A/N: I'm back! This one was written at 4 am while I was high on Red Bull so if some things don't make sense, you know why. I did gave it a quick read through though before I published it so it should be ok. I promised a couple of chapters ago that there would be some drama. That time has arrived now, so buckle up! Also, I'm not a doctor nor am I studying to become one. I did some research but know that mistakes are possible and I apologize in advance for them. Oh, and for story's sake I decided that Rachel is around three years old here. R&R plz!

Disclaimer: I do not own, they're David Shore's and Fox's property. I'm just borrowing them.

Chapter 8

House arrived on his bike at Cuddy's place at 10 past 7. He limped over to her doorstep and knocked once with his cane. Cuddy swung the door open almost immediately after she heard the sound of wood knocking on wood.

"You're late, as usual." she said with a stern look on her face.

House just smirked. "Some things will never changes Cuddles."

She stepped aside to let him in and he closed the door behind him. He took of his jacket and handed it over to her so she could hang it aside. While she was doing this House took his time to observe her more closely. He couldn't help but notice that she seemed a bit tense and he was pretty sure something was off. He grabbed her arm lightly and turned her around so she was facing him.

"Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine..It's just.." she trailed of, not looking at him.

This only confirmed his suspicion and he pressed a little further.

"Just what?"

"Oh nothing really, just…never mind." she said, still not looking at him. House put his hand under her chin to make her look into his eyes. He could see something was definitely wrong.

"Cuddy, don't you think it's a little bit hypocrite of you that you want me to talk to you if you can't open up to me about your problems? Now come on, what's bugging that overly worried mind of yours?"

She sighed once before she said: "It's Rachel. When I went over to my mum's place she told me she's been restless all day and had to vomit and now she's complaining about a headache. It's probably nothing serious, but I can't help to be worried."

After hearing this, House relaxed a bit. The kid was just coming down with a cold. Nothing bad. Cuddy was just one of those anal parents that always thought the worst. He didn't want to tell her that though, cause he knew she would be upset if he did. So he just asked her: "Well why didn't you tell me this immediately? It's not that bad."

"Are you serious? I expected you to mock me, call me one of those stupid overly worried parents, tell me that I really had forgotten how to be a doctor since I can't separate a simple cold from anything serious and stuff like that. You know, I just thought you'd be your usual jerky self."

He couldn't help the little smirk that tugged at the corner of his mouth. This woman really knew him. "Well, I won't deny that that's what I am thinking, but if you want I can take a quick look at her if it'll make you feel better."

Cuddy's eyes widened at that. This was totally not what she expected. "You'd do that for me?"

"Yeah, everything to raise my chances of getting sex with you." he deflected in his usual way, not wanting to show that he did actually care about the little girl and wanted to look himself if she was okay.

"Do I even wanna know how your twisted mind can make this about sex?" she asked him exasperatedly.

"Oh it's so obvious Cuddles. If you're worried about the kid, you won't do the nasty with me. If on the other hand the best doctor in the world tells you your precious little spawn is fine, you'll be extremely relieved and happy and you'll want to thank said doctor for his services." he smirked.

"Right, how could I have not thought about that." she told him sarcastically.

"That's what I'm saying woman! Now where's the kid?"

"RACHEL is in her crib. Just follow me."

"Yes mistress." he smirked once again.

Cuddy turned around and made her way to Rachel's bedroom with House following closely behind her. They entered the room and he immediately made his way over to the white crib in the right corner of the room.

"Now let's make sure you're okay you little monkey, so your mom can stop worrying."

Cuddy rolled her eyes at him but let him do his work. She just wanted him to tell that her daughter was fine and she was just one of those stupid worried parents. She watched while House assessed Rachel quickly. When he put a hand on her forehead she could see him frowning a bit.

"What is it?" she asked, worry evident in her voice.

"Seems like she's having a fever."

"I'll go get a thermometer." she said and quickly made her way out of the room.

House took Rachel out of her crib and put her on the floor. The little girl squirmed a little in his hands, but she manly looked drowsy. The little girl noticed the strange man who was holding her and looked at him with questioning eyes. When he sat her down on the floor she asked him:

"Who's you?"

"I'm House." he answered reluctantly. He had really hoped she wouldn't talk to him, especially now that Cuddy was out of the room. He was feeling really uncomfortable alone with the kid.

The little girl just giggled a bit and said.

"Yous silly. Yous no house."

"No, my name is House." he said in the tone one uses to talk to a kid. Great, he thought, now she's gonna start the whole questioning thing.

She just giggled some more with a pained expression on her little, chubby face.

"Why you here?"

"I was here to have dinner with you and your mummy. But now I am taking a look at you to see if you're fine so your anal mum can stop worrying about her precious, little baby and thank the good old doctor for his services."

Rachel clearly didn't understand a thing he had said and just chuckled some more before her eyelids started to close again.

"Now Rachel," he said, trying to catch her attention. When she opened her eyes again he continued: "I will need you to walk over to me when I tell you to, okay?"

"Why?"

House was getting tired of the whole 'who-what-why' questioning thing. He heaved a sigh and wondered how he could make her do this.

"Look kid, you're sick and I need to look what's wrong with you. For me to do that I need you to get up and walk to me, okay?" There was clearly an annoyed tone in his voice, but Rachel didn't seem to notice it. She just smiled tiredly at him and said:

"Kay."

Then House stood up from the floor and grabbed his cane. He walked over to the other side of the room and when he turned around, he found the little girl staring at him intently.

"Hows?"

"Yeah?" he answered tiredly, thinking he would have to explain the whole thing again because she hadn't understood it.

"Why you walking funny?"

Great, he thought. Now the kid had to ask him about his leg. It's not like he wasn't feeling uncomfortable enough already. How the hell would he explain his infarction to a three year old?

