Disclaimer: I do not own House MD or any of the characters, but I sure as hell wouldn't mind owning Hugh Laurie!
A/N: I'm back from el Caribbean and ready to write more :D So here's the next chapter. I hope you like it, I do. From my calculations there will be probably no more than 4 more chapters, though it could be three or five depending on where this takes me …
Thank you all so much for your reviews and for sticking with me this far, I hope you continue to like the story 'till the end :D
Anyways, Enjoy!
"So?" Cuddy asked when Wilson re-entered her room
"He's going to be fine" he smiled "for a while there, it seemed like he wasn't going to pull through but he's ok now"
Sighing of relief, Cuddy smiled and relaxed into her pillows.
"While you were gone, Dr. Bates came to talk to me" she said
"Oh, and?"
"He wants to keep me in the hospital until the baby is born to make sure there aren't any more complications, but he's letting me move around a little"
"That's great!" said Wilson
"Yea, I can now go to the bathroom of my own accord and take an occasional walk up and down the corridor" she smiled
"That's great news, Lisa!" said Wilson moving closer to her bed "how are you feeling?"
She sighed and smiled "huge, the baby is constantly kicking at my insides and I haven't really moved in over three weeks, but I'm feeling great!" she said and, unlike House before her, Wilson detected no sarcasm in her words.
"You only have, what, a month an a half to go?" Wilson asked and Cuddy nodded
"If he or she doesn't decide to be late, then yes, a month an a half" when she finished the sentence, Cuddy fell silent, and so did Wilson.
There were only 6 weeks to go and she still hadn't told him. Time was most definitely running out and, as they sat there in silence, they both knew that.
"Lisa?"
"Hmm?"
"Are you going to talk to him?" asked Wilson
Silently, Cuddy hung her head "How do I tell him?" she asked "its bad enough that he doesn't like kids and never wanted any of his own, but to have him be hurt by me lying to him, by … I don't know if I can …"
"But you told him" said Wilson trying to convince her "you stood next to him and told him!"
She smiled "its surprisingly easy to talk to House when he's not really listening"
Wilson shook his head "you're both idiots" he said, not as an insult, but as the truth, and Cuddy nodded.
"If you don't tell him now, are you ever going to?"
Cuddy shrugged "I honestly don't know, James" and a single tear fell down her face.
"Hey" he comforted her
"I should have told him before …" cried Cuddy
"Come here" said Wilson taking her into a hug as he sat next to her on the bed
Wiping her tears, Cuddy pulled back from Wilson "I'm fine" she nodded.
"You sure?"
"Yea … just hormones" she replied with a smile
"Ok, then" he said standing from the bed "look, can I give you some advice?"
"Uh, sure …"
"The way I see it, you have two options. Either you both get over whatever it is that is making you both so stubborn and do something about it, and by that, I mean you do something about it. Or you both move on and forget all of this …" said Wilson, knowing perfectly well that the second option was one that he, Cuddy and, even, House would never agree with.
Nodding, she agreed. It was true, there really were only two options open to her. Either she went for it, or she didn't. Yet that was much simpler said than done.
"I want him to know, Wilson, you know I do … but I can't"
Nodding, Wilson decided to drop the subject for now "right now, all you have to focus on is keeping that" he pointed at her stomach "baby safe, anything else can wait, ok?"
Thankful that the conversation was over, Cuddy nodded and smiled. Wilson was right. Her baby came first, anything else would have to come second.
As Cuddy and House remained in the hospital over the following weeks, they didn't talk. Not even once. To be fair, they were both on bed rest, House being allowed to walk only a little around his room to keep his already injured leg active and Cuddy being allowed to walk only to the end of the corridor. It was only through Wilson that either of them found out how the other was doing and, surprisingly, they were both perfectly alright with that.
"How are we feeling today?" Dr. Bates asked Cuddy as he entered the room with his clip board in hand
"Tired" she replied with a smile
"Well, you have been carrying a little human being for eight months, it's only fair that you should feel a little tired" he said, he too smiling. Pulling the ultrasound machine closer to her bed, he spoke "lets take a look, shall we?"
Already used to the daily check ups – one of the perks of being dean of medicine – Cuddy didn't even flinch as the cold gel hit her abdomen.
"Everything looks good in here" the doctor spoke, mostly to himself "amniotic sac looks good, and, wow …"
"What is it?!" Cuddy asked suddenly alarmed
"You have a fully grown baby in here, Dr. Cuddy!" smiled Dr. Bates
"Fully grown as in … ?"
