Title: Unlikely.
Rating: I'm not quite sure, because I'm not familiar with the rating system, but most of it is definitely clean. I'll give notice in the chapters if something gets un-clean. But because I have to rate it in the posting process, I've rated it M, just to be on the safe side.
Spoilers: The story picks up after season 5's episode Joy To The World. As to not give anything away, the genre will be general, but you have to read to find out if that's all it's going to be. The main characters will be House and Cuddy, but the rest will be there as well.
Disclaimers: I don't own House or any of its characters. It belongs to Fox and David Shore, etc.
Note:
- I don't have a beta reader and I have no intention of getting one, so I apologize if there are grammar errors, spelling errors etc - English is not my native language.
- If the characters get out of character think of it as character development and keep in mind at all times that this is fiction.
- I won't be going into any medical stuff in detail, so if I write something that seems a bit far out, just go with it and remember that this story is fiction.
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It was a few days into the new year and House was sitting at his piano playing a tune. He was returning to work the following day after having spent the last week and a half at home. There had been no cases needing his attention, so Cuddy had given him and his team time off and told them to enjoy the Holidays.
But House hadn't enjoyed the Holidays.
He had spent Christmas Eve with Wilson eating Chinese food and watching wrestling re-runs. However, Wilson was off the next day to spend some time with family since he also had time off during the Holidays, and that had left House all alone for the week with no one to hang out with.
He had called his mom leaving a message on her answering machine wishing her a Merry Christmas. He had thought about going with her to his aunt Sarah's house for Christmas now that his dad was gone, but he knew he wouldn't have been in the mood to stay for long or be the best company to anyone there, so he had decided to stay home.
On Christmas Eve Cuddy had called him to wish him a Merry Christmas. Due to the situation regarding the Soellner baby it hadn't taken the usual amount of time for her to be approved as the baby's caretaker, so she had been able to take the baby home the day before, as she had been well enough to leave the hospital. House was happy that she had called when Wilson was there because that saved him from uncomfortable small talk and from getting into the direction of a personal conversation with her that he wasn't ready for. However, House had wanted the phone call to last longer than it did, but the baby had started crying, so Cuddy had to hang up.
New Year's Eve was spent with Wilson but also with Wilson's cousin, who had been in town on business the day before and had decided to stay much to House's disappointment. He had hoped to spent some time with Wilson alone for making up for not spending time together since Christmas Eve, but also knew that if he wanted to spend New Year's Eve with Wilson he had to spend it with Wilson's cousin too. House figured it would probably be okay, but the cousin had turned out to be too boring and annoying for House's taste, so New Year's had sucked.
Christmas had sucked. The entire week between Christmas and New Year had sucked. The first few days of the new year had sucked. Going back to work tomorrow would suck unless he had an interesting case. Clinic duty would definitely suck. Wilson had been happy and smiling and had had a good vacation and that sucked. Cuddy would be there with the baby and that would suck. Everything sucked.
House had no intention of making any New Year's resolutions as he thought they were pointless. People always made resolutions to change their lives for the better but never stuck with it, so no point in making fake promises. Besides, he hated change. And being who he was had worked for him the year before, so why change that?
Deciding to stick to what he knew best he would be like he'd been the previous year, and with that thought he drank the last of his bourbon and continued to play the piano.
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The next day House walked into his office late as usual.
Foreman, Kutner, Taub, and Thirteen all looked up as he entered. Kutner smiled at him.
"Happy New Year, House." House made no attempt to acknowledge what Kutner had said and proceeded to get himself a cup of coffee.
Kutner felt a little embarrassed while the other three either shook their heads or rolled their eyes.
Once House had poured himself a cup of coffee he took a sip before turning to face his team.
"Do we have a case?" Foreman nodded.
"Yes."
"Then why aren't you working on it?"
"We don't have it yet."
"Cuddy called minutes before you entered and said she'd be bringing it up shortly." House shook his head in mocking shock disbelief.
"Shortly? Doesn't the woman know that we deal with cases that are a matter of life and death?" He changed to being annoyed. "What could possibly be so important that she didn't bring the case right away?" Both Foreman and Thirteen looked at him annoyed while Taub answered him.
"She brought her baby with her, and she needed her diaper changed. That's why she can't be here straight away."
"If she can't focus on her job, she should've left the kid at home. Or left it with someone, who's more competent at taking care of it." Thirteen gaped at him and everyone else was taken aback a little by his comment. Thirteen shook her head at him.
"You can't be serious?"
"This is a hospital full of sick people and we, as doctors, are supposed to cure them if we can. In that process we need the Dean to administrate and do her job so we can do ours. She's not doing her job so we can't do ours, which in other words means she's killing the patient."
"She's not killing the patient."
"How would you know? Have you read the file?"
"No, and neither have you."
"True, but we get the cases that no one else can solve, which, if I'm not mistaken, means that the patient is pretty close to dying." Thirteen rolled her eyes and gave up on trying to reason, with House. However, he wasn't done. "I thought you of all people would understand the need to get the case as soon as possible."
"And why's that?"
"Because in a few short years you'll be dead, so I'd assume you would want to enjoy the few precious moments left of your life to do other things than wait around to get a case file." She gave him a glare and so did Foreman.
"That's enough, House." House turned to Foreman and replied sarcastically.
"Isn't that sweet of you to stick up for your girlfriend." All four of them gaped. Thirteen and Foreman gaped because they didn't know that House knew about them. Kutner and Taub gaped because they hadn't noticed anything going on between Foreman and Thirteen.
Kutner looked between Foreman and Thirteen.
