I know I know its been forever, sorry! I've needed inspiration. So please if anyone has any, throw it my way! Anywho... I hope there are still a few interested in this! Here it is...

The Happiest Place On Earth

Part IV

"House?…House…are you really ignoring me?"

He of course, didn't answer.

"You're being childish," Cuddy accused him, while watching him change Madeline's diaper, in what was freakishly the calmest and quietest she'd ever seen him be.

It wasn't a first for him to do that- change Madeline's diaper, but she found it odd that he'd willingly volunteered; especially while ignoring her.

Normally she would have been over the moon that he was changing their infants diaper without complaining at all, but her guilt ridden mind needed him to say something back. It made her uncomfortable to see him so…placid.

Cuddy's attention shifted to their baby when Madeline garbled something incomprehensible to him. House merely smirked back at her, clearly amused at her nonverbal noises. It was cute; it was adorable to watch them together, but it didn't take away from the fact of how immature he was acting towards her.

"Your father was going to find out eventually, and Madeline is his granddaughter. He deserved to know," She reasoned, though mostly with herself than him.

Her comment made him freeze for a moment, before he finally turned to look at her.

"Did you stop to think that maybe you could have waited a couple of years until-" he made an overenthusiastic hand movement to his neck to indicate death, to which Cuddy rolled her eyes and crossed her arms above her ever growing belly.

"Just because you two don't get along doesn't mean he doesn't have the-"

House didn't hide his spitefulness, "Your logic makes no sense."

For a moment, the way he'd scolded at her, made an uncomfortable knot in her throat, "Of course-"

"No-no it doesn't. If I had done the same to you, you would have thrown me out again. You wouldn't have given it a fleeting thought. So don't give me your 'he deserves to know' bullshit, its just an excuse. You think reconnecting with my dad will help fix me. Clearly you're not satisfied, and you want me to fit into your perfect little world, with a perfect little family."

She stayed quiet, because as much as she wanted to argue back that it wasn't true, House was right. Not the part that she wanted him to fit into a perfect picture, but the truth was that, deep down, a part of her did think that attempting to fix his relationship with his dad would help him, even if only marginally.

When she didn't say anything back, House scoffed silently, picking up Madeline while she wrapped her arms around his neck, "See? I was right. Maybe you should listen to your mom. It's what'll happen eventually anyway, isn't? You wanting someone who isn't me."

Finally, Cuddy rolled her eyes, "Stop it. This is getting ridiculous, I want you. I need you, just like you need me. I can't do this parenting thing without you."

He shrugged his shoulders, "People parent separately", his gaze turned over to Madeline, who was transfixed on him, and added, "Sometimes it's better for the kid."

She felt as if the wind had been sucked out of her lungs, and she took a moment to recover from his stab, "House-stop…I don't want you in my life for Madeline's sake, or for this baby's sake. I need you in it for me."

He raised an eyebrow, "Really? Could've fooled me."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

House shrugged his shoulders, "Making prenatal appointments and not involving moi. Agreeing with your mother that our relationship is doomed. Which by the way, I had already guesstimated myself from the start."

She let out a tiny scoff and closed the gap between them, slowly snaking her arms around his neck, to sandwich Madeline in the middle.

He'd moved his eyes away to avoid her gaze, but Cuddy pulled his face towards her again, "You're both so negative. I just want you. I love you."

House merely rolled his eyes, but she didn't care; Cuddy placed a kiss on his stubborn lips.

Then, mimicking her movements, Madeline grabbed his jaw and kissed him to, "Uh-you."

And he couldn't help it, House let out a small breathy laugh, and just like that, things were ok.

xxxoxxxo

Later that night

After all the guests had left, and the endless pots and pans had been loaded into the dishwasher, House had taken the job of putting Madeline to bed, while Cuddy took a shower.

When she walked out, his long angular body was sprawled on her bed comfortably watching TV, with heavy eyelids threatening to close.

It hadn't really crossed her mind before, but watching him there, Cuddy suddenly noticed how big his clothes hung on him. Yes, they'd all realized that he'd lost weight from not taking care of himself; and she also knew that it had only been a short time since he'd been back, but he'd yet to put on weight.

After a minute of watching him, his eyes traveled to hers and he gave her a frown.

"If you think you're getting lucky tonight, think again. My body isn't a machine you can just crank up when you want it to," he quipped.

She smiled, and crawled into bed, curling up against his body using one of his arms as a pillow.

Cuddy yawned, "We need to go shopping for you."

"I agree. I definitely need some new video games and porn, " he decided, closing his eyes.

She rolled hers, "Right. I was thinking more along the lines of clothes that actually fit you."

"What's wrong with the clothes I have now?" House whined.

"They're two sizes two big."

He brought up his hand to scratch his face, "Right now, but once I gain it all back they'll fit."

Cuddy shook her head, "Right. But in the mean time I'd like it if my boyfriend didn't look like a hobo. You aren't getting out of this one. We're going shopping tomorrow."

