"So… how is Miss 'I'm taking way too much of my migraine meds' today?" he asked his ducklings that were sitting somewhat relaxed in the conference room.
Chase and Cameron at least managed to look surprised, while Cramer showed him the real thing.
"You knew? Why didn't you say a thing?"
"Uh… because this is a teaching hospital and you should learn something? For example how to diagnose people like her?"
"But…"
"You obviously want to tell me now, that we could have known way earlier. Now comes my but. The damage is already done. Ergotamine containing meds cause spasms in the arteries, with destructive and irreversible consequences."
"I know that, thank you. You still could have told us yesterday."
"Yeah, but I was too busy to tell you that…"
"How could you be too busy to make a short phonecall?"
He stared intently at the blonde angiologist and happily realized that he still could make people squirm with only his gaze.
"I was too busy being happy that my girl doesn't have any migraines", he then grinned, disappearing in his office and leaving the openmouthed duckling number three.
Chase sighed.
"Rule number one, mate. Don't ask questions that provoke a sarcastic answer."
"That would be almost every question I could ask", Cramer replied while he watched House drop his backpack, dig out his iPod and lay down on the yellow chair, plopping his feet up. At least it wasn't new for him anymore to find his boss sleeping in there as if it was the most normal thing of the world.
"Exactly", was all, that Cameron said before turning to her desk, grabbing House's pile of mail.
"If that isn't important I'm going to increase your clinic hours", Lisa Cuddy growled into exam room one, finding House there and an older man, who was clutching his button down shirt closed.
"You didn't tell me she is a woman!" the man exclaimed, getting up from the bed.
House just stared at the man while Cuddy was blocking the door effectively by only standing there.
"It does really matter to you that the endocrinologist you need is a woman? Aren't the boobs a problem big enough."
The man just looked embarrassed while Cuddy looked confused.
"Boobs?"
"Yeah… you know, they're also called funbags. But you are allowed to have a pair of them. He's not. Wrong gender. If that's not discrimination…"
The older man just stared at him in disbelief while Cuddy just rolled her eyes and stepped towards the patient to look at his problem.
The man stared at House, who sighed.
"I'll stay so she's not groping too much?"
"Some people are really weird", Lisa Cuddy stated after she had said goodbye to the man, who obviously thought his wife's hormone pills would be good for him, too.
"And now I've really seen everything."
House laughed silently.
"Ever had a teenage girl with a cellphone in her you know where?"
Cuddy frowned at his playful tone.
"What? Why would someone do that?"
"Don't know. She didn't even have it on vibration. That I would have understood…"
She still had her forehead furrowed.
"Why exactly are you telling me that?"
"I'm just making conversation."
"You are never just making conversation. What do you want, House?"
Waiting for a sarcastic reply she looked at him, still sitting on his chair, letting his cane jump a bit.
He didn't look sarcastic at all.
"I need someone to talk."
Okay. Now she was surprised.
"Is… isn't that Wilson's job?"
"I don't think he's qualified being divorced three times…"
And he never stopped to surprise her.
"You want to talk about your relationship with Dr. McLachlan? With me?"
He didn't answer, just continued to dent the hospital floor with his cane. Softening she leaned against the exam bed.
"You two having an argument?"
He shook his head.
"We don't argue very often. And believe me, I still wonder how we manage. It's Stacy."
Cuddy's eyes widened slightly.
"Please tell me you're not…"
"No, I meant what I said in your office. But ever since I met her again, I just can't stop thinking about how I screwed up back then… she just did what she thought was right."
She could see his mind work and didn't interrupt his thoughts by pointing out how this woman had betrayed his trust, and what it had made out of him.
"I wasn't Mr. Sunshine before the leg. But I was happy…"
"Aren't you happy now?" she wanted to know, watching his eyes fix on her.
"Of course I am! I'm just not sure if… if…" His voice caught. Why was he doing this? He hadn't thought about talking to Cuddy about his innermost feelings when he had called her for the consult.