"Because my leg hurts. Always." he answered simply, hoping she would just drop the subject.

At that Rachel drew her eyebrows together. She was clearly trying to understand what he was saying to her.

"That why you need the stick?" she asked, pointing to his cane.

"Yep. And it's called a cane by the way, not a stick. Chicks dig it."

"Oh." she simply answered. Then the little girl stood up and made her way over to him. He totally forgot if he had noticed a gait in her step because he was paralyzed by Rachel's next move. When she reached him, she placed her hand on the giant gape, where his thigh muscle used to be. She lightly stroked over it and placed a feather light kiss on his scar.

"Better now?"

House couldn't start to explain what this unadulterated act of kindness and compassion did to him if anyone would ask. This little girl accepted him for who he was. She didn't care about his disability, she just wanted him to stop hurting. For once in his life Gregory House was rendered speechless.

Cuddy stood at the doorway of Rachel's room watching the scene in front of her with tears in her eyes. She could see that House was really touched by Rachel's actions and she didn't want to interrupt their little bonding moment.

When House had regained his composure after Rachel's actions he noticed the girl couldn't really look up at him even though she was clearly trying to. This alarmed the doctor in him and he quickly sat down again to examine her further. When he tried to bring her head to her chest, he noticed the little girl had difficulty with this and was obviously in pain.

Cuddy saw House's face contort when he discovered the new symptom. Quickly forgetting about watching the bonding between her daughter and the man she entered the room and asked:

"What's wrong?"

"Stiff neck. I'm afraid I was wrong. This looks like it's more than just a common cold or the flue. Seems like you're not one of those overly worried parents after all." he said, with some evident worry in his voice now as well.

"Stiff neck, fever, vomiting… are you thinking meningitis?"

"Yep. I think you should bring her to the hospital to check her out completely. Our precious bonding moments can wait."

"Okay, but I want you to look at her."

"What? No, Cuddy. We can't risk people seeing us come in together! It's just meningitis, every doctor can test for it and threat her."

"No House. I want you. I only want the best for my daughter and right now that's you. You're the best doctor in the hospital. I don't care about people finding out about us. I only want my daughter to get better. Don't you get that? Besides, are you 100% positive this is meningitis?"

"Oh come on Cuddy! I am not gonna call my team in for this. This is textbook meningitis! Even you should know that!" he said to her, clearly aggravated. She couldn't really be serious about this, right?

"And what exactly do you mean by that? You gonna start the whole 'you're not a real doctor anymore' thing again? Don't you think I know that? Do you even care about us?" Cuddy shouted at him. She was really upset that he didn't seem to care about her and her daughters needs at all.

"Of course I do! Why would you even ask that?" House shouted back at her.

"Well, I don't know. Maybe because you think your team's rest is more important than my daughter! And why are you so worried about people finding out about us? Are you ashamed of being with me? Is that what's it about? Cause let's be honest, if there's one of us who should want to keep this under wraps it's me! I'm gonna have to deal with the board when they find out, I'm gonna be the one that has to deal with all the staring and whispering behind my back, I'm the one that will be called a slut for braking off my engagement and consequently jumping in bed with one of my most annoying employees, it's my job who will be on the line if this all comes out and you don't even seem to care!" Cuddy was shouting hysterically now while tears started to pool in the corners of her eyes. House understood that he once again had behaved like an emotionless, egoistic bastard. Wanting to stop this before things got out of hand, he made his way towards her, all the while keeping an eye on Rachel who strangely hadn't moved at all during their fight and was just looking off in space. He put his arms around her tiny waist and hugged her closely to his chest. He stroked her hair and tried to calm her down.

"Shh, you're right. I'm sorry. I behaved like an ass again. Of course I'm not ashamed of being with you. It's gonna be all right." At first Cuddy squirmed in his arms, not wanting him to comfort her after he had made her upset, but eventually she gave in. She looked up at him with a tear stained faced.

"How do you know that?"

"Because I'm gonna take care of her. I promise. I do care about her and don't you ever dare to say again that I don't care about you. You know I do." he told her honestly.

"I'm sorry, you're right. Thank you." She said and buried her head in his chest while she hugged him more closely. Then another thought entered her mind and she looked up at him once again.

"But what's going to happen if we go in together? This is really not how I planned to let everyone know about us."

"Well, we don't necessarily have to come in together. You could go ahead and I could arrive on my bike a couple of minutes later. Then it'll look like you called me in to take a look at your precious daughter."

"And you seriously think people are going to believe that you willingly came down to take care of a child that almost certainly has meningitis?" she asked him sarcastically.

"They will if I complain all the time about how you ruined my night with a hooker. Plus I'll tell them I'm just doing it to avoid the wrath of the she-devil and a lifelong sentence of clinic duty."

This made her smile a little. "You're a genius, you know that."

"Don't you ever forget it. But we should get going now. Meningitis in a kid can be dangerous and it could be contagious so we'll have to check you out too. Are you going to be all right driving to the hospital alone?"

Cuddy marveled at House's concern for her. This is not what she expected from him. Knowing that he was right about her daughter's condition though, she didn't take much time to think about it. She nodded at him, grabbed some things for Rachel and then got ready to leave. She put Rachel in her car seat and then turned around to face House who was placing Rachel's bag in the car. She hugged him close to her once again to get the comfort she knew she would need to get to the hospital. He kissed her lightly on her forehead before she got in her car and drove away. He then made his way to his bike and also started heading to the hospital, hoping everything would turn out just fine…

This was probably not what you guys expected, right? The next couple of chapters will be hard for Huddy, but I'm a sucker for happy endings so no need to worry!

P.S.: Reviews are nice and make me write faster! ;)