By the time Aiko was about 5 weeks old, Cuddy was about two weeks pregnant. Even though she had believed the first test, Cuddy still did another blood test, just to be sure. The effect the test results had on her, were interesting. Or at least House found them interesting, a little irritating since he figured he had to do something about them, but still interesting. Cuddy was nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. At first House found it even a little amusing, but after two days he decided that enough was enough. He took Wilson with him and they confronted Cuddy.

"Do you want to miscarry?" House asked pretty much the moment he and Wilson walked into Cuddy's office. Her head snapped up and she stared at the two of them. Wilson looked pained, House had his usual irritating I'm interested look on his face and Cuddy was deeply grateful that she was alone in her office.

"Do you want to announce my pregnancy to all and sundry without asking me if I want everybody to know?" Cuddy asked in return, trying to get control of this bizarre conversation. Though she could not help but feel at a disadvantage as the men came over to her, one on each side, to lean their butts against her desk towering over her while she sat on her chair. She pushed the chair as far back, away from the desk, as she could so that she could watch them and regain some control.

"I don't need to do any announcing; Wilson and Cameron have taken care of that between them. Though there may be a night janitor in the surgical ward that has not heard yet, but I'm sure he will be taken care of in the next thirty minutes or so," House told her blithely. Wilson groaned beside him. House went on: "Anyway, that doesn't answer my original question: Do you want to miscarry? Are you suddenly having second thoughts about this baby? Because there are easier ways to change your mind than stressing yourself into miscarriage."

"I don't want to miscarry and I'm not stressing," Cuddy responded agitatedly.

"Lisa," Wilson decided to take over before House went too far and really did induce a spontaneous abortion. "You have been on edge ever since House first told you, you are pregnant. For the last two days after this last test, you have been on pins and needles. You hardly dare go near patients because you fear you might catch something, you don't go into the lab because you fear the chemicals, you run up the stairs and suddenly stop and go back down – slowly – and use the lift. You bite your nails! You fiddle with your pearls all the time! You are suddenly so brittle we fear the slightest thing will just shatter you."

"Have you been spying on me?" Cuddy didn't know how else to respond.

"No, of course not," House dismissed her idea. "Wilson is hopeless as a spy. No, I had to do it myself – with some help from Cameron."

"Why am I not surprised that you have, once again, invaded my privacy," Cuddy sighed.

"Come on Cuddy, surely you know by now that you have no such thing as privacy!" House teased her. "At least not from me you don't."

"So now that you have invaded my privacy, you have come here to tell me to just chill, to take it easy, stop stressing and just snap out of it?" Cuddy's voice was getting a little shrill.

"Lisa, we know you cannot just snap out of it," Wilson said in a soothing voice. "Of course we want you to stop stressing; we worry about you and your baby. But we know you cannot. That is why I got you a time with a therapist I know. She specialises in pregnant women and all the fears that can be associated with having a baby from the fear of miscarriage to fear of giving birth. You have an appointment in half an hour."

"I don't have the time," Cuddy tried to explain.

"I checked your schedule first," Wilson told her. "You have the time."

"What if I just don't want to go," Cuddy defied them.

"Then we come back to my original question: Do you want to miscarry?" House pointed out.

"You think this therapist could really help?" Cuddy asked in a small voice.

"Yes, we think she could really help," Wilson assured her. "I wouldn't have set up the meeting otherwise."

"Fine," Cuddy gave up. "It can't hurt to at least see her once and then I can make up my own mind if I want to go on meeting her."

"Good girl," Wilson approved.

"There, that wasn't so difficult," House said earning a dirty look from both of his friends who both knew how impossible it was to get House accept any kind of help or therapy. Or at least it had been until Aiko came along.

"And to answer your question once and for all," Cuddy snapped at him a little. "No, I do not want to miscarry!"

"I didn't think you did," House told her. "And you are not going to. I told you once already, and I am telling you again. This time you will have your baby."

"But you could be wrong," Cuddy bit her lip in uncertainty. She wanted to believe him, but there was no way he really could know.

"I'm never wrong," House claimed. "Just ask Wilson."

"Annoyingly enough I cannot remember the last time he was wrong," Wilson obliged.

"See, even my best friend hates me for being always right," House pointed out smugly. Cuddy had to smile. "There! That's more like it," House smiled back. "Now get your butt out of that chair and let Wilson take you to your therapist."

"Fine, I suppose I can trust you two," Cuddy agreed. "At least just this once. Just don't think that this will be any kind of precedent. I'm still the head of this hospital!"

----------------------------------

"How did the meeting go?" House asked Wilson when he got back. "Do you think Cuddy will keep on going to therapy?"

"I didn't sit in on the meeting, you know," Wilson pointed out to House.

"Yeah, yeah, I knew you would wimp out of that," House accepted. "But you were there when they first met. How was it? Did Cuddy take an instant dislike to your friend or what?"

"I think they got on fine. Lisa was a little wary, but I think after the first handshake she was ready to give Angie a chance. And she did book the next time right away as she came out again," Wilson related.

"Good, good," House nodded. "I hope this helps. If she doesn't get her stress levels down soon, she may well loose this child, too and that would devastate her. It took no little courage of her to try again."

"You knew that she was trying again then," Wilson was a little surprised though Lisa had asked House's help before. "You knew she was pregnant because you were watching for signs."

"Well I suppose that I could take some credit for this," House mused perking Wilson's interest. "I told her that she should not let fear stop her from going after what she wants. That before she let's go of her dream she should be sure that her decision was not dictated by fear. Once she had thought it over she told me."

"Hmm, I think I'm glad she had the courage to try again," Wilson agreed, though he was slightly disappointed that House hadn't had anything juicier to report.

