"Life and Limb"
Chapter Nineteen – "Sowing New Seeds"
By: purpleu
The next few weeks were busy to say the least. House made three trips down to Virginia to take care of things with his mom's estate. Lydia was only able to accompany him once, but when she was there she took care of the task House dreaded the most; packing up his mother's clothes. She also found all the photo albums and many loose pictures. Fortunately, nearly all the pictures were labeled on the back, so organizing them would be easy. One of the best things to come out of House's trips was the time he got to spend with Thomas. Many of the tasks were difficult for both of them, and perhaps it was that shared sorrow that allowed House to look at Bell with an unprejudiced eye. Things were not perfect; they didn't agree on everything. But when there were differences, each still respected the other's point of view, after a bit of grumbling. As they worked together on ending this part of their lives, House actually found himself looking forward to Thomas moving closer to Princeton; he was willing to keep an open mind about how things would go.
The biggest event moving forward from the funeral was Annie's return to the stage with the Philadelphia Philharmonic. There were some extra accommodations that needed to be made to let Wilson make the trip. While he had been getting around with a walker and was almost ready to start using a cane, Tom and House both thought it would be best to have him cover any great distances in a wheelchair, especially since he was worn out from the chemotherapy. Annie's performance was stunning and emotional. She finally got to play the duet with Yo-Yo Ma that they were supposed to perform years ago when she had been brutally attacked. Their pairing brought the audience to their feet for an ovation lasting several minutes. Thomas enjoyed the concert immensely; House and Lydia picked him up on the way down to Philly. He was settling into his new condo at the senior citizen complex, though there was still some of his things at the house in Virginia.
Saying he was still in a "clean out the old" state of mind, House suggested to Lydia that they do some work on his place after the kids' soccer games on the last Saturday of the month. Leaving Ben and Elise with Wilson and Annie so they could "babysit" their aunt and uncle-to-be, House took the car seats out and left them in the garage so they would have more room to load up the van. Lydia placed a bunch of cardboard boxes they collected in the back, and they headed over to House's place.
"I'll go in and open up the doors," House said as Lydia parked in the handicap spot in front of the building. House quickly got out of the car and headed to the entrance. Lydia was a little annoyed that he didn't stop to grab a few of the boxes, but she guessed he would come back out to get them. She took her pocketbook and two of the boxes out of the car and approached the open door.
Hon," she called out as she pushed the outer door closed. "Greg?" Lydia stepped into the entrance foyer of House's apartment. She took off her jacket, and placed it and her pocketbook on the couch; the boxes, Lydia moved into the living room proper. She had only taken a few steps, when she suddenly stopped and looked around the room. All of the books and mementos from House's travels as a boy were gone from the bookshelves. Lydia looked to her left; she gasped as she saw House's guitars were missing, as was the sheet music he kept stacked on top of the piano. The fireplace's mantle was devoid of any of the knick knacks that were usually there. House's X-Box and all his video games were missing, but the TV and the DVD player were untouched. Something was very wrong.
"Greg! Greg, where are you?"
"In the bedroom." Lydia rounded the couch and headed down the hall; she saw House was leaning against the door frame.
"Hon, there are a bunch of your things missing. The place doesn't look like it was ransacked, but…"
"It wasn't ransacked," House replied. "On the nights you were working late or blowing the socks off your professor over at school, the kids and I came here and packed things up. Oh, and so did Tom and Marianne and their kids; and Slick, Scotty and Teardrop."
"Misty," Lydia corrected, even though she was still in shock.
"The boxes are over in the extra bedroom at Wilson's place. I promised him we'd have them out of there by the time Wilannie Junior comes along."
"Wilannie Junior?" Lydia questioned as she laughed.
