Sessions II: Nine Months

Chapter 43: Settling In

A/N: Yup… I know….

Cate stood off to the side from her designated spot on the front porch surveying the movers as they brought piece after piece of their life into the new home. Thirteen had been told in no uncertain terms to watch her like a hawk. She was to report back to HQ and subdue the rogue to the de-militarized, 'non-moving of heavy, or even not so heavy, objects' zone ASAP if there was any kind of breach in pregnant lady protocol. He had his spies everywhere and Cate was powerless but to submit to his orders, as well. Sighing, she sat on the lovely bench by the front window that was left by the previous owners and took a load off. It was just as well. The July air was hot, humid and her ankles were swollen beyond any kind of recognition of human anatomy. She was tired and there was still so much more to go.

Touching her hand to her belly, she rubbed soothing circles over her t-shirt. Who moves a house when they're eight months pregnant? What were they thinking? She felt helpless, useless. All she could do was point a finger to direct where boxes and furniture were supposed to go. She felt like a prima donna doling out orders from her chaise lounge with her feet up and some bon bons next to her in a foufy crystal dish. This was so not her. She was used to getting her hands dirty, being in the thick of things and taking care of herself. She hated to rely on people. She supposed it was because she was control freak. Scratch that… she knew she was a control freak. She needed to be in charge, needed to take care of things herself. Just as much as Greg needed to be in control, she did as well. They were two of a kind in that sense. This waiting in the wings was foreign to her. But even she knew, with what seemed like a fifty-pound baby pushing up her organs into her throat, she was in no condition to help.

Much of the new furniture had been delivered already in the previous weeks as they had prepared for the move. The living room set was already in place with the sofas, new chairs and tables. All they needed in there was the entertainment center and TV. The baby's crib, changing table and dresser had already been set up in the nursery along with the gorgeous comfortable rocking chair. It was all simply waiting for their little baby to join the world. The room was beautiful. She couldn't have designed a better space for her baby to grow in.

Sometime earlier in the week, she and Greg had come to do some last minute preparations for the move and he had replaced the switch plate on the wall with the one he had gotten with the Phillies logo on it. It didn't match the décor at all but Cate absolutely loved it. It was an outward sign that Greg was mentally preparing for the arrival of the baby.

He never spoke much about how he felt about his impending fatherhood. As a rule, he was tight lipped about most things that didn't have to do with what they were going to have for dinner or what TV show they were going watch at night. She had grown accustomed to his quite musings about his inner workings. She could usually tell because his eyes would get this dark heavy wrinkle in between them and the blue would become very serious, almost murky with the thoughts and feelings swirling behind them. Only when prompted by her, would he offer an opinion or a grunt, yeah or nay, about something she'd asked. She wasn't overly concerned about it, however. She figured that he was in his processing mode. This was a huge change, all around. Between the move, saying goodbye to his past and the arrival of a newborn, he must be nearly overwhelmed. She was feeling the same way and she knew that they needed to give each other their space otherwise they'd be at each other's throats.

Right now, she wondered how he was doing. He had seemed so lost in his own thoughts when she had said goodbye to him earlier, like a little boy stuck at a crossroads without a compass or a map. She knew this was hard for him. He had spent so much time living in pain in that apartment. The emotional toll of having to learn to be a disabled man was hard enough, but with his pride and his penchant toward bitterness, he had learned to cast out the world and keep to the sanctuary of that apartment. He had made it his hideout. Saying goodbye to that lair was a scary prospect. Crossing the threshold into a new world was never his forte and this experience would be no different. Yet, she had faith that he would be ok, that he wouldn't regress back to his old dysfunctional mechanisms of comfort and disillusionment. His cynical outlook on life had been replaced with a sense of peace over the last few months. Some of it was because he wasn't in pain anymore. Some was because he wasn't high all of the time. He was clear to see the world for its potential with lucid eyes and maybe figure out that his obstacles weren't always as bad as they seemed.

Some of his success she knew was because of her. While she would never professionally condone a codependent relationship, she knew what her role was in his recovery. Sure, he loved her; deeply, wholeheartedly loved her, but she knew some of his emotional progress had been because of her guidance and presence in his life. If they had never started a relationship, he would still be in that apartment, sinking further into a convoluted web of lies, deceit, and maybe even psychosis. She didn't think of herself as his savior. No, she never wanted that title or role. She was more a conduit or catalyst, as it were, to get some inertia going. Sometimes people in dire situations just needed something to jumpstart their lives, a kind of motivation to make a change.

