a/n: I want to thank everyone for all your wonderful comments. I'm sorry I cannot personally reply to the ones I've gotten in the last few days since the bot doesn't seem to be working again, but your comments are well received and I shall send my personal thanks when things are back to normal. Anyway, here is part 2. I think you'll like it.

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"So what's so important?" Chase knew it couldn't be too vital since Foreman arranged to meet alone at the bar. Still, there was a bit of urgency in his voice. Something had to be up because his friend looked like a stressed out mess.

"Between our crazy wives and our tyrannical bosses, our lives are pure hell."

Chase sat down somewhat resignedly and ordered the same stiff drink his friend was having. "Wow, thanks for telling me something I was so not totally aware of."

Foreman wasn't really in the mood for sarcasm. "That's the difference between you and me. You just take what's dished out to you and don't believe you have the power to change it. I believe that no one should have to put up with this crap too long."

Chase was pretty much confused now, but that wasn't much of a stretch given the grueling day he just had. "Okay, now you've completely lost me."

"Have you considered that if maybe we got to spend time with our wives that they wouldn't go completely nuts on us?"

"Aside from you again stating the obvious, I'm still not getting it."

"We need to take control of the situation."

"Control? Does that exist?"

Foreman leaned back, not at all surprised that this talk would blow right past Chase. "Stop being so hopeless. There have always been options. You have a green card now, so you aren't limited in your choices anymore. We need leverage."

Chase managed enough of a blank stare to urge Foreman to just get to the point.

"Private practice." Foreman blurted out.

Now something registered. Chase's startled expression clearly indicated he didn't see that coming. "What?"

"We start our own practice, or at least threaten to. We need to show these hospitals we are willing to give them some competition. We have racked up enough experience, and we give people an alternative to dealing with the difficult and often busy Dr. House."

Chase gazed at him with perplexed wonder, trying hard to absorb the idea. He honestly in a million years never considered going into any private practice, let alone one that he would be part of starting. "Did you hear the merger talk?"

"Yes. It's been on and off for the last year, but it seems lately to be heating up again."

"It's for real and sounds like it is pretty much a done deal. The questions now are when and how."

"Then we need a private practice threat more than ever."

"How so?"

"You think after the merger they are going to improve things? They will combine the two departments and we would be expected to service both hospitals with no new help. It's all about cost cutting."

"It may not happen that way."

"All the more reason for a backup plan just in case it does go badly for us. All I'm asking is that we seriously consider it. We don't have to go that far unless we are forced to."

Chase still had too many questions. There was still some missing logic in his reasoning. "Why both of us? Why can't you do this on your own? You'd be good at it."

Foreman lowered his head while getting the most strained look on his face. What he was about to say was one of the most difficult things he ever had to do. "I can't believe I'm admitting this, but I can't start a diagnostic specialty practice without you. Your reputation is better and you would add instant name recognition. This is the only time that I'll admit you are a better doctor with diagnostics than I am."

Chase smiled and tried not to rub it in, even though the opportunity was too good. "That killed you, didn't it?"

"Yep." Foreman admitted ashamedly.

"I'm still not sure."

"Think about it. We would be getting our lives back. We wouldn't be so blindsided all the time by what our wives are doing. Come on, you are going to be a father. You are going to need time to spend with your family and doing work on your house."

"My house?"

Foreman couldn't believe how naïve his friend was being. "You know, the new house you are going to have to buy. Three bedrooms, a yard, a neighborhood with other kids and other parents to setup play dates with."

"Play dates?"

"Are you sure you didn't grow up in a third world country? Haven't you studied the American Dream?"

Chase took in a deep breath and then another drink, giving his mind a few seconds to process all that had been thrown at him. "It sounds like you have thought things through."

"Given the miracles our team has pulled off the last three years, I think people would be beating down our door. The possibilities are endless. We could do consulting for hospitals around the country."

Chase frowned. "I'd rather work with patients."

