Title: Parasitic
Chapter Nine: Uno, Dos, Tres
"Oh my God." Allison said breathlessly when she stepped into the kitchen the morning after her stint in the hospital.
"What?" Greg grumbled, scrubbing the kitchen counter with a look of malice in his eyes.
"You..." She rounded the kitchen counter and looked in the empty and sparkling sink, "You're cleaning!"
Throwing down the paper towel, Greg looked at his wife, "I'm just trying to make things easier on you." He mumbled, and Allison was left giggling over how adorable she thought he was.
"Come here." Allison hopped up onto the counter he'd just cleaned off, tugging him between her knees to hold his head to her chest, "You're amazing." She combed his hair with her fingertips.
"What do you want for breakfast?" Greg nuzzled against his wife's throat.
"Frosted wheat."
"I can do frosted wheat." He nodded, ducking down and into a cabinet. Emerging with the box of cereal, he set it next to his wife's leg, opened another cabinet to his right and grabbed a bowl, and lifted her leg to prop onto his shoulder so he could pull out a drawer beside his hip to grab a spoon.
"Too bad you're not Mr. Fantastic. Then you could get the milk without getting out from between my legs." She teased.
"It has nothing to do with milk. You just want me to have a larger penis." He teased back, pouring the cereal into the bowl before finally leaving his spot between her legs to retrieve the milk from the fridge.
"Baby, if your dick was any bigger, we'd have to completely cease sexual activity until after the kids were born just for their safety." Allison laughed as he came back with the milk and poured it into the bowl as well.
Allison jumped when the microwave beeped. She hadn't even been paying enough attention to notice it had been on. Some of the milk in her cereal bowl splashed out and coated her t-shirt with chilled milk.
"Drink this with your breakfast." Greg opened the microwave and handed her a mug.
Smelling it, Allison wrinkled her nose, "What is it?"
"Ginger root tea."
Allison groaned, she knew she remembered that smell, "My high school choir teacher used to make us drink this before performances." She sipped it and made a face, "I never did like it!"
Greg laughed as his wife ate her breakfast. However, when she looked at the clock, she nearly dropped her cereal, "Greg! Greg, we have to get to work!" She yelped, setting down the bowl and nearly dashing towards the bedroom.
"No, I called us off." He hollered after her, "You need another day to maintain stable hydration, and I don't trust you by yourself." He went to their bedroom, finding Allison half undressed. "I gotta stay home and babysit you."
"And what's on your activities list?" Allison teased.
"Movies, food, tv, food... And I think baby needs a bath." He joked, wrapping his arms around his half naked wife.
"Mm, can we do the bath part first?" Her arms rose to wrap around his neck.
"Whatever you like." He assured. "What do you say, little ones?" He knelt down awkwardly, placing his hand over her belly, "Ready for bath time?" He asked, planting noisy kisses on her tummy.
Allison shook her head in wonderment, "If only the folks at work could see you like this."
"Tell them, and our kids might find out what it's like growing up without a mother." He leered.
"Talking to the babies as if they could here him," she shook her head again, "Like they've developed an external auditory meatis; let alone an auditory system."
"Don't make me hurt you."
"In that cute little voice you do when you're talking to them-"
"THAT'S IT!" Greg rose quicker than Allison thought him capable, wrapping his arms around her thighs and hoisting Allison over his shoulder.
"Chatting away with my tummy!" She went on relentlessly.
Greg carried Allison into the bathroom and set her on top of the sink, inside the basin.
"The Menacing Doctor HOUSE-AH!!" Allison shrieked as Greg turned on the tap to the sink, and cold water went splashing against the base of her spine. Her panties were immediately soaked, and Allison struggled to lift herself out of the sink. "You jerk!" She gave a weak kick, catching him in the gut, but she'd been so distracted with lifting her bottom out of the way of the water, that her kick was more of a shove.
"You done making fun of me?" Greg asked, cupping her soaked butt, and holding her out of the faucet's spray.
