Chapter 2

Wilma House was not a typical six-year old girl. She was slightly different in some ways. Her mother had defined it as being “angelic”. By this she partly referred to her daughter’s appearance, a very unik appearance indeed. Wilma had her mediteranian-appearing features from her mother, including her dark chestnut-colored hair which would be raven black when she got it wet. This was combined with her father’s intense blue eyes, which gave her a face that made people turn in the streets to get a better look on her. Some thought it was strikingly beautiful, others found it too unfitting, almost scary.

The other reason why her mother called her angelic, was the fact that she could seem a bit distant to the world. Ever since she was a baby, Wilma had had this quality, it was as if she was living in a bubble, looking at the world around her from a distant place. Sometimes she’d spend seconds, even minutes, in her own world, and not respond to any of the things happening around her. She’d just stand still and look out a window, at a running tap, or a boiling pot. When this occured, she’d either come to herself on her own, or she’d need to be woken up.

In the beginning, Joanna had been worried about these incidents, she had feared that there might be something wrong with her daugther, that she was unstable in some way. But as time went by she quickly realized what House had understood all along; that there was nothing wrong with Wilma’s intelligence. On the contrary, the girl was mature for her age and began leading a very adult language as soon as she learned to speak.

Wilma’s “zone-moments” as House called them, would come and go, sometimes every hour of a day, sometimes not for a week.

This was one of those days when the zone-moments would come frequently. She was standing in a parking lot, watching some red leaves swirl around on the ground. She stood completely still and just stared at them, as they brushed around her feet, hopping about on the asphalt.

Behind her, her father was putting their helmets under the seats of his Honda bike and losening his cane from the side of the vehicle. When he realized what state his daughter was in, he considered waiting until she slipped out of it on her own. He found it interesting to observe her when she acted like this, and he often just looked at her and tried to think of reasons why some humans’ brains were able to shut down like that when they felt the need to. This time, however, he decided he had to wake her up. He limped over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Wilma!” he said, just loud enough for her to jerk slightly. Then she looked up at him.

“Come on, let’s go inside,” he said to her. “I want to get this overwith.”

They were standing outside Wilma’s school. House had been here before to pick her up for “his” weekends, but he had never actually been inside the building. Stuff like parent-teacher conferences, baking sales, parents day and such were things he usually left for Joanna to take care of. Unfortunately, Joanna was out of town for two days shooting pictures for a comercial, and on the first of these two days, was parents night in Wilma’s grade. At first, he said he wouldn’t go. It wasn’t his kind of thing, he had argued, and also, how much damage could missing one single meeting do? But somehow Joanna had persuaded him into going, she had a way of doing that. No one knew how she handled him, but even his employees at work sometimes joked that she had a better grip on him than even Cuddy had.

Wilma ran in front of her father towards the main entrance. Just before she reached the door, she heard him call out her name, and she turned to see what he wanted, but it was too late. Someone bumped into her from the side and nearly knocked her over. A woman in a long black coat hid her face as she mumbled “Sorry” and hurried away. By the time House managed to come over, she was gone.

“What have you got to be sorry about?” he sarcasticly called after her as she dissapeared behind a corner. “This is a schoolyard, who could imagne there might be kids here!” Then he turned to his daughter. “You OK, Wilma?” he asked.

House never adressed his daughter as anything but “Wilma”. Unlike Joanna, who constantly used pet names for her, he never called her sweety, or hun, or baby, or anything else. Wilma had noticed this, and one time she had asked him why he never called her any of those things. “Because you’re Wilma, you're Wilma House,” he had explained. “Isn’t that better? I think it is.”

Wilma pointed in the direction that the woman had run.

“She did it on purpose!” she exclaimed. “I know she did, dad.”

So, who’s the mystery woman? And how will House fit into a parents-night? And who’s the new patient I promised you in the summary? Wait and find out!

So, last chapter:

It was the day before Christmas, and the last day of work of the year for the Diagnostics team. Cuddy had somehow managed to persuade them to meet up and finish their charting before going on Christmas leave.

It was five past one that Cameron closed the last file and began clearing off the table. After that, they split up pretty quickly; Chase threw a jacket on, grabbed his duffle bag and headed for the airport in a taxi. He was flying to see old friends down under. Foreman was also in a hurry, he had a long ride ahead of him to get home to his family.

Cameron and House were also eager to go home, but they both stayed behind a bit longer, Cameron so that she could clean the four empty coffee mugs, House so that he could finish the ink tattoo on his wrist that he had been working on throughout the day.

“So, I hear they sent Joanna home yesterday…” Cameron attempted to begin a conversation as she turned on the sink. “She must have been happy to go home with Wilma.”“Mhm…” House was done with the tattoo, so he put the cap back on the marker and got up from the chair. He grabbed his coat from the table and had just put it on when Cameron came over to him.

“I just…I have this little thing.” She picked her purse up from the table and fished a small wrapped present out of it, which she handed to him. “It’s just a little something for Wilma, a bear. I saw it in a shop and I…well.”

House gave a grunt which she chose to interpret as a “thank you” as he put the gift in his leather bag. As she went back to the sink, he got some papers out of the bag and looked through them.

“What’s that?” Cameron asked. It seemed unbelievable that House would actually bring work home for the holidays.

House lingered for a bit, then he handed her the papers. “Consider showing you these my Christmas gift to you,” he said in a sarcastic tone. Cameron skimmed through the papers, and then she looked up at him with a confused look on her face.

“You’re applying for shared custody of Wilma?” she asked.

“Not exactly.” House took the papers back and put them in the bag. “One day a week and to weekends pr month. It’s something, though, isn’t it?”

“It really is.” Cameron grinned as handed him back the papers.

“I’m getting Joanna to sign them tonight,” House told her, without really knowing why. “I’m going over there now.”“To celebrate Christmas?” Cameron was shocked.

“No, Easter.” House flung the bag over his shoulder and headed for the door. “See you next year. And all this crap…” he pointed at a miniature Santa in the middle of the table, “…had better be gone before I come back to work.”

“Merry Christmas to you too,” Cameron mumbled with a grin as the door slammed behind him.

---

Christmas can be spent in many ways.

Some sleep through it on an airplane.

Some eat Christmas dinner with parents and brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews and the whole package in front of a burning fireplace by a gigantic Christmas three.

Some go to their parent’s house, being the only child who’s there this year, as the others spend this Christmas with their in-laws.

Some sit quietly together in a flawless home eating a perfect dinner, but having nothing to talk about with those around them, wishing their best friend hadn’t cancelled on them.

Some stay at work.

Some eat Chinese take-away and, after an tongue-tied, awkward beginning of the evening, decide to play their very own invention, the “Ask me a personal question”-game, where the questions get more and more crude as the night goes by, and the laughter raises until it wakes up the baby in the next room.

And…some sleep through most of the evening, but then wakes up from laughter in the next room, and, stubborn and determined as she is, (she’s got that from her father), decides to keep screaming until she gets to hear some good music again.

I am thinking about writing a sequel, so the stuff that weren’t resolved in this chapter might be resolved there.

Thanks for reading this story!

Here comes the second last chapter. The last one will also be posted today.

When House came into Joanna’s room, she had fallen asleep, but she woke up when he placed Wilma on her chest.

