Thank you for your reviews - one comment on them, though I wrote the African-American vs. Black comment in narrative and not dialogue, I meant it as something that House had said to Dr Washington when he referred to her as black, probably during her interview. What his private thoughts about things like that are - who knows! I didn't feel brave enough to challenge the canon that far. Though I suppose by now this story is pretty OOC and AU anyway, so why so shy? Don't know. :)

All in all, thank you all for staying with this story this far, but this is the end. Cuddy is no longer pregnant, the Trips are safely here, the House-hold has survived its birthing pains and House has a new team and, in a way, new beginning. Time to end The Pregnant Days. There will be a couple-of-chapters-long sequel of sorts, maybe more like an epilogue (The Past Days) in which the adult children think back to a few incidents in their childhood. Other than that, you have to imagine for yourselves how things proceed from here on :).

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In the evening of the Friday of Cuddy's first week at work she and House were sitting in the kitchen, drinking coffee and talking. The rest of the people living in the house were around, occasionally coming into the kitchen for something but mostly House and Cuddy were alone for now.

"So, how was it?" House asked with a smile. "Being back at work again?"

"Amazing," Cuddy nearly laughed. "I felt so alive and energized. I loved being home with the kids, but work gives me such a buzz. Though I suspect the main reason why it was all positive was because I knew I could go and see my children any time of the day."

"You restrained yourself pretty well, though," House complimented her. "You kept pretty much to the schedule we had talked about before hand."

"As I said, it helped knowing that I could come over anytime," Cuddy shrugged. "Also, I knew they were in good hands with you and your Harem."

"I didn't name them that," House denied immediately – as indeed he hadn't, not publicly.

"Like you didn't know the others would once it became clear that you had an all female team," Cuddy scoffed. "Besides, there are Kasumii and Perri, too, with the kids. A seraglio if I ever saw one."

"Are you ok with it?" House asked curiously. "The talk, I mean."

"I'm fine," Cuddy dismissed his concerns. "There is always talk, even if you had gone for an all-male team like Chase did, there would still be talk. There is some talk about you and Wilson, even now. You promised me that you would tell me if you wanted to stop being exclusively mine and I trust you to keep that promise."

"I intend to," House confirmed. "It's good that you can ignore the talk. I don't know what will happen between us, but I really try to be honest with you. You will be the first to know, if something happens that affects us. I know my credibility as such, isn't that good, but this involves the kids, so I really am making an extra effort."

"I know," Cuddy assured him. "And no matter what happens, I too will try to make sure the children don't suffer. I am quite aware that the current state of affairs is my doing. I'm a grown woman; I know what I'm doing. Honesty is all I need. Everything else I can deal with but if you lie to me - that will be difficult."

"Well isn't it a good thing that blunt honesty is my speciality," House said – with quite heavy irony.

"Ha, ha," Cuddy responded and took a sip of her coffee. "You do remember that Aiko's birthday is coming up in less than two weeks?" She then reminded House.

"I do," House said frowning a little. "What are we going to do?"

"What do you mean?" Cuddy asked.

"We haven't celebrated any of the holidays yet, we skipped Christmas and Thanks Giving and even New Year and what not, because you were too exhausted and because we didn't quite know how to celebrate them in this House-hold. We have people from three different countries, at least four different religions, and that was before Perri came along, and now we need to somehow work all the traditions into one that works for us. I mean, we have the tea ceremonies, which are nice and will definitely be important for us in helping Aiko understand her heritage, but we really need to sit down with everyone and decide what we do about holidays. We need to do something with them, unless we want the kids to feel too different from their peers when they go to school and such."

"I know, but for now all we need to worry is a birthday," Cuddy pointed out. "We can definitely fit a tea ceremony into it, but we also need just a fun party."

"Yeah, I suppose we don't really need to make birthdays too complicated," House agreed. "After all, all cultures give presents, so that shouldn't be too difficult for anyone."

They had just come to an agreement that they were going to have a birthday party for Aiko on Sunday the following week, when Blythe and Higa came looking for House.

