A/N: Hey all, thanks for the great comments. Thanks to Cherokee Jedi for being my whiteboard.

Haven't posted a disclaimer in a while but here goes. I don't own House. If I did, he would have crashed his car into David Shore's house, then got out and shoved that hairbrush where the sun don't shine. :)

Remember...The man we know as House is a work in progress. Even the smallest steps are huge strides for him. He fights the demons every day but with the love and support of the people he cares about most, he will learn he can handle anything!

The next morning, around nine o'clock House awoke and frowned when he realized he was alone in the bed. For a moment he thought he'd hallucinated Cuddy sleeping next to him until he saw her laptop on the chair next to his bed and breathed a sigh of relief. He sighed and threw off his sheet and looked at the damage to his leg. It was bruised in the area near the scar but he felt no pain. He noticed the morphine drip was set at a low level. While he did not welcome the eventual return of the pain, the last thing he wanted now was to get used to having no pain at all. He swung his left leg over the side of the bed and used both hands to carefully move his right one when suddenly the door to his room swung open.

"House! What are you doing?" Wilson rushed over to the bed to help him.

"I've got to piss like a racehorse. But first..." He reached over and lowered his morphine dose to zero and disconnected the drip from his arm.

"Are you sure about this?"

"Gotta cut the cord sometime."

"It's going to hurt."

"It always hurts. I need to manage this like I've been doing, not with this stuff."

"Well let me help you to the bathroom."

"What? You gonna hold it?"

"Cute. Come on, lean on me," Wilson said, annoyed.

House allowed himself to lean on Wilson till he got to the bathroom door and let go. "I'll be fine mommy," he said as he limped in on his own. When he was done with his business, he limped out of the bathroom and motioned for Wilson to help him back to his bed. At that moment House's physician entered the room.

"Grogan," House acknowledged the doctor.

"House. How are you feeling?"

"Well, right now no pain, but..." he pointed to the disconnected morphine drip. "Give it time."

"You sure you want to do this?"

"You sound like Wilson now," he replied. "Yeah I'm sure."

"I'm proud of you. Given your history, this is huge."

House rolled his eyes. "Okay dad, now when can I get out of here?"

"I know it's going to be impossible to keep you here so as long as you aren't alone, I'll let you go home."

"Oh goodie," he grumbled.

"But...we need to keep an eye on your pain."

Before House could reply, there was a knock at the door and then Cuddy walked in the room with Rachel. Grogan looked at her in surprise. Rachel's eyes lit up when she saw House. She let go of her mother's hand and ran over to him.

"Hows!" She yelled as she ran over to greet her grumpy friend.

"Dr. Cuddy? I guess the rumors are true," Dr. Grogan held his hand out to her. "It's good to see you."

Cuddy shook his hand. "Jerry, good to see you too and what rumors are you talking about?"

"That you're back...well not back but...you know what I mean."

"The rumors of her returning here to rule her former empire clad in tight skirts and low-cut tops are greatly exaggerated," House joked.

Cuddy stared at House, but her gaze softened seeing him help Rachel onto the bed with him.

"What?" He asked feigning innocence. "You had to know word was going to get out that you were here."

Grogan ignored House's comments. "Lisa, you here...with House...is not exactly surprising. Either way, it's good to see you."

Cuddy smiled nervously. "Thanks." She decided to change the subject. "Anyway, how's he doing?"

"Well, the patient, as you well know, is slightly irritated at being hospitalized. He's already turned off his morphine drip."

She looked at House, shocked. "You can't just stop it."

"I can and I did. It's all or nothing."

Cuddy turned to Grogan with a pleading look on her face. Grogan just shrugged. "It's his call. Seems to me he wants to get back to where he was prior to the...incident so he can get back to managing th epain. We'll need to know how to do that without the morphine and while he's doing this he shouldn't be by himself."

"I'll be staying with him," she said.

Rachel had been listening to the conversation, picking up that last part. "Mommy we're staying with Hows?"

Cuddy nodded and watched Rachel's reaction. Rachel grabbed House's arm. "Can we play piano?"

"Yep. We'll play pirate songs and drive mommy crazy," he said, smiling devilishly at Cuddy.

"Yay," Rachel shouted.

Staring in awe at the unusual family atmosphere between House, Cuddy and Rachel, Grogan said, "I'm going to leave you guys. House, call me if you need anything." Turning to Cuddy, he said, "Lisa, take care of yourself."

"You too Jerry," she said as Grogan exited the room.

"Hows are you hurt?" Rachel asked him.

"A little but I'm okay now," he said, pulling her over a bit to make room for Cuddy to sit down.

"Is it your leg?"

"Yep and my head."

"Can they make it better?" She asked as she gently placed her little hand on his injured leg.

