TABOO

House had stopped playing, and was now snuggled up beside Cuddy in the double wide chair. His arm was wrapped around her waist, and his hand resting on her hip. Everyone around him seemed anxious. He knew why they were anxious, but it hadn't yet prompted him into action.

"How about a nice game of Taboo?" Blythe felt uncomfortable in the lull that had fallen over them all. Every time House so much as took a breath she looked at him, expecting the announcement. Every time he didn't speak she felt a little bit more of her hope die.

"Oh Blythe, nobody wants to play that stupid game," John moaned.

"I'd LOVE to," House said exaggeratedly. He had bought his mother the game last year for Christmas. It was meant as a sort of joke, but she loved it, and tried to get a game going every time she had people over.

"John, go get the game from the other room. Lisa, dear, would you mind helping me clear the table?"

Cuddy got up and followed Blythe while John made a moaning production of searching for the cards, mumbling things under his breath that he intended no one to hear.

"Has Greg said anything to you dear?" Blythe handed her a plate from the table, and began piling it with forks and napkins and other miscellaneous items.

"Anything in particular?" Cuddy hoped she didn't mean what she thought she meant.

"Oh, you know, anything...special?" Blythe blushed as she put a few more things on Cuddy's pile.

"I wouldn't get your hopes up Mrs. House."

"I told you, call me Blythe." Blythe smiled warmly. Boy was Lisa in for a surprise. "You can just leave those by the sink if you would."

Cuddy dutifully brought her wares to the kitchen. As she dropped them into the sink she felt arms wrap around her waist, and a cold nose nuzzling her neck. She giggled and squirmed in his arms. "House, knock it off."

"Afraid my mother will see us?" He pressed himself up against her, making sure she felt his impressive bulge.

Cuddy flinched as an unexpected hard bulge pressed into her hip. She twisted around to face him and quickly shoved her hand in his pocket. "What's that in your pocket?"

House's hand shot down to her wrist, grabbing it tightly. "Nothing." Fuck!

Cuddy's brow creased in worry. "It's a velvet box." Her fingers had just brushed it before House pulled her away.

"It's nothing." House's eyes studied her face. Was she nervous, pleased, angry, he couldn't tell.

Mrs. House came sing songing into the room with another pile of dishes. "Oh, I'm interrupting." She dropped her dishes onto the table and scurried out.

House turned and hurried out after her, leaving Cuddy thoroughly confused. John was sitting at the head of the table, passing out pens and pads to the Cuddy's. House sat down and kept his head in the rule book, avoiding Cuddy's gaze as she walked over to him.

"House, I need to talk to you." Cuddy grabbed his arm and pulled him to his feet.

"Can't. Games about to start. Be rude to leave my guests." He sat back down and this time when she tried to move him, he wouldn't budge.

"Fine, but we are going to talk later." She sat down in a huff next to him. She got huffier when she realized they were partners in the game.

Blythe and Dr. Cuddy seemed quite into the game, dragging their respective partners, John and Leila kicking and screaming through each round. House and Cuddy were both reluctant, but their competitive nature was making it hard not to give the game their all.

"John, you start." Blythe handed the cards to him. "It's the movie addition, so, I hope you all know your movies." Blythe smiled. She loved movies, and John still took her to the cinema at least once a month.

John picked up the first one and groaned. "Greg used to root for the villain."

"I always root for the villain," House interrupted and got a slap on the arm from Cuddy and a verbal slap from his mother.

"He wanted a coat like hers."

"1001 Dalmatians," Blythe said excitedly.

It was Jakob's turn. He pulled up a card and thought for a moment. "Harry Potter is a..."

"Wizard." Leila had bought the whole series for young Jake for his last birthday. She felt he was finally old enough to read them.

"And the show you never let me watch about guys in prison?"

"Oz." Leila jumped up excitedly. "The Wizard of Oz."

"Yes!" Jakob put down his card triumphantly.

He pushed the stack toward House.

"You gave me a hand job in the back row..."

Cuddy turned bright red.

"Oh, the time we didn't get caught."

Cuddy realized he would keep going if she didn't answer. "300."

"That's the one." House smiled proudly. That had been a good movie, well, not that he actually saw much of the movie, but it had been a good night at the movies.

Blythe pulled her first card and smiled. This was going to be easy. "About the event you were part of five years before Greg was born."

"MASH." John said proudly. The game couldn't be all bad, if it had something that important as a part of it.

"That was too easy," House groused.

"Oh, wait your turn, then you can complain," his mother teased as Mrs. Cuddy picked up her card.

Mrs. Cuddy looked at it for a long time.

"You're time is running out Leila," timekeeper Blythe said playfully.

"We took Lydia and the kids to one last summer." Jakob blinked at her. Unlike his wife, he did not memorize every moment he spent with Lydia's offspring. "Bekka got scared when she saw the...it's big, and has a long nose?" Leila was getting annoyed at her husband. He should have gotten the answer by now.