"You don't know if what? She's happy? Ask her."
His voice was low by now.
"What if something like that happens again? She's such an active person… she's running five miles every morning. I'm barely able to make it up the stairs when I want to be on the roof."
"Six years ago everybody thought you wouldn't be able to walk ever again. So being barely able to make it up the stairs is like a normal person running five miles."
He stayed quiet for a while.
When he spoke again his voice was rough.
"I wanted a family with Stacy. Home, kids, cat. She always said she wasn't mother material, but I thought she would change her mind. We moved into a bigger appartment, with a spare room we could use as library… that we could use as a room for a child when the time was right. I knew I was compensating for not having a good childhood. I used to envy the Dads with their sons, playing baseball in the park because that was something my Dad never did with me."
Sighing he leaned on his cane, resting his chin against he handle.
"Then the thing with my leg happened and she betrayed me. And at some point when she still wanted to make me feel better she mentioned we could have this child I always wanted."
He looked at Cuddy who watched him with a really confused expression on her face. Who would have thought that Greg House of all people wanted children?
"Even though the pain was driving me crazy back then I suddenly knew I didn't want this woman to be the mother of my child. It would have been on earth only because I wanted it, not we. I'll never be the one running after my son who chose to steal the baseball instead of throwing it back."
"Nah, you'll be limping."
Now he watched her surprised.
Cuddy just looked at him, scrutinized him. She knew he liked babies, mostly because people just were bugging him after they had grown teeth and started to talk. He himself had performed the autopsy on the baby boy when they had this epidemic. He had tried to save the baby whose mother had tried to suffocate it. He didn't grump at kids in the clinic, actually they felt quite comfortable around him, even when he was snapping at their parents. Kids he treated never squealed or screamed. Their parents did, though, very often.
"But first I suggest you speak to Dr. McLachlan about your plans."
"Would you be shocked if I told you we already have talked about that?"
Cuddy just shook her head and smiled.
"Actually no. You two are not wasting time with anything."
He just watched his cane hop on the floor for some seconds, until Cuddy sighed again.
"You know, she's not Stacy. She's accepting your wishes. And before you ask me how I can know that, do I really have to drag out the Foreman thing again?"
"That wasn't what I wanted to say. Just that Wilson said the same. I have noticed that she's not Stacy from the first second I saw her."
Cuddy frowned.
"And you couldn't tell Wilson all you have told me because? He's divorced? I've been a single for longer as I want to admit in your presence."
"Yeah. But you're a woman. And Wilson… I don't know, we never talked about that…"
They were guys. They didn't talk about babies, at least not on purpose. And he was wondering since the first marriage how the oncologist had managed to have to pay only for his ex-wives and not a bunch of kids.
"I know, big straight males don't do that. All I can say is that kids never cease to surprise you. And being yours, they'll insult schoolfriends talking about their limping Dad without them even knowing it, while they take advantage of your handicap any time possible. Hannah will be doing the running while you are doing the throwing, pointing out that girls just can't throw things."
He grinned at that. Yeah, he definitely would point out something like that.
"Yeah. That sounds like me. So the baseball thing is clear. What do I do if we get a girl?"
Cuddy's smile never faded.
"You'll buy her a pony and auntie Lisa will spoil her rotten."
"It's big."
"It's not any bigger than before. And why are you whispering?"
"Don't know. And you whisper, too."
Leaning in the doorway to his bedroom the two doctors were watching the new bed and the new wardrobe in the freshly painted bedroom.
Suddenly her arms closed around his waist and she leaned her head against his chest. His arm sneaked around her shoulder.
"I like it", he said, louder than before.
"It's beautiful", she agreed, lifting her head.
His eyes were watching her intently, his mind still at the conversation he'd had with Cuddy.
"Are you happy?"
Her lips closed onto his, before she answered.
"Yes."
His lips captured hers now, his tongue slighly grazing over the lower one before she let him in.
"Wanna eat first and christen it later?" he asked against her lips, letting out a low moan when her head shook a no, and her hand disappeared in his jeans.
