New Fic: Blythe's Story Chapter 22

[namaste]

Title: Blythe's Story, Chapter 22
Author: Namaste
Summary: "Blythe shook her head. She'd already had a second chance, she thought. She could have told them the truth, but each time she'd lied. Lied to everyone. Nothing but lies. And for what?"
PG, 988 words.
Author’s Note: A look at House's early life, based on the new background we received in the fifth season episode "Birthmarks," using chapters of about 1,000 words.
To start at the beginning: Chapter One



She heard the ticking of the clock, the second hand beating out the time, though she couldn't quite remember what time it was, or what day it was.

She heard water dripping from the kitchen faucet.

She heard the sound of her own heart beating in her chest, fast and hard.

She couldn't hear John, and didn't know if he was just outside the door, or if he'd gone away. Gone to cool off down at the officers' club, or if he was gone forever.

She couldn't hear Greg in his bedroom. Couldn't hear the sound of his feet hitting the floor as he paced in some intricate rhythm that only he seemed to know, the one that he'd settle into whenever he was bored, or doing homework.

She should go to him, Blythe thought. He'd need her. He'd need to know that she loved him. He'd need to know that John loved him, no matter what.

But what was she supposed to say? What could she say?

Greg had seen through her, seen that hidden part of her that no one else had -- seen past the lies and the stories.

He must hate her, she thought, and felt her knees give out. She slid down to the floor, her skirt wrinkled beneath her knees, her hand pushing hard against the floorboards to keep herself from collapsing even further.

The floor was cold. She was cold. Cold deep inside. Cold like she'd never be warm again. Cold like her heart could freeze in her chest, but somehow it kept beating.

He knew. Greg knew.

And he'd told John.

John.

He knew all her lies now. He knew that she wasn't the woman he'd thought she was, wasn't the woman she'd tried to be.

She wondered if he'd walk out on her now without a word, or if he'd give her another chance.

She shook her head. She'd already had a second chance, she thought. She could have told him the truth, but each time she'd lied to him. Lied to everyone. Nothing but lies. And for what?

"For them."

Blythe wasn't sure if she'd actually said the words, wasn't sure where they came from, but recognized the feeling from somewhere deep inside her, the one place the cold hadn't seemed to have touched. She tried to ignore the cold and focus on that one thought, like the dying ember of a fire.

"For them," she whispered.

She'd lied to hold her family together, had lied to protect them, she reminded herself. She'd lied to give Greg a home and a world that could take him everywhere.

She'd lied to give John someplace to call home, someplace to hold in his heart no matter how terrible the world might seem.

She sat up straight, felt the warmth seeping back into her hands.

She'd lied because it seemed like the best thing for all of them. Maybe she'd been wrong. Maybe she shouldn't have lied. But the lies had been there, and she'd told each one to protect them.

And now, for them, she'd face the truth. For them she'd find some way to make it right again. Find some way to make it up to John. Find some way to make Greg believe in her again. Find some way to rebuild their world.

She pushed herself onto her feet and stood there with one hand against the wall until she felt steady.

She looked down the hall to Greg's room, then over to the front door where she'd last seen John. At least she knew where Greg was. She could talk to him once she knew if John had left.

Blythe opened the door, and squinted against the late afternoon sunlight.

The car was still in the driveway, and John was sitting in the driver's seat, staring straight ahead at the closed garage door. His hands were on the wheel, fingers gripping the hard plastic until his knuckles turned white. The engine wasn't running.

Blythe hesitated for a moment, then waked around the car and slid into the passenger seat. She didn't look at John.

For them, she told herself. She could do this for them. She took a deep breath.

"I wasn't going to hit him." John's words cut through the quiet before she could say a word.

Blythe turned to look at him, his words taking long seconds to filter through her thoughts. She shook her head, and wondered if she'd misheard him. "What?"

"I wouldn't hit him, no matter how much he deserves it," John repeated. "I'm not -- " he shook his head and didn't finish the sentence.

Blythe blinked her eyes, tried to bring back the memory of what had happened before John had walked out the door, fought past her thoughts of her own lies and betrayal. John's hand had been raised, she remembered.

"I wasn't going to hit him."

She wondered if John was just repeating the words to himself, if he even realized that she was there. It was as if he'd been through a different fight, as if he'd never heard Greg's words.

But then she remembered: She hadn't heard them either. Maybe Greg really hadn't figured out anything. Maybe John's anger and words had nothing to do with her. Maybe her secret was still safe. Maybe her lies hadn't hurt anyone.

Yet.

Or, more likely, she was still fooling herself now. She should confess everything. Come clean. Do it now, while she could. She could still make everything right, and make a fresh start for all of them.

"I wasn't going to hit him," John said again.

Or maybe she should wait, just until John was calm, until they had all had time to cool down.

Blythe nodded slightly. Later would be better. It would be better for her. And it would be better for them. She reached over, and put her hand on John's arm.

"I know," she said.

Chapter 23

Comments

[daisylily.livejournal.com]

Your link in the housefic post doesn't work (I got here directly via your journal).

Now I'm going to enjoy reading...

OK, I'm back. This is such a sad chapter - each of them is hurting. It's pretty typical, though, that it's Blythe who is trying to bring them all back together and get things to work, somehow.

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

Fixed now. Thanks. And yeah, it is sad. I'm going to have to write a happy story sometimes just to make up for everything in this fic.

[blackmare-9.livejournal.com]

I keep running out of things to say, but I read these as soon as you post them.

