Caught!

By Ellie J.

A/N: Several people have complained about the lack of fluffy fic that's been out there lately. I'm one of them. I love angst, and I know that this season has been one long angst-fest, but it's Christmas. I want fluff! Here's my contribution to the effort.

Disclaimer: Not mine. If they were we would have had a wee bit less angst this season so far.

Cuddy stormed into the ER waiting room looking for House. He had insulted a prominent donor's wife by remarking on all of the plastic surgery that she'd had done. Which was bad enough, but he had said these things in front of other prominent donors. It had taken all of Cuddy's diplomatic skills to smooth over the situation. She then went looking for House who, of course, was hiding. She had searched all of his usual hiding spots before remembering that he occasionally liked to hang out in the ER when it was busy to watch television and camouflage himself among patients.

Her eyes swept over the waiting room and she spotted the back of his head in a far off corner near a woman trying to console a crying baby. Pushing back her surprise at his choice of seating, she strode over towards him prepared to yank him back to her office so she could properly yell at him when she stopped, her anger temporarily forgotten, at the sight before her.

House was sitting with his hands stretched out in front of him, palms up, across from a giggling little boy who had his hands on top of House's. She stared as House moved his hands in an attempt to lightly smack the boy's before he moved them away. He was making silly faces and pretending to be angry when the boy moved his hands before he could touch them. The boy, who appeared to be about four years old, just laughed harder. She couldn't help but smile.

He turned as if he felt her gaze. Her smile widened as she detected his cheeks turning red as he looked down, obviously embarrassed. Cuddy wished that she had a camera with her because in the many years that she'd known Greg House, she had never seen him blush before.

He quickly recovered, of course, and he leaned towards the boy and whispered conspiratorially, "Uh oh, my mommy's here to yell at me."

The boy looked up at Cuddy and then turned back to House with a confused look on his face. "She's not old enough to be your mommy," he told House.

"Well she yells at me like mommies do," House replied. "And she spanks me when I've been bad."

Cuddy snorted. "You wish," she told House in a low, quiet voice, but not low enough or quiet enough to avoid the ears of the little boy. He looked at House, even more bewildered than before.

"You want to get spanked?"

House smirked up at Cuddy, and it was her turn to blush. "You want to handle this, Mommy."

"I was just being really silly with Dr. House," she replied in her nice voice.

The boy now turned to House and gasped in surprise. "You're a doctor?"

House shrugged. "Sorry Buddy." He turned to Cuddy. "Thanks for blowing my cover. Isaiah here was just telling me how evil doctors were because they liked to give shots and stuff like that."

"And you told me about the Evil Dr. Lisa who was also a witch, and she liked to force people to do all sorts of bad things that they didn't want to do. And that she made little boys, like me, eat yucky things like brussel sprouts and spinach for dinner before she locked them up in the doctor's office to get shots all day long."

Cuddy raised her eyebrow. "Ha ha. Just give the boy a phobia about doctors. Thanks," she said dryly.

The woman next to House had finally gotten the baby calmed down and heard Cuddy's last statement.

"Oh no," she said in House's defense. "He told the story in a really funny way. Isaiah loved it. I'm so thankful that he was here. Especially now that I know he's a busy doctor. Shelby was crying and Isaiah was getting antsy. We had to bring my husband in after he hurt himself with his new electric saw, and we've been here for what seems like forever. Anyways, Greg was very helpful and kept Isaiah occupied while I was trying to get the baby calmed down. He was a real godsend. I wish every doctor took the time to help out the families like this."

Cuddy was literally robbed of speech. She glanced over at House who was definitely unprepared for the woman's praise. He was turning red again and looking down. Cuddy fought the urge to laugh.

Isaiah took her silence for disbelief and piped up as well in House's defense. "Greg is the nicest doctor I ever met," he said sincerely. This was Cuddy's undoing and she burst into hysterical laughter. House glared at her.

"It's not that funny."

"Oh," she said amid the laughter, "I'm pretty sure that I can fill this room with people who would disagree. Starting with your team, Wilson, the nurses, the Board and well … everyone who knows you." She paused as an idea came to her. House noticed the evil glint in her eye. He stood up and pulled Cuddy away from the questioning eyes of Isaiah and his mother.

"What do you want?" he asked sullenly.

"Go and apologize, sincerely, to Mrs. Melton and I won't take Isaiah and his mother to meet everyone in the hospital … starting with Dr. Cameron." House's eyes widened in horror.

"You wouldn't!"

"The choice is all yours."

"You do know that Mrs. Melton has had more work done on her than the Sistine Chapel. I don't think she has any of her original parts."

"That doesn't mean it's okay for you to blurt that fact out in the middle of a crowd."

"Fine," he groaned. House turned back to Isaiah and his mom who had been watching them with interest. "It's all good. Try to keep your husband away from the power tools from now on."

The woman rolled her eyes. "I'll try."

"Bye Dr. Greg. Thanks for playing with me!"

Cuddy started laughing again and House grabbed her by the arm to steer her out of the waiting room and into the hallway. He angrily pushed the button for the elevator. He looked over at Cuddy who was still silently laughing to herself. This is why he didn't do anything nice.

The End

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