Chapter 54: Chances

Cuddy woke up the next morning feeling a lot better than she had the day before. It took her a minute as she sat up, but she remembered that she was in the hospital. Setting her hand down on the railing, she felt something, it was a cane handle. A smile spread across her face as she looked over and saw House sleeping in the chair next to the bed. Suddenly, she didn't feel so alone, a feeling that she had longed for the last few days. She was about to say something, but waking him would only ruin the moment. It wasn't that she didn't want to talk to him, it was that, like this, it was easy to tell that he had been there for her. Instead she just sat back and watched him.

"Morning Lisa," House gruffly greeted with his eyes still closed and head still back.

Cuddy just continued to contently watch him. "Good morning," she barely whispered.

House opened his eyes and looked over. "You need to get more comfortable chairs." House lifted his legs up and slid them off the chair across from him that he had used to prop his feet up on. "What is today?" he asked rubbing his eyes.

"April fifteenth, I think," she absently answered.

"I meant day of the week," House said lifting his head from his hands. "Wednesday?"

"Yeah," Cuddy looked over with confusion. "Why?"

"I have to get our daughter to the airport by five I think," he said while yawning.

There was something with what he had just said, and Cuddy caught onto it. She had noticed that he had just called Gabrielle their daughter. It was obvious that it was on accident, and she didn't want to start anything, so she just smiled to herself.

House sat up for a minute and tried to fully wake up. "How are you feeling?"

Cuddy shrugged. "The pain is gone, but I'm still nervous, and tired." Her head leaned back as she stared up at the ceiling.

House knew exactly what was going through her head right now. He to was worried, but he didn't want to see Cuddy completely stressed out, if anything, she just needed to rest. "You act as if you've already lost them."

Cuddy slowly turned her head to him. "Greg, we both know that there is something. What happened yesterday just doesn't happen."

House gave her a sympathetic look. He reached over and gently squeezed her shoulder.

The silence was broken as a doctor walked in. He examined the chart and then turned his attention to Cuddy. "Doctor Cuddy, you had a case pancreatitis. Most likely chronic." He went back and looked through a couple of papers. "This does heighten your risk of miscarriage, but you also could give birth to two healthy babies, which is more likely if you take care of yourself."

Cuddy nodded as she thanked the doctor. Once he left she turned to House, no emotion in her face, but there was so much more lurking behind her eyes, the fear, the nervousness, the anger. There were words right on the tip of her tongue, but something kept her from speaking at all.

House stood up and motioned for her to move over. Once there was a space clear, he sat beside her and held her in his arms. He knew that she was able to handle a lot, getting hurt, betrayed, but this was different. This was what she wanted most and she was getting let down time after time.

Cuddy draped her arm over him and rested her head on his chest. The only comfort she had at the moment was in his arms. It was true that the doctor had told her she had a good chance, but that was awful hard for her to believe with the way her luck was with babies. Every failure that she had had, only lessened her hopes. Now, chances were not enough to actually satisfy her, she needed to know that this would work.

House looked over and then down to her. "What names you like?" he asked.

"Really Greg?" she asked.

"I thought that was something you women liked to talk about when you are about to have a baby." He could see that she wasn't convinced, so he decided to throw out some names himself. He was about to joke around say that he liked the name Stacey, but bit his tongue. "How about…..Danielle?" Random, but it worked. He shrugged, "works for a boy to, Daniel."

Cuddy smirked. "And I suppose the other names would have been Samantha and Samuel."

"Why not?" House asked.

Cuddy just rolled her eyes. If both twins survived, she honestly did not care what they were named. All that mattered was that she would have two more healthy children. She was about to doze off, but the door opened and she lifted her head to see who it was.

"Hey Gabs," House greeted.

Gabrielle had only stuck her head into the room. "Should I come by later?" she asked.

"No, come in," Cuddy said as she sat up.

Gabrielle brightly smiled. "Okay, I've got a surprise for you." Gabrielle walked in with Rachel in her arms. She was back into the jeans and t-shirt that most people were used to, and seemed happier. "Someone missed you last night."

Cuddy smiled as she pulled away from House and sat up. Gabrielle approached the bed and hesitated to hand the baby over. "Are you sure you're up to holding her?"

Cuddy sighed. "I'm already stuck in a bed and the pain is gone, I think I can handle my own kid for a few minutes."

Gabrielle just laughed as she handed Rachel over to Cuddy. She waited a minute before walking around and sitting in the chair that House had slept in the previous night. "So, how are you doing? Feeling any better?"

Cuddy looked up from her daughter and shrugged. "There's no more pain, but I do have pancreatitis."

Gabrielle still wasn't very sure about what that really meant, but she could see that it bothered Cuddy. "It really could be worse. I mean, you still have a chance and you still have the twins. Yesterday we all thought you had neither."

Cuddy gave her a small smile and went back to paying attention to Rachel. "Did someone miss me?" she asked tickling the little baby. "Well someone missed you."

House and Gabrielle exchanged looks and then went back to watching as Rachel laughed in Cuddy's arms. "And how are you?" she asked her dad.

"Trust me, when I take enough pills I can sleep good anywhere," he said. "How did you manage last night?"

Gabrielle shrugged. "Wilson took me back to the apartment and he offered to pay for dinner for me and he stayed for a little bit to make sure that I had everything under control. Then I got Rachel to sleep, I went to sleep. She woke me up at five, and Wilson came to pick me up and here we are." She suddenly remembered something that was sort of important. "Oh yeah, and I'm going to have to leave in about ten minutes. Wilson has plans to go out to lunch with someone and he's going to drop Rachel off with her nanny and then take me to the airport. I got an earlier flight out to Cleveland."

"So this is your final hurrah hurrah here?" House asked.

"Yep yep." Gabrielle softly smiled. "And then in a couple months I can come back and officially move in with you."

"Congrats," House said without even looking over.

Gabrielle rolled her eyes. "And you're such a loving father." She wrapped her arms around him and kissed his cheek. "Thank you," she said and then stood up and laughed. "You still can't handle that can you?"

"I'm not exactly cute and cuddly," he answered.

Shaking her head, she walked around to Cuddy's side. Before she went to hug her, Cuddy handed Rachel over to House.

He looked down automatically grabbed his cane and allowed her to put the handle in her mouth. "There you go kid. Maybe when your teeth grow in you can chew through it like Wilson's dumb dog did."

Gabrielle laughed and then turned her attention back to Cuddy and hugged her. "Thank you." She pulled back. "I hope everything works out for you," she looked over at House who teasing Rachel with his cane by trying to tug on it, "both of you."

"Thanks," Cuddy said. She took Rachel back and said goodbye to her before handing her over to Gabrielle.

"Goodbye. I'll call you when I get to Marcy's," she said as she made her way to the door.

"You act as if I'll answer the phone," House said.

Gabrielle stopped at the door and turned around. "Why? You worried I might cut into your phone sex time?"

"Haha, very funny. Now leave before you miss your flight. I only have a couple months left of freedom, I don't want you taking that away from me," he said.

Gabrielle just smiled. "Just clean up your computer area, it's still sticky." With that, she waved goodbye and left.

Cuddy sighed as she watched her leave. After Gabrielle she looked back up at House and laid back down on his chest.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!