It was Monday morning; Cuddy and Wilson were waiting in House’s office to see him. Cuddy was standing whilst Wilson was sitting down.

“Morning.” House slowed down, as he noticed both Wilson and Cuddy where in his office; for reasons he hadn’t thought of yet.

“What’s going on?” House put his backpack down, before sitting at his desk.

“We just wanted to see how you were.” Cuddy spoke in a soft tone as Wilson watched on as House and Cuddy kept their gaze longer than usual.

“I’ll see you at lunch.” Wilson left, looking back at Cuddy before the door closed behind him.

“So, how was it?” Cuddy walked towards him.

“It’s hard to put into words, a process you hate so much.” House, being the observant man that he is, noticed Cuddy was wearing an extra layer of clothing more than usual. Her buttons were tighter than usual, but House didn’t connect the dots as of yet. His mind still focused on the pain in his leg, he grabbed for his Vicodin bottle before he waited a second and released his grip on it.

“Well I don’t expect you to be at the top of your game right away. Foreman’s still in charge for an extra week.” Cuddy turned to leave.

“Wh-What? I’m more than capable to do my job.” House raising his voice startled Cuddy, but she knew it was the pain talking; or that was something she told herself.

“Until you get used to the pain, and focus you’re energy on your job, Foreman will be in charge; I can’t have you screw up when I’ve tried so hard, to hide the fact you’ve been in rehab for a serious drug addiction!”

House didn’t reply as quick as he usually would in these situations, he was more confused by where that burst of anger came from.

“Okay.” House nodded, and watched carefully as Cuddy retreated back and left quietly.

Picking the bottle of Vicodin out of his blazer pocket, he shook it. The sound seemed to almost calm him, like a child with a rattle. Making his way to the outer office, he began the differential.

*

Wilson joined House in the far side of the cafeteria. House was halfway into his sandwich, and was observing everyone else around him, when Wilson joined him.

“Sorry I’m late…everything going okay so far?” Wilson was more interested in whether House was sticking to the rehab plan.

“Everything’s fine, like it was fine this morning. So you can quit asking.” House played with the rest of his sandwich, before he brought up what was really playing on his mind.
“Cuddy’s pregnant.” Saying it under his breath, Wilson seemed stunned.

“She told you this?” Wilson taking a more serious tone, leaning in, in order not to raise eyebrows around them.

“No. I’ve been watching her for most of the morning. Short temper, looking like she’s going to throw up on every patient she sees, no caffeine, eating half of her lunch and the big arrow pointer; her ever growing stomach…”

Wilson was surprised he hadn’t noticed, but one-day back and House had figured it all out.

“What are you going to do?”

“…She obviously doesn’t want me to know. Hiding it at every opportunity.”

“You’ve got to tell her.”

“Why?” House drank from his soda cup, and took one Vicodin, brandishing it in front of Wilson’s eyes to keep him informed of how much he was now taking.

“Well, don’t you want to be apart of it all?”

House paused for a moment, and looked at Wilson, square in the eye.

“Cuddy doesn’t think I’d be a good father, if she thought I could be she’d have already have told me…”

Wilson seemed to bubble up in frustration.

“For someone who notices the un-obvious, you miss the obvious so much.”

“You’re point?”

“Maybe, she doesn’t want you to know since you’ve just came back from a tough rehab and she’s unsure on what to do.”

“So you’re telling me to go up to her, tell her I love her, I want her kid, then ride off into the sunset?”

The sarcasm was at its purest, knocking Wilson back. With no subsequent answer, House got up and left. Wilson didn’t want to interfere in case he would be blamed for the fall out.


TBC