"No problem. It's your practice, you don't have to force yourself to go outside your comfort zone."

Chase shook his head. "This very idea goes out my comfort zone. What about Allison?"

"She can join us if she wants. Do you think she will want to work after having the baby?"

"It hasn't come up yet."

"It hasn't come up? Don't you guys know about communication? Never mind, I don't want to know. If anything, we start some rumors. It gives us a bargaining chip so they stop pushing us around and think kindly of us when this merger does go through."

Chase could actually see the logic in that plan. "House will see through it."

"House won't rat us out. At this point, he wouldn't mind a little competition taking his work away. He is still too tenured to be fired."

Chase smiled. "Okay, I'll go along with the threat idea, but I'm still not committing to the actual idea of going into private practice if we had to."

"The hours are Monday through Friday 7:00 to 5:00 with Wednesday afternoons off."

"I'm in."

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I'll never make it to work this morning. I look like hell! Cuddy was horrified by ghostly reflection in the mirror. Getting up this morning was an intense challenge in itself, how was getting ready going to be any easier?

She hadn't taken a sick day in years. She felt weak, tired, flushed, and a little dizzy. None of that would normally deter her. So why today? Because something else was wrong. She thought as a doctor she'd be able to pinpoint it, but she never felt this way before.

Self diagnosis was a ritual doctors wisely avoided. Often times they were wrong because objectivity was lost. Whatever her problem, she would have to get over it and make her way into work.

"You look like hell." The voice told her as she made it through the hospital entrance.

"Thanks Brenda. Your nursing skills are top notch. Did House actually report to the clinic today?"

"Nope, he and Dr. Foreman had some more tests to run on their patient. Dr. Cameron is there right now."

Cuddy buried her head in her hand, so not wanting to deal with strife today. "Fine, let me know if there is trouble. I'll be in my office."

She closed her door, closed the blinds and instantly stretched out on the couch. She was useless to anyone without a nap first.

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"Lisa?" She heard her name called right at the time she felt her shoulder being shaken. She slowly emerged from her haze to see Dr. Wilson hovering over her with a troubled look on his face.

"I'm sorry, I must have fallen asleep."

"It was a pretty deep sleep then. Between knocking on the door and me nudging you, it took about five minutes."

"What do you need?"

"You are 15 minutes late for a meeting in the board room."

She jumped up. "Shit, I really have to be there. Thanks."

As she tried to race off Dr. Wilson grabbed her arm. He noticed how she winced when he hit a tender spot. "When you are done, stop by and see me. Someone needs to look at you."

"I'm fine, just a little tired, that's all."

"Then it will go quickly."

She tried to argue but he cut her off as soon as her mouth opened. "If you don't, I'll get House involved."

She frowned and pulled away her arm. "Threat taken. I'll be a few hours so I'll find you when I'm done."

He smiled. "I love it when you see reason."

She scowled and headed off to her meeting. If she couldn't fool Wilson about how crappy she felt, she wouldn't be able to fool House. Maybe a checkup would be for the best.

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Lucky for Cuddy, Wilson was already in the clinic when she tried to find him. A quick exam and she could get on with the rest of her day. She was already feeling much better so it shouldn't take too long.

Wilson flashed the light pen in her eyes revealing nothing. He found her heart rate was slight elevated as well as blood pressure, but that could have easily come from the stress in her day. The part was unusual to him was the slightly tender spot under her arm, more specifically near her lymph node. It didn't bother him too much though. That type of tenderness was usually due to a swollen breast which was a typical hormonal response for a woman her age.

"I'm going to take a blood sample, and you will be all set. It looks like all you really need is some rest. Leave work on time today."

"I can't. I have departmental budget plans I need to review."

"The merger stuff will be here tomorrow."

She knew she didn't have to hide anything from Wilson regarding hospital business. "You haven't told House anything, have you?"

He stretched out her arm and swabbed it with alcohol, then prepared to insert the needle. "You know I never discuss board business with House. He has plenty of other sources than me."

