This is the penultimate chapter of this story. One more and then you have to wait for the sequel. Thanks for your reviews, thanks for staying with this story :).

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Monday noon House was just finishing his hours at the clinic with an argument with the Evil Nurse Brenda. Brenda was of the opinion that he still had time for one more patient and House disagreed. Cuddy walked in on their argument.

"You have fifteen minutes left before you can sign off," Cuddy sided with Brenda. "Just grab a patient and stop being a pain."

She turned her back to them and House automatically dropped his gaze to check her ass. What he saw stopped his ready retort to his lips. He turned quickly to Brenda and saw that she had seen it too.

"Page her doctor, Helen Jordan I think," House told Brenda in a low voice and then he went after Cuddy grabbing her arm. "Ok, if that is what you want I'll grab a patient. You're it!"

"House, stop fooling around," Cuddy admonished him. "Get a real patient, one of the ones who have been waiting for hours to see a doctor."

"Well, then they are used to waiting by now," House shrugged. "A little more won't hurt them." He then got a little more persuasive. "I need a consult in exam room three. Come on, won't take long. Unless you want me to ask your opinion about a very private complaint right here and in a very loud voice?"

"Fine," Cuddy snapped and turned to go to the exam room. "I can give you one minute. And I mean one." She walked into the room and found it empty; she turned to glare at House. "So where is the patient then?"

"Cuddy, it's you," House told her gently putting a hand on her shoulder and steering her to the exam table. "You have blood on your skirt."

Cuddy turned pale and swayed a little but fortunately they were at the table already and she was able to steady herself against it. House helped her lie down.

"Are you in any pain or discomfort? Even just a little?" House asked as he wheeled the ultrasound machine closer. "You cannot be in any significant pain or you would have noticed."

"No, nothing," Cuddy's voice trembled. "Just some discomfort in my back. I thought I had been sitting still for too long. I've had similar ache before though usually during my period."

"If we are lucky then that is what you are having now, too," House observed as he helped Cuddy bare her tummy.

"In case you haven't noticed House, I'm pregnant," Cuddy got a little irritated at him. "Usually you don't get your period when you are pregnant."

"And usually you don't surgically remove your brains either, when you are pregnant," House responded squirting some gel on Cuddy's abdomen. "But as a doctor you ought to remember that pregnancy does not always stop menstruation, especially not when..." House looked expectantly at Cuddy.

"Especially when you shot my ass full of fertility meds," Cuddy filled the blank with a sigh.

"Right," House nodded. "Though I still absolutely refuse to take any blame for that. Now lets see if the parasites are still feeling all warm and snugly in there." House turned to monitor so that Cuddy could see it too and then he started the scan. "Yep, no signs of distress in the peanut gallery; snug as bugs in a rug. Brenda is paging Helen so she can do a better exam and whatever tests she thinks are necessary. But my guess would be that you are having a period. Isn't it great to be a woman: period pains and morning sickness at the same time."

"Only you would gloat at a time like this," Cuddy glared at House – forgetting to distress over the possible danger her babies were in, which of course was House's point.

"Hey, while we are at this anyway, why don't we see who wins the bet over the sex of the triplets," House suggested. "At fourteen weeks we should get a definite answer to that."

"If we get a clear shot," Cuddy reminded him. "Why not, I want to monitor them anyway until Helen gets here, so we might as well find out for sure that I'm having two girls and a boy. I want to finally get a chance to rub your nose on something you got wrong!"

"Don't get too exited over that possibility as yet," House told her. "I haven't been proven wrong yet, and won't be either."

"Just do the scan and shut up," Cuddy told him concentrating on the monitor.

"Ok, zooming in, and there we have Lisa junior first," House refused to shut up, but then Cuddy hadn't really expected him to.

"Leona," Cuddy corrected him. "No juniors in this ship."

"Super tanker," House muttered not even nearly under his breath. "But it's a girl. No question. Then let's go to the left and find Greg junior."

"Trey," Cuddy stated firmly.

"And it's a boy! So far so good," House noted.

"Well the ones we agreed on are accounted for, what about Greer?" Cuddy asked.

"Jimmy junior," House tried to get a good angle for the scan. "He seems to be taking after his namesake and is refusing to co-operate. Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy, why are you being so mean to Mommy and Daddy?" House noticed from the corner of his eye Dr. Jordan entering the room quietly. "Is that ...?"

"An umbilical cord, yes," Cuddy observed dryly.

"Now what is going on here," Dr. Jordan asked playfully. "Are you trusting Dr. House over your own doctor again?"

"Helen!" Cuddy remembered suddenly why they were scanning the babies in the first place.

"I know," Dr. Jordan was immediately reassuring. "Nurse Brenda told me that you are bleeding."

"I'm not in any pain though," Cuddy reported. "Just some discomfort in my back. I didn't notice anything."

"Considering that she is having triplets because of fertility meds, chances are she is having a period," House gave his opinion. "Or she has just bursted a blood vessel. Anyway, you don't need me here anymore Cuddy, your doctor is here."

