Chapter Seven

Buttloads of Fun

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Sergeant, that sounds like something you would do.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Everything House belongs to Fox.

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House shut the door behind him and laid Cuddy's daughter on the sofa. She gurgled happily and he stared at her, unsure of how to react.

She stopped giggling.

They exchanged stares. Hers, curious. His, blank. If Cuddy had been there, she would have seen that mirror image between the two of them.

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Wilson slipped into Cuddy's room and looked at her. She was sleeping on her side, her cheek laid gently in her open palm as dark brown curls lay all around her. In his hand was a bouquet of red roses, a dozen. Her chest rose gently with each breath and he stood there for a moment, unable to resist gently stroking her cheek. She stirred slightly, but didn't wake. He laid the roses on her bedside table, pausing only momentarily to glance at her sleeping form one more time.

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"What do I do?" House asked as Jesse screamed her displeasure.

Being a baby, Jesse didn't answer with words, a scream was more like it.

"You're very verbal aren't you?" He said, raising his voice over her yells.

She responded by screaming louder.

"Like mother, like daughter." He muttered. "I swear, yelling is hereditary."

"Okay okay okay." He said. "Let's see, diaper first. Okay, nothing. That means feeding!"

At that she stopped yelling. "Ba ba?" she gurgled.

House glanced at her. "What the hell?" he muttered. "You called it a what?"

She just giggled.

He carried her out pulled out the milk from the fridge and poured it into a bottle, sticking it into the microwave. When he opened the microwave, the bottle had toppled over and milk was every where.

To his annoyance, Jesse laughed from her place on the countertop.

"Yeah well you can't string a sentence together, moron." He said sarcastically.

"You know it would help if you heat it up in a cup first." A female voice said from the doorway.

"Yeah I know. New experiment." He replied. "Wanted to see if I could blow up the house with breast milk."

Stacy coughed, fighting back laughter.

"Let me help." She said, taking the bottle from him.

"I can handle it." He mumbled. His arm nearly knocking Jesse off the counter. He reached out to steady her as Stacy sent him a look of amusement.

She held up a paper towel, now soaked with milk. "I'm sure." she said, measuring a pint of milk and heating it, properly.

They waited for a moment in silence. Then Stacy blew on the heated liquid before handing it to Jesse. Jesse laughed.

"You know how to do this stuff?" House asked.

Stacy laughed and nodded. "Having a child is hard, not even Lisa can handle it twenty four seven, at least not alone. I try to help out. She is my best friend."

He stared at her strangely.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing." He said, shaking his head.

She shrugged. "When she's finished, burp her. I have to get back to work."

"There's work without me?" He asked.

She grinned. "Things are slower now that I don't have a sue case every week." She replied. "That doesn't mean the world stops though."

With that, she was out and gone, leaving him staring blankly back and forth with his daughter.

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"You need to be in bed." Meredith said to Cuddy, who was crawling out of her bed.

"No actually I don't. I'm not in danger unless I have a seizure. I'm still in the hospital so medical attention will be almost immediate." She argued back, matter of factly. "I have patients that need me."

Meredith opened her mouth to object, but Cuddy was already pulling hair messy hair into a half up do. She followed her boss as she strode quickly to her office, pulling out an extra set of clothes she kept in the bottom drawer. She motioned for Meredith to exit.

Meredith hesitated.

"Look," Cuddy said, more gently, almost motherly. "I'll be fine. Nothing will happen to me at the moment. The onset is slower than was predicted. If anything happens, you'll be right beside me."

Meredith stared, but only for a moment. "Are you asking me to accompany on your cases?" She asked.

Cuddy gave her a small smile. "Out of all my doctors, you're the most promising and don't you dare let that go to your head." She paused and then added, "You tell anyone, I'll deny it."

"Understood." Meredith replied smiling.

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"Detective Tritter." Cuddy greeted as she slipped into his room closely followed by Meredith.

"Dr. Cuddy." He said in reply.

"You're test results are back." Cuddy said, opening a file and beginning to check his pupils and pulse.

"And?" he asked.

"You're scheduled for surgery tomorrow afternoon. You have Churg- Strauss Syndrome." Cuddy explained.

"Is that really bad?" he asked.

She shook her head. "No, not if you get it treated as soon as possible. We caught it early."

He just pondered this information over as Cuddy began to move toward the door, leaving some papers on his bedside table. "Here are the forms." She said.

"Wait." He said.

She turned, pausing.

"Thank you." He said.

She returned a glance that was colder than ice. "It's better than anything you've ever given me."

"Look I'm sorry." He said. "I've been punished enough. Don't give me a guilt trip."

She moved to his bedside and lowered her body until her eyes were level with his. "You took my job, you took two of my best friends, and now I may be dying from I don't know what and I can't ask the only doctor I know who can save me to help." She said. "Don't talk to me about guilt."

"Your testimony cost me my job." He roared at her. "That damn DA Cabot hunted me down, bringing me down until I had no choice but to quit. Digging through my past cases, overturning some of my convictions, having me pegged as an abusive cop. Don't tell me about your losses."

She stared him down. "I lost more than you know. More than I'm willing to say." she said softly.

She turned the knob of the door and was halfway out when she turned and added,

"I hope your surgery goes well."