"Yeah, sure," he scoffed, stifling a yawn.

"When your underwear is too big, it's time to get new clothes."

Cuddy closed her eyes, ready for his witty remark, but instead, all that she heard was light snoring.

xxxoxxxo

Monday Morning

June 1st, 2009

House kept looking at himself self-consciously in the glass walls as he walked towards his office, aghast at the blazer that Cuddy had picked out. She'd been right that his clothes were a tad big on him at the moment, but everything she'd insisted he get while they'd been out shopping felt alien on him.

The small solace he had was that Wilson would be away for the next two weeks. Meaning, with him gone the rest of his team wouldn't dare bring up his attire.

As he passed by the DDX room, Foreman, Kutner, and Thirteen were already seated, looking through mountains of files, but looked up as soon as they spotted him.

House looked away and made his way into his office, dropping his backpack on his chair and feeling a faint smile grow on his lips at the sight of his red ball.

And as he was about to grab it, he heard the adjoining glass door move, with Kutner walking in with a huge smile on his face.

"You are back. Foreman kept saying you were coming back but I didn't belie-"

House rolled his eyes and walked away from him towards the DDX room, "Shut up."

He walked straight to the coffee pot, ignoring both Foreman and Thirteen as grabbed his red mug and asked, "So…any interesting cases?"

"We didn't have any before. Then, when word got around that you were coming back, we found this entire pile on the table this morning," Foreman let out bitterly.

House let out a snicker and turned around, "I missed you guys too….Foreman, right? Sorry, its been a while. And the lesbian? What are you doing here?"

Thirteen's eyes shot wide open, and House watched as both Kutner and Foreman looked over at her with new interest. She scoffed and looked up with a nervous laugh, "I'm not a lesbian."

Her uncomfortableness amused him, until he realized he was one fellow short, "Right, sure you're not. Where's Chase? And again, why are you here?"

House frowned at thirteen, taking a sip of his coffee.

"Chase is covering for Dr. Nolo in cardiology for the next few weeks so Remi will be joining us for a while," Foreman said.

"Where's Nolo?"

"Rehab. He showed up to do a heart surgery drunk," Laughed Kutner.

"Everyone saw that one coming, am I right?" Scoffed House, flipping through a random file.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed Foreman cross his arms, "Really want to joke about Nolo being in rehab? Why aren't you in rehab?"

House shrugged, "I'm indispensable. Too many people to save. So, what do you guys say? Should we do some saving today? Or-"

As House looked up from the file, on the other side of the glass stood Cuddy, holding Madeline in her arms, waving at him and pointing towards his office.

He looked around and dropped the file he'd been holding, "Find me a case worthy of my help. I'll be back in five."

"What's she doing here?" he asked taking Madeline from her arms.

Cuddy bit her lip, "Marina called out sick this morning, I had to bring her to work with me, but I have a board meeting in fifteen that I forgot about and I don't have time to call another sitter-"

House dropped his mouth open, "You're kidding right? It's my first day back. I don't even have a case yet."

"Great. Then you can take care of her."

Madeline grabbed his hair in tiny fistfuls and pulled his head, making him wince, "Dada."

House looked at his little girl and wanted to be annoyed, knew he rightfully should have been. But instead he just smirked at her, irritated only at himself for being manipulated by a one-year-old so easily.

"She'll be hungry soon. She didn't eat much at breakfast, and don't forget she has to take her nap at noon, else she gets fussy."

House rolled his eyes, "Yeah yeah, go away."

Cuddy smiled with a hand on her growing stomach and reached up to kiss Madeline, then paused and kissed him tenderly, "I'll see you guys at home."

A few seconds passed and House made his way back into the DDX room with Madeline's arms now wrapped around his neck tightly, as if in fear that he'd let her go.

"You guys find a case yet?" he squeaked out from the choking.

"Can I hold her?" Thirteen asked, getting up from her seat and putting her arms out for Madeline.

House raised his eyebrows, and held out Madeline for her to grab, "Sure."

But his toddler frowned at Thirteen and kicked her legs, screeching, "No!"

Thirteen recoiled and frowned, "On second thought, I think I'll pass."

"ER brought in a patient suffering from a heart attack today", murmured Foreman reading from a file.

When he didn't go on, House looked at him, "And?"

"-And He's five and suffering from Xeroderma Pigmentosum", the neurologist added at the end.

"Think it could be related?" asked Kutner eyeing House, while he struggled to keep Madeline in his arms.

She'd spotted Thirteen's croissant and was determined to get it.

"Doubt it," He let out with a strain, eventually letting Madeline down, watching her waddle over to Thirteen.

"Occam's Razor," Foreman said simply, "With all things being equal, the simplest explanation often tends to be the right one."

House scoffed, "Right. Him having a heart attack is obviously related to the fact that he's a vampire. His problem isn't too much frying from the sun, it's too much fried chicken and french fries."

"His weight is average for a five year old," countered Foreman, tilting his head slightly at him.

