My Plot Bunnies

House MD

Fiona Lewis

(So Fiona is a plot bunny I had back in high school (so well over 10 years ago lmao). I'd actually forgotten about her until another friend posted their story and I found some old handwritten notes while doing spring cleaning. It all came rushing back, minus a great many important medical details but I'll do my best to relate her tale. Fiona would be introduced sometime during season 4.)

Despite having been divorced from his first wife for many years, Wilson remained close to his niece, Fiona. She dreams of going to medical school, after winning an olympic gold medal, so he often helps her study and happily encourages her ambitions. He's attending her state championship swim meet when, after landing a successful dive, she suddenly begins to drown. Wilson heroically dives in and pulls her out and, after a quick examination, surmises that she's impossibly having a heart attack.

At the hospital, he flat out demands House and his swarm of candidates take her case. A seventeen year old athlete having a heart attack is odd enough for House, but the opportunity to help and torment his best (and only) friend is an added bonus. After a series of bumbles and a horrifying invasions into her personal life – where Wilson finds outs that she's dating 22 year old army grunt (age of consent in NJ is 16 but age of majority is 18), who the team falsely accuses of abusing her, which led to his arrest -- House concludes she had an infarction in her right leg, just as he had. The cause of which being not her boyfriend, but prolonged exposure to a steroid filled steam her entire swim team has unknowingly been exposed to compliments of their coach. The exposure led to her having an aneurysm in her leg that clots days beforehand, leading to the infarction and causing her muscles to become necrotic; the heart had been a symptom of the larger problem. (I vividly remember having two pages worth of notes mapping exactly how this could happen and the different diagnoses the team would explore before landing on the right one, but I admit I am far too lazy to do all that now lol). After her coach is arrested and her boyfriend released, Fiona has an emotional confrontation with House about her options: amputate her leg or leave it. 

"So I either lose my leg and live a relatively normal life but never compete again, or I keep it, still never compete and be in unimaginable pain the rest of my life. I'd be you. Miserable and alone and dependent on pills until the day I die? No. No way. I don't want to end up like you. Schedule the surgery and cut off my leg."

Chase performs the surgery while Wilson watches from the observation deck, unable to assist due to a conflict of interest. While she's recovering and mourning the loss of her dream, Chase kindly gives her a folder filled with a list of fantastic physical therapists and prosthetic manufacturers, as well as information on the Special Olympics. He reminds her that she could still win a gold medal and, for the first time since her stay at the hospital, Fiona is genuinely happy. 

After Fiona is released, House discusses another test he ran on her that he didn't tell Wilson about. It was a paternity test; he just took one of the many DNA samples his team had gathered from Fiona during her stay and compared it to the DNA Wilson had left on his coffee cup. Wilson is rightfully angry at first, then almost relieved when House tells him that he's Fiona's biological father. He'd never been able to be faithful to his wives, everyone knew that about him, but cheating on his first wife, Sam, with her married sister had been a new low. Luckily, the affair had never been revealed so at least one marriage had been spared a disaster. Wilson admits he always wondered on some level if Fiona had been his after her mother had come up pregnant not long after his divorce. He'd been too afraid to ask and, now that he knew the truth, was too afraid to tell. He believes her life has been up-ended enough to last her a lifetime without dropping this bomb on her. He'd always loved Fiona as if she were his child, knowing she actually is only makes him love her even more.