Say It's Possible (1/3)
Title: Say It's Possible (1/3)
Author: Phelipa
Rating: PG
Pairing: House/Cuddy
Disclaimer: I don't own House MD, nor do I own the characters used below.
Summary: My take on the Cuddy baby arc.
A/N: My first Huddy fic so I hope it's alright!
Say It's Possible
House raised an eyebrow and watched with interest as Lisa Cuddy bolted down the hallway, head tucked down to her chin.
“House?” Cameron interjected, “The patient?”
He craned his neck, watching as Cuddy disappeared into the Ladies room, gagging slightly and lifting a hand to her mouth.
“Uh, do an MRI and a lumbar puncture. Find me when you have something.”
He clutched his cane and limped down the hall, turning the corner so that he was out of his fellows’ watchful eyes. He could hear her gags and sputters as he pushed the door open with his cane and stepped in. She hadn’t bothered to lock the stall behind her and he could see her skirt-clad rear and black pumps sticking out the door.
He pushed the button in front of the sink and grabbed a handful of paper towels, running them under the stream of cool water. He sighed as he heard her gag again, he despised vomit. He swung the stall door open and gruffly said,
“Here.”
She turned her green tinged face towards him and snatched the paper towels out of his fist, resting them on the back of her sweaty neck. As she turned back to the toilet he left the stall and muttered, over the sound of her retching,
“I hear morning sickness is a real bitch.”
“I’m not pregnant,” She moaned weakly from behind the metal, green wall.
He ignored her, “You don’t normally eat bacon in the morning either, cravings and morning sickness?”
“How do you know I had bacon this morning?”
“I can smell it in your vomit.” He replied snarkily.
She gagged at his comment but nothing came up, assuring her that her stomach was finally empty. She stood on wobbly legs and pulled the paper towels from her neck, wiping her damp face,
“They ran out of eggs downstairs, I had to buy bacon and toast.”
“You didn’t have breakfast here, I watched you come in. By the pale, sickly expression you wore when you did come in, I assume you haven’t eaten anything since you got here.”
She flushed the toilet and stepped out of the stall, smoothing her trembling hands over her A-line skirt. She crouched in front of the sink, running lukewarm water in and out of her mouth in a fruitless effort to rid it of the vomit flavour.
House twirled his cane deftly through his fingers and looked her up and down,
“Judging by your slightly swollen breasts and the extra plump lift in your ass I’d say you’re in your third month.”
“I’m not pregnant.”She said wearily, tossing the paper towel in the trash and cupping her hands, splashing water on her face, “I went out last night, had some shrimp that was, clearly, undercooked. Voila, food poisoning. Leave me alone.”
He punched the handicapped button next to the door and shrugged, “Fine but the eau de vomit and the positive pregnancy test in your bathroom trash can beg to differ.”
“What!?” She hissed, trailing him down the hall.
He ignored her, limping down the hallway until she cornered him in her office and hissed venomously,
“You went through my garbage? You broke into my house!?”
He grinned wickedly, “Nope, lucky guess.”
“Lucky guess?” She demanded in a dazed voice.
He frowned slightly, “Well, that and the fact that you haven’t requested my ’services’ this month. You weren’t going to tell me.”
“Telling you wasn’t part of the deal.” She said firmly, rearranging a stack of papers on her desk.
He snorted, “The deal.”
“The deal was that you would get me pregnant and then we would sever ties - all I wanted was a baby, all you wanted was sex.”
“So,” He said, poking the end of his cane at her flat belly, “You’ve got a little Cuddles in there? Three months?”
“I don’t know, I just found out a couple days ago, I have an appointment with Dr. Weller tomorrow.”
He wrinkled his nose and scoffed, “Weller? What are you giving birth to, a monkey? Why didn’t you book an appointment with Dr. Symes?”
“Why do you care?” She demanded, settling herself back in the office chair.
“Don’t care, just wondering.”
“I tried,” She huffed, “She’s not taking new patients.”
“Oh. Fine.” He said simply, turning his back on her and wandering out of the office, “Well then, enjoy the next seven months.”
Three hours later she lifted the receiver to answer the ringing line, “Lisa Cuddy.”
“Dr. Cuddy? It’s Nancy calling from OB/GYN, we’ve had an opening with Dr. Symes, one of her patient’s switched clinics. Are you available Wednesday at noon for your first appointment?”
She looked up at the calendar and stammered, “Uh, yeah. Yes, Wednesday’s fine.”
