Right, here's the next chapter and I suppose I should give out a tissue-warning with this one. Just in case. I don't think its angsty, though, just a teensy bit sad.

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Wilson found House sitting in his wheelchair outside the nursery in the maternity ward. He was looking in through the glass at the triplets who were being made ready to go home. Cuddy and Kasumii were with them and the nurses while Aiko was with House.

"So you are getting your children all home today?" Wilson opened.

"Yeah," House replied almost absently. He was holding Aiko against him and rubbing her back almost mechanically. Aiko didn't mind, she was half asleep against him.

"That didn't sound very enthusiastic," Wilson observed. "Cuddy was pretty much over the moon when I saw her just ten minutes ago."

"She is still, for now," House replied cryptically.

"What do you mean?" Wilson was getting worried. "You say that like you expect her to change!"

"I don't know what I was thinking," House didn't really pay attention to Wilson and his words. "What made me think that I can be a father? Was I insane? And was Cuddy insane – of course she was. No sane woman would have my child! Nor would she let me have anything to do with her child. But here we are! And the set up is such that there is no way out. How ... What made me think that I could give anyone, let alone a child – never mind four of them – the kind of care and love and support they need."

"House, you are not thinking of leaving them?" Wilson barely dared to say his suspicion out loud in fear that saying it might make it true. Surely House wasn't thinking anything of the sort.

"No," House frowned. "Though I'm sure they would all be better off if I did. But no, there is no way I can do that now. I just have to hope that I don't screw them up too badly. I just wish I knew more about parenting."

"I thought you were reading up on it?" Wilson wondered where this sudden self-doubt was all coming from. Was it just cold feet at the reality of bringing the kids home and having to really take on the responsibility for them?

"The books are written by morons," House snorted. "They either recite platitudes that anyone with half a brain should know without saying, or they go all theoretical and explain things with long Latinate words half of which they use wrongly and when you unravel the little they actually do say, it's bullshit."

"House, what is wrong?" Wilson was getting worried. Before House got a chance to answer him – if he even was going to – Wilson saw Foreman make his way to them. Eric had a file in his hand and he didn't look happy.

"Results?" House asked. Foreman nodded and gave the file to House without a word. House read it in silence but when he was done he gave a deep sigh. Then he turned to Aiko: "Little Love? Will you let Uncle Eric take you for a while? Daddy needs to go to MamaLisa and make her cry and I'd rather you weren't there when I do."

Wilson watched shocked and worried as House gave Aiko to Eric. Aiko wasn't completely happy about the exchange, she looked worried, but she complied. Without a word to Wilson House got out of his chair and went to find Cuddy on the other side of the glass wall. Foreman refused to say a word either so all Wilson could do was watch how House asked the others to leave him alone with Lisa and then he explained something to her in some length. Wilson saw her turn pale and wide-eyed with shock, he saw the tears start in her eyes before House took her in his arms and pressed her head against his shoulder. Wilson turned to Foreman a question in his eyes.

"It's Greer," Foreman told him now that Cuddy had been told. "House noticed something odd about her couple of days ago. He alerted me and we did some tests."

"Is that why Dr Jordan kept the babies here longer than she originally intended?" Wilson asked. It had been nine days since the Trips were born and Helen had originally intended to keep them under observation for a week only.

"I suppose so," Foreman shrugged. "I don't know who House talked to."

"So what is wrong with Greer?" Wilson asked not daring to let himself think of all the things that could be wrong in a newborn.

"She is blind," Foreman stated blandly. "Her optic nerve isn't functioning. She is too young for us to say with certainty what specifically is wrong, but we are ninety-nine percent certain it is permanent. Of course there is a possibility that science may find a cure in time, but other than that, she is permanently blind."

Wilson couldn't believe what he was hearing. He stared at Foreman in shock. After a while he swallowed and then he said: "Do you know why Lisa and Blythe named her Greer?"

"No," Foreman was a little puzzled at Wilson's reaction. "I don't. Nobody has told me."

"I'm not sure they have even told House," Wilson mused. "Lisa told me when she was still fuming about House knowing about the triplets before anyone else. Greer is named after House. Her name and House's name, Gregory, both mean Watcher. Greer is Greg Junior. When Lisa said that she wasn't having any juniors she actually was lying."

"Everybody does," Foreman replied automatically. "Watcher... I suppose you could call that cruel irony."

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Later that day Cuddy was in the nursery watching her babies sleep for the first time in their new home. She had recovered from the shock a little and once House had told the rest of the House-hold the news about Greer and they all had reacted pretty much the same way: with love, caring and promises of support and help, she did feel better about Greer's future. She would make sure her daughters – all of them – would have a happy childhood, no matter what. And anyone who had a problem with one of them being Japanese and one being blind, would better not let Cuddy catch them, because she would shove their opinion down their throats and let them choke on it! But it still hurt to think all the difficulties Greer would face growing up. And she couldn't help but wonder if something she had done during the pregnancy, or before it, had caused it.

House found Cuddy where he had expected her to be, in the nursery, watching Greer. He came in quietly, the way only he could despite his cane and his limp, and stood next to Cuddy putting his hand on her shoulder: "Don't do this to yourself." He said.

"Do what," Cuddy pretended not to understand.

"Blame yourself," House clarified though he knew it really was unnecessary. "It wasn't the fertility meds; it wasn't the premature labour or your stress and anxiety during your pregnancy. You did nothing wrong. This is God's screw up, not yours."

"I thought you didn't believe in God," Cuddy muttered.

"This is why I don't," House shrugged. "If he can screw up this badly, he isn't God. Or at least not the all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving one that I used to hear all those fairytales about as a kid."

"Some say that the adversities we face in life are His way of teaching us lessons," Cuddy didn't really care about having a metaphysical conversation right now, but it was a way to avoid the real subject. "He tests us because he loves us."

