Here we are. Happy to share this chapter with you (finally!) and a bit sad because this is the last chapter of this story.
I know someone won't be happy of such a fast course of it but this is how it was supposed to be since the beginning and ,even if I've been tempted to change the plot, I finally decided to just follow my inspiration.
A warning, before you start reading...
As you read just keep attention at the font because this chapter is a mix of present and past (or future and present...like you prefer). So... normal font for present time, Italic font for past time.
Some particulars will be not clear at the beginning but just keep attention and I promise they will in the end (or maybe you'll have to read it twice)
;)
And... a note for not-English-tongue people who use a translator: I checked and the translator does a lot of mess with the word 'Sugar Daddy' so, well, here a little explanation for your 'Zucchero papà', 'Azucar papa', 'Sucre père' or whatever it is in your translation...
'SUGAR-DADDY' is a slang for a rich older male lover who supports or spends lavishly on a younger girlfriend. In common parlance it doesn't have a good meaning because generally it refers to a man who offers money or gifts to a less rich, usually younger person in return for companionship or physical needs.
Here however I just played with the word, using it in both this (real) meaning and for his assonance with 'sweet daddy'.
I don't know if I reached my aim... I tried. ;)
...
CHAPTER 12 - SUGAR DADDY
...
Waldenwood preschool. Four years later it looked exactly the same of the first time he had been there. And still Cuddy's first choice for a pre-school. Honestly it would be easier for Adam to get there this time...
A little smile played on House's lips as soon as that thought came into his mind.
Yeah, not because Adam was smarter than his sister. Just because his sister had attended the same school from the second pre-school year on, and schools like that one used to give way to siblings.
Here why this sort of examination was just a formality.
Same room, same toys. Colourful blocks and rings and the same kind of caterpillar on which he had put pepper sauce for dissuading a 3-year-old Rachel from putting it into her mouth.
Like it or not, there she had got him. Exactly there.
... 'She seemed so dumb, but when the pressure was on, she knew what had to be done, and she did it'
Yeah, he had a weird kind of pride!
...You're pumped 'cause your kid lied?
...She's not my kid. She's a pain in the ass.
He shook his head at that memory, meeting his own gaze and slight smirk in the window in front of himself, then turning to look at Cuddy.
Her look was fixed somewhere in the outside garden and her hand fidgeted with the bracelet on her wrist.
"Nervous? Really?" He asked as she just turned to him with a smile.
"I'm just thinking we're getting old, Daddy" she said with a smirk "How is that possible that our baby is already getting into preschool?"
"Hey, mind your own, woman!" He replied with a glare which turned into a smirk, putting an arm around her waist as she rested her temple on his shoulder.
Three years...
She still remembered the feeling of being behind her desk on that first day after her maternity leave.
.
... It was a strange feeling... like the one on her first day of work after Rachel's adoption. She was there but her mind wasn't, and neither her heart. She could still feel the softness of Adam's cheek on her lips and of his dark hair under her fingers as she kissed him goodbye.
...C'mon, Lisa... you can do it. It's just a few hours...
She swallowed, turning her computer on and looking at the screen as the known icons appeared on it. The same icons she had faced for years... they just looked less bright now... like everything around her.
Fucking oxytocin...
"I need a signature"
She looked up at the sound of House's voice, smiling at the look in his eyes as she took the paper from his hand. Actually he didn't. He didn't need that signature. Or he could have sent someone else. He was there to check on her and that was... well... sweet.
"And I need a dose of Atosiban" She replied with a slight smile as instead he chuckled.
Actually he wasn't sure a dose of an antagonist of oxytocin would be enough. That bonding hormone had done enough mess in his life too.
His lips met hers as he bent to take back the signed paper and she smiled again.
"Or you should go back to be just a house-wife, Cuddy" he teased, purposely stretching both the parts of that noun.
She smiled wider, chuckling in turn.
"Maybe with a capital letter" She teased in turn as his steel blue eyes pierced hers and they both stared at each other running their tongue on their lips.
He kept to look into her eyes not looking away for a few seconds even when a knock on the door broke the spell. He just mouthed a 'see ya', then turning and heading to the door.
