“do everything with love”

You had been with Foreman, asking him for his opinions of the chemistry teacher. Even with Eric Foreman being the Dean of Medicine, he was still one of your closest friends and someone you had always bounced ideas off of since he joined the Diagnostics team.

You pair were interrupted by you being paged. Robert had been stabbed. You didn’t know the extent of the damage, but still ran out of Foreman’s office for sight of your husband. Taub had Jessica Adams keep you out of the room, where she informed you of what had led to the stabbing, as well as where it was.

Of course you cried, and immediately knew you couldn’t take part in either case anymore. You needed to be there for Robert. Once he was brought out of the OR, you followed and sat beside him. The rest of the team sat around the room, and you didn’t bother to ask them to leave.

Holding his hand, you didn’t leave Robert’s side except to call your mother to pick Ivy up and briefly explaining what happened. You watched your husband closely. He looked so different…the blood loss and anesthesia had heavily effected him.

Your peace was short lived when House came in insisting that you and the rest of the team drop everything to return to the “real” patient. Taub insisted that House leave, or at least let you stay with Robert. You were his wife.

When Robert woke up, you got excited. You squeezed his hand, smiling at him and inching closer to Robert.

“Hey, hey,” you whispered, rubbing his arm with your opposite hand, “You’re okay, I’m right here. You’re in the pac-u.”

He groaned, squeezing your hand slightly. You breathed a sigh of relief and rest your head on his shoulder. Your joy faded when he asked if he had been given an epidural, and then explained that he couldn’t feel his legs.

You sat in silence, processing your husband’s words while the team began to theorize as to what was going on. You were automatically off of helping for obvious reasons, and could only sit in silence and hold his hand while you listened. But you noticed that Robert was slowly pulling away from you, but you couldn’t fight him; he was already stressed enough.

Being interrogated by Cofield didn’t make matters any better, and you wanted nothing more than to go back to early in the morning when you and Robert had been curled up with Ivy. The two of you weren’t worried about the chance of Robert being stabbed by a patient dealing with psychosis, let alone him losing feeling in his legs.

House and the rest of the team being cleared to continue their practice didn’t matter to you; what mattered was your husband. You spent the next three weeks helping Robert as much as you could. Whether this was getting him to and from physical therapy or helping him at home. Or you tried to.

Robert grew to push both you and Ivy away. She had already rarely been home because your mother didn’t want you dealing with the stress of tending to both your toddler and your husband. And when she was home she wanted to see her father. To see the smile he had given to her before the accident. But it didn’t show.

Two weeks into his treatment, Robert was on crutches and managing much better on his own. You still tried to help here and there, but were glad to have Ivy back in the house. You understood that Robert was struggling, but you wanted your family to be back to how it had been two weeks ago.

One night you were tucking Ivy into bed, placing her favorite stuffed teddy from her dad on the bed next to her. She looked up to you with eyes that shone like her dad’s, and you smiled down at her.

Ivy, though only four, was an intelligent little girl. She often picked up on when there was tension between you and Robert, or when one of your were upset after a case or argument. And you knew she had noticed Robert’s shift in behavior as well.

“Is daddy okay?” She asked, playing with the ears of the teddy bear. She held the bear close and you felt tears prick in your eyes as you forced a smile on your face, “I miss my morning tickles.”

“I know baby,” you sighed and pushed her hair back, rubbing her forehead with your thumb, “Daddy’s okay…he’s just dealing with something in his own way. Like how you do when mommy and daddy take a toy away for being naughty.”

Ivy hummed, nodding slightly. You knew she couldn’t fully understand what you were trying to tell her. You tucked the blankets into her sides more and then rose to your feet. She watched you before she spoke up again.

“Mommy,” you hummed at her as you folded your arms and smiled at her, “Daddy still love us?”

“Of course, baby,” you assured her, then pressed a kiss to your fingers tips before gently placing them on her forehead, “Now go to sleep.”

You walked out of the room, turning off the big light and only the illumination of her night light is what filled the room. You walked through the silent house, stopping in the living room briefly to see Robert in the place he’d taken residence in: the couch.

He was sitting on the couch reading a book, his legs propped up on the table. Coffee sat on a coaster, and he didn’t acknowledge your presence when you walked in.

Sighing, you stopped by the couch and folded your arms, “You are welcome in our bed.”