Her eyes were defiant, "Cute baby voice." Allison's voice was more stern than the phrase deserved to express, and quicker than she could say the three words, Greg had dropped her once more into the sink.
"AH!" Allison flung her arms out to wrap around his neck, her legs doing likewise to his hips. "Manly! Manly Dr. House! Doesn't speak to growing fetuses that can't here him!" She assured, and Greg turned off the water to the sink.
"Much better." Greg turned and let Allison drop herself from her scared cat body wrap position. "Arms up." He told her as his hands went to play with the elastic of her underwear. Allison raised her hands, and Greg quickly pulled her baggy t-shirt off of her body, before doing the same with her soaked underpants.
Leaning against the sink, Allison watched as her husband got the water going in the bathtub. Her head tilted as he bent over to put the stopper in the drain, and Greg saw the little motion in the reflection off of the large, silver faucet of the bathtub.
"And what are you looking at?" he asked without turning to look at her.
"A very, very nice ass." she smirked, even though the little grin was not noticeable through the distorted reflection.
Turning around Greg twirled his finger, making Allison quirk an eyebrow before giving him a little spin. With a nod, he straightened up entirely and went to his wife, wrapping his hands around her waist to cup her bottom, "Yours is nicer." He assured.
"Arms up." Allison said nonchalantly.
He did so, and Allison tugged his shirt off of him before pushing down his pajama pants. Climbing into the bathtub, Greg spread his knees so Allison could nestle up between them. Her hand rested on top of one of his knees her other trailing its fingertips against the inside of his thigh.
"Why, Mrs. House, are you trying to seduce me?" Greg asked in mock surprise.
"Try nothing," Allison replied cheekily, "I succeeded."
"Uh huh."
"Baby, I can feel you against my back," she tilted her head to stare at him pointedly, "I'm pretty sure you're seduced."
"Such trickery."
Allison replied with nothing more than to stick out her tongue at him playfully.
"Ally," House began wearily, "I thought I should tell you that I invited your family over for dinner this weekend."
Mouth slackening, Allison stared at her husband in utter horror, "Are you kidding me!?"
"I thought it was time to-"
"Greg," she interrupted worriedly, "I... Umm..."
"You're not still-"
"No! It's nothing like that! It's just... Well..." She nibbled her bottom lip against her teeth, "I sort of... Invited your dad... For dinner on Saturday night..."
"YOU WHAT!?" Allison could feel his entire body tense against her back, "Allison-"
"I had to!" Her voice was pleading, "I was going to tell you tonight; I swear! It's just-"
"You thought I needed to-"
"Because you've been so worried about-"
"Being the same father-"
"And he deserves to know-"
"That he's going to be a grandfather-"
"I did it more for your-"
"Mom... Than for-"
"Him."
There eyes met as Allison had twisted to look him dead in the eyes, "I understand." He said breathlessly.
"I love you."
"I love you too." He smiled weakly, "Mom would want him to know."
"You're not mad at me?" Her voice was as weak as his smile.
"No. Never mad at you." Greg assured, nuzzling Allison's neck, a sound similar to a sigh escaping his lips, but it held more than an exhaled breath; it spoke of a long suffering.
"You'll see just how much you aren't him." She kissed his chin.
-------------------------
That Saturday seemed to arrive without another blink of the eyes, for soon enough, Allison was scurrying around the condo; she was doing her usual "guests are coming over" routine.
When Allison's parents buzzed to be let in, Allison gave the place one more quick glance before smoothing the front of her simple red and black dress. Mr. and Mrs. Cameron were ushered into the apartment with warm hugs from Allison and even Greg.
"We weren't planning on coming up until March," Mrs. Cameron shrugged out of her ankle length coat, sure signs that the east coast winter was in full effect, "but Greg called and I think we can guess what's going on?" She hinted, a twinkle in her eyes.
"Maaaaaybeeee..." Allison looked upward, a cute feign of innocence on her face.