"Wilson and Annie's bambino. You know like Brangelina and all those other stupid name convergences society decided it needed to create. We'd be Grydia or Leg which doesn't seem appropriate," he said dismissively. House became serious. "Finding out the truth about Mom and Bell, watching them together, hearing the story of what they did just to spend time with each other, and how much they valued that time; it gave me a lot to think about. There are some things I…I don't think I'll ever get over, but I know that I'd be an idiot to waste time dwelling on the bad and not take advantage of the time we could be enjoying." House took Lydia's hand and stepped into the bedroom with her. On their nightstands were the stained glass candle holders with irises on them that House gave Lydia when she first moved back to Jersey; they hadn't had the chance to use them since then. There was a bottle of pink champagne in a bucket of ice, along with two glasses on a snack table; beside that was a platter with cheese, crackers and other munchies. Lydia's eyes widened and a huge smile came across her face as she saw the scene. House turned her to him, and put his arms around her. "We have the rest of today, all the way through to Monday night without the world bothering us."
"What?" Lydia said in shock. "How?" House looked down at the floor.
"I tried something I'm not used to doing; I asked our friends for help. I…" House was interrupted by a kiss from Lydia; and then another and another. "I'll ask for help more often if that's the reaction I'm going to get."
"Hon, I know how hard it must have been for you to do that," she said choking up. "You don't ask people for help with anything."
"This isn't about just anything; this is about us…you, me…and the kids. I still wonder sometimes what the hell I'm getting myself into and I'm not sure how I'm going to handle this…but I'm willing to do whatever I have to so we can keep this going. I like it too much to just deal with the status quo and not put some effort into it." House looked away from Lydia. "I surprised myself when I realized just how important…us…is to me. And if once in a while I have to grit my teeth and say, 'Help me,' I will." Lydia reached up and turned House's face back to her. He saw she had tears streaming down her cheeks. House was about to say something, when she just grabbed him, held on tightly and cried. He let her go on for a minute; he needed the time to swallow hard a few times so he wouldn't lose it.
"Hey," he said finally moving Lydia back. "I'm not a fan of wet t-shirts; unless they're on you." She laughed and started to wipe her face with her hand.
"I…I'm sorry. It's just that over the past few weeks you've been very withdrawn and when I've tried to talk to you, you pushed me away; which…is your way of dealing with things, I know, but it was hard. I know you were upset about Mom and you've been trying to figure out where you and Thomas stand. And I saw you were stressed out going back and forth to Virginia, but other than the time I went down there with you, I felt like…you didn't need me, that you did want me to be with you. I knew better, but it was a horrible feeling." House stroked her cheek with his fingertips.
"Fraulein, you have no idea how much I need you." House leaned his head down and gave Lydia a kiss. "I probably wouldn't even be alive right now after the stunt I pulled when everything hit with Wilson. You saved me physically, mentally and emotionally." He gave her another kiss. "Come on, let's get started on the champagne and the other goodies; it is almost lunchtime."
"I know you came in here ahead of me, but there's no way you got all this ready while I brought the boxes in," Lydia said as she sat down on the bed. House smiled.
"I'm my mother's son, remember?" He started to fiddle with the cork on the champagne bottle. "When I left the house before the kids' soccer games and I said we needed gas for the van, I came here. Got the ice into the bucket along with the bottle, put them both into a cooler I stole out of the storage area; I made the tray of snacks up last night after work. All I did when we got here was grab the stuff out of the kitchen and light the candles." The cork popped, bounced off the ceiling, and rolled onto the floor. "I've got a bunch of surprises for you."
"The last time you said that to me, you woke Annie up after ten years of being catatonic," Lydia laughed. "What do you have up your sleeve this time?"
"Don't think I'll ever be able to top that one," House said as he handed Lydia a glass with bubbly. They clinked their glasses and took a sip.
"Hmmm…delicious," said Lydia. House sat down on the bed next to her. "I don't believe you did all of this…" She hesitated. "Wait, you said we have till Monday night? We have work on Monday."
"No, we don't. I checked with your boss the pretend, semi-Dean of Medicine Wilson and he said you can take the day off. The Dark Knight did, too. Both of them know better than to question my taking a day off. Even with my stay in Mayfield I probably have five years of accumulated time." He looked at Lydia. "This isn't a one-shot deal. I want…I need this to happen more often; on a slightly smaller scale, of course. You work from home at night plenty of times; they don't have to pay you in money, but they can in time off."
