MOMENTS LIKE THESE…

By The Madhatter

Disclaimer: These lovely characters all belong to David Shore, FOX, etc. No infringement intended. Blah, blah, blah.

Rating: PG-13

Pairing: House/Cuddy

Spoilers: absolutely, positively NONE

Genre: FLUFF! NOTHING BUT PURE FLUFF. Sap oozes from every word of this fic. It's so freaking sappy you could probably drown in it.

A/N: Oh, Dear God, I don't think I've ever written anything as completely sappy as this (well, I sure hope not since this is not my usual standard). I started this over the summer and finally had the time to finish over winter break, so here it is. 4,000 some odd words of complete sap and fluff at your service. It just ended up becoming like this. I can't explain it, but I hope this brings everyone's spirits up a bit, even if it's not completely in character.

The credit for the name Jocelyn goes to my friend. When I couldn't come up with a name, she came through for me.

Inspired by the song, "Photograph" by Nickelback

-----------------------------

Look at this photograph
Every time I do it makes me laugh

-"Photograph" Nickelback

Cuddy sat down on her couch, legs tucked in and placed a large leather bound photo album on her lap. A smile crossed her face as she ran a hand over the soft cover, memories circling her mind. Taking a deep breath, she opened the large book, remembering every story behind each photograph.

The first picture was of a newborn baby wrapped in pink, eyes closed and lips puckered.

"Here you go, Dr. Cuddy. Your new little girl. Have you decided on a name yet?"

"Not yet. I'll let you know when I do." Cuddy smiled and thanked the nurse.

"Hey there, Mom," Wilson greeted as he peeked into the room. Cuddy waved him in, a tired smile on her face. "So, that's the newest addition to Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital? She's cute, just like her mom."

"Oh, stop it, Uncle Jimmy," House said mockingly, entering the room. "You're embarrassing her."

Cuddy rolled her eyes. "Great. What are you doing here, House?"

"Hey, how come I get yelled at when I'm actually trying to do the right thing by seeing the new little demon, and Uncle Jimmy here doesn't?"

"Because you called her 'little demon' and 'Uncle Jimmy' didn't."

"Oh, fine. How about Little Monster? That sound better? Or Little Devil?"

"House," Wilson said, exasperated. "She just gave birth. Can't you leave her alone for just a second?"

House scoffed. "Where would the fun in that be? So, what do you think, Cuddy? Little Monster? I think that fits perfectly."

"Have you decided on a name yet, Cuddy?" Wilson asked gently, softly stroking the newborn baby's soft dark hair.

"I told you, Uncle Jimmy, it's Little Monster!"

"Shut up, House," Cuddy and Wilson threatened, glaring at him.

"Pff," he huffed and took a seat next to the bed, putting his feet up on the railing. "You guys are no fun. I hope your kid has more of a sense of humor than you."

"Have any suggestions for a name?" Cuddy asked. "Other than Little Monster. I refuse to write that on her birth certificate."

"How about Jocelyn?" Wilson suggested. "She kinda looks like one."

Cuddy pondered it for a moment. "That sounds great. Now, I need a middle name…"

"I'm telling ya, Monster works great with everything. Jocelyn Monster Cuddy? Totally has a ring to it," House interjected, a smirk on his face. "Actually… are you sure that's not YOUR middle name? Lisa Monster Cuddy sounds waaayy better."

"House," Cuddy murmured menacingly. "I'm THIS close to committing a homicide in front of my daughter. Don't push it."

The smirk turned into a grin as he stood up and peered at the baby. "I guess she's kinda cute for the devil's kid." He shot Cuddy a smirk, before turning his attention back to the little girl, slowly stroking the side of her face. A small smile crossed his face as she turned toward the affection, snuggling up to it. "How about Maria?"

Cuddy and Wilson looked at him in amazement. "You know what… that actually works." She smiled as she looked down at her little girl, watching in fascination as she warmed up to House's touch. Who would've thought? She looked up and found bright blue eyes and a grinning face staring right back.

"I know, I know, you don't have to say it," House said in a pseudo humble voice, "I'm amazing, I know."

Cuddy looked annoyed. "As if I want to inflate your ego even more," she shot back, trying to fight a smile.

"Nurse Nikki?" Wilson called out to the nurse, trying to stop another argument. "Could you come here, please? I think we've decided on a name."

Nurse Nikki appeared instantly with a wide smile on her face? "So, what have you decided on, Dr. Cuddy?"

"Jocelyn Maria Cuddy," she announced proudly.