He hummed, looking over at you. For a brief moment you saw your Robert again, but then he looked back at the book that was in his lap. Clenching your jaw you shook your head and walked out of the room, going down the hallway and entering the bedroom.

You changed in silence, then turned off the light and climbed into bed. You purposely faced away from Robert’s side, as you had done for the past two weeks. You couldn’t bare facing the empty side of your bed, the side Robert was supposed to take up just as much as he took up yours.

Over the next few days, everything remained out of rhythm. Robert not only pulled away from what he had built for him at home, but at work as well. You’d eventually had enough, and couldn’t take the constant silent treatment from your own husband.

You walked to a table at the cafeteria, seeing him sitting in silence and reading his book. You sighed and approached the table, folding your arms and looking down at him.

“We need to talk,” you told him.

“It can wait for at home,”

“So you can ignore me and our daughter longer?” I snapped, I sat at the table and leveled a glare at him. Robert brought his gaze up to your own, eyes locking, “You’ll never believe the type of question Ivy asked me the other night. We need to talk, or I’m going to stay with my mother and Ivy will go with me.”

He hesitated, but then stood from the table and waited for you to follow him. The two of you walked into the diagnostic conference room, knowing the rest of the team was away for lunch or to do tasks for House.

“Robert, I have been trying to help you,” You began, trying to keep your tone level and. It show your emotions, “For the past three weeks I have been trying to help you take care of yourself. You have done nothing but push me away at every turn. At the start of the week Ivy asked me if you still love us. Why should our daughter being those kinds of questions. Especially with how little she is?”

Robert was silent, pressing his lips into a thin line as he processed your words. Robert watched your for a moment, and then nodded, “You know I’ve been processing what happened —“

“That gives you no right to push away the people who care about you,” you snapped, dragging a hand down your face as you shook your head, “I love you. Ivy loves you. We want to help you get better and I don’t have the patience to continue and act like this doesn’t hurt me. Watching you heal from the accident hurt enough. But you’re shutting me out Robert! You don’t understand, but I am on your side. I always have been, I didn’t marry you for nothing.”

“I’m sorry,” he said almost immediately, setting the crutches aside and walking up to you. He placed his hands on your upper arms, looking down at you and shaking his head, “I’ve acted wrong, I’m sorry. Of course I love the both of you, and I’d never intentionally push the both of you out of my life like that. I can’t lose you. I don’t want to.”

You were silent for a moment, processing your husband’s words before you moved his hands from your arms and took them into your own. You have a small smile to him, “Don’t just apologize to me.”

You were relieved to go home, hugging Ivy and adorning her with tons of kisses as you moved to start preparing supper for the two of you. Robert said he needed to finish some things in the clinic, and you didn’t want to cause another argument at work about work.

You and Ivy settled for your meal, and were interrupted by the front door opening. You turned to see Robert walking in with a grocery bag in one hand a tub of ice cream in the other. You raised brow at him as he struggled into the house and Ivy rushed into his arms.

“Ivy baby, you still need to be careful,” you called out and rose to your feet. You grabbed the items from his hands and Robert let you take his crutches and set them aside.

Robert lifted Ivy and looked toward you, “I hope there’s some supper for me?”

“In the microwave,” you confirmed, walking alongside him toward the dining room. He kissed Ivy and told her to climb back in her chair while you walked to the kitchen.

Robert sat in his chair as you warmed up his plate of food and bri fight it to them. As he began to dig in, you out the ice cream away. You began digging through the bag and froze at a small felt box in your hand. You looked up curiously, and he caught your eye with a small smile.

You opened the box and found a small gold necklace. Shaking your head you closed the box again, chuckling to yourself and continuing to put everything away. After a night of ice cream and movies, Robert insisted on putting Ivy to bed. You could hear her laughter and his voice as he told her a story.

He eventually limped into the living room, watching from where you were in the kitchen cleaning up for the night. You had just finished up and shut off the light to leave the kitchen.

“I’m going to bed,” you told Robert, sending a smile in his direction, “Night.”

You had already changed and climbed into bed when you heard the door open. You did not pay attention to Robert until you felt the bed dip. He inched closer to you and his arm wrapped around your waist. You let Robert pull you as close as his wound would allow, before you brought your hand up to cover his own.

“I love you,” he whispered softly, pressing a kiss behind you ear.

You smiled softly and brought his hand to your lips, “I love you too. And I’m happy you came to your senses.”