The long and patiently awaited seventh chapter.



Cuddy groggily opened her eyes and peered out, her vision somewhat blurry. Her eyelids felt heavy and she felt kind of tingly all over. She realized she was lying down, but she didn’t recognize the room right away. She slowly looked around and surveyed her surroundings. She realized where she was when she looked to her right and saw House’s back. He was standing beside another bed and she could hear him flipping through the pages of a chart. When he moved aside to put the chart back on the end of the bed, Cuddy saw that the patient was Megan.

Megan was hooked up to two IV machines and had wires coming from every which way, not to mention the respirator that was making a slow and steady whirring noise as it filled and sucked air out of her lungs. Cuddy watched as House came back around to the side of the bed and just stood there, looking at Megan. After a minute his hand started to reach out, hesitantly. He lowered it to her face brushed aside a few stray strands of hair. Then he quickly retracted his hand and gave a manly grunt, like he had to make up for the sweet and kind gesture he had just made to his friend and daughter.

That’s when it sunk in that she was actually a patient in the ICU as well. She looked at her hand where a small tube protruded and then to the bag attached. It was a saline/glucose mixture, seventy-thirty. That’s when she also noticed her monitors and other attachments. She was still in her clothes, but she was on a pulse-ox machine and fetal monitors. She had two straps around her ever growing midsection, one for each baby. Suddenly everything that had happened started coming back to her. The last thing she remembered was Taub saying how long Megan flat lined for.
Cuddy tried to prop herself up to get a better look at the readouts on the fetal monitor, but she was too sedated. She must have made a noise, because House turned around and cleared his throat, limping over to her.

“W…what?” was all that Cuddy could ask, finding her throat incredibly dry.

“Lay back down.” said House, hanging his cane on the railing of her bed and reaching for a glass of water. He handed the cup to Cuddy and checked all of her monitors.

“What happened?” she croaked at him, still raspy.

“You passed out, low blood pressure.” said House, still not looking her in the eyes.

“Oh god, I completely forgot to eat. After…” said Cuddy, trailing off.

She didn’t know how House was dealing with all of this, but he didn’t exactly sound like he was in a mood to go down painful memory lane quite yet.

“You’ll be fine, all of you.” he said, motioning to her stomach. “Just go back to sleep and get some rest.”

“Thank you.” said Cuddy, handing the water back to him and laying back down.

“Yeah, everything’s fine this time, but listen to me closely when I say this. If this ever happens again, some careless mistake on your part, I’ll personally see to it that you don’t make anymore. And trust me, you wouldn’t want that.” said House, finally looking at her.

Yet it wasn’t a look of concern or worry, it was the same look he had in her hallway. His eyes were blazing with anger and the knuckles of his hand wrapped around his cane were turning white by the second. With that comment, House turned around and limped out of the room, not looking back. Cuddy didn’t think she could sleep after that, all she wanted to do was cry again. However, because of the sedative in her system, only a few tears had trickled down her cheeks before she fell off to sleep again.

Throughout the rest of the day Cuddy woke for a few moments here and there, seeing people come in and out of the room. At one point she woke to a monitor alarm and looked around. It wasn’t hers, and when she looked over to her right the curtain was closed. She could see the legs of people behind the curtain and one cane. When the monitor was shortly shut off and everyone but the pair of sneaker clad feet left, Cuddy assumed it was safe to go back to sleep. She only woke once or twice more when someone would come in and change something or check stats.

The next time Cuddy woke up she woke to the smell of food. Before she even opened her eyes she knew that she had been unhooked from everything sometime in the night. It was amazing how much better she felt. This time when she opened her eyes everything was crystal clear, and bright.

“What time is it?” Cuddy said out loud, asking no one in particular.

“It’s nearly one pm. From what I hear you’ve been sleeping for almost thirty hours.” said a scratchy and rough, but familiar voice.

There was a clanking noise and a faux yell.

“Hey, that’s mine!” said House.

The partition curtain was pushed back with the end of a cane, and holding the cane was Megan. She was pale, with dark circles under her eyes and swelling, but she looked a hundred times better than yesterday. She was also smiling, which made Cuddy smile. House was sitting on a stool on her right side, sharing the tray that was laden with food.

“Well it’s not like you were using it.” said Megan, quickly slapping his arm with the end of the cane.

“OW!” said House, rubbing his arm and trying to grab his cane back.

Megan just kept moving the cane out of his reach and looking at it as she waved it.

