Dear Readers, thank you for the fabulous reviews. So good to hear others have similar thoughts and hopes for the show's direction. I can only hope you like where this is going. I fully intend to have my Huddy back together at some point and I'm hoping the show will work toward that outcome eventually. Meanwhile, here's a way to kill off the 3 week hiatus between the show's episodes 17 and 18 here in the states.
After a few minutes, Wilson stood and gestured for Cuddy to head over to the sofa. Once there, she laid down and crossed her ankles at one end. Wilson adjusted the ice pack on her forehead for her. He tried to read her face but all he could see was a sadness to her expression, even with her eyes closed.
"I'm not going to lie here all day, you know," Cuddy said with eyes still closed.
"Well, for a little while until we know you're back to yourself," Wilson cajoled.
Cuddy nodded but kept her eyes closed. Wilson sat in the chair next to the sofa and finished his coffee, waiting for Cuddy to lead the discussion. She didn't. Her mind raced at the recent news only she knew. This was not the sort of information she would or could share with anyone. Besides, she needed to reconfirm the results and two more test boxes waited for her in her car.
yxyxyxyxyxxyxyx
Dominka settled back in the cab and sighed. House was definitely a weird man. He had left this morning without a word to her. She was still a little sore from sleeping on the sofa and had found his note, a plane ticket and cash on the coffee table.
She was surprised more by the cash than the ticket destination. It kind of hurt a little to be treated like a hooker in a sense but she brushed it off. The round-trip ticket was for a flight that afternoon and left her just enough time to pack a suitcase. She considered not going and cashing in the ticket but realized he might be upset if she didn't go. Instead, she hurried to her apartment and packed a weekend bag.
She left her car at the apartment building and took a taxi to the airport. The note told her she was not to go anywhere the hospital and when he'd be back. Dominika checked her cell phone. No call from House. She scanned her cell phone log and realized she had missed a call the day before. She returned the call and relaxed in the back of the cab.
"Jacque? I'm sorry I didn't call you back yesterday," Dominika said softly.
"I was worried about you, Nikki," Jacque replied. He was happy to hear from her. "Where are you?"
"In a cab, I haff to go to da aeroport," Dominika confessed.
"Quoi?" Jacque sounded surprised.
"House, he wants that I go away for some dayz."
"Pourquoi? Is he not with you?"
"No, he eez gone, too"
"et...where are you going? When do you come back?" Jacque was a little worried.
"New York City for a week. We can be together when I be back," Dominika promised.
"Is House nice with you?…" Jacque didn't like the arrangement between his girlfriend and House but Dominika had convinced Jacque this was the quickest way to get her a green card. She let Jacque believe sex was not a part of the deal.
"He eez fine. I sleep on his sofa last night," Dominika admitted. "I am arrive at airport and I call you soon, ma cher."
"Wait! Why I don't drive to New York City and meet you there?" Jacque asked.
Dominika smiled. She loved the idea. "You can get away?"
"For a couple days, oui!" Jacque said quickly. "Check in and phone me back. Tell me where you stay in the city, okay?"
Dominika agreed, "Au revoir mon cheri."
"Au revoir," Jacque said with a smile.
Yxyxyxyxyxxyxy
Wilson's cell phone' alarm buzzed in his front right pocket letting him know his patient had arrived for the consult that morning. He didn't want to leave Cuddy's side but he had to attend to the meeting. Apparently, Cuddy was feeling much better, at least her forehead was, but her stomach, not so much.
"I'm fine, Wilson!" Cuddy convinced him. "Just go and if I need you I'll call you. By the way why did you come to see me this morning?"
Wilson smiled sheepishly and shrugged.
"Checking up on me every day really isn't necessary," Cuddy smiled at him. "I promise I won't jump off any balconies, okay?"
Wilson nodded, "Okay. Message received. Want to grab lunch later?"
"Uh yeah, sure."
After he finally left, Cuddy returned to her desk, pushed the call forwarding button to send her calls to the nurses' station and then sat there alone quietly contemplating several scenarios. Cuddy spun her chair around to face the windows and allowed her imagination to run away with her fears.
If she was pregnant. And, that was a big IF, Cuddy would have to keep that information to herself. With her track record of failed IVF attempts, she had been able to conceive only once out of the three times and even then, her body miscarried by the third month.
