here it is…chapter 2…please review!!! I’ll try not have a big ass wait between the next chappies… (well I’ll try) thanks to my beta – Iane Casey!!!!
oh, i know you guys have given it a low rating, but yeah...? i dunno

Two's Company - Three's a Crowd
-Chapter 2-

Cuddy had ordered Kirstin to unpack her stuff, put it into the spare room and wait for her return. House sat on Cuddy’s couch impatiently. Every few minutes, House would look around in hopes that he’d see Cuddy ready to explain this to him, but she was upstairs having a conversation with their daughter.

“What happened?” Cuddy asked as she sat on the end of the spare bed.

Kirstin broke down in tears. “He raped me, mom, he RAPED ME!”

“Who, when, where, why?” Cuddy asked scared that her daughter had ran because of what someone had done to her.

“We were at the pub –“she started.

Cuddy was beyond shocked. “You’re sixteen, Kirstin. Sixteen!”

“Just let me explain!” Kirstin yelled.

Cuddy nodded her head and tried to keep herself composed.

“Rob,” Cuddy looked at her confused and Kirstin explained. “My boyfriend and I were at his brother’s twenty-first. Rob got dragged off to partake in a drinking competition and his brother brought me a drink. I didn’t think much of it then next thing you know…” but Kirstin couldn’t continue when she was over come by another flood of tears.

House became curious after he heard the yells of the two females upstairs. He appeared in the doorway to find Cuddy in an angered state and Kirstin in tears.

“What’s wrong?” House asked, genuinely concerned.

“It’s none of your business,” Cuddy snapped.

“It is when she is my daughter,” he bit back.

“And you ran off. You never knew I was pregnant. I was a single mom who had career aspirations!”

“Well I’m sorry if –“House started saying in his sarcastic tone.

“SHUT UP!” Kirstin yelled. “Mom, just tell him. If you don’t, I will.”

Cuddy sighed. “She was raped, House, raped.”

“Who did?” he asked.

“My boyfriends’ brother,” Kirstin replied.

“When?”

“The other night,” Kirstin replied.

“Why?”

“I don’t know!” Kirstin shouted back, angered at such dumb question. “How would I know why he spiked my drink?!”

“Kirstin, calm down; House, shut up,” Cuddy intervened.

“What?!” he asked defensively. “I find out she’s my daughter, and now I’m not allowed to care?”

“That’s the problem, House. You don’t care. You never have and never will.”

“Yeah, I do have my sarcastic remarks and cynical persona, but I do know how to care,” House answered a bit hurt that Cuddy thought he doesn’t give a damn.

“Everybody lies,” Cuddy muttered.

“And nobody lies twenty-four seven. I want to try and change my life. I don’t like being miserable,” but House shut his mouth rather fast when he realised that he had just opened up and made himself vulnerable.

“Bullshit. This is just another one of your sick ways of trying to get into my pants,” Cuddy told him, wanting to trust that House actually cared but stopped herself before she did.

House gestured towards Kirstin. “By the looks of it, I’ve already gotten in your pants.”

“Mom, dad, stop it.” Kirstin said and she watched as House flinched at the use of the word ‘dad’. “I have been without a father figure for my whole life, at least give him a chance, mom.” Kirstin pleaded.

Cuddy sighed. She knew Kirstin was right. “Are you sure, House?” she asked him. “I don’t want you having doubts, backing out and hurting her.”

“If I get to play daddy, does that mean I get to sleep with mommy?” House asked, bobbing his eyebrows suggestively.

Kirstin smiled and nearly let a giggle escape.

“No, House,” Cuddy said sternly.

“But, moooommmm!”

Cuddy changed the subject. “I thought we were dealing with our daughter?”

**huddyaimee**

Three hours had passed and House and Cuddy had gathered sufficient information to call the police about Kirstin’s rape. Tomorrow she was to head down to the station to give her statement.

Cuddy had warmed, a little, to the thought that she wouldn’t be alone in raising Kirstin anymore. But she was still worried that House would suddenly retreat into his own world once the going gets tough.

“Mom, can dad stay for dinner?” Kirstin begged.

“Umm – I don’t know,” Cuddy replied unsurely.

“Please, mom? You are the one who keeps going on about how in love you are with him.” Kirstin said with a devious smile.

“Shh,” Cuddy hissed as House gave her a questioning look.

“How in love you are with him, eh?” he asked seductively.

“Go fuck yourself,” Cuddy cursed.

“I may be a big man, but let me tell you right now; even I can’t do that,” House replied with his trademark smirk.

“Too much information, House,” her face scrunched up in disgust.

“Can I make dinner!?” Kirstin yelled from the kitchen.

“What are you going to make?” Cuddy asked loudly for Kirstin to hear her.

“I found your frozen pizza bases,” she answered back.

“Okay!”

House looked at Cuddy and asked her to sit. She complied.

“You said you’d explain,” House said, looking down to the floor.

Cuddy sighed. “It happened in college, obviously. After that night, I forgot to get the morning after pill and I fell pregnant.” She told him as if it weren’t that big of a deal.

“Wow, I got you first time,” House thought aloud.

Cuddy sent a glare at him before she finished. “You left me and I was stuck to raise her by myself.”

“Why did you not tell me? Were you scared I’d do a runner?” House asked her.

“But you did do a runner. You left me behind at college.” Cuddy reminded him, trying her hardest not to remember how hurt she was.

“Maybe I wouldn’t have if you told me,” House answered uncharacteristically.

Cuddy looked at House, her lips pursed, “I was afraid that you’d still leave me—us.” She told him the truth. House just nodded, he was thinking whether if Cuddy told him if he would actually have ran.

“And that’s it? What about all your IVF’s?” House asked her after a few silent seconds.

“I don’t know, I had all these phases where I’d want more and then I wouldn’t so I’d abort and my miscarriage was caused by alcohol,” Cuddy told him. She felt guilty about the miscarriages.

“So you thought I was a bad guy and decided to keep your big secret from me?” House finally asked her and looked her in the eyes.

“Yeah,” Cuddy replied in a sigh.

“Thanks,” he said sarcastically.

Cuddy rolled her eyes and went to get up. As she did so, House reached out and wrapped his hand around her wrist. She looked back at him.

“Can you tell me some more about who she is?”

“She’s like you. She loves music, highly arrogant, but can be really caring when she wants to be. She hates neat freaks,” Cuddy said with a smile. She loved Kirstin more than anything.

“So she hates you?” House grinned playfully.

“No, House. Um, she grew up under the supervision of my parents and I, she is sixteen and I think that she is the most amazing girl anyone could wish for,” she told him compassionately.

“Why did she grow up with your parents?”

Cuddy sighed. “Because I didn’t think that you’d want to be a part of her life and so I didn’t want you finding out about her.”

“So you did what you thought was right?”

“Of course I did!” she nearly yelled. “Do you want to interrogate me any further?”

“Yep,” he said with a smirk.

“What more do you want to know?”

“What are her grades like in school and stuff like that; does she have any plans for the future?”

“She’s a straight A student and I have no idea what she wants to do,”

“Perhaps we should find out together?”

Cuddy rolled her eyes. “So you really do want to do this, huh?”

“Yep,”

“What do you guys want on you pizza!?” Kirstin yelled from the kitchen.

House grabbed his cane and made his way to the kitchen. He was greeted with an assortment of vegetarian foods.

“Lots of cheese,” he said to Kirstin.

Kirstin put some cheese on.

“NO! MORE CHEESE!” he complained. “Gosh, you’re my offspring,”

Cuddy stood in the doorway and watched as Kirstin and House shared mindless words which, translated into House lingo, is bonding.