Cat's Cradle

Chapter II: Heat

Author's Note: To that rude ass reviewer, Max, and anyone else thinking of making a mean review...please don't. You are entitled to your opinions and constructive criticism is always welcome but if you are going to be snippy and sarcastic, don't bother. Also if you feel you MUST leave a hurtful or outrageous comment, be human enough to sign in. All of you reading obviously know what kind of stuff I write and if you don't like it don't read it. If you are going to anyway at least give me a chance for rebuttal. Thank you. Also it took me a while to get this up because I have been feverishly working on a Saw fan fic. Don't worry I'm still working on all my fics, it's just I needed to get the Saw fic out while Saw VII is/was still relevant.

Getting blood to test from Hope sounded easier than it actually was. In the end House and Cuddy had to hold her down completely while Thirteen took the blood. They tried to show her that it would only hurt a little and then it would all be over, but she wasn't buying it. Cuddy came out of it with a claw mark to the face and House came out of it with a pretty hard kick to his injured thigh.

A few days later when the results were ready, House was absolutely stunned. Because him and his team were on a case, the samples had to wait until there was an opening and since Thirteen was the only one who could run the tests and she had to do it alone there was a delay. As it turned out, there had been a lot of quick metabolic activity in Hope that seemed to have slowed down to normal. Everything indicated that now that she was completely grown and mature, she would not be growing rapidly any longer. According to their findings, the girl could live a normal human lifespan or even longer and it didn't help that within a month she was an adult.

Now more than ever they didn't exactly know what to do with her. If she was going to live ninety years like everyone else, was it really humane to keep her locked away in Cuddy's house for the duration? He didn't really know what else to do, though. If they brought her out in public she would stand out like an infected eyeball. The worst part was that she had yet to communicate with any of them. She seemed trapped in her own mind, and although they could give her orders and make her understand things, she never responded in a way that told them what she was thinking.

Two weeks had passed and it was House's shift watching Hope. Cuddy and Thirteen were out getting drinks and seeing a movie. House was in Cuddy's living room with Hope. The TV was on and she seemed absolutely fascinated with watching Spongebob. House found himself quickly wishing that he had some pot, because that was the only thing that would make such an inane children's cartoon interesting.

Hope was sitting there, purring loudly and clapping her hands whenever there was a loud noise or bright colors, which of course was all of the time on a children's network, even during the commercials. Physically the girl was an adult, mentally she had the mind of a maybe a two year old. That's what all of their testing indicated anyway. House reached into his pocket and took out his bottle of vicodin, it rattled loudly as he dumped a pill out and Hope turned to look at him as she noticed the noise.

"Yeah, it's vicodin, can you say VI-CO-DIN?" House asked in a condescending voice. Hope tilted her head to the side, much like an animal trying to understand something would, and opened her mouth. House was a little amazed by this, she had never tried to speak before, never made any indication that she could. Would this be it? "Come on, say it, VI-CO-DIN."

"Vicodin." She said, pronouncing it perfectly.

"Holy shit."

"Shit." She repeated. House was startled by this and got up, coming over to her.

"No no, don't say that word, Cuddy will kill me if you start saying that one." House said and then looked into her eyes. "Do you know who I am?" She let out this little half purr half meowing sound.

"House." She trilled. Cuddy was going to have a heart attack when she finally got home. His first instinct was to call her and tell her what was happening but it obviously wasn't going to stop happening by the time she got back.

"Yes, I'm House. Crap, how does Cuddy reward you?"

"Chocolate. Crap." Hope said and then giggled, she pulled him into a hug which he didn't resist for the moment. He had been stunned into silence. He knew he was going to have to watch his language around her now because she was going to choose keywords and start repeating them if he wasn't careful.

"You like chocolate?"

"CHOCOLATE!" Hope cried in his ear. He winced and pulled away from her gently. If she ever deserved chocolate this was the time. He looked her in the eyes again, she really was communicating and understanding. He had somehow made a connection with her beyond just hand gestures and slow talking. It was really making his day.

"Okay lets get you some chocolate." He said and then stood up and headed for the kitchen. Hope followed, meowing and purring loudly behind him. He started going through drawers until he found a large bag of M&M's. He took out a handful and held it out to her like he expected her to cup her hands and take them. Instead she just looked at him and opened her mouth. "Cuddy actually feeds you the chocolate?"

"Feeds me." She agreed.

"Well I think you are more than capable of doing it yourself." House said. He took one of her hands and turned it up so it was in a cupping position and placed the few M&M's that he had taken in them. She looked down at her hand confused. "Eat them."

"Mrow?"

"Use words." House instructed. She let an angry huff of air from her nose and her tail started to switch back and fourth.

"How?" She asked. He was surprised that she wasn't repeating things any more, she had actually asked him a question. It was annoying to him that she couldn't figure out what to do with the chocolate but he was going to show her anyway. He took a handful of the candy into his hand and popped it into his mouth.

"Like that." He said and then started to chew. She nodded and copied what he did. In a moment she was chewing on the chocolate by herself. If Cuddy continued to baby her the way she had been the girl would never be able to do anything for herself. House looked at the clock, it was almost nine. "Okay time to get ready for bed."

"Bath." Hope said.

"Okay take a bath." House said with a shrug and started to walk past her. She grabbed onto him, her retractable claws coming out and attaching to his shirt.

"Help." She instructed. He looked at her like she had just lost her damn mind. She wasn't a two year old, in fact she looked like a fucking twenty year old. How was he supposed to help her take a bath?