Time ran faster than she thought, reports and patients keeping her mind busy and sending her in her usual routine. She looked at her watch as she opened her office door. A quarter to 5 pm. Well, for sure now her routine didn't include working late. Even less after she had slept at most four hours the previous night.
She frowned at the box on her desk, mentally thanking that it was too little for a box of folders and too big for a faeces sample from some weird patient.
She reached for it, hesitantly lifting the lit and staring at what was inside it as one of the corners of her lips curled up.
She thanked that the Clinic was already closed at that time. Why on heart she couldn't keep off that dumb smile from her face?
She stood on House's doorframe waiting for him to look up from the backpack he was filling and couldn't help the smile that played on her lips as soon as their eyes met. He just let his backpack on the desk, watching her as she placed those white runners on the pile of his medical journals and approached him.
His arms wrapped her waist and hers his neck as just their eyes spoke words to each other.
"Actually, I told... Nike" she teased glancing at the big rhinestone H on the side of those 500 dollars Hogan white sneakers and then looking again into his eyes.
He rolled his eyes. And smiled. One of his rare teeth-showing smile as his arms held her tighter.
"Oh, shut up!" He said as his lips found hers...
.
"Dr House?"
He turned at that call. She didn't. Not immediately at least.
She felt House's gaze on the side of her face and just then turned her head to meet his amused look, then turning more to meet the gaze of the young woman behind her back. Her arm stretched in her direction to hand her the scarf she had probably forgotten in Principal Madison's office.
"Er... thank you" Cuddy just said with an awkward smile, taking the scarf from the woman's hand and wrapping it around her neck, then meeting House's amused look again.
They both turned to look at the door as soon as it opened and a little boy ran out, bumping against their legs. The teacher walked toward them in turn, giving them a warm smile and reaching for Adam's head, ruffling his hair.
"We had fun, don't we?" Miss Thompson said as the child turned his head to nod, not leaving the grip around his parents' thighs though "He's a smart boy," she continued with another smile "just..."
Cuddy stared at the teacher and House couldn't help but smirk at the way in which her eyebrows furrowed on that 'just...'.
"You've played 'Feed the monkey' before, right honey?"
Cuddy's lips parted in a questioning way and House just stared at his son's grey-blue eyes in what looked like a deja-vu.
Adam's dark blue little Nike rubbed back and forth on the floor and he looked up at them, then at the teacher... he bit on his lower lip and... nodded.
What?
Nodded?
Really?
House's mouth opened and he looked from the child to Cuddy as she gave him another quizzical look.
"Are you really sure he's mine?" He asked as she rolled her eyes, giving an apologetic look at the teacher.
"I'm sorry... I... I don't -," she sighed again "l'm really sorry... I suppose my hus-"
However, for Cuddy's disbelief, the teacher just smiled again, shaking her head slightly.
"Oh, it was just a statement. It's normal with elder siblings. Probably Rachel just told him about the school, the toys..." She smiled warmly again then giving them a sort of awkward look though "Just... er... with all due respect, I mean you're his parents and doctors too but... he...he repeatedly asked me for gummy bears during the game and...well, I think too much sugar would have to be discouraged in such a tender age..."
Cuddy's eyebrows raised and her eyes opened wider. Her mouth opened and closed and she swallowed...
"Er...sure..." She just whispered, nodding and reaching for Adam's hair, running her fingers in his curls.
The teacher just smiled, giving Adam's cheek a little flick and then waving him a bye-bye as the little boy gestured a greeting in turn.
Not even a second after the lady was gone Cuddy's head abruptly turned to House giving him a deadly glare.
"Hey... what?" He asked as just her eyebrows lifted again in a threatening and asking way.
"Gummy bears?" She asked with a serious tone as her eyes burned more at the laugher which escaped House's throat.
"It wasn't me!"
"Yeah, sure" She replied with a hard sigh, then looking down at the child.
She didn't speak in the car, just looking out of the window, and for once House thanked the fact they weren't going home. A few hours in her hospital and she would have probably forgot that she was mad at him. Or... probably... she would have just had something else to be madder at him.
"Dr. House?"
House automatically stretched his arm toward the nurse to take the receiver from her hand but she just gave him a weird look, keeping the phone against her chest and then handing it at the hand which appeared instead at House's side.
He turned just his head, meeting Cuddy's look as she gave him an annoyed look.
