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Cuddy was turned on her side and stretched out on her bed, her stomach protruding, her body shaking with sobs. There was a knocking on her front door, but she refused to answer it. However, the lights were on in her house, so she was certain that gave her away.

When her front door closed, Cuddy felt her heart jump, but she instantly discarded the hope she had. Especially when she heard the thudding of a cane on her hardwood floor. Cuddy didn't even bother to try to hide her tears as House pushed open her bedroom door.

"What he'd do now?" House asked as he stepped cautiously into the room.

"He left me," Cuddy answered.

House frowned. "What do you mean?"

"What do I mean?" Cuddy sat up and stared at House. "He left me! Andrew left because this baby is yours, House. That's why I'm alone." She stood from the bed, her face red and tears still falling. "Are you happy now? Are you? You set out to make me alone and you fucking accomplished it!"

"Cuddy, calm down," House told her, keeping his voice even. "All that screaming can't be good for the-"

"Like you even care!" Cuddy cut him off, not lowing her volume. "Get the hell out. I don't want you here."

"When did you... find out?" House asked, lowering his eyes to her stomach.

"A week ago." Cuddy sniffed and swiped at her nose with the sleeve of the oversized sweatshirt she was wearing. "I didn't want to tell you. We did the amnio."

"You did an amnio and you didn't mention it?" House asked, his eyebrows drawing together. "Or get a sample from me? I thought you were against endangering this baby."

"The stress of not knowing was killing me," Cuddy snapped and sat down on her bed. "We compared the amnio with samples from the sperm donor and Andrew. It wasn't either of them. I looked like a whore."

House stepped closer to her bed. "Cuddy..."

"Now, leave," she told him. "Please."

"Lisa," House tried again.

Cuddy stared up him, tired and upset, her head pounding. "Haven't you done enough, House? Really."

"Hey, there were two people in your office that night." House pointed a finger, trying to defend himself. "Don't place all the blame on me."

"I had a relationship." Cuddy placed her hand to her chest. "A real relationship. I could be having a family, but now I'm just alone with a baby whose father doesn't want him."

"Stop it with that, all right?" House shook his head. "Andy's a dick for leaving you now."

"Why would he stay when he's up against you?" Cuddy spat. "You think that was going to go over well? Me and Andrew raising your son?"

"I thought you wanted a baby, Cuddy," House replied. "Even before Andy ever entered the picture, you wanted a-" House drew back slightly, thinking for a moment. "It's a boy?"

Cuddy nodded, her tears stopped, but her face still wet. "Yeah."

"A boy," House repeated.

"What?" Cuddy asked. "Does that change something?"

"No," House answered and began toward the door. "You should get some rest."

Cuddy's eyebrows drew together. "You're leaving?"

House shrugged. "You asked me to."

Cuddy gave a short nod. "Good."

"Night, Cuddy," House said before leaving her bedroom.

Cuddy relaxed back onto the bed. Her tears welled up again and slid from her eyes. She placed her hand to her stomach, rubbing over the area where her son was. A quick flutter moved from her left to right, making Cuddy suddenly cry harder. The baby's movement had begun a week earlier, but she kept it to herself, letting it be a secret between her and her son.

"I'm sorry for all the tears, baby boy," she told him. "Tomorrow will be better. I promise."

"Hey," House greeted as he entered Cuddy's office.

"I'm busy." Cuddy didn't even look up from her desk.

House frowned as he crossed the room. "No, you're not."

"I am," Cuddy insisted. When he didn't leave, Cuddy brought her eyes to him. "Make it quick."

"How are you?" he asked, stopping behind one of the chairs across from her desk.

"Pretty terrible," Cuddy answered. "Anything else?"

House ran his tongue over his bottom lip. "Lisa-"

"Don't Lisa me," she cut him off. "What do you want, House?"

"I was worried about you," he said.

Cuddy shot him a look. "Give me a break."

"I was," House replied. "And I won't ignore the fact that the baby is mine."

Cuddy cocked an eyebrow at him. "Oh, so you suddenly care about me?"

"You're the host organism," House pointed out. "You gotta be safe for that baby to be safe."

"House, you don't want a kid," Cuddy told him. "Drop the act and go do Clinic duty."

House maneuvered around the chair and sat down. "Why do you think I'm not serious about this, Cuddy?"

Cuddy sighed at seeing him sit and decided going along with him would get him out of her office faster. "You've never outright said anything to me before about caring for this baby. You may have hinted at things, but I learn not to take you seriously half the time. You love to toy with people's minds, House."