"Greg, I'm a salaried employee like you; I don't get paid for overtime." House took a deep breath.
"Take advantage of having friends in high places while you can. This has to stay between us, but Wilson told me the Monday night the two of us went to Gino's that he's going to resign by this coming June, the latest. And that was before he almost bit the big one and found out Daddyhood is looming on the horizon."
"I'm not really surprised; I've had a lot of meetings with him and Eric, and I can just tell he's not into it. He wants to be dealing with his patients, not paperwork," Lydia said. "There's going to be a lot of changes coming, I can see that. I wonder who they'll put into the position; I'd guess that they'd finally trim it back to one person and that would be Eric."
"Nope. Foreman doesn't have the necessary people skills," House said giving Lydia a look. "If instead of Wilson, Foreman had you as co-administrator, it'd work well for everyone." Lydia shook her head.
"Look how busy I am now; we don't even have the time we want with each other. If I took that on…" She rolled her eyes. "Why am I even thinking about this? You're assuming they'd offer me the position."
"If they're smart, they would," House noted. He realized that Lydia wasn't open to the discussion. "How about we move on to the surprises?" He took Lydia's glass and placed it on his nightstand, and did the same with his. He picked up the platter of food and offered it to her.
"A little nourishment before we get started?"
"Good idea," Lydia said taking a few pieces of cheese and some ham. House popped some cheese and a cracker into his mouth; he reached over Lydia for a white jewelry box that was hidden behind the clock radio on his nightstand, and handed it to her. Lydia's eyes opened wide and she gave House a look.
"It's nothing scary; open it," he said. Lydia lifted the cover and smiled.
"Greg, you didn't have to get me a replacement necklace!" Lydia held up the piece of jewelry; it was a heart that had alternating light and dark purple stones and two gold pieces of chain hanging down like a bola. It looked just like the one that was stolen in the mugging.
"I didn't; that's the necklace I gave you. That detective stopped in with it; he said it fell down a metal staircase that led to one of the businesses on the next block. A worker found it, and was honest enough to return it. You were in that big pow-wow with those insurance companies that day, so I persuaded him to give it to me. I had it repaired and polished up." House took the necklace from Lydia, placed it around her neck, and fastened the clasp. "And now it's back where it belongs. I had already planned on us having some alone time, so I held on to it till now." Lydia smiled as she played with the heart.
"It feels good having it back," she said.
"It looks good, too. Then again, anything on your neck does," House said as he moved over and began kissing and nuzzling her neck. She squirmed and wiggled around as she laughed. "OK, I get the hint; I'd better stop before I delay your next surprise for too long. Take this," House said handing her back her champagne. "Go to your side of the bed and put your feet up." Lydia did as House instructed; by the time she was settled in, he had his laptop up and running, and had assumed the same position she did. "We've been looking for a bigger house to move to for a while now. Things got put on hold this past month, but there's an option I think we can now consider." House tapped a few keys. "Our search for rentals hasn't gone well, so maybe it's time…to consider buying one." House looked over at Lydia to see her reaction.
"You said you'd rather not; that buying a house would be a big commitment," Lydia replied. House nodded as he furrowed his brow.
"I'll give Bell this much; he may have been lying through his teeth when he played the part of preacher, but he's got some adroit perspectives on life. And while I'd normally lump cliché-like things in the same category as beetle dung…he's right on a lot of things. We've done a lot of talking while I was down in Virginia; I told him I'm afraid of commitment and I'm afraid of change. But I'm also afraid of making you unhappy, of losing you. He told me if I live my life in fear, then I'm not really living. I'm not in charge, fear is. And that's never a good thing." House sighed. "He also said I should look at change as chance to not stay stagnated, a chance to go after the things that I want and stop hiding where it's safe. Life is about taking chances, and you should never regret the things you do; only the things you don't do because you were afraid." House closed his eyes. "I wish he'd been around more when I was growing up; things would have been so much easier if I had someone to talk to." Lydia saw House was becoming emotional at the memories, good and bad. She reached over and took his hand.
