Chapter Ten: Don't Ask
Allison was playing catchup. After her impromptu break, Allison found that paperwork had piled up tremendously. It didn't help that Melissa, who was still feeling guilty about dismissing Allison's symptoms, was constantly popping in to check up on her and make sure that the heavily pregnant woman was doing all right.
When Melissa poked her head in for the fifth time that day, Allison's head flung upward from her heaps of paperwork and snapped, "I'M FINE!" She shook a giant water bottle, "And staying hydrated!" It was true, she'd been managing to gulp down continuous amounts of fluids ever since her IV stint.
"Oh, okay." Melissa squeaked, exiting again, looking slightly abashed.
With an almighty sigh, Allison dropped her head once more to the papers in front of her. She'd finally broken down and let Rachel have a virtually free reign, and had resented it ever since. Part of the woman was annoyed that she was practically assigned a desk job, something she'd never anticipated as a doctor. Sure, she'd known that great amounts of paperwork came with the career choice, she just hadn't thought that they would become her career!
And if the taunting pages in front of her weren't enough; that morning she'd discovered that her pants no longer fit. She'd managed to squeeze her changing body into them, leaving the buttons undone, and her shirt tail untucked to hide the fact that the trousers weren't fastened. But, eventually, Allison had been forced to leave the hospital shortly after arriving and acquire a set of maternity pants to get her through the day. The zipper on her pants had gone off the runner and now she couldn't keep them from sliding off! Now, she was dreadfully awaiting the end of the day when she would peruse the maternity shop for a new wardrobe that would adequately clothe the new, pregnancy induced curves of her body.
"Where should I put these?" Michael, Rachel's new subordinate, asked tentatively.
Growling in her throat, Allison glared at the stacks of papers on her desk, "Over there." She snapped with a gesture towards the empty chair in front of her desk.
Michael quickly plopped the new stack of papers onto the chair and made himself scarce.
"I hate my life." Allison grumbled rolling her aching wrist. "Tons of paperwork, a lack of a life, constant surveillance." She muttered in annoyance.
Lisa Cuddy chose to make an appearance during Allison's private ranting. With a shake of her own weary head, the Medical Director sat down in the only chair uncluttered by Allison's paperwork, waiting for the younger woman to take notice.
When Allison looked up to rest her eyes, she jumped at the seemingly sudden appearance of her boss. "What?" She growled.
Lisa merely shrugged, "Thought I'd see how everything was going in here."
Narrowing her eyes, Allison dropped her pen and leaned back into her chair, crossing her arms, "Yes, I seem to be the greatest sideshow attraction in the hospital lately."
"Don't think of it like that." Cuddy waved at her in a dismissing way, "Everyone just wants you to have a healthy pregnancy."
"I'm fine."
"I'm sure you are."
"Then why are you checking up on me?" Allison retorted.
Shrugging again, Lisa leaned into her own chair, "Because as your boss, it's my responsibility to make sure I'm not working you into a potential health hazard."
"Uh huh." Allison glanced at her mountains of papers, "You're doing a great job."
"You're becoming as sarcastic as your husband."
"I always have been."
"No, you usually applied sarcastic tones to true statements." Lisa laughed, "Now, you're an unhealthy mixture of both, and it's difficult to discern which statements are true, and which are truly sarcastic."
"Uh huh." Allison looked back down at her papers, "Maybe one of the kids picked up on it from their dad and I'm channeling them."
"Actually..." Lisa paused, causing Allison to look back up at her, "I was wondering how the two of you wanted to work with three kids."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I assume that you'll take maternity leave, but what about House? The hospital does apply paternity leave, I wasn't sure if you two wanted to take it at the same time though." Lisa explained, "Plus, you will be working long hours, and I wanted to discuss what arrangements you will be making as to how the children will be handled once you return to work."
Allison once again leaned into her chair, this time thoughtfully, "We haven't really discussed it..."
"I thought as much. With everything that's been happening lately, I figured you two would be a bit delayed in making your future arrangements." She smiled softly, almost encouragingly.