"You mean we are his chosen ones?" House sneered mildly at the idea. "Well, if that is the case I'll have to go with Tevje on that one: I wish He'd choose someone else for a change."

"Tevje?" Cuddy stared at him puzzled.

"Fiddler on the Roof, remember," House explained patiently. "The father."

"Oh ... oh, yes, I remember," Cuddy nodded – still not terribly interested, but then House hadn't expected her to be. He was just filling in the silence with normal things so that she would know the world really hadn't ended that morning.

"Trust me Lisa, this really was not your fault in any way," House stated emphatically.

"But you don't really know," Cuddy sniffed a little. "You don't know what caused it, so you cannot know that it isn't my fault."

"I knew you were ovulating without any tests," House pointed out. "I knew you were pregnant, I knew you were having triplets without any tests. I know this, too: this is not your fault."

"You thought Greer was a boy," Cuddy muttered.

"Oh great," House rolled his eyes with exaggeration. "Focus on the one thing I got wrong and ignore all the times I'm right. I think one mistake out of four is better than average."

"But it could be two out of five," Cuddy said in a small voice, though she was starting to believe House, at least in the sense that nobody else was thinking that she had done something wrong.

"It isn't," House declared. "Besides, if we don't know what caused it, it could be my screw up as well. Have you thought about that?"

"How could it be yours?" Cuddy queried. "You weren't the one who was pregnant."

"If it's genetic, it could come from my side of the family tree," House pointed out. "Or it could be a mutation caused by my substance abuse. The point I'm trying to make here is that trying to assign blame is pointless. Nobody did anything on purpose. This just happened and now we deal with it. She is still our beautiful, healthy baby. Yes, she cannot see but half the people I know go about their lives blindly anyway. Compared to them, she will probably see much better, just differently."

"This is probably incredibly insulting of me," Cuddy was worrying her lip almost to the point of drawing blood. "But does that mean that you are staying?"

"Yes," House said firmly. "Yes, that is incredibly insulting; and yes I'm staying; and yes I know you are sorry; and yes I know you really needed to hear me say it clearly."

"Thank you," Cuddy sniffed. "Especially for understanding. I don't really doubt you; I've seen you with Aiko and my heart does not doubt you. It's just my mind that keeps telling me that this situation would be too much for anyone! That even I would run if I could."

"So would I," House shrugged. "But like you, I can't. Sure the kids would probably be better off with some other Dad, especially Greer, but I'm the only one around, so that's it. They are stuck with me."

"You're a great Dad," Cuddy kept on fighting her tears, though not very successfully. "You are wonderful with Aiko. And you are especially the Dad Greer will need, because you're the only one I know who can teach her to see differently."

"Thanks for the peptalk," House sighed. "I still don't quite believe it, but I suppose we'll muddle through. At least we'll have help; I'm sure both Mother and Akira will keep an eye on us and Kasumii has had training in taking care of children with special needs."

"Maybe she'll inherit your musical talent," Cuddy mused touching Greer gently on the cheek. "She could be a concert pianist or something."

"No!" House avowed. "You will not steer her into any of the traditional blind careers. Nobody will. She will be whatever she wants to be. She will do whatever she wants to do. Yes, she probably can't do everything quite the way she would want to do them, but she will find out her own limitations herself. Anyone who tries to make her something they think she ought to be will have a very short and painful encounter with my cane. If music turns out to be her thing, fine, we'll support her and do everything we can to help her career but if she wants to be something else, then we support her there, too. Her blindness will not be the defining factor in her life. Yeah, ok, if she wants to be a doctor surgery is probably out of the question, but that's about it. As I know very well, you don't really need to see the patients to be able to diagnose them. In fact, it's a lot less boring when you don't."

By the time House had finished his tirade Cuddy was smiling – albeit still with tears in he eyes. She lifted her hand to caress his cheek briefly and as she did it she said: "Yes, Daddy."

"What?" House looked at her suspiciously. He wasn't sure why she was looking at him like that.

"You are already proving that you are the Daddy Greer needs," Cuddy explained. "You will fight for her and her rights like nobody else. You're not planning on shielding her from the world or finding her a safe niche doing things that society accepts as blind things – as I've seen many parents do in similar situation. You already see her as a fighter; as a person who will make her mark in this world on her own terms. And that is what she needs from you: your love and belief in her. You are the Daddy she needs; you are the Daddy all our children need."

"Yeah, well," House wasn't quite comfortable with the almost adoring light in Cuddy's eyes, nor with the praise. He was much more familiar with the yelling, outraged Cuddy, but he supposed he would have to adjust to other Cuddys, too, now that they were co-parents. "Anyway, that is the theory. I'm not so sure how good I am in putting it all into practise."

"We'll figure it out," Cuddy was suddenly feeling much surer of herself and House as parents. "As you said, we will have help. And we are doctors; we're used to figuring things out."

"I suppose," House conceded. "I'm not sure how good we will be, but I suppose kids have survived worse parents than us."

"Hey, the humanity has survived all this time though all parents are first-timers when they start," Cuddy reminded him. "At least we are old enough to know something and – unlike many other parents today – we do have help. And you have no idea how happy I am that your Mother divorced your Dad and is living with us now!"

"That makes two of us at least," House agreed. "And I'm pretty sure Mom is happy about it, too."

"Right," Cuddy sighed. "I think I'm ok now. I suppose everyone is in the kitchen again?"

"As usual for this time of the day," House confirmed.

"I'll just turn the baby monitor on and then we can join them," Cuddy said. "I'm ok now."

"Sure?" House asked.

"Sure," Cuddy stated. "Thanks to you."

"That's my girl," House approved as he checked that the babies were still asleep and then turned to lead the way towards the kitchen.