“You know, I might have to get me one of these.” she said, poking House again.

“If you don’t give me that back, I might just be able to arrange that for you!” said House, suddenly snatching his cane back and placing it out of Megan’s reach.

“Oh bite me you old coot!” said Megan, grinning the almost same grin as House.

“I’d really like to, but I don’t think it would look too good for your doctor to actually inflict a bite wound on a patient that has just come out of a coma.” said House, taking a sip of his soda.

“Oh, so now all of a sudden you’re worried about ethics?” asked Megan.

“Not really, I’m just worried you’d bite back.” said House.

“You’re damn skippy I would!” said Megan, taking a dramatic bite of something from a spoon.


“Oh, jeez! Where are my manors, are you hungry? Doc here brought me some homemade chicken noodle soup and wheat bread. And when I say homemade, I mean it was made in House’s apartment by Wilson. It’s really good and there’s plenty for all.” said Megan.

“I don’t know, there really isn’t that much.” said House, looking over the pot.

“Oh for the love of Hendrix, House! Stop being such an ass, get off yours, and go get another bowl and spoon for Dr. Cuddy.” said Megan, staring him down.

“But my leg.” said House.

“So pop a pill and get to it! I’d do it, but the fact that my pasty white ass would be on display for all the hospital to see doesn’t seem to suit me right at the moment. Not to mention the fact that I’d probably fall on that same pasty ass if I actually tried to walk right now.” said Megan.

“Fine, but when I get back there better be more soup in my bowl!” said House, placing the bowl to his mouth and dumping the rest of the soup in.

“You know, I wouldn’t mind displaying my ass to that doctor with a number for a name. Do you think you could get her in here?” said Megan, playing with the noodles in her bowl and smirking down at them.

House just about had soup coming out his nose from his reaction, and both Cuddy and Megan couldn’t help laughing.

House glared at both of them, but his glare for Cuddy was different, more actual anger. That was at least until Megan became quiet and held her hands over her forehead.

“You okay?” asked Cuddy.

“Yeah, just don’t make me laugh.” said Megan

“I’ll up your meds.” said House, standing up.

“No, it’s fine, really. Besides, I want to be lucid this time so I can get that doctor’s number.” said Megan, smiling a bit.

House just rolled his eyes at Megan and limped out of the room.

As soon as House was out of the room Megan stopped smiling, pushed the tray away from herself, and leaned back against the bed.

“Megan, are you alright?” asked Cuddy, worriedly.

“Yeah, I’m just tiered and he’s acting strange. He’s acting like he cares, and no that’s not the strange part. I could always tell that he cared, it’s just that he usually hides it much better. So now I’m the one trying to make him feel better and in the process making myself feel worse.” said Megan, closing her eyes.

“There’s just some stuff he’s going through.” said Cuddy, not really knowing what to say.

“And I take it this stuff has to do with you and him?” asked Megan, opening her eyes to give Cuddy one of her own questioning looks.

“Ah…uh…well, yes, but how did you know?” asked Cuddy.

“Well, when one day he’s looking at you like you’re a Hollein Bösendorfer Imperial Grand Piano, and not forty eight hours later he’s looking at you like you’re a Hasbro Playskool Song Magic Keyboard, it’s kind of obvious that something happened.” said Megan.

“I don’t really have a clue what you were trying to say, but yes, something did happen.” said Cuddy, hanging her head.

“Do you want to talk about it? I’m a great listener.” said Megan.

“I’d like to, but I don’t know if I should.” said Cuddy, looking into Megan’s eyes.

“Oh, right, because I’m a patient and all.” said Megan.

“That’s one reason, I guess.” said Cuddy.

“Oh, ok. Well, if you ever need an ear to talk off.” said Megan, closing her eyes again.

Cuddy hated not being able to say anything to her, she looked so sad and disappointed, but she really needed to talk to House first. She wanted to be on the same page with him when it came to Megan this time. Lucky for her, House came into view just then and Megan perked up again. She pulled the tray back towards her as House walked into the room.

“I thought there was going to be soup in my bowl when I got back.” said House.

“I never said I would comply with your demand, and now that you’re back, you can fill it yourself. I’m busy eating my own soup.” said Megan, putting on another bright smile for the good of the emotionally confused doctor.

“Fine, here.” said House, shoving the bowl and spoon at Cuddy.

“Thank you.” she said, taking the dish and not getting a look or reply back.

"You didn't happen to run into that doctor did you?" asked Megan, slyly grinning at her soup.