Paying the Price |House|

[Dr. Lisa Cuddy]

A couple of days after she'd gone to House for a 'consult', Cuddy had taken the initiative and dropped off a vial of her blood in the pathology lab. As she had requested that a slew of tests be done, the doctors in the lab had stared at her oddly, and she had told them the same thing she had told House. "Clinic Patient". Leaving them with the order to send the results directly to her for "delivery to the patient" she'd gone to her office.

That had been three hours ago. Cuddy had used that time to get everyone's paychecks in order, so that she didn't have to look for such-and-such's check when they came by. Glancing at the clock above the wooden doors, she sighed. The tests should be done by now, if not almost done. Picking up a report to distract herself, she didn't even get started on it. The door to her office had flown open. Cuddy didn't even look up, knowing exactly who it would be.

"What do you want?" she asked calmly, and not at all with the tired-of-dealing-with-this tone she'd always used.

[Dr. Gregory House]

House whistled as he wandered the hospital. Something was in the air, charged and rolling like thunder. Something was different. Off. He was like a bloodhound, tracking the source of the evil down.

Well, in truth, he had seen Cuddy drop off a vial of her blood to the lab technicians while spying on her. Sometimes the best way to avoid clinic duty was to follow the person who would assign him such. That was his story and he was sticking to it.

He watched Cuddy walk away, too intrigued by this turn of events. Cuddy didn't take on patients as much anymore, feeling like she was too much an administrator to reconnect to her patients and diagnose them properly. At least, that was what House thought. He thought she was just over thinking these things. He kicked around the lab for a couple hours, being a general nuisance to everyone there, until he saw Cuddy's "clinic patient" vial being processed and the paperwork drawn up.

Intercepting the sealed envelope, he used his words like a weapon, forcing his way. He hobbled toward the clinic wing, opening the envelope. What he read on the documents made his eyebrow arch. The owner of the blood sample was pregnant. Since he knew Cuddy wouldn't personally drop off just any patient's vial of blood, it had to be her own. Cuddy would never be a criminal mastermind, House shook his head sadly.

He burst into Cuddy's office, shut the door firmly, made his way to the desk and tossed the envelope containing the lab reports. He took a seat in one of the chairs right in front of her desk. He knew Cuddy would start by noticing the formerly pristine and sealed envelope was open. She wouldn't really be surprised. He rested his hands on his cane and just stared at Cuddy.

[Dr. Lisa Cuddy]

Cuddy didn't look up when her door was slammed shut. Didn't look up when her question went unanswered. Didn't even look up when the open manila envelope with the distinctive "ATTN: LISA CUDDY" landed on her desk in front of her. Cuddy merely sighed heavily as she stared at the open envelope. Her test results. Finally, when she felt the hard stare, she looked up. Though she wouldn't admit it, she was a little scared. No one ever received that stare from House and felt warm and fuzzy inside afterward.

"You opened it?" she asked, only the smallest hint of betrayal in her voice. Her eyes betrayed nothing. Lifting the envelope, she started to pull the pages out, but stopped. "I don't want to know...do I?" That stare was really starting to freak her out. Whatever this report said, it didn't look like House was pleased about it. She hoped this wouldn't be the end of their relationship. They'd just gotten back together...they couldn't break up now.

[Dr. Gregory House]

House made her sweat it out for a moment longer. "I opened it. You're surprised? I commit felonies just by walking down the hallway. What's opening someone's mail in the scheme of things?" He kept his stare on her while he thought about it. Cuddy. Pregnant. Now that he was really looking, he could see it. Her breasts were a little fuller. Her hair was shining a little more. She had a more healthy glow.

The tests could not be wrong. She was pregnant. He'd lay odds that it was his. Cuddy didn't have time to sleep with anybody else. She was too busy running the hospital, having sex with him and a strange girl, having sex with him again and running the hospital. Oh, and trying to micromanage his professional career by throwing cases at him. (They hadn't been nearly interesting enough for him. He'd solved one just by looking at the file and the patient had gone home healthy).

"You're going to know sooner or later," House replied finally. Which, he supposed was answer enough for Cuddy. She'd know without looking at the papers that she was pregnant. Something that she had been working toward for a very long time, and had given up as a battle lost. It would be a risky pregnancy, time was not on her side. That is, if she even decided to keep the baby. He stiffened, realizing that he had inadvertently thought of her parasite as a baby. His baby. Damn.

[Dr. Lisa Cuddy]

A moment passed before Cuddy answered. "No. I'm not surprised. I just thought that you'd maybe have a little respect for my mail, all things considered." She shrugged, turning her eyes away from his cold look. She flipped the envelope over so that she couldn't see what was printed on the pages as she pulled them out. Cuddy had the strangest feeling that things were about to get a bit more complicated.

