Thank you for your reviews again, even though they tend to go to my head ;) And Lerrinus, congrats!
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House took Dr Higa to see Cuddy, they took Aiko with them. Ms Forbes was in the anteroom with Miss Hill and House introduced her briefly to Dr Higa. Miss Hill escorted them into Cuddy's office – which was fortunately Sheridan-free.
"Dr Higa, meet Miss Anna Hill," House introduced them properly. "You will deal with her quite a lot as she will be Dr Wilson's assistant for the next six months when Dr Wilson acts as the Dean of Medicine during Dr Cuddy's maternity leave."
"Miss Hill," Higa gave her a formal, respectful bow which was returned correctly! "I am honoured to meet you. Gregory has told me that your throwing arm is remarkable."
"I hope he didn't give the impression that egging cars is a hobby of mine," Anna replied.
"Indeed, no," Higa smiled. "But his description of the plan and its' execution was almost poetic. I am in awe."
"I thank you for my part," Anna accepted. "I hope that, now that you are here, we will be able to keep you equally entertained."
"I have no doubt of that at all," Higa stated.
"We aim to please," Anna nodded. "Now, I will leave you to Dr Cuddy and go back to plot ways of slipping chilli into Ms Forbes' lunch."
"Anna!" Cuddy exclaimed admonishingly.
"Just kidding, Lisa, just kidding," Anna reassured her, but not very convincingly, on her way out. Since she couldn't really go after her, Cuddy had to accept her word.
Cuddy was sitting on her couch with papers on the coffee table, she did consider standing up to greet her visitors but Dr Higa motioned her to stay where she was and walked to her.
"Please, don't try to get up," Higa said as he walked to the couch and sat down on the other end of the couch setting Aiko, whom he had been carrying, on the seat with them. House sat on an armchair near Cuddy. "I remember how difficult it was both for my wife and daughter-in-law and they were only carrying one child. If you are comfortable there, don't, please don't shift for me."
"Thank you," Cuddy smiled. "It is getting a bit difficult, which is why my doctor ordered me to start my leave next week."
"I'm sure the hospital will miss you," Higa noted. "But it will survive. Your first responsibility is now to your children."
"I know, but it has always been difficult for me to let go of something," Cuddy explained ruefully.
While the adults talked Aiko had crawled her way up to Cuddy. She liked Cuddy, though they didn't spend an awful lot of time together, except during week-ends when everybody spent time with Aiko. And of course, sometimes Cuddy babysat Aiko when House was doing his clinic hours, but naturally that was mostly Kasumii's duty. Now that she had been brought to Cuddy's office Aiko wanted to say hello properly. Besides, she found Cuddy's tummy interesting. Aiko crawled right up to Cuddy and then she worked herself into a sitting position. She leaned forward and placed her hands on Cuddy's tummy. Somebody kicked her! Aiko frowned, thought for a moment and hit back!
"Wow, Little Love," House leaned closer and took Aiko's hands into his. "Gently there. It's quite enough that MamaLisa gets pummelled from the inside by your siblings; you don't need to do it from the outside as well. Now, just feel gently how they move in there, but no hitting back."
House placed Aiko's hands back to where they had been but didn't let go. When the movements were felt again, Aiko looked up at him with a frown but he reassured her that everything was as it should be. Aiko turned back to consider Cuddy's tummy again and after a while she decided to shift her position so that she could lean against it. She put her teething ring back into her mouth and settled to stay where she was until Daddy was ready to take her back into her playpen again.
"Lisa?" House was looking at Cuddy who was trying to secretly wipe her eyes. "Are you crying again?"
"Yes!" Cuddy snapped. "I keep telling you that my hormones are making me into a regular watering pot! I dropped a pen today and burst into tears when I realised I couldn't just bend down and pick it. I had to call Anna to get it."
"Sounds like it really is time for you to start your maternity leave," Higa observed. "Your stress levels must be very high. Though I have to say, a watering pot is much preferable to what my wife was when she was pregnant! She was a virago."
"Oh, Cuddy has been that too," House told him ruefully. "It's only these last few days that Niobe has replaced Echidna. But usually she has some reason for her tears. So what did I do now to make you cry?"
"Is it always you?" Higa couldn't help but ask.
"Not always," House shrugged a little diffidently. "But it is often."
"But rarely for any bad reason," Cuddy defended House. "It's just that you called me MamaLisa."
"Ok," House said carefully. "Now you do remember that I'm a man, right? So could you explain a little more, before I apologise. I'd like to know why I'm doing it – if, that is, I am."
"You haven't ... I don't quite know how to explain this," Cuddy didn't know what to say, how to explain her reaction.
"Are you trying to tell us that Gregory hasn't before referred to you in maternal terms to Aiko?" Higa ventured.
"I haven't?" House frowned. "No, I don't think I have."
"Well why should you," Cuddy tried to shrug. "You asked me to be her guardian if there is need, but we haven't really discussed anything else. And as we are not married, nor really living together in the normal sense of that expression, I'm really nothing to Aiko, at least not on legal terms. I know that I'm important to her and I'm part of her safety-net like Wilson and your team; we are all her family. But we haven't been really specific."
"That seems like an oversight to me," Higa gave his opinion. "Naturally, I don't want to interfere, it's your relationship, your lives, but if Lisa-san is going to be a steady influence in Aiko's life and as the mother of Aiko's siblings, you really need to define her role more clearly."