"I'm glad you have him now," Lydia said.
"Yeah," House said quietly. "I'm getting used to the idea. Slowly." He looked down at his computer, "So, here's what I wanted to show you." Up popped a picture of a beautiful house with a front porch. "It has both the front porch you see," House changed the picture. "A back porch/deck that leads to a stone patio with a fire pit and a huge backyard where the kids can play Beckham to their hearts' content. Plus plenty of planting space for you to get your hands dirty. Inside it's a split level, five steps down, seven up. The living room can easily handle your piano and furniture; the lower level my piano and living room furniture."
"Greg, I've seen this house before. This…this is your mother's house!" House smiled. He knew it wouldn't take her long to figure it out.
"You made comments both when we went there right after my mom died and when you came down to help me pack things out. It was something to the effect that it wasn't too many steps either up to the bedrooms or down to the rec room and laundry area and it would be easy on my leg. I got my hands on the blueprints to my mom's house; she and Bell had it built for themselves. For obvious reasons they didn't want to live in the same house she and Flyboy shared. Bell told me they wanted a place where they could make their own memories. I showed the blueprints to Scotty and asked him if he could make a few alterations and give me a set of prints that could be taken to a builder. Since he's not a licensed architect yet, we talked to the professor that's in charge of his senior project. He's going to oversee Scotty's work and if the kid finishes the plans to everyone's satisfaction by April first, the prof will put his stamp of approval on it and give Scotty an A for the project. Which means he graduates with a 4.0." Lydia had an ear-to-ear grin on her face.
"What a great help for Scotty and lovely for us! This wonderful! But, Hon, your mom's house was huge. Thomas said they made it that way so they could have room for all their friends that came to visit. This is going to be awfully expensive," she said.
"You weren't down there with me when Mom's financial advisor and the realtor sat down with me. Flyboy may have never looked at the books, but my mother did, and she was very savvy. So was Bell; he never had a mortgage because he lived in a house provided by the church. Long story short, we're putting the house on the market for $825,000 and the realtor thinks we'll get it no problem. It's located in the best school district in the state which makes it very attractive to buyers. Whatever the selling price, $200,000 goes to Bell; the rest is mine. Mom had several annuities and life insurance policies; she wanted to leave something behind in case The Beast did her in one day. Again, the money is divided between Bell and myself, 40/60. Since the condo here in Jersey is already bought and paid for, Bell certainly won't ever have any money worries, no matter how things are split. The bottom line is that we can build this house using just the money from my mom's estate. We don't have to go halfsies with our money like we had talked about doing." Lydia was in shock.
"Greg, that's…that's not fair to you. If you use all your mom's money, I won't be contributing anything; it's supposed to be our house and I should put in my fair share."
"First of all, it will be our house; your name's going to go on the deed with mine. Second, we're not using all of my mom's money; there'll be some left over, trust me." He saw that Lydia still looked skeptical. "This place," he said indicating the apartment, "never cost me much. I only bought a few toys and indulgences over the years. Other than malpractice insurance and lawyers, I haven't had any big payouts. My mother had bequests left to different charities and even after I honor them, there's plenty of money left over. I don't need the money; I have enough of my own. What I need at this point in my life is something I was denied for years; a sense of family and place to make that happen." House turned to Lydia. "And with you and the kids, I think I'll finally get it." Lydia gently squeezed his hand.
"Family isn't about where you live; it's about the people in your life. We could…live in a tent, and we could still be a family." House considered her words.
"Yeah, but I wouldn't be very happy; I need my coffee first thing in the morning." Lydia laughed.
"You need coffee all day long," she noted. "Greg, this is all wonderful, but where are we going build this?"
"Remember the house we looked at on Willow? That was a dud, but across the street there was that run-down place on a double lot. Turns out it's a foreclosure that nobody wants, and the bank is anxious to get rid of."