Poor Blythe. Poor all of them, really -- and given what House later said about his childhood, I'm afraid John really would have hit him. But John and Blythe are both believing what they think they have to believe in order for things to be all right.

It occurs to me to wonder whether this has anything to do with House's canon reaction to anyone he perceives as lying to themselves.

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I picture each of them each in their own separate circles of devasatation, unable to find a way out. Just a little depressing.

[pwcorgigirl.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is so terribly sad, and we know that things will not get better. (I also think John was trying to convince her, and himself, that he wouldn't have hit Greg, when he certainly would have if she hadn't stopped him.)

This slow unfolding of the genesis of House's complicated view of truth-telling has just been brilliant.

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I know the title and POV is all about Blythe's Story, but the subtitle could easily be: How Greg House developed his theories on families, lying and the impact those lies have.

[poeia.livejournal.com]

It's funny -- Blythe House doesn't look like an ostrich but she has her head buried so far in the sand it's a wonder that she can breathe.

Another sad but touching update.

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

I definitely see her willing blindness to the realities of the world as one of her biggest failures and faults, but at the same time, her belief in seeing the positive also allows her to give Greg the support he needs to explore his potential when John just seems him as a pain in the ass.

[sassydew.livejournal.com]

I'm still really enjoying Blythe's Story. It's helping me to see things from her point of view - and John's, too. I must admit that I have always had a difficult time forgiving John for his behavior toward his son, but I didn't hold anything against Blythe until the reveal in "Birthmarks". Through your eyes I can sort of begin to understand both of them, but, having been deceived as a child myself and then dealing with the fallout, I'm still not terribly sympathetic except where Greg is concerned. This, of course, has nothing to do with your writing, which is excellent. :-)

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I don't demand that people like the characters. There are times I'd like to shake Blythe about a bit myself, but I felt there was a lot to explore which actually goes to House's perspective on life, while telling her story.

[warmdarkwoman.livejournal.com]

He knew all her lies now. He knew that she wasn't the woman he'd thought she was, wasn't the woman she'd tried to be.

Surely John would have figured it out on his own? Marine pilots should be pretty good at math. Why the anger at his son? Why is Blythe letting her son take the brunt of his father's ire?

How many more parts to this story?

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

As I hopefully established in the first chapters, John was gone for about a month, and Greg was born late enough -- say two weeks -- that they could easily believe that he was two weeks early. And if John had no reason to believe Blythe had an affair, he would have no reason to count weeks.

As to the second question, there are probably another 7-8 chapters.

[feanix.livejournal.com]

"He must hate her, she thought, and felt her knees give out. She slid down to the floor, her skirt wrinkled beneath her knees, her hand pushing hard against the floorboards to keep herself from collapsing even further."

Those two sentences are so...Emotive, I suppose might be the word. You can almost see Blythe start to fall apart.

Definitely an exciting installment...

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I wanted to have a moment when she just fell apart. Of course, like her son, her worst moments are in private, when no one else can see.

[hibernia1.livejournal.com]

Oh, poor Blythe... great update. I like the way you make John human. Thanks for sharing!

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I don't really care if people like or don't like the characters, as long as they come across as more than cardboard cutouts.

[angelfirenze.livejournal.com]

Okay, Blythe's kind of pissing me off now. Honestly, is there anything left inside her if she's let all these lies eat away at her for so long? Good grief, I'm surprised she still has musculature!

I don't want to call her spineless, but she's been given a chance to actually come clean and she's avoiding it -- deluding herself that it'll help when the relationship between her husband and her son is falling apart right in front of her. They're not on an even keel -- never have been and at this point, she's only impeding what MIGHT help.

I think this is the reason House remains angry with her, if he truly does. This, to me, feels spineless.

I may be reading it wrongly, but it's just cowardly from where I see it.

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

I don't think that House is angry at her. I've written "Greg" as feeling pity/sympathy for her at that time, and in "Birthmarks," he says that he think she was angry at John too, and that's why she had the affair.

Yes, her failure to own up to the truth is her biggest fault, but she's hardly spineless.

[angelfirenze.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's the failure in and of itself -- given all the chances she's had to do so -- that makes me feel like she's being a coward -- about this. Not in general.

Time after time after time, karma seems to keep rubbing her indiscretion in her face and rather than come clean, she continually sweeps it back under the rug the first change she gets.

It's...frustrating. Maybe it's because I despise cheating in general, but it seems to me that continually lying by omission about it makes things so much worse for so long and if John ever actually did find out -- I see no reason why he should have forgiven her.

Though, it seems he did, if she ever got around to telling him. Something like that.

John despises secrecy, too. I have to wonder how he would have taken his wife telling him she'd cheated on him so many years before.

[(Anonymous)]

This is such a brilliant and realistic portrayal of three wounded and emotionally hobbled people. I get Blythe's fierce conviction that maintaining her lie is all that provides a home for her husband and child. I think she is right in this, though perhaps wrong in the precipitating act that pushed this family tragedy into motion. Without her foundational lie, House would not be the driven, unrelenting medical prosecutor we encounter in canon.

You have done such a terrific job in bringing Blythe's dilemma to sympathetic life. You have also shed light on just how much of an unreliable narrator House possibly is when it comes to understanding his own life and family. When I started this chapter, MY heart was pounding just as I imagine Blythe's was.
--blacktop

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

Thank you. In writing these chapters, I try to keep in mind what House said during the eulogy in "Birthmarks," that despite every flaw and everything John did and didn't do, House is, who he is, because of him. I think the same is true of Blythe, that her ability to see and believe in the good side of him (right down to believing he would and could give the eulogy) is as much a part of him as his true parentage.