She nodded. "Yeah, I know that. I had to check though. Thanks for being concerned about me, but I'm sure everything will check out fine."

"Yep, me too." He said pulling out the needle with the loaded vial and placed a bandage on her arm. "I'll let you know the results when I get them."

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Wilson had the strangest look on his face when he entered Cuddy's office with a set of lab results tightly clenched in his hand. He found something worthy of a House diagnosis reveal and couldn't wait to share his find.

"Something's wrong." Cuddy said rather alarmed. "Are those my blood tests?"

"Yep. But you don't get to see them until you answer a few questions. Were you experiencing periomenopause?"

Cuddy looked awful guilty. "It was suspected, yes. That was why the last fertility treatment was the last. They can't tell anymore when ovulation would actually occur."

"So, the last implant ended up happening in a non-ovulation cycle."

"Yes."

"The swollen lymph node, tender breasts, and hormone count in the blood all confirm you're hormonally imbalanced, but my initial diagnosis of perimenopause surprisingly isn't causing it."

"What is then?"

Wilson smiled and handed her the file. "You're pregnant."

Cuddy gaped shockingly at the positive result hitting her in the face as it lay on her desk. Words escaped her. "How could this be?" She stammered.

Wilson's self-satisfied grin knew he had her cornered. He was dying to know how she would explain this one. "Simple, you had an ovulation cycle after the egg implant failed. It's either Immaculate Conception, or you had sex."

"I, uh...hell we both know it's not Immaculate Conception."

"I won't pry." His smile didn't subside though.

Cuddy ashamedly gave up the farm. "It's House's, okay?"

"I knew it!" Despite his suspicions, he still found her admittance stunning. Not less amusing, but still stunning. "So, are you two serious?"

"It happened the night I got the negative result. I was feeling vulnerable and after all he did to behave on our date."

"After all these years and you finally caved in?"

"I know," she said unhappy with herself. "I don't know what I was thinking. I figured he earned a reward. It was a one-night thing only. I've turned him down for any future dates."

Wilson slowly sank in the chair because he started chuckling too hard. "House, reproducing? I'm scared."

"Don't tell him anything. My hormonal imbalance makes this a high risk pregnancy that most likely will not carry to full term."

"That's necessarily not true. The body knows when something happens naturally and when it is being forced."

"There is no scientific proof of that."

"He's going to figure it out." Wilson warned.

"I'll have to be careful and be a very good actress."

Wilson scoffed. "That's what Cameron said. It didn't work for her."

Cuddy gave him her pleading eyes. "Please, he can't know yet."

Wilson got up, knowing when it was time to quit. "Your secret is safe with me. Don't kid yourself though, and I can only protect you so far."

"Thanks James. I owe you."

"Go home and get that rest like I ordered."

"I will. I promise."

Wilson left the office with his mind far more blown than what he anticipated. This pretty much confirmed it. Everyone had gone completely insane around him.

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Chase didn't even want to look at what he could or could not expect from his wife this evening. The entire judging her mood experiment was just about declared the failure it was doomed to be. As he thought, she was just too unpredictable. He was surprised it went into week 12 of the pregnancy. Allison seemed calm and pleasant when he talked to her earlier in the day, so he was guessing the mood was either horny or mad as hell. He was ready for either.

He opened the front door and saw no sign of her. The light was on, so she must be home. "Allison?" He cautiously asked, not wanting to be surprised by being on the other end of whatever she was dishing out. He tiptoed into the bedroom and found no sign of life there either, but then heard a rustling noise emanating from the closet. He warily poked his head in with a flash in his mind of something being horribly wrong. All fears were alleviated when he was hit by a flying pair of pants.

"Allison?"

"Why did I insist on wearing such form fitting clothes all the time?" She kept digging through her entire wardrobe, sending items flying that would not pass the new maternity guidelines. The closet looked like it had been battered by a natural disaster. In some ways, it had.