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

Suddenly, a nurse stuck her head in the door and did a double-take at House, Cuddy and Rachel sitting together on the bed. "

"Can we help you?" He snarled at the shocked nurse.

"I'm sorry, it's just well...I'd heard Dr. Cuddy was here but I didn't believe it."

"Well now that you've seen her you can go away."

"House!" She smacked him on the arm.

"Ouch mom!" Cuddy rolled her eyes at him then looked back to the nurse. "Did you need something?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," she smiled nervously. Looking at House, she said, "The police are here to see you," she said.

Looking at the nurse, House replied sarcastically, "I didn't do anything."

"Oh I know. Everyone's talking about what you did."

"They are?"

"Yes."

"Oh great." He rubbed his face with his hand.

"Should I send them in?" She asked uneasily.

Cuddy nodded and the nurse left the room.

"House, it seems you're a hero," Cuddy teased.

"Geez, there goes my reputation."

"At least you and the police are on the same side," Wilson said with a smirk.

"Hows, how come the police wanna see you?" Rachel asked, her wide blue eyes staring up at him.

House thought about how to answer that, then Cuddy intervened. "House did something nice for someone, honey, and now the police want to talk to him about it."

Wilson decided it was a good time to get Rachel out of the room. "Rachel, why don't I take you to the gift shop? We can pick out something nice for House?"

She pouted. "I wanna stay with Hows."

"Honey, I think you should go with Wilson."

"Okay. Mommy. Can you come too?"

"No, I need to stay with House."

Wilson helped Rachel off the bed and took her hand. Before they left, she turned around and looked right at House. "I'll be back," she said before they left the room.

Cuddy chuckled. "I have no idea what hold you have on her."

"The Cuddy women just can't resist my personality."

There was a knock came at the door and before inviting the officers in, House raised his legs up on the bed and leaned against the pillows.

Cuddy opened the door for the police. "Officers, please come in."

"Thank you ma'am."

As the officers entered, one of them looked suspiciously at House, as if he knew him, then he looked back at Cuddy as if trying to place her.

"Aren't you Dr. Lisa Cuddy?"

"Yes."

He looked back at House, then back at her.

"Is there a problem officer?" She asked him as she settled in the chair next to House's bed.

"No ma'am. We just have some questions for Dr. House."

Fifteen minutes later, when the police were done with House they turned to leave, the officer who had eyed House suspiciously earlier approached her. "Dr. Cuddy, do you mind if I speak to you outside?"

House and Cuddy just looked at one another. "You can talk to me in front of Dr. House."

"I'd rather not ma'am." He seemed insistent.

House nodded to Cuddy and she got up and followed the officers, turning back to House giving him a look of complete cluelessness. When they were outside the room, the officer told his partner he'd meet him outside then he turned to Cuddy.

"Is something wrong?" She asked him before he even opened his mouth to speak.

The officer looked a little uncomfortable. "Ma'am I was on scene the night Dr. House ran his car into your house."

"I see." Cuddy bit her lip nervously, wondering where the conversation was headed.

"You had a restraining order against him, didn't you?"

"I did."

"But you're here now."

"I am."

"If I recall correctly Dr. House has quite a history of trouble and-"

Cuddy interrupted. "Officer..." she looked at his name badge, "Sheridan. I appreciate your concern but my relationship with Dr. House is nobody's business."

"Dr. Cuddy, I appreciate that you were in a relationship with Dr. House and that what he did may still be difficult to comprehend but I've seen this kind of thing before. Men like that apologize to the women they love and they do it all over again. It's a cycle of abuse."

Cuddy shook her head in disagreement, ready to reply but the officer stopped her. "Ma'am I'm not trying to upset you, I'm just doing my job. I deal with this every day. You don't know how many women I've come into contact with who suffer over and over at the hands of a habitual abuser and then they make excuses for the behavior."

Cuddy stepped forward towards the officer, in a non-threatening manner. "Listen, neither you nor anyone else, except maybe Dr. Wilson, understands the relationship House and I have. What he did was wrong, he knows it and I know it but I have forgiven him. I know him better and longer than anyone else does. I have seen him at his best and his worst as he has me. When he crashed his car into my house he was not himself. The man I knew all those years would have never have tried to hurt me." Cuddy pointed towards House's room and continued. "For so many years, through all the good and bad, he has been my one constant, the one person I knew I could count on. Even when he didn't know it himself, I did." She finished nearly in tears and several of the doctors and nurses were looking at her. They had heard everything. She hadn't meant to raise her voice but it was too late.

The officer, seeing how his comments had affected her, backed off. "I'm sorry Dr. Cuddy, I didn't mean to upset you. I was just doing my job."