"Is House right? Are you two together?" Foreman looked at him.
"If it's alright with all of you, we'd rather not discuss our personal life." Foreman and Kutner nodded but House wasn't done.
"Why not? Are you ashamed that she's been getting it on with chicks? You know most men would find that a complete turn on." He wiggled his eye brows at Thirteen. She gave him an angry glare.
"You're an ass."
"Hey it's not my fault that we're having this conversation." Foreman looked at him.
"It's completely your fault."
"No, it's Cuddy's. If she had done her job and brought us the case straight away, we would've never had this conversation. So blame her and her carelessness." Thirteen shook her head.
"You're a real piece of work." House just smirked.
"One of us could've gone down to her office and picked up the file. That way she wouldn't need to get up here and we could be working right now." House faced Taub.
"Are your wife still making you sleep on the couch?" Taub spoke calmly.
"No, why would you assume that?"
"Because if you're not pleasing your wife, you would have a need to please someone else. Now I would think that you're not dumb enough to cheat on your wife again now that you've confessed, so you would need to find a more appropriate way to pleasing a woman. It would please you because it would please Cuddy, if you'd gone to her office to get the file and save her the trip up here." Taub remained calm.
"I didn't say, I should've been the one to get the file, but is there anything wrong with being nice and helping someone out?"
"Yes. No one does anything out of the goodness of their heart. People are only kind toward others if they want something in return or if they want to feel good about themselves."
"I disagree." Taub turned away from House and looked around at the others.
"So she might've let you back in your bed, but your willingness to help Cuddy out lets me to believe that you're not getting any." House walked closer to Taub when he didn't get a reaction from him. "Well?" Taub turned towards him and again spoke calmly.
"My personal life is none of your business. You might think it is, but it's not. And you might think you're right all the time, but you're not." House put his hand over his heart and faked cried.
"That hurts right here." Everyone just shook their heads at him. House looked at his watch and turned back to being annoyed. "Where the hell is Cuddy?"
Ten minutes later House walked over to get himself another cup of coffee when Cuddy entered with the file and the baby.
"Happy New Year, everyone." She smiled around at everyone and they all returned her smile and greeting except for House.
She looked over at him and smiled, but when he wouldn't give her the time of day she paid attention to Thirteen and Kutner, who had both gotten out of their chairs to get a closer look at the baby.
"She's beautiful." Cuddy nodded. "How's she doing?"
"She's doing just fine. She's getting stronger every day, and she shows no sign of permanent damage."
"That's really great."
"Have you given her a name yet." Cuddy looked up at Thirteen and smiled.
"I've named her Hope."
"Oh good god!" Everyone looked at House at his outburst. Foreman and Taub exchanged glances knowing that this couldn't be good. House walked closer. "What's with the hippie names? You named the first one Joy, and now you're naming this kid Hope?" Cuddy glared at him.
"They're not hippie names." He ignored her comment.
"When you screw up with this one and have to hand her back to people, who can actually take care of her, or when she dies, what are you going to call the next kid you try to adopt? Rain? Sunshine? Ocean?"
She was taken aback by his words and the tone of his voice. That night at the hospital when she told him she'd already contacted her lawyer she noticed how soft his voice was when he'd wished her a Merry Christmas. When she had turned around a few seconds later to wish him a Merry Christmas too, he was gone and that made her sad. On Christmas Eve when she'd called, they didn't get a chance to talk as long as she'd liked, because Wilson was at House's and the baby had needed her attention. But House had also seemed a bit uncomfortable to her, so maybe it was a good thing they hadn't talked longer. She had thought about calling him during the week, but had decided against it and instead concentrated on the baby.
But not only was she taken aback, she was also hurt by what he said. When he had showed up at her house the night she lost Joy, he'd told her she'd be a great mom. Was he actually telling her now that she'd screw up? Was he actually being mean the same way that he'd been when she was waiting for Joy to be born? The look on his face told her, he was. She gave him an angry glare.
"I'm not going to screw up and she's not going to die."
"You've already screwed up by not doing your job. You should've brought that file up the minute you got it."
"Hope needed to be changed, and then she started to cry and I…." House caught her off.
"Oh spare me your excuses. In case you haven't noticed this is a hospital where we treat patients." He pointed to the baby. "She's not a patient anymore, so she shouldn't be your first priority. You have obligations to your staff, and you failed by not bringing us that file right away. You could've killed the patient by running around playing mommy." He stared at her angrily. "Leave the kid at home with a sitter or get rid of it." Everyone gaped and Hope started to stir a little when House raised his voice slightly. Cuddy looked at the baby and started to rock her gently.
"Shh, shh. It's okay. You're okay. Mommy's here." She kept rocking her and Hope calmed down after a few seconds. House shook his head.
"You're setting yourself up for failure by calling yourself 'mommy'. Stop pretending something you're not." She glared at him and handed him the file.
"Here." He took it and glared back.
"About damn time." They continued to glare at each other, but then Cuddy turned her attention to Hope. She smiled at her.
"You want to go say hi to uncle James?" The baby cooed, which made Cuddy smile even more. Everyone else smiled too except for House. "Let's go." She looked around at everyone. "Good luck. Let me know how things turn out."
"Oh so you do actually plan on doing your job today." She gave House another glare at his comment and left the room without another word.
Foreman shook his head.
"House, was that really necessary?" House looked back at Foreman.
"Well, she obviously needed to be reminded to do her job." He threw the file on the table. "Don't let me remind you to do yours." They all stood around for a few seconds before all sitting down to read the file.
TBC.