Turning the reports over, she felt a lump rise in her throat. Swallowing it down, her eyes scanned the page. She glanced back at House, her eyes misting over. "What are we going to do?" she asked, no small amount of fear in her voice. Test results couldn't lie; she was pregnant, just as House had predicted when she'd first gone to him. And she wouldn't need a paternity test to know that he was the father. Of course, she wouldn't hesitate to order one if it was requested of her. A horrifying thought struck her suddenly.

"What if this gets out?" The pitch of her voice had risen, a clear indicator that she was near-hysterical. Her hands were shaking as the report slipped from her fingers to land on the desk. She ran one hand through her hair, unsure what else to say, or do. She didn't even know if there was anything else to say.

[Dr. Gregory House]

House was genuinely baffled. Gets out? Cuddy's reaction was a little extreme to him. After all, the only ones who knew they were together were Wilson and Angel. Of course, and House and Cuddy. They were all discreet adults. House had no interest in rocking the boat. He liked Cuddy, she was the evil he knew, though he wouldn't object to fighting and/or manipulation an evil he didn't know.

"Cuddy, the whole hospital knows you've been trying to get pregnant for two years. The fact that you're pregnant now shouldn't change anything. You could pull a Scully and be enigmatic about the whole thing." House paused, wrinkling his nose and looking up ceiling ward, "'course, then that will lead to pools speculating on whether your baby is an alien."

He sucked in a breath, "other than that, the baby has to get out eventually. You can't keep him forever." House looked at Cuddy sardonically. Cuddy was near hysterical and he hoped his sarcastic reasonable voice would snap her out of it. Then again, she was pregnant. All kinds of hormone changes make a woman unhinged.

There he went again, calling the fetus a baby. What was with him? House shook his head, scrubbing his face with his free hand. He had thought she might have been... well. Happier than this, if not precisely thrilled. It was an unplanned pregnancy, but one that Cuddy had been prepared for once. Maybe not anymore now.

[Dr. Lisa Cuddy]

How could he be so calm about this? Cuddy was positively freaking out. Forgetting that he'd completely ignored her first question, she went off. This wasn't supposed to happen...it wasn't supposed to play out like this.

"That's not the point, House!" she screamed. "I don't care if anyone else finds out I'm pregnant! I care if anyone else finds out that it's yours." Her voice had lowered near the end. If anyone, anyone at all, found out, she didn't know what she'd do. He could lose his job, or she could lose hers. Or both. She shuddered, not wanting to face that possibility. "Even if I do keep quiet for the full term, your name will have to go on the birth certificate..." Without really knowing why, she felt that she had to drive home the seriousness of the situation.

[Dr. Gregory House]

House frowned, sitting back as she practically screamed at him. "That's nine months from now. I'm sure we can figure something out before then. Don't worry so much, Cuddy. Just stay calm, don't blow a gasket." Or a uterus. House thought, then looked worriedly down her mid-section. If Cuddy raised her blood pressure so much, she could spontaneously abort, which would kind of suck.

House got it. Really, he did. But he was always thinking furiously, always looking for a way out. He would solve this. "I don't suppose you want to claim human parthenogenesis? I can draw up wicked mad ersatz results."

[Dr. Lisa Cuddy]

Cuddy sighed, leaning back. Breathing deeply, she considered the fact that maybe he was right. He always was, after all. She was going too crazy too early. She wasn't even sure how far she was yet. "How could this have happened?" she asked quietly. Her eyes drifted back to the results sheet. Picking it up, she glanced over it again. So. That was it.

"Did you see this part? When you opened it?" she asked, holding the form out for him. Trace amounts of fertility treatments. She had to wonder how the drugs had stayed so long in her system. When he spoke again, she had to hold back a groan.

"You know very well that human parthenogenesis has not been proven. I don't care if you can fake the results. Everyone in this hospital knows it hasn't been proven." She turned a serious glare on him. They had to do something in the meantime. What, she wasn't sure.

[Dr. Gregory House]

House had mused over that oddity. It was a small mystery. "Could be anything," House shrugged, "maybe you have a bezoar." He suggested, recalling one of his recent cases involving an agoraphobic man. It was possible, Cuddy was certainly under a lot of stress, and she didn't delegate her duties much. "Or maybe your fat cells absorbed some of the clomiphene and gonadotropins and released it later." Clomiphene did carry the risk of weight gain, though Cuddy hadn't fluctuated very much in her weight percentile.

At Cuddy's admonishment about human parthenogenesis, House grinned. That had been an awesome fake out diagnosis. It helped him endure boring clinic duty. He had even gotten a Christmas gift from the cheating woman, enabling him to win the bet with Wilson. "What do you call Mary Madgalene then? She only started a religion."