"So is it still available?" Lydia asked.
"Nope," House said sipping his champagne. "I bought it last week. I checked; it's within the boundary for the kids' school, so they won't have to change." He saw the shocked look on Lydia's face. "I couldn't tell you that I was buying it; it would've screwed everything up for today. I took a chance and I didn't think you would mind.
"I think this is fantastic!" she said hugging House and giving him a kiss. She looked at the CG pictures of the different rooms smiling more and more with each one. When she came to the one of the second floor, she paused. "Hon, this shows that there are two bedrooms with one bathroom to share, which I assume would be for the kids. Then the two bedrooms at each end of the hall are both master bedrooms with their own baths…why?" House rolled his eyes.
"Look, I know my reputation as bastard is well deserved sometimes, but I'm not cruel. I'm not going to make an eighty year-old share a bathroom with two kids or make an hour's drive home when he comes to visit. I thought you'd approve," he said with a smile. Lydia hugged him again.
"You do not deserve that reputation; at least I don't think so," she said with a laugh as she sat back. "I know you're approaching things carefully with Thomas, but I'm so happy you're willing to try."
"Oddly enough what I'm not willing to do is lose him, especially so soon after my mother. He's going to be near enough that I can keep an eye on him. He showed me test results from his last doctor's visit about three months ago; he's doing well for someone his age." He took a deep breath and looked at Lydia. "We can go over the plans for the house another time. I told Scotty we'd give him an idea of what we want by the end of November, so we have time." House shut down his laptop. "Now, time for your last surprise; close your eyes." Lydia did as House asked; she felt him get up from the bed. She knew he was moving around the room, and then finally became aware that something had been placed on the bed. "Open them." Lydia opened her eyes and immediately gave House a mischievous look; it was a Victoria's Secret bag. House sat back down next to Lydia.
"Is this something special for me…or for you?" Lydia asked playfully.
"They don't carry my size; plus lace makes me itch," he said. "Take a look." Lydia reached into the bag and pulled out a baby doll nightie in purple with black lace trimming it all around. She loved the look on House's face as she held it up against her.
"I suppose you're going to want me to model…." She stopped as she saw a large tag done in House's handwriting that said, "Not to be worn in the U.S.A." Puzzled, Lydia looked at House.
"Keep going," he said indicating the bag. As she reached in, a thought flashed through her mind; House was getting low on the Metamizole. He probably wants to go down to Mexico to try and get some more. Her suspicions seemed to be confirmed as she pulled out a letter-sized envelope. She took out the contents, looked at them, and screamed.
"Oh, my God! Oh, my God, Greg!" Lydia held in her hand two airplane tickets…to Germany. "You…you don't like to travel. You swore if you could do it, you'd never leave here," she said gesturing to the room. "What…"
"This is a combination Valentine's Day/Birthday present," House said, taking great pleasure in her reaction. "We leave the night of February thirteenth; we'll be there for Valentine's Day, and come home the afternoon of the twentieth so you can spend your birthday with the Munchkins and our friends. I got the tickets now because lots of planning needs to be considered between now and then. The kids will be on winter break except for one day…and everyone has offered to help out, including the good reverend." Lydia fell into House's arms and sobbed. She couldn't believe he'd done this. "Material goods are not the way to show that you love someone, but I figured this was more of me making an effort to reach out to people to help me pull this off. And I thought you'd appreciate it more than any piece of jewelry or any other pricey thing I could get you."
"You have no idea how much this means to me," Lydia said as she sat up and got on her knees. "I only hope that you'll be able to enjoy it, too. Like I said, I know you don't…"
"I don't like to be bounced from country to country, see interesting and fascinating things, and then have no one to share it with. I climbed to the top of a pyramid…and I had no one there to take a picture of it or talk to about it." He tapped on his leg. "I'll never get the chance to do that again. But if I have someone with me whose company I can enjoy in everyday life, I'm pretty damn sure I'm going to have a great time with them when I'm experiencing the wonders of the world." House frowned. "And I do actually enjoy your company every once in a while."
