Chapter 18: Busy Day

"Momma!" Jason cried from his high chair in the kitchen.

"In a minute honey!" Gabrielle replied. She was rushing through the house to try and find her phone book. She needed to look for someone else to watch Jason for the day since her usual nanny had to call off with the flu. She had to leave in ten minutes, and she just wasn't finding what she needed.

"Momma!" Jason yelled even louder this time.

Gabrielle stood straight up in the living room where she had been digging through the coffee table drawer. "All right," she sighed in defeat and then marched into the kitchen. Jason, who was crying, immediately looked up and smiled to her. "Do you think you can handle coming to work with mommy today?" she questioned.

Jason just laughed.

Gabrielle smirked. "That's exactly what I was afraid of," she stated and then picked him up. "Your face has already been cleaned and you're dressed. I have a diaper bag already ready. So far we're doing good."

"Nope," Jason replied and then laughed.

"Right," Gabrielle responded and then finished getting Jason ready to leave.

ooo

House casually stepped into the conference room and hung his cane on the edge of the table as he got himself a cup of coffee. His entire team sat there, watching him. "I know I'm a remarkable human being, but you have to draw the line somewhere," he stated.

"You could have told us that you were going to be three hours late," Chase mentioned.

"You're right, I could have," House agreed and then took a sip. "But I didn't."

"Any reason why?" Foreman questioned.

House shrugged and then made his way back over to the whiteboard. "The real question here is, is this any of my business. In either case though, the answer is no," he explained.

"I know that you're wife was at a meeting while you were gone," Morgan announced. "Does that by any chance mean anything?"

"Yeah? Who's my wife?" House implored. Even though the two had been married for a while, they didn't talk about it much at work. They each wore their wedding rings, but they let people figure it out for themselves. At first, there was talk about it, but it had been ten years already. The talk had faded quite a bit and people moved on to new things. Reynolds had been there about four years and Morgan had only been there a little under a year. House had made sure to tell Chase, Foreman, and Wilson not to mention it to them and Cuddy would never mention it at work anyways.

Morgan smugly smiled to him for a moment. "Cuddy," she answered.

"Are you sure?" he questioned.

Morgan nodded to him. "There's a picture on your desk, of your kids. The one girl looks exactly like her, and then the little boy, he doesn't look exactly like her, but you can tell. And I know you're married because of the ring," she explained.

House nodded in approval. "You snooped around my office," he said.

"I wanted to know why you were late," she replied.

"I like the skills, but hate having my things looked through. Don't do it again," he sternly informed her.

ooo

Cuddy casually stepped into her office and closed the door behind her. The meeting with the board went well, which put her in a relatively good mood for the morning. Approaching her desk though, she stopped for a minute and examined a small box that was just sitting there. Nothing too fancy, if anything, it looked like a really cheap jewelry box. A simple, small wooden crate that opened on top.

With her curiosity suddenly sparked, she went around to the other side of her desk and sat down, carefully eyeing the box. Upon opening it, she saw two items, a folded note and a pair of ruby earrings. Smiling, she took the note out and unfolded it.

The earrings go with that red dress. Wear it tonight, I need to see Patty and Selma. We are going out. You can thank me afterwards, no dress is a requirement.

Cuddy smirked and folded the note back up and placed it back into the box. House wanted to do something nice for her, she was going to let him.

ooo

Gabrielle walked into the classroom with Jason in her arms. At the moment, she was just happy that she had made it before any of the children had shown up. "Okay," she sighed out, setting him down on the rug. She knelt down and smiled to him. "Do you think that you can behave yourself today?" she implored.

Jason looked up to her and laughed.

"You need to stop doing that before mommy has a panic attack," Gabrielle stated, keeping her smile pasted to her face. Trying to figure something out to keep him busy, she looked around the room and spotted the blocks. They were perfect, too big for him to stick in his mouth and choke on and he could entertain himself with them. He had similar ones in his room that he liked to build towers with and then knock down. "You wanna go play with the blocks?" she offered, pointing to them.

"Yeah!" Jason said and then got up and rushed over to the shelf that they were on.

Gabrielle stood up and smiled. Today might just work out.

"Hi Mrs. Richards!"

Gabrielle looked over and smiled to the young girl as she walked in. Her long blonde hair was in pigtails, the bows matching her pink long sleeved dress and red jacket. "Hi Cassie. How are you this morning?" she asked.

"Good," Cassie replied as she took her backpack over to the hook on the wall with her name above it. When she turned back around, she spotted Jason. "Hey! He's not supposed to be here!" she announced, pointing to him. "He's too little!"

"Who's here?" Kirk asked, quickly rushing over.

Gabrielle laughed. "That's my son, Jason. He's just going to be here with us today. That okay with you two?"

