Chapter 38

"Mom, he's been through enough already. I was taking Ibuprofen around the time he was conceived. His heart or lungs might be damaged from this already without us even knowing."

"Honey, children are resilient. I understand you'd feel selfish if you undertook the treatment, but under certain circumstances a mother has to put herself first."

"Yeah, you sure know all about that," Cuddy mutters.

Arlene's voice turns to ice. "What exactly are you implying?"

House is standing outside Cuddy's room, listening in on the conversation between mother and daughter.

"Nothing," he hears Cuddy relenting. "Babies in the uterus practically absorb radioactivity. Even if it were just my teeth being examined he'd get a share. Do you know where the kidneys are, Mom?"

"Do you have any idea how difficult it was raising two kids practically by myself?" Arlene bickers, ignoring Cuddy's concerns. "With your father gone twelve hours a day, taking care of everyone except his own—"

"Mom, God, stop! This really isn't the time for your tirades about dad."

House takes pity on her and pushes the door open. His eyes immediately travel to Cuddy's. He catches a hint of relief shimmering in them before she shuts them tightly.

"Oh, Dr. Know-it-all," Arlene directs her sarcasm at him, "so charitable of you to finally grace us with your presence."

"I was busy finding the cure for cancer and lost track of time," he quips. "And speaking of which," he glances at his watch in mock alarm, "visiting hours are over."

She narrows her eyes at him. "I'm sure the Dean will make an exception."

"Doubt it. She's a strict pain in the ass when it comes to rules. Her mother must've been quite the nazi."

"You summoned me here. Now you're playing the role of rowdy bouncer?"

"I'm switching tactics, the old one obviously isn't doing the trick. Pun intended."

"You think you can just push people around like pieces on a chessboard."

"I rock at chess. And right now my queen is about to uncrown your king, so…" He nods at Cuddy, who just lies in bed with her eyes still shut, looking completely exhausted. Tension in her jaw muscles and between her brows tells him she is in agony. A fine sheen of sweat is covering her face.

Arlene glances at her daughter and surrenders. Facing House again, she states, "Life's not a game of chess, Greg. You should plan to have some players left by the end of it."

He nods, acknowledging her advice. The respect he principally has for her leads him to keep his mouth shut, which is as far an apology as he is willing to give for throwing her out.

Arlene turns to leave.

"Mom?" Cuddy calls out quietly as she opens her eyes a crack. She appears dismayed by the dispute with her mother, her compulsory need to be at good terms with her emerging.

"Let's skip the sentiments," Arlene replies drily. "You know I love you."

Cuddy presses her lips together. "Yeah."

Arlene leaves without another word. House watches her go, wondering again how on earth Cuddy managed to turn into this caring and sociable human being. When the door falls into the latch, he approaches the bed with caution. "So… Psychoneuroendocrinology?" He is uncertain she still wants him there. "Really?"

"It is a science," she mumbles weakly, but he detects a hint of a smile on her lips.

"Yeah, science of p-hacking; combing through your data until you find publishable results." He sits down on the chair next to her bed and undoes his shoelaces.

"The study was a random experiment. And they found differences on several physiological factors."

"Yeah. But your theory's still got a lotta holes." He pulls his button-down shirt over his head and slips out of his shoes. His movements are methodical and slow, giving her ample time to protest and ask him what the hell he thinks he's doing. "Study was conducted on women between 20 and 37. Who were given a back rub by their partners. Who they'd been married to or cohabitated with for at least a year." He rises up from the chair, scratching his temple. "None of those apply."

She holds his gaze and simply continues with the banter. "Well, I guess they didn't get a big enough sample matching all our features."

He slowly limps around the bed on his socketed feet.

Her hand reaches behind her to untangle the blanket.

"You saying we're outliers?" he plays along, sitting down on the edge of the mattress and hoisting up his bad leg. He makes sure to steer clear of her IV line as he positions his body behind hers.

"So far out we're approaching infinity."

"Positive or negative?"

She chuckles. "Depends on the day." She readjusts the blanket so it covers them both up to the waist.

"Talking statistics to me now, huh?" he teases. "Trying to lure me into bed?"

"Obviously it's working."

"It's big," he notes, surprised by the space he has on the mattress. "They gave it to you to accommodate your oversized ego or your oversized rear?"

Another throaty chuckle.

He starts to gently rub her shoulder. "What is a standardized neck massage, anyways?"

"I see you've read the article very carefully."

"Skimmed over the abstract."

They remain silent while he continues to caress her back. Her body tenses when he trails over her left, lower ribcage. "My side hurts," she admits.

"From the infection."

She nods.

"Your blood test came back negative. No signs of sepsis."

She releases a long breath.

He lets his fingers skim up and down her side in a caress. Then he places his palm over her kidney. "We'll do another one in a few hours."

She reaches for his hand and guides it to her belly. "See, Daddy's here now," she coos affectionately in the direction of her stomach.

Absentmindedly, his thumb traces back and forth across the soft fabric of her sweater. "Actually, he can't see. Not for another week."

"But he can hear. And feel." Her hand still covers his, holding it in place. They remain quiet for a few minutes. Eventually, she mumbles, "I want you to name him."

House is startled and raises his head in an attempt to see her face and read her expression. "If this is turning into an 'If I die tomorrow' speech, I'm—"

"No, this is me apologizing. I went over your head with my choice against the IVP."

"So now you'll let me go over your head by letting me name the baby?"

She nods.

"How many vetoes do you get?"

"If I say two, you'll give me two crappy options and then proclaim the name you actually want, leaving me no choice."

"If you have infinite vetoes, you can veto two hundred and twenty-two times until I say the name you actually want and pretend I came up with it."

"Fine. No vetoes. Just… Don't pick anything you know I'll hate."

"Seriously? You trust me with this?"

"Yeah." She removes her hand from his and rests it in front of her body, adjusting herself in a more comfortable position.

"First, middle, and last?"

She sighs.

"You know I'm an all or nothing kinda guy."

"Yeah. Okay." He can tell she is drifting off to sleep.

He settles in closer and briefly indulges in nuzzling her neck. "Cuddy?"

"Hmm?"

"You never told me why you wanted the baby to have testicles."

"Same reason you didn't," she mumbles, already half asleep. "More parallels."

Author Notes:

At my nice guest: "Cuddy is just the socially appropriate version of House. Underneath it all, they are both the same." Totally!

At laraE: Este capitulo es muy largo, espero pronto nuevos comentarios ;-)

I was taught to cite my sources:

Ditzen B, Neumann ID, Bodenmann G, von Dawans B, Turner RA, Ehlert U, Heinrichs M. Effects of different kinds of couple interaction on cortisol and heart rate responses to stress in women. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2007 Jun;32(5):565-74. doi: 10. .2007.03.011

Gosciniak, M., Kawecki, D., Miklaszewska, M., Truszewski, Z., Lazowski, T., Wielgos, M. and Radzis-zewski, P. (2014) Fatal Urosepsis: A 41 Year-Old Pregnant Woman—Case Report. Open Journal of Urology,4, 10.4236/oju.2014.411024

Sledzinska A, Mielech A, Krawczyk B, Samet A, Nowicki B, Nowicki S, Jankowski Z, Kur J. Fatal sepsis in a pregnant woman with pyelone-phritis caused by Escherichia coli bearing Dr and P adhesins: diagnosis based on postmortem strain genotyping. BJOG 2011;118:266–269

Not sure I wanted to know everything that can go wrong during a pregnany...