting his hand roam over Lydia's bare legs. She slowly, a bit reluctantly, pulled back away from him.

"Come on; you said we should finish our food so we have enough energy to fool around or make love or anything else we may want to do; maybe even venture out of the hotel."

"Fine; but this is only a temporary time-out until we finish eating," House pointed out. "After this, you're all mine."

"No argument from me on that," Lydia said taking another bite of her omelet. "Do you want to use the whirlpool in the tub again? It seemed to have done a lot of good for your leg; it was tolerable to you after we did all that walking yesterday."

"Any time I get to see you wet and naked makes me feel better," House said lecherously. "But, yeah… that might be a good idea before we tackle anything else." He looked very thoughtful as he picked up his coffee. "I'm glad that we did this now. In a few months my only means of transportation will be a wheelchair." Lydia looked at House sympathetically. She had noticed that as New Year's had approached, he had been making cynical remarks about the upcoming operation on his leg more frequently. It was nearly four and a half months away, but obviously very much on his mind. House didn't know it, but Lydia had some things that were weighing on her, too. While they had this quiet time together, she thought it best to talk.

"I noticed lately that you're commenting more and more about your surgery," she began. "Are you having concerns about the surgery itself, or the recovery, or… what? What's on your mind, Hon?" Lydia had taken a quick drink of her juice, then moved closer to House. She could tell by the way he kept looking out the window at the bustling activity of Midtown Manhattan, that mobility… and his soon to be lack of it… was preying on his mind.

"There was a time I would never think twice about walking from one end of Manhattan to the other before this happened," he said slowly starting to rub his leg. "Before I met Stacy, I used to wander into the city all the time just to hit the jazz clubs. No big social interactions, no flocking with groups of people… just me wandering wherever I wanted to and listening to damn good music."

"Why didn't you bring Stacy here to some of the clubs? Just the two of you, I mean. I'm sure she would have enjoyed it; for your sake, even if she didn't care for the style of music herself," Lydia said as she lightly ran her hand up and down his arm. House looked at her and smirked.

"That was the problem… she'd enjoy it. My mission was to be a difficult boyfriend and taking her for jaunts into the city, didn't fit the bill. Plus, things would spill over, and start to become a convention; 'let's ask this one or that one to meet us,' ad nauseam. I didn't want to spend the evening playing musical dictionary, filling in all the blanks about the music. Since most people don't know blues in depth the way I do, my name would become Noah Webster for the night which would not be fun. Now… now I have to think about preparing myself just to walk out of the front door of the hotel." House looked away from the window in disgust. He just stared across the room, not even able to bring himself to look at Lydia.

"Greg, after everything is said and done, your leg won't be perfect; you're still going to have some pain, although far less than the hell you've been through, and there might still be a slight limp. Maybe there'll be times when you'll need a cane just to feel secure, but you'll pick and choose when those times will be. Things will be better." Lydia reached up and began to stroke the back of his head and neck. "You have the best doctors who are going to be working on you, the best physical therapist… and a nurse/caregiver who comes with fringe benefits. What more could you ask for? I'll even go to a costume shop and get one of those sexy nurse outfits if you want." The last comment drew a smile from House, but it also struck a nerve, too.

"I know I'll have good people working on me," he said looking downward. "But the last thing I want is for the recovery process to become so long and arduous that it changes the nature of our relationship. And I don't mean just physically, although obviously nookie is going to be difficult for a good long while without a crane and a lot of creativity." House sighed and looked at Lydia. "Things with us have been… good. Really good. I was afraid that after we had talked and gotten back together, it was going to take a while before I felt like I wasn't being punished for what I pulled. You never did that; no woman wronged bull. I don't know why I thought things would go down that way; I should've known better. You're not that kind of woman." Lydia took House's hand.

"Apology accepted," she said. House looked at her curiously.

"I didn't say I was sorry," he noted.

"No… but in your own way, you did." House smiled; boy did Lydia know him. He took a deep breath.

"Look, Fraulein…I'm going to become unbearable to live with during this; I've mentioned it more than once, but I want to make sure you really are going in eyes wide-open. I know how I've been over the years with the pain I've dealt with…I know what kind of person it made me into. The pain with the repair work is going to get worse before it gets better. The things that could be the most damaging and hurtful to us will be what I say to you and attitudes I throw at you, while I try to live with the fact that you're not going to be my girlfriend during my recuperation; you'll be it in name only." House leaned back and closed his eyes. "The nursing aspect of things won't be so amusing when they become reality. You'll have to deal with changing a diaper, or catheter line, or emptying a bed pan for me. You'll have to handle not one, but two wound sites to change dressings and possibly drainage tubes on. My mind is not going to be in a good place when I'm trying to deal with watching you do all of those things for me." House shook his head. "I can't sit here and promise you that I won't try and blame you and the rest of the world for forcing me into making the decision to operate, even though I know damn well I'm doing this because I want to… I need to." He opened his eyes and looked at his girlfriend again. "I'm just afraid when this is over, I may be walking better than ever… and you'll be so disgusted by me that you'll just want to walk away." Lydia took her hand away from House; she placed it on her hip.