Yeah, maybe the married-name thing hadn't been a good idea!
When she closed her call he was nowhere to be seen and she just raised her eyebrows, handing a folder to the nurse behind the counter and heading to her office.
"That's still my desk" she said looking at the man behind it and approaching him.
"The door says 'House'. I get confused with all these Houses" he replied with a smirk as she ran her tongue on her lips.
"Speaking of Houses, it was Waldenwood," she said pushing House's feet off the pile of documents he was using like a pillow under his ankles "They love Adam, in spite of your umpteenth trick"
House rolled his eyes. Trying to convince her that he was innocent was a lost cause.
"You sure they gave back us the right child anyway?"
Cuddy ignored him, opening the desk drawer such vigorously that it almost hit him.
"Seriously! Who knows? A lot of children get changed in the nursery, Cuddy!"
She ignored him again.
"Everybody lies! Everybody! But my child! I'm serious. I'll have to ask for a DNA test"
She rolled her eyes again.
"Stop being an ass" she said as his arm wrapped her hips pulling her closer to himself.
She couldn't help but smirk at the look on his face as soon as his nose got a face-to-face with her breast.
"Talking of asses..." he teased moving his hands down to cup both her buttocks.
His mischievous look met hers and she just bit on her lower lip as he pulled her even closer.
"Don't you have patients to see?" She asked as he gave her a 'you-re-a-killjoy' look.
"I sent Taub. That's what fellows are for, Cuddy!" He said as she nodded "And I get off in ten minutes, boss!" He said raising his wrist to glance at his watch then meeting Cuddy's stare.
Her eyebrows lifted and he gave her a quizzical look at the gaze she gave him. The tip of her tongue dampened her lower lip and then the upper as one of the corners of her mouth curled up mischievously.
"Ten?" She asked as her teeth trapped that same lips, preventing her smile from growing wider.
He stared into her eyes, unable to prevent the shiver which ran down to his groin at her gaze.
Fuck, he knew that gaze!
"I bet five" She teased as her naughty look definitely made his jeans too tight.
.
(Three years earlier...)
"The tissue biopsy confirms amyloidosis. ATTR type," Taub said entering House's office and resting a couple of papers on his desk "He need liver transplant. I-"
He stopped at the way in which House's shoulders slightly stiffened and his Adam's apple moved down and up.
"Er... I looked for Cuddy for the authorization but she's not-" Taub started and then stopped again, furrowing his eyebrows at the look on House's face. Somewhere midway between fun and pain.
"-not in her office. I know" House said meeting Taub's look for a second before his eyes shut closed and he swallowed again.
Taub's mouth dropped open instead and his face turned a shade of crimson.
"Holy -" He gulped, meeting House's look again as his finger pointed to the desk.
And one of the corners of House's lips couldn't help but curl up despite the piercing cold look he gave to his employee. Taub just stammered something incomprehensible and his face turned from crimson to at least five shades of red.
"Er... you're busy... she's...er...busy... I'd better go"
He turned to leave, stopping after just a couple of steps at the 'ouch! Careful baby' that burst out of House's throat.
Taub just opened and closed his mouth. It opened and then closed a second time but no words exited it. He could feel his ears catching fire as much as his face and he just swallowed again, then turning to the door and finally disappearing beyond it.
House couldn't help but smirk this time, looking down at the conspiratorial blue eyes between his legs, then meeting the ones which entered the door a couple of seconds later.
"What's wrong with Taub?" She asked, turning her head to glance at the door and then approaching his desk.
House just smirked again and Cuddy's eyebrows raised.
"House!" She warned.
"I didn't do anything" He laughed raising both his hands in a defense gesture as she glared at him and moved his chair by side, then reaching for the little one hid under his desk.
"Guess why I don't believe you?" She replied as Rachel sneaked out, placing House's Gameboy on his lap.
House laughed again.
"Maybe, and I said 'maybe', I haven't specified what Cuddy was under my desk playing with my joystick" He said in his most nonchalant tone as Cuddy rolled her eyes, sighing hard.
Her lips parted... and closed... and parted again, exactly like Taub's a few minutes earlier, and again no words exited.