"You're forgetting the small fact that there was an Andy before." House shrugged. "Now, there isn't."

Cuddy stared at him, almost wanting to laugh. "You're telling me that you held off discussing any of this with me because I was still with Andrew?"

House gave a nod. "Exactly."

Cuddy eyed him up. "I don't believe you. This is some game. Some sort of trick."

House's eyebrows drew together. "What the hell kind of benefit could I get from messing with you?"

"If I'd fall for it, I'd put you back in charge of your team," Cuddy offered.

"I have a feeling that's never going to happen," House replied. "Besides, what better a time to be a father when the workload is reasonably lessened? Foreman's doing a fantastic job with the paperwork, by the way."

Cuddy frowned, uncertain. "You're scaring me. Did you hit your head?"

"I'm perfectly fine," House spoke innocently. "Couldn't be any better with a son on the way."

Cuddy shook her head, not wanting to even attempt to deal with this anymore. "Please get out of my office, House. You're confusing the hell out of me and I have a lot of work I need to concentrate on."

House leaned forward in his chair. "Listen, Cuddy. You're going to have this kid and if you bring him here, I'll probably be around him. The kid will eventually start asking about his father when he's old enough to talk and... I'm right here. How fair would it be to him to have his father here the whole time and never know?"

"You're right." Cuddy gave a nod. "I'll transfer you to another hospital."

House leaned back, going along with her. "We both know no one would take me. Besides, you'd have to ship Wilson out too because he can't live without me."

Cuddy watched him a moment, debating her next words, wanting them to be a means of testing him and her trust in him.

"I felt the baby move."

House raised an eyebrow. "Just now?"

"No," Cuddy said. "It started about two weeks ago. It's nothing big. Just small, fluttering movement. He's fast."

"That's great, Cuddy," House replied seriously.

Cuddy kept her gaze on him a moment longer than necessary and then lowered her eyes to the papers scattered in front of her. "I really do have work to do."

House stood to his feet. "Just think about what I said, okay?"

Cuddy brought her eyes to him and nodded. "Okay."

House looked away from his television and over to Wilson, whose cell phone began to ring. Wilson reached into his pocket and extracted his phone.

"Who's that?" House asked.

Wilson stared at the name that appeared. "Cuddy."

House frowned. "What is she calling you for?"

Wilson gave a shrug, the phone still ringing. "I told her she could call if she needed anything."

"Why?" House asked.

"Well, Andrew left," Wilson told him. "She shouldn't feel alone." Wilson flipped his phone open and held it to his ear. "Hello?"

"Hi, James," Cuddy's voice came through the phone. "Are you busy?"

"No, not at all," Wilson said and looked away from House. "What do you need?"

"I... I shouldn't be bothering you. But, my feet are killing me and my back hurts-"

"Lisa, what can I do for you?" Wilson cut her off.

"I was hoping you could run to the store for me. I would pay you back."

Wilson grabbed the newspaper from House's coffee table and pulled a pen from his pocket, preparing to write. "What can I get you?"

"Mint chocolate chip ice cream."

"Okay." Wilson wrote it down as House looked on, but pretended he was disinterested.

"And tortilla chips and salsa. And cucumbers."

Wilson copied those items down as well. "Is that all?"

"Oh! And those little pizza bagel things. Do you know what I'm talking about?"

"Yes." Wilson gave a nod.

"Only the plain cheese ones though."

"All right." Wilson scanned the list. "Is that everything?"

"Yes. Thank you, James."

"No problem." Wilson slipped his pen back into his pocket. "I'm leaving now."

"Okay. The door will be open."

"All right." Wilson tore the list from the rest of the newspaper. "Bye."

"I'll set this stuff in the kitchen," Wilson announced as he entered Cuddy's home with a paper bag of the food she asked for.

"Thank you so much," Cuddy called out as she walked out of her living room. She stopped when she saw the other figure in her home. "House. What are you doing here?"

House answered by firmly placing his lips to hers. Cuddy drew back in surprise, but her lips still remained with him. House tugged slightly on her bottom lip as he pulled away. He couldn't really explain his actions, but the way she looked right then, a soft glow to her skin and her hair loose and a mess, he couldn't hold himself back.

"Ahem," Wilson spoke up from the doorway of the dining room after having watched the whole encounter.

House turned to him and shrugged. "What? I dig the pot belly look."

