Chapter 21: The Memories Begin

AN: All I can say is that life is a whirlwind and sometimes you need to just go where the wind blows you.

Disclaimer: I don't own House M.D.

Jessica stared out the airplane window at the vast ocean. She had forgotten just how long this flight took and how it seemed to go on forever. He brother had fallen asleep hours ago and appeared to be sleeping peacefully. They had traveled enough as kids to know the importance of sleeping on a plane so as not to suffer jet-lag but she couldn't sleep. Instead, all she could do was stare at the ocean and hope that her brain would eventually turn off.

Robert had asked her earlier if she was nervous and she had blown the question, but she was and she didn't know why. It wasn't as if she was bringing anyone home for her parents to meet. She was just going to Australia to sell a house. Granted, it was a house she had a ton of horrible memories from, but still it was just a house. As for the parents, well they were both dead.

Maybe that was what was bothering her? There would be no one at the airport to greet them and say "Welcome Home." Jessica and Robert had let a few of their friends know they were coming but that was different. There would be no Mum or Dad, greeting them. Jessica softly chuckled at the thought. The truth was that reality had never existed. If anything, her relationship with her parents had died long before they actually were underground.

She had never had a real relationship with her mother. It was something that she had come to terms with years ago, well, mostly. She knew she looked like her mother. She had her hair and eyes—that's why he father couldn't look at her after he left. She was a reminder of what her mother was and when Jessica started partying it was almost as if was becoming her mother. After the brief stint or partying and doing drugs, Jessica got her life together and finished medical school. She didn't talk to her father for years. In fact, she wasn't sure she would have ever talked with her father if it wasn't for when he showed up at the hospital.

Jessica refused to work at St. Vincent's Hospital as that's where her father worked. Thus, she went to work at Royal Melbourne Hospital. In France, following her internship, she had internationally established herself as a top surgeon as a way of saying she wasn't her father. She hadn't intended to go back to Australia as her brother was no longer in the country, it just happened as an career building opportunity had arisen.

After getting out of surgery, Jessica went to the lobby of the hospital where she was being paged. She stopped when she saw him walking towards her. She didn't know how to respond, except to stand there in the hallway frozen.

"Dr. Chase, I was wondering if I could steal a moment of your time," said the voice belonging to the body.

"I…I…uh…" She was an adult and suddenly had no voice.

"I just wanted to get a cup of coffee and talk," the person said.

"Right, I…Well, I can't right now…I have patients," Jessica said.

"Of course, I understand. Maybe we could get coffee or dinner." The tone used told Jessica that even though it wasn't a direct request, it was a question either.

"I…"

"Jessica, I just want to talk to you. I've missed you and your brother."

She couldn't nod or shake her head. Instead, she simply said: "I have to go." Before her mind could be changed or made to agree to something she wasn't ready for, Jessica turned around and started walking. She walked until she made it past the doors and into a hallway hidden from the public. She didn't hear anyone say her name as she slipped into a closet and sank to the ground. She barely heard the door open and close over her ragged breathing.

"Jessica, are you okay?"

Jessica looked up to see Daniel, a cardiothoracic surgeon in the hospital. When she didn't respond, he sat down next to her and pulled her into an embrace. "Deep breath. Another one. There you go," he said, as Jessica's breathing started to return to normal.

She slumped against him as her breathing too normalize and the tension in her body receded. "You're okay," Daniel said, rubbing her back.

Jessica looked up at him and smiled. "Hi,"

He let out a chuckle, but the worry in his eyes didn't disappear. "Hi. What happened?"

Jessica shifted closer to him. "I don't want to about it," she said before she started to kiss him and reached for the tie on his scrub pants.

"Jessica," he said stopping her hands. "We said we wouldn't at work."

"Daniel, I just…I need to feel something else."

He nodded and said: "Let me lock the door first." He got up, locked the door, and went back to the floor. This time Jessica didn't wait. She had him pinned and her lips attacked his lips and neck. "Jessica?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you sure about this?"

"Daniel, shut up and kiss me," she said, even though she was shaking. "If you really don't want me, I'll leave."

"Right, uh, that won't be necessary." Daniel kissed her back and at first, he seemed to hesitate, but Jessica's insistence seemed to persuade him. When they had finished, they didn't talk about it. They just lay there in silence until Jessica finally got up. She got redressed, fixed her hair, and went back onto the floor as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

"You look deep in thought," Robert said.