She set down the handset and looked up, watching House limp by her office and snatch a red lollipop from the nurse’s station. She could’ve sworn he’d peeked into her office as he walked by but the next second he was bitching to one of the nurses so she shook her head and figured she was reading into it too much.
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Wilson jumped as House slammed the door behind him, “Good morning to you too.”
“Cuddy’s pregnant.”
Wilson looked up in surprise, “She found a donor?”
House grabbed half of a sandwich away from Wilson’s swatting hands and corrected, “Nope. She found me.”
Wilson snorted, “Yeah. Right.”
He looked up, expecting to find a grin on House’s face. Instead he found a strange look of foreboding and dread,
“You’re serious?”
“Dead serious.”
“You knocked Cuddy up?”
“You got it.”
“So, now what?”
“I was going to ask you.”
“Well, does she expect you to be involved?”
“She wasn’t going to tell me.”
“So, evidently she doesn’t think she needs help.”
“I got her an appointment with Symes.”
“She didn’t make an appointment with Symes?”
House snorted, “She booked herself in with Weller.”
Wilson studied him for a moment, “Why are you helping her?”
He shrugged and rose, heading for the door, “Because.”
Wilson just sighed and watched him go, knowing that there was no point in pressing the matter.
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Cuddy shifted uncomfortably in her chair, swallowing hard against a hard lump of nausea and feeling sweat break out on her brow. Her face contorted but she remained seated, rubbing her abdomen gingerly.
Her stomach gave another heave and she felt the room spin around her as the door slammed open, startling her.
“I need the ok to discharge my patient.”
She swallowed again and rubbed her temples, sarcastically retorting, “The one with the seizures? No.”
“He’s faking it!”
Her hands began to tremble and black spots flashed in front of her eyes, “House, I can’t deal with this now. Keep him for a few more hours and I’ll deal with it then.”
He tilted his head to get a better look at her and suspiciously asked, “Did your OB tell you everything’s alright?”
“She said I’m fine, so far the baby’s fine. Why?”
“You’re pale and sweaty.”
She clenched her fingers over the edge of the table and shook her head to try and clear the fog, “I’m fine, just a little nauseous.”
“What did you have to eat this morning?”
“Nothing.” She spat, throat and eyes prickling.
She clutched at her throat as her stomach gave a tremendous heave and stumbled to the garbage can, clutching the wire edge as her already empty stomach tried to invert itself. Her head spun and she stumbled backwards, her vision fading into a black haze.
House limp-ran forward, managing to slip a hand behind her back and guide her away from the edge of the desk as her eyes rolled back and her lids fluttered closed,
“Someone get me a wheelchair!” He yelled, grabbing bottled water from her mini fridge and pressing it to her forehead.
A nurse pushed a wheelchair into the room and he motioned to Cuddy’s body on the floor, “Help me get her in the chair.”
Cuddy’s eyelids flickered as the young nurse slid her arm around her, lifting her up into the black seat,
“House?”
Her voice was abnormally weak and her eyes darted around fearfully.
“You fainted.” He muttered, turning to the nurse as she finished settling her in the chair, “Push her up to OB.”
He followed the two of them to the elevator as Cuddy protested, “I’m fine, I don’t need to see a doctor.”
“You’re going to see Symes.”
He stepped into the elevator and took the wheelchair, “We’re fine from here.”
The nurse scurried away and he rested his hand on the handle of the chair as Cuddy turned, “House, I’m fine. Can we please go?”
“No. Have you had any vaginal bleeding?”
Her face turned fifty shades of red as the other two doctors in the lift peered at her out of the corner of their eyes.
“No!” She hissed, slumping down in the wheelchair and shielding her face with her palm.
House grinned wickedly, having successfully won this battle, shutting her up until they reached the third floor and left the other doctor’s behind. She turned in her seat, eyes flashing angrily as she shouted,
“You have no right, no right to ask about me or the baby!”
He put on a mock stupid voice and stuttered, “Uh, yeah...except for the fact that the baby is, uh, what? Half mine.”
Her eyes narrowed and she said, “No. No, this baby is not half yours, this is my child. When you agreed to do this you said it was just like being any other donor - you did not want.to.be.involved.”
“Easy Cuddy,” He warned, “Your spit’s all over me. I asked for the news, not the weather.”
She let out a strangled noise of fury and frustration before standing up quickly and walking away from the chair.
“Cuddy.” He said, watching her stumble slightly, “Come back here.”