“Hey  there, sweetie…” she mumbled with a yawn as she put her arms around her daughter. “Mummy missed you…”

House pulled out a chair and sat down next to the bed. Joanna looked at him, and then glanced at the clock on the wall.

“You weren’t gone long. Did you figure out what’s wrong yet? Why I threw up blood?”

House nodded. “Your diet pills don’t mix well with your Gaucher’s. Stop taking them and you’ll be fine.”

“I never told you I was on diet pills.” Joanna was confused. “How did you find out about them?”

“That’s…not important.” House quickly changed the subject. “Now, I would like to know where you have been all day. What was so important you had to dump a baby on me while I was at work?”

Joanna looked at him for a few seconds while thinking about how to explain the situation to him. House became impatient.

“Well?” he demanded.

“It was…my mum.” Joanna’s voice was so low that he could barely hear her. “My adoptive mum, I mean. Remember how I told you she still writes to me every week? She hasn’t given up on winning me back.”“Yet you refuse to contact her.” House remembered Joanna telling him about her mother’s letters during the treatment sessions.

“Yes, I’ve never replied, not once. I even changed my phone number so that she couldn’t call me.” Joanna turned a little in bed and placed Wilma next to her on the pillow.

“Anyway, over the past few months I have been getting more and more letters. Some weeks one every day. I didn’t open any of them, but she just kept sending more. And this morning…” She took a deep breath. “This morning she came to see me.”

“From Ohio?” House asked.

“Yeah. I was in the car on my way back from the store. I had Wilma in the back seat.” Joanna caressed the baby as she continued. “I was trying to get out of the parking lot when suddenly my mother knocked on the window.”“And your mother doesn’t know that you have a daughter, right?” House wanted to get some things clear.

“Right. That’s why I got out of the car to talk to her, so that she wouldn’t see the baby,” Joanna explained. “All the time I was praying that Wilma wouldn’t begin to cry.”“So what did your mother want? All this attention lately, was it just that she suddenly began to miss you more…” House frowned a bit. “…Or was there a reason that she came to see you now?”

Joanna averted her eyes and nodded, but didn’t say a word. A silence occurred for a few seconds.

“Did she know about Wilma after all?” House asked. Joanna shook her head slowly.

“No…The thing is…She’s dying.” She looked back up at House. “She’s been diagnosed with terminal breast cancer, she doesn’t know how long she has left, probably less than six months. That’s why she came to talk to me, to get me to forgive her for lying to me all these years, before she…” Joanna couldn’t bring herself to finish the sentence. “I told her I had to drive by work so I could clear my schedule for the day. Of course, she didn’t know I’m on maternity leave. So I got back in my car, drove Wilma here, to you, and met my mother back at her hotel room.”“Why didn’t you just tell her about the baby?” House didn’t quite understand.

“And show her I’ve been treating her just as badly as she treated me, keeping something from her like that, now that she’s ill? I couldn’t do that!” Joanna explained. “Also I…” She paused for a bit. “Just because my mum is dying, it doesn’t mean all those years where I felt like a miserable stranger in that home are being washed away. Just because I said I forgive her doesn’t make it all OK. I came to New Jersey because I wanted to get away from all that, to get a new life. Wilma is a big part of my new life, and I don’t want to connect her to the old one, in any way.”

Joanna looked up at House, hoping he’d give her a sign he understood, but he just sent her a look that said “Go on.”

“So I brought Wilma to you. I knew she’d be safe here. I had nowhere else to take her, so I trusted you’d be able to take care of her.”

Well, the kid is still alive, House thought to himself. Joanna continued her story.

“So mum and I had a really good talk. I understand more why she acted like she did, now. I don’t know if I have truly forgiven her yet, but at least now we both have more peace at heart.” She let a finger run down Wilma’s cheek. “She asked if I wanted to come home for Christmas, but I told her I had to work, so she’s going back tomorrow morning.”

Joanna wiped away a tiny tear from the corner of her eye, very quickly, as if she didn’t want him to notice. “She looked so different. She just looked…sick. She didn’t look like my mother at all. She was tiny and skinny and bald… She got tired and had to go to sleep at five…so I got back in the car to get Wilma. That was when I started throwing up blood. You know the rest.”

House nodded. “Yeah…”

Another silence occurred, until Wilma broke it by beginning to whine a little. Joanna put her back up on her chest to make her stop.

“You’ll take her home with you tonight, right? I mean, they won’t let me keep her here, will they?” she asked. House looked at Joanna’s pale face. She seemed absolutely exhausted; she would definitely do well with a break.

“I’ll take her home,” he agreed. Granted he didn’t have a crib or any of Wilma’s clothes or the faintest idea of how to make an infant go to sleep, but he’d work it out.

Outside the window, snow was beginning to fall. Joanna sighed by the sight of it.

“It’s sad, isn’t it?” she said, and had to yawn before she continued. “Wilma’s first Christmas, and I’ll spend it in a hospital…”“You won’t,” House said. “Now that we’ve given you the blood transfusion, all you’ll need is a small dose of Cerezyme in the morning, and you can go home. You’ll need to take it easy for a few days, that’s all.”

Joanna grinned. “That’s great! Do you want to come over?”

He jerked at the question. “What?”

“For Christmas. I was gonna stay at home alone and order take-outs, but if you want to come over I could cook?” Then her smile faded. “Or…you probably have plans with friends or something.”

“Kind of,” he confirmed.

“Wilson, huh?” Joanna knew him well enough by now to know that Wilson was pretty much the only option. Reluctantly House nodded.

He could see the disappointment instantly darken her face. “But I’m sure Wilson’s wife would be really pleased if I broke them,” he heard himself say.

“So you’ll come? Great!” Joanna smiled and tickled her daughter’s side playfully. “Did you hear that, Wilma? Your dad is going to spend Christmas with us.”

There it was again, that word, “dad”. Cameron had called him that earlier, and now Joanna. It just didn’t seem right. He hadn’t gotten used to thinking of himself that way yet, and he wasn’t sure if he ever would. He looked down on his daughter – was she going to call him “dad”, just like that, as if it was the most natural thing in the world?

“One condition,” he said. “Stick with the take-outs. It just won’t be Christmas without it.”

“All right,” she grinned. Then she yawned again.

“Maybe it’s time I left,” House suggested. Joanna nodded and kissed the baby’s head before handing her to him.

“Are you sure you’ll be all right?” she asked. “I mean, you’ve never taken her to your home before and…”

“It’ll be fine!” he cut her off, a little bit irritated. All though he had doubts about himself when it came to taking care of Wilma, he didn’t want Joanna to doubt him. She did this all day long, what made her think he couldn’t? He had managed throughout most of the day, surely the night couldn’t be much of a problem?

---

“Why won’t you go to sleep?!?” House was desperate. It was two in the morning, and for four hours straight, Wilma had been screaming from the top of her lungs. He couldn’t understand what was wrong with her, he had fed her, he had changed her, he even tried rocking her to sleep, but that only made her cry more. Now she was lying on his couch, supported by cushions at all ends so that she wouldn’t manage to roll down on the floor, and she was still screaming as if someone was torturing her. House wasn’t sure how much more he could take.

