Title: Bend and Break

Author: Morgan72uk

Summary: 'I am not one of your damn puzzles.'

Rating: T

Pairing: Not really - its a Cuddy /Wilson / House piece - although later on there are a couple of moments

Disclaimer: Still hoping not to be sued.

Distribution: Sure - though please ask first

A/N - well people were so nice to me last time I thought I'd do it again. I am still liking the challenge of messing with the minds of the 3 grown ups - and I think Cuddy deserves a backstory.

Bend and Break – part 1

The first summons, and there is no doubt in her mind that it is a summons, arrives after the patient has been in the hospital for two days. 'The patient' is a comfortably neutral term that allows Doctor Cuddy to pretend, if only to herself, that this 'patient' is no different to any other. It is a pretence she will be working hard to maintain, despite the fact that there is a copy of the admission chart buried under a pile of papers on her desk, even though (and she is fairly sure no one can trace this back to her) the patient was transferred here at her request, to be treated by House's team.

Given all of that it is not exactly a surprise to her to find the summons delivered by a member of that team, albeit in the guise of something far more benign.

'Dr Cameron,' she looks up from the papers she is reading and, because it is House can't resist asking, 'what's he done this time?' She is fairly sure that House has been behaving himself of late, but then, when it comes to House, it is always worth asking the question.

'I don't think he's done anything.'

'Has to be a first,' she comments – although she can't help thinking that if he had been playing his usual fast and loose game with ethics and procedure – it wouldn't be Cameron here telling her about it.

'I have a message from Professor Dean, if you have a few minutes she would appreciate a visit.' Cuddy sighs and pushes aside the file, giving up on the idea of paying it any attention any time soon.

'How is she?'

'She is very frail – we're running tests, but we don't know much yet.' As she watches the younger woman's face changes and she waits for the question that she knows is coming. 'You know her?'

'Slightly.' This is the word she has chosen to use in response to this very question. It has the benefit of not exactly being a lie – while at the same time not really being the truth either. 'Is her husband with her?' She already knows the answer to this – but thinks it might be a distraction.

'He hasn't left her side. It's just amazing to have met her, she's an inspiration.' Cameron says seriously, clearly a little awed at being in the great woman's presence. 'But she is very ill.' She adds this as though she expects it to come as a surprise and Cuddy bites back the retort that comes automatically to her lips – because after all she is Dean of Medicine, which makes her just about qualified to work out for herself that someone is 'very ill'. But that is not something she would say to a junior Doctor – certainly not one she is working hard to ensure maintains the illusion that her interest in this case is minimal. So instead she nods, pulls up her best serious and concerned expression and says,

'Tell Professor Dean I'll be sure to drop by when I have a minute.' She returns to her papers – a clear sign that the discussion is closed. Cameron takes the hint and retreats without a murmur – leaving Cuddy to wonder how she will fare when someone far more inquisitive is asking the questions.

It is a little harder to concentrate for the rest of the afternoon. Her memory seems to have developed an unpleasant trick of slipping back to the past, a place she is normally very careful not to visit. But she knew this would happen, knew when she got the call she would be placed in this position – whether she chose to admit the patient or not.

It is easy to rationalise it as a favour to an old friend, someone she did her residency with. The friend in question has a reputation prestigious enough for her to hide behind. She hopes that everyone believes it was the well known neurologist who pulled the necessary strings. Certainly his reputation for arrogance and brilliance was enough to pique House's interest. Always open to the opportunity to humiliate someone he doesn't know but assumes (rightly in this case) that he won't like, House didn't even question the source of the referral. If she is very, very lucky he might never realise that she is the one who has manipulated this situation – albeit as a favour for someone she hasn't spoken to for 15 years.

But she is not one to rely on luck to get her through – and she has been playing for time; time to prepare herself,time tocome up with the answers to the questions that she hasn't been asked in over a decade, time to come up with a good excuse not to visit old ghosts – even when they are dying.

It is with considerable effort, and some of the discipline that has contributed to her impressive reputation, that she forces herself to focus on what she needs to achieve for the rest of the afternoon – and does not visit Professor Dean.