Chapter 6: Relationships Change

A/N: Buffy's 21 weeks (just over 5 months) pregnant at the beginning of this chapter.

Challenge: #3064 'conception by conspiracy *non-stargate*' by shelli.

Thanks to my betas: zigpal and AshDawnSoulmates.

Disclaimer: BtVS characters belong to Joss Whedon / Mutant Enemy. House, MD characters belong to David Shore and Fox. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.

Previously…

Joyce sat down next to him and put her arm around his shoulder. Knowing her daughter, she felt confident in saying, "She will forgive you."

Giles chuckled mirthlessly and asked, "Yes, but will she ever trust me again?"

House's apartment

Same night…

"Buffy! What are you doing here?" House asked when he opened his door and found the mother of his child standing there.

She shrugged, clearly upset about something, but not looking like she wanted to talk about it. "I just had to get out of the house for a little bit, so I went for a walk and ended up here."

Since he kept the distances in mind when he looked for houses, House knew how far she walked. "That's almost two miles!" he declared exasperatedly.

Hearing the irritation in his voice, but not understanding why, Buffy asked, "So? Isn't exercise supposed to be good?"

The look on House's face… He wasn't sure if he should hug her because she was so upset, or hit her with his cane for being so-so argh! Taking a breath to settle his nerves, House replied through gritted teeth, "Sure, but since I doubt you intended to come here, it was rather dangerous for you to walk around in such a distracted state. What's the problem? I thought your mother's test results were good."

Buffy ignored the anger she felt coming from the father of her child so she could focus on a more important topic – at least to her. "How did you know? She and Giles just told me." She glared at him suspiciously; if they told him before they told her…

"I took a look," he answered nonchalantly – like it was his right or something. "I knew that her health would be a concern for you, and since your health is my concern-"

"You thought it gave you the right to snoop," she cut him off. Surprisingly, his answer made her feel better. At least Giles and her mom weren't telling everyone but her.

House led her over to the couch and sat down. Once she joined him, he asked, "Now what's the problem?"

For a couple minutes he wasn't sure she was going to tell him. Then Buffy started babbling at light-speed, "He lied to me. After everything we've been through, we promised never to lie or keep secrets again, but he lied to me."

"Who?" he asked once he deciphered most of what she said. He could only hope it was one of the other father candidates, and she was going to cut him out of her life now. His eyes grew dreamy as he imagined that it was all of the other father candidates. No competing with a dozen guys for her attention or time…what an ideal world.

"Giles," Buffy answered, yanking him back to reality. "He told me Mom's test was pushed back until tomorrow so I wasn't there for it. She asked him to keep me away in case the news was bad."

Oh, him. Even though he only knew them for a short time, House knew that getting Giles out of Buffy's life wouldn't be a good thing – even if it made her more accessible to him. It'd be like losing Wilson. Or maybe not being able to be a doctor anymore. Or something in between those two things. Thank goodness they were in private because he was about to do something completely out of character for him: console somebody.

"It's a fact of life: people lie. But I can tell that isn't what you want to hear right now. …Okay, the comfort thing isn't something I do very often, so I may not be good at it. First of all, do you believe his explanation for why he lied to you?" he inquired gently. For not having any practice at it, House was a natural when he wanted to be.

Buffy's answer was quick and certain, "Sure. Both of them have always tried to shield me from bad news in the past."

Since he was doing okay so far, House continued, giving her a worst case scenario with his next question, "Second, do you want him out of your life for doing this?"

"What? Of course not!" She seemed genuinely distraught at the thought of losing Giles; so much so that House was starting to rethink the idea of helping to fix things.

But then he saw the tears in her eyes, and was helpless against them. All he wanted to do was banish them from her beautiful green eyes. Oh man, she was turning him into such a sap! Shaking off his despair of becoming whipped, House remarked, "Then he's obviously more important to you than the lie."

Her lower lip trembled in a sad little pout. "But he promised-" she protested.