"Well thanks a lot for branding me a quitter before you even give me a chance to prove myself," she said with false indignation. "Hon, I know you have a hard time being optimistic about things connected with the operation and the aftermath, but there is one thing you have to get through your head and have no doubts about; you are stuck with me… before, during and afterward. I have gone over in my head every distasteful thing I may have to do to take care of you; every nasty, angry, bitter comment you may throw around at me or anyone else in our circle. I'm not blind to the issues and I'm not naïve. And I'll bet you anything you want that I can come up with more horrific things than you can." She held out her right hand with her pinky extended, challenging him to take her up on her wager. House managed a grateful smile as he gathered Lydia up in his arms and gave her an appreciative hug.

"Sorry if I ruined the four-star dining experience you arranged with my downer of a discussion," he said as he pulled back and brushed some hair away from her eyes. "My leg has been sending out signals that I'd better hurry up and get this thing done before I literally crash and burn one of these days. I've been feeling more pain lately and more weakness. I asked Tom about upping my meds, even though I already knew the answer; I'm at the maximum dosage for now and there's nothing new that would be worth introducing at this point. We talked about a couple of new things he could try with therapy… maybe see me through until the operation… so Monday we're going to start working on that. But it's been bouncing around in my brain an inordinate amount of the time lately… I needed to let you know what was going on." Lydia reached up and ran her hand down her boyfriend's cheek.

"I'm glad you did. If I'm not mistaken, one of the things we talked about was not holding back on having a conversation when you've got something bothering you," she said. "Which brings me to something I wanted to talk to you about." House was just about to turn back to his plate to finish his last few bites of food, when Lydia spoke. His appetite quickly faded.

"What did or didn't I do or say?" he asked cautiously. Lydia shook her head and laughed.

"You really have to stop doing that," she said.

"Doing what?"

"Assuming that you did something wrong just because I say I want to talk to you." House winced.

"Since I'm still dealing with the beginning chapters of all this serious-stage relationship stuff, I figured it'd be best if I erred on the side of me screwing up. Rather than assume I'm any good at it." Lydia reached for the coffee carafe.

"You're doing fantastic; believe me, you'd know it if you weren't. More coffee?" House nodded. Lydia topped off both of their cups.

"Can you give me a hint about the topic, so I can at least hazard guess?"

"It's about the kids, and us and protecting them," Lydia said setting down the coffee. "Why don't you work on what's left of your food while I start?" House slowly nodded, now believing that he had had some idea of where she was going with the conversation. "You told me that when your mother passed away, you very quickly had your will re-written to include your inheritance in the numbers and to make sure that the children and I were taken care of. You also left bequests to Thomas and Annie and James' little one." House munched on his steak as he nodded. "And I've done the same with mine. I long ago took out my ex, but I made arrangements for money and real property to be held in trust for the children. I wanted to leave you a bequest, but you vetoed the idea."

"Because I don't need the money," House pointed out. "I'd rather it go where it can do the most good… like your two and the Wilson bambino." Lydia nodded.

"The silly thing… the foolish thing… in all of this, is that we have never discussed custody of the children." House almost choked when Lydia spoke. He quickly swallowed his food so the conversation could move forward.

"Fraulein… do me a favor and clarify what you mean by that."

"What I mean is, who would take custody of them if something were to happen to me." House's jaw dropped. Lydia… dying? He dealt with death on a regular basis, all the time, and managed to handle his mother's thanks to Lydia. But, something happening to Lydia? That thought brought him down to earth… hard.

"That's not a subject I've given much thought to," House began. "One… because I can't imagine you not being here… and two… because I can't imagine you not being here."

"I don't want to think about it either, believe me," Lydia said, taking House's hand. "But when you have kids, it's something you have to deal with. The thing is, I've been thinking about this ever since we started making plans for our trip to Germany… "

"Fraulein… there's nothing to think about. To me, there's only one way to handle something like this. Whether something happens to you or to the both of us… Songbird and Wilson should take custody of them. The end." Lydia was a little taken back.