House moved toward the kitchen, passing Wilson along the way. Cuddy watched House go before directing her gaze to Wilson. They stared at each other, both confused, before Cuddy followed Wilson into her kitchen.

Cuddy stopped in the doorway to the kitchen, watching as House had already opened the ice cream and was scooping some into a bowl.

"House," Wilson scolded.

House left the carton with the ice cream scooper still in it on the counter. He held the bowl in his hand and looked to Wilson. "What? There's still some left." House began towards the door. "I'll be in the living room."

Cuddy moved out of House's way as he passed her without looking at her. Wilson sighed and shook his head. He walked over to the rest of the groceries. Cuddy made her way over to the counter and picked up the ice cream carton. She put the ice cream scooper in the sink and placed the lid back on the carton.

"Sorry about that," Wilson apologized for House. "I was at his place when you called."

"It's all right," Cuddy told him as she went to set the ice cream in the freezer.

"Do you want me to make something?" Wilson asked.

Cuddy walked back over to him. "You could put those pizza things in the microwave. I'm going to cut up the cucumbers and eat them with the salsa."

"That does not sound good." Wilson pulled the box of mini pizza bagels from the grocery bag.

Cuddy gave him a look as she reached into the paper bag. "Don't knock it until you've tried it. It's actually not as bad as it sounds."

"I'll take your word for it," Wilson replied and tore open the box to the pizza bagels.

Several hours later and a movie and a half watched, Cuddy remained on her couch between House and Wilson. Empty plates and bowls sat on the coffee table, accompanied with half filled glasses. Wilson glanced at his watch and stood to his feet.

"I'm going to use the bathroom," he told the two on the couch and left the living room.

"'Kay," Cuddy said in response and watched him leave. Once he had, she added, "Good, he's gone. I can stretch out."

Cuddy's voice was quiet and tired. She rested her head against House's arm as she drew her feet up to the couch. House stared down at her and held back the faint urge to shrug her off. He realized he didn't mind so much.

House kept his eyes on the television, trying to concentrate on the film and not on Cuddy's head on his arm. By the time Wilson made his way back into the living room, Cuddy had fallen asleep.

"We should get her to bed," Wilson told House as he gave a nod to Cuddy.

"Yeah," House agreed. He gave Cuddy a light nudge. "Come on, Party Pants."

Cuddy sat up and yawned as she opened her eyes. "Sorry. I didn't realize how tired I was."

"It's all right." Wilson helped her stand. "Come on."

Wilson led her from the room and down the hallway to her bedroom. Cuddy shuffled over to her bed and climbed under the covers. She turned onto her left side and looked up at Wilson. She gave him a smile.

"Thank you, James, so much," she said.

"No problem," he replied. "I'm always here to help. If you need anything else, don't hesitate to call."

Cuddy gave a nod. "Thank you."

"Now, goodnight." Wilson turned the light off. "I'll lock the front door and turn off the lights on the way out."

"Thanks." Cuddy shut her eyes. "Goodnight."

Wilson left her bedroom, leaving the door partially open on his way out. He headed down the hallway and stopped in the living room doorway. House was standing by the television after having shut off the DVD player and the television. He looked to Wilson.

"She in bed?" House asked.

"Yep," Wilson answered. "Wanna put the lights out in here? I'll get the kitchen."

"Yeah," House agreed.

Wilson turned around and went through the dining room to get to the kitchen. House flicked both lamps off in the living room before making his way into the hallway. He looked toward Cuddy's bedroom and then made his way down to the door. He paused outside.

"House," Cuddy spoke up from inside her bedroom.

"Nope." House pressed the door open further. "Some other dashing, handsome, young man, though." He paused a moment before taking a small step inside. "Wilson said I should say goodbye."

"No, he didn't," Cuddy replied and looked to him, only being able to identify his outline in the darkness.

"He did," House insisted. "Said he'd bludgeon me if I didn't."

Cuddy hesitated a moment. "I'm sorry it's been weird, House. Over the last few weeks. Just with Andrew leaving and everything you said... I just... I'm still very confused."

"Well, I'm sorry I kissed you," House said. "We're even."

"Why did you do that?" Cuddy's question was loaded with pure curiosity.

"Just wanted to prove my theory that you wouldn't push me away." House lied because he still couldn't pin an exact, concrete reason.

Cuddy's eyebrows flicked up. "Guess I'll know better next time."

"Guess so," House agreed.

"Goodnight, House," she told him quietly.

"Night, Cuddy," House replied and let himself out of her bedroom.