PART 14

For three weeks, Cameron enjoyed life. She shopped for baby clothes, finished up the registry, and did in fact paint the nursery. She went behind their backs, purchased the paint one day, masked off the trim work the next and when they were both stuck late at the hospital, she painted. Light pastels, pink, blue, yellow and white. It turned out perfect.

The wrath she had to face when they walked into the house and smelled the fresh paint was probably the worst ever. She was soaking her tired muscles in the tub when they burst into the bathroom, scowling and then proceeding to browbeat her for about an hour. She told them she was fine, although she really wasn't that fine, her back was killing her. All in all, however, she didn't hurt herself or the babies.

Over dinner, they would argue about names. House was more into the traditional names, while Wilson seemed to want to torture the poor children. Finally, after many heated arguments, they settled on the names. Now all there was to do was wait for the babies, (well that and have the shower).

One Friday, Greg called up Allison and asked her to come by the hospital for lunch. He said that everyone missed her and wanted to see how huge she had become. Well really Chase was always the one saying that she would never get her figure back, but before she got pregnant, he always told her she was too skinny. House would gripe, tell him to stop talking about his wife's body and put him on bed pan duty for a few days. Foreman would laugh, but had enough sense in his head to keep quiet.

When Allison woke up that day, she wasn't feeling too well. Her back kind of hurt and her head was pounding. She'd told House as much, but after hearing the disappointment in his voice, she'd decided to go ahead and join him for lunch. She had a few Brixton Hicks contractions on the way in (the pain less ones) but as she made her way to his office, they started to hurt. He wasn't there, but a note one his desk told him that he was in Cuddy's office and to come and rescue him when she got there. Sighing she made her way to Cuddy's. She was surprised when she had to stop a few times to catch her breath. A brief thought that she could be in labor crossed her mind, but she quickly dispatched with it. She was only 35 weeks, she still had a little over a month to go, and at her last checkup, she had no signs of early labor.

She knocked on Cuddy's door and was told to enter, when she did, she found House, Cuddy, Wilson, Chase, Foreman and a few other doctors and nurses's there. They'd thrown her a surprise shower for the babies. She stood there in shock and started to cry.

House came over and gave her a hug, "Hey, sweetheart, you're supposed to be happy, Cuddy assured us that women loved this kind of thing." he murmured in her hair.

"I am happy Greg, thank you. How did you keep this from me? I can see you keeping a secret from me, but Wilson? He always caves and gives it away."

"Why do you think I kept him working late this past week?" He teased her.

"Because I'm a huge, fat whale and who would want to look at me, let alone sleep with me? I think I need to move to the guest room so I have some space. You and Jim can have the bed to yourselves." she whispered to him. He snorted at her as if to say, "yeah right".

He felt her tense up, "You ok?" He asked, but before she could reply, Cuddy and everyone else were fighting for hugs and pats to her belly.

Cuddy had her hand on Allison's belly when she sucked in a quiet breath. Cuddy's eyes quickly jumped up to meet Cameron's and she knew what the problem was. "Hey, would one of you big, strong men pull a chair over for Allison and get her a glass of water. She is pregnant you know." She then turned to Allison and said, "How far apart are they?"

"I don't know, 15 minutes or so."

"How is the pain? On a scale of 1 to 8."

"I'm fine really Lisa."

"How bad?"

"Hum, it varies, maybe like a five."

"Ok, well hang in their kid, we will get this party wrapped up and then you can get checked out. If they get any worse, tell me or one of your men."

Allison just looked at her and whispered, "You know?"

"I know everything that happens in my hospital." Cuddy told her simply.

"Do they know you know?"

She shrugged and said, "I think, but we don't talk about it. I have suspected for years, but then you came along and it took me a while to figure out what the dynamics were. So who IS the father?"

"I have no idea." Allison laughed.

Wilson brought her over a plate of food and she only nibbled a little bit, she didn't have an appetite. They opened presents and chatted for a few minutes until Cuddy told everyone to get back to work.

"Any better?" She asked Allison when it was finally only her, House and Wilson.

"Better? What do you mean better?" Wilson started.

"Allison's having contractions."

"What?" House barked. "And you didn't say anything. You told Cuddy over your husband!"

"I'm fine really and Lisa figured it out on her own. You know, less self-absorbed." She bit down her pain with sarcasm.

"Ok, that's it, your going on a monitor. Wilson call up to Labor and Delivery. Tell them we have Allison, 35 weeks plus with contractions. Pregnant with twins." Wilson rolled his eyes at Cuddy's description, like he didn't already know the details.

"Allison, you are only 35 weeks, the babies aren't ready to be born yet." House told her.

"Well, Greg, perhaps you could tell them that, because they seem to want to come out, ready or not."

"NOT!" He stressed. "Not today." he said, then hunched down on his knees in front of her, "Do you hear that kids? Listen to your father, not today. You need to bake longer. You will be all wrinkly and covered in that white cheese stuff. Yuck, no thank you, that stuff is gross. Everyone will be talking about how ugly House's babies were. No, I'm too pretty to have ugly babies, you will listen to me or I will smack your butts when you come out, like they use to do."

Allison and Lisa were laughing at him, Wilson was just rubbing his hands through his hair, he wasn't taking this well.

"Jim, are you ok? You look a little frazzled." Allison giggled.

"Yes. Don't you think it's time we got her to L & D now? I have a wheelchair."

"I don't need a wheelchair James. I can walk."

"You should stay off your feet, to help stop the labor."

"Walking 15 feet to the elevator will not change anything Besides, I don't like to be wheeled around. It makes me feel, vulnerable." This awarded her with a nod from House as he helped her to stand up. Her back was now starting to really ache.

They made their way to L & D and got her hooked up to all the monitors. She was indeed having contractions and upon exam, was 2 cm dilated. If they didn't stop the labor soon, the babies would come today, no matter what House had to say about it.