Title: All these things.
Author: CuttingOnions
Pairing/Characters: House/Cuddy, Rachel.
Rating: PG.
Words: 1.395.
Summary: All these things should make her happy... But they didn't. Not completely.
Inspired by The Submarines awesome song, Brighter Discontent ("All these things should make me happy").
Warning: Shameless fluff. Rly. The story is set somewhere after Big Baby.
Disclaimer: The show "House, MD" and it's characters are not mine. "Brighter Discontent" is not mine either.
A/N: Thank you alicineice, gikah, Jess (Monkey and Music Lover) and immanu for helping me out here. You guys are awesome!
She was finally home.
After long hours of meetings, long hours of being nice with annoying donors, filling paper work, dealing with lawyers, long hours of... putting up with House's crap with nonsense tests and surgeries that, indeed, needed more proof so she could even consider consent.
But now she was home, looking at her baby in a deep sleep. Her baby. Her daughter. Hers. Only hers.
She finally had what she always wanted. A family. Her family.
Cuddy smiled, as her baby moved a little in the crib.
When she was young, she had already imagined that scene. To be completely honest to herself, she has always hoped for more; a partner, a husband, someone to share this moment with. But she was happy with just the way things were right now.
Wasn't she?
She kissed a sleeping Rachel's forehead, and walked to the living room.
She was happy. There was no reason for her not to be. She had her family, she had a great job - she had everything.
Almost everything.
It's not like she needed a man or anything, but she still didn't feel complete.
She had been on a couple of dates lately (when House didn't interfere). But none of the guys that she met had made her comfortable enough to make her bring them to her place. She had a kid there now; she couldn't just bring home the first guy she liked just like that.
She was a single mom after all.
Her thoughts were interrupted by an annoying knock at the door. A unique knock. A knock on wood meeting wood.
House, of course, She thought, who else would be at this hour?
She walked to the door sighing and opened it.
"What?" Cuddy asked, leaving no time for him to make any remarks.
"You don't even know why I'm here." He looked at her waiting for her say something else. She said nothing. "Why, Cuddy? Why so cruel with the poor, poor cripple?" He asked sarcastically, causing her to roll her eyes.
"What do you want?" She asked, a little calmer now.
House eyed her up and down, noticing that she probably had just got home from work because she was still wearing the same outfit that she was wearing during the day at the hospital. He grinned.
"For God's sake, House, I'm tired, you want something or not?" she asked, after watching him eye her for a few seconds
"Well, there's in fact several things that I want right know", he said, looking shamelessly at her cleavage, which had an extra button opened more than the usual. By the look on her face, he noticed that she was not so amused by his remark, "I need you to authorize a heart biopsy" - he finally said, handing her the patient file.
She opened the file while walking to the living room, leaving the door open so he could enter and follow her.
Sitting in the couch and with an open file in hand, she started to read the annotations.
"She had a cardiac arrest, the procedure is too risky," she said taking her eyes off the pages in front of her, and eyeing House, who was standing in front of her. "He is incon - " she was interrupted with a cry coming from Rachel's room.
She rushed from the couch, leaving the file there, hurrying her way to her crying daughter, leaving House waiting for her authorization there in the middle of the room.
Yeah, she was a little over protective, so what? Rachel was the only daughter that she had after all.
House waited for a few minutes while he heard the crying slowly cease. He waited a little more before heading to find Cuddy.
She was swaying the baby in her arms, singing a distinctly slow song in a low tune, almost humming it.
House watched, uncomfortable with that scene. It was a cute scene. And cute scenes are never, in any form, related with him.
Cuddy heard him approaching the room and stopping at the door for a moment, a little uncomfortable. She looked and motioned to him come in before turning her back to him and standing in front of the crib with Rachel slowly drifting back to sleep in her arms.
"She was thirsty," she whispered looking the baby and smiling slightly.
House approached slowly, reaching close to her and looking down to the baby, now sleeping peaceful in her arms.
"Where is her family?" Cuddy asked turning her face to look at House. She could swear that she saw a glimpse of a small smile forming in his lips. Impossible, that was House after all. House didn't do smiles to babies. Her mind was probably tricking her for what she wanted to see.
House looked at her quizzical. The case. He had forgotten for a moment about the case.
"She doesn't have one," He said, now well aware of what she was asking.
Cuddy chuckled, noticing that he was, indeed, distractedly looking at Rachel in her arms. Or her cleavage, she wasn't sure which one... But either way was fine with her.
She looked again at the baby in her arms and smiled before placing her in the crib.
"Are you absolutely sure that it is necessary?" Cuddy asked in a soft, low voice, turning around to look him directly in the eyes.
"Yes. Even if I wasn't, who is gonna sue, anyway?" House said in a low voice. Never soft. He doesn't do soft.
"You know that this is not the point. You sure that you tested everything that could also be causing her-" He interrupted her.
"You know that I didn't," House said, arching his eyebrows to her, knowing that it was an obvious answer, "but the problem is in the heart, otherwi-" she interrupted him this time.
"Are you sure that this is absolutely necessary?" She asked, still in a soft voice.
"You know that I am," he smirked at her and handing her the file again, reaching a pen in his pocket and also handing it to her.
He watched, as she reached the dresser to support the paper, signing the form authorizing the procedure.
Turning around she saw him staring at her again. She handed back the file to him.
"What?" she asked softly as he kept staring at her.
"Nothing." He said, looking at any other place that wasn't her. He didn't know why he was looking at her. Maybe he was just happy that she was happy, with her kid. Maybe he wanted to be a part of that. But he dismissed the last thought, this wasn't like him... Wait, but the first thought wasn't like him either.
She walked in front of him, passing by the hallway that led back to the living room, and the front door. He followed right behind her.
"Thanks for coming here to ask my permission before doing the biopsy," She said, smirking at him. Wasn't always that he was that polite.
"Don't get used to it." he said, smirking back to her.
She rolled her eyes. Making him smirk wilder.
He walked to the door, reaching for the doorknob, stopping and looking back to her again. Looking at her, he saw that maybe the baby wasn't bad at all, she hadn't look this good in a while. Not that she wasn't looking good before (she always makes sure that she's looking very good), but something about her was making her look incredibly gorgeous.
Maybe that glow, that they say, about pregnant women was crap, maybe it wasn't.
Cuddy didn't get pregnant, but the fact that she was now a mother was getting to her. She was definitely glowing.
"Seriously, don't get used to it," he warned again, smiling at her.
"Go do your biopsy!" she said in a bossy tone, but smiling, as he opened the door, and walked to his bike. She watched as he drove away.
Closing the door behind her slowly and leaning on it, her previously thoughts, the ones that she had before House interrupted her, were coming back to her.
Everything that she had now - and she had a lot - she wasn't going to say that she didn't, because she did.
All these things should make her happy, but they didn't.
Something was missing.
Someone was missing.
I know! This is so corny, and fluffy, and all, haha.