[Dr. Lisa Cuddy]

Cuddy sighed. Anything was possible, it seemed. "Maybe," she muttered. It was too late to worry about it now. There were much more important things. Like what this would do to them. Not just as a couple, but separately. She frowned slightly.

"What are you going to do?" she asked. She had to know right now if he was willing to take responsibility. She had to know if this would be the end of 'them'. "Are you going to stay with me? Or...or is this the end?" Cuddy had to steel herself against the emotions rising up in her chest. She would not cry in front of House. Not when he had no reason to see her cry. Not when she didn't even have a reason.

Ignoring House's comments about religion, she focused on the issue she'd thrown on the table. She didn't really expect anything drastic from House. She just wanted him there with her. Wanted him to hold her when she needed it, to help her through whatever could or would happen.

[Dr. Gregory House]

"Cuddy," House was horrified. He tried not to show it. "Look. I can come back. I'll bring chocolates. Maybe later you'll be..." less crazy "feeling better," House managed to say. He was sure he had hurt his spleen refraining from exacerbating the problem. It was the parasite. It was making Cuddy do crazy talk. Changing her body chemistry, messing around with her hormones so it could grow arms and legs and eventually a brain and then try to take over the world.

"When feeling better," House added, "you'll remember that you agreed to go out on a date with me. I bought you food, then I tried to grope you." It was his way of saying love. Or something. Really, House was worried it was the other way around, that Cuddy would drop him like hot potatoes now that she was finally, finally! pregnant with a child. She had been willing to go the single mom route. He wasn't sure if she even wanted him in her life, if there was even any room for an emotionally crippled paternal donor. And he wasn't talking about the leg.

...Oh crap. Oh holy crap.

Cuddy wasn't just pregnant with a child. She was pregnant with his child.

Wow.

"Do you..." he hesitated. "I'll never be able to play baseball with the kid; I don't know if I'll even be able to keep up." He paused. Licked his lips. They were suddenly dry. "I can provide, you know... certain things. Cool toys. Fun times." He wasn't sure if he was daddy material at all. One thing was for sure; he never make the kid take ice baths or sleep outside. "Be there. If you want me to."

[Dr. Lisa Cuddy]

She turned an odd look on him. He wasn't going to run away? She didn't even think about what he'd said. Offering to come back when she was more rational was not running away. At least, she didn't think it was. Cuddy couldn't believe it. Couldn't believe that he was actually willing to stick around. She'd stayed quiet the whole time he'd been speaking. And she heard every word. And she still couldn't believe it.

"You might get lucky...our kid may not even like baseball. Might end up being more into video games," she said softly, smiling. "You could keep up with that, couldn't you?" This was really happening. Really, really happening. "I don't just want you to be there, House. I want you to be there. Be a father to our child. Take him to the monster truck show. Be on time to her ballet recital." She didn't think she was asking a lot of him. "I'm not asking for a ring, House. I'm asking for responsibility." Oh, she hoped he didn't take that word out of context......

[Dr. Gregory House]

House knew it was time to get serious. Or at least as serious as he could ever be. "Yeah. You'll have my... co-operation. I'll be... responsible." Oh, that stung! House never really wanted responsibility, he wanted to rage against the Man. Which is why he never wanted Cuddy's job, 'cause then he'd be the Man. He was just fine playing wacky uncle to the ducklings and solving medical puzzles. If solving puzzles happened to save lives in the process, well, more power to him.

Seeing the look in Cuddy's eyes. Hearing her asking him to be father to their child. It brought him back to seriousness. God help him, but he wanted to be all that. No matter how much he wanted to deny it, no matter how much his instincts were screaming at him to run away, because tiny life that he could potentially screw up just by existing, he wanted it. There were so many things that could go wrong. But he'd be there. Every step of the way.

[Dr. Lisa Cuddy]

'I will not cry. I will not cry.' she told herself over and over. At this point, she was sure any tears she shed would be ones of happiness. But she didn't want to put him through too much at once. "Thank you." Cuddy whispered, giving House her most sincere smile. "I've told you before, and I'll tell you again. You'll probably get tired of hearing it, but..." she shook her head slowly before continuing. "I love you." Saying it in his office with the blinds shut was one thing. Saying it in her office with a clear view in and out, even if the door was shut, was something else.

Just having him there with her would be enough.

'For now,' her mind added. Did she want more than that from him? Did she want to eventually settle down, change her name? She wasn't sure. She didn't want to force that kind of decision on him just yet. At all, if she could help it. But there was one thing she was curious about. Cuddy chewed her lip thoughtfully, wondering how best to phrase the question. She cast her eyes away, then flicked them back to his.

"What do you want?" she asked finally. She knew they'd just found out, but that wasn't an excuse to postpone planning. Besides, they would need a pronoun to refer to it as, instead of calling it 'it' all the time.