Priorities

[alanwolfmoon]

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 6 7

T









House opened his eyes.

There was a shape looming over his bed.

He turned the light on.

Cuddy, bent almost double, hand on her stomach.

House grabbed his coat and wrapped it around her shoulders, helping her out to the car.

He hurried back in, and grabbed Rachel, carrying her on his left hip as he staggered slightly on the stairs, then steadied.

“Mmm?” she mumbled, starting to wake up.

“It’s okay.”

Cuddy’s c-section was scheduled for two weeks from now. The babies would be premature, but not severely so.

House drove to the hospital, and as Cuddy was ushered into the elevator up to labor and delivery.

He picked Rachel up, and leaned over the nurse’s station.

Brenda looked up at him.

“You might want to change your bet.”

She smirked, and nodded.


Wilson hurried up the steps, trailed by Cameron.

They rounded the corner, and hurried into the room.

Cuddy was lying on the bed, soundly asleep.

House was sitting on a stool next to her bed, with Rachel standing next to him, as both of them leaned over the two small cribs.

House and Rachel looked up, as Wilson and Cameron entered.

Rachel ran over to Wilson, and wrapped her arms around his leg.

Wilson smiled, meeting House’s eyes.

House got to his feet, stiffly, and turned to watch Cuddy for a moment, brushing his fingers along her cheek.

Then he turned back to Cameron and Wilson and Rachel and the twins.

One girl and one boy, perfect and beautiful.

Wilson had a huge, sappy grin on his face.

So did Cameron.

House was smirking a little bit.

He sat back down on his stool.

Wilson couldn’t help feeling a bit tickled by the proud expression on his friend’s face.

Unlike with Rachel, who he had not felt was his for the first few months, he had absolutely no hesitation in taking responsibility and pride for these two.

“Have you decided on names yet?”

House shook his head, “not yet.”


House smirked, sitting on the couch with Evan in his lap.

Cuddy was walking around, carrying Sarah on her shoulder—something she was delighted to be able to do. She still had pain, sometimes, in her joints, but the auto-immune flare-up had faded as soon as she delivered.

House made the buzzing sound that Rachel had found so fascinating a few years ago.

Evan reached for House’s face, but didn’t do much else.

House tilted his head, but shrugged it off, and picked the baby boy up over his shoulder, limping into the kitchen, where Cuddy was attempting to make dinner with Rachel underfoot and Sarah overshoulder.

She finally solved both problems, by telling Rachel to hold Sarah for a while.

Rachel loved Sarah. Not Evan so much, because, according to her, he was boring and loud.

House spent a bit more time with Evan than Sarah, but more because he cried and fussed so much, than any other reason.

He certainly was not like his dad, who, according to his mom, had practically threatened her if Greg had turned out to be a girl.

He was learning more and more, as he was a dad and sort of a husband, how sucky a job John had done.

Evan started to cry again, and House sighed, checking his diaper, then limping to the fridge and taking out one of the pre-pumped bottles of milk, sticking it in the microwave.

Evan squirmed and fussed, and House hung his cane on the edge of the counter so he could use both hands to hold the writhing baby.

Cuddy looked at him, worried, “you think it’s colic?”

House shook his head, “he’d be curling if it was colic, and he doesn’t seem to be in pain. I’m gonna take him to Michaels, tomorrow.” If anything, Evan just seemed to be easily startled.

Cuddy nodded.

House stuck his head out into the living room, and found that Rachel had zoned out in front of the TV, Sarah in her lap.

Rachel had handled siblings pretty damn well, and the partial loss of attention from House and Cuddy.

It probably helped that she absolutely loved Sarah.


House yawned, sitting in the chair in the pediatrician’s office, bouncing a delighted Evan up and down on his good knee.

A woman came in, toting two boys and a girl over her shoulder.

The other two people there, a woman who was probably the five-year-old she was watching’s grandmother, and another woman, whose ten-year-old was absorbed in a kid’s magazine, seemed to be playing their own version of “which of these things doesn’t belong”.

House really didn’t care.

Wilson had said many times that he didn’t like himself, but did admire himself.

He’d never disagreed with the fact he didn’t like himself, but he had never found much worth admiring, either. Just enough that he could live with himself most of the time.

