"Come on, Mom!" Dorinda called loudly.
"Yeah," added Robin. "We're going to be late picking up Noel and Aubrey!" Seconds later, Lisa House, nee Cuddy, came down the hall pulling on a jacket.
"Alright, girls," she said, "say goodbye to Dad and Tyler and we can leave."
"Bye Dad, bye Tyler!" the 9 year olds called. They heard voices from somewhere else in the house which they took to be "Goodbye" as well.
Lisa smiled as they walked out the door.
Tyler slowly opened the door to his parents' bedroom. His dad looked up from the medical journal he was reading and grinned at his son. Tyler smiled slightly back. Greg House set the journal down and looked questioningly at the 16 year old boy.
Tyler suddenly felt tears well up in his eyes. He couldn't take it anymore! He launched himself on the bed and buried his head in his dad's side. He let the tears of a week's worth of pent up fear, frustration, and anger finally fall from his eyes.
His dad never said a word. He just sat there running one hand through his little boy's curly brown hair and rubbed small circles on his back with the other.
That was one of the best things about his dad, Tyler thought. Every time he needed his dad, he was there. He never pushed Tyler into talking; he always just sat with him until he decided to start talking, comforting him the whole time.
Greg thought back to the last time his son had done this. He was 11 years old and he had gotten in a huge fight with his mother. She hadn't let him go to a party one of his friends was having because it was his brother, Markus', 2nd birthday. He had told her that she wasn't his real mother (she had adopted him when she and Greg were married) and that she didn't have any right to tell him what to do, that it was up to his real parent. Lisa's eyes had filled with tears, according to Tyler, and she walked away.
He hadn't even found out about this incident until about a week after it had happened. He had noticed something off between mother and son but she had said it was nothing. Finally, one night while his mother was playing with the girls, Tyler had found his dad and did exactly what he was doing now.
Greg was pulled from his memories by Tyler sitting up and wiping his face off with the sleeve of his long sleeved t-shirt. Tyler was pale and he looked terrified.
"Dad," Tyler started off shakily, "Maura's pregnant."
"That girl that you broke up with 4 months ago?" House asked. Tyler nodded.
House was taken aback. Whatever he had been expecting, this was certainly not it.
"Pregnant?" House said hoarsely. "Is she sure?"
"Yeah, she is definitely pregnant," Tyler whispered.
"What happened to the condoms I gave you?" House asked.
"Well…" Tyler mumbled, "we were in the, you know, heat of things, and we kind of forgot one time. But she told me she was on the Pill, I swear, so I didn't think it would be any big deal. If she hadn't, I would never have you know, neglected that. You know I wouldn't."
He did know this. His son was very conscientious about important things such as this. If he had known that she wasn't on the Pill, he never would have neglected to use other protection.
"How far along is she?" House asked softly.
"I think about 30 weeks," Tyler told his dad. "She told me about a month ago and she said she was about 25 weeks then."
"What are you two going to do?" House asked gently.
"I don't know!" Tyler cried, fresh tears welling up in his eyes. "Her parents are really conservative Catholics and they didn't let her get an abortion but they won't let her keep the baby, either."
"They let her go on the Pill but wouldn't let her have an abortion or keep the baby?" House scoffed.
"Well," Tyler said uncomfortably, "the Pill was to control her, uh, woman processes. It was giving her lots of trouble, so they gave her the Pill for the hormones." House laughed at his son's discomfort.
They sat for a few minutes before anything else was said. Finally, Greg asked, "What are you going to do?"
"I don't know, Dad," Tyler moaned.
"Do you want it?" House inquired.
"I- yes, I do," Tyler said, surprising both men slightly. "I don't want to give up my baby."
"Then don't," replied the elder House.
"But how can I take care of a baby?" Tyler asked his dad.
"You know, I asked myself the same thing when I found out about you," House commented absentmindedly.
"I guess I could work at the music store more," Tyler said thoughtfully. "And I could give more lessons on guitar and piano, maybe even on the trumpet too. And I could always leave school for a few years and get a full time job…"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," House said quickly. "No one is dropping out of school."
"But, how else can I take care of the baby?" Tyler said frantically. "I know that they cost at least $800 a month and I barely make that in 2 months! I-"
His father cut him off. "Your mother and I will help you, Tyler. You can pay for what you can and we will help you cover the rest."
"How do you know mom will agree?" Tyler asked timidly. "What if she says that I have to pay for it all myself?"
"She won't," House assured the 16 year old. Tyler opened his mouth to say something. "I will make sure of that."
"Why?" Tyler inquired. "Why are you being so cool about this? I effed up big time. You never did anything this stupid."
House chuckled. "Of course I did," he replied.
"You got a 17 year old pregnant?" Tyler raised an eyebrow.
"Well, no," House said, "not unless you count me getting my girlfriend of 4 months pregnant. At least you and Maura went out for a year before you knocked her up. But I have done plenty of stupid things before. I doubt that you remember this but when you were really little, I was addicted to pain killers. It was killing my liver and kidneys and once you came along, it endangered you because I wasn't always very…lucid when I had taken to many pills. I could have let you get hurt."
"I didn't know that," Tyler said quietly, looking at his dad.
"Well, after I got custody of you when you were almost 2, I went into rehab while you stayed with Uncle Jimmy."
"You're ok now though, right?" Tyler asked his dad.
"You mean am I still a drug addict?" House asked disgustedly. "God, no."
"I meant your liver and kidneys," Tyler replied tensely.
"Oh," House said. "As far as I know, they are fine."
"Good." Tyler said firmly. "But you never answered why you were being so cool about all of this." House didn't say anything for a moment. When he finally answered, Tyler could tell that this was a very painful topic for his father.
"You know that granddad and I didn't always get on very well, right?" he asked his son. Tyler nodded. "Well, I don't think that I ever told you why.
"You see, your grandfather and I had a very strained relationship until a few months after I got you. Before that I hated him. Hated him because he- well, I suppose he abused me. Physically he abused me by leaving me to sleep in the cold or take ice baths and basically training me as one of his marines but that's not what I am talking about. You learned about verbal and emotional abuse in Psychology, right?" Tyler nodded again, his attention fixed on his father. "No matter what I did, it was never good enough for him. He was never proud of me, always berating me for everything. I don't even think he ever told me that he loved me. We had a huge falling out when I was 12, almost 13. I had known that he wasn't biologically my father for a while and one day, I got really angry when he told me that I couldn't be a doctor and told him that he wasn't my father. He didn't talk to me for the rest of the summer after that incident. We barely spoke for the rest of the time I lived with my parents but he never said anything kind to me and never supported anything that I wanted to do.
"I don't want that to happen to us, buddy," House said softly. "I don't want you to ever think that I am not proud of you or that I don't support you or love you, no matter what happens. The same goes for mom and your brother and sisters. Whether you become a doctor or a mechanic, keep the baby or not, I will always love you and be proud of you." By the end of his speech, Greg House was teary eyed. All those years of being a parent had made him soft, apparently.
Tyler was fighting back tears too. "I love you, too, Daddy!" he whispered, hugging his dad fiercely. He hadn't called his dad, daddy in years, Tyler realized. Not since he was probably 8 years old. It felt good to, just for a moment, get away from all the stress and be 8 again.