"We have just decided on Aiko's birthday," House informed them. "Any ideas you have for the party Sunday week, are welcomed."

"Fireworks are traditional for celebrations in Japan," Higa pointed out.

"That would definitely be festive," Cuddy approved.

"I'll try to think of something, too," Blythe smiled. "But there was something we needed to talk about with you Greg."

"Ok, fire away," House invited.

"I need to visit Japan to check up on things like Aiko's inheritance and my house and so on," Higa told House. "I was thinking of leaving about a week after Aiko's birthday."

"Of course," House nodded. "You have been away a good while. Do you know how long it would take?"

"I was thinking a month," Higa suggested. "And that wasn't all."

"I didn't think it was," House smiled. "Otherwise you wouldn't have needed my Mom with you. Out with it!"

"I would like to go with him," Blythe told her son.

"I figured," House wasn't surprised. "Anything you need to make it happen?"

"You can definitely get the time off from work," Cuddy said. "You haven't taken any time off so far and you can use some of your sick-days and we'll figure it out. No problem."

"That wasn't all, though, was it?" House wanted to know. "There is something else afoot. You are way too nervous for this to have been all you want Mom."

"We would like to make it a honeymoon," Higa stated.

"Oh! How wonderful!" Cuddy was excited. "Oh, congratulations! This is great. Oh, I don't even know what to say!"

"Calm down Cuddy," House advised her. "Is this what you really want Mom? You're not thinking that this is something you ought to do as you are having an affair with him anyway? Nor that you fear that you might be alone some day in the future? This is really, what you want, plain and simple? To spend the rest of your life with him?"

"Yes, Greg," Blythe said simply. "This is what I want."

"Then I'm happy for you," House got up and kissed his mother on both cheeks and then he took Higa's hand. "Take care of her."

"Always," Higa vowed.

"So it seems we have to come up with a wedding that works for all first," House turned to Cuddy. "Any ideas? This might be even more difficult than coming up with a Christmas plan for Christians, Jews and Buddhist together."

"We were planning on a civil ceremony," Blythe told House. "We are a little too old for anything elaborate. We will have a simple ceremony before we leave, and once we get to Japan we will have another one that complies with their laws and that's it. No party, no special celebration, just family."

"You're sure?" House asked.

"Really Blythe, I would be happy to help you plan a celebration, if you want," Cuddy offered. "It doesn't have to be a big party, but something to mark the occasion."

"Thank you, but no," Blythe stated firmly. "This is what we want, though we would like for you and Greg to be our witnesses, but that is all."

"If you're sure, then yes," House accepted as did Cuddy.

"Well, what do you know," House said to Cuddy once Higa and Blythe had gone back to the living room. "I'm going to have a step-father. And at my age!"

"You've had him for quite some time, I think," Cuddy pointed out dryly.

"Yeah, I suppose you could say so," House agreed. "Let's get back to planning Aiko's birthday, we have to let the Ducklings know, too, when it is."

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Aiko's birthday was sunny and perfect. They started with a tea-ceremony, just within the family. Since there were so many of them, the ceremony wasn't quite correct, but they had decided that it was ok. It was their family and they did things their way. Once the kids were old enough to understand protocol they could divide the participants into two groups but for now, this served their purposes.

In the afternoon all the invited guest arrived. Foreman, Chase and Cameron (sans dates this time) were there, as naturally was Wilson, Miss Hill and House's new team. With the people living in the house they had quite a satisfying crowd there and Aiko certainly was happy to have all the people that belonged into her world in the same place at the same time. Especially since all of them were doing their best to make her feel important. She got new toys, she got lots of hugs and smiles and she got adorable new clothes (though House didn't much care for them, but he supposed that it was a girl thing, all that pink and ruffles). The party part of the birthday was over in an hour, but even after that people stayed in the house. They just divided into smaller groups and just relaxed talking with each other. The babies had their naps and food at the normal times and since Aiko was used to having a lot of people around during the day at House's office, she didn't get too excited though the house was even fuller with people than normally. As soon as it got dark enough to see, Higa set up the fireworks and everybody went outside to watch. Only when the last spark on the sky had died, did people start leaving for their own homes.