They both said yes and went to go play. As each kid walked in, they stopped to ask the same question, and she would give them the same answer. The day went pretty smoothly. Gabrielle started out by having the kids tell her what day of the week it was and the date. She then had them practice writing their names. Then they played a reading game. During all of this, Jason was able to keep out of trouble. Lunch time and recess came and Gabrielle stayed in the room with Jason while the kids went to the cafeteria and out to the playground. Afterwords though, Jason decided that he needed more attention.

"All right everyone! Come here and sit down in a circle on the rug!" Gabrielle instructed to the class.

Everyone did as they were told. Jason stayed back at one of the tables and colored.

"Okay, since today is Friday, we are going to share what we are going to do this weekend," Gabrielle explained. Gabrielle took her spot on the floor with the kids, making sure that she could see Jason. Once she realized she could, she smiled over to the little boy who was sitting to the left of her. "Okay, Evan, you get to go first this time."

"My mommy's having a baby, so I have to go stay with my granny," he explained.

Jason perked his head up and looked over. "Hey!" he called over to them. "My mommy's having a baby too!" he announced.

Maria, who was sitting closest to tables, looked to Gabrielle with a huge smile. "Really?" she asked.

Gabrielle sighed and then looked over to Maria. "Yes it is," she answered.

Jason got down from his seat and made his way over to the circle.

"Jason honey, you interrupted Evan. I think you should say you're sorry to him and let him finish his story," Gabrielle said.

Evan shook his head. "Nope. I was done," he replied.

Henry, turned and looked to Gabrielle. "Mrs. Richards?"

"Yes Henry?" Gabrielle questioned.

"How do you know you're having a baby? Shouldn't your belly be bigger?" he asked.

Gabrielle laughed. She was about to tell him that the doctor told her, but Jason started talking before she could.

"My daddy, he says that he knew cus, cus she wanted to do it a lot," Jason explained, causing Gabrielle to drop her face into her hands. This was not the discussion she wanted to be having right now. Jason looked over to Gabrielle. "Momma? What's it?" he asked.

Gabrielle slowly looked up to him and forced herself to smile. "I was calling people to tell them about the baby. That's what it was," she lied.

ooo

After school was out, Gabrielle took Jason over to Princeton-Plainsboro. Something told her that her nanny would cancel for Monday too, and she did not want to have to take him along with her after today. She made her way up to House's office and stepped in. "Hey daddy," she greeted, carrying Jason on her hip.

"No," House answered, staring at his computer.

"I don't want you to watch him tonight. You already told me what you were planning on doing tonight. I thought I might offer to take the kids to my house so that you can do her without waiting for everyone to get to sleep or how ever you do it," she explained.

House turned and looked up to her. "All right," he said. "When are you dropping the rugrat off then?" he questioned.

Gabrielle stepped closer and smiled. "Well, his nanny's got the flu," she started. "I thought maybe Monday, you could take him?"

House just looked to her for a minute. "Go ask Lisa," he stated.

Gabrielle nodded. "All right," she replied and then turned to leave. As she approached the door though, Morgan and Chase stepped in.

"Hey Gabi," Chase greeted.

"Hey, and I know what you were about to ask, and yes, I can still watch Erin for you Saturday night," she responded.

"Thank you," he replied and then continued to House's desk as Gabrielle walked out the door.

"You two found nothing?" House asked, leaning forward.

"We did find a lot of mold in his house," Morgan informed him. She then turned back and looked towards the door and then back to him. "She born before or after you were married?" she implored.

"Before. And the infection is in his blood now, so put him on the broad spectrum," House instructed.

Chase nodded and left the room. Morgan, however stuck around. "How many years before?" she questioned.

House sighed. "None of your business," he stated and then got up and headed out of the room.

ooo

"Please mom?" Gabrielle nearly begged. She was standing before Cuddy's desk while Jason sit on the couch.

Cuddy looked up to her and smiled. "All right, I'll watch him for you on Monday," she decided. She then looked up to her, puzzled. "What did you do with him today?"

Gabrielle sighed and crossed her arms. "I took him to school with me today. While we were there, I also found out that Andy had mentioned how H - O - R - N- Y I get the first few months I'm pregnant. He went on to tell the class that that was how Andy knew that I was, because we did it a lot," she explained. One more thing that she was mad at Andy for. He still had yet to mention the letter.

Cuddy smirked as she looked over to Jason. "Did you tell the other kids about what your daddy said about mommy?" she inquired.

Jason looked up and nodded. "Yes!" he answered.

Cuddy then looked back up to Gabrielle. "I could probably just stay home with him," she stated.

"Thank you so much!" Gabrielle replied. She went over and grabbed Jason off the couch. "Say bye bye to grandma," she told him.

"Bye bye!" he called out to her.

"Bye Jason," Cuddy responded.

And, for today, a lighter chapter. Thought I could really use one. I know that none of the kids were in this one, but they will be in the next one. Let me know what you think. Also, happy 4th of July! Hope it isn't too hot where you're at. Right here, its pretty close to 100, so I'm didn't go to any cook out nor am I going to see any fireworks.