"You wouldn't want to stay a part of their lives if I was gone?" House rolled his eyes.

"I didn't say that. Right now, I'm having a hard enough time dealing with the thought of you not being around." House looked down and away. "Why are we discussing this? It's not part of the nice, jovial agenda we'd been discussing. It's coming out of nowhere."

"So did the discussion about your leg." Lydia bit her lip and silently berated herself as soon as she said it. Her defenses always kicked in to high gear when talking about her kids. "Greg, I'm sorry. You know how I get when I'm worried about the kids. It's coming out of nowhere because we've been avoiding the subject," Lydia pointed out. "The reason I'm anxious to get this issue dealt with is something that one of the women who work in my department told me about. Her sister, like me, had her ex-husband relinquish his parental rights when they divorced. It was his choice, he decided to walk away. The sister then became ill with cancer, and died while the children were still young. Marie, the woman who works for me, thought she would get custody since she was the nearest blood relative; she was their aunt. She didn't get them. Her sister had a decent amount of assets that she left to her children, and their father, the ex-husband, came swooping back in like a vulture. He went to court and regained custody of his children. He disappeared with them for about three years, letting Marie have no contact with them. Until one day, he showed up at her door, having spent all of the money their mother left them, and dumped them on Marie. It's not that she wasn't thrilled to have them back, but the expense of lawyers to formally gain custody, and to raise three additional children? She's sixty-five and has no plans to retire because she simply can't afford to; she used her retirement money for them." House wasn't interested so much in Marie's whole sad story as he was one particular aspect of it.

"So if something happened to you, your ex-dirtbag could take the kids back? And then throw them away like yesterday's garbage after he steals the money you left them?" Lydia slowly nodded.

"I did some research online. That's about the way it would go down; and because it involves two states, Arizona and New Jersey, it could possibly drag on in courts for years. Assuming that someone other than my ex tries to fight for custody, of course. And there is always the danger that a judge could place them in foster care while things are in dispute." House was silent; he picked up his knife and began to tap the handle on the table, getting stronger and louder by the second.

"That bastard is not going to get his hands on Ben and Elise," he said firmly as he tossed the utensil back onto his plate. "Obviously the first step is a lawyer… "

"No, I'd like the first step to be the four of us… you, me Annie, and James to sit down and talk. We've mentioned this before and never carried through on it. It's time. I need to know what the three of you are thinking in terms of how to handle this… "

"What about what the other three are thinking?" House asked. Lydia looked at him curiously. "You and Frick and Frack. Seems to me what the three of you want should be considered the most."

"I don't want the children worrying about their 'ex-father', as Ben puts it, coming back into their lives. Greg, believe me, I am hoping and praying this is all for nothing. But it wouldn't be fair to leave everyone in a tizzy, wondering what to do if something did happen. And more than anything, it's to protect the kids from my ex." House nodded; he was in full agreement with that way of thinking.

"Just keep in mind that if you tried to have me become their Mary Poppins, and if your ex should make a play for them, any lawyer hired by him would obviously do some digging into my background. No judge in his right mind would give me custody." Lydia caught a little edge of sadness in House's voice and knew it was best to let the topic rest for now. Nothing would be decided without Annie and Wilson, no matter how much they talked about it, and she wanted the two of them to enjoy the rest of the weekend. She was very happy the subject had been broached.

"Annie and James are coming over for dinner on Saturday night. She's bringing her famous white clam sauce and a salad, and I said we'd do the garlic bread and bacon wrapped shrimp. We can relax and have a nice dinner, then talk after the kids go to bed. You and I can sit down one night this week and make a list of the things that we need to talk about, so we don't miss anything."

"Sounds reasonable to me," House said. "My lawyer does wills, trusts and estates, but I don't think he touches family law which is what this would probably fall under. I've got another guy I use for any malpractice cases. I'm sure between the two of them, they can give us a recommendation."

"Good," Lydia replied. She saw that House was still feeling down. "Greg, I'm sorry that I brought this up now, but it's been really bothering me after Marie told me why she's not retiring and the whole story behind it. And just like you had to get talking about your leg out of your system, I had to talk about this."

"I understand why you brought it up," House said stretching his legs. "Don't like to think about the subject, just like I don't like to consider what could happen with my leg. But you're right about not discussing this around the munchkins; they've been traumatized enough in their lives and have their own nightmares. They don't need to share ours." Wanting to boost his mood, Lydia snuggled in closer to House.

"Don't waste any time worrying about these things. Someone once said ninety percent of the things we worry about are never going to happen; the other ten percent you can't do a damn thing about anyway. I am completely confident that when I'm old and gray, you will still be warm for my form, and chasing after me all over the place on your new and improved leg," she said giving him a kiss.

