Chapter 18

The room was filled with an uncomfortable silence once more, the tension alone was enough for Wilson to wish the ground would swallow him up and he couldn't believe what had come out of his best friend's mouth. He couldn't meet Cuddy's eyes and instead averted his line of sight towards the ground while he waited for the moment to pass without facing it.

Cuddy didn't know what to say or how to react, she just stared at House with glassy eyes and asked him with her gaze if it were true. He closed his eyes softly with strange remorse, she choked on a sob and parted her mouth to try to breathe while holding Rachel close to her chest. House watched her for several moments, she looked as if she were going to be sick, he watched her grip loosen on the baby and he quickly reached out to take her from Cuddy's arms.

She suddenly recalled what House had mentioned to her all those months ago about who she trusted watching her daughter and about Wilson's outburst over dinner with Sam. At first, she hadn't thought anything of it and instead had pushed her hostility onto Lucas, punishing him and now she suddenly was filled with regret. She wondered for a moment why hadn't Wilson told her, was that why he had called her that night when she'd gone out with Lucas, leaving Rachel with him. Was it about Sam smothering Rachel? Not about the lie he had told her about not being able to find the diaper bag? A million thoughts swam in her head as she tried to process what had happened.

"I'm-I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that." She stuttered, the corner of her eyes turning crimson with anguish making its way across her stressed features and she clumsily handed the diaper bag to House who barely caught it. She stalked off down the hallway towards the elevators, he saw her shoulder's shake before he turned away and shut the door with Rachel in his arms.

"Why did you tell her that?" Wilson asked, raising his arms in shock and trying not to pull out the hair on his head, following after House who set the baby down on the bed, gently kicking Ulysses on the floor who set down the GameBoy and eyed his father.

"What's up?" He signed.

"Baby." House signed before pointing towards the bed where Rachel was seated on, looking around the room curiously and Ulysses quickly got up from the floor. He removed his beanie and walked over to Rachel slowly, looking at her with small fascination before sitting beside her on the bed.

"Hi." Ulysses greeted Rachel, signing with his hand. Rachel stared at him, blinking her bright green eyes and he took her hand, shaking it back at him to show her how to sign. Rachel looked at her hand when he pulled it away from her softly, she drooled before connecting the dots and waved her hand in sign.

"Good." Ulysses clapped his hands together before beginning to show her other signs with his hands and waiting for her to mimic it which she quickly did.

"She said you were acting weird. It was bothering her." House replied once he was sure Ulysses and Rachel were preoccupied with each other. He went over to the balcony, keeping an eye on the kids while Wilson followed after him, leaving the balcony door slightly open so they could hear for any signs of distress.

"Since when do you give a damn about what bothers her?" Wilson replied angrily, raising his voice and House averted his gaze towards the view which were orange and yellow trees.

"You have been beating yourself up about this for the past 6 months, it's about time someone said something. I did you a favor. You should be thanking me." House once more was gas lighting Wilson who groaned in frustration, balling his hands into fists and turned away too angry to look at him.

"Yeah, I would have told her eventually. Just not like that when she's about to go and deal with our hospital's presentations for the weekend. It's bad enough she's stressed out with the hospital, her fiance, and her daughter. Now you just added onto it, House!" Wilson shouted angrily in response, pointing an arm out at House who shrunk in on himself and kept his gaze on the picturesque view.

"Once again, I've turned myself into the villain and you into the victim. I've taken the blame for you." House responded quietly and Wilson's boiling anger in his chest began to dissipate as he caught his breath. The chill from the air was now sending a cold shiver down his body and he held himself at the realization he'd followed House out onto the balcony without his coat, having removed it upon entering the room.

"You didn't do anything. It was Sam. Not you. It's bad enough you still let that psycho have control over you after all these months and Rachel certainly doesn't deserve it." House spoke up once more in a calm voice that set Wilson on edge, he was surprised when House said Rachel's name. It was rare he ever referred to her as another human being and Wilson walked over to House who had turned to look at him with sad eyes.

"House." Wilson called out in apology, House sniffed, the cold setting in and squinted his eyes from the shine of the sun on his aged features that made him almost look healthy.

"What's done is done. She'll get over it." House stated harshly, walking passed Wilson and entering the room once more. Welcoming the heat of the room, watching the two children play on the bed, Ulysses was showing Rachel how to play the GameBoy confident in her ability to learn at such a young age.

"Ulysses, she can't even talk. I doubt she's going to know how to play Galaga." House commented, walking over to Ulysses who looked up at his father while Rachel was slapping the GameBoy like a doll.

"See, told you. She's still in her neanderthal phase." House quipped, pulling the baby into his arms, pulling the GameBoy from her strong grip and handing it back to Ulysses who stared at it.

