House and Wilson were having coffee with the ducklings when the phone rang. Cameron answered it and apart from identifying herself she didn't have time to say anything before the person on the other end had her say and hung up.

"What was that?" Wilson asked.

"I'm not sure," Cameron looked startled. "It was Miss Hill, she said to tell Hercules to get his butt down because Agath-something and Galen and ... and Scythes or something were making their mother cranky."

"Agathyrsus, Gelonus and Scytha?" House clarified.

"Yes, those were the names," Cameron confirmed. "That was all."

"Wilson? Care to go?" House suggested though obviously not expecting a favourable answer.

"No, no, no," Wilson declined vigorously gesturing with his hands. "I don't mind dealing with the Queen of Hearts; all she needs is a tub of frozen yogurt with everything on top and someone to listen to her ranting and in fifteen minutes or so she calms down enough to not to want everybody's heads but if it's Echidna, it's definitely your territory... Hercules."

"Coward," House accused as he got on his feet and started for the door. "When Mom and Kasumii come back with Aiko tell them I'm in Cuddy's office. If I'm not back in half an hour, send in a rescue team."

"Will do," Wilson promised as House limped out of the room.

"Echidna?" Foreman wondered.

"Greek mythology," Wilson explained. "Echidna was the Mother of all Monsters and some legends say that Hercules fathered three children with her: Agathyrsus, Gelonus and Scythes."

"Didn't Hercules defeat the Mother of all Monsters?" Chase asked.

"Well apparently there is defeat and then there is defeat," Wilson shrugged.

"While all this mythical lore is very interesting," Cameron mused – very unconvincingly, "I'd still like to know what Hercules and Echidna have to do with House?"

"Nothing really," Wilson agreed. "It's just a code to explain what mood Cuddy is in currently. Apparently something big has set her off this time since the Queen of Hearts is usually her worst mood. For the Mother of all Monsters to appear it takes something big. Or at least in Cuddy's mind it has to be big. And since it was House who got her pregnant and brought on these mood swings, he is the one who has to deal with them. Besides, he is the only one who can deal with Echidna, everyone else runs for cover."

------------------------

House limped his way into the ante-room of Cuddy's office. Miss Hill was waiting for him.

"About time," she told House. "I'm expecting her to start breaking things any minute now."

"What set her off?" House asked.

"Two smug idiots from the board," Miss Hill told him. "They don't know how lucky they were to escape with their lives. I could see how close Dr. Cuddy was to exploding even while she escorted them out with utmost courtesy."

"What did they want?" House queried.

"I didn't get a chance to find out, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was about her maternity leave and the new Head of the Hospital," Miss Hill mused.

"Temporary Head," House pointed out as he raised his hand to knock on the door.

"Don't knock!" Miss Hill warned him immediately.

"What?" House turned to look at her in puzzlement. "Aren't you the one who just last week forced me to come back out and enter again only after knocking on the door?"

"Yes, I am," Miss Hill nodded. "But that was a normal situation. Now it's Echidna on the other side of that door and you don't give even the slightest impression of weakness to the Mother of all Monsters. Just go in and be your normal crude, rude and socially unacceptable self."

House had to laugh. Miss Anna Hill was something else. She was 47 years old – not that she gave him any points for being a year older than her; after all, girls always mature faster than boys and she barely acknowledged that House was an adult at all (but then, there were others who had that same doubt, too). She wasn't very tall, about the same as Cuddy sans the high heels – Miss Hill favoured no heels or only very low ones – she was what most regard overweight these days, but House thought she just looked soft maybe even cuddly (and that, if anything, was a lie!). Her short hair was dark ashes with a liberal sprinkling of silver grey. Her full name was Anna Shirley Hill and she had smiled wryly when she revealed that, asking if she needed to explain anything about her mother's favourite books. House had declined the offer. Later she had told him that she had been born "strawberry blond and svelte, which just goes to show that even babies lie" – a sentence that had sealed her fate: there was no way House was going to let anyone else get the job as Cuddy's new assistant. Fortunately he did have a say in that, as Cuddy had allowed him to be in on the interviews. He had promised that if he had a say in the hiring he would not cause any firing – or quitting either. He doubted, though, that even he could make Miss Hill quit no matter what he did. She might not quite have his number, but she had her own: she knew who and what she was and one insensitive jerk was not going to rock her world one way or the other. She liked Cuddy and that was that as far as she was concerned. Because of the Trips and what they meant to Cuddy she was also willing to put up with House – and to put him in his place every once in a while, too. She was exactly what Cuddy needed.

