"Twenty bucks says I can get this door open under twenty seconds." House said outside of Cuddy's house.
"Okay." Chase and Foreman both agreed.
Twenty minutes later after going through the kitchen and the living room, House made his way upstairs. He knew Cuddy's room was downstairs, and he already had dibs there, but he'd always wondered about what was up these stairs. After a long flight up the stairs, he found himself staring into a messy room. "Jeez, Cuddy." He mouthed, but this way beyond the tidy way Cuddy led her life, this was worthy of him. Pushing the door open with his cane, he could tell this was a teenage girl's room. The walls were lined with Olympic Swim posters and medals, a set of drums sat in the corner, and the desk was covered in papers much like his own. House walked to the night stand and took a look at a picture of the girl that he guessed occupied this room, in it was a girl with wet hair in her warm up uniform beside a pool with Cuddy grinning at the camera. "Cuddy, a mom?" He asked. He picked up another photo with the same girl, this time she had dry curly hair, surrounded by four boys they looked like they were on a stage. The last photo he grabbed was one of the same girl, she looked to be only about four or five, holding a baby, she looked unsure but happy. House decided he should check the other room.
"Jesus Christ." House said as he walked into the other room. The walls were painted a pale yellow and everything within was extremely organized. House walked straight to her night stand to look at her photos, he picked up the first one that he saw. The girl from the opposite room looked to be about ten and the other one maybe five, the oldest was holding a fish that she had obviously caught, the youngest looked grossed out while the oldest was making a gesture with her tongue that made it look like she was licking the fish. House smiled a little at these kids, the oldest one seemed pretty cool and the youngest seemed like Cuddy. He picked up another photo, the oldest girl was in her warm up suit and the youngest had on a shirt with a team logo on it, they were standing beside a pool with about a hundred boys in speedos behind them, the youngest girl looked embarassed and the oldest was laughing. The third photo was a younger version of them about two and seven, they were both sitting at the kitchen table with spaghetti covering both of their little faces. The spaghetti really brought his focus to their eyes, both girls had a set of blues exactly like his own.
He looked up and then back down to the photo, he started to slowly do the math in his head. He was a father? He went back to the older girl's room and began looking on her desk and through her schoolwork, he finally found her name, Emily Cuddy. This was his daughter. He repeated the same thing in the youngest girl's room, it was much easier, Abigail Cuddy. So he had children; daughters.
He got down the stairs and limped to Cuddy's office, looking through every file until he found the ones entitled "Emily" and "Abigail". He looked their birth certificates over them until he got to the father's name, where he read "Gregory House".
"House!" He heard Foreman call.
"What?" He answered irratibly.
"There's a school bus letting kids off out front, we need to go." Chase said.
"Alright we'll go out the back." House said.
"No, who told you that?" A voice asked.
"Jamie Fisher." A more childish voice said.
"Well mom told me when I was nine that all babies came from Chicago, so who are you going to believe? Mom or Jamie Fisher." The older voice asked.
"Mom." The childish voice answered.
"Exactly." The older voice said.
"House, come on!" Foreman hissed.
House gave one final look in the direction that the voices were coming from, then he left.
Back at the hospital, the boys met up with Cameron and Cuddy.
"Rat bites. The cuts on his hands that he said were from the roof were actually from the rats in his apartment." Cameron said, expecting House to give her an approving look. Instead she found him staring at Cuddy.
"Can I talk to you?" House asked.
"Sure." Cuddy said, walking towards her office.
Once the doors were closed, he lost it.
"I have kids!?" He half yelled.
"What?" Cuddy asked, taken aback.
"Emily and Abigail?" House asked, lowering his voice a little more.
"Who...how...do you know?" Cuddy asked.
"I...it doesn't matter." House said.
"Yes it does, those are my daughters you're talking about." Cuddy said.
"Yeah, and apparently mine too." House said.
"No, not your's, just because you share DNA with them it doesn't make you their dad." Cuddy said.
"Yeah it does, and it's your fault I wasn't around. Don't freak out at me just because I found out about my own daughters, what if I withheld Emily from you for fifteen years, or Abigail for ten?" House asked.
"I'm sorry." Cuddy said after a long pause.
"I want to meet them." House said.
"No." Cuddy said.
"Why not, you got to meet them like the second they were born?" House asked.
"Because they don't need this right now." Cuddy said.
"I think they can handle it." House said.
"Maybe, but I don't want to risk it." Cuddy said.
"Come on, they're my kids." House said.
"They're my kids." Cuddy said.
"Our kids." House said.
"I'll talk to them." Cuddy said.
"Thanks." House asked.
Abigail was busy working on her homework in her room, when Emily walked in.
"Someone has been in my room." Emily said.
"How can you tell?" Abigail asked.
