Cat's Cradle

Chapter I: Discovery

Author's Note: Started this story a while back, never posted it, got stuck, decided to rewrite. Anyway this is AU/Sci-Fi, the idea came from the movie Splice, although it is nothing like that movie, not really anyway. Sit back and enjoy, I doubt I'll get many reviews though.

For a month she hadn't been into work, and House was getting annoyed. All he could dig up was something about her sister being sick, she never left the house, opened the door, or made appearances in any windows. If anything was being delivered to the house he didn't know about it. At times it seemed absolutely dead, other times lights would come on. Every time he knocked on the door and demanded to see her, there was absolute silence. He knew she was still alive, as he had checked in with her boss frequently. Everything was very hush hush though, and he was getting to the end of his sanity rope.

It was his third night in a row just staring at Cuddy's door waiting for anything to happen as he contemplated busting a window and just letting himself in. All indications were that she was alive and well but being the man that he was, he needed to see her, touch her, talk to her. As he was popping another vicodin a dark figure approached the door and knocked on it. This caught his attention right away and he got out of his car and came up the unlit driveway to apprehend the person.

"HEY!" He shouted, just as the door started to open. He was now able to ascertain that the person was a female and as she was startled by his voice she dropped the box of whatever she was carrying and turned to run. Not knowing who it was, or why they were even there, he did the only thing he could do, "Don't move I have a gun."

"Oh yeah right." It was Thirteen, he knew her voice right away, but she didn't turn around and didn't move. It was so unlit in the driveway that no one could possibly see if he had a gun or not. That's when Cuddy poked her head out of the door and he got his first glimpse of her in a month. She looked fine, healthy, like normal Cuddy would. What the hell was going on here? Suddenly some outside lighting came on, presumably with the flick of a switch inside.

"You don't have a gun." Cuddy said, she stepped outside into the cold winter air. "Now leave."

"I'm not leaving til someone tells me what the fuck is going on." House demanded. Thirteen turned to look at him and then back at Cuddy. They started to whisper angrily back and fourth at each other, and as House approached he could hear things like 'no' and 'absolutely not'. "Cuddy, if I have to start busting ass I will. This has gone on long enough."

Cuddy looked at him and swallowed hard, it was almost as if she had been caught doing something she shouldn't be doing. Was Thirteen there for some sort of affair? And even if she was, how would that explain Cuddy being gone for a month? None of this was making sense and he was going to get to the bottom of it right now.

"I suppose I couldn't keep this a secret forever." She finally relented and backed up, leaving the door open for him to come in. He brushed passed Thirteen and entered the house. He didn't see anything that indicated she was keeping a secret, but there were other rooms in the house.

"This is not a good idea." Thirteen muttered as she picked up the box of what House now recognized as food and entered behind him.

"Of all the people I didn't want to know about this, you were the first." Cuddy said seriously. House looked at her, completely annoyed. What could she possibly have that he shouldn't know about? Why was he the first? What was her problem?

"Where is Hope?" Thirteen asked.

"In her room." Cuddy said, "You go stay with her while I talk to him, okay?" Thirteen nodded and set the box of food down before hurrying off into the guest room and shutting the door behind her.

"Hope? Who is Hope? What is Hope?" House asked suspiciously. Cuddy motioned for him to take a seat. What he really wanted to do was follow Thirteen into the bedroom and see for himself, but he couldn't break Cuddy's trust right now, he had to sit down and listen to what she had to say because she could just as easily refuse to tell him anything and keep this Hope thing locked away for another month. Slowly he took a seat on the couch and looked over at her. "Well?"

"About a month ago there was a knock on my door. She was just left here with a note attached saying "She's your problem now" so I took her in. What was I supposed to do?" Cuddy blurted out suddenly. House was confused, was she talking about a person? A cat? A dog? It was most likely a person only because Cuddy wouldn't have stayed at home for a damn animal, at least not for a whole month.

"What you should have done was gone to the authorities and told them that you found a baby and-"

"She's not...normal." Cuddy cut him off. House blinked a few times. There were only so many things that could be wrong with the girl, none of which were reasons to keep her sealed away for a month, at least that was his line of reasoning.

"What's not normal about her? Huh? What's so damn weird that you had to keep her here and only tell Thirteen about?" House asked, feeling himself getting irate.

"Well..." Cuddy winced slightly, it was so painfully obvious that she didn't want to tell him and it almost hurt. The thought that she couldn't trust him was heart breaking. No matter what it was, if she wanted to keep it a secret then he would keep it with her. Surely she knew that. "She's half cat."

"What?"

"Yeah." Cuddy said and bit her bottom lip, "Cat ears, tail, claws, arched feet, fur, eyes, tongue..." House couldn't believe what he was hearing. There was no way Cuddy was telling him that there was a human/cat hybrid in her house. He stood up and started to walk towards the guest room without her permission.

"I gotta see this..."

"House wait!" Before she could catch up to his mile a minute stride he had entered the fully decorated guest bedroom. On the bed were Thirteen and Hope. Except Hope was nowhere near being a baby. By this time she was nearly as tall as him, but she was what Cuddy had said.

