Redemption

It had been ten months since she had set foot in Princeton and it was tough coming back. She'd left a job she loved…she needed, and the only people she had cared about. But there were things she had needed to do for herself, so the only choice she had was to leave for a while. She had lied, of course; told her co-workers that she was leaving for Rome to take part in a Huntington's trial…by now they had probably figured out that she was nowhere near a trial, Foreman was too controlling to accept her excuse without checking it out. They were certainly in for a shock when they found out what had really gone on, and against her better judgment Thirteen was, in fact, going to present the world with the truth.

May 20th 2010 was life changing for Dr. Remy "Thirteen" Hadley. House had just lost a patient due to his own unwillingness to let Cuddy amputate the damaged leg and the team was leaving for the night. After all that had gone on in the last few weeks Thirteen was drained, there was something nagging her, though…something she had forgotten about.

Thirteen dropped her purse in a chair as she entered her apartment. As she dragged herself toward the bathroom for a shower, she stripped off her clothes, determined to wash off the stress of the day before doing anything else. She turned on the shower and let the hot spray massage her tired body for nearly half an hour before she even started to clean herself up. The young doctor wrapped herself in a towel after extracting herself from the watery haven and grabbed the handful of takeout menus off the kitchen counter before returning to the bathroom to comb her hair and brush her teeth.

Though Thirteen was more relaxed than she had been in at least a month, the nagging feeling of missing something still hung over her head like a little black rain cloud. She decided to put in an order for Chinese before working out her mystery, and as she grabbed the phone from the countertop, her eyes fell on the small calendar where she kept track of her monthly events. Thirteen dialed the familiar number as she skimmed the dates marked in the calendar. Just as the cashier picked up the phone, the doctor realized what was missing from the markings.

"Number six, two egg rolls to 314 James St." she told the girl on the other end before hanging up the phone. "I forgot to mark my period…" As she tried to remember the last period she had gotten the tiny knot in the pit of her belly swelled to the size of a beach ball. It had been two months…She was a whole month late.

Thirteen hastily threw open the cabinets under the sink and riffled through q-tips and packages of tampons until she found the package of pregnancy tests she kept in case of emergencies. With her heart thumping like she had run a marathon, Thirteen unwrapped one of the test sticks and prepared to pee.

By the time the Chinese delivery had showed up at her door, Thirteen had worked up the courage to take the test. She was still awaiting the result as she ran to the door to pay for her food, which by now she was too nervous to eat. She tossed the bag onto the coffee table and headed back to the bathroom to get confirmation on what she already knew in her heart. The pink positive sign looked altogether too happy, as though it were mocking her.

It wasn't as though she was opposed to having children, but Remy Hadley was born with Huntington's. She wasn't physically the best candidate for reproducing for that fact alone…put the stress of working for House on top of her medical condition and there were possibly two or three people on the planet less suited to have a baby…at least in her opinion. Even more things were against her having children as she was currently single.

The fact that she was single was one of the biggest reasons she decided to go away for a while. She couldn't take the rest of the people she worked with looking at her with such supreme sympathy. Especially because she knew what they would all think…that Foreman had left her with a huge problem. In all actuality she and the neurologist hadn't been together in over a year, but of course everyone would suspect that they had been secretly dating or screwing and that he was the father. Foreman himself would be so annoying in trying to figure out who she had slept with that that was another big reason she wanted to keep the pregnancy a secret for a while.

But the most important reason Thirteen did not want to be at PPTH while she was pregnant and growing larger amid huge drama with the team was the actual father of the baby. He was surely not expecting this…she certainly hadn't expected it. She wondered if he even remembered that they had been intimate. It had been very late and they were both extremely stressed and had had a few drinks. They ran into each other in the lobby and took things back to the on call bed area. They had had a hot and very sloppy encounter which had left her trembling. He had passed out shortly thereafter and she had gotten dressed and then headed home for a well needed weekend off.

The next time she had come into contact with him was at work and she'd been somewhat embarrassed that they hadn't talked sooner. He showed no interest in talking about their one night stand and she was fine with that. He did glance at her more often and met her eyes less frequently for a few days, but nothing ever came of those glances so she wrote it off as him being uninterested in a follow up session. There was no question that he was the father of the baby…she hadn't been with another man since Foreman.

Packing her things for a "vacation" was easier than Thirteen had expected. She left notice with the team and got out of New Jersey as quickly as she could. Things were quite tense when she took up residence in her cousin Tabitha's spare room initially; they hadn't talked in ten years prior to Thirteen's phone call asking if she could visit for a while. Tabitha was quick to open up, though Thirteen was somewhat reluctant to get involved. It wasn't until her cousin helped her clean herself up a few times after morning sickness that Thirteen started talking to the only family member she had left.

Tabitha went to the doctor's appointments with Thirteen, held her hand when labor started and the camera when Chloe Elyse was placed in Thirteen's tired arms. After thirty-two hours of labor, Thirteen looked into her daughter's eyes and it was then that she realized that having a baby was perhaps the best thing she could have done…the most important way she could have spent her time to try changing the world. She was terrified that Chloe had received the Huntington's from her genes and had her tested as soon as she talked to the pediatrician. The second happiest moment in the life of Remy Hadley was when she got the test results back saying that Chloe was negative for Huntington's Chorea.

On the day that Chloe turned three months old, Thirteen boarded a plane with her daughter back to Princeton, New Jersey. She took the baby home and called a babysitting service so that she could get the things for the baby from the airport and get food and diapers for home. It was strange to be away from her daughter as they hadn't been apart for more than five minutes since Chloe was born.

Thirteen got things set up for the baby and asked the babysitter to return the next day so that she could go to the hospital and look into getting her job back. She wasn't exactly ready to present Chloe to the world, but the first step, representing herself, she was ready for. Her body had gone back to the shape it had been in before the pregnancy with the exception of a boost in cup size. She knew that House would ask about that, but she could tell him she'd gotten a boob job and he would probably hire her back quicker.

The hospital was only marginally busy when Thirteen stepped into the lobby for the first time in then months. A flood of memories rushed over her as the familiar sounds and smells enveloped her and drew her further into the building. Nobody stopped her when she headed for the elevators and pressed the button for the fourth floor. The team was in the differential office when she walked past. Chase was red in the face from arguing with House, who was scoffing. Taub rubbed his temples as he studied the case file and Foreman stared on annoyed…it was a familiar scene. The only difference was that a young female with dark hair and a set of teary eyes.

For the first time Thirteen thought about the possibility that she couldn't get her job back…she hadn't thought that House would replace her. 'Of course he'd replace you,' her subconscious reprimanded her. 'You left and he needed a female team member…Cuddy would never let him have an all male team.' She had just assumed that things went on with House hating anyone that he had to hire on the Dean of Medicine's orders. She stood outside watching the team for almost five minutes before they started moving and she realized that she looked like an idiot just staring in at them. Taub stopped in the doorway upon seeing Thirteen waiting in the hall like a kid going to the principal's office.

"What are you doing here?"