Chapter 35: It All Begins to Fade
House opened the door to Gabrielle's room and hit his cane on the night stand. "Gabi!" he called out.
Gabrielle's eyes flew open as she sat up. "What?" she asked, trying to catch her breath.
"I'm taking Lisa to the hospital. Just make sure that if you one of the babies or all of them, that you don't just lay there and wait for one of us to go get them," House explained to her.
Gabrielle finally calmed down. She wanted to ask, but at the same time, she already knew. "Um, I think you should know that Andy is asleep downstairs on the couch," she informed him. That wasn't really what she wanted say, but it was the only thing besides asking what was going on.
"Honesty points," House said, pointing to her. "Although, honesty tends to get you into more trouble than lying does at times," he stated.
Gabrielle sat there and nodded. She waited until he turned and left the room before she completely got out of bed. Out in the hall, she saw Cuddy walk past her door. "Wait," she softly called from her doorway.
Cuddy stopped and turned back to her. "Yeah?" she questioned.
Gabrielle studied her tear stricken face with sympathy. Instead of trying to think of something to say at this moment, she just walked over and hugged her.
Cuddy pulled back after a brief moment. "Thank you," she hoarsely choked out before turning and rushing down the stairs.
Gabrielle stood there and folded her arms. For some reason, she wasn't as scared as she thought she would be. Some part of her was almost relieved. Perplexed, she decided to turn and face her parent's bedroom. She discovered that their bathroom door was still open, and the light still flooding out into the room.
Steadily, she made her way to the room and stood before the bathroom. She didn't quite know what she was expecting to see. There was nothing there out of the ordinary. The only thing out of place might have been slightly moved was a towel that was laying over the side of the bathtub. Actually, it looked a lot like the bathroom down the hall that she would use.
Deciding that there was nothing here to help her, she sighed and turned the light off before she left. Instead of heading to her room though, she went over to check on the sleeping babies and then downstairs. Naturally since she had mentioned his presence to House, he would have to wake him.
"Hey," Andy groggily greeted. He was sitting up on the couch, searching through the channels on the television.
Gabrielle stood there on the staircase for a moment before she continued down. "Hey," she softly responded.
"I heard about your mom. I'm sorry," he stated with genuine concern. Turning to her with those deep brown eyes of his.
Gabrielle offered a small smile and then went to sit on the chair next to the couch. "Did my daddy seems upset?" she implored.
Andy shrugged. "Kinda," he answered as best as he could. It was hard to tell how someone was feeling within the first couple of minutes after waking up. "How about you?"
She didn't want to answer that. It was Andy though, and they did have a bit of a history. "Nothing," she flatly replied. She saw how confused he was, and went on to explain. "I feel nothing at all. And quite honestly, that scares me a little."
Andy shrugged. "Maybe you built this whole thing up in your mind so much with those dreams that you were having that when it did actually happen, it was a lot less worse than you imagined," he suggested.
Gabrielle accepted the answer. She wasn't sure if he was correct, but it did make her feel a bit better about everything, and to her, that was all that mattered at the moment. "Maybe," she breathed out.
O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
House sat out in the waiting room while Cuddy was getting examined. He really didn't like being out there. Being a doctor, he was always used to being in the room, but he couldn't be in there either right now.
It wasn't like he didn't know what the outcome was going to be. There was blood and cramps, he knew what that meant, and he was pretty sure that Cuddy had the same ideas he did. It was lost. There was no baby anymore. The only reason that they were here was for Cuddy to be sure about it and to make sure that there would be no complications.
Taking a deep breath, he leaned his head back against the wall. He hated this already. Ever since he and Cuddy had been together, everything had been going wrong for her. Complications during the first pregnancy, then the baby was sick, then he got hurt and she felt guilty about it, and now this.
Maybe, he thought, maybe, they should just give up. End it before it gets too bad. Before the kids get old enough to understand. Before he causes any more damage. Take himself out of the picture before he breaks her.
Playing with his cane, he started to focus on it. He tried to block out all of the thoughts, to let himself go back to believing that everything was going to be okay.
Just then, something else came to mind, was it really him trying to save her? Or were these the thoughts trying to convince him that running out was the best thing for her?
They could be. He was scared. Always has been, and most likely, always will be. He knew the second that he saw Cuddy standing there with blood on her, things were going to be different. There would be a bit more fighting between them, a lot more tension in the house. It would be uncomfortable and hard to be there.
That wasn't what he wanted to think. He preferred the version of him being noble and doing the right thing and saving her as opposed to the good old House got scared and ran away again story. That was a part of him that he was really growing to hate. That was the part of him that ruined so many things for him.
"Let's go," Cuddy announced. Her voice was weak and raspy.
House looked up to her. "All right," he responded as he stood up. He didn't even have to ask what happened. She lost the baby.