"You having trouble fitting into your clothes now?"

"Just around the waist. That and my boobs are growing into a pair of large rocks, so I guess my button up shirts aren't working either. Plus my bras are too tight. Plus my panties are crawling up my butt." She stopped her tantrum as the hopelessness of the situation hit her hard. She dropped to her knees somberly defeated.

Chase tried very hard to show her a sympathetic face as he knelt down and took her hand, but he couldn't avoid letting a big smile loose. "I'm sure you can wear scrubs until you can get some new clothes. Think of it this way. You will get to buy a whole new wardrobe."

"They are fat clothes. I've never had to wear anything that hid my petite waistline."

"Your boobs are bigger. That will get people's attention."

Somehow she took little comfort in that observation. "Nursing bras are ugly. I'll be wearing something that appeals stylistically to my grandmother."

"It's wintertime. No one is going to notice an ugly bra underneath a nice tight sweater."

"So now you want me to show off to people? Whose side are you on anyway?"

Chase should have seen that train wreck coming. He couldn't win, no matter what. "As long as I get to see you naked, I'm on whatever side you want me to be."

Cameron sneered. "You can't mean that. One look at this grotesque stretch marked belly will have you running away screaming. We will have to remove all reflective items from the house."

Chase pulled her chin up just enough where he could firmly look her in the eye. "You are not going to get ugly. This baby is only going to make you more striking. Once I see that bulging middle get bigger with each week, I'll become more and more excited and find you more beautiful than ever. That is our child in there. That isn't ugly. That is a freaking miracle."

Cameron blushed when she realized that he was right. That bulge would become more engaging as it grew. She remembered how beautiful that tiny little creature the size of a pea looked inside of her. On the outside, it should look even better. "You're right. I'm sorry. I'll never stop to be scared by the changes a little."

He pulled her in closely and sat comfortably on the closet floor. "Don't worry. Take Pamela shopping with you. Make it fun. You know she'll tell you when something is outright ugly. There has to be something out there that will be flattering."

They sat there peacefully for several minutes in each others arms, both drawing strength from one another for whatever was plaguing them. Things had been piling up lately. "Robert, we are almost through the first trimester."

"I know. It was touch and go there for a while."

"I guess the reality of this baby thing is looking more and more likely."

"The averages are getting better, yes."

She took in a large gasp, finally accepting that maybe it was time to face some realities. "We should probably start talking about things more."

"There's plenty of time for that."

"I know, but there are some ideas that are going to take a while to get used to, like what names we want."

"Names? I'm not fussy."

"I'm sure you don't want your daughters named Gertrude or Bertha or a son named Melvin."

He laughed. "Why not? They would stand out in a classroom. Why not wait until we know what sex it is?"

"You want to find out? I figured it would be a surprise."

"We are doctors. There is no way we are going to look at the ultrasound and not know exactly what the sex is."

"Good point. Okay, I guess we can put that off. How about finding a house?"

"Yeah, Foreman told me that one."

Cameron looked at him with surprise. "Funny, both House and Pamela talked to me. You don't suppose it's a conspiracy?"

"No, I just think we are a little more clueless. Do you like the idea?"

"Yes, I do."

"Foreman wants me to join him in a private practice."

Cameron sat up at full attention taken aback by what she just heard. "What??"

Chase pulled her back in and started stroking her shoulder. "Don't worry. It's only in the threat stage. You'll be hearing the rumors at work soon though."

They both took in more soothing breaths of tranquility. "This is nice that we are finally talking. You think we might want to move this from the closet floor now?"

Chase gave her a big enthusiastic smile. "I don't know, you think you can pull your big fat pregnant butt up?"

"Oh, you are so dead mister." He made it up a split second faster than her as she pursued him into the other room.

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a/n: Just a quick question. Does everyone here like the format of longer chapters with less frequent updates (at least weekly) or should I be posting much shorter chapters twice a week. Just curious since I want to be consistent in my patterns. Thanks again for reading!