What do you think? What is he hiding? Better for me not saying anything else... I'm not good in keeping my mouth closed! So...just enjoy ;)
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CHAPTER 26 - The seeds of suspition -Part 3
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Cuddy looked at him seriously, but couldn't help but smile as she leaned her head on the pillow and let the sleep push away even the ghosts hovering in her mind.
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House slowly opened his eyes and he became aware of why his back was hurting almost more than his leg.
Cuddy was curled up on the opposite side of the bed. Rachel was lying next to him. Well, lying... that wasn't the correct word at all! She was spread out next to him. On her stomach... in a star position ... with arms and legs spread wide... an arm on his chest, the other practically on her mother's face. And Rachel wasn't the only intruder in that bed. Grace was curled up between Rachel and Cuddy, perfectly wedged against her mother's body. Probably she had awakened during the night and Lisa had failed to put her to sleep again in any other way than putting her in their bed.
He sat up, rubbing his leg and looking for his pills on the bedside table.
Finally he knew why he had slept a troubled sleep and why his muscles ached... and yet he couldn't help but smile at that scene ... He well remembered how as a child he felt safe only in his mother's bed. If his father had known that sometimes his mother allowed him to sleep in her bed when he was out for work, he would have certainly kicked them both out of the door.
He gently moved Rachel and Grace trying not to wake them up and stood up, approaching Cuddy and stroking her back, bending then to kiss her cheek.
She stirred, opening her eyes and meeting his gaze.
"If you fall out of bed a neck massage won't be enough " he whispered in her ear seeing her smile as she settled a little in the bed reaching out for him and stroking his stubble.
"Why are you already up?" She asked as her eyes got used to the light coming through the window.
"Your daughters kicked me out of bed" he said softly, laughing, looking at Rachel and Grace and then again at her.
Cuddy nodded as she turned her head to look at them before looking back at him, smiling back.
"What about having breakfast? Before our two little monsters wake up?" He asked, kissing her lightly on the lips.
"Sure" she replied, looking into his eyes.
He could even call them ironically monsters... but every time he added that 'our'... that was enough to melt her heart...
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"I hope not to come home too late... but I have an appointment in the late afternoon with Mia's social worker..." Cuddy said, looking at the coffee in her cup.
House looked at her.
"What did she tell you?" He asked as a flash passed in his eyes.
Cuddy shook her head slightly.
"The social worker? ... Nothing ..." she answered "She called my assistant for an appointment . I was very busy last week and I had to reschedule her appointment several times... today I really can't postpone it again... " she said still rubbing her neck "Mia is a little better... she certainly wants to know when her... er... parents will be able to see her... "
House noticed that hesitation... but pretended not to have noticed it.
"They can't see her until she's not stable and in the NICU" he said taking a sip of his coffee.
Cuddy nodded, still looking at the dark liquid in her cup.
"Her blood oxygen level is better now... she no longer needs oxygen..." Cuddy said without looking at him, fingering with the rim of her cup "... and... you should think about remove her feeding tube... "
"You put me in charge of this case" House said firmly "... I'm not going to remove oxygen and not even her feeding tube until she's completely stable! Not even if her parents' names were Barack and Michelle. I'm her doctor! It's up to me!" His voice sharper than he wanted.
Cuddy look up at him and nodded.
"The patient is yours. It's up to you." She said looking away and then looking back at the cup in her hands.
"Do you have any problem with that coffee?" House asked, deliberately changing the subject.
"W-what?" Cuddy asked, suddenly looking up from her cup and meeting his eyes "N-no..." she replied, taken aback by that question, and even more by the way he was looking at her "I'm not pregnant" she added, looking at him with a quizzical look.
"Ok" he replied, with a nod "Just to make sure" he added, smiling, standing up and leaning his cup in the sink.
Cuddy didn't move, looking at him for a moment before looking again at her coffee... God... she would have wanted that the nausea closing her stomach was morning sickness... but it wasn't ... Not that she wanted to be pregnant... not at all! ... But the anxiety that gripped her stomach was of a completely different nature... and she knew it...
For Mia... for that damned earring... for that restaurant bill... She closed her eyes for a moment before drinking that coffee... in one shot.
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"Good morning, Dr. Cuddy" the nurse greeted her as she walked into the NICU.
Cuddy greeted her in turn and approached Mia's crib.
"When did they take her feeding tube off?" She asked, looking at the nurse and stroking one of Mia's little hand, failing to suppress a smile.
"A few hours ago, Dr. Cuddy" she said handing her Mia's folder "... but she still refuses her bottle..." she added as Cuddy looked up at her.
She looked at House's signature scribbled down the folder and swallowed. No more oxygen. No more feeding tube. Her condition was stable. Her surgery couldn't be scheduled according to the Board will... but she could be moved to the Pediatric Ward. To get out of the NICU. To meet her new parents.
"I don't authorize her ward transfer until she refuses to feed " she said, adding a note and her signature on the folder and looking at the nurse.
"Sure, Dr. Cuddy" She replied nodding.
Cuddy looked again at Mia and smiled stroking her cheek. Mia smiled and waved her little arms and legs. It wasn't the first time. She recognized her and she always smiled to her... but in that moment Cuddy's heart sunk. She bit her lip, fighting back the tears that were just waiting to appear inexorably in her eyes and looked at her one last time.
I love you, baby... I'll miss you... She mentally whispered, before walking away without looking back...
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Cuddy stepped out of the elevator heading for House's office. Mia's social worker would be there in half an hour and she just needed to know if he could be with the girls if she'd be late. He didn't have a case... but knowing House, he could easily just fall asleep on the armchair in his office and not realize that it was 5 p.m. As his boss she would have to be horrified by that thought and yet she couldn't help but smile as she walked toward his office, her right hand fiddling with her wedding band on her left hand.
The scene she caught through the glass walls as she approached his office dissolved the smile on her face, as she dropped her arms along her sides.
House was in his office... but he wasn't alone...
She had already lived the same identical scene... the evening when she had gone to him to thank him, after having found her College desk in her office...
Just like that evening, now she wanted to cross that door... but she didn't... and simply watched that scene from outside.
He was back turned. That woman wasn't... and she was the last person she thought she could see now... in her husband's arms...