Maddening Dilemma

Cuddy sighed and hung up the phone in her office. She turned back to the stack of paperwork that needed her signature. She had pulled a few favors to get a few tests done off the book and her pregnancy had been confirmed. She was now almost eight weeks pregnant and still hadn't let anyone in on the secret, though it was almost too much for her to handle alone. Her major concern was who the father of her child was. Cuddy didn't know whether to pray that it was Lucas or wish it was House. The latter was more possible and she didn't know how she felt about that either.

As she sifted through papers, her mind was a thousand miles away at the posh hotel with Greg House. He had been a bit intoxicated and hadn't used protection. Lucas on the other hand always used a condom and while there was a chance that one of them had broken, there was a greater chance that House had sent his soldiers right up into her egg. She worked diligently to get her work done, then decided to give herself a break for lunch when all the papers had been given to her assistant.

Much to her chagrin, House and Wilson were at a table with the only available seats. She grabbed lunch and decided to go back to her office, but Wilson stopped her before she could get to the door. "Would you like to have lunch with us?" he asked in his sweetest voice. She could tell he was using all of his charm to lure her and she was, like every other woman on the planet, bound to agree to anything. She cautiously followed him back to the booth where House nodded in greeting.

"How have you been?" Wilson asked her once she had settled in beside him. "I haven't seen you out and about much in the last few weeks.

"Busy. A lot of stuff on my plate," she said as non-chalantly as she could manage.

"How are things with Lucas?" House asked rather politely. Cuddy flushed darker than the crimson jacket she wore.

"Things are good," she replied, not meeting his eyes.

"Ah…any plans for the holiday?" he continued.

"Nope," she said rather quickly. "Not really." She filled her mouth with tuna salad in an attempt to deter him from asking further questions as her heart was screaming at her to tell him that she might be carrying his child. She wanted to yell out that she would be going to see a doctor in the maternity ward to prepare for her child's birth, but the logical part of her kept stuffing her mouth to keep this information inside her.

Wilson was looking at her curiously, and House had gone back to eating his pizza and she thankfully was able to eat quickly and excuse herself. "I'll see you guys at the Christmas party if not before then," she told them with a quick wave. "Lots of paperwork to get through." Wilson accepted this but when he turned back around to House, the diagnostician had a look in his eye that suggested otherwise.

"What's up?" he asked curiously.

"She's pregnant and I think the baby is mine," House told him quietly.

"WHAT!?!" Wilson nearly exploded.

"Keep your voice down," House instructed. "I found out that Cuddy's preggers."

"How?"

"A guy in the lab owes me a favor…anyway, I'm pretty sure it's mine. Lucas isn't old enough to produce sperm yet…"

"House, be serious. If she is pregnant, it's probably his."

"There's a chance it's not."

"Are you so impressed with your own sexual prowess that you think you got her pregnant the one time you had sex with her?" Wilson asked his best friend.

"We didn't use protection. I'm pretty sure she does with Lucas."

"How could you possibly know that?" Wilson wanted to know.

"I haven't exactly been keeping my feelings under wraps…"

"You broke into her house?"

"More like let myself in without her knowing it," House corrected. "I know, I know…just don't say anything. There were a few condom wrappers in the trashcan and I can only assume that was from her and Lucas…unless she really is a slut."

"Oh my god…if Cuddy's pregnant…"

"That baby's mine," House finished.

"What are you going to do? She obviously isn't going to volunteer the information," Wilson pointed out. "How are you going to explain that you know she carries the fruit of your loins without revealing that you've been spying on her?"

"Well first off I'm going to stop telling you things," he said standing. Wilson followed him to the elevator without a word.

"Sorry…I'm just excited. This is HUGE, House!"

"Yes, I know…she said that already."

Wilson rolled his eyes. "Do you actually have a plan?"

"No…but sooner or later she'll start to show. And then I'll be able to causally mention her state. Maybe she'll be able to get a paternity test done after three months."

"Do you think Lucas knows?"

"About us?"

"About the baby. She couldn't have told him about you guys if she wanted to stay with him, and they're obviously still together."

"I don't know," House admitted. "We'll just have to find out."

Cuddy was nearly three months into her pregnancy when Lucas found out. No one else had guessed, as far as she could tell, but he noticed the slight swelling in her abdomen and she was forced to tell him that she was with child. "This is so great!" he exclaimed. "I want to marry you, Lisa."

She sighed, knowing that she just couldn't do something so horrible to both him and House without warning them a bit first. "Look, I wanted to wait until I could get a paternity test done to tell you this, but…I slept with House. That night that I stayed gone all night. We were both drunk and…"

Lucas cut her off there. "So…is it his baby?" She couldn't stand seeing the pain in his eyes, but she shrugged.

"I don't know."

"Do you want it to be?" She shrugged again and he stormed out.

Cuddy didn't talk to him for two days and when he came back he was not nearly as loving as he had been. She had been crying for those two days, which seemed to soften his heart a little. "I'll stay and help you until we find out what's what, but we're going to have to seriously talk about this…I can't believe you slept with him after all he's put you through…I thought we had something."

"Lucas, I…"

"I don't want to talk about this right now…let's just get the tests done. Does House know?"

"No."

"Good. He can find out if it turns out to be his…"