"And if I have to, I'll use my wheelchair to hunt you down and corner you," House said, finally breaking into a smile. Lydia nestled her head into the crease of his neck and began to place little kisses heading up to his ear. "Hey, I have two whole bites of moo to finish. Why don't you go set up the tub and the whirlpool? I'll join you in a minute."

"I like the sound of that," Lydia whispered in House's ear. She moved the blanket off of her, and stood from the chair. As she passed the bed, she removed the robe and nightgown, laid them on the bed, and walked the rest of the way to the bathroom door naked. House watched her, smiling at her every move.

"You know I'm now no longer interested in the steak," he said.

"But the tub's not ready yet," Lydia said innocently.

"Yeah, but I am," House said with a grin. "And I'm coming in there to do a closer inspection for this weight you supposedly gained."

"Hmm… yes, you'll have to come take a closer look," his girlfriend replied. House shook his head.

"Time for a tactile procedure," he said wiggling his fingers. Lydia disappeared inside of the bathroom, and he heard the sound of the water flowing into the tub, quickly followed by the jets of the whirlpool. He took a last drink of coffee before moving over to the bed to remove the PJ pants and t-shirt. As much as he was looking forward to what came next and anything else they chose to do for the day, House couldn't get the thoughts of their conversations out of his head; Lydia permanently gone, him permanently in a wheelchair. He tried his best to shake them off as he rose and made his way to the soothing tub and the beautiful woman waiting in it for him…

House and Lydia didn't leave the hotel until around noon, but had a great day planned for themselves. They took Duke Ellington's advice and took the A train up to 125th Street in Harlem. There, besides the well-known Apollo Theater, was an assortment of other smaller venues, many with historical markers on them. Best of all were the former speakeasies, a staple of the Prohibition Era. While alcohol was served in hidden places, sometimes called "hooch rooms", out front, some of the best jazz and blues musicians of the day played for club goers. Some locations were museums, but some were serving food and drinks while live music was played by talent, young and old alike. They then headed back to the hotel to give House's leg a rest, and at night, they went down to Greenwich Village. After a delicious Italian dinner at Villa Mosconi, they wandered around the different streets, finding music, a few comedy clubs, and eclectic shops. Some places looked no bigger than a closet, but many had long lines in front of them, obviously very popular spots. House and Lydia decided to bypass any of the clubs and instead returned to the Marriott for a romantic evening. As Lydia snuggled into House's arms as they fell asleep later that night, she looked up at his smiling face. It was quite apparent that the entire weekend was the best present Lydia could have given House.

It was a good thing that they had given themselves Sunday to come home and relax, because when they went to work on Monday, things started to get interesting. Virtually all department heads were called into meetings, where they were informed that they would have to submit revised budgets with significant cuts. If the revised budgets didn't have enough trimmed by the department heads, they were put on notice that the administration would do it for them. House was not the only one unhappy with the decree, but more troublesome to him was the fact that this all seemed to be the handiwork of one man. Shades of Vogler raced through his head at first, until Wilson gave him news that was even more disconcerting. Charles Durbin, a local businessman and community activist who sat on the board, was the one creating the trouble. This wasn't about donating money, or power within the hospital per se; Durbin had his sights set on larger ambitions and was going to use his "cleaning up" of problems at PPTH to help him launch a political campaign. Neither Wilson nor Foreman knew exactly where loyalties lay among the board members, but he was able get them agree to the first step of trimming budgets. Who knows what else was yet to come? House had gotten out of his meeting and need to vent. Not ready to discuss the current situation with his team yet, he headed to Lydia's office, hoping to find a sympathetic ear. Instead, he nearly ran into her as he made the turn down the hall to her office. She was clearly upset.

"Had your chop-chop meeting, I see," House said leaning against the wall. "Were you able to hold back, or did use your own special form of diplomacy to tell them to shove it?" Lydia didn't answer, but nodded toward the stairwell and had House follow her to the place where they could talk.

"Those bastards!" she exclaimed. "They're going after my workers who are near retirement age. They're going to offer them a package of some kind… God only knows how generous it will be or not… and if they don't take it, they'll be laid off!"

"Sounds like a good set-up for an age discrimination lawsuit," House noted grimly. Lydia started to pace in the small area of the stairway landing.

Yes, but I can also see how it would play out to the hospital's advantage. These lawsuits don't move quickly. By the time things get filed, and goes forward through the courts, these women will have been without income for so long, who knows what kind of shape they'll be in? I know there are two ladies in my area that would probably welcome the offer. I swear they work just so they don't have to sit at home with their retired husbands," Lydia said with a laugh. "But the other three? They don't come to work just because they're tired of watching the Food Network. Especially Marie." House frowned for a moment.