"Elephant," Jakob said triumphantly, thinking he was done.

"Yes, the...that..." it was one of the forbidden words, "which you find at the..." she glared at him, trying to send the answer to him through telepathy.

"Zoo!" He finally got it, but it was too late. Blythe had just called time. Leila threw her card at the deck and pushed the pile toward her daughter.

"Come on Cuddy, don't mess up," House kidded, but got an annoyed look from Leila. He ignored it.

Cuddy pulled out a card and sighed. She stared directly into House's eyes, almost challengingly, then said "the thing in your pocket".

"The Ring," House replied, staring her down.

Blythe looked at her son breathlessly. Jakob smirked. John seemed mildly interested, and Leila, well, she looked disgusted. She had been so optimistic when she first got here, but had not taken to Gregory House the way she'd hoped. It was bad enough her eldest was about to marry a goy, but why this one? Was she trying to break her mother's heart?

Cuddy put her card back silently and turned to John, whose turn it was next. "You're turn."

John quickly pulled a card and was about to speak, but he was cut off as he knew he would be.

"What ring?" Leila looked at her daughter.

"Ask him?" Cuddy looked at House.

House sighed. He already had everyone's attention, but made them wait a moment longer before speaking. "I have an announcement to make." He looked at Cuddy who seemed to have stopped breathing.

He pulled the little box out of his pocket and looked down at it for a moment, then placed it on the table and slid it toward his mother. "I won't be needing that."

All eyes followed the black velvet box as it glided easily across the smooth table.

"Greg," his mother cried as she looked at the small box as if it might explode.

"Now, if you will excuse me," he grabbed Cuddy by the arm and pulled her to her feet. "I think Cuddy want's to ask me something." He ignored all the gasps and questions and swept Cuddy out of the room.

Everyone's attention turned toward Blythe, who simply stared down at the box sadly.

"I told you not to interfere," John said.

"I wasn't interfering. I told him he didn't have to take the ring if he didn't want it."

"Well, apparently he didn't want it." John sighed.

"Why the hell not?" Leila had come all this way for nothing. She was slightly tipsy on wine, and pissed. "Isn't our daughter good enough for him?"

"She's lovely," Blythe tried to calm the tension in the room.

"She's too good for him," John added quietly.

"John! Don't say such things." Blythe snapped.

"He's right," Leila mumbled under her breath.

"Leila," her husband warned.

"Don't you Leila me. He dragged us all the way out here for nothing."

"Look." Jakob spoke calmly, "I think we all need to adjust our expectations a little." He took his wife's hand in an attempt to calm her down. "Greg did not actually tell you he was going to propose tonight, did he?"

Leila fumed. She hated when the truth interrupted her anger. "Not exactly."

"Not exactly." Jakob repeated.

John got up from the table and fixed himself a drink. He wanted no part in this conversation.

"And you, Mrs. House, did he say anything to you?"

"Well..." Blythe could have sworn he'd mentioned it. "I..."

"NO!" John answered for her. "You let yourself get swept up in some fairytale. It's not going to happen. Lisa is too smart to marry someone like him, even if he were stupid enough to ask her." John drained his glass and watched his wife's heart break. "I'm sorry Blythe, but you've got to get over this ridiculous notion that our son is normal. He's not. He's never going to be who you want him to be. You're never going to be a grandmother, you're never going to have your dream wedding. So stop doing this to yourself. Stop expecting something from him that he is never going to be willing to give."

"Oh John." Blythe burst into tears.

Leila rushed to her side, putting one comforting arm around her shoulders and handing her one of the folded tissues from her pocket. "Don't listen to him."

"Look, why don't we all just relax. Lisa and Greg seem happy the way they are. And isn't that all we really want? For our children to be happy? I know it's enough for me." He walked over and put his hand on Leila's shoulder. "Don't you see how her face lights up when he's around?"

"Yes," Leila admitted grudgingly.

"And all those little moments when they don't realize anyone else is around." He looked at Blythe who sniffled and nodded. He looked at John. "Maybe he's not the man you hoped he'd be. But he can't be all bad, not if my Lisa loves him."

"Is it so wrong to want them to get married?" Blythe couldn't let go of forty plus years of waiting for her only child's wedding. She believed in things like true love, and marriage. She believed in family and commitment. She wanted her son to be happy, but for her, it was hard to stop thinking of happiness as a long marriage, of the love and commitment she and John had shared for almost fifty years.

"It's not wrong, but it's not our decision. When he's ready, he'll ask."

"And meanwhile Lisa is supposed to waste what few child bearing years she has left waiting for him to make up his mind?" Leila was pissed.

"Believe me Leila, if our little girl wants him to marry her, she won't hesitate to make it known."