House took his cane and got ready to limp out of the room. Cuddy, however, stopped him: "Stay, please."

House looked down into Cuddy's scared eyes and sat down again but scooted the stool out of Helen's way. "You know Cuddy, I'm not very good at this hand-holding and encouragement thing," House pointed out.

"Well it's either you or Nurse Brenda, who would you choose," Cuddy tried to joke.

"Actually with those choices, I think I'd rather do without entirely," House stated.

"Could you hook her up on the stat monitor," Helen smiled as she handed the sensor to attach to Cuddy's finger. "I'd like to know what is going on with her, too. No, Lisa, stay down. I don't want you to get up before we know a little more of what is going on with you. Though, I have to agree with Dr. House that there is a good chance that you are just having a period."

"See, told you," House smirked. "And you said you couldn't get any more pregnant when I refused to have sex with you in my office last week."

"You were the one who said that I couldn't get any more pregnant and you were turning down an offer that wasn't even extended," Cuddy glared.

"Well, that's your story and I can understand why you would want to stick to it, with your doctor here and everything," House patronised making Cuddy completely forget what Helen was doing – and that was quite an accomplishment, since internal ultra is pretty hard to miss. "Now just give me your finger so I can attach this thingy-me-do to you. CUDDY! My dear. I'm shocked! And you a Dean of Medicine and everything. What is this world coming to?"

"Like anything could shock you," Cuddy muttered but allowed him access to the right finger instead of the one she had first extended to him.

"Now settle down you two," Helen intruded, she was beginning to understand what Lisa had meant with her count you blessings for not knowing Dr. House remark a month ago. "I can't see that there is any reason for alarm here, but I still want you admitted for observation overnight and I want to do some tests. But my initial reaction is that this is nothing serious. Better safe than sorry, though, so let's get you admitted. But did you want to know the sex of the babies? Wasn't that what you were doing when I got here?"

"Yeah," House nodded, feeling relieved though not showing it. "We got one boy and one girl but Jimmy junior was being un-co-operative."

"Greer!" Cuddy insisted. "Not Jimmy."

"Well, you can take a look now," Helen said nodding at the monitor. "From this angle you get a pretty good look."

House and Cuddy turned to the monitor and looked at their third baby – or parasite. After a moment Cuddy exclaimed: "Hah! Greer's a girl! So there, House."

"Three daughters and you," House muttered. "My life will be hell!"

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"Are you disappointed?" Wilson asked House as they sat in House's office later that day after the news had spread all over the hospital. Some people were walking around with wide smiles having won the bets and others were giving House glares for having been wrong! See if they ever trusted him again.

"No, of course not," House said. "I wouldn't have cared if they had all been girls. In fact that might have been better."

"Why?" Wilson was taken aback.

"As you very well know the primary role model for a child is the same sex parent," House pointed out. "Now which one of us do you think is a better role model, me or Cuddy?"

"There is nothing wrong with you as a role model," Wilson defended his friend staunchly and automatically.

"Really?" House was extremely sceptical. "You have been borrowing Cameron's rose-coloured contacts again, haven't you?"

"No, I haven't," Wilson insisted. "Sure you have your irritating sides, but who doesn't. All in all there is nothing really wrong with you."

House was going to say something to that but just then Kasumii got back from her break – predictably she was with Grey.

"Now look at those two lovebirds," House said in a syrupy voice. "Aren't they cute?" He then turned a little away from them and stage-whispered to Wilson: "He got some last night, you know."

Wilson buried his face in his hands in a very familiar gesture. Kasumii gave House a mildly murderous glare – she didn't have energy for a stronger one as she had been glaring at him pretty much all day – and flounced into the other room, and Grey glared at House, too, only his was considerably stronger glare.

"You know," Grey ground at House. "Considering that I'm your physical therapist and there are times when you are completely at my mercy, one would think you would be a little more careful."

"Oh, Jimmy knows where I am at all times," House declared. "He knows who to go to if I suddenly disappear."

"Only given your behaviour chances are that I will just help him bury your body," Wilson stated getting up and leaving House's office in disgust – once again.

"Hey, what happened to the there is nothing wrong with you as a role model," House shouted after him. In response Wilson just threw his hands in the air. "Some friend he turned out to be," House grumbled to Grey who was shaking his head at House not knowing if he should laugh or just let go with his fist again.

"No, I wouldn't waist energy on hitting me again," House read his mind. "I'm too old a dog to learn any new tricks."

"Are you letting Kasumii be, or are you going to go on taunting her forever?" Grey asked a little threateningly.

"Relax," House told him. "Don't you remember? If I really go too far she is perfectly capable of decking me herself, and unlike you, she will not even hurt herself in the process."

"Yeah, I suppose," Grey conceded and took his leave – via the other room where he obviously reminded Kasumii, too, of her Aikido skills given the considering look she gave House through the glass wall. House just smirked in response and went back to his game.