"By the way, we didn't get a chance to call you and give you a heads up, but my father will be joining us this evening. I don't think he'll be here long if our last encounter is anything to go by." Greg hinted darkly, remembering vividly the Thanksgiving that John and his mother had shown up unexpectedly.
"Really? He wasn't at the wedding..." Matthew frowned, trying to remember if Greg's father had been there and his mind just refused to call upon the memory.
"No, he wasn't." Allison assured, "Greg's father wasn't too happy about us-"
A buzz came, signalling that more of the family had arrived. Allison quickly buzzed back to admit them entrance.
Soon the rest of Allison's family was in the condo, both of her brothers flocking around Allison excitedly while Lolie held Allison's nephew, Daniel, in her hands, trying to dodge tiny fists as her son thrashed.
"Well!?" Stephen yelped, "Well, well!?" Morgan had to hold his partner back to keep Stephen from shaking the poor youngest sibling.
"Jeez!" Allison couldn't help giggling.
There was another buzz, and everyone in the apartment paused as Greg's head whipped to look at the door. An awkward silence preluded Allison's short walk to the door, and everyone waited quietly until there was a knocking.
Holding her breath, Allison opened the door, admitting John into the apartment, "Good afternoon." She said in an even voice, even though part of her was automatically going into protective mode.
"Afternoon." He returned with a rather rigid nod of his head, sliding out of his coat. Allison immediately held out her hand to take it from him, always the gracious hostess despite flaring contempt.
John, however, hooked the coat over his forearm, letting it fold over his wrist. The tan coat pinched against his stomach as his hands folded; Allison's hand dropped.
"I suppose you asked me over to tell me you're pregnant." John didn't even state it as a question, more like an accusation.
The response the statement got was more than dramatic. Not only Allison's brothers shouldered against Allison, feeling the need to put a united front against her father-in-law, but the entire family. It was as if a wall had formed in the little space between Allison and the door, trapping John in between the two, seemingly iron-like, confines. Everyone had formed into a semi-circle, effectively trapping John, making his choice obvious; either play nice, or get the fuck out.
Apparently, playing nice wasn't in John House's social skills, for he merely untucked his coat from its place between his stomach and arm, and slid back into it. Unfortunately, his exit was not a silent one, "Hopefully you'll grow some common sense and leave him before he completely screws the kid up." John muttered as he flung the door open, but didn't get a chance to walk out of it before Greg's hand flew out and clasped like a vice onto his father's shoulder.
There was a slight recoil, almost imperceptible, but Greg felt it under his hand. Pulling his father close, Greg got his lips as close to the man's ear as he could, whispering from behind his back, something that no one else could hear. It must have been an alarming something, for John spun around, a wide eyed look consuming his features, one of near helplessness. However, Greg did nothing more than give his father a slight shove and slam the door in his face.
Turning around to look at his in-laws and his wife, Greg felt a bit nervous. He wasn't embarrassed by his father, everyone knew that because he'd blatantly said how much of an asshole the man was plenty of times. But the look on his wife's face made his heart break, she appeared ready to cry.
"This... That..." Allison began in a nasally voice as the wall of family members started to break away, taking the strength Allison had experienced in its embrace. "That was... That..." She spun on her heel and ran for the bedroom.
Greg only paused long enough to notice that Mrs. Cameron and Lolie were crying, Morgan not looking quite stable either, and that both Allison's father and brothers had taken to pacing. Then, Greg ran after Allison and curled up with her on their bed with Kane.
"Th-that wasn't-"
"I know." Greg murmured to his wife, pressing his mouth into her hair, "You didn't see it happening that way."
"I mean," she sniffled, "I-I didn't e-expect a fairytale e-ending, b-but," she sniffled again, "I di-didn't think he-he'd." She began to cry in earnest.
Kane rested her head on Allison's hip, her doggy eyes sorrowful as well, apparently channeling her owner's hurt.
"I-I didn't e-even get to t-tell my family." She choked. "I didn't get t-to say-"
"Shh." Greg held her tightly, "You can still say it."