“If you don’t shut up, I have a prescription pad, and I know how to use it!” he tried, but it didn’t calm her down one bit. House rubbed his forehead with both hands as he sat down on his piano stool. In pure desperation, he leaned over the instrument and began playing, using all the lower keys in an attempt to block out the screaming. Good thing I’m not friends with any of the neighbors… he thought to himself.

When he had played for only a few seconds, he realized that Wilma wasn’t crying anymore. The realization shocked him, and he quickly turned around to see if she was still breathing. Once he took his hands of the keys of the piano, she began to cry again, though not as exuberantly as the last time, more like she was waiting for him to play again.

House turned back to the piano and tried a more quiet version of “A whiter shade of pale”. To his extreme relief, once again the music made the child calm down. With a boost of renewed energy, he kept on playing until he was absolutely sure she had fallen asleep. Then, and not a moment sooner, he got up and headed towards the bathroom, to get ready for bed.

As he reached the door, he turned and took a look around the living room. The entire place was a mess. There where old newspapers lying around in stacks on the floor, on every table there where old records with or without covers, on top of the piano and on most of the shelves and window sills there were at least one empty glass that had once contained whisky or a cup that had once contained coffee, and in the middle of it all, a little girl was sleeping. His girl. In a way, it was kind of nice.

Not done with this case

”She’s okay,” Wilson began. Before he got any further, Cameron and Foreman also entered the room.

“We got her stabilized,” Cameron said. “Both her and the foetus.”

“Chase is with her now,” Foreman continued.

“Hm. Well, good.” House said, shortly. Cameron had expected – or at least hoped for - a more exuberant reaction, while both Wilson and Foreman thought House had been more effusive than anticipated. House got up from the chair and headed towards the sink. “The question is – where do we go from here? How can we make sure it doesn’t happen again?”

“Bedrest?” Cameron suggested. House shook his head.

“Won’t help. It wasn’t the fact that she walked around that caused this – it was the enzyme treatment.”

“But...we’ve been treating her since before she got pregnant,” Foreman reminded him. “Why would this happen now?”

“She’s been recieving treatment on a regular basis for a long time. The IV enzyme is present in her body at all times by now.” House leaned over the sink and splashed cold water in his face. “The dose she got this morning tipped the scale.”

“Well, if you can’t treat her without her body rejecting the pregnancy, what are you going to do?” Wilson asked as he, Cameron and Foreman sat down at the table.

“Look, if you’re going to deputize for Chase, the least you can do is fake the accent.” House told him as he came back towards them.. “What we’ll do is pretty simple; Stop treating her.”

“Then the Gaucher’s symptoms will come back. Her liver and her spleen will swell, it’ll kill her!” Cameron was confused. “It’ll kill them both...”

“Really, Cameron? ‘Cause that was my plan. Think of all the responsibility it would free me of!” House said, scornfully. “Let me finish. What we’ll do is that we’ll stop treating her for some time, while keeping her here so we can keep track of her condition. Then, when she’s been without IV for sometime, and her body can’t take it anymore, we begin treating her again.”

“In other words, first we’re going to almost kill her one way, then almost kill the foetus another?” Foreman summed up.

“Yep.” House confirmed as he sat down. “And then we do the same thing over and over, until the kid is viable.”

It took the other three a moment to consider House’s experiment.

“What about the pains she’ll experience? It’ll be far worse than the last time,” Cameron pointed out.

“And with the combination of pregnancy, spleen damage and possible kidney impairment, which Gaucher’s can cause, we can only give her a limited amout of anodynes,” Foreman supported her.

“Ah, Joanna can take it,” House said with a hand gesture. “She gets a chance to be a martyr, she gets to sacrifice herself so that her child can live. She’s gonna jump right at it.”

“Well, in addition to the pains her immune system will get weaker. She might need to be isolated.” Wilson remarked.

Before House could reply, the door opened once again. This time Chase entered the room.

“House?” he said. “Joanna wants you.”

“Well, that’s obvious, isn’t it?” House got up and headed towards the door. “If she hadn’t wanted me, we wouldn’t be here in the first place.”

---

Joanna had been moved to a room and was lying still with her eyes closed when House came up to her bed. For a moment he thought she had fallen asleep – when suddenly she opened her eyes and looked up at him.

“Hey...” she whispered, smiling a little.

“Hey.”

She tried to sit up a little bit, then realized she didn’t have the energy to do so, and lay back down.

“I don’t know why I asked to see you...” she admitted. “Seemed like the appropriate thing to do, I guess. I don’t know.”

“That’s fine.” He pulled a chair out from the corner and sat down next to her. She smiled to him again.

“I managed to get back in here, huh?”

“Well, if that was your goal, you certainly reached it. You won’t be out of here in a long time,” he told her.

“How come?”

He quickly explained to her how the procedure would go onward, of course without understating at all, that wasn’t his style. Even so, she didn’t seem to be scared from what he told her.

“I’ll do it!” was her immidiate response.

“Of course you will.” He sat back and crossed his arms over his chest. “Now, the first two weeks shouldn’t bother you, as you have the enzyme in your body at the moment and it’ll take that long for it to dissapear. But we’ll keep you here anyway, in case the kid decides to pull a stunt like that again.”

She nodded. “All right.”

A silence occured, and it felt a bit awkward. He uncrossed his arms and started patting a rythm on his lap, she turned her head and stared up at the ceiling.

Eventually he broke the silence.

“Do you want to pretend that this is one of our sessions? It’s my turn to ask the questions.”

“Sure,” she agreed, gratefully. “Go ahead.”

“Why do you want a kid?”

Her smile faded in an instant. “Is it really that hard for you to see why anyone would want children?” she asked.

“That’s not what I said at all. I asked: Why do YOU want a kid?”

“Oh, like that, you mean.” She stared up at the ceiling again while thinking it through. Then she looked at him again.

“It’s not just because I want someone I can belong to, or who’ll belong to me. It’s not just because I’m lonely and can’t think of many good reasons to get up in the morning. That’s some of it, but not all.” She paused and bit her lip for a second, then turned to face him again.

“I guess it’s...well, there’s tons of parents out there who should never have kids. You see all these screwed-up people everywhere and you just think “What the heck did her mother do to her?” And I...I guess I always knew that I could do better, that I could do well, if I only had a child.” She sighed. “I’m not making much sense, am I? Let’s just put it this way: I know that I can love a child. That’s why I want one.”

“Hm.” He considered what she had told him for a second or two. Then he got up and headed towards the door. “I guess I’ll see you later. It’s not like you’re going anywhere.”

“So, you want to waste you two last questions, then?” she asked, grinning.

“I’ll save them for later.”

When he reached the door, she called out after him. “Greg?”

He turned just as the door was about to shut behind him.

“Why did you ask me that question?” she wondered.

“If we’re going to go ahead with this, I’d like to know why I’m doing it,” he said. Then he left.

I got an e-mail from someone asking me if I have thought about what Joanna looks like. Well, I think she can look however the reader wants her to, but in my mind she looks a little bit like Melina Kanakaredes from CSI and Providence. I don’t know why, it just turned out that way. But as I said, each reader should decide that for themselves.

Done with the appraise

”So, how’s your schedule for today? Free for lunch around noon?” Wilson asked House. The two had just arrived at the hospital at the same time, and were now stepping out of the elevator.

