--S-T-O-L-E-N--C-I-N-D-E-R-E-L-L-A--
Chapter Twelve – Blessings
"I don't know why you're putting her through these tests, House. She lost that baby; it was documented. These symptoms can easily be explained by the Paroxetine"
Cuddy had her hands on her hips, a stern look of weary tedium settled on her expression. It was an expression she often wore when dealing with House. And she had the tone of a somnolent mother trying to explain to a child why sticking sharp objects into electric sockets wasn't such a good idea. But then, maybe he never had that talk.
"She would have presented sooner and more violently if she was reacting to the antidepressants. Was the foetus physically removed from her?"
He paused a moment for effect before continuing
"You know it wasn't, but your awesome OBGYN decided, 'nah, kiddie couldn't survive that,' and passed her off. Ignored the abdominal pains and nausea. It wasn't just the after-effects of the panic attack drugs, the trauma or 'miscarriage'. We took blood tests and sent her up for an ultrasound. Care to place a bet on who's going to be proven right?"
He raised a challenging eyebrow and Cuddy gave him a disbelieving stare.
"I cannot believe you're betting on this-"
"Why, because you know I'm right?"
She simply let out a long sigh of exasperation and shook her head. She didn't want to believe Cameron could still be pregnant, because if she was, the complications she would most likely suffer would not be pleasant. Not to mention what the trauma and meds could have caused.
House and Cuddy had traded more blows in the past ten minutes than they did in an average week. Cuddy had objected to them battering Cameron's already-exhausted body with more tests when she needed to be resting, for a cause she didn't believe was liable for the symptoms. They were submitting her to the heartache of hope too. She'd been told she'd lost the baby, had mourned that loss and had been trying to cope with everything else too, and now here they were giving her a hope that perhaps she still had the chance of her baby still being alive.
"Fire your OBGYN. She misses the fact that her patients are still pregnant and writes them off as miscarriages. Wait, second thoughts, don't fire her, because whatever she's doing is preventing you from spawning, and that's a positive, because you'd be a terrible mother."
He limped out of the room, slamming the door behind him and leaving Cuddy to feel the burn of his callous words. That had been cold, even for him.
--
"Don't take it out on Cuddy, House. She's got a point."
House looked back to find Stacy stood a few yards away and sighed, rolling his eyes as he turned to face her.
"And what would you know about this?"
Stacy shrugged, brushing stray strands of hair out of her face.
"She vented. She's pissed that you're-"
House waved a hand at her and pulled an obnoxious face.
"Yeah, I've had the lecture. But I know I'm right."
With a slightly rueful but amused smile she shook her head, choosing not to comment. He always knew he was right. As much as she tried to brush of her subjective thoughts on the whole pregnancy dilemma, Stacy kind of hoped it would turn out that the baby had survived. Not for the sake of Cameron's sanity, but rather for a more selfish reason. If she was pregnant with Chase's baby, the likelihood of House getting involved in that triangle was negligible, right? If Cameron was out of the picture, and now that she was separated from Mark, she had another shot with House. She still loved him, that much she had realized. And it had been like a knife to the heart to return to PPTH and find him so obviously caught up on Cameron. She'd thought she'd been imagining it all those years ago, telling herself he wouldn't go for the young, ingénue doctor solely because she was so naïve, trusting and…young. He was quite a few years her senior and House had once mentioned his unease at her advances awhile back. Even then though, lying in bed with him as he told her about their dysfunctional relationship, she'd been able to tell his feelings weren't entirely platonic. She'd brushed it off however, and chose to believe his words rather than what her gut had been telling her.
And sure enough, upon returning years after leaving, his once well-hidden feelings for her were slightly less easily concealed. He openly cared about her, though he sometimes managed to catch himself and covered it with his usual sarcasm.
Seeing House was about to turn and leave, Stacy called his name to get his attention again. Once he turned back to face her, she found his eyes.
"I didn't come to fight Cuddy's battles. I just came to find you to tell you they've got the guy in custody."