"Oh, good; and I can put up with you most of the time," Lydia teased. She leaned toward House, cupped his face in her hands, and kissed him. "You are such an amazing man. I never thought…I'd even know someone as incredible as you, much less have him be in love with me."
"I don't see why not," House said as he ran his hands up and down Lydia's back. "You do a pretty good job with the concepts of 'amazing' and 'incredible' yourself." Lydia smiled; she looked to her right at the envelope with the plane tickets.
"Greg, are you sure about all of this? The house…I love the idea of having a place where we don't have to wonder what happen in the place before we got there; good, bad or indifferent. And a trip to visit Germany?" Lydia laughed. "I think you did that so I'd stop walking around the house singing 'Edelweiss' all of the time." House put his head down and smiled.
"Damn, you saw right through me." He picked his head up and looked at Lydia.
"Hon, these things are wonderful, but they go against the grain of what you normally do, and who you normally are. Are you sure you want to do these things?"
"The piece of land is 'no takesy backsies' so it seems to me the only logical thing to do would be to build a nice big house…which we need. And at this point, if I return those airline tickets, I not only don't get my money back, but we'll probably have the NSA knocking on our door." He reached over and ran his hand down the side of her face. "Yeah, I'm sure." Lydia got up on her knees and swung her leg over so she straddled House's hips. She started kissing him, over and over, up and down his neck; when he suddenly stopped her. She looked at him with confusion.
"Fraulein, I asked our friends for help, and now I need your help with something." Lydia was startled. "I need you to take Thursday off from work."
"Two days off in one week? Boy, you're really pushing it," she said trying to sound lighthearted, but she could see from the look on his face that something serious was going on. "Why do you need me to take Thursday off?" House looked away from Lydia, out through the bedroom door, a myriad of images floating through his mind.
"Because I've decided to let Foreman do the ultrasound on my leg," House said looking back at his girlfriend. "He's going to have to push hard on it to get a clear image; he'll most likely push harder than he really has to. It's going to hurt like hell and I don't think I'm going to be in a very good mood afterward. And depending on what it shows, I may be in a really rotten mood." Lydia climbed off his lap, aware that she was leaning on his leg. She was in shock that he had finally agreed to a test he had resisted with a passion.
"What changed you mind?" House closed his eyes.
"Honestly? The kids. You know when I've gone to their games I try to move up and down the field with the play. I do OK most of the time; sometimes, I stumble or I fall. Turns out a couple of the kids on the team have started to tease Ben, made comments about 'The Gimp with the Limp.' Ben's been getting into fights, mainly at practices which I usually go to because you have school on Tuesday. Tom has gotten right on top of it, spoken to the kids' parents. So has Gene, the other coach. It struck me as weird that the kids would pick on me because Tom's got his problems with his legs, too. The difference is that Tom dealt with his problem head on; I've never seen him stumble or fall. I'm sure he was afraid; I don't see how you can't be. But he didn't let fear ruin his life…and I can't anymore either. I owe to the kids, I owe it to you…I owe it to myself," House said, sounding surprised at the thought.
"Greg, I had no idea; why didn't you tell me?" Lydia asked in tears.
"I've gone through having less than kind comments thrown at me for years now, from all directions; everyone from strangers to people I was stupid enough to trust. I'm used to it; the kids shouldn't be. I had limited choices," House said taking a breath. "Remove myself from their lives; which would mean either not showing up for important events in their lives…or leaving. Or I could do whatever I have to so I can fight back against what's happened to my leg." He looked at Lydia. "I decided to stay and fight." Lydia, who had already been crying, saw the tears in House's eyes. She gathered him in her arms; the two just held on to each other, letting their emotions wash over them. "This is a much bigger request than just asking our friends for help with babysitting," House said leaning back so he could see Lydia. "At best, you may have to put up with me being extremely cranky, which I guess you're used to by now. At worst…I don't want to think about the worst right now. I just want to get past the test."