With that she was out of the room, Meredith tailing her, wondering what the hell had she just witnessed.

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House fidgeted and rubbed his leg as the pain set in. His body was going through all the symptoms of withdraw as he watched his daughter sleep. She was oblivious to his pain. He felt his stomach churned as his body protested the desperate needing of his pills. He barely made it into the bathroom before he barfed.

He sat there with his head on the floor for long moments, before he pushed himself onto his feet. He headed back out to his daughter, who was still fast asleep.

Her eyes moved under her closed eyelids, indicating that she was dreaming. He wondered what someone so new and innocent into the world could be dreaming about.

"You know you're a pain." He said outloud. "Just like your mother is, though you're probably smaller, and fatter, and cuter."

She just sighed.

"Of course your mother always a knack for getting what she wants. I bet you're gonna be the same way you little demon. She's gonna have one hell of a time with you. I bet you're gonna be running off on Harleys and smoking pot by the time you're fifteen."

At this, Jesse stirred and awoke with a bright smile. House felt himself soften without any way to prevent it.

"Then again, your mother is probably one of the few people in the world who's genuinely a good person." He said softly. "Maybe you'll be lucky and get her genes."

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Cuddy felt the pain in her system again. She collapsed onto her knees, breathing hard.

"Cuddy? Cuddy!" Meredith yelled. "I need a sedative now!"

The nurses rushed to the fallen doctor, helping her into her room. Cuddy was now shaking violently as she was laid onto the bed. She arched her back and screamed, crying out.

"Get away from me! You son of a bitch get away from me!" She screamed.

Meredith was startled as she moved away. Cuddy had tears in her eyes now as she tried to fight off everyone around her.

"She's hallucinating." Meredith realized.

Wilson had been in the waiting room when he saw the commotion. He raced into the room and pushed aside doctors and nurses, reaching into the drawer for a sedative. He carefully, but quickly inserted the needle into Cuddy's arm. She stopped failing as her eyes closed.

Wilson glanced around. "Somebody call House." He said softly. "Swallow your pride and save her life."

None of the doctors but Meredith moved.

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House's phone rang and he juggled baby, cane, and phone as he answered.

"What the hell do you want?" he asked. "And who the hell are you any way?"

"I'm Dr. Stevens."

"Yeah yeah yeah, I frankly don't care. What do you want?" he said.

"It's Dr. Cuddy, sir."

He felt a sense of dread. His fingers shook as he waited on her next words. He found himself whispering, please don't be dead, over and over again as Jesse stared at him curiously.

"She's just had a hallucination and a seizure." The timid, a little frightened voice said on the line.

"Did you run a CT scan?" He asked.

"The machine's full until the end of the week." Meredith said softly. "But she's in line."

"She doesn't have that much time." He said. "It's an infection."

"Her tests for infection are clean." Meredith protested.

"Yet you haven't covered her brain yet." House said.

"I can't prescribe strong antibiotics with a definite diagnosis." Meredith said.

"Then let me give her a definite diagnosis." House retorted.

"To do that, you need to buy an MRI and CT machine."

"Or move her." He said. "I'm coming in."

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Cuddy stirred and awoke to an unshaven man staring down at her. She didn't completely open her eyes, however, and he wasn't paying as much attention as he should have been as he gently touched her cheek with a callused hand.

She moved unconsciously closer to the warmth, to which he quickly pulled away, almost blushing beneath his scruffy appearance.

"You're alive." He said.

"And you have a cane." She stated sarcastically.

Nothing was mentioned about the small act of endearment. It always happened that way. They had a grudging affection for each other and when it showed, neither would ever admit to it.

"The MRI and CT machines are full." He said.

"I know. I have patients that are on that list." She responded.

"You may not have that long." He said, taking a seat beside her bed.

She sniffled a little and he was surprised at her moment of weakness. He let her have it as the tears rolled out of his eyes. In the end, no matter how strong she was, she was still a patient. Still as scared as any one else would be and seeing such a human side of her scared him.

"It's gonna be okay." He said unsure of what else to say.

"Don't lie to me House. You would've never said that to a patient. Treat me like one of your patients that you don't care if she lives or dies. Don't treat me like I'm something fragile." She said furiously.

He stared at her and she stared back, sizing each other up, seeing right through each other.

"Fine." He stated simply. "Get your ass transferred back to PPTH or else you'll die."

"Yes because that place is going to totally welcome me back." She muttered.

"People there miss you." He said. "At least some of the dumber ones."

"Great so the morons are the ones who miss me."

"Pretty much. Though I have to say, the new Dean doesn't have half the about of funbags as you." He said.

She smirked. "I was wondering when you were going to get to an inappropriate comment." She said. "What about Jesse though?"

"She can stay at my apartment with Cameron babysitting. You know she'll do it." House said.

Cuddy tried to think of a reason to refuse. There really was none either than the fact that she wanted to annoy House. She glanced at the IV bag beside her and decided that then was not the time to piss him off. There would be plenty more times to annoy him if she stayed alive.

"I'll see if I can get transferred to PPTH by tomorrow."

House grinned at her. "We're gonna have buttloads of fun."

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Author's Note:

How's that people? Still interested? Lol I'm having a good time writing this. It's fun. Now R&R and I'll update as soon as possible. Thanks so much for reading!