A/N: Okay, nuther chapter, uuum I'm actually quite proud of this one as I wrote it pretty much all in a oner and got them as I wanted them.

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Go on. You know you want to.

Chapter 2: Healer's Touch

Cuddy sat in her office on the couch and started into wakefulness as she felt someone enter the room. She stilled immediately when she felt the press of two little bodies against hers and brushed her hair out of her eyes as she looked down at their little sleeping faces.

She looked up and her stomach clenched when she saw who was standing over her.

House held out the coffee cup and waggled it enticingly. "Latte?"

Cuddy took the paper cup from him and murmured a thank you while trying not to be too acutely aware of how she had used both her suit jacket and her shirt to cover her sons as they slept. She now sat in her camisole top and skirt with her skin pimpling in the office cooling system. Cuddy tried to comfort herself by thinking that he might not be able to see her that well in the dim illumination provided by the single lamp on her desk.

House pulled over the seat from her table and lounged on it as he sipped his own coffee. "So…" He said slowly.

"So." Cuddy answered back almost defiantly.

"You have kids." House stated flatly spreading the fingers on one hand as if to indicate his amazement.

"Yes." Cuddy answered as she looked down to the children in question and smoothed her fingers through their hair one by one as they lay napping on her couch with their heads pillowed on her lap.

House drank from his coffee and then tilted his head as he studied her. She looked like hell. Her hair had been ruffled out of it's fierce knot at her nape by continued combings of her fingers, there were dark circles under her eyes and she looked like she hadn't even thought about food in several hours. "Your mom's out of the operating theatre. They're a bit worried about a potential concussion but they stopped the internal bleeding and reset her arm. She's going to be out of commission for quite a while but the surgeon's confidant that she'll make a full recovery." He spoke in a low tone so as not to disturb the boys.

Cuddy opened her mouth to speak but gave up when all she could summon was a slightly choked sound. She rubbed her forehead and then gripped the bridge of her nose between thumb and forefinger before looking back up at him. "Thank you."

He shrugged easily. "Not a problem." It was, actually, but he thought mentioning it now might endanger his health. That surgeon had offered to do him severe bodily damage when House had pestered him about his latest patient so doggedly.

"What do you want?" She asked with a heavy sigh of resignation.

"Why do I have to want something?" House shot back.

"Because it's after nine, you don't have a case and you're in my office. You never stay in the hospital unless there's something that catches your interest. So…what is it you want?"

House drank his coffee on a frown and crushed the cup in his hand before sending it sailing unerringly to the trash bucket across the room. "I want to know how, in twenty years of knowing me that you never once managed to work it into the conversation that you had progeny." House cut straight to the point while mentally reviewing everything he remembered of her house. There were definitely no signs of two little boys running riot there.

"Tonio and Niki haven't been around for twenty years." Cuddy answered smoothly.

"How old are they?" House asked carefully.

Her eyes flashed to his. "They're seven."

House stared at them for a moment his mind turning that bit of information over and over while he formulated his next question. "Where the hell do you keep them? There was definitely no sign of them in your house six months ago when...Fred got ill."

"Alfredo." Cuddy corrected automatically. "That's because they don't live in the town house. They live down by the river with my mother."

"You don't even live with your sons?" House asked disbelievingly. Of all the people he would have thought capable of that, he would never have picked Cuddy. She seemed far too…involved not be in every part of her sons' lives.

"Not during the week, no. It's easier for me to sleep at the town house and then go to the river house for weekends and holidays." She looked down at the twins as she spoke. She didn't sound too happy about the arrangement.

"So you just hide them away so no one will see them? What's the matter? Do you think a donor would be put off?"

Cuddy's eyes flashed to his in a spark of raging blue and her entire body stiffened. She forced herself to relax when Tonio murmured in his sleep and spoke again in a low hiss. "Don't you dare even think that!" She spat. "You think I want them to have to be subjected to dinner parties and office politics in some crappy house in the suburbs when they can have free rein over a cottage estate?"

House blinked, he hadn't thought of it that way.

"Or to have some strange doctor and his lackeys turn up to search the house when I'm not there?" She asked archly and House shifted uncomfortably. She had never forgiven him for breaking into her house…and he would hardly describe the town house as a crappy place.

"I wouldn't have gone in if there had been anyone home." House defended himself and let the matter drop as he saw her eyes blaze higher. House stared off into space for a moment. "I can't believe you didn't tell me."

"No. What you can't believe is that you didn't figure it out." Cuddy shot back and he allowed her a grin to show she was right.

House dropped his gaze to examine the twins as they slept. He found himself asking his next question before he could stop himself. "Who's their father?"

Cuddy stilled and looked up at him. "He…he doesn't know about them. Please. Don't ask me anymore, I don't want to talk about it." She continued quickly when he opened his mouth to question her further.

House clicked his jaw shut. "Sure. Here, hand me a twin and I'll help you." He offered as he saw her gather herself to rise. She looked at him curiously for a moment and then nodded once. There was no way she could carry both of them, they were big for their age, and she'd prefer not to wake them.