Hope was eerily beautiful too. She had curves like a human female and firm breasts to match. She was dressed in a crop top and some black jeans. The feet which protruded from the bottom of the pants were arched and covered with orange and black fur. Her long black and orange striped hair was pulled back into a braid that almost reached her butt. When she saw House she hissed just like a cat and backed up, arching her back in an odd way.

"Oh my God." House breathed. Cuddy wasn't kidding, she hadn't lost her mind, there was a cat human right there in front of him. Thirteen immediately went to soothing Hope, stroking her hair gently, like one would a cat. "Cuddy, this is...we have to get her to the hospital, run tests and-"

"NO! No hospital! No people! No tests!" Cuddy shouted and then came more into the room and over to Hope, sitting down next to her. With the help of Thirteen and Cuddy, the creature slowly started to calm down. That's when Cuddy turned to her 'daughter' and spoke. "Hope, honey, this is my friend House. He's a friend, do you understand?" Cuddy looked deep into Hope's eyes and after a moment she calmed completely. Hope pulled away from Cuddy and Thirteen and walked towards House cautiously.

"Can she talk?" House asked as the thing started to sniff him.

"Not that we know of." Thirteen said. "But she seems to understand us." Hope's tail switched back and fourth angrily and she bent down gracefully in front of him and started to sniff his crotch. This was all too odd for House and he shoved her back by the shoulders. She yowled and scampered back to Cuddy, diving into her arms.

"She's never seen a male." Cuddy said, "Do you think you could be more courteous?"

"You want me to let her sniff my crotch?" House said, "Cuddy have you gone completely insane?"

"House, she's scared and lonely. Most likely she's the only one of her kind. Have some sympathy!" Thirteen shouted as Hope nuzzled into Cuddy's shoulder exactly like a cat would do.

"Oh I'm sorry should I whip it out and let her suck it?"

"HOUSE!" Cuddy screeched causing Hope to meow as if she was in distress.

"This, right here, is not a baby, it's a teenager of some sort. Maybe even an adult." House said, gesturing to Hope. Cuddy looked at Thirteen and then back to House. She started to stroke Hope's hair, scratching her behind the ears. The girl started to purr loudly, like a large cat would.

"She grew this fast, House. I promise you she's only a month old." Cuddy said softly. House looked over to Thirteen who nodded that she was telling the truth. "Just be nice to her okay? She's been through a lot." House rolled his eyes and then hobbled over to Hope and reached his hand out to her.

"I'm House." He said. Slowly, as if he would bite her, Hope reached her hand out and placed it on top of his. Instantly he felt some sort of connection with her. It was almost ethereal too. There was some chemistry behind it, or some telepathy, something, because in that moment he was drawn into her and only wanted to protect her. Maybe that's what Cuddy and Thirteen were feeling, this thing had cast a spell over them as she just had him. "Do you understand I'm not going to hurt you?"

"Mrow." Hope replied and then smiled, baring her four sharp fangs. Other than that her teeth were like a human's would be, but once again there were tell tale signs that she wasn't all that she was cracked up to be.

"See? Are we all happy now?" House asked, retracting his hand from Hope, feeling the connection disintegrate. Maybe the longer one was with Hope, the stronger the connection became. In any case he wasn't blinded by her any longer. "Cuddy can I talk to you in the other room please?"

"Yeah." Cuddy said and then turned to Hope, "I'll be right outside with my friend okay?" She said, and Hope nodded. Cuddy pulled away from her and stood up, walking House out of the room and back into the living room.

"You plan on keeping her like this?" House asked, "For how long Cuddy? For the rest of her life?"

"If need be." Cuddy said and then looked away from him and headed for the kitchen, "You want something to drink?" House followed after her. It was clear that she hadn't thought all of this through. The thing could live for another month or it could live for years, without testing it they wouldn't know.

"And you think that's fair?" House retaliated. Cuddy didn't look at him as she started to make a pot of coffee. "How would you like to be trapped in a house your whole life?"

"If it was all I knew, I'd be happy." Cuddy replied, still not looking at him. House wanted to grab her and shake the hell out of her at that point. He couldn't exactly call this child abuse because he didn't know what the hell that thing was but hew did know it was unfair to keep her trapped the way she was.

"Look, you've been here for a month. Does that seem the least bit rational to you?" House asked. Finally she turned to look at him, there were tears shimmering in her eyes.

"House, I don't know what it is about her but from the moment I held her in my arms I knew she was something special. Can't you under-"

"Actually I do." House interrupted her, "When she touched my hand I felt it. It has to be chemical or telepathic or something. My point is, you are going to have to go back into work. Maybe now that I know, we can take shifts or something." House said with a sigh. The last thing he wanted to do was babysit a half human half cat but he wanted Cuddy to continue with her life and do it in a healthy fashion.

"Really?" She sniffled.

"Yeah, you can trust me to keep this secret." House reassured her, putting his hand on her shoulder. She smiled up at him brightly and then pulled him into a hug.

"Thank you House, it's such a relief, you have no idea." She said and then pulled away.

"There is just one condition." He said slowly, looking her in the eyes again. She looked back and swallowed hard, no doubt wondering what the hell this condition could be.

"I want to take some of her blood to test."