Cuddy ran a delicate hand over her daughter's name in elegant handwriting. She squinted and noticed for the first time a familiar scrawl written underneath her own writing. AKA Little Monster. She shook her head and muttered, "I'm gonna kill House."

Underneath the baby picture was another picture of the three of them around Little Jo in the hospital. Nurse Nikki handed it to Cuddy just after she was discharged with a shy grin. She couldn't help but take the picture, it was too cute for words. Another smile appeared on her face as she remembered the moment this was taken.

"So," House began, "if Wilson's Uncle Jimmy, who am I?"

"Uh, House?"

"That's it? I don't even get an 'uncle' title?" He was appalled. "Not even Uncle House? Okay, I might allow Uncle Greg. Or even Uncle HotBod, or Uncle Sexy, or –"

"House!" Cuddy cut him off and huffed a sigh of frustration. "Fine, you can be Uncle Greg, but there is no way in hell my daughter is going to call you Uncle HotStuff or whatever you said."

"Hey, Uncle HotStuff… I never thought of that one. That's a good one, Cuddy!"

Cuddy looked at Wilson pleadingly. "Oh, God. Just imagine what House could teach my child."

"Hey, I'll only corrupt her with the good stuff."

"There are good things to corrupt her with?" Wilson asked skeptically. "There is nothing good when it comes to you, House."

He looked mock-offended. "Nothing good? Are you kidding me? That's ALL I'm made of."

Cuddy rolled her eyes. "Right, and I'm a monkey's uncle."

"Nope. That's my job." House grinned.

Cuddy skipped forward to one of her favorite pictures and laughed as six month old Jo harassed House at the hospital.

"Come on, Jo," Cuddy cooed as her daughter wailed in her arms.. "It's okay, Mommy's here. Don't cry. Please don't cry."

"Can't you just stuff her mouth with her binky and shut her up?" House demanded angrily as he barged into Cuddy's office.

"What do you want now, House?" Cuddy said, exasperated. "Can it wait a few moments? I'm a little busy here."

"Nope. I need you to sign this off so I can go run some tests on my patient."

"Fine. Give it to me and I'll sign it." She quickly scribbled her signature and handed the folder back to him.

"How is she?" he asked before he could stop himself. He picked up a little rattle and shook it in front of Jo.

Cuddy sighed. "She's cranky. We only got a few hours of sleep last night. I don't know what else to do. I would've called Wilson, but he's been over the last few times and I didn't want to bug him again. You know, I think she likes him better than she likes me."

"Nah, I think she's falling for his big brown eyes," House replied, shaking the rattle again. "All the women he dates fall for his eyes."

Jocelyn wailed again, her arms waving out trying to reach the rattle. "I think she wants the rattle."

He handed it to her but she just threw it back on the desk. "Or not. Should I get Wilson, since he's her favorite uncle?"

"Actually… I think she wants you." Before he could protest, Jo nearly lunged herself over at House. "It has been a while since she's seen you."

Jocelyn gurgled happily as House picked her up. Her big blue eyes brightened in glee as her Uncle Greg held her up, making a silly face. She reached out, running a hand over his scruffy face, laughing. Cuddy watched in awe as House bent down and nuzzled her cheek with his stubble causing her to laugh some more. House didn't make a bad uncle at all.

"How is it her uncles can make her stop crying, yet I can't?"

House grinned over at her. "We have the magic touch. And she loves us more." He stuck his tongue out at her. Jocelyn laughed and smacked his face in joy. "Ow, hey watch it, Little Monster. Like mother, like daughter – both abusing me."

At that moment, Cuddy whipped out her camera phone and snapped a picture, immortalizing that moment forever.

"I'm going to smash every camera you own, Cuddy," he grumbled, nuzzling Jocelyn again.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Wilson asked as he sat next to Cuddy. "Ooo! I love that picture. I'm surprised House hasn't torn it up yet, or scribbled all over it."

"Yeah, like he did over here." Cuddy showed him the little addition to Jo's baby picture.

Wilson chuckled. "Yeah, that sounds like House."

"So, what are those two up to anyway? Please don't tell me they're destroying the rest of my house."

"Nah, after Jo got bored with me, she went to Funny Greggy. I think they're playing Mortal Combat or some video game."

"Great, violence. House is teaching my daughter violence."

"He'd probably say that it was a healthy dose of fun. Something every kid needs."

She rolled her eyes. "That makes me sound like I lock her up in the basement and only let her out to eat."

"He'd probably agree to that. Anyway, there's a picture in here that always makes me laugh. It's probably my favorite. That one during her first birthday?"