She rose carefully and shrugged on her shirt before pulling on her jacket. She carefully scooped up Niki and handed him to House who managed to hold the boy with one arm while using his other to support himself with his cane.

"You sure you can manage?" She asked carefully.

He nodded. "Grab tyke number two and we can ship out."

She nodded and shouldered her bag before lifting Tonio with an effort and balancing him on her hip. He really was too old to be carried about like this but she could manage to the car.

They made their way through the silent hospital and down to the Lexus in the garage. It pipped happily as she pressed her keychain and she swung the back door open for House before skirting the car to pile Tonio into the car. She strapped him in and smoothed her fingers over his cheek once as he slept on contentedly. She straightened and blinked in surprise as House was there. He plucked the keys out of her hand and shut the door.

"What do you think your doing?" She demanded, too tired to put up with his antics.

"I'm driving you home. You're dead on your feet and I'm pretty sure one car accident a day is all the twins can handle." He pointed out and her shoulders slumped when she realised he was right.

An annoying trait of his.

Cuddy slipped into the passenger side and frowned at the odd sensation of being in her car and not driving it. House handled the vehicle with capable hands as it purred up out of the basement car-lot and nosed out into the practically non-existent evening traffic.

The drive passed in surprisingly compatible silence and Cuddy yawned as the heaters in the car made her sleepy.

"Hey, don't you fall asleep as well. I think I can handle two seven year olds, but their mom might prove a bit of a strain." House noted in a surprisingly gentle tone.

Cuddy answered with a smile that didn't feel quite as strained as it had earlier in the afternoon. Oy, she was tired. When she had heard that not only had her mother been in accident but the boys…she would have to find that nurse tomorrow tear a strip out of her for not interrupting that stupid budgeting meeting.

Because she had been delayed to talk about budgets her babies had been left alone in a strange building with nothing but unfamiliar faces to offer comfort. Cuddy's knuckles tightened until they cracked and she abruptly shook away the thought and inhaled a calming breath. They were fine now and sleeping like lambs.

They had taken to House quite well though, which was unsurprising now that she thought on it. They really were quite like him…though not quite as exasperating. She looked up in surprise as she realised they had already arrived at her house.

She swung herself out of the car with each of her movements punctuated by fatigue. She really, really needed sleep. Thank God she had scheduled a day off tomorrow. The boys would need it as much as she did.

Picking up Tonio, Cuddy looked over to double check that House was managing alright with a seven year old and a crippled leg. He smiled tightly at her over the top of the silver car and she flipped one back at him without thinking about it. Her heels clicked impossibly loudly against the paving of her path and she had to do a little juggling in order to get the door open.

She looked over at House, as they came to the foot of the stairs, and but her lip. "Wait here and I'll come back down for Niki." She whispered to him and then moved silently up the stairs. They could sleep in her bed. She settled Tonio quickly, only half waking him as she undressed him and then tucking him. Niki was slightly more active by the time she had gone down stairs and brought him up. His sapphire eyes snapped open and his small hand latched onto the silver charm bracelet on her left hand.

"Hey, baby, you're at mamma's house. This is my bed." She explained to him quietly as he gripped the bracelet like a life-line and she soothed her fingers through his thick dark hair. Niki looked around and nodded slowly, his eyes already drooping. "I'll be just down stairs, okay?"

Niki nodded once more and jangled the bracelet once more. "Keep us wiv you?"

Cuddy nodded, trying not to let the tears that threatened spill over. "Always." She answered as she kissed his temple and smoothed his brow one last time before he fell into a deep, hopefully dreamless, sleep.

She was unsurprised to see House still there when she went back down the stairs. She didn't immediately trust herself to speak so she swept past him into the tiny kitchen and flicked the kettle on after filling it with jerky automatic movements.

House watched her as he leant against the doorframe. He popped a vicodin as she filled the kettle and noted the way her hands trembled when she lifted mugs down from their hooks above the sink, the way her shoulders shuddered as she struggled for control and the way her knuckles whitened as she finally gave in and gripped the edge of the counter top, her arms locked straight and her head hanging down as she tried desperately for control.

House moved without thinking about it. His cane was hooked over a drawer handle as he rested a hand on her shoulder. She half-turned to him and it seemed like every drop of moonlight in the sky was caught on the tears on her lashes. A desperate sound issued from her throat as she threw herself at him and he caught her in his embrace.

Her arms wound around his neck as she sobbed quietly into his shirt front. He held her closely, leaning one hip against the counter for additional support, one arm around her waist and the other somehow tangled in her hair.

It felt odd to be this close to another person. He hadn't been near anyone for such a long time. Not counting the various assaults on his person by angry patients' families, the last person he had physically connected with had been Stacy and he remembered well how that had turned out. He could feel the warm wet of her tears falling against the patch of skin that was exposed at his throat and then track down over the muscles of his chest to trickle over his heart.

He could feel the different warmth of her body heat against his through thin layers of clothing. He could feel the soft curves of her body against his lean hard lines. He murmured nonsense words to her. Words that he had wished someone had been brave enough to say to him when he was hurting. Words that he had wanted to hear so badly but had been too afraid to let someone close enough to say them.