House was still smiling as he barged into Cuddy's office ready to face the monsters. Cuddy was walking back and forth in her office muttering to herself and snapping a rubber band. House could practically see the fumes coming out of her ears. At his entrance Cuddy turned to give him a glare worthy of any Gorgon and she snapped at him just one word: "What?"

"Just one question," House stated. "Kiss or slap?"

"What?" Cuddy stopped her pacing and stared at him blankly.

"You are stressing again," House explained. "There is steam coming out of your ears and nostrils. You need to calm down. So which will snap you out of it faster: if I kiss you or if I slap you? Or if you prefer I could do spanking too."

Cuddy retreated to behind her desk, fast. She was absolutely sure House would neither slap nor spank her, but she was just teensy bit afraid that he actually meant that kissing part. Certainly she was not taking any chances: "I'm fine," she insisted. "I'm not stressing, just angry."

"Ok," House drawled. "I think you actually have calmed down a notch. Too bad, I think I would've really liked spanking you."

"I bet," Cuddy scorned. "But that was never an option, nor will it ever be."

"Aww," House whined in disappointment.

"Live with it," Cuddy snapped. "So what was the real reason you came to see me?"

"That was it," House shrugged.

"You wanted to know if you could either kiss me or slap me?" Cuddy asked sarcastically.

"Well, sort of," House grimaced. "Basically I heard you had visitors and that the visit didn't go that well. I wanted to know what happened."

"Forbes and Taunton came by to tell me that they have found my replacement," Cuddy gnarled.

"Temporary one, I presume," House stated mildly. "After all, your contract is still valid and the board needs to be unanimous if they want to fire you – and even then, they need a reason."

"They did say that the man will be hired for six months with an option for another six months, should I like to stay home," Cuddy was nearly spitting the words out of her mouth. "But he is 35 years old, married with two kids, has an excellent resume and I cannot imagine he would have agreed to take this position for six months or even a year if he hasn't been promised something more!"

"What is his specialty?" House asked.

"He is not a doctor," Cuddy revealed. "He would be just the Head of the Hospital. The Dean's position they are planning to offer to Wilson."

"I see," House did indeed see the master plan that Cuddy, too, was suspecting. "They figure that they can demote you to a mere Dean of Medicine and have their guy as the Head of the Hospital. Do they really think that you would fall for that? Or do they think that pregnancy has softened your head or that motherhood will do that?"

"Apparently," Cuddy fumed. "I have no problem with Wilson being a temporary Dean of Medicine, he is good. I can even handle having someone else as the temporary Head of this hospital. Not easily, I admit, I have worked too hard to make this place what it is, but I chose to get pregnant so I better handle it. But if they think that they can replace me permanently, they better think again."

"We knew they were going to try something," House reminded her. "That is why you have been keeping Stacy posted. Just call her and tell her about this latest development and she will tell you what you need to do to make sure you don't inadvertently create any loopholes into your contract. Once we have that covered we just need to wait and see. Once the Trips are born and you come back, then we can fight it. Until then we just make sure we have all the ammunition and the opposition has nothing."

"That simple?" Cuddy said with deep scorn and disbelief, though she did calm down.

"Yes, for the moment it is that simple," House stated. "Sure, I expect the fight to be pretty fierce once it commences but right now, we just sit tight. You cannot cancel the Trips so there is no way you can stop some things from happening. We just need to make sure that it's temporary."

"We?" Cuddy asked a little uncertainly. She was still finding it strange that she and House were on the same side most of the time.

"Yes, we," House confirmed. "Did you think I would let you deal with this alone? I like you as a boss and I don't want to learn to manipulate someone else. Sure, I have to do it for awhile, but I can handle a temporary inconvenience. I'll just make sure it's temporary."

"And how are you planning to do that?" Cuddy asked rolling her eyes.

"Well, I'm a doctor," House pointed out. "I know a lot of interesting things about the human body and all sorts of medicines. I'm sure I can come up with all sorts of interesting things that leave no trace."