"It's empty now."
"There's still a surprise."
"It'll be empty excitement."
"No, it won't." He assured.
"Do you think if we just stay in here, they'll all leave?" She whispered quietly, apparently soft spoken words kept her voice from breaking with sobs.
"I doubt it."
As he said this, they heard the front door close, and Allison began to cry again. "I didn't actually want them to leave!" She wailed, burying her face against her husband's chest.
"Maybe Lolie forgot one of Daniel's toys in the car." He reasoned, not wanting to leave her to check.
"Stop being optimistic!" She keened.
"One of us has to be," he glowered, "and you've been Miss Pessimistic lately, so I've been having to pick up your optimism slack." He teased weakly.
That comment at least stopped her from crying as hard.
Kane let out a low groan, and then a knock came at the door making Allison and Greg jump. The person on the other side didn't wait for a response, for the door flung open and Allison's family cascaded in.
"CONGRATULATIONS!" Everyone shouted, Bryce coming up the rear with a giant cake that was blue and pink frosted with baby blocks drawn in icing and "Mommy-to-Be" written on the blocks.
Swiping away tears, Allison sat up and sniffled a bit, raising her arms up like a toddler wanting to be picked up. Mrs. Cameron immediately fell to the bed and hugged Allison, rocking side to side.
"Let's serve up that dinner." Jenny Cameron whispered in her daughters ear, getting a weak nod as a response. The two women got up and went to the kitchen, leaving Greg with his remaining in-laws.
"Thanks." Greg mumbled, "I should have tried to get a hold of you guys and had you come on Friday night instead of today-"
"It's okay." Matthew assured. "She'll be fine."
"It's still not fair though." Lolie glowered, and Greg wondered if it was directed at him. "You weren't lying, your dad really is a jack ass. What kind of guy ruins a woman's pregnancy announcement? Seriously!?"
"Well," Greg scratched his head, "we've got a couple other things to announce tonight."
"Ooh! Really?" Lolie squealed, "Well, let Ally do it."
"I will." He assured, and everyone trouped out the bedroom door and back to the living room. Kane followed close at Greg's heels, not wanting to be left out.
Setting her son down, Lolie followed Stephen into the kitchen to help serve the food Allison had prepared. Daniel crawled about the floor, making his way towards the large piano off to the side of the main floor of the living room. Kane lifted her head from where she lay under the massive instrument. The dog observed the little boy with peaked interest, her face wavering slightly from side to side, sniffing the air curiously. With a giant yawn, Daniel got up close to Kane's face and everyone watched with baited breath, for Kane had never been formerly exposed to small children. Morgan made a slight motion to go into defensive action, but he needn't have worried. Kane merely watched the baby wriggle closer and closer until he was right next to her. As Daniel snuggled up against Kane, resting his tiny head against the dog's ribs, a bitty hand curling into her soft fur, Kane flopped her head back down with a soft sigh.
Everyone let out a long exhale, obviously grateful that Kane didn't get defensive. On the contrary, the mutt curled tighter around the little boy, offering additional body warmth before falling into a light slumber herself.
"Dinner's ready." Jenny placed the final dish on the dining table.
As everyone was seated and drinks were served, they all fell silent, looking at Allison expectantly.
"Well?" They all chorused when Allison remained silent.
With a shadow of her earlier playful smile, Allison cleared her throat and stood up, tugging Greg's sleeve. "Well," she began, her cheeks flushing, "Greg's dad did manage to spoil the announcement of the baby, but," her smile turned into a grin, "I'd like to announce that we're having two-"
There was a large uproar, everyone standing up and embracing the parents to be; the food was temporarily forgotten.
"And, Greg, honey?" Allison cued.
"And," he rolled his eyes at his wife, picking up on how she'd planned to announce the multiple package, "I'd like to announce that we're having three." Everyone went silent, quickly catching on and letting out another shout of joy.
"THREE! TRIPLETS!" Lolie cried.
"Tres!?" Bryce asked excitedly
"Trois!?" Was Morgan's addition.