Cate laughed when she thought about all the things she had 'jumpstarted' in Greg's life. None of it was pressured by her and looking back, the majority of it was initiated by him and him alone. He sought out a real, adult, emotionally intimate relationship with another human being that wasn't Wilson. He had been able to come to terms on his own with his father's abuse and death; at the same time, accepting his illegitimate birth and a mother who had been an adulteress. He had proposed the commitment on higher level to be bonded to another person by convention in marriage. He had wanted the baby, a new home, living clean and sober. She was surprised he had gone along for the ride instead of limping as fast as he could for the hills. Really thinking on it, she was surprised she hadn't run for the hills when she saw him coming all those months ago. As each situation presented itself, she realized that these were things that she wanted as well

Cate's own life before she had met Greg had been nothing to write home about. She, too, had demons from her past. She was an adulteress just like his mother; knowingly, wittingly conspiring to sleep with another woman's husband out of some distorted belief that she was in love. She was selfish and egotistical. And she ran from her problems like Greg had, just like a pro. She had picked up her toys and retreated away from society and humanity to a polar ice cap, of all places. There she had stupidly engaged in a brief affair with a handsome younger man to make the pain of a relationship gone awry somewhat disappear and be forgotten. What she came away with was near death experience and a connection to an even more difficult man than the other two before. She had needed Greg House like she needed a whole in the head, but somehow he had wormed his way into her heart. He had changed her life, for the better. Some would say that was a miracle. Some would say it was clinically insane. And maybe at the time it was, but she couldn't deny that he made her feel whole, accepted, brilliant and needed. He fed her ego and gave her plenty of challenges to tackle. She had never wanted to fix him because she liked how he was. He wasn't different now because of her; he was just more stable and less likely to commit a felony under the diabolical guise of 'the right thing to do'. He was still grumpy, still sarcastic, still brilliant. And still an ass. But he was her ass. Life with him would certainly never be boring and she wouldn't have it any other way.

"Hey Pregos, you're wilting," Thirteen interrupted her thoughts, coming up to her with a tall bottle of water in her hand.

Cate looked up at the young doctor and smiled accepting the sweating cold bottle of water she must have grabbed from the refrigerator inside. "Sure make of fun of the fat pregnant lady who can't even get up to get herself a drink."

Thirteen perched her butt on the railing of the porch and took a sip of her own water. Her long reddish brown hair was pulled back into a high ponytail and she was wearing shorts that exposed her long, tanned, slim legs. Cate had to force herself not to sneer at her friend in jealousy over her ability to be so leggy and beautiful while she was so rotund and portly. "The guys want to know if the large chest needs to go into the master bedroom or the spare room."

Cate sipped her water and she felt refreshed in the afternoon heat. There was plenty of room for the antique trunk in their bedroom now that it had doubled in size. He had used it to keep spare blankets and sheets in since he didn't have a linen closet big enough in the apartment. They had two of those now amongst ten other upstairs closets so there was really no need to have it in their room. However, she figured that he would feel more comfortable if it were still at the foot of the bed just like it had been in the old place. "Have them bring it to our room and move it in front of the bed once they put it together."

"Aye, aye Captain," Thirteen said with a smirk as she headed back into the house.

Deciding that she needed to move around a bit, Cate pushed off the bench and descend the two steps to the walk. She strolled through the grass over to where there was a low-lying hedgerow. It was a neatly coiffed Forsythia bush that had turned a deep shade of green now that summer was in full swing. She made a mental note to get a hold of Bonnie to find out the name of the landscaper so she could retain their services. They had already decided that they would bring Leidy, his cleaning lady, over to the new house with a substantial raise for the immense size and had even had the kind woman on the look out for someone to come help with the baby from time to time. Cate still wasn't sure if she would be returning to work or not after their son was born and she wanted to find a suitable nanny just in case.

Cate saw her neighbor come out of her front door and walk down her sidewalk to retrieve the mail from the floral decorated mailbox. The woman waved happily at her in greeting and to Cate's surprise came over to the hedges without a second thought.

The woman was younger, by about five or six years, and had a pleasant countenance. She looked like a typical suburban housewife, amiable, understated and unlike the glamorous looking women on Desperate Housewives or the trashy women of Real Housewives of New Jersey. Cate bit her lip a little nervous to meet her because she knew that Greg would rather have lived in those crazy fictional and/or dysfunctional neighborhoods full of voyeuristic drama, instead of the quintessential existence of suburbia. She could tell immediately that he wouldn't gel with this one.

"Hiya! I'm Peggy." She stuck her hand out exuberantly to shake. "I see you're moving in today."

"Yes," Cate said taking her hand. "I'm Cate. It's nice to meet you."

"Aww, you're pregnant!" Peggy beamed at her and touched her hand to Cate's belly. Taking a little aback by the woman's forwardness, Cate sort of stepped backward instinctively and brought her own hand protectively over her stomach as if to shield her from more uninvited touching. Why did people think that it was ok to touch a pregnant woman's belly? Especially strangers? "You look like you're about ready to pop!"

Cate smiled wanly at her. "Not quite, the middle of August."

Peggy gave her a sympathetic smile. "Not fun to be pregnant in the middle of summer. With my Caleb, I was all sorts of swollen, just like you."