"Nice idea," Cuddy dismissed him. "But you cannot murder people just because they do things you don't want to. Besides, the real culprits are Forbes and Taunton, not the new guy at all. Well, maybe not at all, but definitely not that much."

"He wants your job," House shrugged. "That is guilty enough for me. Besides, I didn't mean murder, just an inexplicable allergy or something."

"No, House," Cuddy shot his idea down. "Don't start planning anything like that. We will find some other way of dealing with this all."

"Yes we will," House confirmed. "But not now and not by stressing you into miscarriage. So come here," House limped to Cuddy's couch and sat down. He patted a place next to him: "Come on, plant your butt here and give me your feet. Your unreasonable irritability is partly due to your refusal to wear sensible shoes. Your feet are killing you again, aren't they?"

Cuddy walked to the couch a little apprehensively, this Nice House was still a new acquaintance to her and she was not hundred per cent sure he was to be trusted. But her feet were killing her and the idea of sitting down, taking off her shoes and putting her feet up was too tempting. She sat down and gave her feet to House who took off her shoes and – to her utter bliss – started to massage her feet. She moaned.

"Don't do that," House warned her with some laughter in his voice.

"What? Why?" Cuddy was lost.

"Moan like that," House clarified. "It's a massive turn on, especially since I don't need to wonder if you make the same noises during sex: you do."

"Shut up House," Cuddy tried to snap but it came out as an almost shamefaced apology. "I thought we agreed not to even mention it at work just in case somebody overhears."

"The only one who could hear is Miss Hill and she'd go to her grave before betraying you," House shrugged. "But you are right, better safe than sorry. I don't think you are cut to be a house-wife, with a capital letter or without. We need to make sure you can keep your job since we now have a house and kids and roots and everything right here. Besides, I hate changes."

"So shut up!" Cuddy smiled.

"Ok," House finished one foot and took the other one. "Are you coming to the house later today?"

"I don't know if I can," Cuddy mused. "I have tons of paperwork."

"I thought that was why you had an assistant," House pointed out. "To help you with your paperwork. And you cannot say that Miss Hill isn't fully qualified to deal with it."

"Why do you call her Miss Hill?" Cuddy asked. Usually House didn't use any kind of titles unless it was something like The Evil Nurse Brenda.

"She told me to," House muttered.

"And of course you always do as you are told," Cuddy scorned the idea.

"In her case I better, since my name is Gregory not George!" House shuddered in mock fear.

"She is not a dragon!" Cuddy defended her assistant. "She is the sweetest person I can think of."

"To you she is," House stated. "Because she likes you and you are her princess. Me, I'm the big bad wolf that the princess needs to be protected from."

"You are mixing your fairytales," Cuddy told him. "The dragon never guarded the princess against a wolf. Not even in Shrek. Mind you, Shrek was an ogre and you do have similar traits that he did; at least until he found love."

"Cameron! When did you get here?" House nearly jumped with exaggerated surprise.

"Stop that House," Cuddy had to laugh though. "I have not turned into Cameron just because I see that you have softened a lot since Little Love came into your life. And it's nothing to be ashamed of! You know it isn't. Aiko could melt a heart of stone and yours was never that bad."

"Yeah, ok," House muttered like a five year old boy who had been caught doing something nice to a girl. "I suppose I have to admit that Aiko has changed me a little."

"Just a little," Cuddy smiled knowingly. "But back to the house; was it today that Gail needed the last approvals?"

"Yep," House nodded getting up from the couch and putting a pillow under Cuddy's feet so that she could still rest for a moment. "Once she has those she can make the plans for the move and we can put your house on market."

"Well, you were right about Anna being able to do most of my paperwork so I guess I can make the time to come to the House," Cuddy agreed. "Come and get me when it's time to leave. I'll probably forget otherwise."

"Ok," House promised. "And you? Are you calm enough to go on with your day without eating anyone? Because there really is no room for anyone else in there with the Trips."

"I'm fine, thank you," Cuddy confirmed.

"Good, see you later then," House limped out of her office.

"Mission accomplished," he told to Miss Hill on his way out.

"Good," Anna nodded. "I'll tell Santa to note it down on your nice column."

"Miss Hill, you are an evil woman," House shook his head at her on his way out.

"Of course," Anna accepted and went on with her work.