Now, he had to admit, he was pretty damn proud.

That he’d manage to not screw up Rachel so far, and give Cuddy twins, was something he could definitely be proud of.

Michaels came out, and nodded to House, who got up, slinging his leather baby bag over his shoulder, and gripping his cane.

Evan wailed.


“I don’t think it’s colic. He hasn’t been throwing up, or curling, or anything like that. Stool’s fine. Hasn’t eaten anything weird. Hasn’t gotten dropped. Gets startled, but I don’t really think he’s in pain…”

Michaels nodded, checking the baby boy’s eyes, mouth, nose, ears…

“You said he startles easily?”

House nodded.

Michaels clapped.

Evan didn’t startle.

Michaels got up, opened and slammed the door, out of Evan’s range of vision.

Nothing.

Michaels met House’s eyes.

House took a deep breath, and nodded.

Michaels flashed a penlight at Evan.

Evan flinched and started crying.

House closed his eyes.

“I’m sorry. I really am.”

House shook his head.

Cuddy smiled, as House came into her office, in the middle of the day, “how did the appointment with Dr. Michaels go?”

“We need to talk.”

Cuddy blinked, “now?”

House nodded, sitting down with Evan on his shoulder.

“He’s deaf. Evan.”

Cuddy paled, and swallowed, eyes filling with tears.

She’d been unusually susceptible to tears since a few weeks after she’d given birth. But House didn’t blame her for them now.

 
Kutner tilted his head a bit, blinking.

Taub and Thirteen soon followed suit.

There was a gold band around House’s left ring finger.

But he wasn’t whistling, singing, clean-shaven, or decently dressed, so he probably hadn’t gotten laid…

“Did Cuddy decide to marry you for real?” asked Thirteen, finally, as House finished writing on the board.

House shook his head, not turning to look at them, “nope.”

“Did you ask her to?”

“Nope.”

“Are you going to?”

“Nope?”

“Why are you wearing a ring?”

“Nope.”

Foreman lowered his newspaper with a sigh, “one of the twins is Deaf.”

House turned around, glaring at foreman, “who told you? One of the nurses?”

“No, Michaels. He called me in for a neurological consult.”

The kids were looking at House, sympathy—or pity, it was hard to tell—evident on their faces.

“What are you going to do?” asked Taub, “I’ve got a favor I can call in with one of the best surgeons for an implant…”

“The deafness is neurological, hearing aids and implants wouldn’t help,” supplied foreman.

“Cuddy wasn’t sure she’d want to get an implant even if it would be helpful,” said House, tiredly, “figured it should be his decision when he’s old enough. But then the tests came back, and it was a moot point.”

“So… why the ring?” asked Taub, confused.

“He wanted Cuddy to know he was still in it for the long run,” supplied Kutner, making everyone look at him.

He shrugged, “I was talking to Wilson, earlier.”

House rolled his eyes, “Wilson doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” Which was a lie—Kutner was right.

“What caused it? If it was an infection, the damage could heal…” started Thirteen.

House shook his head, growing weary of both the discussion and thinking about the issue, “he was premature. It wasn’t caused by an infection, there wasn’t any evidence of damage on the scans.”

Thirteen looked at the table.

House sighed, “but this patient, here, that I just wrote all these symptoms about? We might be able to help *them*. How about we try concentrating on that for a while.”


Cuddy sighed, looking up as House entered the apartment.

Sarah was in her arms, asleep.

Rachel was sitting on the floor, holding Evan and making noises at him, as though hoping for a response.

She looked up, as House came in, and he could see she’d been crying.

She got up, carrying Evan over, and handing him up to House.

House hung his cane on a desk, taking Evan in his left arm, and Rachel’s hand with his right.

She held tightly to his hand, as he led her over to the couch.

“I don’t like people being sick,” she said, quietly.

House nodded, and pulled her into a one-armed hug against his side, as he settled Evan into his lap.

Cuddy looked over at him, and met his eyes. Rachel wasn’t the only one who’d been crying, it seemed.

House leaned over, and kissed her gently on the forehead.

“It’s gonna be okay.”

“It shouldn’t have to be. I should never have tried to carry twins, House. It’s because he was premature, isn’t it?”