"Because my desk is a mess and my pictures have moved around on the nightstand." Emily said.
"Your desk?" Abigail asked, looking at her own.
"Yeah, I just said my desk." Emily said.
They stopped talking as they heard the front door open.
"Mom's home." Abigail said.
"Mom!" Emily yelled.
"What?" Cuddy asked, making her way up the stairs.
"Someone has been in my room." Emily said.
"Mine too, look at the photos, you know I like them angled towards the door." Abigail said.
Cuddy and Emily shared a small laugh at Abigail's geekiness.
"What?" Abigail asked.
"Nothing, it's just I have a pretty good idea of who has been in your rooms." Cuddy said.
"Who?" Abigail and Emily asked.
"I'll tell you about it later. What do you guys want for dinner?" Cuddy asked.
"Something quick, I have swim practice in an hour." Emily said.
"And I told Collin Warner that I would catch him up on the piano lesson he missed on Friday." Abigail said.
"Okay, pizza it is." Cuddy said.
House walked the stairs to Cuddy's door, each step he began to panic a little more. He gave a short knock on the door.
"Mom!" He heard coming from behind the door.
"I've got it." He heard another voice say.
The door was thrown open and he was face to face to Emily. She was dressed in jeans and Joan Jett T-shirt, her soft brown curls were spilling out of the bun that was carelessly thrown on top of her head.
"Who are you?" Emily asked.
"Common courtesy, much?" Abigail hissed from the couch.
"Right, come in." Emily said.
"Thanks." House said.
"Hang on a sec, kay?" Emily said, running up the stairs.
"Kay." House said.
"I'm Abigail." Abigail said.
"I'm Greg." House said.
"Do you work with my mom?" Abigail asked.
"Yeah." House said.
"What's your specialty?" Abiail asked.
"Diagnostics." House said.
"You're Dr. House aren't you?" Abigail asked.
"I am." House said.
"My mom says things about you sometimes." Abigail said.
"What are you studying?" House asked.
"Just reading over some Kate Chopin works, I have a test on her life as an author tommorrow." Abigail said.
"What grade are you in, kid?" House asked.
"The fourth." Abigail said.
"What school do you go to?" House asked.
"Cannon Academy." Abigail said.
"Do you play the piano?" House asked, noticing the piano sitting in the corner.
"Yeah." Abigail said.
"So do I." House said.
"I'm going to my friend Collin's house to teach him a few peices. My teacher says that I'm the best in my class." Abigail said.
"That's great, does your sister play any instruments?" House asked awkwardly.
"She plays the drums, she's in a band. Last month they opened for some great band in a bar upstate." Abigail said.
"Cudd-Your mom allowed this?" House asked.
"Actually she never found out, could you not mention it?" Abigail asked.
"I won't say anything." House said.
"Thanks, Emily would pretty much kill me if mom found out." Abigail said.
"If I found out what?" Cuddy asked.
"If you found out that I wasn't studying this material." Abigail quickly covered up.
"Right, why don't you go upstairs and get ready for Collin's?" Cuddy asked.
"Okay." Abigail said.
"Mom!" Emily screamed from upstairs.
Cuddy didn't waste any time running upstairs, and House had ditched the cane and was following behind her. When they entered Emily's room they saw her standing on top of her bed glancing around the floor.
"What is it?" House asked.
"There was this freaking monstrous spider crawling on the floor, I'm pretty positive it's poisonous." Emily said.
"Seriously?" House asked.
"Mommy, is it gone?" Emily asked, sounding like a child.
"I don't see it anywhere, sweetie, why don't you come downstairs?" Cuddy asked, helping her off of the bed.
"Okay." Emily said, grabbing her swim bag.
"Are you ready, sweetheart?" Cuddy asked, poking her head in Abigail's room.
"Yeah." Abigail said. House smiled as she walked out of her room, Emily had his sense of style and apparently Abigail was a perfect mix of he and Cuddy when it came to clothes; she was wearing a white shirt with a giraffe neck sloping up the side and finally ending up on her shoulder, a navy blue cardigan over the shirt, simple jeans, and red converse sneakers to top it all off. She was absolutley adorable, her short wavy hair was pulled to the side in a clip, and she threw on a green bookbag onto her back.
"Bye, pick me up by 8:15." Emily said as she got out of the car.
"Okay, bye." Cuddy said as she watched the clock, she told Collin's mom she would have Abigail there by 6:00.
"Christ, how long does it take to swim a couple of laps?" House asked.
"No one asked you to come." Cuddy said.
"Mom, we're going to be late." Abigail said from the back.
"No we won't." Cuddy said.
"Yes we will, I hate Emily! I specifically asked her if she had her bag, of course she said yes. Do you think she had the bag? No..." Abigail ranted in the back.