He watched her as she just picked Rachel up, settling her legs better at both sides of her bump and headed to the door, giving him another glare as the little one gestured him a bye-bye from her mother's shoulder instead.
And he couldn't help but smile.
.
"Where's Cuddy?" Taub asked opening Cuddy's office door and just giving a glance to his boss, sitting on the boss's boss chair and definitely nosing around among her stuff. Nothing new.
House just swallowed and cleared his throat.
"Either not here, or under the desk. In both cases you have to wait till I'm done" He replied as Taub stopped exactly where he was.
Just for a moment though.
He rolled his eyes at his boss, giving him a I-m-not-an-idiot look and stepped toward the desk, placed a couple of papers on it and nonchalantly turned to leave.
Fuck!
He looked down, meeting a pair of blue eyes and taking her by her forearms.
"You haven't locked the door!" He mouthed as she just squeezed her eyes.
He glanced beyond the closed door again and just stood up, pushing her into her private bathroom, though unable not to smirk as he trapped her against the wall.
It had began like something very transgressive and erotic, but in the last years it had become an intimate little moment just for them. No kids sharing the bed with them... no rubber ducks looking at them if they sought for a little intimacy in their bathroom... just... them.
They stared at each other, exchanging another sweet kiss and savouring each other warmth.
They would have just stayed there if there weren't two little monkeys to pick up from the play area.
"Ok, Daddy. Let's go" She said with a smirk, giving him one last kiss as he smiled in turn, in turn giving her ass one last squeeze.
They both stopped on House's office doorframe at the chuckling they could hear from under his desk.
Obviously their rugrats had chosen an alternative play area!
They looked at each other and then down as House's shoe hit a green gummy bear on the floor. He picked it up turned it in his fingers, handing it to Cuddy and gesturing her to turn around the desk to peek under it.
There they were, facing each other, sitting on their knees.
- Ready... set... feed the monkey! -
Rachel's hand ruffled Adam's hair and he smiled wide in response.
- Who's a good boy? -
She ruffled his hair again and they laughed in such a way that it was contagious.
- Do you want a bear? Do you? -
- Feed the monkey! -
House closed his eyes and held back a laugher as a red gummy bear hung over Adam's head and then filled his mouth in the best dog-training tradition.
He met Cuddy's apologetic look and took the green gummy bear from her hand, turning it between his fingers and then throwing it over his head exactly like he used to do with Vicodin. His mouth caught it, unable to prevent the smile which played on his lips.
"Maybe she took a little too much after me" He teased, taking Cuddy's hand and placing a soft kiss on the wedding ring on her finger as she smiled in turn. And nodded.
.
(3 years earlier)
"Holy -"
House's words died in his throat as soon as he opened the bedroom room and met Cuddy's look in the mirror.
Her fingers stopped for a fraction of second then returning to her attempt to clasp the strips of her dress on the back of her neck.
He didn't ask, just approaching her from behind and moving her curls by side, clasping it for her as she tried instead to fix the deep V neck underlining her breast.
Stunning was an underestimating.
He ran a hand on her bare back, slowly moving along each vertebra of her spine, then stopping on her hip as his eyes stared at that white draped skirt which voluptuously touched the floor since she didn't wear heels yet.
Her hands moved from her breast to her waist trying to adjust the jewel silk belt over her stomach.
That dress was gorgeous, except that her own breast had turned a cup C in the last week and her seven-months belly was definitely catching attention even under all those layers of taffeta. She slightly lifted her skirt with both hands as she slipped into her heels. Not that she needed it since the skirt was actually short in the front, showing her knees and legs, but because of both that puffy gown and her belly she could barely see her feet.
"Why on earth did Gale choose white bridesmaid's dresses?" She said sighing and turning to look at House "I look like a white whale"
He just looked at her, following the nervous movements of her hands as they tried to smooth the soft fabric wrapping her belly.
She didn't look fat. She looked like a brid-
Fuck! And she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
He swallowed, trying his best for remembering how breathing works.
"Remind me why I never propose?" He said as she looked up at him, meeting his gaze.
She couldn't help but chuckle despite the low tone of his voice.
