Thank you for your opinions, and sorry that House wanted to behave like a jerk – as I've said before, sometimes there is no controlling him! Anyway, this is the last update I can do before I'm going away from my computer for couple of weeks. I hope to be able to update on the 15th or thereabouts again.

And the conversation between House and Higa is conducted in Japanese though I'm not using cursive to indicate it this time – just too lazy, sorry ;)

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House was staring at his tea. He had just finished telling Dr Higa what had happened at the bar and what he had done. There was a silence, but he didn't feel like Akira was condemning him, just thinking.

"I should have brought her here," House said to break the silence, though it wasn't truly uncomfortable. "I should have lied and brought her here, but I didn't read her right at first."

"And once you had told her that I was here, she would not have come," Higa nodded. "I too wish you had found a way to talk her out of it, but I wasn't there so I don't know if you even could have. I wish you hadn't gone to the bar at all, I wish a lot of things, but what is done is done. Now we have to deal with the aftermath. You need to tell Lisa what happened."

"She has nothing to do with this," House frowned. "This is my foul up."

"True, but as you pointed out there really is no way to keep this hidden, it will come out one way or another," Higa stated. "And once it does, someone will drag her into this."

"They shouldn't," House insisted. "She is not responsible for me; she wouldn't be even if she wasn't on maternity leave. Ruth is not a patient, or in any way part of the hospital. She is just married to Sheridan."

"There are lots of things that shouldn't happen, but they do. And Lisa is pregnant with your children," Higa reminded House. "Someone will drag her into this regardless of how little it truly has to do with her."

"I suppose you're right," House sighed with feeling. He wasn't looking forward to that conversation. "She deserves to find out about it from me and not some distorted gossip."

"So what are you going to do about Ruth?" Higa asked.

"Nothing I can do now," House shrugged regretfully. "I made sure she will have no physical or medical consequences but there is nothing I can do about the emotional fall out. Either of her discovery of Sheridan's affair or her own regrets about last night. She won't want to see me again, I'm sure, and even if she did, I can't really approach her since we aren't supposed to have ever met. If I suddenly start showing interest in Sheridan's wife, suspicions are bound to rise."

"Do you have any idea what she is going to do now?" Higa asked.

"She was awake when I left," House revealed. "We didn't say much to each other, but she did promise that she wasn't going to do anything else stupid. I got the impression that she intended to go to her parents and stay there with her children for the rest of the week-end at least. She didn't seem to hate me, but as I said, she probably won't want to see me ever again. All in all I don't see what else I can do but lie low – and warn Lisa of the possible fall out... Damn!"

"She won't be happy," Higa warned.

"That must be the understatement of the century!" House observed. "The only consolation in this is that Aiko is still a baby and the Trips are not born yet. I can at least keep them out of this mess. That was the last time I went into a bar to find a one-night-stand. From now on it's hookers all the way!"

"Hmm, you might not want to do that either," Higa deliberated. "You will have three daughters. You won't want them to get the idea that there is anything good about the porn industry. You know that all the people involved in it are damaged in some way; it just isn't a healthy business."

House looked at Higa for a moment with consideration: "You knew exactly what you were doing when you gave Aiko to me, didn't you?" He finally accused.

"I had no way of knowing that you would end up having triplets with Lisa, so I cannot say that I knew exactly what I was doing," Higa denied. House's only response was a raised eyebrow so Higa went on. "But you are right; I knew she would cause major changes in your life. Changes that in the long run would be good no matter how reluctant you might at first be to make them."

"What if I cannot make the changes," House warned. "After all, I screwed up royally last night."

"You did," Higa agreed. "However I'd like to know why you did it? I know your reason for seeking sex: you were tired of being responsible, you were scared, you wanted to feel like your old self even if only for a moment – and even though you're not really sure you want to be your old self. That I got already. But why did you go with Ruth when you initially had intended to just see her safely home?"

"I don't know," House admitted. "I knew from the start that it wasn't a good idea, but I still felt it was a better idea than to leave her in the bar for god knows who! I initially misjudged the situation as I didn't realise that she had actually caught Sheridan and Janelle together. I thought that Sheridan had just stood her up and once I had tipped my hand I couldn't either bring her here or get her drunk and see her to her room with no other regret to look forward to than a hangover. I just screwed up and having done that I muddled through the best I could. Which, in this case, wasn't very good at all."

"So you cared and lost your objectivity," Higa summed up. "And you erred and in the end you behaved like a normal human being. It happens."

"You don't sound very judgmental," House was confused.