Cate grimaced. Oh, God he was going to hate, hate, hate her. "Yes, water retention is definitely not a picnic."

"Well, I'm so glad to have new neighbors again," Peggy went on. "The last couple was such a lovely pair. We used to do game nights and potlucks. It's a shame that his job moved them across country. What is that your husband does?"

Cate bit her tongue at the assumption that she was a housewife too. Not that she wasn't going to be that in the coming weeks but, she didn't care for the label nonetheless. "My husband and I are both doctors."

"Doctors? How wonderful. Do you share a practice together?"

"No. I'm a psychiatrist and Greg is in diagnostic medicine." When Peggy looked at her quizzically Cate went on to explain. "He's very specialized and works with strange, infectious diseases."

"Ooo, sounds very ominous," she replied with a dramatic flair and a shudder before bursting into a nervous giggle that Cate was beginning to realize was the woman's actual laugh.

Cate laughed. "It can be."

"Is that your husband, Greg?" she inquired point to someone over Cate's shoulder. Cate turned and saw Wilson coming up the walk with one of Greg's guitars in his hand.

Cate turned back to the younger woman with a sardonic smile. "No, that's his best friend. The one coming up the walk, mocking him with cane – that's my husband." Apparently his self-evaluative journey had come to a close and he had shown up without her knowing.

Peggy smiled barely managing to cover her shock. "Oh… he looks nice."

Cate looked at her oddly as Peggy gaped weirdly back at her. An awkward silence hung between them as Peggy's perky demeanor didn't quite know what to make of the brusque appearance of her husband.

House took a detour from the sidewalk and across the grass to where she stood with their new neighbor. Cate closed her eyes and prayed that he had acquired laryngitis on his way over because he had done some severe primal screaming in his quest for spiritual cleansing. He came up to her with a huff of annoyance. Cate cringed. No such luck.

"Sweetheart, Wilson refuses to set up the bondage chair in the basement," he announced loudly in his mischief-making voice.

Cate leveled a glare at him and he beamed a smirk at her before turning to Peggy. He gave the woman an over exaggerated shrug. "I swear, you just can't get good help these days," he declared holding his hand out to her. "Hi. Greg House."

Peggy gaped at him stunned by his whirlwind and deviant pseudo-fetish. Cate suspected the woman didn't even know what a bondage chair was let alone engaged in anything remotely deviated from the missionary position. But then again it was always the quiet ones that were the most perverted. Taking his hand, she chuckled nervously, "Peggy Nusbaum."

House flashed his baby blues at her. "Nice to meet you Peggy Nusbaum."

Peggy cleared her throat and regained some of her composure awkward as it was. "I was just congratulating your wife on the upcoming blessed event."

"Oh what, the bun in the oven? Not mine," he stated. "She had a little sumpin, sumpin too much to drink one night if you know what I… ouch…"

Cate pinched his arm and he shut his mouth looking at her deeply offended she wasn't interested in playing his perverse little game. "Stop it." She warned between her teeth and turned to Peggy. "Don't listen to him. He's a pathological liar."

Peggy giggled and waved her hand at the two of them. "Oh, you guys are a hoot!"

Greg tapped her butt cheek. "Yeah hear that honey? We're a hoot!" he mimicked Peggy's enthusiasm.

Cate rolled her eyes and plastered on a fake smile. "Oh, yeah you're a regular hoot and a half."

"Well, listen… once you guys get settled in, we'll have to barbeque," Peggy offered. "My husband Steve would just love to meet both of you."

"Um, yeah, let me check my calendar," Greg said looking up to sky. "I'm thinking 'no'."

Dumbfounded, Peggy stared at him and blinked in confusion.

Cate gave him a shove to the arm. "Why don't you go find something useful to do?"

He opened his mouth to protest like a child but then something else caught his attention and he bellowed across the yard. "Kutner, I'll fucking take out your spleen with a pair of tweezers if there's even one scratch on that guitar case." Much to Cate's relief he limped after his littlest duckling threatening more bodily harm with blunt objects on his way.

"I'm so sorry," Cate apologized. "My husband is very anti-social and has multiple personality disorder."

Peggy chuckled merrily at her and then leaned in conspiratorially. "The Granderson's two houses over really do have a bondage chair in the basement."

Cate laughed apprehensively and looked at the house Peggy was clandestinely pointing at. "Really?" There was a balding man with a potbelly washing his Lexus in the driveway. He looked like an accountant who spent all of his time behind a desk, not strapped to a bondage table.

"Mhmm," she affirmed. "We call her Cruella de Ville. He used to do books for a strip club in Trenton. He met her there. Divorced his wife of twenty years and married his dominatrix. Can you believe it?"

Cate nodded her head slowly. Ok, so maybe they were living on Wisteria Lane after all. Her dysfunctional, former drug addict, snarky husband would fit in like a duck to water. Who knew?

Yup, life with him was never boring.