"Does Cuddy help you bathe?" He asked her in disbelief.

"Cuddy always help Hope." She replied and now she was almost speaking in full sentences. Her progress with the language was astounding, although he guessed that shouldn't be too surprising seeing as how she had grown to a full adult in a month. Also, Cuddy still bathed her? What the hell? That woman was going to have to stop coddling Hope and let her do things by herself. Did Cuddy honestly think something bad would happen if she wasn't in her sight while she was home.

"Okay, I'll help you get started but you can do this by yourself you know." House said, rolling his eyes. "Come on." Hope let go of him and started to purr happily. Together they walked into the bathroom.

"Hope is happy."

"Yeah and House is ecstatic." He replied sarcastically. "See all you have to do is run the water, get undressed and-" He turned back to look at her as he started to run the water and was immediately silenced when he realized she was already completely naked. She wasn't trying to cover her body, nor did she look ashamed or embarrassed.

She walked over to him, twisting her head to the side like she was confused. He noticed the fur on her feet that tapered off at her knees, she was completely hairless on her body, other than her tail and head. Her breasts were full and firm and she had immaculate curves. Everything about her was strangely sexy and he felt himself drawn into her, even getting aroused by her nudity. He cleared his throat and stopped staring at her, turning back to the tub which was almost full he had been staring so long.

"You just, uh, get in the water and, viola, you can do the rest." House said in a muted voice. He wanted to jump on her, attack her, fuck the hell out of her but he knew that he couldn't. Besides the fact that he knew she was only a month old, mentally she probably wouldn't be able to comprehend a good fucking. On top of that fact, Cuddy would absolutely slaughter him if she found out and now that Hope was talking there was going to be nothing keeping her from telling.

She started to nuzzle up against him, purring loudly and it was clear to him that she was much more comfortable being naked. Cuddy had probably forced her into clothes the moment she started showing signs of womanhood. "Yes, yes, you're happy. In the tub." He said trying to keep his hands off of her at all costs. She looked at him with those mysterious black and green eyes and started sniffing him. She started around his mouth and slowly moved her way down. All of this seemed rather innocent and House couldn't bring himself to stop her, that was until she placed her nose right against his aroused crotch. "OKAY!" He said pushing her away gently.

"House?" She said, confused.

"You don't..." He paused and took in a deep breath, "You don't do that Hope."

"Why?"

"You just don't. Now In the tub I'm going to be right outside." House said and stood up, not turning his back on her as he stepped out of the bathroom. She started to purr and slipped into the tub, that was the last he saw of her naked that night.

After she came out of the bathroom, she was dressed and ready for bed. She wanted him to tell her a story about Cuddy, so he made one up about her growing up on a farm. Whether it would screw Hope up or not would remain to be seen, but what was done was done. Hope went to sleep and House left the room and turned on the TV. He couldn't deny that there was something in the air that was making him aroused. Maybe the girl could produce pheromones or something.

In any case he was going to have to ignore how aroused he was. Cuddy would be home any minute for her shift and if he whipped it out and started jerking off the laws of nature would dictate she would walk in the door immediately as he was climaxing. After about fifteen minutes he convinced himself to try and get some sleep, because willing his boner to go away wasn't doing anything at all.

The next thing he knew Cuddy was coming into the house and she was completely drunk. She was being way too loud and stumbling around. He opened his eyes just in time for her to fall on top of him. "Hello." He said, hoping that his still fully erect cock wasn't noticeable as it dug into her hip. If she continued to rub up against him like that he was going to cum. Quickly, he moved her so she was sitting and away from him.

"Hope's how?" She said and then started to giggle. It was so unlike her to be drunk like this but then again she hadn't been able to get out of the house for a month and relax so maybe it wasn't unusual. "I mean how's Hope?"

"She's asleep and..." House trailed off and looked down at his erection. "How drunk are you?"

"What is that supposed to-" Before she could finish, he grabbed her and kissed her. There must have been some animal pheromones in the air because at that point he just couldn't control himself. Something animalistic was taking over and he knew that in the end he was going to fuck Cuddy. He was worried she may resist but she started to kiss back just as hungrily as he was kissing her.

"Fuck Cuddy..." He groaned and then pinned her to the couch. He couldn't explain what was with him and maybe she was feeling it too because she pulled her shirt off quickly.

"Fuck is right, House, fuck me!" Cuddy cried back and started to unzip his pants, releasing his cock. She took a moment to marvel at how big it was, even taking in a breath.

"Nice huh?"

"Yeah but do you know how to use it?" She said back teasingly. He groaned softly and pushed her skirt up and then pulled her panties off. With unbelievable grace and animal like strength he thrust into her hard. She cried out loudly when he remembered there was someone else in the house. They were going to have to be quiet. Quickly he clasped his hand over Cuddy's mouth but this seemed to fuel her even more.

She wrapped her legs around his waist pulling him in even deeper and he kept thrusting. She was so amazingly hot and tight it was heaven for him. Their bodies both rocked back and fourth, her moaning into his hand, him stifling his groans until they both climaxed hard. A tear actually dripped out of Cuddy's eye from the intensity of it. He removed his hand, breathing hard and pulled away from her, amazed at what they had just done.

"House..." She breathed, "Did we just..." That's when her stomach lurched and she ran for the bathroom. He sighed and made himself decent, at least she hadn't puked while they were having sex, nothing would have ruined the mood more. Luckily he didn't notice that from behind Hope was watching, and she was starting to form ideas.