Cuddy laughed. "Oh yeah, I remember. I think House wanted to throttle Jo."

"Hey, guess what Uncle Greg got for you, Little Monster?" House teased, holding a small wrapped box above her highchair. He rattled it above her head. "Come on, guess." She laughed as she tried to reach up for it.

"House, are you trying to tip her over?" Wilson asked worriedly. "Cuddy will have your HEAD if anything happens to her."

"Don't worry, Uncle Jimmy, Uncle Greg knows how to take care of the Little Monster. He won't let anything bad happen to her, isn't that right?" He held the box up higher as she tried her hardest to reach it.

After numerous attempts to reach the box, Jo became bored and started fiddling with the bib around her chest. House pouted and finally gave up the box. "Fine, be a spoil sport. Here's your gift."

Jo looked up in glee and somehow demolished the wrapping paper. Once the wrapping paper fell off (thanks to Uncle Jimmy) a monster truck – Gravedigger – sat on the high chair's tray. She looked at it curiously, poking at it and eventually figured out that it rolled.

House beamed. "See, I knew she was into monster trucks, isn't that right Little Monster? It's got your name written all over it."

"Her name's not Gravedigger, House," Cuddy replied dryly from the doorway holding out a small cake for the four (more like three) of them. "Here's some cake, and please try not to get it anywhere." She looked pointedly at House, who gave her an innocent stare.

Wilson smiled and led everyone in a chorus of 'Happy Birthday' before letting the little princess blow out her candles and cut the cake. "Alrighty, here comes the choo-choo train," Wilson cooed as he tried to feed Jo chocolate cake. "C'mon, Princess, open up for the train. Choo-choo!"

House rolled his eyes at the pathetic attempt and grabbed the spoon out of Wilson's hand. "I'll show you how a pro does it. None of this choo-choo train crap." He placed the cake on the tray in front of Jo and ate the spoonful of cake. "Mmm. See, this stuff is good. Your mommy's a good cook. You want some?"

"House, I wouldn't do that—"

"Oh, like you were doing any better."

"No, House, I mean putting the cake—"

"SHIT!" House yelled as chocolate cake and frosting splattered all over his shirt, face and hair.

"—in front of Jo," Wilson finished lamely. "I tried to warn you."

Cuddy tried her best not to laugh as she snapped the picture of House glaring at her daughter as Jo swiped some frosting off his face and licked it.

"I don't think House ever forgave her for that," Wilson said, wiping the tears away.

"At least Jo wasn't old enough for him to lash into her," Cuddy replied with a smile.

She flipped through more pages until Wilson stopped her once more. "Wait. Remember when Jo lost her first tooth? How she ran into the glass door, slipped and fell on the floor?"

Cuddy groaned and put her face in her hands. "Don't remind me. That was a nightmare. House would not stop laughing and teasing her about it for a month. Then, he started making up rumors that she lost it fighting a boy at school, but still came out the victor because the boy had a black eye and three missing teeth."

Wilson laughed. "Yeah, I remember that. I think he even drew a cartoon of it… Yep, here it is."

"What--?" Cuddy shook her head. "I didn't even know he slipped that in there. I swear, one of these days, I'm going to murder the bastard."

"And no one would blame you."

"Hey, do you remember the first time we got Garfield for Jo?"

Wilson burst out laughing. "That damn orange cat that we spent weeks searching for? Who doesn't? House only tolerates him for Jo, otherwise he'd be roadkill."

"Merry Christmas, Jo!" Cuddy said smiling as she handed her daughter a large box. "Go ahead, open it."

Jo cautiously approached the wrapped box that seemed to wriggle the closer she got. With trepidation, she lifted the lid a bit, peering inside curiously, before pushing the entire cover off and screaming in delight. "You got him! You got Garfield!"

Wilson and Cuddy shared a bright smile with each other… as House glowered at the menacing furball. "The damn cat came to life," he grumbled.

Jo ran over to her mom and gave her a big hug. "Thank you, Mom! And Uncle Wilson and Uncle Greg."

"You're welcome, sweetheart. Why don't you take Garfield over to say hi to Uncle Greg?"

House shot her a glare and looked at the orange furball, who looked curiously at him. "What are you lookin' at? Get off me, go play with your new owner. Scram."

Surprisingly, the cat did exactly as he was told and leaped off of House and ran into the other room, with a squealing Jo behind him. House stretched out on the couch, propping his feet up on the armrest with a sigh. "Why the hell did you get that cat?" House complained. "You know you're just going to take care of it, Cuddy."