"We've waited long enough for this thing", she reminded him. The wardrobe they'd had in no time.
The bed on the other hand…
Her hand sneaked out from under his belt and now she let both hands glide under his shirt, running them up to his chest.
Lips still locked he dragged her a few steps along with him, only to rest her against the wall next to the doorway, his hands now busy with opening the buttons on her blouse carefully after she had threatened him to treat all his button down shirts the way he was treating her blouses. He slowly pulled the fabric out of her skirt, dropping it carelessly on the floor after he finally had her out of it.
When he lowered his head to her breasts she seized the opportunity to divest him of his T-shirt.
He grinned when his Black Sabbath shirt landed in a heap next to their feet before turning his attention back to those silk clad two, running his tongue over the soft flesh.
"Breasts are so much better on women…", he sighed, getting a confused look.
"Patient in the clinic, took his wife's hormone pills", he explained before freeing one of her nipples and running his tongue over it while she giggled.
"I'm glad you like mine better."
"Yeah… thank God we men don't have these distracting secondary sex attributes."
His tongue wandered over her cleavage to the other breast, repeating what he had done to the first one.
Her hands were roaming over his broad shoulders, eventually losing themselves in his slightly curly hair, her fingernails grazing over his scalp. Her voice was husky when she answered.
"Nah… you just have this manly stubble… and these incredibly blue eyes… this dangerous rumble in your voice…" Her own voice caught when his lips closed around one taunt nipple, sucking it into his mouth, making sure his stubble tickled her soft skin.
He occupied himself a little bit longer with those two, teasing her until her grip on his hair losened and she leaned her head back against the wall, closing her eyes. A protesting whimper escaped her throat when he let go of that nipple, his mouth once more claiming hers, kissing her until his and her lips were swollen, while his hands worked on the hooks of the bra, wanting to feel her naked skin against his bare chest.
"They even feel better", he said hoarsly, feeling her shake in his arms when she laughed. Dropping the bra his hands went to cup those two, the hard nubs pressing into his palms.
She responded with a throaty "Mmmmh", before yanking on his belt, opening it as well as the button. Her hands stopped opening his pants for some seconds, rather hovering over the growing bulge in there, caressing him through the fabric, eliciting an equally throaty moan of him.
Lowering the zipper her hand sneaked immediately inside his boxers, caressing his swollen shaft with her index finger from top to base until he had to stop her.
"Stop doing that or this is over really soon…"
She just met his gaze with an evil grin, before pushing him backwards to the bed.
When it was right behind him she tugged at jeans and boxers at the same time, shoving them down to his ankles, before pushing him on the bed.
"Han…"
"Shhh…"
Getting down to her knees she kissed his tip, suppressing a giggle when she thought about that one time he had tried to order her to do that. Drawing a circle around it with her tongue she repeated the movement with her forefinger, sliding it down towards his balls. Looking up to him she could see that he had closed his eyes, his hands clawing into the sheets.
His hips slightly bucked when she took his head in her mouth, running her tongue around it, her hands moving to the side, caressing his thighs.
"Hannah, I…"
She silenced him by taking him in further, freeing another groan.
When she really started to move one of his hands sneaked to her head, holding her where she was, betraying his words when he begged her that he wanted to come inside her.
He fought the urge to thrust when he felt his orgasm near, her hot mouth engulfing him, sucking him, pooling all his senses at that area and making him forget his own name when he called hers.
He could taste himself on her lips when she scurried onto the bed next to him, running a hand over his chest as if to find his wild beating heart and she let out a surprised shriek, when his strong arms closed around her, crushing her towards him.
"Little witch…"
She laughed at that, kissing him again.
"What gave me away?"
Laughing he turned both of them around, pressing her into the new mattress with his weight.
"Will you play with me for two hours now?" he asked instead of answering her question and got an evil grin back. She kissed him hungrily before saying "I'll play with you the whole night. If you want me to…"