"Anyway, that's Cuddy taken care off, at least for now," House stood up ready to leave his office. "Two more to go!"

"What two?" Wilson was lost. "What are you talking about?"

"Chase and Cameron," House explained. "They are not talking today and it is interfering with my department."

"And you are going to give them advice?!" Wilson stared at his friend not believing his ears – not even a little.

"No, don't be silly," House huffed in exasperation. "I'm going to have fun at their expense and then read them the riot act about not letting personal things interfere with their work. I already gave the advice; that is why they are fighting."

"You mean they came to you for advice?!" Wilson didn't know if he was coming or going anymore. This was too bizarre for words.

"Wilson, wake up! Nobody but an idiot would come to me for advice on relationships," House knocked Wilson gently on the head. "I gave unsolicited advice – as usual – and Chase took it, which is why Cameron didn't get any last night and she is glaring at Chase who in turn is glaring at me."

"You mean Chase didn't get any and that is why he is glaring at you," Wilson corrected.

"No, I mean Cameron didn't get any, and that is why she is glaring at Chase," House told him.

"You lost me," Wilson gave up.

"You need to pay attention, man," House sighed. "I told Chase that Cameron wants to get pregnant so when she suggests he doesn't need to use a condom he should refuse. Last night when they left work they were planning to have sex. This morning they glared at each other in icy silence until I got there and then Chase started to stare at me. See, simple." House shrugged and went through to the conference room. Wilson had to practically jog to keep up with him. This he was not going to miss.

Kasumii was back with Aiko, too and they were in the conference room. They had been in the maternity ward getting Aiko's daily dose of breast milk. Aiko was asleep and once House had kissed her on the cheek Kasumii took her to the office to sleep in the crib.

Cameron was standing at the window looking out and drinking coffee. Chase was at the table doing a crossword puzzle and Foreman was sitting at the end looking totally fed up. It seemed that he had unwillingly found himself in the middle of it all. He even looked relieved to see House enter the room, though he was fairly sure that somehow all this was House's fault – he had looked way too smug in the morning as he got to work and saw how things were with Chase and Cameron.

"So kiddies, is the Ice Age still here or have you learned to play nice?" House asked as he entered.

"We are perfectly capable of doing our jobs," Cameron told him with a blast from the Arctic. "That is if you would take a case that would give us something to do instead of just hanging around doing nothing."

"Brr," House shuddered. "Sex-deprivation makes her really snippy." House said in an aside to Chase. Cameron turned fully around and gave Chase a glare that should have turned him to stone.

"You told him!" She gasped. "Him! Of all people!"

"I didn't," Chase insisted. Foreman was suddenly all attention – this looked like it could get interesting.

"Oh come on," House scoffed. "Why would he need to tell me something that is written all over you in bold letters? It's obvious that your plans were upset and he did the upsetting."

"Why are you taking such an interest in them and their problems?" Foreman asked curiously.

"Because their little drama is interfering with the smooth running of my department," House explained. "I don't care if they have sex all over the place – even in the lab," that got Chase and Cameron's attention; they had thought nobody knew! "But when these goings on start to interfere with their work, I will take interest. Like it or not."

"This is not interfering with anything," Cameron insisted. "If we had work to do, we would do it. We are professional enough to set aside whatever differences we have."

"Doesn't seem that way," House pointed out. "Besides, if you do get accidentally on purpose pregnant, then that will definitely interfere with the smooth running of this department. You cannot just nip off for two weeks and come back with a baby. No, you need maternity leave and what not and nobody would sort my mail or make the coffee when you are away. I cannot have that."

Cameron had stared at him almost with her mouth open: "You! It was you who put that idea into his head."

"Well I couldn't let you just ambush him with it," House claimed. "You know it is bros before hos. In my opinion he really should have a say in it before you start a production line for wombats. They are his little swimmers, you know."

"You..." Words were failing Cameron. "You just had to interfere. I thought that Aiko had softened you up a little, made you almost human, but no. You are the same jerk you have always been. You just cannot leave people alone to live their lives the way they want; find some contentment or happiness without you interfering in it. I should have known! Chase would never have believed anything like that about me on his own. I should have known it was your idea, that you had ... You are such a jerk!" Cameron stormed out of the office.

"I think you may be in the clear here, if you play your cards right," House smugly told Chase. Chase didn't actually look very happy.

-------------

Later that day House found Cameron alone in the lab.

"I'm not talking to you," Cameron stated the moment he walked in.

"Good, I don't want you to," House said undisturbed. "I want you to listen." he walked to Cameron and forced her to look at him. "It's time you stop lying to yourself."

"I'm not lying to myself about anything," Cameron insisted. "I was not going to try to get pregnant and for you to think that..."

"That is not what I'm talking about," House told her. "At least no really. You need to think over your motives and intentions there, too, but you possibly wanting to get pregnant – or at least wanting to risk that – is not the point of my visit. You need to start facing your feelings for Chase."

"What feelings?" Cameron asked. "We are friends. Sure we decided to be friends with benefits, but that's all. It's not like we would fall in love with each other."

"Now that is the lie I'm talking about," House pointed out to her. "You need to ask yourself why you chose Chase. Why was he the one you called when you got high? Why was he the one you decided would do as Mr. Right-Now? What it really is you feel for him? And you need to ask those questions now, before you go any further with him."

"Why?" Cameron asked defiantly.

"You think I hurt you, don't you?" House seemed to change the subject to Cameron's puzzlement. She nodded. "Well, I didn't really. I could have hurt you a lot more. But the point here is that you can hurt Chase a lot more than I ever could have hurt you. And that is why you need to stop lying to yourself, before it is too late."

House walked out of the lab leaving Cameron to stare after him in incomprehension.