Leaning forward now, Allison propped her elbows on her desk and let her chin rest on interlaced fingers, "I don't want to be one of those parents who lets a babysitter or nanny raise their kids." Lisa nodded in understanding, "But, what can we do? Greg and I work long hours, sometimes even on weekends."
"Well, I was thinking that," Lisa raised her hands in a sense of defensiveness, "now this is only a suggestion," she assured, "but, well... House doesn't have too much patient interactions as it is, so I was thinking that perhaps you would be able to bring them to work with you."
"What?" Allison was surprised, "You never let-"
"We've never had two doctors who were married in the same hospital. Not to mention two department heads." Lisa quickly inserted, "And we can't afford to have you two running back and forth all of the time." She immediately added, "Plus, if you're willing to let Rachel continue with her free reign, then you can continue the desk job and just bounce around until the kids at least start kindergarten."
Allison gawked for a moment before shaking her head to snap out of it, "I don't know if... I'll have to talk to Greg about it."
"Allison, you know I like you, and that I respect House." Lisa said firmly, "I don't want to lose either of you."
"I'll need to talk to Greg." Allison responded again in a slightly weaker tone.
"Of course." Lisa smiled as she stood up to leave, "Not to mention, I'm sure the staff would get a kick out of seeing House in "dad-mode"."
Allison laughed, "Don't tell him you said that."
"Of course not." Lisa stuck her tongue out with a cheeky smile, "I'll see you later. Don't work too hard." She said before leaving.
Allison smiled and went back to her paperwork. After another half-hour, she snuck off to her husband's department to meet him for lunch.
"Hello, Cutey." Greg greeted his wife with a soft kiss, "You hungry? I ordered us a pizza. I still have some work to do." He explained.
"You, working?" His wife was shocked.
"Ha ha. Don't worry, it's not school related." He teased, "I've been checking out the local real estate." He explained, handing her some printouts. They were of three houses currently on the market. The pictures were in black and white, but it was still possible to get a good idea of the layout and appearance. "Do you like any of them?" He asked, flopping back onto his desk chair and spinning towards his computer.
Allison glanced through them, reading the stats on the homes. She noted that the prices were blacked out. "Why did you black the prices out?"
"I didn't want you to pick the cheapest one out of humility. I want you to pick the one you really want, not what you think we can afford. Believe me, I've budgeted and only printed out what I knew we could handle." He explained.
Allison laughed, "You're sucha sweety."
"Yeah, well, don't tell anyone."
With an eye roll, Allison kept looking at the homes, "I don't know... They're nice, but..."
"Not your dream home?" He teased. "I've also been looking at empty lots and architects." Greg looked up from the computer, "I figure if we decide relatively soon and hunted down a lot and architect, we could have our house built by december."
"Wow."
"What?"
"You're putting a lot of thought into this." She laughed.
Greg shrugged, "I just want you to be happy."
With a gentle smile, Allison dropped the papers on the couch cushion beside her and walked over to her husband. Without a second thought, she yanked the back of his chair and rolled him away from the computer, spinning him until he faced her and she could straddle his lap. "I love you so much." She sighed, resting her chin on his shoulder, her voice whispering in his ear.
Greg ran his hands down her back, cupping her bottom, "Love you too." His lips moved against her cheek as he spoke, "Do you want to build?" Her reply was a nod against his head.
"Lisa came to talk to me today." She said, still softly against his ear.
"About?"
"Our plans for when the kids arrived. Maternity leave, paternity leave, etcetera, etcetera."
"And you told her?..."
"That we still needed to talk about it."
There was a knock on the glass door to the office, Wilson was standing on the other side, holding a pizza.
"I snagged a slice on the way up with it. How goes the house hunt?" Wilson asked as he came in, tossing the pizza box onto the table.
"And who said you could have any?" Greg's eyes narrowed.
"I bought it! And I went and got it!" Jimmy snarked back.
"Whatever." Greg gave his wife's rear a hard pat to signal her to get up.
They all went to the couch and flopped down, flipping open the pizza box. "So? Houses?" Wilson encouraged the topic.
"We're going to build." Greg said simply, "We'll decide on an architect as soon as we find an empty lot to put it on."