Eric had stayed the night before in the house, but now he was leaving for LA, since he still had some time left in his contract there. But he was feeling good about coming back here. It was going to be ok. Cameron had been a little apprehensive about coming back to see House celebrate Aiko's birthday with Cuddy, but she had realised that it was ok. She was happy for House, and Cuddy and she was ready to go on with her own life now – though she was still going to keep in touch with the House-hold. She hadn't resigned her membership in that. Chase was happy with his life. He felt he could actually start thinking of dating with serious intentions now. He would keep his eyes open, who knew, love might be waiting just round the corner.

The family settled down once the guests had left. The ladies did some cleaning, though the cleaners were coming the next day and the crowd had been very orderly; not much need to clean after them. There was some desultory conversation, general feeling of happiness and contentment when everybody went about the evening routines: cleaning up, taking care of the children, getting ready to retire for the night.

Cuddy was thinking happily back to the day when she was getting ready for bed in her room. She hummed to herself as she removed her makeup and applied lotions and night cream to her face and hands. It had been a good day. Suddenly there was a knock on her door. It puzzled her, since she was sure Blythe, who was pretty much the only one who came into her room, had definitely retired for the night. Maybe it was Kasumii; hopefully there was nothing wrong with the kids! Cuddy went to the door and opened it to find House on the other side.

House was standing at Cuddy's door a little awkwardly. He didn't know quite were to look because looking at Cuddy made him feel exposed, somehow very vulnerable. Which was ridiculous, since Cuddy loved him and would never do anything to hurt him. But it was still awkward.

"House?" Cuddy was puzzled at finding him at her door. "Is everything ok? The children?"

"Yeah, yeah, they're fine," House muttered. "Nothing wrong with them. This is not about the kids; at least not as such."

"So what is it?" Cuddy didn't feel exactly enlightened.

"I..." House let his eyes wander all over the place but finally he took his courage into his hands and looked at Cuddy. "I've grown accustomed to your face, Cuddy. I like seeing it on the pillow next to me. The idea that it might never be there again, is not one that I like to contemplate. I'm no good at this. I... You have no idea how many times I have already been standing here, behind your door. Actually I'm surprised I haven't worn the carpet threadbare by now. This is the first time I have had the guts to knock and now I don't know what to say!"

"I think you are doing pretty well," Cuddy replied though she was hardly daring to hope this meant what she thought it meant. "Just go on. I'm listening."

"I need you Cuddy," House stated. "I don't know if I love you, I'm not sure I know what love is. And I'm not sure I trust it, even if I know it. But you have become necessary to me. And not just because of the kids, just necessary to me. And I know I will screw this up at some point, though hopefully not totally, but I will hurt you and I will be an ass, but I need you. I'm at ease with you, it's like there is more oxygen in the air or something. You just are necessary. And now I have made you cry. I ... Maybe I just better go..."

"Don't you dare!" Cuddy sniffed. "These are good tears. These are I'm glad to see you here tears. You didn't make me cry cry, this is fine. And you have no idea how happy I am to hear you say those words."

"You're sure?" House asked. "I know you say you love me, but I'm really not an easy person to get into a permanent relationship with. And if I step into your room that is what this will be. That was the deal. I want to do it, but if you need time, if you have second thoughts..."

"Just get in," Cuddy smiled at him. "Step into my parlour."

"Said the spider to the fly," House said with slight rueful flippancy. "So you'll have me?"

"Yeah, have and hold," Cuddy said opening the door wide for him to enter her room.

As Cuddy closed the door, two other doors in the corridor opened a little more and Kasumii and Perri looked at each other with wide smiles and then they air-high-fived each other before closing the doors and returning to their beds knowing that finally, everything was as it should be in this House-hold.