"Because the only reason for people to get married is the need of protection of Homo Sapiens's female from predators during breast feeding," she replied in a flat tone with a smirk "but the only predator in this house is the gigantic stuffed dinosaur Rachel made you buy for her brother," she added patting his shoulder "and I'm sure it can't hurt me"
She smiled wider running her hand along his white shirt and then his neck, finding his cheek and brushing his stubble with her thumb as he stared into her eyes. She slightly kissed his lips leaving on them a light shade of her lipstick, then passing near him and handing him the black jacket of his tuxedo.
He looked at her as her eyes didn't meet his, focused on fixing his tie. He loved that complicity. The way in which they could fulfill each other needs without asking.
"Howse, look!"
They both turned their head to the door as soon as it shut open and Rachel rushed in, pirouetting and twirling around making her ball gown flutter and blow up.
She stopped in front of him with a hop and a ear-to-ear smile as the corners of his lips couldn't help but curl up.
"What are you?" He asked with a serious look, holding back a smile "A meringue?"
He had to use all his concentration not to laugh at the glare she gave at him.
"I'm a bride" She said, crossing her arms in front of her chest.
"You're not. Not until an unlucky guy comes to ask me for your hand"
Her eyebrows lifted and then furrowed giving her the most funny expression.
"I'm not gonna give my hand to anyone" She replied and he laughed as this time she hid both her hands behind her back.
"Believe me, he'll take more than your hand" He said again as Cuddy slapped his nape this time making his words mix with a 'ouch'.
.
A Jewish wedding. In a way a sort of outer circle from Dante's Inferno for him.
House looked at Cuddy as he walked toward the sofa in the back of the room, in a way far from the noise of the people dancing and chatting near there. She was seated on the coach, her back relaxed against the seatback and her head slightly tilted back, her hands on her lap and her legs stretched in front of her.
He glanced at her bare feet and at the white pair of heels abandoned on the floor. She looked tired, and at the same time she was stunning. Dark locks falling on her shoulders, against the white silk of her dress.
A faint but warm smile played on her lips as she caught sight of him and his look softened in turn.
"Tired?" He asked, sitting down next to her as her hand found his knee.
She replied just with a 'hhhmmm'. Her way to hide a 'very' under a sort of 'I'm fine'.
His hand reached for her belly, stroking it through the soft silk of her dress, and her hand found his, intertwining her fingers with his.
"I'm fine" She said as he looked into his eyes "Your baby just like weddings as much as his father"
Actually she was still wondering how could had happened that he had agreed to accompany her to her cousin's wedding. A wedding was bad enough for him, not to mention a big and sumptuous Jewish ceremony.
"I still can't believe you wore a kippah," she teased with a smirk as he held her mischievous gaze.
"Just because it hides my bold spot" he replied as she smiled again, looking at his hand as his fingers caressed hers.
Her smile slowly faded at the look in his eyes, replaced by a puzzled look.
"We should get married"
Her jaw hung opened in disbelief for a second and then she chuckled.
"Yeah, sorry, my mother can do this effect" she laughed as her eyes sought Arlene somewhere at the other side of the room than looking at him again "I'm sure she told you need to convert, eat kasher and accept and observe all the 613 commandments in rabbinical enumeration,"
"I wouldn't care about a farce if that wouldn't mean a scalpel and my penis in the same sentence too"
She chuckled, shaking her head and massaging the side of her belly as her own son reacted to such an absurdity giving her a strong kick.
"Anyway, Cuddy, I proposed and you're just evading the answer?"
She smiled, tilting her head back again against the seatback, turning it to look at him.
"You didn't propose," she chuckled again "you've just been caught in my mother's vortex. It's ok, House. Marriage isn't my target anymore,"
She warmly smiled, looking away at another kick of the baby in her womb.
"and we already have a blood bond," "she said smoothing her gown with her free hand and caressing her belly "I really don't need a signature on a paper."
She stared into the piercing blue of his eyes, caressing his jaw and he just nodded, making his hand slide on the soft silk of her dress and protectively resting it on hers.
"We're ok like this," she said again "me and you. And our son. And Rachel. We don't need anything else"
He just nodded, staring at her and lightly squeezing her hand.
Me and you. And our son. And Rachel.
Dots... not commas...
And he just nodded again.
.
"Remember me why people want to wrap themselves in sort of meringues and massacre their feet in their big day?" She asked, meeting House's gaze in the mirror as he entered the bedroom.
