Author's Note: Hey there and thank you for reading! I hope you enjoy this new chapter and read and review.


House sipped at his coffee as he watched the rugrats run amuck in the kitchen.

"DADDY!" Emma whined. "Nat won't let me play with the crayons!"

"That's because you always break them!" Nathaniel retorted.

"Nuh-uh."

"Yu- huh."

"Nuh-uh."

House banged his head on the kitchen table as their voices escalated. Where was Allison with his Vicodin refill? He was about five seconds away from having a very lengthy jail term when Allison breezed through the door. She always did that. He was lucky if he even made it through the door.

"Emma Lucy House and Nathaniel Liam House! You stop arguing right this minute or no special activities for two weeks!"

That meant no piano or sports. The two shut up immediately and she set down the now full pill bottle in front of him. She rubbed the part of his head that wasn't part of the wooden table and he glanced wearily up at her.

"Another one? You have got to be mad, woman."

She just laughed and shook our two pills. After chugging them with water (she refused to let him dry swallow any more after a small choking fit. Honestly, he was only unconscious for a minute), he swept up Emma into his lap.

"Who had the crayons first?"

"Nathaniel," she sniffed.

"What are the rules?"

"Whoever had them first has dibs on them."

"And was it right for you to try and take them from your brother?"

She shook her head.

"Then apologize and then go wreak havoc by your grandparents."

She apologized and they ran to play by his parents in the back yard. He turned to Allison and gave her a look.

"What?"

He shook his head. "You know what."

Smiling, she laughed at him. "They're your kids."

"How are they MY kids?" he asked in disbelief.

"You knocked me up."

His mouth dropped.

"Oh, no. No no no no no. As I remember, you were the one who was all ' Have another drink, Greg.' ' It's okay because you always drink, Greg.' 'I really want you, Greg.'"

She frowned at him.

"You have a weird fetish with my voice lately."

He pulled her onto his one good knee and tapped her arm.

"It turns me on," he joked.

"And as for me wanting you and wanting the twins, I wasn't the one singing to them when they were babies. I wasn't the one rocking them to sleep every night and I definitely wasn't the one who thanked me for giving him a new reason to live."

"I don't know what you're talking about," he denied.

All of a sudden, pain lashed through his leg. Gasping for a few minutes with Allison worrying over him, he relaxed against the back of the chair.

"Are you okay?"

He nodded. "It's been happening a couple of times a day. It's okay though."

Still worrying, she gave him a once over. He had been getting really tired lately and he didn't seem to have patience for the children. She was going to make him an appointment with his old doctor once they got back into town. Right now, she had to keep an eye on him and make sure he didn't try to do anything stupid.

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Later that night, after they had gotten back home with plenty of leftovers from his parents, she turned to him in bed. They had gone to bed almost an hour beforehand but she couldn't stop thinking about what happened earlier that day.

"Greg? Are you asleep?"

A grunt from him was the answer that he was too tired to talk.

"Are you sure that you're okay? I was thinking about calling your old doctor."

Silence filled the room once more. She thought he had fallen asleep.

"Greg?"

"You don't need to call my doctor."

"But if your leg muscles are dying again-"

"They're not."

"How do you know?"

He rolled over so he faced her.

"I've been detoxing myself slowly. I'll take fewer pills each week which is why my leg hurts so much."

"But why?"

He sighed. "I can't stand having to constantly look over at the time and wonder when my next fix is. It's to be able to say that my infraction isn't the worst thing that could have happened to me. I want to be able to stop using medical excuses to get away from my pain. Because of you and the children, I no longer have a reason to hide behind the drugs. And if you repeat any of this to anyone, I will…"

She raised an eyebrow at him.

"You will what?"

He just gave her a dirty grin and turned onto his back.

"Even Wilson?" she asked.

A nod affirmed her answer. This was going to be very tricky to hide from everyone at the hospital. At least most people knew to stay away from House because of his snarky attitude. If he was well loved this would have been a lot harder.

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The next day brought many problems. The coffee maker at home broke, the children weren't able to go to day care because they were in the process of hiring a new day care helper and Cuddy didn't want to give the twins a chance to terrorize the person before she could make them sign a contract, and the moment he arrived at work, Cuddy was on him to do his clinical hours.

"But you banned the twins! Who's going to watch them if I'm in the clinic."

Not letting House weasel out of his hours once again, Cuddy decided quickly.

"I'll watch them. Besides, I am their godmother and it's been awhile since I've babysat them."

House grinned and gave the twins a wink. After turning to limp into the clinic, the twins turned to Cuddy with evil smiles on their faces. Cuddy inwardly cringed. What had she done?

Not more than an hour later, a knock on the clinic room number two door interrupted House from complaining at the newest patient. After rolling over on his chair and opening the door, Cuddy growled. Her hair was everywhere and she looked like she was about to scream. She had a hand of each of the twins' in her own and she held them out to House.

"As punishment for encouraging them to terrorize me, I'm handing them over to you and you get to do your hours at the same time."

She handed off the kids and stalked off. House looked down at the twins.

"Did she cry?"

"Almost," Emma grinned.

House nodded in approval and directed them to two empty chairs. He turned back to the patient who eyed his kids with distaste.

"Are you sure this is legal?"

House shrugged. "That's never stopped me before."

"Why are you so fat?" Nathaniel piped up.

The patient turned red and Emma leaned over to Nathaniel.

"I bet it's because he had one to many doughnuts," she whispered in a loud voice.

House had to suppress a snicker at his children. He turned to them and decided to have fun.

"Differential diagnosis for a runny nose and coughing."

Emma raised her hand and he nodded.

"A cold," she proclaimed in her 'duh' voice.

"Treatment?"

Nathaniel piped up again.

"Get lots of sleep and take that bubble gum medicine that's like candy!"

House turned back to the patient who looked confused.

"Well, there you have it. A cold."

"You're going to let your children tell me what's wrong with me?" he said incredulously.

"Yep."

"But…but you can't do that!"

House wrote out a prescription for a strong aspirin and handed it to him.

"I just did. NEXT!"

They had fun the whole day. House delighted in making the twins have the patients look like morons. He had so much fun in fact; he caught up on his hours for the entire week. Before he knew it, it was time for lunch and Allison was at the door.

"You guys having fun?"

The twins nodded and grabbed her hands. She led them and House down to the cafeteria while explaining their day in rapid detail. Allison just shook her head. She was sure they were going to be bigger hell raisers when they were even older but she didn't think she could handle them even right now. While waiting for the elevator, she glanced over at her husband.

"Hey."

He looked up at her from Nathaniel.

"Remember that thing we were talking about at your parents?"

House nodded at the memory of the ' I want to have another baby' conversation.

"Yeah."

She grinned at him and he stood shell- shocked.

"You're not… I mean…"

"Yep. Looks like we won't have to wait longer than another seven months for another one."

"Another what, mommy?"

Allison looked down at Emma.

"We'll talk about it when we get home. But I think auntie Cuddy might kill your daddy."

Emma grinned.

"Again?"


Hey there. I am now open to all suggestions of names and I apologize for the fake person announcement from the last chapter. That will be happening the NEXT chapter. So…read and review because you know I love it. Peace -Amanda