“You know me well enough to know I have no idea what so ever,” House said and wiped sweat of his forhead. “Man, it’s hot today...”

“Yeah, we’re breaking temperature records every day. Don’t you read newspapers?” Wilson asked. Before House could answer, a door further down the corridor opened and Cameron came out.

“There’s little Ms. Organized, she’ll know what my schedule looks like...” he mumbled, before he called out her name.

Cameron came towards them, carrying a pile of journals.

“What?” she asked. She could feel a drop of sweat run down her cheek, but to her frustration she had no available hands to wipe it away.

“What am I supposed to do today? What sort of duties has our beloved emperess Cuddy given me?” House asked her.

“Since when is it my job to keep track of your workday?” Cameron asked. The journals were heavy, and she longed to put them down.

“Oh, come on...you know this kind of stuff. It’s in your nature, you can’t help it.” House said dryly. “Spill it.”

“Cameron sighed. “Allright. You’ve got clinic duty at ten...”

“...which...let’s see...Foreman will generously offer to take over,” House interrupted.

“...and it’s Wednesday, so Joanna’s coming in to get her enyzme treatment at one. It’s two weeks since last time.” Cameron finished. “You’re taking care of that, right?”

“Right...Okey, now go put that down somewhere, it looks heavy.” House said and went past her.

“Great idea, why didn’t I think of that?” Cameron mumbled as she went into the conference room, while House and Wilson headed towards House’s office.

“How far along is Joanna now?” Wilson asked.

“16 weeks.” House answered immideatly.”Or, you know...Something like that.”

“And the treatment isn’t affecting the foetus?”

“Not yet, as far as I know.” They reached the office and House went inside. Wilson remained by the door.

“How are things with you two?”he asked.

“Ah, you know.” House replied. “Typical mummy-daddy relationship. Mummy comes to see daddy twice a month, daddy sticks a needle in her arm and fills her up with a fluid that might cause her to miscarry...You know. The usual stuff.”

Wilson sighed. “Not exactly Seventh Heaven...”

“Maybe not...” House agreed. “But then again, I was always more of an X-files kinda guy myself.”

---

Cameron put down her heavy load on the conference table and could finally grab a tissue from her pocket and wipe of her face.

“Phew...” she uttered as she sat down. “The heat is killing me...”

“Tell me about it...” Foreman was pouring himself a glass of water. “Hardly possible to work in this weather.”

“Yeah, it’s just so hard to think...” Chase complained as he sat down at the table, opposite Cameron.

“Right, ‘cause you do that so well when it’s not hot...” Cameron teased him. “Thank goodness, it looks like a quiet day today,” she contiued. “Joanna’s coming in, but that’s House’s territory.”

“She’s what, four, five months along now?” Foreman asked.

“Four,” Cameron nodded. “And so far there hasn’t been any problems with the treatment.”

“Strange, isn’t it,” Foreman remarked. “If it works out, House will actually be a father. That’s a scary thought.”

“Sounds like a horror movie,” Chase agreed and took on the voice of a movie presenter. “Coming soon: A woman has been impregnated with the semen of...damtamdaram! Satan himself! In a cinema near you!” he joked.

Cameron giggled, “Come on, you guys. You never know, maybe House will be a good father.”

“Yeah, and maybe pigs will start to fly...” Foreman commented.

“Seriously, we only know him as an employer,” Cameron reminded them. “Working with someone and being related to them are two completely different things.”

“You can say that again...” Chase said. “And when it comes to House, I’m glad I’ve only tried one of the two.”

---

“Today it’s my turn to ask you questions...” Joanna said as House put a cannula in her hand. This was a system she had convinced him to go through with – the two of them took turns asking each other three questions at each treatment session, so that they would get to know each other better before they were to become parents.

“Shoot,” House allowed as he hung the bag containing the enzyme on a rack next tho the table Joanna was sitting on.

“This is actually something I have been thinking about for a while...” Joanna said as the fluid began to stream through the cannula. She looked up at him. “Are your parents still alive?”

“Yes.” House’s reply was short, but not unfriendly. Joanna waited for him to say something more, but he didn’t.

“Well, have you told them about the baby?” she asked.

“No.” Another monosyllable was all she got out of him.

“Why not?” she asked him, clearly dissapointed.

“Let’s just say you have no monopoly on not being best friends with your folks.” House answered. “And please, don’t look at me like that. Like you’re any better, I doubt you’ve told your parents.”

“I have no parents, remember?” Joanna’s facial expression indicated that her mood was getting worse.

“IHRR” House made a buzzing noise. “Wrong, you just don’t want to talk to them, like me. Call it even?” he suggested.

“Let’s hope our kid doesn’t inherit our family skills...” Joanna mumbled.

After a pause she looked up at House again. “Do you think you’ll tell them eventually?”

House thought it over for a short while.

“Probably,” he concluded.

“What do you think they’ll say?”

“My mother will be thrilled. She’ll ask for pictures, weekly updates...and she’ll probably begin knitting baby socks right away. My father on the other hand, will ask why I haven’t married you yet. Then he’ll spend the rest of his life blaming me for having knocked up a poor innocent girl and not living up to my responsibilities.” House explained in an indifferent tone.

“That’s awful!” Joanna exclaimed.

“Not really. He’s always going to find something he can blame me for. Might as well be this as anything else...”

House turned to look at the bag. The last drops were making their way through the tube.

“There, you’ree all filled up,” he said and began removing the tubes from her skin. He noticed that she was looking at him the entire time it took for him to remove the cannula and put the equipment away. She didn’t say a word, but it was obvious that she wanted something. “What?” he asked. “I know that look. That is the “Yes-doctor-I-know-I-came-in-for-something-else-but-can-you-check-something-more-for-me-please?-look”.”

She smiled. “Well, it’s just that I’ve experienced a little discomfort over these past few days...”

“The whole state has,” he replied. “It’s called “heat”. There’s no cure, unfortunately, but a cold shower or some shadow will deaden the symptoms.”

“I know it’s probably nothing, but...” she looked at him, beggingly. “Please? I don’t want to risk anything.”

“Oh, allright,” he sighed and wheeled the ultrasound machine from the corner of the examination room closer to the table. “Lift up your shirt then.”

A few seconds later they could both see the countours of the foetus on the tiny screen.

“See? Heartbeat, movement...pretty much the most you can expect from a creature with a brain the size of a peanut...”

“I wonder what she’ll look like.” Joanna’s voice was low and almost solemn.

“How do you know it’s a “she”?” House asked.

“I don’t. I don’t want to know either. I just like to imagne that it’s a “she”.”

“Right.” House’s voice indicated that he wasn’t quite happy with that explanation, but he let it pass. He took the probe away from her abdomen and turned of the machine.

“She’ll have my brown eyes, right? Since brown dominates to blue...” Joanna asked as she pulled her shirt back down.

“Not necessarily. Not if either of your biological parents had blue eyes as well.” House explained.

“Hm.” Joanna carefully slided down from the table and grabbed her purse and sweater from a chair. “In that case I hope one of them did. I like your eyes.” She wasn’t saying it in a flirting or wheedling way, she was simply establishing facts.

“Well, I like yours. So one of us is bound to lose. And I should tell you, I don't lose very often.” he said.

Joanna smiled at him, and ran her hand over his arm as she passed him.