Following her out to the car, he thought about what he was going to do next. He caught up to her and put his arm around her shoulders. She accepted it and leaned her head against his shoulder.
They got to the car and each got in and sat there in the silence. House didn't want to leave yet. He had to tell her, see what she thought about everything. Sitting back, he took a moment to plan out what he was going to tell her.
Cuddy sat there and put on her seat belt. She noticed that he wasn't starting the car and looked over to him with confusion. "Can we just go please?" she requested. This had been a long night, and all she wanted to do was go home and go back to bed.
House sighed and looked back to her. "Now what?" he flatly asked. There was no expression in his eyes as he watched her and waited for her to say something.
"Not now Greg," she nearly pleaded, getting ready to cry. It was a loaded question that she did not want to have to answer right now. She was too emotional and too tired to even attempt to fully understand quite what he was asking.
"Fine," he responded. If she didn't want to talk, they weren't going to talk. Maybe it was better that way anyways. He could just wait a couple of weeks and then walk out.
O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
They got home just as the sun was getting ready to rise. House, decided that he was just going to stop in to get ready for work while Cuddy took the day off.
The two walked into the quiet house. Cuddy softly laughed as she spotted Gabrielle on the couch with Rachel passed out on her. House took a quick glance over and then headed straight up stairs.
Cuddy walked over and watched the scene for a moment. Right now, she did feel empty. Even though she hadn't ever held the baby, it was completely real to her. It was hers. Was, hers. She went and picked the little girl up, trying to be careful to not wake either, but she had failed.
"Momma?" she asked, almost ready to cry.
"Shh, it's okay. Go back to sleep," she softly whispered.
Gabrielle woke up to see Cuddy standing before her, slowly walking Rachel back and forth. "I don't think she was feeling good last night," she explained. "Andy and I took turns trying to get her to go back to sleep."
"Sorry about that," Cuddy responded. She then looked over to Rachel, who was beginning to yawn. "Did you cause trouble last night?" she teased.
"How are you doing?" Gabrielle asked as she sat up.
Cuddy knew what she was really getting ready to ask and just shook her head. No need to drag out a conversation that could be done in a few moments to a ten minute thing. Also, she just did not want to talk about it right now. At the moment she was trying her hardest to distract herself from what had just happened, and talking about it was not going to help that.
Gabrielle picked up on the hint and nodded. "I'm sorry," she said. "But, on the other hand, you learned that Andy and I can take care of things for a few hours without the entire place falling apart," she informed her, in attempt to change the subject.
Cuddy noted her effort and smiled. "I see that," she responded. She then looked around. "Where is he anyways?" she questioned.
"If I remember right, he is up stairs in the nursery. He probably fell asleep after he got them back to sleep. Last night when Rachel got up, she sorta had to make sure that everyone here was up with her," Gabrielle explained.
Cuddy checked on her daughter. "Well, she's asleep now. I think I'll go ahead and take her back upstairs and put her to bed," she stated.
"All right, I'll be up there in a few. I wasn't meant to be up this early on a Saturday morning, and it's starting to catch up with me," Gabrielle mentioned.
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Andy woke up as he heard someone walk pass the nursery. He stretched in the rocking chair that he had fallen asleep in and looked around the room. The first thing that he noticed was that there was a little bit of light coming through the window.
He got up to head back down stairs, but heard a voice. House's voice.
"Wilson?" House questioned.
Andy stopped by the door and stood there for a moment. The door was only cracked open, so he figured that he was safe there from his sight. Honestly, all he wanted to know was if he was going to talk about him. For the past few weeks that he and Gabrielle had been dating, he had been wondering what House had really thought about him.
"Damn, I was calling because I thought it was late," House sneered. "Now that we have the time established, I actually have something important to talk about, and I don't think that it can wait."
Now, Andy knew that it was not going to be about him, but he was still curious.
"It's about Lisa. She just lost the baby," he solemnly announced.
There was a silence for a moment.
"I'm thinking that maybe I should just leave," House informed him.
Andy raised his eyebrows. Now, he knew something major, something that he shouldn't have even heard.
Surprised, he slowly walked back over to the rocking chair and sat down. Without giving it much thought, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He had to tell Gabrielle right away, and right now, he was nervous about just leaving the room. He texted her about the conversation.
As soon as he put his phone back, he heard Cuddy come up the stairs and decided to just act like he was sleeping. That way, there would be no questions. He heard her open the door and peek in, but that was all.
Downstairs, Gabrielle heard her phone go off. At first, she smiled. She thought that maybe House had said something to Andy and he wanted her to come up and distract House or something. As she read through the message though, her smile quickly faded. "Oh no," she softly gasped.
Sitting there on the couch, she sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. Right now, there was nothing that she could do. She had to talk to him eventually, but she had to figure out a way that she would sense something wrong, other than Andy telling her.