House saw Cuddy go pale. He had no idea what was going on, not being able to hear the other side of the conversation, but whatever it was it surely didn't look good. His mind was racing, trying to tie together pieces of the puzzle in front of him. Finally Cuddy put the phone down and rested her hand in her heads. "Something wrong with Rachel?" he asked casually, not showing much concern. Sometimes she hated him for that, but at least he was asking. "I have to call Lucas." She saw the disappointment on his face and hurried to explain. "Someone has called the social services on me. The only people who know are Lucas and WIlson, and… your team?" House shook his head. "I haven't told them. It's none of their business anyway. And it couldn't have been Wilson." Cuddy had reached the same conclusion: there were a lot of adjectives one could use to describe Wilson, but pure malice wasn't one of them and he's never do something like this unless he thought a child was in direct danger. She reached for the phone again.

"Lucas."

"Lisa. How was your night?" The younger man's voice sounded bitter, even over the tinny phone line.

"Why did you call the CPS on me?"

Lucas laughed. "What?"

"You heard me the first time."

"Somebody called the CPS on you. Why do you think it was me?"

"There's no-one else it could've been."

"Are you quite sure about that? I know a certain someone who's not that keen on being a father figure…" Cuddy's eyes widened and she fixed her gaze on House, whose blue eyes answered her unwaveringly. She slowly put the phone back down. "He says it was you."

"I guessed, your face made it pretty obvious. Well, it wasn't." His voice had took on a hurt tone. "His trying to get you back by making you doubt me, and from what I can tell it doesn't take that much." He turned his back on her and started limping towards the door.

"House, wait." The injured man stopped but did not turn around. "I know what he's doing, and I won't let it work. But you have to admit it does sound plausible." Usually appealing to his logical side worked quite well.

House sighed. "Maybe it does. I*m a jerk. But not that much of a jerk." He turned back to face Cuddy. "I think you're a good mother. As much as I bother you about it. I don't think I'd make a good father figure, but I'm willing to try, and if I screwed that up as well I'd still want to try with you. I would not do this you, or the brat." She rolled her eyes a bit. He didn't seem capable of using Rachel's name even when he was being sincere. But, at least he admitted his short-comings. She stifled the nagging doubt in her mind, but couldn't chase it away completely.

"So, veggie puree is still on?"

They left separately to prolong their avoidance of the inevitable hospital gossip, but when her car rolled out of the parking area his motorcycle followed her. She had told him to use a car or bus until his shoulder had healed, but he had apparently ignored the advice. Again. It should've annoyed her but tonight it just made her smile.

The babysitter's disapproval of her taste in men was quite visible, but she left without a comment. House was grinning when she shut the door behind her. "So, you want to tarnish the innocence of babes? And by babes I actually mean your child." He leered at her. "I have to disappoint you, Rachel is having a nap right now. But, that does mean we have at least half an hour of peace and quiet…" House pouted a bit while snaking his arms around her waist, which did take some credibility out of it. "Aww, but I wanted to cause life-long traumas." "You can cause some to me instead." She regretted the words as soon as she saw his devilish grin. "Agreed."

"House -" His kiss made her lose her track of thought and they barely got out of their clothes before they made it to the living room couch.

About an hour later she snuck out from next to his sleeping form to go comfort her daughter, who had just woken up and started to cry. She changed her soggy diaper and sat her down in her playpen. Her happy cooing woke House up, and he gave his sore leg a vigorous rub and made her swear not to let him fall asleep on the sofa again. They started to rummage through her fridge for something to eat and then ended up just ordering pizza since she had forgotten to get more groceries. Lucas had usually taken care of that since she rarely came home in time to go shopping. She read Rachel a story while they were waiting, though House commented on her being too young to actually understand it. The child stared at him, curious but too shy to go closer to this strange man. Cuddy felt a twinge in her heart: Lucas had been the only father she had known, and she wasn't too young to realize the difference. When the pizzas finally arrived she got some utensils from the kitchen and then they ate them on the couch while judging the shortcomings in the logic of the bad thriller they were watching. Sometime during the night Rachel fell asleep on her arms and she carefully carried her back to her bed. Then she just stood there, watching her daughter suck her thumb in her sleep. Tears came to her eyes. How could anyone try to take this away from her? And could she really say she didn't deserve it?