A tiny, but crucial chapter!

The morning before her second ultrasound, Cuddy propped her head on the pillow and looked at House.

"Do you definitely want to know?" she said.

"I'm pretty sure we've firmly established that you're pregnant at this point," House said, smiling and kissing the tiny bump on her belly that had popped up, seemingly overnight, a few days ago.

"Not that," she said, rolling her eyes a bit. "I mean, if it's a boy or a girl?"

House gave her one of his condescending looks.

"You're joking, right?"

"I realize that it's more practical to know the gender, but there's something, I dunno, magical about not knowing," Cuddy said dreamily.

"Yes, because willful ignorance is always the preferred option," House said.

"It's traditional not to know," Cuddy said.

"You know why it's traditional?" House said. "Because back then, they had no way of knowing. Today, they have these lovely things called sonograms and we get to find out how to decorate the room in advance—trucks and toy guns for him, dolls and chastity belts for her."

"You can find out if you want," she said. "But I reserve the right to be blissfully ignorant."

"It's going to be pretty damn obvious when I start painting the nursery blue," House said.

"Like you'd ever paint a room," Cuddy snorted.

#####

As it turned out, there was no mystery as to the baby's gender. One look at the ultrasound and it was immediately clear.

"That's my boy!" House said, proudly. "You don't need a magnifying glass to see that puppy!"

"It's definitely a boy," the technician agreed, smiling a bit. "And a healthy one at that."

"A chip off the old block, I'd say," House crowed.

"Yeah, already gives me gas and will soon be permanently latched onto my breast," Cuddy said.

#######

Once Cuddy began showing, House knew he had to tell his team. He blurted it out, in classic House fashion.

"In case you were wondering, I've finally gone three-for-three in the whole getting Cuddy barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen thing," he said.

"You've gotten Cuddy in the kitchen?" Thirteen cracked. "Impressive, boss."

House smirked at her.

"Really?" Chase said. "Cuddy is pregnant?"

"I hope so," House said. "Otherwise, she's just really moody and fat."

Foreman smiled.

"Congrats, House," he said. He shook House's hand. "You will be an unusual but excellent father."

House grinned.

"Taub, you're awfully quiet," he said.

"It's just hard to wrap my mind around the word 'paternity' being used in your name that isn't followed by the word 'suit.'"

"Speak for yourself, sperm boy," House said. "My spawn is of the legitimate variety."

Taub chuckled.

"I'm happy for you. And desperately, desperately afraid for your unborn child," he said.

"Well, you'll have lots of opportunities to improve his life," House said. "Because in five months, you're all officially on 24-hour call as babysitters."

"It's like all my years in medicine have been preparing me for this very moment," Thirteen gushed.

"Just to be on the safe side, you might want to pick up one of those Baby Sven things for your homes," House said.

"BabyBjorn," Taub corrected.

"Same dif."

######

That night, House and Cuddy began talking about possible baby names.

They were sitting on the couch. Cuddy had her legs on House's lap and he was rubbing her feet. (He had been particularly attentive since she announced her pregnancy—holding car doors open; carrying groceries—and she was milking it for all it was worth.)

Rachel was on the floor, coloring. (For her part, Rachel had reacted with typical equanimity to the news of her impending baby brother: "Will he get to play with all my toys?" she asked. "Only if you want him to," Cuddy said. Rachel had pondered this news thoughtfully, "I probably will want him to," she said.)

"I assume Greg Jr. is totally off the table?" House was saying.

"Sorry, no Juniors in the Jewish faith," Cuddy said. "Besides, I'm not sure I can handle two of you."

"Okay, how bout something badass, like Thor?"

Cuddy gave him a look.

"Wolf?"

"I've always liked the named Richard," Cuddy mused.

"Dick is a common nickname for Richard," House said. "Next!"

"Elijah?"

"Sure, if you want our son beaten for his lunch money and shoved into lockers all the time," House said.

"I like it," Cuddy sniffed.

"It screams dork. Besides, Elijah House sounds like a name of a convalescence center for recovering drug addicts."

Cuddy chuckled.

"Okay, how bout Montgomery?"

"Sounds like snooty British aristocracy. You've obviously been watching way too much of that Downtown Arlene show," House said.

"Downton Abbey," she corrected. "And I was thinking more along the lines of Montgomery Clift, my favorite actor."

"And things turned out so well for him," House said, referencing Clift's miserable, brief life. "Let's ask the rug rat."

He turned to Rachel.

"What do you think we should name our bundle of joy, shorty?"

"Elmo!" Rachel said gleefully.

"Thanks for playing," House said.

"I've got it," Cuddy said. "Let's name him after one of your heroes. Charles—Charlie for short."

"That whole 'one man, three Angels' set up was pretty sweet," House said.

"Not Charlie from Charlie's Angels, House," Cuddy said, slapping him. "Charles Darwin."

House looked at her. Nodded slowly.

"Charlie," he said. "I like it."