Chapter 12
The next morning Lisa Cuddy, left her warm bed, disentangling herself from the long strong arms and legs pinning her. House had made it all the harder to get up by seducing her into a another round of lovemaking so she was rushing like a maniac to make an early finance meeting. She did have his words to keep her warm. "Lisa is love." he had said last night. She closed her eyes in bliss as she brushed her teeth in the bathroom mirror. It wasn't quite a declaration, but she would take it. She knew she had to have patience to allow House to open up to her, even now. Sometimes it was hard, but she would get these little treasures that were indicative of his feelings and they were enough to keep her engaged.
"I guess, I don't get any breakfast this morning," he said lifting his head up to squint at her as she returned to the bedroom.
He looked so sexy with one of his legs trailing from under the cover that, Cuddy had to avert her eyes as she sat down on the edge of the bed to put on her stockings. She found that she was much more likely to wear stockings rather than pantyhose now, because House so adored watching as she put them on and even more so gliding his hands against the silk as he took them off. She loved dressing for him, she always had and she knew exactly instinctively what he would like.
"You pretty much eliminated that possibility by keeping me in the bed too long" she retorted.
"Watching your large fresh buns running around naked is much, much better than a bagel," he replied. "I'm sure I can get Wilson to feed me."
"Just make sure it's breakfast and not lunch," she advised. "You need to hit the shower now, if you want to breakfast with Wilson."
"Okay, Ms. Bossy pants, "he cracked, suddenly throwing the covers off and sitting up. He was totally nude and Cuddy smiled in delight, unable to look away.
"Stop ogling me you insatiable woman," he replied reaching over to run a hand down her stockinet leg with a leer.
"I'm not missing my meeting." she said gathering herself up and giving him an ice princess stare.
"I could so make you miss your meeting." he bragged. "but I'll have pity on you today." House began massaging his leg for a minute before attempting to stand. The pain management program was good, but mornings were still hard sometimes.
"Ha." she shot back, knowing he was teasing but not wanting to get close enough to him to give him a chance to prove it.
"I think I'll take a bath instead." He said finally getting up and finding a robe. "Sorry to ruin your fun," he said but the nanny is due any minute and I wouldn't want to start any Hand That Rocks The Cradle action up in here." He quipped.
Cuddy giggled so hard that he ended up snapping a towel at her butt.
"It's not that funny, he replied. It's not like I haven't had some appeal for the younger set."
"That's true, but she has a boyfriend that looks like Ashton Kutcher on steroids, so I think you're safe."
"Funny, I didn't hear you moaning "Ashton, please don't stop" this morning. He said giving her a punishing kiss before disappearing into the bathroom.
Cuddy looked down at the urgent messages as she came out of the finance meeting. Two messages were from the nanny. One was from House. Everything seemed fine with Rachel when she left, but she felt a sudden urgency as she listened to the voice mail. The nanny said there was a fire in her apartment building so she had to go back home right away. She had called the back up sitter, who should be there within a half hour. In the meantime Dr. House, was still at home and had agreed to wait for the back up sitter, while she went back home to see if her apartment had been affected. The message was time stamped for 8:35AM that morning. That was two hours ago.
"Oh my God," Cuddy exclaimed not realizing that she had said it aloud until Wilson, who had left the meeting right behind her reacted to her panic.
"Is something wrong?" asked Wilson concerned.
"House is alone with Rachel," exclaimed Cuddy, striding down the hallway and leaving Wilson in the dust.
Wilson watched her pace; her usual hip sway in full effect, but since his friend had marked that territory for sure, he felt a little guilty about noticing. After years, it was a hard habit to break, but he was weaning himself. Instead, he focused on her panicked fluttery movements with the hand not holding the cell glued to her ear. She impatiently punched the down elevator as she listened to messages.
House's message made her grimace, roll her eyes, and exclaim "Idiot." Once they were on the elevator, Wilson moved in close enough to hear House's words, trying to suppress his smirk.
"So I'm Mr. Mom, now, I'm Mr. Mom, right, Cuddy," House's voice came through the phone. "Just because I don't have my license to practice medicine yet, you think you make me your nanny. You so owe me Lisa Cuddy," he chanted in glee. "I would demand your first child, but I've already got her. Muhahaha." He gave a loud evil laugh. "I'm going to take all the time between now and when the sitter comes to write up my list of demands. I'm sure it's going to involve amnesty of all past clinic hours and a limit on new ones. Hmmn I've got to think⦠And if I change a diaper, well it's just wide open then. It will be up to and including s*x on the desk in your office. If it's a number 2, it will be during regular business hours," he crowed. Cuddy hung up looking exasperated but amused.
"Are you going home?" Wilson asked, curiously trying to pretend he hadn't heard the s*x on the desk remark. He didn't think House, or Rachel needed rescuing, but he wondered if Cuddy did.
"No," Cuddy replied, dialing the number of the back up baby sitter.
"Hi Megan, so glad you could step in on such short notice. What's your ETA? You're stuck on the turnpike, behind a multi-car pile up? Yes, I heard about it, most of the serious injuries went to Princeton General but we've got a couple of victims in to the E.R. a few minutes ago, no major injuries. I understand it's been tying up traffic for a while. The ambulance had a hard time getting through. That's why one person was medivaced."
"No don't worry about it. I'm sorry you're trapped in the mess. If you are worried your car is going to overheat, why don't you pull off at the next exit and wait it out or you could even go to a gas station and see if they can help."
"Yes, I'm sure as long as you make it by noon. A good friend is there. He's a doctor, so he should be able to handle everything, even the teething problems she's been having this week."
"Oh Cuddy, you two really deserve each other. How evil are you?" Laughed Wilson, wagging an accusing finger at her.