"I'm sure you are right," House admitted. "It's just that she is pregnant and when she decided to try for a baby we didn't think she would end up with triplets."
"Are you telling me that you have arrogantly assumed that though you can deal with four children she can't?" Higa asked quizzically.
"He can get arrogant like that," Cuddy pointed out.
"Not consciously!" House denied. "No, I never thought that. But I suppose it amounts to the same in the end. I just felt that having impregnated you with triplets I couldn't really expect you to take on Aiko, too. Not to the same extent as your own kids."
"What is it about me? My hair, my face, my eyes, my body?" Cuddy asked House. "Tell me: what is it about me that made you confuse me with your father?"
"Ouch," House acknowledged the hit. "I'm sorry, really. But don't worry; you'll have plenty of time to form a bond with Aiko once you start your maternity leave."
"How so?" Cuddy wondered. "You always have her with you at work!"
"Cuddy! I'm not leaving you alone at home when you are six months pregnant," House scorned. "Kasumii is staying with you, which means Aiko will stay home, too."
"What!" Cuddy exclaimed. "Are you making Kasumii baby-sit me too and not just Aiko?"
"Well she's the only one who can," House shrugged. "I cannot ask Mom to give up her job and what little independence she has."
"I don't need a babysitter!" Cuddy groused.
"I will be around quite a lot, too," Higa reminded her. "And I don't think Gregory means to have you so much watched as he wants to make sure you have help immediately if something – gods forbid – should go wrong."
"Well, I suppose if it is put that way," Cuddy agreed. "Besides, since it also gives me a chance to form a proper bond with Aiko, I can live with it."
"That's what I thought," House remarked.
"Did you do this on purpose?" Cuddy eyed him suspiciously.
"Do what?" House was puzzled.
"Lure me into whining about my lack of connection with Aiko so you could make me accept Kasumii watching me at home?" Cuddy glared.
"That's pregnancy paranoia talk!" House concluded.
"Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean you didn't do it!" Cuddy declared.
"Oh, yeah, that sounds really convincing," House dismissed. "For that plan to work I would have needed to decide some few months back that you needed Kasumii to look after you about now, and I would have needed to deliberately keep Aiko away from you so that you would feel neglected and then I could use that to manipulate you. Or then I'm just an insensitive jerk who didn't realise that you love Aiko as much as I do and needed Higa-san to point it out to me. Now which of those scenarios sounds more like me?"
Cuddy stared at him for a moment, shrugged and replied. "Darned if I know."
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When they got home that evening House took Dr Higa to the flat and showed him to the room reserved for him.
"My father leaves tomorrow, so if you want to move into the main house then, it's ok," House said. "As you already found out, Aiko is teething, and though it's been ok so far, it can get worse. And those who have experienced it tell me that it usually gets worse at night."
"No problem," Higa replied. "As I'm sure you remember I'm bit of a night-owl anyway. Besides, I don't need to get up early in the morning. Unless you prefer to have your flat to yourself, I'm fine in this room."
"No problem," House denied. "We have always dealt well with each other. Of course, if that changes then the room in the main house is still there."
A little later they joined the others in the main house. Higa was carrying Aiko again as House didn't think he needed the wheelchair now – after all, if John House got difficult Dr Higa was not going to want to hang around him either. The dinner went pretty much the same way as the night before, only this time it wasn't Wilson and Grey who were filling up the extra chairs but House's team. He had invited them over firstly to minimise the impact of his father's presence and secondly to give them a chance to get reacquainted with Dr Higa.
Having learned from experience, Blythe refused help with clearing up the table and shooed everyone into the living room with Higa, House and John. Cuddy still had to go to the bathroom, but everyone else was accounted for. Chase decided to be the sacrificial lamb and he engaged John in conversation about golf, which John had taken up since his retirement. In the end the evening went peacefully, though Chase did have an anxious moment when Cuddy came back from the bathroom and went straight to Dr Higa – and treated him more like House's father than John. However, whatever talk Blythe had had with her husband the night before seemed to still have an effect as John didn't say anything. He just gave the other group a glare, though it was possible that he could not have contained his anger had Blythe not come out of the kitchen right then and joined John and Chase.
But it would have been too good to be true had there not been a confrontation between John and House in the end. The ducklings had already gone home and Dr Higa was carrying Aiko into the flat when John stopped House for a word.
"You treat him more as the grandfather of your children than me," John stated angrily.
"He is Aiko's grandfather," House pointed out knowing full well what John meant, but hoping he would take the hint. He didn't.
"I was talking about your real children," John said.
"Currently I only have one child," House reminded John. "The other buns are still in the oven."
"Whatever," John dismissed the distinction. "You still behave like you would be happy for Higa to be their grandfather, too. While me, you are telling me that I won't even get anywhere near them."
"That is not what I'm telling you," House maintained. "Dr Higa is Aiko's grandfather. Nothing will change that. If he wants to be a grandfather to the triplets, too, we're happy to have him, but we cannot expect it of him as he isn't related to either me or Lisa. You, however, are my father, for you to be a grandfather you need to be it to all my children. I told you once before that you don't get to pick and choose."
"You are a cold-hearted bastard son," John spat at him in frustration.
"Well, genetics is a powerful force," House threw at his father as he limped into his own flat.