"She's the one taking care of her sister's kids?" Lydia put her head down and nodded.

"And on top of all of this, I had to sit down and talk to her right before my meeting." Lydia sighed and leaned against the wall. "She's one my data entry clerks who process the coding from the charts into the system for billing. Marie's made a lot of mistakes lately, more than the amount that's typical for anyone doing this kind of work. She told me she just received a diagnosis of Parkinson's. It's in the very early stages, but she has had some tremors in her hands and fingers." Shaking her head as she moved away from the wall to pace again, Lydia continued. "She was so apologetic for the mistakes she's been making, and said she'll work through her lunch hours to make corrections. Then she begged me not to fire her." If there was any fault that House could find with Lydia, it was that she had a hard time handling it when good people simply are doing a bad job. She hated to be the bad guy, unless it was deserved. Clearly, in Marie's case, going an extra mile to help was going to be the tactic Lydia would use.

"Any idea of how you're going to handle this?" he asked.

"I had been looking at re-assigning some positions based on work flow patterns that I've noticed. Some workers are overloaded, some can be far more leisurely in their approach. There might be a chance I can assign her to something less stressful for her."

"Just make sure you keep an eye on your own ass in all of this," House said. "They have you swing the axe and then put you out on the street."

"There's already an issue with me," Lydia said. This was now beginning to sound personal and House didn't like it. But he kept a cool exterior to counter Lydia's anger at the situation.

"What was said? They have a problem with us both working here? They think we're sneaking into linen closets at lunch?"

"No, nothing of the sort, thank goodness. They're questioning why I need a manager of billing if I review all the work in the long run? I tried to explain that Betty, the billing manager, oversees the day- to-day work; I look at weekly and monthly reports and discuss things from there. It seems the bigwigs around here think I should do all of it, all by myself. It's not anything definite, but the timing for this… right when I would be trying to do more work from home and get ready to hopefully go back to school… sucks!" House looked down at the floor and bounced his cane up and down a few times. He could feel Lydia's pain over the situation; he was going to be dealing with one himself.

"You have my complete and total sympathy," House began. "You also have me lurking in the background for help. If they wind up pushing you to do too much, quit. You know you could find another job at the drop of a hat, and if you really wanted, not work at all while you do the Adult Studies program. You might even be able to finish up faster than you anticipated." House looked away from Lydia. "And if it works out that neither one of us are working, at least we can afford it."

"What do you mean if neither one of us are working?" Lydia quickly said, clearly in shock. "What did they say to you?"

"Asked me about my intentions toward my job while I'm recovering from my leg surgery." Lydia did a double take.

"You haven't told anyone other than our group of friends and that new vascular surgeon about your operation. Who shot their mouth off?"

"My suspicion is a Black Rat," House said, obviously referring to Foreman. "Although I wouldn't put it past Lucy Loose Lips either." Wilson was always a good guess for these things. "They wanted to know if I was going to take a leave of absence, or take unused vacation time or any other number of options. And they wanted to know if I wanted to step down, who would I recommend to take my place… or if I was staying, they suggested I start thinking about who to let go." Lydia shook her head in disbelief.

"I can't believe that no one was keeping an eye on things; that the finances got that bad around here before anyone noticed."

"And now this wanna-be politico comes along and is going to fix everything," House smirked as he pictured Charles Durbin standing in front of him just a short while ago.

"But at what cost is he going to 'fix' it?" Lydia asked. House shook his head.

"All I know is I'm glad we had this past weekend to relax and take it easy," House said as he looked at his girlfriend. "Because at this rate, who knows when we'll get a break?" Suddenly, House's beeper went off.

"Next disaster, in the queue," Lydia said sarcastically.

"It's the ER. What the hell do they want?" House called over to the emergency department, secretly hoping it was a wrong number. He put the phone on speaker.

"Emergency," a female voice said when the phone was answered.

"This is Dr. House; I'm returning a page from a PA Connor." In a second, a young male voice came on the line.

"Hi, Dr. House. We've got a patient being brought in 911. He has your name and cell number on him as an emergency contact. He was found over in the local Dukin' Donuts, slurring his words and fairly unresponsive. EMT said he did get out the name of the hospital and your name." House felt very uncomfortable from the beginning of the conversation; that feeling now worsened.

"What's his name?"

"Uh… his driver's license says Thomas Bell… and right now, he's coming in as a stroke patient.