"Don't ask that question, Wilson, unless you really want to know the answer," she replied with a devilish grin.
"I want to know," said Wilson all agog.
"Well, according to Rachel's schedule. House should have fed her cereal this morning, and according to her digestive clock, he should definitely be changing a loaded diaper any minute now."
Cuddy gurgled. I'm going to see what I can catch on the cam. This is just too good to miss."
"I'd love to join you," Wilson said, "but I got a patient to see. Does your cam record? Cause I'd love to get some blackmail pictures."
"No Wilson," she said shaking her head, "I may need these pictures myself, but I would be glad to let you see them," she called after him as he left the elevator to go to his office.
Meanwhile at Cuddy's residence:
House had finally cleaned Rachel up after eating and looked at the glops of food, that still adorned the floor, wall and ceiling of the kitchen debating on how much he would leave for the sitter to clean-up. They had had fun, he had mixed the cereal with milk in the bottle, but the strained peaches had ended up everywhere. Instead of the sleepiness she usually displayed after Cuddy fed her, she was raring to go. It could have been the airplane noises and monster truck play by play, he had given during the meal or perhaps because he let her play with a couple pots and pans, while he popped his own bagel in the toaster. Rachel had loved the loud clashes she was able to make by banging the pots with a spoon and banging them together. He actually thought she might be a bit musical because she was able to imitate his rhythm. Ta- ta- tee- tee- ta," He said counting out the beats, and waiting as she repeated the beats back.
"Whoa, you are going to be a little prodigy." he said impressed. He then wrinkled his nose at the little grimace and grunting noise that Rachel was making. "Oooh Noooo, he groaned. If you are going to do that, I'm going to put you in your bed for a minute, while I come back and clean up the kitchen."
PPTH Dean of Medicine's office:
Cuddy went to her desk unlocked her computer and logged on to the baby cam. There was one in the nursery, and one that was portable. The portable one was off, but she turned on the nursery and saw Rachel looking expectantly at the door as House came in and she jumped up and down in the crib holding the railing." Doooc" she called, giving a smile of drooling delight.
"Oh Rachel, you are ripe." House said stretching his eyes and shaking his hands in horror, even though there was a dimple in his cheek. I am not even going to be able to pretend to ignore this until the sitter gets here."
"Peeuw. He said holding his nose. " I'm going to call you stinky. Or maybe skunk. Rachel Le Peuw, that's it. Yes, your Mommy is going to owe me big time."
Unbelievable to the woman watching, he started singing as he got things ready.
"Name of street, na baby, funky, funky Broadway. Down on Broadway, there's a night club, name of night club, funky funky, Broadway." He played air guitar as he acted out the song, first made famous by Wilson Pickett. He quickly prepped the changing table. He must have been watching her more than she though, because he knew exactly what drawer everything was in. Then he picked Rachel up out of the crib.
"Stankeee, you are one stanky little girl." he crooned, making loud sniffing noises as he laid her down on the changing table and quite efficiently untapped the sides or her diapers and used the diaper to sweep most of the waste away before putting in the trash can near by. He wiped her bottom with wet wipe, Used another wipe to distribute cream. Held her two ankles together, lifting her bottom as he slid the fresh diaper under her, deftly folded it through her legs and quickly fastened the new diaper.
This display was so adorable to Cuddy, she could barely stand it. He was actually teasing Rachel, and she loved it, not understanding that he was insulting her when he said the words in such caressing voice.
Wilson knocked briefly on Cuddy's door before he was bidden to enter. He closed the door behind him and stood transfixed by her expression. She was leaning on her elbow, one hand palming her chin, a pinky finger over lips curved in a heartbreaking smile. Her face was glowing and so full of love that a light seemed to be emanating from her. It made his own heart beat faster as he looked upon the beauty of a woman who was beginning to believe, her deepest longing and her destiny, could in fact be one. He had watched Cuddy looking at the baby Cam many times and he had never seen this particular look. He came around to her side of the computer and saw House in the final moments of changing Rachel and he was singing.
If Wilson, had been shocked at Cuddy's look of bliss, his head practically spun on his shoulders seeing his cranky friend singing a lullaby, only it wasn't a lullaby.
"Wiggle your legs now, baby shake your head. Do the shing-a-ling, now, baby. Shake, shake, shake. You don't know, now baby. Doing the funky Broadway". House crooned, strumming the little girl as if she was a guitar. Rachel was giggling and looking at him adoringly very much like her mother.
At the same time, both Wilson and Cuddy felt a clutch of fear. Cuddy, silently warning her daughter when you give your heart to this man you will never get it back and Wilson, feeling happy and envious and afraid for his friend all at once. The closer to heaven he got, the further the fall down and House was no where near strong enough to survive such a drop.
In the middle of both these dire thoughts Rachel began to cry and Cuddy noticed House had stepped out, probably to go to the bathroom across the hall, and before he could get back Rachel was screaming her head off. House took her back out of the crib and asked what was wrong and she began to cry louder. "
"What's wrong?" he said looking at her curiously. "You've been fed, you've been changed, there' no pins to stick you."
"Rachel, Rachel What's the matter?" he asked, looking in her eyes, reminding her of her own attempts to bond with the child several months ago.
Cuddy was tense for a minute. "She's been teething, I think that's probably it." she said reaching for the phone to call House.
"House ran his hand over the baby's forehead frowning, little, warm excessive drooling, fussy," by the time his hand ran down by her cheek, Rachel turned there wet mouth to capture a finger gumming furiously.
"Oh," House yelped. "Teething". He said with an ironic smirk. When he finally answered his ringing phone. "Oh Lisa Cuddy, your gigantic, rotundas a$$ is mine." He said into the phone.