House started to feel his lips tug upward, he'd heard the same rants out of Cuddy's own mouth a million times over him.
"She reminds me of someone...but I can't quite put my finger on it." House said sarcastically.
"Shut up." Cuddy said, a smile beginning to form on her own face.
"Thank god." Abigail said melodramatically as they reached Collin's house.
"Do you want me to go in with you, honey?" Cuddy asked.
"No, I'm good, mom." Abigail said.
"I'll come and get you at 8:00, okay?" Cuddy asked.
"Okay, bye." Abigail said.
"Was that your mom and dad, Abigail?" Collin's mom asked.
"Yeah." Abigail said, knowing that Dr. House wasn't her dad but to save the embarrassment she just agreed so.
House smiled at her, she could feel him staring.
"What?" She asked.
"Thanks." House said.
"For what?" Cuddy asked.
"For those two." House said.
"I should be thanking you." Cuddy said.
"You should, I know how you could repay me." House said.
"I'm reluctant to tell them, but if you're sure you want this and you won't hurt them, we'll do it." Cuddy said.
"Thanks." House finally said.
"You're welcome." Cuddy said.
"Dude, what are you doing later on tonight?" Emily's friend, Hannah, asked.
"I don't know, I'm pretty sure I'm meeting my dad tonight." Emily said.
"What?" Hannah gasped.
"It's...whatever, you know?" Emily sad.
"I guess, but I've known my dad my whole life." Hannah said.
"I've known of my dad since I was thirteen, I'm not an idiot." Emily said.
"Yeah, but you're like meeting him for the first time." Hannah said.
"I guess, it's not a big deal." Emily said.
"It so is, and you're so phsyced." Hannah said.
"A little." Emily said.
"Wait, you're still coming to the meet in Crandall this weekend, right?" Hannah asked.
"Crandall always presents a good time, of course I'm coming." Emily said, walking out of the locker room.
Emily walked out into the parking lot to find her mom, Abigail, and Dr. House waiting for her. She sighed as she got into the car.
"I have a meet in Crandall this weekend, will I be taking the bus?" Emily asked.
Cuddy looked at House who looked excited at the idea of attending one of Emily's swim meets.
"No." Cuddy said.
"Mom, you said that we were going to New York for the weekend, you swore." Abigail said.
"Can't we do that next weekend, sweetie?" Cuddy asked.
"I guess." Abigail said disappointedly.
"We can go shopping in Crandall." Cuddy suggested.
"I suppose." Abigail said.
"Are you our dad or something?" Emily asked.
"Emily!" Cuddy exclaimed.
"I was just asking, actually I already know the answer, but I was just asking." Emily said.
"He'-wait, how do you already know the answer?" Cuddy asked.
"I'm not an idiot, skills of deductive reasoning come in handy when you guys work in a scandalous hospital such as Princeton Plainsboro." Emily said.
"Hang on, he's our dad?" Abigail asked Emily.
"Yeah, you guys met up at Michigan, right?" Emily asked.
"Well, it was a sunny day..." House started.
"Yes." Cuddy said, cutting House off and giving him the look.
"I was a college-mistake-baby? Excellent." Emily said.
"Great, what was I?" Abigail asked.
"I bet you were late night-internship-baby." Emily said, wiggling her eye brows.
"What does that mean?" Abigail giggled.
"Nothing, it doesn't mean anything." Cuddy said to Abigail.
"Then why is she saying it?" Abigail asked.
"To lighten the mood. It's what I do best, one of the perks of being a college-mistake-baby, I was born fun and care free." Emily said.
"What was I born like?" Abigail asked.
"Stressed and paranoid." Emily said.
"I wasn't stressed or paranoid my intern year." House said.
"That's because you were a resident, when you know..." Cuddy said.
"Oh! Mom, way to mix business with...I'm not gonna allow myself to finish that." Emily said.
House was beginning to think that these were the best kids ever. Emily had his sense of humor and Abigail had his sense of curiosity. Telling them, well letting them guess, couldn't have gone any better. They were both calm about it and had a good sense of humor about the whole thing.
"So...Greg, that's what I'll call you for now. Abigail?" Emily asked.
"Agreed." Abigail confirmed.
"Okay, Greg, are you coming to my swim meet this weekend?" Emily asked.
"Well, I'll have to check with my boss." House said.
"Mom?" Abigail asked.
"I guess, if you do six extra hours of clinic hours." Cuddy said.
"Three." House said.
"Five." Cuddy said.
"Wow, it's just like having real parents." Emily said excitedly.
"Four." House finally said.
"This is what we missed?" Abigail asked.
"Done." Cuddy said.
"Apparently so." Emily said.
"It's agreed, I can go." House told the girls in the back seat.
"We heard the whole thing." Abigail said.
"Just being informative." House said.
"Thanks." Abigail said.