He looked down at her as she shuddered once more and he saw the emotions flicker through her eyes like a rainbow of feeling; scarlet rage, indigo fear, pale blue sadness, putrid green guilt and aching yellow loneliness. He smoothed his hand over her hair once more and continued to mutter soothingly to her.

Perhaps he wasn't just seeing what she was feeling.

She took in one last shuddering breath and straightened. He let go of her hair and slid his arm around so his palm cupped the curve of her hip, but he didn't quite relinquish that last contact. He ducked his head so that his eyes could meet hers and smiled softly as she sniffed and swiped the mascara trails away from her eyes.

"You feel alright now?" He asked in a voice that he hadn't realised he's possessed. Soft and gentle, not even a trace of sarcasm or a bite of his own bitterness in it.

She heaved in another breath and savaged her bottom lip between white teeth before nodding once. She opened her mouth but the words died in her throat, she clicked her jaw shut and then scrubbed her hand at the damp stains on his shirt.

"That's never going to come out." She muttered hoarsely and he chuckled and gripped her wrist.

"Forget it, I can buy another shirt. Now if it had been my Jack Daniel's tee…" He tilted his head and let the sentence trail of on a smile, gratified when she returned it with a shaky on of her own.

She looked over in surprise as the kettle clicked to an off position. It had been mere minutes that House had been holding her but somehow it had felt a lot longer than that. She remembered the last time he had held her…she shook her head sharply to dispel the image that she couldn't handle at the moment.

"Thank you." She croaked as she spooned instant coffee into the two mugs and mixed it up the way she knew that he liked it.

"Not a problem." He dismissed it for her.

She handed him the coffee without looking up and preceded him out of the kitchen and through to the living room, knowing his leg would be tired but he'd refuse to sit until she did. She kicked off her shoes and curled her feet under her as she sat on one end of the couch. He surprised her by seating himself at the other end instead of on one of the empty chairs. Her grip tightened on her cup as she tried to will all of the heat from the cup into her numb limbs.

"Well, at least you've stopped shaking." He noted dryly when she continued to stare into space.

Cuddy blinked rapidly and tried to summon up enough active brain cells to have a conversation. "I was frightened."

He nodded. "I know. I've never seen you like that before." His voice was still that quiet voice that she had never heard before.

She blinked at him in surprise. "Good thing too, or I'd have been struck off as mentally unstable." She muttered wryly as she sipped her coffee.

He shrugged. "Nah, a bit flaky, maybe but not unstable." He teased and her smile was stronger this time. "I mean you have to be pretty much on the ball to deal with me every day." He winked at her as he said this and her smile twisted into a more sardonic shape.

"I just know there's a comment in there somewhere." She sipped her coffee again and stretched her feet out along the couch, not thinking about the ramifications of such a movement before continuing. "You'd better watch it, don't want people like Cameron to get wind of you actually being nice." She warned in a shadow of their usual banter.

A look of mock horror flashed over his features. "That's just mean and after I helped carry the sprogs as well." He sniffed.

He regretted it when her smile slipped down a notch at the reminder of her scare. He drained his coffee in order to distract her and rose to his feet. "Well, it's time I left, can't have any vicious rumours floating around about us, can we?"

She took on look at him and snorted. "This would be different from any other day because…?" She waited for him to elaborate.

He shrugged. "I dunno, they might actually have a teeny tiny basis in reality." He bobbed his eyebrows up and down at her and she rolled her eyes. He tugged his cell from his pocket as he moved to the window and looked outside. He stopped in surprise as her hand closed over the phone and tugged it down away from his ear.

She held out her car keys to him. "You can take the Lexus. I'll pick it up tomorrow."

He flipped the phone shut and stuffed it back into his pocket. He thought about several things he could say that would be expected but enjoyed her look of surprise when he simply took the keys. "Thanks."

She walked him to the door and held it open as he stepped out into the cool night. He turned back to her and let his eyes track over her as she stood leaning against the door. The next thing he did was completely without thought. He bent towards her, closing the distance between them easily and kissed her.

The shock of contact rocked through both of them as she had turned to him at the last moment and met his lips with her own by, what appeared to be, sheer force of habit.

He straightened abruptly and looked down at her shocked face before stumbling backwards slightly. He pointed towards the car and opened his mouth to say something but his tongue suddenly seemed beyond words.

"Uh, bye." He eventually managed. "See you tomorrow." He spun away from her and limped towards the car. He heard the door click shut and the tumble of the key in the lock as he threw himself down into the pseudo sports car and slammed the door shut before jerking his seatbelt on.

Why the hell had he just kissed her?

Of all the stupid things to do. Why had she kissed him back? Fair enough, it hadn't exactly been the blazing lip, tongue and teeth duel that he knew her capable of, but still…

House stuck one arm behind the passenger seat and used it for leverage as he twisted around to reverse out into the quiet street. He frowned accusingly at an innocent street lamp as he resisted the strong urge to run his fingers over his lips.

That was another thing! Why were his lips tingling like he was some scrawny teenage boy after his first kiss?

House scowled as he steered his borrowed car through the streets towards his home.

Women!

Give him an impossible-to-solve diagnostic problem any day.