Meeting He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named

Mood: annoyed
Eating: Reuben sandwich
Drinking: orange juice
Listening to: America - Razorlight

I thought I could do it.
I thought I could avoid him.
I was wrong.

It was while discussing a case with James. I wanted a cup of coffee and poured one for me and one for James in the oncologist's kitchen. When I tried to take both mugs and my cane and to open the door he came in.
At first sight I nearly froze to the ground, then just glared at him and wanted to abscond. He just stood at the door and smiled at me with a strange glistening in his eyes.
"Hello, Gregory."
I chose to say nothing at all and wanted to scurry out.
He didn't move an inch and laid his hand on my arm.
"Don't touch me!", I gnarled and his hand dropped down again.
"I missed you", he said and looked perfectly normal all over sudden.
"It would be a lie if I told you I missed you", I grunted. "And now get lost!"
"I'm sorry", he continued. "I don't know why I did all these things. Most of them I even can't remember properly."
"Ask James for forgiveness. And Chase. But I don't think this would be of any use."
He looked out of the window to a point only he seemed to know.
"Gregory...I really missed you. And I really want to apologize."
"Damnation!", I exclaimed. "Get lost! I want nothing else!"
With these words I put one mug down at the table and made my way past him using my cane to shove him away.
This was the moment Danby joined us. He still didn't know what happened between Allenby and us but he summed up the situation and smiled at me.
"Hello, Dr. House!"
"Hi, Dr. Danby", I greeted him back.
He saw the mug in my hand and the other mug on the table. "Is that Dr. Allenby's mug?"
"No", Allenby replied. "I suppose it's for Dr. Wilson..."
I turned to him and raised the mug I held. "In fact this one's for Dr. Wilson. The one on the table is mine."
"Let me help you", Danby smiled, took the mug and followed me to Jim's office where he said hello to him and put the mug on the desk. I nodded a Thank You and he left.

James leaned forward. "You're a bit pale. Is everything okay with you?"
I just nodded and changed the subject. "Now...don't you, too, think it's cancer?"
Carefully watching me he took the file again. "Sure everything's okay?"
"Of course I am!"
"You met him."
This was no question. It was a simple statement.
I shrugged. "So what? He didn't eat me up..."
James arose and stepped behind me to embrace me. His cheek was snuggling to mine and he held me close. "Hun, you don't have to pretend this doesn't affect you. We both know what he did to you."
For a while I just savored his closeness and covered his hand with mine. A deep sigh later I nodded. "It's stupid trying to hide things from you..."
He took my hand and pulled me up from the chair.
"It is..."
He took me into his arms and kissed me in a way that made me forget time and space. I felt dizzy and just thought Whooooooosh. James gave me a provocative look and locked the door.

One hour later I hobbled back into my office walking on air and forced myself to read the file of that baby girl. Well...we couldn't ask her anything and the medical history wasn't very helpful. The parents told us about prolonged weight loss and difficulty when swallowing, that was all. We had to do some tests.
The tests showed muscle weakness and a slowing mental and motor development.
Foreman looked up from the results. "Krabbe disease?"
I nodded. "It seems so...What about MRI?"
He nodded and off he was.
The examination of the retina showed optic atrophy and further testing revealed that the CSF total protein was increased, there were abnormal Globoid cells in biopsy tissue of the nervous system and nerve conduction velocity showed delayed nerve conduction and evidence of demyelination.
It was Krabbe...
There is no specific treatment for Krabbe disease and the only thing we can try is a bone marrow transplantation.