"San." Greg nodded, "Are we going to go through every possible language we know for the word "three"?"
"I think English, French, Spanish and Japanese cover all the bases." Jenny rubbed her eyes.
"Oh, is that what language "san" is?" Mr. Cameron looked bemused.
"Yes." Chorused Bryce, Stephen and Allison.
"I can't believe it... Triplets." Morgan fell into his chair heavily. "You two are going to have a handful!"
"Are you planning on getting a bigger place?" Lolie asked as everyone got back to their seats and began serving up their dinner plates with heaping amounts of smashed, redskin potatoes, pomegranate glazed chicken breast, and asparagus. Again, Greg watched in amusement, as he always did, when the family began dividing up their plates into the parts they liked the most. The stalks and spears of the asparagus were chopped up and divided amongst the group over who preferred which pieces. Only Mr. Cameron and Greg kept their entire lengths of asparagus to themselves. Maybe the urge to do this ran on Jenny's side of the family, Greg thought with growing interest. Was that trait based on heredity?
"We're thinking of getting a house a little later on. They won't need too much space right away..." Allison thought momentarily. "Right?"
"You might want to start looking soon." Lolie stabbed an asparagus stem with her fork, "Once they get a hang of crawling, they'll be all over the place! Daniel's been able to stand up with our help, but sometimes we're chasing after him even though he can only crawl!"
"And you're going to have three of them crawling around in every direction." Bryce pointed out.
"Not to mention," Stephen was diving into the redskin potatoes, "finding and purchasing a home can take a while, and you don't want to be rushing it. Starting to look now would probably be a good idea."
"It took Stephen and I months to agree on a good place to look for a house! And then when we decided on that, it took even longer to find one we both wanted!" Morgan whined. "The animals were a pain to move by themselves, plus the furniture. Then you got to think about decorating, because you're obviously going to have more rooms to fill up." He teased.
"Are you trying to exhaust us with the details?" Greg asked dryly, his narrowed eyes showing just the faintest hint of amusement.
"Yes." Stephen, Morgan, Bryce and Lolie all chimed together.
"They're not exaggerating though." Mrs. Cameron pointed out regretfully, "I agree that you two should start hitting the real estate market soon."
"Thank God for the internet." Allison groaned.
"Do you think we can find a house in Mercer County that's not too far from work?" Greg frowned.
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Allison beamed, "But right now, let's just glow in the idea that we'll soon be proud house owners."
"My optimist has returned!" Greg rejoiced, grateful that he would no longer have to carry her weight in that area. Let whatever higher power forbid he actually have a charming personality in the work place!
"You're just glad you don't have to worry about being nice to Chase." Allison glared playfully.
"Pretty much." He smirked darkly in return.
Rolling her eyes, Allison shook her head and quickly changed the subject, "Desert, anyone?"
The family quickly voiced their want for the french silk pie Allison had made, and she quickly rose to retrieve it.
The remainder of the evening was spent playing card games and watching a film before the family dispersed. With a weary sigh, Allison looked at the dishes that needed to be done, and regretfully banished herself to the kitchen.
Catching his wife about the waist, Greg placed his chin on her shoulder, "You go to bed, Ally," he whispered in her ear, "I'll get this." He jerked his head at the dishes.
A tired smile consumed her lips as she turned in his loose embrace, "You're amazing." She sighed, kissing his mouth with a glow of admiration, "I love you."
"Love you too." He returned, "Now, off to bed!"
Without reluctance, Allison turned and retreated down the hallway, "Lazy day tomorrow?" She asked, turning back to the kitchen.
Nodding his head, Greg leaned against the counter where the sink was, "Yup, just you, me, and the tv."
"Sounds great."
"Love you."
Allison grinned, "Love you." And she hopped down to the bedroom, ready for bed.
TBC
A/N- Yo, everyone! Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for waiting. Soon, very soon I will be back to my regular postings! I promise! (Crosses heart!) Review please!-Andi