His tie hung along her neck and his shirt was wrinkled after the long day and even more after that a four-year child had slept against it for almost an hour.
"I thought you were a fan of the white dress" he teased giving her a mischievous look as he helped her to slip out of it.
"Till today" she replied, stepping out of that voluminous gown.
House's hands found her hip, pulling her closer as his eyes moved along her body, lingering on the white lace bra enveloping her full breast.
"What if I really meant to get married to you?" He teased (or maybe didn't) as she briefly closed her eyes, biting her lower lip and smiling as their eyes locked again.
"Then at least buy me a pair of Nike,"
Their amused looks met and they just looked at each other for a few seconds as House's fingers caressed her forearm, moving up slowly along her arm and shoulder.
"I'm serious" He said as she just gave him a shrug as response.
"Me too" She said with a smile, resting a hand on his chest and savouring the warmth of that feeling.
The blue of his eyes melt with hers and their lips found each other in a soft kiss. He watched her as she moved the bed sheets by side and went under them, settling the pillow better under her head. She smiled as soon as he spooned her, caressing her shoulder and then wrapping his arm around her belly, meeting her hand. He couldn't see that smile, but he could feel it.
"Well, just so you know, if you decide to answer to my no-proposal, just do it before my prostate stops working. I don't want to end up the same way of that so-called-groom!" He whispered in her ear, placing a soft kiss on the side of her neck.
Cuddy couldn't help the laugher that escaped her lips.
"He's not that old, House. Ten years older than you. She's the very younger one"
She didn't move, just taking his hand and placing it a little lower on her belly, in an attempt to have her baby stopping to flip and kick her stomach.
"She's less than half his age and he looks like the genie from Aladdin's tale, Cuddy. Anyway, I'm not sure if she rubs his lamp he can grant her wishes"
"Oh God," she rolled her eyes and rolled in bed at the same time, resting on her back so she could look into his eyes "You're disgusting"
"Really?" He mischievously asked as his hand stroke her lower belly, then moving a little down "Admit it, they're ridiculous"
Cuddy smiled and nodded, biting her lower lip at the feeling of House's fingers moving under the elastic band of her panties.
"Yeah, Rachel asked me if he was the bride's daddy" She laughed.
"Well, he's the classic sugar daddy," he laughed in turn giving her a mischievous look "I wonder what does she sees in him anyway"
Cuddy just smiled and turned more toward him, caressing his chest as his hand followed the line of her hip, then stopping on the side of her belly.
"Well, I suppose it's the charm of a successful man. Older men are caring... er... supporting... interesting... And they offer mature experience when it comes to intimacy!" She teased with a smirk "Guess why I had a crush on you at College, daddy!"
He gave her a sort of glare and rolled his eyes, rolling in turn in bed till he was on his back.
"Not the same. I'm not that old, mommy" he said looking at the ceiling.
"You were a senior, I was a freshman. For me, you were old enough at that time," she laughed as he couldn't help but smirk as she propped on her elbow, looking down at him "and you had a certain reputation,"
He ran his tongue on his lower lip at the naughty look in her eyes.
"What reputation?" He asked just for the pleasure to hear it from her mouth.
"Er... your ability to take your time in the art of seduction and eroticism," she replied fidgeting with his light chest hair.
He chuckled again.
"Something that after a certain age it's due to prostatitis though, my sugar baby!"
A laugher burst from her throat too this time and she slapped his chest, then finding his lips in a soft kiss and lingering on them till the baby kicked House's side, pushing his mother to move back a little.
House's arm reached for her instead, pulling her closer again.
"I should have known you have a soft spot for old men with a cane, mommy!" He chuckled, moving from his own face one of her locks and cupping her cheek then finding her lips again.
He slightly bit her lower lip, sucking it and her lips parted more, giving access to his tongue in a deeper kiss.
...
She felt the roughness of his stubble on her cheek and then the softness of his lips but just hummed, still in the numb of sleep.
"Go back to sleep. I got it"
She hummed again, nodding as his hand covered the one on her stomach, softly squeezing it. A chill ran down her back at the suddenly missing of the warmth of his body near her and she rolled in bed, wrapping the sheets more around herself and looking at his back as he disappeared in the darkness and beyond the door.