If she was pregnant, there was no guarantee she would carry to full term. Cuddy couldn't believe she was factoring in a possible failure in her plans: why even tell House or anyone about the pregnancy if she might spontaneously miscarry, again. She realized sharing this information with House was begging for complications, more emotional pain and she couldn't bear it now that he had gone off and gotten married.
Cuddy thought about House and tried to imagine which time they had made love that she might have conceived. If she was pregnant, she couldn't be more than a month a long she estimated.
If she was pregnant, Cuddy calculated she'd deliver sometime around Thanksgiving. She had just turned 43 and was in great shape but still, her age had consequences. She would have to consider whether to test for Downs Syndrome which added risk to the situation of carrying full-term.
Would she even consider aborting if the baby had Downs Syndrome or some other birth defect? She didn't want to think about it. Right now she didn't really know if she even was pregnant. Those damn home pregnancy kits were fairly accurate but they were known to give false-positive results in a small percentage of cases.
Cuddy thought through her sonogram appointment with Wilson prior to her kidney biopsy surgery. She remembered Wilson had focused on her kidney area, going no where near her abdomen. Still, if she was pregnant, the baby was little more than a fertilized egg, a zygote too tiny to register on the sonogram screen.
Her blood work taken before the surgery tested her white cell count and other functions related to her thyroid and kidney. Pregnancy testing was not part of that routine lab work. No way could she have her blood tested here and now at the hospital. Someone would definitely find out and auction off that information to House immediately.
If she was pregnant, Cuddy would have to find an obstetrician far from Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. She'd have to find maternity clothes that didn't look like obvious maternity clothes. But until then, Cuddy would have to subtly change her wardrobe style immediately and start including include jackets and blazers that could help conceal a baby bump. She realized she'd have to start wearing her white doctor's coat every day from now on.
If she was pregnant, House would do the math once he realized her condition and he'd know he was the father. The last thing she needed was him trying something stupid like a custody battle for their baby. That is, if she was pregnant. No. House wouldn't want the baby, he wanted her. When he couldn't have her, he ran off and got married. Cuddy couldn't fathom House's reaction. Would he get clean again? Or would it drive them even further apart?
Cuddy realized she'd need to talk to a lawyer about that matter. And, she'd probably need a good cover story. Maybe she'd drop hints to Wilson that she had decided to give IVF another chance? Hey, if House could up and get married a week after their break-up, why couldn't she do something equally larger than life, life-changing, future-altering?
House and Wilson would assume she had gone back to finding a sperm donor. She'd let him think his honeymoon sent her over the edge and she had gone back with a vengeance to being artificially inseminated. Cuddy could play the premmie-card if she had to. Anything to throw House off the trail.
Then it hit her. What if it didn't matter to him? What if House just simply didn't care? What if House eventually realized he was the father at some point when she could no longer hide a pregnancy physically and ... He just didn't care? Showed no interest in wanting to know the child? After all, he was married now. Granted it wasn't a real marriage. Wilson told Cuddy about the green card situation with Dominika but still, what if House didn't want anything to do with her or the baby? That possibility hurt her more than any fears she was considering.
Maybe House would just ignore the situation? He had sort of moved on, at least legally. What if he didn't care, or worse, hated her for this? Right now he was probably luxuriating somewhere with his little Green Card missus on his damn honeymoon. Cuddy frowned and refused to think about the woman he married. She brought her own thoughts back on track.
They had never really discussed birth control given Cuddy's health issues and lack of success with IVF. House never used a condom with her. They had just somehow figured it wouldn't happen to them because it couldn't happen given her history with pregnancy. But, it did. At least she hoped that was the case. Cuddy found herself smiling for a brief second realizing she felt excited and happy at the thought of being pregnant. Happy that if she were to ever have a baby of her own, it would be House's.
Cuddy's lips pressed together hard at the situation facing her. Apparently it was true what they say about infertile couples who adopt kids. Stop trying so hard to have a baby and if it's meant to happen, it will.
Cuddy jolted. Was this meant to happen to her? To them? House never discussed children with her. They were adjusting together to fashion his role in Rachel's life. House hadn't mentioned anything about his own childhood to her. She knew he wanted nothing to do with his own father. Cuddy remembered when House's father died, she had to drug House unconscious so Wilson could basically kidnap him and drive him to the funeral. House didn't talk much about his parents even after her own mother Arlene had visited.