“No.” But she stopped walking, letting him catch up.
“Get back in the chair.”
She let out another weak protest but he had to catch her by the arm as her knees buckled, dropping his cane and hissing as he dropped weight onto his bad leg.
“Get in the chair.” He hissed, trying to keep the anger out of his voice.
She meekly sunk back into the chair and he pushed her down the hallway, his limp more apparent than usual. He left her a few feet back as he approached the desk,
“I have Lisa Cuddy here; she’s vomiting, dizzy and fainted down in her office.”
The nurse scanned through the appointment book and said, “Alright, we can see her in about twenty minutes, why don’t you go ahead into room three and ask her to get changed into a hospital gown.”
He returned to the chair and pushed her towards room three, snatching a paper gown from outside the door. She climbed up onto the bed and he thrust the gown at her,
“Put this on.”
She looked at it, then up at him, with disdain before protesting, “No.”
Her arms wrapped protectively around her clothing and House snorted, “I’ve seen it all before, just take off your clothes.”
Pink spots bloomed on her cheeks as she muttered, “Fine. Can you help me?”
He nodded brusquely and stepped forward, letting her cling to his shoulders for support as she shimmied out of her slacks. He lifted the knit sweater over her head, catching the briefest glimpse of her milky-white belly before she hastily tugged the scratchy blue paper over her skin.
“There,” He said sarcastically, “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
She glared at him as she pushed herself back up on the gurney, “You can go now.”
He wasn’t really sure why he didn’t go, why he didn’t want to go, so he simply said, “I can stay.”
“I can do this on my own, House.” She said quietly.
“I know that.”
“Then why are you here?”
He merely shrugged uncomfortably, eternally grateful when the door swung open and Lisa’s obstetrician hurried in,
“Lisa, how are you?”
She turned and caught sight of House sitting in the corner, “Dr. House? Can we help you in some way?”
“Nope,” He chirped cheerfully, “Some one has to make sure our dearly devoted Dean of Medicine here makes it.”
Dr. Symes shot Cuddy a questioning look but she shook her head, “He’s fine.”
“So, Lisa?”
“I was quite nauseous this morning, a little dizzy.”
“She fainted down in her office.” House interjected.
Cuddy shot him a death glare but her doctor didn’t seem too concerned as she continued with the exam, “You’re a little dehydrated so I’d like to get some fluids into you, dizziness is fairly normal because of the increase in progesterone - more of the blood is headed to the baby - so I’m not too concerned but I’ll set up the fluids and add an anti-emetic. Just to be on the safe side we’ll do a quick scan once I’ve hooked up the IV.”
Cuddy nodded and turned to lie down on the exam table. The IV was set up in a matter of minutes and Dr. Symes was firing up the ultrasound machine, opening the front of Lisa’s gown to expose the faintest swell of her abdomen. House couldn’t help but watch with interest as the doctor slid the transducer over her soft flesh, searching for the small cluster of cells and organs. She flicked a blue switch on the side of the machine and a swift, steady thumping flooded the room.
He couldn’t help but stand and move closer for a better look.
“Dr. House...” Dr. Symes warned, but Lisa looked up and quietly said,
“Leave him be.”
He studied the strange looking creature with interest as it wiggled beneath the ultrasonic waves, clearly putting on a show for the attentive audience. He gazed at it for a moment longer before pointing his cane at the abnormally bulbous mound at the top of its body and cooing,
“Awww, it’s got your head.”
“Shut up.” She moaned, smacking him hard on the hip.
He sat in the room as the doctor turned the machine off, assured them that everything was normal and promised to be back when the fluids ran out. Once she’d gone Cuddy propped herself up on her elbows and demanded,
“How is this going to work?”
“What?” House asked innocently.
“This, this baby thing. First you just want sex? Now you’re following me around and trying to get me in to see better doctors, checking on me in my office, hanging around for ultrasounds? Do you want to be involved or not?”
He uncomfortably scuffed the carpet with his cane and shrugged, “I don’t...I don’t know. Can’t we just wait and see what happens?”
She stared at him for a few moments, studying him, before sighing and muttering, “Yeah, fine. Whatever.”
“Cuddy...” He began, sensing the sudden coldness as she stared up at the ceiling, “This wasn’t part of the deal at first but...maybe I’d like to try? I...I don’t know.”
She seemed to find this answer slightly more acceptable for she offered him a weak smile and nodded, “Fine, we can try it. See how it goes.”
He nodded firmly, “See how it goes.”
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