"I wanted to. Besides, I believe it was YOUR idea."

"You spoil her too much. And it wasn't MY idea, it was the stupid show."

"You were the one who brought up the fact that there were really orange cats in the world and she practically begged you to find one. Now look who spoils too much."

"I'm her uncle, I'm allowed to. YOU on the other hand—OW! WHAT THE HELL!"

Garfield jumped up on House's chest and dug his claws in to hold on, enjoying the chase from his new owner. Jo stopped dead before the couch and bit her lip nervously. "A-are you okay, Uncle Greg?"

House was too busy glaring at the orange fuzz to respond, man and cat having a stare down of their own. Garfield's claws tightened his hold on House's shirt, almost as a warning, before leaping off and circling Jo's legs. "That's right, run away like the wittle scaredy cat you are. No one can beat me in glaring matches."

Cuddy and Wilson tried not to laugh, but couldn't hold it in any longer. "You should see this House," Wilson said in between gasps of laughter, waving the digital camera. "You two could be twins!"

"What?"

"Looks like House finally met his match," Cuddy said triumphantly, with a twinkle in her eyes.

House managed to get off the couch and swipe the camera from Wilson's fingers and found that Cuddy snapped a picture of him and Garfield glaring at each other with the same squinty eyes and firm jaw. Just as he was about to hit delete, Cuddy snatched the camera from his grasp with a smirk. "Not on your life."

"Even to this day they still have this love-hate relationship," Wilson observed, trying to look into the other room where House and Jo are playing.

"The only love going on there is their love for Jo. Other than that, they're about equal in hate," Cuddy replied with a small smile.

They continued flipping through the album until Wilson noticed a certain picture, but Cuddy quickly flipped over it. "Cuddy… was that… what I think…?"

"No!" she replied a little too quickly and harshly as her face slowly turned a faint pink color.

Wilson managed to wrestle the book out of Cuddy's arms and flipped back to the picture in question. "My God. How long have you two been keeping this a secret?"

"It's not what you think!"

"Uh, Cuddy? You're kissing House—how do you explain THAT?"

"He kissed me…" she muttered. Wilson gave her a look telling her to go on. "I guess I can't hide it anymore. Last year, I took Jo with me to work because it was House's birthday…"

"Mommy, where's Uncle Greg?" Jo asked, tugging on her skirt. "I wanna give him his birt-day gift."

Cuddy smiled. "He should be working… but knowing him, he's avoiding it or sleeping. Come on, let's check the Clinic." She took her daughter's hand and led her to Exam Room One. A smirk crossed her face as she found her prize. House was fast asleep on the exam table with a magazine over his face. "There you go, honey," she whispered. "Go wake him up."

Jo was too short to reach House, so she dragged a stool over, climbed up and lifted the magazine off his face. House muttered something, but didn't wake up. Then she brought it down and smacked him square in the face. Cuddy smothered a laugh as Jo hit him again.

"Wake up, Uncle Greg! It's your birt-day! You can't sleep through it! Wake up!"

House jerked awake and ripped the magazine from her small hands. "All right, all right! I'm awake! What do you want?"

Jo looked down, saddened, and quietly handed him a yellow envelope with a sloppy 'Unkel Greg' written on the front. "Happy Birt-day, Uncle Greg," she whispered faintly. Then, she scrambled off the stool and hid behind her mom's legs.

Cuddy crossed her arms and glared at the older man. "Did you really have to be so mean?" He looked away, rubbing his head. "She was only trying to be nice."

"She didn't have to beat my face into a bloody pulp," he grumbled.

"House—"

He sighed and sat up, waving Jo over. "Come here, Little Monster. Sit next to Uncle Greg."

Cuddy nudged Jo, whispering, "It's okay, sweetheart. He's not mad anymore. Go on."

She shyly made her way over, up the stool and next to House "I'm sorry," she muttered.

"Don't worry about it, kid. What'd you get me?"

"You hafta open it! I can't tell you or it'd ruin the surprise, silly."

"Oh!" He slapped his forehead, feigning surprise. "Silly Uncle Greg." He tore open the envelope and pulled out a simple over-the-hill card. He glanced over at Cuddy, who shrugged and smirked. A folded piece of paper fluttered down to his lap. "What's this? I hope it's a ticket to Vegas for a strip show."

"House!"