And with that, she left him stood alone in the corridor, her revelation causing shockwaves to reverberate though him.
--
Cameron kept her eyes on the ceiling as the sonographer gently lifted her top to expose her stomach and spread the cold gel across it. She stiffened a moment at the sudden coldness and the fact that the gel was being rubbed on some of the tender wounds that were still healing. She tried to relax, tried not to clench, as House would say, in anticipation of what the results of this test could be.
"You wanna see?"
The soft-spoken, middle-aged woman asked. She wasn't the same woman who had diagnosed a miscarriage and Cameron was somewhat relieved. She knew if it turned out she was still pregnant, and that woman was anywhere in the close vicinity, it wouldn't be a pretty scene. Because the drugs she'd been administered since they told her she'd lost her baby did not account for an active pregnancy, and she was well aware of the effects they could have on an unborn if it was indeed still alive.
She shook her head, keeping her hands tightly balled into fists and her eyes trained on a ceiling tile. The woman nodded in understanding and turned her concentration to the screen. The few minutes that followed seemed like an eternity and Cameron didn't realise at first that she'd been holding her breath.
"Allison…"
Hearing her name, her head snapped to the woman and she followed her gaze to the screen, where she was pointed before looking back at Cameron with a small smile.
"That's a little heartbeat."
--
House, Chase, Foreman and even Cuddy were waiting outside the room. As she was pushed through the doors in a wheelchair, all eyes fell expectantly on her, the tension thick in the air. Raising her eyes to Chase's, she managed to grace him with a smile.
"I'm pregnant."
She said softly and the look on his face was one of pure delight. He shot to her side, desperate to throw his arms around her but refraining the instant her reached her and saw the nervousness in her eyes at his sudden close proximity. Instead, he just grinned down at her, unable to find words.
House watched the exchange and looked away. She was still pregnant. It was a miracle, but he'd been right, it explained the symptoms. That baby was a fighter, just like its mother. In a way he was pleased, because he'd once again been proven right on a diagnosis and the look of shame on Cuddy's face at having brushed off the idea was something to revel in. But on the other hand, she was pregnant with Chase's baby and when she'd found that out last time she'd gone running back to him. Though, House had to admit, he was partially to blame for that too. He'd kissed her, screwed her head up, pushed her away. But he argued that he'd only retained the distance between them 'for her own good', because as much as he wanted her, as much as he was in love with her, he couldn't be what she needed, or what she deserved.
When he'd given up his relationship with Stacy, sending her back to Mark, Wilson had said House seemed to need the misery in his life to feel special. But that wasn't true. He didn't feel as though he deserved Cameron. She was young, beautiful and full of life. He wasn't so young anymore and he wasn't even nice. He simply didn't understand her attraction to him. It didn't add up in any scientific way possible. But that was also part of what attracted him to her. Of course, he found her stunningly attractive, as he'd told her numerous times and had even admitted to hiring her for that very reason, after all what man in their right mind wouldn't be attracted to her? But aside from that, she was a puzzle, and House longed to figure her out, to unravel what mystified him about her. Every time he thought he'd grasped the answers to her, she'd do or say something that completely blindsided him and that answer was lost again.
"I need to change my medication for the panic attacks from Paroxetine to Tofranil. The damage has probably already been done though."
There was a sad sense of acceptance in her demeanour. She was just more than grateful of getting a second chance where this baby was concerned and if there were problems, she resolved to deal with them if or when they arose. For now she was just going to try and let it sink in that she had another chance to have this child. It was beyond a miracle in her eyes.
House took hold of the wheelchair handle to stop Chase from taking her back to her room. Both of them turned and looked expectantly at him, and Cuddy and Foreman's attention was also diverted to him. This was it; he would be the bearer of the news that could well break her.
"They got him."
The confusion was evident in all the faces that were turned toward him and he sighed, shifting his gaze uncomfortably to the floor.
"They got the guy who attacked you."