“See you in two weeks, Greg,” she said before she left the room.

---

Wilson happened to be standing in the lobby when Joanna stepped out of the elevator and headed towards the front door. He hadn’t actually spoken to this woman who was in such a strange relationship with his best friend, but he had made Cameron point her out to him once.

He tried to study her without her noticing, when she suddenly stopped in the middle of the room for no appearant reason.

He went a little closer to see what was going on, and, to his horror, noticed that she was standing in a pond of blood, with a small stream of the red fluid running down her leg underneath her skirt. Two seconds later she dropped on the floor. He ran towards her, but was to late to catch her.

To be continued

A feeling of malaise

Cameron was right – House didn’t mind checking up on Joanna. In fact he went to see her voluntarily later that same day. When he entered her room she was skimming through a magazine, which she put away once she saw him.

“Hey...” she said, as she smiled to him in an insecure manner. “You’re back. The last time I saw you, you couldn’t seem to get out of here fast enough.” She laughed, nervously. When he didn’t answer, she continued. “So, have you given any more thought to what were going to do about the whole...situation?”

“About that...” House came closer to her bed. “I’m assuming there’s no need to ask whether it’s actually mine? You didn’t sleep with the janitor, or the chinese receptionist?” he said in his usual sarcastic manner.

“The janitor is so not my type, and I’m pretty sure the chinese receptionist is gay.” Joanna shot back. The she sat up.

“Seriously, House. You and I do not know that much about each other, but I can tell you right here and now that I’m a very honest person. It’s definitely yours.”

Again, he didn’t answer her right away. He simply began to study her charts, before he checked the movement in her arms and legs, in addition to her heartbeat. After a few minutes he was done.

“We got you back to where we had you before the...setback,” he concluded. “You can be released at any time, now.” He grabbed his cane, which had been leaning towards the wall during the examination, and started limping towards the door.

Joanna hesitated for a bit, then she called after him.

“Hou...Greg?”

He stopped, but he didn’t turn. “Yes?” he said in a low voice.

“Listen, I...I know I told you you could be as involved as you like, in the baby’s life. I want to refrase that.” She paused, and tucked her hair behind her ear. He still didn’t turn to face her.

“I’ve been thinking...” her voice was quiet, but still firm. “Over the last past month, I have experienced what it feels like to have these...these missing pieces. Not knowing all the things you’d like to know about your background. It’s not a very good feeling, and I don’t want my child to have to go through it, not if I can prevent it.” She took a deep breath. “So that’s why I tell you that...well, of course I can’t force you, but I think you should know that I sincerely hope that you will agree to be a part of the baby’s life, so that he or she won’t have to grow up without a father.” She sat back and looked up at him, waiting for a response, but he remained still, with his back turned to her. “Well, now you know how I feel...” she concluded.

After a few more seconds of silence, House finally turned to her.

“As I said,” he began in a calm, low voice. “I’ll make sure you’re out of here pretty soon.” Without saying another word, he left the room.

---

Joanna was released the next day, and because both Chase and Foreman were stuck doing clinic duty and Houe conveniently was nowhere to be found, it fell on Cameron to see her off.

Allthough Cameron thought she had acted in a proffesional manner it became obvious that Joanna had noticed the strained atmosphere when they were done with the final examination. As Cameron removed the sphygmomanometer cuff from her patients arm, Joanna sendt her a sad smile.

“Do you really think what I did was that bad?” she asked. Cameron jerked when she heard the question.

“I don’t know what you’re referring to…” she mumbled.

“Oh come on! You’ve hardly even looked me in the eyes once in the fifteen minutes you’ve been here!” Joanna flung back on her bad and giggled a sad little laugh. “It’s not just you. I’ve seen it in others here, also. And it’s not like I don’t get it. You must think I’m a total slut.”

Cameron tried to protest.

“No, no, no. I’m sorry if anyone has given you that impression. What anyone here thinks of you is irelevant, you’re a patient in this hospital and…”

“Save it,” Joanna cut her off. “I don’t blame you.  I would think the same things if I were you.” Joanna’s words made Cameron feel a little more relaxed, and the atmosphere in the room got less tense than before.

“Still. I want you to know that I’m not really such a horrible person.” Joanna continued. “This thing that happened…it’s really not like me. Not at all. In fact, I’d probably be the last person you’d think would do something like that if you knew me. Since I’m supposed to come in here once a month for...God knows how long, it’s important to me that I’ve told you that.” She looked Cameron straight in the eyes. “So…are we good?”

Cameron smiled a little. “Of course,” she said. “Absolutely.”

She gathered up her equipment and was getting ready to leave. But just as she was heading towards the door, Joanna reached out and grabbed her by the sleeve to stop her.

“Wait!” she exclaimed. “Dr. Cameron, I...” She let go of Cameron’s arm and averted her eyes.

“I don’t want to...It’s just that...I don’t know House very well. You probably know him a lot better than I do. I was hoping I could ask you too...I’ve been trying to get him to open up to me, but, well... he just keeps pushing me away.”

Cameron leaned towards the bed pole as she replied. “Sorry, I can’t help you with that. In fact I doubt anyone can.”

---

That night, Joanna Carson was getting ready to go to bed in her own, new appartment for the first time in over a month. As she slipped out of her robe and climbed into bed, she looked towards an empty space at the other end of the room, inbetween her dresser and the door to the bathroom. She could esaily picture a beatiful baby crib there, with teddy bears peeking out of it. Just as she placed a hand on her belly and rubbed back and forth a little, the telephone rang.

When she picked up she couldn’t hear anyone at first.

“Hello?” she asked. “Hello? Anyone there?”

She was just about to hang up when she, to her surprise heard House’s voice at the other end.

“Okey,” she heard him say. “Okey, I’ll try.” Then he hung up. Joanna sat as paralyzed listening to the phone’s constant beeping for a long time before she was able to do the same thing.

NB: The title? Not shipping suggestions! ;-)

House&Wilson/Cuddy&Stace

”Wow…” Wilson laid back on his chair and rested his feet on the desk, trying to take in the information House had just given him. “So, in other words, if you come through and do your job as a doctor, and keep her healthy, you’ll be a father in nine months?”

“Biologicaly, yes...” House confirmed in a low voice.

“So, did the two of you discuss what your part will be in this?” Wilson wondered.

“Well, all she said was that I could be as involved as I wanted to. By then I was halfway out the door.” House said. “As involved as I want to” what the heck does that mean? Is it slang for “Start saving up for a labrador, a volvo, and yearly trips to Disneyland” or for “Your job is done, jerk, now get out of my sight?”

“Which would you prefer?” Wilson asked. House leaned forward on the chair, supporting his forehead on top of his hands on the head of his cane.

“I...don’t...know...” he said slowly, taking a long break between each word. Wilson waited for him to say something more, but he didn’t.

“When you were with Stacy...did you two ever dicuss having children?” he eventually asked. House sat back up and shook his head.

“Nope. She was smart enough not to discuss something like that with me,” he said. “Plus, you know, she has a career and all that...”

“Does this...Joanna...have a career?” Wilson wondered.

“I have no idea what so ever. I don’t know anything about her!” House exclaimed. “ All I know about this woman is that her egg cells get along really well with my sperm!”

Wilson put his feet back down on the floor.