"I'll take off any days you want," Lydia said. "But why don't you schedule the test on Friday? Then you'd have the weekend to rest."
"You haven't checked your calendar lately; Friday is Halloween. The Munchkins had already asked me to come with them on the candy shake down and since Ben's going as a doctor, he needs a patient. Easiest costume ever; all I need is my cane."
"Hon, you're not going to feel like walking much after the test, even the next day possibly."
"Which is why I'll take them around a little on our block, pile them into the car and bring them over to the hospital. You know they have a fan club over there."
"Yes, they certainly do," Lydia laughed. "And it will work out well if I take Thursday off. It'll give me time to make the goodies for the Halloween party on Friday night when our friends come over." House rolled his eyes.
"Are you really going to subject me to those people?" he asked sarcastically.
"Yes, I am," Lydia said moving in closer and going nose to nose with House. He suddenly grabbed the front of her sweatshirt and pulled it out toward him.
"Hi, girls; miss me?" he asked looking down at Lydia's chest.
"As a matter of fact, they did," Lydia said with a smile. "So did I." House rolled on his side and put his arm around Lydia; he lowered her down to the bed, and kissed her.
"Ich liebe dich," House said, as he continued to kiss Lydia.
"Ich liebe dich auch, mehr als ich je jemand geliebt habe," she replied.
"Ich sehe, du arbeitest an deinem Deutsch." Lydia grabbed House's shoulders and pushed him up.
"I am not practicing my German! I've spoken it my whole life!" she protested.
"And I've spoken it since I was ten. And since I'm ten years older than you…." Lydia fingers touched his side and House jumped. "No tickling!"
"I'm not trying to tickle you; I'm trying to get this off of you," she said taking ahold of the hem of his t-shirt and pulling it up. House co-operated by lifting his arms.
"No fair," he said. "You have too many clothes on; but I think I know how to fix that." House took Lydia by the arms and sat her up. He took the edge of her sweatshirt and lifted it over her head. "Much better," he said as he tossed the garment onto the floor. As Lydia was about to lay back down, she noticed something in the corner of the room.
"Greg, what's under that blanket?" House rolled his eyes.
"It's a housewarming gift," he replied.
"Housewarming gift?" Lydia asked.
"From us, to us," House said as he left the bed and walked over to the gift. He lifted up the blanket to reveal a rather plain, but very sturdy looking rocker with a red bow around it. "Since the sacred rocker of Uma Krumholtz is off-limits to any frisky activity…and since our bedroom is going to be at the far end of the hall from the kids' rooms, I thought this was a useful, fun gift for our new home." Lydia laughed with a twinkle in her eye.
"You are insane," she said. "Only you would think of this as a housewarming gift."
"Well, it was supposed to be a surprise for tomorrow, but I had nowhere else to put it. Plus, I deliberately didn't hide it very well hoping we could test it out before moving it to the house. Sorry to ruin the surprise," House said as he climbed back onto the bed, and stretched out on top of Lydia.
"Greg, of all the surprises you gave me today, the best has to be that you're going to find out where things stand with your leg; mainly for the reasons behind it. I know you're not going to go rushing into an operating room if that's what's needed. But it's a long overdue leap of faith."
"It helps when you feel someone has faith in you." Lydia reached up and stroked his face.
"I love you, Hon." House smiled.
"I love you, too, Fraulein." They began kissing again, with House reaching behind Lydia's back to undo her bra. It felt so good just to hold Lydia and kiss her; he could only imagine how happy he would feel the rest of the next days. A thought popped into House's head; his mother didn't want him to feel happy. His mother wanted him to have joy. Without warning, Lydia moved him on to his back and started kissing his neck.
Oh, the hell with it, House thought; he was sure his mother would approve if in the coming days, he had a little bit of both.
(Author's notes: "Ich liebe dich" = "I love you" "Ich liebe dich auch, mehr als ich je jemand geliebt habe" = "I love you, too more than I've ever loved anyone." "Ich sehe, du arbeitest an deinem Deutsch." I see you are practicing your German.")