House shook his head, knowing he was taking a risk of her finding out he was lying, but knowing she needed to hear this, “no. It was an infection, after he was born. There was nothing anyone could have done differently.”

She looked at him, and started to cry.

He sighed, closing his eyes.

“Dad?”

He opened his eyes, looking at Rachel, “yeah?”

“Did you ‘n Mom get married?”

House blinked, “no.”

“How come you’re wearing a married ring?”

Cuddy looked at him, wiping her eyes, “what?”

He sighed, and showed her his hand, gently shooing Rachel off the couch.

Cuddy blinked at him, “House, what… I told you… and this doesn’t change the fact that…”

He shook his head, “I know. I understand. I just don’t agree.”

“You can’t *make* me want a relationship with you, House.”

“I’m legally married to you, Cuddy.”

She stared at him, almost fearfully, though she knew it was incredibly unlikely that House would force her to choose between being his lover and losing her children. 

He shook his head vehemently, “not what I mean. I’m not trying to force you into anything, I would never do that to you, or the kids. I’m just… I have no intention of ever having a relationship with another woman besides you, Cuddy. I figured it’s about time other people knew that.”


God… sometimes House could be so… *annoying*, thought Cuddy, as she lay in bed—the same bed as his, but only because they’d gotten rid of her bed—, but…

He’d managed to change for her, and for Rachel.

He’d seen both of them through her recovery.

He’d seen them through for four years, now.

And he wanted to see them through for more years to come.

And what he had said tonight, about the ring…

How could a man with so little tact, so little discretion, make her heart flutter like it hadn’t since she was a silly girl in college, bored and frustrated with the men, and then meeting someone who could finally keep up with her.

She closed her eyes, in a silent grimace.

*He* had been that man.

He was the only one who had ever made her feel this way.

Sure, men before and after him had tried to take care of her, tried to be her knight in shining armor, made speeches, composed bad poetry.

But the difference was… he meant it.

He wasn’t putting on a show for her.

He was just doing what he did.

And saying what he meant.

And what he said and meant and did made her feel like nothing else ever had.

She opened her eyes, turning to look at him.

He was asleep, curled hugging his quilt, facing her on his left side, drooling a bit into his pillow.

Cuddy gently reached, brushing the backs of her fingers along his cheek.

He stirred, a bit, and moved towards her touch, mouth twitching into a semblance of a smile for a moment, before smoothing back out into the calmness of sleep.

Cuddy gently shook his shoulder.

House twitched, and opened his eyes, sleepily.

“Hmm?” he looked over the edge of the bed, expecting to see Rachel scared by bad dreams.

She wasn’t there.

He looked back at Cuddy, blinking.

She smiled, a little bit, and touched his cheek again.

He turned away, onto his right side.

She sighed, and laid her hand on his shoulder, “House.”

“What?”

She bit her lip briefly, then answered, “you’ve changed.”

He shrugged.

She shook her head, “really, House.”

“Apparently not enough,” he grouched.

She shook her head, “no, House. You changed. I haven’t. You… five years ago, I would have laughed at the thought of even asking you to babysit for five minutes. But you’ve never been one to run from a challenge. You… you take responsibility in the strangest ways, normally. You get my desk from med school into my office, then you grab my breast. You aren’t normal, House. I can’t trust you to turn paperwork in on time, but you will kill yourself to save another person’s life. Your priorities aren’t what people expect. You miss the little things and excel at the big ones. But that’s just it, House. You’re there for the big things. And you love me and the kids enough to get through the small things.”

“…”

“I’m good at the small things. Not so much the big ones. But I think I love you enough to get through them.”

He blinked at her, “what are you saying?”

She smiled, sitting up, and taking his hands.

“Gregory House, will you marry me?”

He swallowed.

Then leaned in, and kissed her gently on the cheek.

“No.”

She stared at him, blankly, “but…”

“Because I already did. I’ve just been waiting for you to realize it.”

She smiled, a bit, nodding.

He was right.

He had been in for the long haul since the start.

And he had loved her since forever.

The only real change was that he was able to show it.

It was amazing what a difference that made.
 

Comments

[2cbetter2.livejournal.com]

Well here's hoping you'll continue it after your finals are over and best wishes regarding those!