“So...” he said. “What are the chances she’ll be able to carry to term, you think?”

House sighed “It’s hard to tell. Some Gaucher’s patients experience several miscarriages in a row, some get through pregnancy without trouble. Because the illness is so rare, there aren’t that many statistics out there, but the numbers that do excist are generally based on women that have been recieving treatment for years, and they get by on smaller dozes than...this case.”

Wilson gave an apprehending grunt. “So... we’ll have to wait and see, then.”

“You say that as if we were discussing the weather, or what pants-suit Cuddy will wear tomorrow!”!” House complained. “This could have a huge impact on me!...Or not.” He leaned his forehead on the cane again. “Fertile women should come with a black label warning...”

They sat in silcence for a whiled, before Wilson cleared his throat. “You know what?” he said. “This is really up to you. I know you well enough to know that you manage most of the things you have your mind set on. If you decide you want to be good at fatherhood, then you will be, but if you decide to be the worst father in history, you’ll have no trouble getting there either.” He paused for a bit. “If I were you, I’d do some thinking.”

“Hm, that’s strange,” House replied. “See, if I were you, I’d get a haircut.”

---

A little later the same day, two other people were discussing the same subject. Stacy and Cuddy were having lunch together in the hospital cafeteria.

“What?!? Are you sure about this?” Stacy couldn’t believe what Cuddy had just told her.

“Yep,” Cuddy confirmed. “I spoke to Cameron, Chase and Foreman. The patient is pregnant with House’s baby, and she wants to keep it.”

They both tried to keep their voices down, not to be overheard by anyone, but Stacy in particular had to make an effort to curb herself.

“That’s...wow! Greg must be...do you know how he reacted?” She asked. Cuddy shook her head. “No. Sorry.” She took a bite of her sandwich before she continued. “How would he act when you two talked about children?”

“We didn’t,” Stacy told her. “Come on. Greg and kids? No way.” She took a sip from her water bottle. “Besides, we both had jobs and stuff, you know? It just...wasn’t an issue.”

Cuddy shrugged. “Hm...”

Stacy thought for a second. “Do you think she planned it?

“Who planned what?”

“This patient, what was her name? Joanna Carson? Do you think she planned to seduce Greg so that she’d get pregnant? I mean...who sleeps with their doctor just like that? You’d expect something like that from him, but...”

Cuddy wasn’t quite following. “Why would she do that? Even if we assume she wanted a child, why choose to sleep with House?”

“Why not? I did!” Stacy reminded her.

“Allright, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that,” Cuddy assured her. “I don't know why the woman did it. You could be right, I have no idea.”

“That bitch!” Stacy exclaimed, just a bit too loud. When she looked around in the room she saw Cameron, Chase and Foreman staring at her from another table.

“I wasn’t referring to any of you!” She quickly explained, before she turned back to Cuddy and continued the conversation.

---

“I think I know who she was referering to...” Chase mumbled. Foreman nodded.

“Yep. Speaking of Joanna Carson, have any of you checked on her today?”

“Let House do that. Appearantly he likes it that way...” Cameron mumbled as she gathered up cartons and napkins on her tray, getting ready to leave.

“What’s gotten into you? I thought you got along with the patient?” Foreman asked as Cameron got up.

“Nah,” she replied, before she left. When she was out of sight, Chase turned to Foreman.

“I just don’t get it. House gets this woman pregnant, and then suddenly she is on Cuddy, Warner and Cameron’s hate list?”

“Yeah...” Foreman agreed. “It’s a mystery to me. A real mystery.”

I’m sorry if this one seems a bit rushed but – it is! I’m leaving today so you probably won’t get a new chapter until next weekend at the earliest.

Problems to face?

Allthough he had promised Cuddy he would, House didn’t go straight to Joanna’s room. When he left the office, he went home, and didn’t go to see her until early the next morning.

He came to work early, not wanting to run into any of his colleagues until he had talked to her.

When he came into Joanna’s room, she was still asleep, but she woke up when she heard him enter.

“Oh, it’s you...Where have you been, I’ve asked for you over and over,” she said in a sleppy manner when she saw him. She was much more pale than she had been the last time she saw her, and it was clear that her illness was setting it’s mark on her again.

“I’m sorry, I had to go somewhere,” he lied, as he came closer to her bed.

“I wanted to talk to you.” She sat up in bed. “About the...” she hesitated for a moment. “About the baby. Our baby.”

“I think I’d prefer it if you refer to it as a foetus...” he said, sitting down on her bedside. “ I assume the others informed you that with a severe case of Gaucher’s like yours...”

“About that!” she interrupted him, but paused before she went further. Then she looked straight into his eyes and continued.

“House...Let me tell you something about me that you don’t know.”

“That should be esay.”

She sat back and averted her eyes, then took a deep breath before she began.

“When I turned 30, I became really scared that I’d end up alone. As you already know, I never really felt like I belonged in my family growing up...”

“Wait a minute...What does this story have to do with this... with anything? House asked.

She looked at him briefly before she looked down again.

“When I was younger,” she continued, “I’d always comfort myself by thinking about how I was going to grow up and have a husband and children, and not feel alone anymore.”

She took another deep breath. “ Then I turned 30, and still, I didn’t have anyone. And I was so tired of that lonely feeling. So I made a decision. I decided that if I couldn’t have the husband I had been dreaming about, I still wanted to be a mother. I decided to get inseminated with a donor’s sperm to try and concieve.”

Suddenly she looked up at him. Her brown eyes started firmly into his blue as she raised her voice and continued.

“For four years now, I’ve been trying to have a baby. Four years, House, and still, no result. Just one dissapointment after the other. And then BAM, a one-night-stand with you and I’m pregnant.” She folded her hands and placed them over her belly.

“I don’t even know if what we did counts as a one-night-stand. I didn’t even take you out to dinner first...” He looked down on the folded hands on her flat belly. “So what are you saying?” he asked. “You’re saying you... don’t want to end the pregnancy? Joanna, that’s insane. Enzyme treated patients like you stand chances of miscarriage, stillbirth...You’ve barely even started your treatment, it would be a risk for you too...”

“I know all those things!” She bit her lip and looked down on herself. “But I can’t just give up, like that. I can’t.”

He sighed “What if I tell you that...”

“Listen!” she interrupted. “If you can look me in the eyes and tell me that there’s absolutely no way that this baby will be born, no chance what so ever, then I’ll agree to an abortion.” She tried to get eye-contact with him.

“Greg...” she said. It was the first time she used his name since they slept together. “Is there any chance that this could work?”

5...10...15 seconds went by, and he didn’t say a word. He realized what an enourmous power she had just given him, and it overwhelmed him a little.

Finally, he looked at her and opened his mouth.

“Yes,” he said. “There is a chance.”

---

On his way to meeting with the team a little later, House ran into Cuddy. She was anything but happy to see him.

“Where the hell were you yesterday?!?” She asked when she saw him. “You said you were going to talk to Joanna Carson!”

“I did.” He defended himself.

“No, you didn’t!”

“Yes I did, I’m coming from her room just now.”

“Well, you were supposed to talk to her yesterday!” Cuddy was clearly annoyed.

“Long talk.” He went past her and continued down the corridor. Cuddy turned after him.

“Well, how did it go?” she asked, impatiently. He stopped and thought for a second before he answered.