"I understand and I appreciate that." She spoke softly this time. "He has come a long way, he has gotten help and he's clean and sober. The man in that room who defended that little boy and his mother in the clinic, putting his life in danger to protect them...that's who he is. It's there, underneath the ego, the sarcasm and deflection. I would not be here with him if I did not have faith in him and believe in him."

The police officer eyed her carefully. He was good at reading people and he could tell she was confident and very sure of herself. He sighed and reached into his jacket and took out his card, handing it to her. "I'll take your word for it Dr. Cuddy. Please let Dr. House know if he has any questions or anything to add to his statement, he can call me."

As the officer walked away, Cuddy looked around at the bustling in the hallway and took a deep breath and returned to House's room. She found him sitting on the bed, sulking.

"House, what is it? Is the pain back already?"

"No."

"Then what's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Talk to me." Then it hit her. "Oh God. You heard our conversation, didn't you?"

He replied without looking up. "People who know what happened are wondering what the hell you're doing with me. They're always going to remind you that I could crack at any moment and hurt you."

"Who cares what they think?"

"That cop felt the need to warn you."

"He doesn't know you like I do."

"Everyone here...they know what I did. They see you here and they think you're weak, that you're one of those women who just keeps running back to her abuser. I don't want people looking at you like that."

"That's not true. You never abused me. I don't care what anyone says, they're not important."

"I treated you like shit for years. Verbal abuse is still abuse."

"We both played that game for years. It was our way of communicating."

"You never did the things to me that I did to you."

"Why are we rehashing this? I thought things were good."

"Things were...I mean are...it's just..."

"House, don't do this," she pleaded.

"You know I'm right."

Cuddy was getting frustrated. "I love you."

"I love you too but love doesn't conquer all."

"What the hell does that mean?" She asked. He was frustrating her by the second.

"Love doesn't erase the bad stuff."

"No, and it's not supposed to. Love is a good thing and it makes the bad stuff more bearable."

"Yeah," he replied softly. "Cuddy, what's going to happen when Rachel gets older and finds out the truth about me?"

"We'll talk to her...together."

"And you think she'll forgive me?"

"House, she'll know you and she'll know what kind of man you are."

"You don't think it'll be traumatic for her to find out that the guy she trusted and called her...friend all those years was a psycho?"

"You're not a psycho." Cuddy sat next to House on the bed and took his hand in hers. She could feel the turmoil within him. "Rachel loves you."

House sat on the bed, simmering in his self-loathing. "I think you coming back here was a mistake," he said, suddenly.

"What?" Cuddy felt her stomach take a flying leap.

"It's just that you coming back here...just brings back all the shit that happened between us. It makes you have to face it all again. You deserve better."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that I think you and Rachel should go back to Boston," he replied quietly.

At that moment, Wilson returned to the room with Rachel. Rachel held her hands behind her back as she ran over to House.

"Hows, I got you a prize!" Rachel gave him a big goofy grin.

Neither House nor Cuddy reacted and Wilson, noting the somber tone in the room, wondered what happened while he was gone.

"She means surprise." Wilson tried to lighten the mood.

"Close your eyes," Rachel said to House.

House groaned.

"C'mon House, just do it," Wilson said.

House closed his eyes. When House opened them, he found she had placed a small yellow duck in his lap. It had big laughing eyes and a bowtie around its neck. He looked at it, then at her. She was beaming.

House picked up the stuffed duck. He had to admit it was actually cute and the look on the little girl's face was priceless.

"See, now we both have one." She pulled her other hand from behind her back to show him another duck. It was a different color but had the same eyes and matching bowtie.

Cuddy found herself getting emotional watching the interaction. Suddenly, she needed to get some air.

"Come on Rachel, let's go home and get cleaned up," she said, standing up and grabbing her purse and laptop from the table next to the bed. She'd stayed at the hospital all night and was still in the same clothes she'd worn when she left Boston. The look House gave her at her use of the word home did not go unnoticed.

"But mommy we just got here."

"We'll be back."

"Mommy," she insisted.

"Hey Rachel, don't argue with mom."

"Okay." Rachel looked up at House then turned and walked over to her mother.

"We're going to Hows's right?" She asked hopefully, looking up at her mother.

Cuddy looked at House and replied without taking his eyes off of him. "Yes, we are." She took Rachel's hand and walked to the door. Before they exited the room, Cuddy turned around and looked at Wilson.

"Will you bring him home?" She asked.

Wilson nodded and Cuddy glanced once more at House. She gave him a sad but hopeful smile then turned and walked out.

Wilson put his hands on his hips and looked at House. "What the hell was that all about?"

House ran a hand wearily through his thinning hair.

"I think I fucked up."

I love you guys! Thanks for reading. Remember...Huddy is endgame. Always!

Another update soon!