House rolled his eyes, "Were you really this stupid when I hired you? He's obviously a tofi…you idiot."

Kutner looked up at him, "Tofi?"

"Everyone knows it means thin on the outside, fat on the inside," answered Thirteen boringly, without looking up from her file.

"Right it's much more likely that he has a secondary condition, that has nothing to do with his condition, rather than take it into account."

"Where as, blaming his heart attack on his genetic disorder makes much more sense. You're wasting the patient's time," Thirteen breathed out dropping the file on the desk and raising an eyebrow to Foreman.

All three men looked over at her with silence, and House let a tiny smirk spread on his lips, "I like her. Can we keep her?"

She gave House a confused look, "So are you. Isn't obvious what it is? His allergy to the sun created an infection that caused a blockage in his arteries, which were already getting blockage by the high sodium diet his mother has been feeding him. Did you guys read the file at all?"

House blinked his eyes and looked up at Foreman, "Like I said, can we keep her?"

xxxxoxxxo

Monday, Evening

After a grueling day with the budget committee, the board insisting she let go of Dr. Nolo, and both legal and human resources saying she couldn't let him go because that would be showing discrimination because of House- Cuddy had been more than ready to go home when seven o'clock hit. She'd left her assistant in charge of all calls that would keep coming in, in regards to Dr Nolo.

And when she'd arrived home to see toys scattered on the floor with both House and Madeline asleep on the couch, she'd let a tiny smile grow on her face.

Part of her wanted to leave them in their comfortable slumbering mess, and go upstairs to take a long bath by herself, but a bigger part of her missed him.

She sat down next them on the couch and gently tapped his shoulder, until his sleepy eyes fluttered open and his icy blue eyes looked up at her.

He yawned and stretched his lean arms, letting his eyes close again, "Hey."

Her eyes scanned the tornado that had erupted in the living room, "It looks like you two were busy."

House yawned and a long lurch emitted from his stomach as he spoke, "She's-relentless."

Cuddy frowned, "Did you feed her dinner?"

He nodded, closing his eyes again.

"Did you forget to eat?"

He exhaled, but didn't open his eyes. Instead, House turned his head away from her, as if annoyed.

"House-you can't skip meals," she stressed.

"I didn't," he retorted, annoyed.

There was another lurch, and he rolled his eyes, "So maybe I forgot. Can you blame me? This kid's a handful."

Of course a part of her wanted to keep arguing, mostly because it was a natural response from the both of them. However, she knew that the last thing he needed was him thinking she was being condescending over every detail. Instead, she took a deep breath and let it go.

"You should put Madeline in her crib and join me for a bath," she whispered into his ear, trailing a kiss on his neck.

Cuddy felt him give a little shiver and his eyes popped open, "Tempting…you could add an incentive, to sweeten the deal."

She rolled her eyes, "Oh please," but let her hand trail down his body until it met his belt buckle.

"Hold your horses woman. Can't you see there's a child here," he accused her sarcastically, standing up and gingerly placing Madeline's head on his shoulder as he took her up the stairs.

Cuddy followed behind him, unable to help a smirk from spreading on her lips. She'd missed his snarky-ness.

As she was about to walk up the stairs, out of the corner of her eye, the mess that they'd made with toys in the living room called after her.

"I'll be up in a minute", she said after him, to what House numbly nodded his head.

She told herself that she'd only pick up the toys, the rest she'd leave for Marina. But as she finished placing all of Madeline's dolls and blocks inside her toy chest, she couldn't stop herself from placing all the bottles and cups inside the dishwasher, and rinsing all the pans and plates that House had used to make something for Madeline.

When she was finally done, which felt like an hour, she made her way up to her room, to find House snoring away.

Of course she knew she should leave him alone, because clearly he was tired, but the part of her that missed him couldn't.

And slowly, Cuddy climbed onto her bed and let her hands wander up his thighs, until they reached their destination, and she'd caught his attention.

House stirred, clearly feeling her hand as it made its way under his now unbuckled belt.

His eyes only opened slightly, he yawned and mumbled, "Hey-what're-you-doin'?"

"What do you think I'm doing?" she teased.

House shook his head and swatted her hand away, uninterested, only mumbling, "Sleep."

Cuddy sat back up on her bed, feeling a tinge of embarrassment from his rejection, and a little in shock too. It dawned on her in that moment, that it was the first time he'd ever rejected sex. And there was something unsettling about it that she couldn't shake.

Next...

He wasn't sure what he was doing when he pulled his bike over and parked it. Logically, he was aware that Cuddy was waiting for him at home, pregnant, and that there was Madeline to think of too. But it didn't stop him from walking into the bar, and walking up to order a drink.

Of course he'd spotted the high table that Paula had sat at with her friends. Though, House opted against being completely obvious and took a sip from his bourbon, pretending to be oblivious to her presence and wondering if she had spotted him.

His question was answered with the noise of heels approaching him, and Paula took a seat on the barstool next to him.

He turned his head only slightly, enough to see an amused smile on her lips, "Why hello Dr House."