“Let’s just say she won’t be forming a complaint,” he said. Then he hurried on.

---

Cameron, Chase and Foreman had just settled around the table when House entered the room.

“Well, if it isn’t the three little taddletales...” He said as he sat down at the end of the table. Cameron immideately felt a wave of guily wash through her.

“House, we’re sorry about yesterday, but you left us no choice. We had to tell Cuddy...” she tried to reason with him. When he didn’t reply, she continued. “Have you talked to Joanna yet?”

“Yes.” The reply was short, more like a grunt than a word.

“And?” Foreman asked.

“And we need to increase her enzyme treatments...” House said, before he got up and headed towards the coffee pot. The other three exchanged confused looks.

“Does that mean...?” Chase asked.

“Yep.” House confirmed. “She wants to have the baby.” His voice seemed rather calm.

“But that’s...insane. She has only just began her treatment...” Cameron began.

Foreman agreed. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a successful pregnancy at this early stage in Gaucher’s...”

“Maybe that’s because no one has tried.” House’s voice was still calm.

Cameron got up and came closer to him. “House, I know you are more involved in this case than in most others but don’t you think...”

”Let’s get one thing straigh!” House slammed the coffe pot he had been pouring from down on the worktop. His voice was not calm anymore “My so-called involvement in this case does not matter!” He brought his cup and limped towards the door. “She wants to try and carry to term, that’s her decision! Don’t make it seem like I'm any kind of a factor here, because I’m not and I have no wish to be!”

With those words he left the room.

Not drawing the ace

”So, Joanna Carson’s being released today, right?” Chase asked while dipping a tea-bag into his cup.

“Yep. The three weeks are up, and the treatment is working,” Foreman confirmed. “Cameron has gone to see her off.”

“See who off?” House entered the room just in time to hear the last bit of Foreman’s sentence.

“Joanna Carson. You know, the patient you haven’t been to see the last three weeks. One could think you’d been trying to avoid her...” Chase joked as he led the cup towards his mouth to take the first sip. Suddenly House grabbed the cup out of his hands.

“Aw, you made me a cup of tea? That’s sweet!” he said ironicly before he tasted it. “Mmm, delicious.” He sat down by the table before she continued. “So, she’s leaving today, is she?”

Before anyone could answer, Cameron came into the room. She seemed upset, and was clearly relieved to find the other three there.

“I just went to see Joanna Carson,” she said. “She was sick, throwing up and feeling awful. Plus I got back the blood tests we did on her yesterday.” She showed them a file. “Her haemoglobin levels are getting lower again. It’s as if the effect of the treatment is wearing of.”

Chase and Foreman got confused looks on their faces as they began to study the blood test results further. House on the other hand, was staring firmly down on his own shoes, he just sat there, quietly, and didn’t say a word.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” Foreman concluded. “Why would the treatment work at first and then stop working three weeks later?”

“I checked with the nurses if they had skipped an injection or if something else had come up, but they said everything had been done by the book,” Cameron assured them.

“Well, there’s no way she can be released now,” Chase said. “We’ll need to run more tests.”

House looked up. “No, Chase. Not plural, not test-S!” he said as he got up and came over to them. “You only need one test to find out why this is happening.” The others looked at him with anticipation. House took another sip from his cup before he continued.

“A pregnancy test.”

---

“Yep, House was right. She’s pregnant,” Cameron concluded when she, Chase and Foreman where handed back the test results a little later.

“How is that possible? The only medicine she was on when she was submitted was birth control pills...” Chase reminded them.

“She probably just forgot one. Sometimes, that’s all it takes,” Foreman said.

“Well, how about how she told us she hadn’t been with anybody for months?” Cameron wasn’t convinced. “Why would she lie about that to us, to doctors? And the MRI she took? We would have noticed the pregnancy when we studied the results.”

“Not if she was only a couple of weeks along...”

“Within two weeks before she got here, she already would have the anemia. That would reduce her chances of getting pregnant a great deal.” Cameron replied.

Foreman looked at his female colleague. “What are you suggesting, anyway, that she got pregnant while she was staying here in the hospital?”

“That’s impossible!” Chase chimed in. “You said it yourself, she doesn’t have contact with anybody, nobody’s been to see her.”

Cameron got an aloof look on he face, and said nothing for a moment.

“Unless...” she eventually mumbled, before she suddenly stormed out of the room. Chase and Foreman sent each other confused looks before they went after her.

---

“You slept with her, didn’t you?!?” Cameron exclaimed as she bursted into House’s office. Chase and Foreman followed her in, more confused than ever.

“What?” Foreman shouted.

“Why would you say that, Cameron?” Chase asked her. Cameron didn’t answer him. She was standing in front of the desk, staring into House’s eyes.

“You slept with her, didn’t you?” she asked again, this time in a calm, but ice-cold voice.

“Yes darling, but it meant nothing and I was thinking of you the entire time,” House said in his usual dry tone.

“This isn’t funny, House! You...you...you knocked up a patient!” Cameron’s voice got loud and shrieking again.”

“You actually slept with a patient on hospital premises?” Foreman couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“So that’s why you’ve been avoiding her...and that’s why she wanted to know your name...” Chase thought back.

“So...I take it the pregnancy is now confirmed?” House still didn’t seem very affected by the situation.

“How can you be so calm about this? When Cuddy finds out, she’s gonna kill you!” Cameron shrieked.

“When I find out about what?”

Cuddy had just come into the room, without any of them noticing. Now she was looking at them all four, with anthicipation.

“Well?”

Nobody said a word, but Cameron, Chase and Foreman all stared at House, waiting for him to confess. House stared back, appearantly having no intentions of saying a word.

The silence lasted for a good ten seconds before Cameron broke it.

“Well, if you’re not going to tell her, then I will,” she snarled at House. Then she turned to Cuddy.

“We have a problem. I supposed you’ve been told about Joanna Carsons’s setback?” Cuddy nodded and Cameron continued. “Well, we now know that she is in fact pregnant.” She asserted her eyes and paused. “And it has become clear that Dr. House...is the..." She paused for a bit more "...cause of that.”

Cuddy looked at House.

“Is this true?” she asked him.

“No, Cameron get’s a kick out of making stuff like this up. Of course it’s true!” He said, clearly irritated.

“Right...”Cuddy thought for a second or two, then she looked at the other three again. “Does Ms. Carson know about this...condition...yet?”

“Not yet, we haven’t had the time to tell her,” Foreman replied.

“Well, you three can go and inform her immideately, while I discuss this with Dr. House.” Cuddy pointed towards the door, and the three doctors stepped out of the room.

“Also inform her about the difficulties considering Gaucher’s and pregnancy, won’t you?” Cuddy called after them.

“Of course,” Foreman confirmed, and shut the soor behind them.

“And then there where two...” House said, as he got up from his chair and came around the desk.

“You actually slept with her? House, are you insane? Of all the things you’ve done...”Cuddy began.

“Yes, yes, I know. I’m skum.” House sat down in the armchair, took a grape from the bowl on the table and continued. “Cameron had a very similar reaction. Must be a girl thing...”

“This isn’t funny, House!”

“That’s what she said.”

“Be quiet for a moment, would you? You’re driving me crazy!” Cuddy buried her face in her hands for a moment. “If the hospital board finds out about this, you are so fired...”

