A Revival of Madness

House struggled to keep himself composed as he watched the surgery being performed on Cuddy and his unborn child. Wilson had appeared at his side less than five minutes after he had arrived, fully briefed on the situation at hand. Chase left them alone to inform the team of the happenings and House allowed himself to be vulnerable with Wilson. "I can't lose her," he whispered so Wilson almost missed it.

"You don't have to worry about that, House," Wilson assured him. "She's going to come through this fine. And the baby will be too."

"If either of them suffers…it will never be the same, for anyone."

"It's not going to be the same no matter what happens now," Wilson replied. "But you're going to have to deal with it…and you can. You've dealt with tough situations before."

"I love her, Wilson. And I love that baby."

The oncologist nodded, watching his friend swallow back the tears that he knew to be just under the surface. "The son of a bitch that did this is going to have a hard time…"

"I want to kill that fucker!"

"I know. I want to kill him for you, but we'll have to see what happens. I called the P.D. and they said they'd keep us informed. They aren't technically supposed to do that, but I've got an ex who's on the force."

House snorted halfheartedly. "Got a broad in every major place of business around to keep on the fly, have you?"

"You could say that," Wilson replied, daring to give a small smile. "Let's go get some coffee…you don't need to sit through this entire surgery."

"I do need this. You know I need this."

"But It's not good for you."

"Fuck what's good for me. I'll do what's good for them."

Alarms started going off and the surgical team moved quickly around Cuddy as one sprinted from the room. House couldn't hear what was going on but his heart sank. He slammed against the button on the wall and demanded information. When they ignored him he made to leave the observation area, but was stopped as a nurse entered. "Doctor House, Doctor Cuddy is bleeding into her uterus. We need to do an emergency C-section to save the baby."

"How bad is she bleeding?" he demanded.

"It's not good, but we can stop it fairly quickly. We need you to ok the C-section, though."

House hesitated, knowing that if Cuddy was already losing blood, an additional surgery on top of it would be bad for her. Wilson stepped in front of him. "Do it," he commanded.

"But…" the nurse started.

"I'm her medical proxy. Do it."

"Doctor House is the father of the baby."

"Don't just stand around," House yelled. "He made a decision…fucking do it!" The nurse left without a word and House looked pleadingly at Wilson.

"She'll be fine," Wilson stated, leading House to a chair in front of the window. As soon as the nurse returned to the operation room the surgery started and within minutes a baby boy was birthed six weeks premature. House held his breath until the faint trace of the baby's movement could be detected, and then he returned his attention to Cuddy.

~HUDDY~

Four hours after she had been shot in the clinic, Cuddy was out of surgery. The surgeons had repaired her fairly well and though she had started to bleed out, things had been patched up, but she still hadn't awakened. House had made sure the baby was ok once before sitting by Cuddy's bed in the recovery room. The child was under a lamp, but otherwise in good condition, the bullet having missed him, barely. By nightfall, the diagnostician was beginning to wonder if Cuddy was ever going to wake up.

Wilson visited and brought him coffee so he could stay awake should she emerge, but he merely sipped the caffeinated liquid. The oncologist stayed until 10, then told House that he would get some things from Cuddy's home so House could stay at the hospital and Cuddy would be more comfortable when she awakened. House simply nodded at this, acknowledging that he had indeed heard Wilson's offer.

The clock ticked by slowly and House was going mad with worry, not glancing away from the woman he loved for more than a minute, desperately hoping that her eyelids would flutter with the intent to open, but the longer he waited, the heavier her breathing it seemed. He refused to sleep and by the morning light looked as though he had aged five years. Cuddy hadn't even stirred and he was beginning to wonder if she would ever wake. Wilson brought him more coffee and food that he ignored in favor of attempting to force her to open her eyes with his sheer will and Wilson left him alone.

Hours dragged on and House was utterly exhausted, but he never left Cuddy's side, refusing to even leave to pee, opting instead to use the basin in the room she had been moved to. He grilled every nurse that came into the room until they stopped coming regularly, then he snarked at them through the calling device about neglecting the Dean of Medicine. As it neared the one day mark since the shooting, he was barely staying awake, propped in a chair and looking through bloodshot eyes at Cuddy's still form.

For a moment as she stirred, he thought that he was hallucinating from a lack of sleep, but he forced himself awake again and focused on her breathing, which became shallower and his heart jumped in his chest. It took nearly half an hour for her to open her eyes after that first shallow stirring breath, but he never took his eyes off of her and was studying her face when her lashes lifted. "House," she breathed.

He let out a relieved half sigh, half laugh and cleared his throat quickly before speaking. "I love you Lisa Cuddy."

"I love you too." She looked at the room around her, taking in some of the familiar accents from her home as well as the equally familiar harsher ones from the hospital. She was covered in the quilt from the back of her couch and a photograph of Rachel sat on her night stand as well as dozens of bouquets of flowers. She moved a bit and realized something was wrong, however. "Where's my baby?" she asked, more frightened than House had ever seen her. He put a gentle hand on her shoulder to keep her from sitting up and she looked at him questioningly.

"You were bleeding into your uterus so they had to take him early. You also had a hysterectomy…sorry, but no more babies."

"But where is he?" she wanted to know.

"In the infant ward. He's fine."

Her eyes lit up. "I want to see him." House nodded and called the nurse. Wilson entered with the blonde girl.

"Bring the baby to his mother," House instructed the girl. "And if you don't mind, ask Cuddy's sister to bring Rachel over here as well," he added to Wilson. When he looked back at Cuddy she had tears shining in her eyes.

"Did you name him?" she asked.

"How does Michael Evan House sound?" he asked, trying to seem stronger than he was at that moment.

"Beautiful," she replied.