He grinned at Cuddy's scowl and opened the paper. There were three black stick figures. One had long, curly black hair with a red triangle for a dress. The word 'Mommy' was written unevenly underneath. Right next to her was a taller figure with a brown scribble of hair, a black outline of what appeared to be a jacket, and a set of dark blue pants, complete with a brown cane. 'Unkel Greg' was written in the same scrawl underneath. Next to him there was a slightly smaller stick figure with straight brown lines for hair, a green tie around the neck with black pants. 'Unkel Jimmy' was written underneath with the J backwards. Next to him there was an orange, spiky ball with two triangles for ears, two black dots for eyes with three straight lines on each side of the face for whiskers, and an orange squiggle in the back for a tail. 'Garfield' was spelled evenly underneath. At the bottom, a simple phrase was written:

One Happy Family

A small genuine smile broke out on House's face as he pulled Jo close and dropped a kiss on her head. "This… is nice. Did you draw this yourself?"

Jo nodded eagerly. "Uh-huh! My teacher made us draw what made us happy, so I drew you, Mommy, Uncle Jimmy and Garfield!"

"The damn cat," he muttered, then looked at Cuddy. "Your kid can spell 'Garfield' correctly, but not 'uncle'?"

"She loves the show and the cat," Cuddy replied with a shrug. "What can I say? Besides, I failed spelling when I was her age."

"You actually FAILED at something?" He looked mock-astonished.

"Oh, shut up and read your card."

He opened the over-the-hill card and smirked. "Happy Birthday Uncle Scrooge?" he read aloud.

"I figured it'd fit."

He glared at her and she grinned back. "Okay, Jo, Uncle Scrooge needs to get back to WORK." She looked pointedly at House, who frowned.

"But it's my birthday," he whined. "Don't I get special treatment from the boss?"

"You hate your birthday, House. Go do some people some good and do your JOB."

He rolled his eyes. "Job, schomb. Hey, I got an idea—" he turned to Jo, "Why don't you and I go—"

"—House. Stop it." Cuddy motioned for Jo to come to her. "Say goodbye to Uncle Greg and then we can go grab some food, okay?"

Jo nodded and scrambled to stand up and kiss House's stubbly cheek, before climbing down and rejoining her mom.

"Wait," House called out just before Cuddy opened the door. He grabbed his cane, steadied himself before going over to her. "I'm not leaving without my birthday present."

"What are—"

He leaned down and kissed her gently, effectively cutting her off. "That one," he mumbled as he broke off, and then turned, opened the door and left.

"Mommy and Uncle Greg sitting in a tree—"

"Shh!" Cuddy spluttered, still reeling from the kiss, was trying to get out of the Clinic.

"—K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

"I swear, I could feel him grinning as I rushed to the cafeteria," Cuddy grumbled. "How the hell was I supposed to know that four year olds could hide and use cameras efficiently?" Wilson laughed. "And that damn song…"

Wilson took his time controlling himself before becoming serious. "Have you guys…"

"No!" Cuddy answered quickly. Wilson raised an eyebrow. "Oh no. He only kissed me that one time. That's it. And that's as far as he's ever going to get."

"I don't think that's as far as he wants to get, though." Cuddy and Wilson's heads shot up, surprised to find House standing in the room. "Would you be opposed in doing it again?"

"Uh, where's Jo?" Wilson tried to deflect the question.

"The Little Monster got tired of beating me at Mortal Kombat," House replied, keeping his gaze firmly on Cuddy. "She's knocked out on the couch."

"Um… I'll go check on her…"

Cuddy shot Wilson a helpless look and he replied with a shrug, but she could've sworn there was a hint of a grin or a smirk on his face…

"You didn't answer my question, Cuddy."

She put the album aside and strode up to House. "You know damn well the answer to that."

"Yes?" he guessed innocently. She glared. "Look, we both want it to happen, admit it."

Cuddy looked away and took a step back. "House, I—"

Suddenly, his lips were on hers, kissing her almost as gently as the first kiss—and ended nearly as fast.

"—I'm the Dean of Medicine," House mocked, inching closer, "who secretly wants her Head of Diagnostics right now, and wouldn't mind making out with him or jumping his bones this very second. How am I doing so far?"

It took a moment for Cuddy to find out just what the hell House was talking about, then it clicked, and she glared at him. "You forgot the whole rules part."

"Screw 'em. Who needs them anyway? I sure as hell don't. Besides, there's nothing in your precious rulebook that says we can't start something. I checked."

An eyebrow went up. "You checked? Really now?"

"Gotta know the rules to break 'em." He grinned, leaning so close he hovered just above her lips. "So, how's this supposed to work if I can't get past the kissing stage?"

"We'll find a way."

Cuddy leaned in and kissed him again, ignoring the flashes and clicking coming from behind them.