"Did you just talk to him?" Wilson asked, furrowing his brows in confusion, shutting the sliding door behind him, locking it and making his way towards the three.

"Oh, that's another thing. Ulysses, tell him." House looked from Wilson to Ulysses who smiled excitedly, he jumped off of the bed and walked over to Wilson. Pushing his hair back, he revealed the hearing aids that rested on both lobes and Wilson quickly leaned down to get a better look.

"You can hear now?" Wilson asked with surprise, a small smile of astonishment spreading across his stressed features.

'Kids do make everything better…' House thought, snorting at the ridiculous thought while watching his friend's mood change instantly while Ulysses explained to him about his experience with getting fitted with hearing aids.

"It turns out that his hearing can be restored. The diagnosis at birth was wrong. With some help from an audiologist and speech pathologist, in a couple of years he should be just fine. From an ableist point of view anyway." House informed Wilson who was still in disbelief, loss for words at the revelation, but happy nonetheless.

"How do you feel?" Wilson asked Ulysses who pouted.

"Scared, but I have my dad who is going to help me with every step." Ulysses replied confidently, looking to his dad with admiration and House felt his chest swell while Rachel pawed at his dress shirt's button.

"He had a panic attack at Whole Foods." House deflected, trying to steer himself away from the emotion he was feeling. Recalling sitting in the audiologist office, his mother recorded the experience with a video camera when the hearing aids had been turned on and suddenly Ulysses was able to hear the world around him. He couldn't keep the tears from streaming down his face at such an emotional event, he wanted to hide his emotion but his mother comforted him with her own set of happy tears and they reached out to comfort Ulysses together.

"No, I didn't." Ulysses folded his arms over his chest with a scowl of embarrassment and Wilson knew the statement was true.

"He's still adjusting, that's what the accidents were about." Wilson finally was able to draw the dots regarding House's recent absence from bringing Ulysses around on guy's night or to the hospital. Wilson kneeled down, to be leveled with Ulysses and stared at him with warm brown eyes, resting a palm on his small shoulder.

"Healing can be a scary journey, but having people with you. Supporting you, makes it a bit easier." Wilson informed him, Ulysses huffed and reached an arm across his chest to squeeze his hand on his shoulder affectionately.

"Enough of that, you two are making my eyes sweat." House turned away to hide his tears with Rachel as his only witness.

"Da da." She spoke up and House stared at her, bewildered.

"Did she just say what I think she said?" House asked, turning back around after wiping his eyes on his sleeve.

"Wow, her first word and Cuddy didn't hear it. Now, she's really going to kill us." Wilson replied sarcastically, rising up from the floor and resting his hands on his hips while Ulysses smiled at the baby.

"Da da." Rachel said once more, slapping House's cheek with her soft chubby hands and House grabbed her hand.

"Well, we might as well have our last supper before being crucified. Let's go downstairs to the breakfast bar." House's stomach grumbled, he handed the baby off to Wilson unable to balance her on his hip while using his cane. Ulysses followed after his father, his dark locks bouncing and Wilson reached down to grab the diaper bag, strapping it to his back before following the two out the door.

—-

Cuddy didn't know how to react to the sudden news about what happened 6 months ago when she left Rachel with Wilson and Sam. At first, she thought House was joking, but his statement was so specific and the fact that Wilson wouldn't look at her let her know it was true. In that moment she wanted to be sick, she felt sick to her stomach and when the suppressed emotions of the stress she was holding back came tumbling forward. She threw up into the nearest trash can by the elevator doors, not caring who heard or saw her.

When arriving on the first floor, she made a detour to the women's bathroom where she wiped the streaked mascara and reapplied her make-up, joining the other Deans in the conference room for a last minute rehearsal.

She wasn't really listening, her mind was elsewhere and she tried in vain to focus her attention on work, but she kept thinking of Wilson. She wasn't angry with him, but she felt surprisingly remorseful towards him knowing it had been House who informed him not to say anything. If she had answered her phone that night, the truth would have come out and she might not have been as remorseful.

'House knew that,' She thought, piecing it together. He knew that if Wilson had told her sooner, she would have completely lost all trust in him and completely relied on Lucas. She also knew that House had purposefully said it instead of Wilson so he could shift the blame onto himself instead, knowing she could easily place her anger onto him without a second thought.

'But why?' She thought, not understanding why House would take the fall, he knew she wouldn't be angry with Wilson, but why shift the blame onto himself? That puzzled her and she frowned wondering how the two were getting up with the children for the next few hours.