Still, somehow Cuddy sensed House's appreciation for his own mother was genuine. Cuddy pondered over Wilson's comments after he and House returned from the senior House's funeral a couple years back.
According to Wilson, House had run a paternity test on his own dead father only to confirm what he had always believed: that Colonel John House was not House's biological father. Her mind flittered over other memories. House had once told Cuddy genes mattered when she asked for his feedback on her search for the best sperm donor among the numerous profile files. Cuddy wondered what genes House possessed that might be passed onto this baby.
God, if I am pregnant, I...I will have this baby! She realized she was smiling to herself. I'm a single mother raising a perfectly wonderful little girl. I can do this. I don't need House to do this. Not anymore.
If she was pregnant, Cuddy was going to love this baby. But first, she had to confirm the test results weren't a fluke. She decided she needed to get as busy as possible right away to help make the time pass fast. She was looking forward to taking both home pregnancy tests in the morning. If they were positive, she'd book an appointment with a lab somewhere else and get the blood work drawn to confirm the pregnancy.
If she wasn't pregnant, well, that would just mean it wasn't meant to be. She would find a way to move on with her life and live it fully ...without House just as he had done so recently with his stupid marriage.
Xyxyxyxyxyxyxyxy
House drove in silence. The radio was a distraction. He needed to think about his plan of action.
Thirteen was in prison which explained why no one could locate her or had heard from her.
House had missed her. He worried about her well-being emotionally and physically. Life was definitely not fair. A young woman with such a fine mind would soon lose the ability to practice medicine, the ability to have a normal life and die much too soon. It reminded him of Amber. He quickly checked the review mirror and sighed with relief to see Amber wasn't sitting there in the backseat. Old fears were hard to shake.
House knew there was no point in wondering about Thirteen until she was able to answer questions. He'd let her know how he found out about her jail time in a barter plan to extract information from her. It was precisely the kind of thing they both enjoyed now and then. A mind-fuck to find out what they wanted to know.
House passed a grey lexus driving at exactly the speed limit on the highway. That sort of shit drove him up the wall. Live on the edge, baby doll! He thought to himself as he glanced at the woman driving the lexus. She had dark hair and a nice profile. For a split second he thought it was Cuddy driving the car. A second glance assured him it wasn't.
"Why can't I get her out of my mind?" House asked himself aloud. "Why did she leave me over one goddamn pill?" He could feel himself growing angrier as his foot pressed harder on the gas pedal. He was speeding through life until his radar detector buzzed noisly from his visor. Cop ahead somewhere on the highway. House shrugged off his thoughts and scanned the road ahead looking for the police car scanning for speeders.
He didn't see the cop car but slowed down all the same. He wondered if Dominika found the plane ticket and if she'd do as instructed. A few days in New York City would keep her entertained and out of his way until he could deal with his wayward duckling, Thirteen.
Bringing Thirteen back would definitely shake things up at the hospital. If nothing else, it would keep him and everyone else on their toes for a while. A decent distraction is what he craved at this point. His leg started cramping a bit after stomping the gas pedal and House realized he'd have to pull over and walk it off.
He drove onto the shoulder of the highway and put the car in park. House reached for his bottle of vicodin out of his coat pocket and popped the top off. Glancing inside he saw he was getting low on pills. Two would have to do for now. He threw them back and dry-swallowed them - just like old times. House caught his own reflection in the review mirror and frowned at what he saw: An angry man glaring back with pain-filled eyes. He stared just long enough to feel miserable.
House punched the radio button and a country station's music blared out of the speakers. Oh hell, no! House thought. The last thing he wanted to hear was some twangy cowboy crooning about how his woman dumped him or done him wrong. Hell, he was living that life. House quickly hit the scan button and searched for jazz. It took several attempts but he found something close enough to help take his mind off his thoughts. He turned up the volume, carefully put the car back in drive and edged out onto the highway. He had a mission for now and that included bringing Thirteen home.
So, what do you think? A hottie like Dominika must have a boyfriend. Too bad he's not an American or she could have ignored House's offer. I'm hoping Thirteen will harass House over his quickie marriage (presuming he tells her about it). Love your ideas and am incorporating them as soon as possible. Feel free to share more ideas and plot points. Its much more fun to tap into others ideas as I write this theraputic fanfiction for us Huddies. Reviews are the best!