alanwolfmoon (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
alanwolfmoon) wrote2009-04-29 07:28 pm
alanwolfmoon) wrote2009-04-29 07:28 pm
Entry tags:
Priorities
Title: Priorities
Pairing: House/Cuddy, Wilson/Cameron eventually
Author: alanwolfmoon
Rating: PG-13-ish
Warnings: a few f-words through the chapters
Summary: Cuddy is in a car accident right after Big Baby, before she officially adopts Rachel. Everybody takes care of her, but she isn't initially able to remind them about Rachel. House doesn't need reminding. Story follows Cuddy's recovery, and the relationship between the two doctors.
Disclaimer: MINE! ALL MINE!....uh, no. Not mine.
Feedback: Reviews and flames are welcome. (They make it look like I'm writing fast)
Notes and Previous Chapters: 1 2 3 4 5
Pairing: House/Cuddy, Wilson/Cameron eventually
Author: alanwolfmoon
Rating: PG-13-ish
Warnings: a few f-words through the chapters
Summary: Cuddy is in a car accident right after Big Baby, before she officially adopts Rachel. Everybody takes care of her, but she isn't initially able to remind them about Rachel. House doesn't need reminding. Story follows Cuddy's recovery, and the relationship between the two doctors.
Disclaimer: MINE! ALL MINE!....uh, no. Not mine.
Feedback: Reviews and flames are welcome. (They make it look like I'm writing fast)
Notes and Previous Chapters: 1 2 3 4 5
Blond.
That couldn’t be good.
“Can you hear me?”
“Mmmh…”
“Sorry?”
“Mm.”
“House. Gregory House, can you hear me?”
His brain was finally starting to focus. Blond, female, familiar.
“Cameron?”
He opened his eyes again.
She was leaning over him, a concerned look on her face.
“What happened?” he asked, frowning.
“You got dangerously hypothermic in a jogging park.”
He blinked at her.
Oh.
Shit.
“Uh… how’d I get here?”
“A police officer found you and called an ambulance.”
“God, I hope it wasn’t Tritter.”
“Um…”
He closed his eyes.
“Wonderful. My life is complete.”
“You would have died if he hadn’t found you.”
He opened his eyes, “and I should be happy about that?”
She blinked at him.
“You… wanted… to die?”
“No. But I didn’t particularly want to live.”
“Do you still feel that way?”
He shook his head, “no. I was really fucked up. Where’s Cuddy?”
“I haven’t called her. I… wanted to make sure you pulled through. Your heart stopped three times.”
“Well call her and tell her I’m an asshole.”
“What…. What happened?”
“She… legally, we’re married.”
Cameron stared.
He shook his head, “it was so we’d both have legal guardianship of Rachel. But… I’d kind of… just in my head… liked the thought of it. We were yelling… I’m coming off Amitriptyline and I really wasn’t thinking straight… and she sort of said she didn’t think of me as… well, being married to her. Like I said, I was really fucked up.”
Cameron nodded, sighing.
“Plus,” said House, “I haven’t almost died in nearly a year. I was overdue.”
Cameron laughed, shaking her head, “you’re insane, House.”
“Yeah…”
“I’ll call Cuddy, okay? You rest.”
House nodded, and closed his eyes.
Cuddy sighed, as she curled her hand around House’s.
He opened his eyes, looking at her sleepily.
“I think we need a break,” she said, quietly.
He said nothing, just looked at her.
“We’re obviously getting sick of each other.”
He closed his eyes.
“House?”
“It… wasn’t… you’ve got it backwards.”
She blinked, as he opened his eyes.
“I… know you’re not… I know you’re starting to bounce away. That there’s only so much of me a person can stand at a time. But… I’m not. I’m… getting stuck to you.”
She bit her lip, “I… you know this won’t work. You know we can’t force it. I’m sorry… if you’re going to get hurt.”
He nodded, “I know. I’m… not going to get hurt. Because there was no expectation. you’re not breaking a promise. And… I know you’ll bounce back towards me eventually. A year, two… some time in the future, you’ll bounce back towards me. But… I’m not bouncing away. I’m still gonna be here, Cuddy. Waiting for you.”
She nodded, biting her lip.
“Okay. You must be stoned, or something, but okay.”
“Uh, Cam put me back on the Amitriptyline.”
She nodded, “good.”
He shrugged, “well, I was giving myself hemriods from it… so not *all* good…”
Cuddy laughed, quietly, “you’ve been more stable since you’ve been on it. Maybe it’s just helping with the pain, but…”
He nodded.
She squeezed his hand, “I’ll drop Rachel off tomorrow, I’ve got a meeting.”
He nodded again, “good.”
He didn’t mention that, in fact, he was on the full anti-depressant dose, not just a low one for treating neuropathic pain.
He really aught to feel upset that he’d just been broken up with.
But he wasn’t.
Maybe it was time.
He loved her, and wanted to keep on loving her. But maybe it was time for a break from the intimacy.
No… but the second part…that was it.
She still loved him. Nothing had changed.
There was no disappointment.
She wasn’t telling him that she’d never really loved him.
She just needed a break.
He sighed, running a hand through his hair.
He’d still miss her, though. God, he’d miss her.
Cameron came back after a while, biting her lip when she saw that Cuddy was gone.
“Are you okay?”
He nodded, “yeah. This wasn’t exactly unexpected.”
“Well, you’re stable, and okay to be discharged.”
He nodded again, sitting up.
He winced, pulling his hospital robe to the side. There were two small incisions.
He looked at Cameron.
She sighed, shrugging, “you were cold enough that we had to lavage your abdomen with hot water.”