“Why should it be up to them who I chose to sleep with? It’s not like I raped her, believe me, she was very much up to it.” House spitted out the grape seeds into the waste bin.

“All right, here’s what’s going to happen,” Cuddy began. “You are going to go talk to her, right now, and you’re going to ask her wheter she intends to form a complaint...”

“Seriously, you think I’m that bad in bed?” House joked. Cuddy ignored him.

“To form a complaint about what happened to the hospital board. If she’s not planning to do so, we’re gonna cross our fingers and hope they never fin out about it...” She sat down on the desk before she continued. “The woman has Gaucher’s, it's unlikely that she'll be wanting, or able, to carry to term." She looked up at him "Now, should the board find out about this, I’ll make sure your head is on the block, not mine. Is that clear?”

“Yes ma’am.” House replied.

“Good, now go and talk to her.”

He shrugged, then got up, leaning on his cane, and started limping towards the door.

“And House?” Cuddy called after him. “The next time you pull an idiotic stunt like this, use a condom. That way you don’t leave a trace.”

“Thanks for the tip, you obviously have a lot of experience in the area...” House mumbled as he left the room.

I'm running out of chapter titles that rhyme so if you have suggestions (allthough you don't know how this will turn out) let me know. :)

She asked Chase

House was limping down the dark corridor, heading towards his office. It was ten past 3 o’clock in the morning, and the hospital was much more quiet than at daytime. The pains shooting through his leg were so bad they nearly made him throw up. He wanted to moan out loud, but kept quiet, not to break the overwhelming silence. He had barely slept all night, partly because he somehow had managed to forget his glass of pills in his office when he left work, thus he had been tortured by the terrible pains for several hours. But the lack of Vicodin wasn’t the only reason why he didn’t sleep well...

For the past few nights, he had kept dreaming the same dream over and over again. In the dream, he had no idea where he was or how he got there, but he was in some kind of room where all the walls, and even the floor and the ceiling, where covered in bright red velvet. He was standing in the center of the room, and – and this was what he was most shocked by – Joanna was there. She was always in a short black dress, and high-heeled shoes. She’d come right towards him, walking in a really sexy, wreathing sort of way. As she reached him, she’d put her arms around his neck and whisper four short words into his ear; “I want you, Greg...” in a low, sensual voice. And then...he’d wake up.

He had tried his best to get these dreams to stop, so he could have a decent night’s sleep. He had tried to tell himself how incredibly stupid it was “She doesn’t even know your first name is Greg! Plus, she’s ill! Do people who are ill suddenly turn you on? That’s convenient, considering your occupation...” But nothing helped. The dream kept coming back, night after night, hour after hour.

He reached his office and found the glass of pills on his desk. He swallowed a handful, dryly. Only seconds later it felt like the pains had to give in to its killers. He wasn’t sure whether it was because he had such faith in the Vicodin or because it actually had an effect, and he didn’t care.

He was on his way out when he passed the door to Joanna’s room. He peeked in, but couldn’t see her in there. The next thing he knew someone crashed into him. Someone’s forehead slammed against his chin and he could feel someone stepping on his toes. It was Joanna.

“Dr. House!” she exclaimed and stepped back.

“Last time I checked, yes...” he said as he was trying to regain balance.

“Wow, we really have to stop running into each other this way...” she said, giggling a little. Even though her treatment had only started three days earlier, she seemed a lot more energetic than before, especially considering what time it was.

“So, what are you doing here?” she asked.

“What are you doing here?” Once he’d said it he heard what a stupid question it was. “I mean, why aren’t you in bed?”

“You want me in bed, do you, Greg?” She sent him a teasing smile as went past him, her body brushing against his. She opened the door to her room and entered, and he followed her.

“How do you know my name?” he asked, confused. She sat down on the bed, pulled her feet up, grabbed a tube of lotion from her nightstand and began anointing in on her bare feet, without answering his question or even looking at him.

“Well?” he asked again, as he came closer. When he sat down next to her, she looked up at him.

“I’m a little ashamed of myself...” she said, with a nervous little laugh. She put her feet back down and put the lotion back on the nightstand. “I actually asked Dr. Chase what your name was. I was curious if you had a name that...that fit you... or not.”

“Well, what’s your conclution?” he asked, moving a little bit closer. Suddently he noticed his hand was touching hers. They both looked down as they felt the touch, but neither of them pulled their hand back.

“I... I concluded that it fits you very well,” she said. She leaned towards him, slowly, more and more, until her face was less than an inch from his.

When she stopped, he leaned closer to her, until their lips met.

The kiss was long and passionate. He had no idea how long it really lasted, but it felt like an eternity. When they let their lips slide apart he pulled back a little and looked into her eyes.

“Maybe we...maybe I...” he began, but she placed a hand on his cheek and shut his mouth with the other.

“Greg?”

“Mhm?”

“Shut up and kiss me again.”

The very next second their hands were all over each other. His ripping off her hospital gown went pretty fast, but opening the button on his pants took her longer. He unpatiently shoved her hands away and opened it himself. It didn’t scare her, she moved her hands to his neck and started unbuttoning his shirt instead.

He dozed off with his face buried towards her chest a little later, and for the first time in several days he was able to sleep a calm, dreamless sleep.

-

It was her who woke him up, early the next morning.

“House! House, it’s almost time for rounds, you have to get up!”

As soon as he reached conciousness, he got a bitter taste in his mouth, and a bad feeling in his entire body. Once he remembered where he was at the moment and how he had got there, he felt a need to get away as soon as possible. A tiny little voice in his head kept repeating the same short sentence over and over; This was wrong! This was wrong!

He yawned as he sat up in bed, noticing that she no longer used his first name. He chose not to comment on it. The bed was obviously not made for two people, so he got up before he began to get dressed.

“So. Last night. It was...good.” he said before he slipped his shirt over his head.

“Last night?” She grabbed her watch from the nightstand. “It was like four hours ago...But yeah, it was.”

“Still, I...” he browsed around the room looking for his pants, but couldn’t see them anywhere. “I really don’t think we should...You know, I’m really not good with this sort of thing.”

“It’s OK, I get what you’re saying.” She yawned and streched before she continued. “It was just sex. We don’t have to make anything more out of it.” She ywaned again” I mean...I’ve been kinda down lately, and I...I guess I was just facinated with you and...you know...the way you act, the way you talk to people. And I guess you didn’t exactly find me repulsive either...”

“Far from it,” he said, relieved that she wasn’t one of those girls who’d pick out a wedding dress once a guy looked at her. “So, we’re OK, then?”

“Sure,” she nodded. “And we don’t tell anyone about this, do we? I mean, I don’t want anyone to think I’m a slut. See, I don’t usually do things like this...”

“Don’t worry,” he said while straightning his collar. “The only common aquaintances you and I have are my three little musketeers, and I’m not planning on running to brag to them, they’d deep-fry me.”

She smiled at him. “Sleeping with patients a little frowned upon, is it?”

“I don’t do it on a regular basis, but I’m guessing it’s not the kind of thing that authomaticly leads to a raise.” He looked around in the room again. “Now, did you notice where my pants went?”

She giggled and pointed “They’re hanging from that lamp in the ceiling over there...”