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2:00am - Evident signs

The clouds swept through the sky in vast patches of gray. The wind had picked up in increasing amounts of speed every hour. A storm was undoubtedly approaching.
With the whole team barely coherent, all of them falling asleep in the middle of the differential, House was feeling fairly frustrated. So he gave in, and let them all go home for the night.

"Go home. Rest up. Come back, ready to work your asses off."

They all dragged themselves off of the table and prepared to go home. They all made it out of there fairly quickly. House limped back into his inner office and began to pack up his own things. Suddenly he heard a slow pace of stilettos coming down the corridor. Cuddy past by his office, stopped abruptly and looked in, before actually walking in.

"You're still here?" she asked quietly.
"You shouldn't be surprised. What's surprising, is that you're still here."
"I took up more hours. How's the patient?"
"She's happy as a dog."
"Oh, you discharge her?"
"Oh, you meant medically. Well medically, she's screwed."
"Of course."
"We're picking it up tomorrow."
"Of course you will." She sighed and began to walk out.
"Why are you still here?" She stopped dead at the door, refusing to turn around.
"Hours."
"Right. You'd rather spend countless hours at work, not only countless but some useless, than to be at home attempting to be even remotely close to being a good mom to the little bastard." She turned to look at him. Tears didn't fill her eyes, and anger didn't fill her expression.
"Do you hate her, House?" he was a little shocked at her retort. The fact that she didn't walk out, nor tear up, meant--something.
"I'm stating the truth. Was she born in a marriage, no. You pretend that she's this angel that God sent you. I'm telling you the blunt truth, it doesn't mean I hate her."
"Right."

She gave a skeptic nod, looked away and walked out of there. House just bowed his head, and turned off his light.
Slipping on his jacket and grabbing his cane, he walked out of there. He made his way into the elevator, and approached the ground floor. But he didn't leave. He headed for her office as he saw a flooding rain outside. Prominent streaks of lighting struck the Earth, emanating from the dark, dark clouds that swallowed the sky.
As he approached the second pair of doors to her office, he stopped dead, looking through them, he saw her working, in soft tears. They streamed down her face, like the droplets of rain sliding down her windows. He twisted the handle, opening the door softly. Coming on gentle.

"What are you doing?" he asked curiously.
"I'm working. Go home."
"You're working, and crying."
"I work. I cry. Yes, these are things I'm capable of." She refused to look up as he took a seat in front of her desk.
"What'd you want, House. It's late."
"You could've started crying back in my office. You've, cried in front of me several times before. Nor did you cry--but you didn't get upset. You didn't get angry. You didn't bother with a comeback. Why."
"You've said a lot of crap to me before, House. I've come to certain grounds that it's pointless to argue with you when you'll want to continue the argument anyway. Frankly--it wastes both our time."
"Why you choose to hide your tears?"
"It wouldn't have mattered."
"It matters to me." then her head shot up.
"Why do you care whether or not I cry in front of you or not, either way it makes no difference to you, because you play the damn thing over and over again. I know you think she's a bastard. I know you think my objectives as a mother are poor. I don't need to be reminded of it every time." she looked at him wide eyed, with her face partially damp. He just looked at her with no response for about a minute.
"So you're upset--because I refer to her as what she is?"
"She's my daughter, House. For once, I'd like you to accept that. Please."
"I have. But it just makes no sense to me of why you would cry out of my sight. You never cared before. Now you do?"
"It hits me after we talk, of how much an insufferable jerk you are."
"That's what I was looking for. And if it's any consolation, that hurt."
"Good."
"And if this is any consolation--that was one of the simple comebacks you've come up with that had effect."
"It's not." she laughed.
"I'm sorry." She sighed and shut her eyes.
"I know."
"So seriously--why haven't you checked out of here yet?"
"Hours."
"Still going with that?"
"Yep."
"Right." Suddenly, nurse Brenda entered Cuddy's office.
"Dr. Cuddy, I just wanted to let you know that they've issued a tornado warning for our area. Oh, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Uh, are you sure?"
"Yeah. We've got good chances here. I just saw it on the news."
"Alert everyone and anyone left in the building." Brenda gave a nod, and walked out of there. House returned his face to Cuddy who had a worried look on her face.
"I should call Stephanie."
"Babysitter?" he asked.
"Yeah--chances are she's asleep on the couch. She doesn't know what's going on."
"That's some babysitter."
"She's got the monitor out, she's done it before. I just hope she picks up--" Cuddy was pressing the phone tight against her ear as she dialed the digits.
"You want me to pick her up?" he asked meekly.
"No--it's too bad out there. Why isn't she picking up her phone."
"It's only rung twice, give her a bit."
"Three. Four. Five. And, now my voicemail."
"What's her cell?"
"Why?"
"You have a better chance of her answering it. It's either in her pocket or somewhere relatively close. Keep calling home, what's her cell?"
"Two, zero, one. Five, nine, six. Zero, eight, seven, three. It's pointless--the phone probably won't be able to get signal."
"Wanna bet?" he asked her as he dialed his cell. He then pressed it to his ear as it rang twice, before Stephanie sleepily answered.
"Hello?"
"Stephanie, this is Dr. House. Dr. Cuddy needed me to call you, there's a tornado warning on the news. Turn on the tv. It's practically targeted at Princeton. I'm coming to get Rachel--" Cuddy's face got angry, and nearly cut him off.
"If I can't--go hide in the empty pantry in her basement. No windows, so you two should be fine. I'll try to get there as fast as I can." he waited a second, and then hung up his phone.
"If you go out there, you'll kill yourself."
"Should have bet on the phone thing--and it's not even bad yet. I'm leaving now, before it can get bad." Suddenly a bright flash of lightning illuminated the sky, lighting up the entire hospital before all the lights shut off. Both House and Cuddy were in practically pure darkness. They could only recognize faded silhouettes.
"House?"
"Yeah?"
"How much more worse were you expecting this to get?"
"Relatively close to this."

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