He snorted, “wonderful.”
She gave him a hand down from the bed, and went to get him something to walk with, since his cane had apparently disappeared between the jogging park and hospital room.
She came back with a forearm crutch, which he had to extend all the way.
“I called Wilson, by the way. He should be here to pick you up fairly soon.”
House nodded, “right.”
She walked him to the lobby in friendly silence, and stood in front of him, as he sat.
“Um… speaking of Wilson?”
House looked at her.
“Yeah, he’s got a thing for you. I told him to act on it. He thinks it’s too soon after amber. I told him you could help him.”
Her expression brightened, “that explains a lot…”
By the time Wilson and House got to House’s apartment, Cuddy was already mostly packed—at least, her clothes and things. The books would obviously need more trips to take out.
House helped her finish packing the remaining things, and Wilson carried the stuff out to Cuddy’s car.
Rachel stood in the doorway of her bedroom, biting her lip, as Cuddy left.
“Where’s Mom going?”
House sighed, and sat painfully on the floor, “com’ere.”
Rachel came over, and sat in his lap, “where is she going?”
“Mom’s moving out of the apartment.”
“Why? Why is she leaving?”
“Because…”
House sighed, absently braiding Rachel’s hair, “you know in the stories mom and dad read to you at night? How the girl and boy live happily every after?”
“Uh-huh.”
“It doesn’t always work like that.”
“Mom doesn’t love us?”
“Oh, god no, Rache. She could never not love you. And she still loves me, and I still love her. But sometimes, people get a little tired of each other. People that are more messed up inside than the people in the stories. And they just can’t live so close with each other after a while. But they still love each other. They really do love each other. And they definitely love their daughter.”
Rachel bit her lip, still looking upset, but nodded.
“Am I going to see mom?”
House nodded, “of course. You’ll still see mom, and Wilson and me and everybody. Mom is just gonna live in another place. You might live with her some of the time, and with me other times, but I promise, you’ll see both of us.”
Rachel nodded.
Cuddy sighed, as she entered her own house. It felt… empty. And smelled dusty.
She would have to have the doorway widened, because although she was okay on the crutches now, she’d probably have to be back in the wheelchair as she got further along in her pregnancy.
But there’d be time for that.
She set about cleaning a house she had only occasionally stopped by to check on for over two years. Oh, lord. Rachel was going to be three soon.
House smiled, as Cuddy’s car pulled up in front of the preschool.
She got out, and let Rachel out of the back seat.
Rachel ran up to House, and wrapped her arms around his leg, happily.
House gently pried her off so he could walk, but took her hand.
He led her into the building.
A woman came to greet them, and asked Rachel’s name.
“Rachel D. H. Cuddy,” she said, with great magnitude.
Cuddy smiled at House, who smirked back.
Rachel turned back to them, “do I *have* to?”
House nodded, “yeah. You don’t wanna spend all your time with boring adults, do you?”
She nodded, “I do!”
Cuddy smiled, “don’t worry. You’ll make friends and you won’t even think about being here.”
She stuck out her bottom lip, “no.”
“Sorry, Rache,” said House, lowering himself down so he was at her level, “but you gotta do this, okay?”
She looked upset, “I don’t want to!”
“I know. It’s okay.”
She started to cry.
House sighed, and pulled her into a hug.
“It’s okay, Rache. It’ll be okay.”
She nodded into his shoulder, and he held her for a few moments longer, before letting go.
She stood, wiping her eyes on her sleeve, sniffing, “sorry. Big girls don’t cry.”
House frowned, “what?”
“That’s what Maria said.” Maria was one of the other girls who was regularly at the hospital day care center.
House gripped her shoulders, as Cuddy bit her lip, slightly worried. House had been pretty stable recently, but…
“No. She’s wrong. Big girls still cry. Boys cry, girls cry, Mom cries and Dad cries.”
“Mom says you’re afraid to cry.”
“Mom’s right. But I shouldn’t be. My Dad didn’t tell me it was okay to cry. But it is, Rache. It’s a good thing. okay? Dad shouldn’t be afraid to cry.”
She nodded, crying.
He pulled her into another hug, then let go, and ruffled her hair, “have fun today, kiddo.”
She nodded.
Cuddy reached down, leaning against a wall, and pulled Rachel up into a hug.
“I’ll see you later, Rachel.”
Rachel nodded, and sadly allowed herself to be led towards the other kids by the woman running the preschool.
House looked at Cuddy, as Rachel disappeared from sight.
“You told her I was afraid to cry?”
Cuddy nodded, “she asked why you didn’t cry when your leg is really bad.”
House sighed, nodding.
Carla smiled, as House limped in.
“You look depressed today.”
House looked at her, and shrugged, “Rachel’s first day of preschool.”
Carla nodded, “ah.”
House got on the table, and put the forearm crutch aside, “Aaron’s what… five?”
“Almost six. How far along is she?”
House blinked, “…Cuddy?”
Carla nodded, as House took the brace off his bad leg.
“I didn’t know anyone else knew. She’ just starting her second trimester. I haven’t seen any half-finished omelets in her trash, so I assume morning sickness finally went away. And she hasn’t dragged me over for unofficial sex or showed up in my office and started crying, so I guess the hormones are leveling out.”
“You don’t… *talk* to her about it?”
House shrugged, “I go to her appointments with her. And if she wants to talk about it, I’ll listen… but no, not really.”
“So… you’re just parents of your children.”
House nodded, grimacing as Carla started to stretch his bad leg, “yeah, pretty much.”
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Really enjoying this fic!
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