"As in, odds are you'll be delivering this little kid earlier than we thought" he smiled
Suddenly Cuddy felt herself start to panic "how much earlier?!"
"Well, I don't want to be too specific, but I wouldn't be surprised if it happened within the next week …"
"The next week?!" Cuddy asked still unable to believe what she was being told.
Dr. Bates nodded "Yep, any longer and we'll have to induce labour … this little guy has certainly benefitted from your hospital stay! If we were to wait for the 9 month mark, I'm afraid it would be too big and, since this is already a high risk pregnancy, I don't want to risk any further complications"
Nodding, Cuddy took a deep breath as Dr. Bates wiped the gel away and returned the ultrasound machine to its proper place.
"Are you ok?" he asked her suddenly noticing the frightened look on her face
Nodding, Cuddy spoke "Yea, yea, I'm fine, uh … could you call Dr. Wilson for me?"
"Sure" the obstetrician nodded as he left the room.
"Cuddy's going to have the baby within a week" Wilson told House as he took a seat in the chair opposite his bed in his new, private room.
"Huh?" House asked slightly distracted by the cross-word puzzle he'd been doing; in pen.
"Cuddy" Wilson repeated "is going" pause "to have. The baby. Within a week"
"She's only 8 months along" said House suddenly looking up "she's got another month to go …"
Smiling at House's badly-hidden concern, Wilson explained "Bates says the baby's already fully grown, if we let her hit the 9 month mark, she might not be able to handle labour …"
Nodding, House didn't speak and, instead, returned to his cross-word.
"You do realise this means your kid will be here in less than a week, right?" he asked House, just to be sure he'd been paying attention.
"No, it means Cuddy's baby will be born within a week" House clarified looking up at Wilson with a face that told the Oncologist to drop the subject.
"House …"
"Don't" House suddenly spoke in the kind of serious tone Wilson had never really heard from him.
"I didn't …"
"You were going to try one of your usual tactics to change my mind" House spoke as he studied the paper in front of him
"Well …"
"I've made my mind up. It's her baby, I can't …"
"Oh, cut the crap, House!" Wilson was now angry "we both know that's not what you think! You told me, you told me that it was your kid! And, what? Now you're just going to give up?"
"Look at me, Wilson!" House replied, his anger matching Wilson's as he motioned to his neck brace, scraped face and bandaged arm "I could have died! How many times in the past years have I ended up in a hospital bed? Huh? Do you really think I'm the most indicated guy to be a father?"
"It's not up to me, it's up to Cuddy and she wants y…"
House shook his head "I know what its like to hate your father, I know what it did to my father to have me hate him … I'm not going to do that to myself or that kid …" he shook his head again "my mother could have done a perfect job by herself, she didn't need him around, and neither did I. A kid doesn't need a mother and a father, not when the father is a screw up, not when …"
"House! Will you shut up!" said Wilson standing up "you think you're going to be your father?! You think that little baby is going to hate you?! Maybe you really shouldn't do this, you obviously don't understand a thing about it …"
Shaking his head and giving House a sad look, Wilson left the room, unable to hear House's self pity anymore.
Now alone, House hung his head. Well that had gone smoothly.
But he was right. He wouldn't be any good at it. Not only did he not know the first thing about being a good father, he was a major risk. He rode a motorcycle every day, he landed himself in a hospital bed at least 4 times a year, his job entailed dealing with unknown diseases that could be contagious and deadly. He just, simply, wasn't someone who should be a father. What he couldn't understand was why no one else could understand that.
He'd already admitted to wanting his kid, but that didn't mean he was about to ruin its life. He was at least that much of a human being. So why the hell did Wilson have to keep going there?
"House?" came Foreman's voice from the doorway interrupting his thoughts.
"yea?"
"How you feeling?" apparently it was time for his check up "any back pain?"
House shook his head "no back pain, but my leg's aching like all hell, thing you could do something about that?"
Shaking his head with a slight grin, Foreman spoke "you're maxed out on your painkillers. In three days you're going to be discharged, feel free to go crazy with your Vicodin then, for now, you have as much morphine as we can give you"
As he watched Foreman leave, House looked over at his IV drip. Damn, he was right, he was at the maximum. Then why the hell was his leg still killing him?
TBC
I hope you enjoyed that, I certainly liked writing it and, since I didn't leave you with a cliffy, I'll just tell you this: I have a feeling you're going to like the next chapter, no really! :P
Thank you for reading!
Please leave a review!
CJS-DEPPendent