'I didn't even get to say hi to Ulysses,' She thought with a deepening frown while a man beside her handed her a pamphlet with details for the weekend, changes in times and speakers. She mindlessly read it while the man in charge spoke about something pertaining to the event, but she couldn't get her mind off of Ulysses.

She hadn't seen him since the last time House brought him to the hospital before the New Years Party, he'd been coming by to drop off his department's monthly budget report which was for once all accounted for and on time. At first she thought his son's appearance was a distraction to keep her from getting too upset with whatever was written on the budget report, but to her surprise he'd brought him to see her willingly.

Ulysses had run to her and hugged her behind her desk, she was always surprised with his hugs having seen him not do it with anyone else besides his father and she caressed his face gently. Brushing his wavy dark hair which had formed into permanent curls and his rosy lips which spread into a kind smile.

'He's such a kind boy, it's hard to believe his father is House…' Cuddy snorted which earned her a few stares and she faked a cough, apologizing to her co-workers which they seemed to believe.

It was an odd feeling everytime she held him out in front of her while he 'talked' with her, House's translation not always correct or exaggerated. It was like looking at a younger House, one who was eager for her affection and praised her in compliments. It reminded her of House in college, there were times he could be childishly affectionate, where he would lay his head on her bosom and want her to caress him like a mother would her child. At first, she thought nothing of it, but after learning about House's relationship with his father she began to wonder what had happened to him as a child to form the man he was today.

"I doubt he could raise a child. He'd probably curse and abuse it."

She heard Lucas's harsh words about House, he had no idea that House had a son and what he had mentioned not just hurt for her to hear, but would have also deeply hurt him if he knew what Lucas had assumed.

She knew House would never mistreat his son, that much was obvious considering how guarded he was of the boy. Only trusting his mother with him or Wilson. She wondered how Ulysses would get along with Rachel and she jumped at the opportunity to leave the meeting when the man in charge dismissed them. She followed the other few female deans to the breakfast bar to further discuss the event that would occur later tonight which thankfully she didn't have to attend.

She stopped in her tracks when she spotted Wilson and House sitting in a booth with Ulysses sitting beside Wilson who was cutting up his pancakes while House fed Rachel fruit in a highchair.

She overheard them bickering about something while House had wrapped a bib around Rachel, having removed her cardigan and stuffing it into the diaper bag.

"Are you sure you should be feeding her that?" Wilson asked, furrowing his brow in concern as he shifted his attention to House who had stacked Rachel's child size plate with sausage, egg, hashbrown, waffle, and a small bowl of fruit.

"Look, she's on vacation. She gets a free pass to pig out without mom picking out all the good stuff." House huffed, cutting up the sausages in bite size pieces for her before putting one in his mouth and chewing with delight. He hummed and widened his eyes in expression, she eyed him quizzically before he brought a fork to her mouth.

"What do parents do with babies? Airplane or train?" House asked Wilson who snorted and forked at his eggs while House shrugged, making an airplane sound and swinging the fork in the air like it was flying.

"Woosh, woosh." House made the sound of an airplane engine and the food in choice landed in Rachel's mouth who squealed with delight after chewing and swallowing it. She kicked her feet excitedly, Cuddy bit back a smile as she watched House laugh innocently before once more feeding her in a flamboyant manner.

"You know, with all that food. She's going to have a full diaper which you're changing by the way." Wilson said pointedly while watching Rachel eat all the items House was feeding her and he handed her a straw where she drank up the orange juice in the cup he held out for her. She held onto his hand with her small ones.

"I'm a doctor. I've cleaned up worse." House blew a raspberry, impressed that such a small baby could consume so much food with such eagerness and Cuddy was surprised as well because even Lucas had been having trouble getting her to eat anything with this recent phase she was transitioning into. Her terrible twos were around the corner and the fact she couldn't walk yet was adding onto her frustration.

"How was that kid? Better than the crap that loser probably feeds you back at home huh? With his lame jokes." House said to Rachel in mock affection, who giggled in reply and House chuckled, reaching out a hand to squish her cheek.

"Lesser Cuddy is not so bad. Why doesn't she let me babysit? What's wrong with me?" House furrowed his brows in mock sadness turning to Wilson while Rachel ate her fruit by herself, Wilson was finishing up his omelet and Ulysses had demolished his pancakes.

"What isn't wrong with you?" Wilson huffed and House stepped on his foot roughly which earned a pained yelp from Wilson. Ulysses and Rachel both began to laugh at the same time and the breakfast bar was suddenly filled with the noises of children's laughter.

"Those two men have such beautiful kids." One of her co-workers mentioned from the table they sat at and Cuddy huffed, smiling bashfully, she rested her chin on the palm of her hand and turned to her co-worker.

"Yes, they do."