"You don't really want somebody to be completely honest with you all the time…not really. Trust me, I tend to be more honest with people than they ever wanted. People like tact – and that often includes lying," he said with a smirk. This was something he was an expert in.

Buffy started imagining a world of Cordelias or Anyas and shuddered. "Yikes! You're right, I wouldn't want total and complete honesty. But I also don't appreciate being treated like a fragile little girl who needs protecting."

House wisely kept his mouth shut about her acting like a fragile little girl at the moment. Instead he said, "I'll keep that in mind. But you have to remember that you'll never be able to convince your mother of that. No matter how grown up you may be, part of her will always see you as a little girl flitting around in some sort of fairy princess costume that I'm sure you must have worn at one point or another," he added in a snarky fashion.

The blush on Buffy's cheeks told him he was right. To distract him, she asked, "What about Giles?"

"I can't say for certain, but in our first meeting, it was quite clear that he was terrified of upsetting you – especially while you're pregnant," he pointed out. "Maybe he hoped that anger was a better option to deal with."

"Yeah, I guess you're right; tears freak him out more than- just about anything," Buffy conceded. Now that this 'crisis' was over with, she turned to him and smiled brightly at him. "You know, you aren't too bad at this comforting thing after all."

House breathed a silent sigh of relief that had been resolved without actual tears being shed. "Good. Now that you're calmed down, maybe we should call them and let them know you're okay?" he suggested, grabbing the phone from the end table next to him.

Couple months later…

It took awhile to convince him, but after witnessing Buffy's almost pathological aversion to hospitals, House finally believed her excuse about why she was scared to have a daughter. Despite the fact it made no logical sense, it still made sense to him. After watching her female cousin die while she was very young, the notion that part of her pysche equated girl with medical weakness…well, House understood that phobias were rarely based in reason.

Buffy's dislike of hospitals was real enough; that much he was sure of. Whenever she had plans with him or Cameron, she tried to meet them away from the hospital as often as she could. The irony was, she also tried to make sure that nobody knew about her fear of hospitals. She just didn't want to show her own weakness.

All he could do was reassure her that their daughter was healthy after the prenatal visits. That's all she cared about anyway.

Summers/Giles home

After many calls to confirm schedules, Buffy's baby shower was finally arranged. The Scoobies didn't have school the week after Thanksgiving, so that decided things. Unfortunately, that meant only three of the other dad candidates were able to attend – much to House's private delight.

The semi-snarky doctor and Buffy were growing closer as friends, and she spent as many nights at his apartment as she did her own home. She claimed it was only because they were getting to know each other better, but Joyce and Giles weren't so sure.

But they weren't really ones to cast stones…seeing as how it was those same evenings Buffy spent away from home that allowed them to grow closer as well. While Giles hadn't really thought of himself as Buffy's father-figure before – despite Travers' assertion years before – he found he didn't mind assuming the role now. However, it was only secondary to the role he truly was concerned with: that of Joyce's love interest.

"So…when are you gonna make an honest woman out of my mom?" Buffy demanded out of the blue one afternoon. Yeah, a few months ago, she was 'eww'-ing the idea of them together, but now it felt kinda right to her. She still didn't want any repeats of the band candy deal, though.

Giles stared at his Slayer in astonishment. After a couple seconds, he managed to sputter, "What?"

"You heard me, Watcher-mine. I've noticed the air around you two practically crackles with sexual tension," she teased. "Believe me, it's not pleasant for me to witness for my mom and best friend. Either take a cold shower or do something about it."

Several minutes later, Joyce walked into the room and saw Giles staring down the hallway at her daughter's bedroom. "What's wrong, Rupert?"

His reply was to sweep her into his arms and kiss her until she forgot her name.

From her bedroom door, Buffy rolled her eyes and quickly shut the door and put on her headphones, cranking the volume to drown out any other sounds. Just because she encouraged them, it didn't mean she wanted to see or hear any evidence of their smoochies.

A/N: Next…The baby shower…for sure now.