Jessica turned her attention from the window back to her brother. "You shouldn't be awake."

"Either should you. What were you think about?"

"Dad," Jessica said.

"Hmm… Anything in particular?"

"I was just thinking about that last time I saw him."

Robert gave Jessica an inquisitive look. They had never talked about the last time Jessica had spoken to their father and his interest was piqued. "Anything interesting happen?"

"No, he came to the hospital…He wanted to get coffee…I agreed to go. It was an odd day."

"I can imagine," Robert said.

"It wasn't nearly as dramatic as what happened with you. He didn't decided to be a consult on any of my cases. We just had coffee and then he left," Jessica said.

There was something in the way Jessica spoke that told Robert this wasn't the complete truth but he wasn't going to argue with his sister on a plane.

"What did you two talk about?" Robert asked.

"Surgery," Jessica said. "He talked to me about why I decided to be a surgeon, which was odd. You would have thought he would have asked that before I went to medical school. Although, now that I think about it; he was probably just pleased that I had decided to turn my life around and wasn't being destructive anymore."

"Did I ever tell you what he said to me when I decided to go to medical school?" Robert asked.

"No."

"He told me that he was glad I had come to my senses. I guess he was relieved that I wasn't completely like, Mum either."

"Do you remember when she took us out of school for the week to fly us to Paris for that fashion show?" Jessica said, with a chuckle.

"Oh, god, yes. I remember all those people who kept trying to take photos of us. Do you remember when, Dad showed up at the hotel?"

"Yeah, that was one of their more epic fights."

They both grew silent and Jessica looked back out the window.

"I thought I smelled Mum's perfume the other day," Robert said. "It was the oddest thing."

Jessica turned her attention back to her brother. "Where?"

"Claire was running around the house. She had been out in the garden. She must have been playing near the Honeysuckle," Robert said. "When I smelled it, I froze…I didn't know what to do. It was comforting and nauseating all at the same time."

"I still can't stand the smell of gin and tonic and when I smell her perfume I usually have to run the other way. It's odd, I smell her perfume and it reduces me to a child once again. I hate it," Jessica said, closing her eyes and settling further into her seat. "Night, Robert."

"Night, Jessica."

"So, how is the hospital treating you?"

"Fine," Jessica said, sitting across the table from her father. She refused to have coffee with him in the hospital. Instead, she had agreed to meet him at a café and pretend to have a half decent conversation with him.

"Are you enjoying the work and finding it stimulating?"

"Yeah, we have a good department and the hospital's reputation is decent. I like it. How is research going?"

"Ah, nothing overly exciting at the moment but that's what happens when you've practically written all the books and are my age."

"I'm sure you will find something soon. You never had a problem finding a new project."

"I'm actually thinking of taking sometime off."

"Really? That's new," Jessica said.

This was something new for her father. He never took time off from work. He had missed family vacations, birthdays, soccer games, and other numerous events all because he had work, a paper, or a patient. Her parents constantly argued because her father couldn't make time for his family. For some odd reason, as a child, Jessica had always given her father the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it was because she was always closer to her father and she wanted to see only the good in him. That had changed when Jessica was a teenager and now as an adult she saw her father in his true colors.

"I've been doing a lot of thinking and it feels like the right decision," Rowan said.

"Okay." Jessica reached for her cup of coffee and finished it off. "Well, this has been great but I need to go."

"You're wasting your talent."

"Excuse me?"

"You are a damn good surgeon. You were the top of your class and instead of challenging yourself, you've settled."

"I haven't settled."

"Yes, you have and not just with your career."

"Don't."

"From what I hear, you're thinking of marrying a mediocre surgeon."

"Daniel is a good surgeon."

"Good is not excellent. You could do better."

"Right, like you have. I could be miserable and ruin my family over my career."

"I left your mother. I didn't leave you."

"Yes, you did. Don't try and lie to make yourself feel better."

"Jessica."

"No, you left. You abandoned me. You knew she hated me and yet you left me with her. Then you sent us away because it was convenient. You broke us, so excuse me for not wanting to follow your example. Daniel is wonderful to me, which is more than I can say about you. Goodbye."