"Wow, you two are really getting a house." Wilson nodded curtly, though his face was somehow surprised. "Chateu House."
"Ghu, not a chateu." Allison's nose scrunched. "I'm not very big on thematics."
"Modern." Greg nodded. "We'll have to choose an architect too, don't forget."
"Great, more planning." Allison mock cheered.
In the middle of their lunch, Chase came into the office unexpectedly, looking excited, "We've got a patient, and it should be an interesting case."
"The last time you said it would be an interesting case, we found that the woman had herpes and a drug problem. You're opinion no longer counts." Greg got up, still munching on a slice of pizza.
"Yeah, well, today we've got a transvestite."
"Is her name Lola?" Greg asked, still looking bored.
"How did you..?" Chase stared at his boss.
"He seriously calls himself Lola?" Wilson asked from the couch.
"Yeah, so?" Chase was still confused.
"Chase, it's gone over your head." Allison added sympathetically.
The Aussie shrugged and left, letting Greg turn to his wife and best friend, "I better make sure she doesn't make him a man."
Both Allison and Wilson chuckled a bit as Greg turned out of the office. Soon, they were eating the rest of the pizza in silence.
"So, how-"
"Ask me how I am and I swear I will shove this pizza box down your throat." Allison threatened.
"All right..." Wilson grimaced, "Anyway, I have to get back to work." He fled for his life.
Allison sighed, leaning heavily against the arm of the couch. She hated that she was getting rather snappy at everyone, but she couldn't help how sick and tired she was getting about hearing the same questions from every single person who spoke to her!
With a weary groan, Allison slid down the length of the couch, resting her head on the arm before dozing off.
"Hello, Sleeping Beauty." Greg smiled as he nudged his wife into consciousness. "Good nap?"
"How long was I out?" She mumbled, rubbing her eyes.
"Only a half an hour." He assured, helping her sit up. "I just remembered though. We were going to discuss our work plans for when the kids are born, and then Jimmy rudely interrupted us." He shook his head, "Distraction via pizza."
Allison laughed, "Well, Cuddy dropped by and was wondering if we were going to take our leave at the same time, or space it out. Like, I take mine, and then you take yours." She shrugged.
"I was thinking that maybe you can take yours in full, and I'll split mine up." Greg told her, "I get, what, 12 weeks or something?" He shrugged, "Anyway, I'll take part of my leave in the beginning, and then negotiate with Cuddy about the rest. So the first month we'll both be gone, and then the remainder, I can just take days off to help you out."
"Sounds like a plan." Allison grinned at him. "Cuddy also offered to let us bring the kids to work until they start kindergarten. I mean, she has a point, I can easily let Rachel do the patient work and just do the paper pushing for a while."
Greg tilted his head, "But that's not what you want..."
"Not really..." She confessed, "I don't know, honey." She leaned against him heavily, "I just feel like I keep having to make decision after decision."
"Yeah," Greg nodded in agreement, "but at least you're not making them alone."
She smiled gently, "Yeah." She agreed.
"By the way," he changed the subject, "Lola has a huge crush on Chase, I can tell."
Allison busted up laughing, "Oh, God!" She choked, wiping her eyes from tears of mirth, "That totally made my day!"
"I thought it would." He grinned at her, "I'll talk to Cuddy about our leave of absence." He assured her, "Now you, from what I hear, have heaps of paperwork. So get back to your job, and I can get back to making fun of Chase."
Allison sat up and kissed her husband before leaving his office.
She just needed to relax. She needed to stop fussing. She needed-
"Hey, Allison, how are you feeling?" A passing nurse asked.
SHE NEEDED PEOPLE TO STOP ASKING THAT QUESTION!
"I'M FINE!" She stomped to her office.
TBC
A/N- Hehe, I'm back (hopefully for good!), and yeah... How goes it? Really quick- The "Lola Joke". For anyone who doesn't get it- it's a reference to a song by the Kinks, called (you guessed it) Lola. Good song, decent message about gender specific roles etc. etc. and yeah. Just in their for making Chase uncomfortable. Review please!-Andi