"I think you made a mistake, absolutely," Higa said. "But no matter how regrettable your actions were, you still have much less reason to hate yourself than you would have, had you left her in the bar and next seen her in the ER beaten, raped, pregnant and HIV positive. True, that is not the likeliest thing to have happened, but as a doctor you know that it could have happened. You have seen it before."

"Just because I might have saved her from a fate worse than death," House commented. "Is not enough to merit absolution."

"True, but it does make this a misdemeanour instead of a felony," Higa noted. "You made a mistake; you will have to face the consequences – of which the telling the story to Lisa isn't the smallest one – and then you go on from there. Nothing has happened that would make me think I made a mistake when I gave Aiko to you. I don't approve of your actions, but I accept them and you have my support."

"Thank you," House replied quietly, not quite knowing how to react to such calm, fatherly support. He had never had it from his real father. But it did feel good.

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Later that morning, after having had breakfast with Aiko and having slept a few hours, House took Cuddy aside to talk to her. They were expecting the rest of House-hold to convene at the house again later in the afternoon and House wanted to get the shouting over and done with before that. He told Cuddy simply the facts of what had happened without any excuses. Cuddy listened to him in silence, just staring at him in shock. Once he was done, she just walked away from him into the kitchen where Higa and Blythe (who had heard the story from Higa) were waiting to find out how Cuddy would react.

"You know what he did last night?" Cuddy asked them still in shock.

"Yes, he told me as he came home this morning," Higa admitted. "I don't exactly approve, but as a doctor I know what could have happened to her had he left her in the bar. And you know it too."

"That doesn't make what he did right," Cuddy insisted.

"No, absolutely it doesn't," Blythe agreed. "However, it is an explanation. And all in all, I can't see how what happened is any worse than what he originally intended to do – which, I wouldn't have approved of at all, either."

"Ok. Fine. Fine," Cuddy muttered and walked back to House who was standing outside on the backyard patio. She stared at him in silence for a moment trying to find words. "I don't like this. I have a real problem with what you did, but then I didn't like your original plan either. I ... You ... I can understand what Mrs Rawls was going through and how she felt having walked in on her husband and Janelle. I can sort of imagine what the situation was. I still don't like what you did. Heck, I don't approve what SHE did, either! Surely she ought to have held herself up to a higher standard than her husband – who is a total lowlife! I know there are plenty of things you do on regular basis that I don't approve of, but I live with them, because in the end you usually manage to make things right. I just don't know how anyone can make this right. And I don't like the idea that I might somehow be dragged into this and I think next time you want to have sex, you need to think again! Something like this is not good for the children."

"I know," House accepted her displeasure. "I've come to that conclusion myself already. But I cannot undo what I have already done. Hopefully there won't be any drastic consequences from this, but I needed to warn you. Akira was of the opinion that if this does come out, somebody will try to drag you into it as well."

"Probably," Cuddy sighed. "Well, at least I know what to expect now. I still don't like it, but what is done is done."

"I'm really sorry that you might get dragged into this," House imparted. "I haven't quite got the hang of this responsibility thing. I'm so used to judging the consequences of my actions to myself only, now that I need to see further than that, I make mistakes that I ought to have been able to avoid. I really didn't mean to complicate your life."

"That's what you said when you knocked me up with the triplets, too," Cuddy groused. "But here we are anyway, in a very complicated situation. I need to digest this, I need time. So just give me some space, ok."

"Whatever you need," House agreed. "Remember, that's why we have a house this big."

"Yeah, so that we wouldn't end up murdering each other," Cuddy gave him a small, rueful smile.

"Cuddy," House called as she turned to go. "Will we be ok, as friends, once you've done your thinking?"

"Your mother pointed out that what you did, was no worse than what you intended to do," Cuddy revealed. "I didn't like your original plan either, but if I wasn't going to let that harm our friendship, I really cannot let this harm it either. Yeah, we will be ok. I just need to process this. Mind you, that does not mean that once the shock wears off, I won't still give you one humdinger of a lecture – especially if somebody really will drag me into this."

"That's ok," House accepted. "I rather like it when you shout at me. There is certain kind of comfort in the familiarity of it."

"You really are just impossible," Cuddy rolled his eyes at him and walked back into the kitchen.

"So?" Blythe asked her as soon as Cuddy got back.

"I already told Akira yesterday that I cannot hold Greg to promises he hasn't made," Cuddy contemplated. "And given the situation, I cannot really blame him for having been with a married woman either. But I still don't like what he did and I need to think it through. But once I've done that, we will still be friends. We need to be for the children. But we also need to redefine some of the rules! I'm not going through this again."

"Hear, hear," Blythe concurred.

"I think you might find him surprisingly ready to have that particular conversation," Higa smiled.