2 in the morning. Rachel awakening at such a time was anything new after such a thrilling day. She had fallen asleep in House's lap, not moving when he had carried her in the car and then to bed nor when Cuddy had pull her out of her flower-girl dress.
"Hey"
There she was. Fully awake and sit up on her bed, looking around in the dim light of her room like someone who's asking herself why and when she got there since the last thing she remembered was a noisy and sparkling dancing room.
"Mom?" She asked
House rolled his eyes in a funny way making her smile even before his words exited his lips.
"Have you seen that bump of hers? It's not easy to get up after you ate such a huge ball"
She chuckled, making room for him on the bed as he sat down.
"It's not a ball, it's the baby brother"
She laughed as this time House's eyes grew wider and his mouth opened in a scared grimace, making him look halfway between the scared icon and Munch's 'The scream'.
On the other side of the wall Cuddy ran a hand on her face, sighing and rolling in bed, resting on her right side for a few seconds and then propping on her elbow, slowly sitting up. She couldn't hear what they were talking about but she could hear them chuckling and a laugher from time to time and that wasn't good. Well, not at that time in the morning, that to be honest was definitely still night.
She reached for her robe slipping into it and holding her back as she stood up, heading to the door but stopping after a few steps, sighing as the baby boy pressing on her bladder forced her instead to go to the bathroom first.
It was all quieter when she walked out, listening to what was just silence and pondering if simply going back to bed or checking anyway on the two in the next room. There was a 50-50 chance House had fallen asleep in Rachel's bed and that would have meant a grumpy and aching boyfriend on the morning after.
She stopped out of the room as she heard his voice, so weak that it was just a soft whisper, and peeped through the half-closed door.
There he was, lying down near Rachel in the scarce room of her single bed, talking to her with a soothing voice as his hand smoothed her hair. If Adam hadn't kicked her ribs again making her almost startled she had thought she was still dreaming.
"You promise?" Rachel's sleepy voice asked in turn in a whisper.
"Always"
"And to check my closet for monsters?" She asked again in a half-conscious tone as a soft chuckle escaped House's mouth.
"Yeah. And under your bed," he added as Rachel nodded and wrapped his neck even tighter.
"I promise to be always there for you, Rachel. That there will always be enough room for you under my desk. And that we will never tell Mom we use to get in-coma patients' stuffed pets on loan to play. I promise to be an accomplice, a friend, a trusted friend... a dad if you'd want me to... because you're my kid, and I promise to protect and cherish and love you till my addicted liver stops working"
He stayed there, motionless, just listening to Rachel's calm breathing and at the feeling of her now heavy arm around his neck. He tried to get up slowly, not making any noise, and he almost succeeded in it except for the way in which the mattress lifted at the missing of his weight.
"Daddy,"
He froze at that whisper, turning to her as she didn't stir nor open her eyes.
"...'night" she just added as her breathing went back to the deepness of half-sleep.
"...'night" he just replied, reaching for the door and stepping in the quiet hallway.
Everything was silent and calm. Everything but the heart hammering in his chest. Half past 2 in the morning and he was fully awake like if it was midday.
He slipped under the sheets moving closer to Cuddy's warmth and wrapping her waist, resting a hand on her abdomen and somehow caressing his son's head like he had done with Rachel just moments earlier.
She moved, rolling and turning to face him as he was forced to move back to make room for her belly between them.
"What?" He asked, meeting her smile and trying his best to give her a serious and nonchalant look.
"Well... it looks like you said your vows to a Cuddy eventually," She teased, mingling her legs with his and still savouring the feeling of his arm around her.
"You jealous?"
She lightly shook her head no, giving him a so warm smile that warmed him despite the space between them.
"I can leave Daddy to her," she whispered caressing his jaw and brushing his lips with hers as a mischievous look played in her eyes "I'm ok with my Sugar Daddy"
...
THE END
...
So... well, thank you to everyone for reading. Thank you for the reviews, the support and the smiles you put on my face as I read everyone of them.
A special thanks to you, Caliana, for having inspired me this story and to you, my beta-reader, who inspires me stuff even when you don't know you do (muchas gracias, woman! Me recuerdas a alguien... ;) jajajaja)
See ya!
