#cg!cuddy

Chase, Cameron and Forman all sit around a large glass table that is completely covered in various different papers.

All three have visible eye bags, are yawning consistently and... oh yeah. All three are face down on the table, fast asleep.

A long bang on the table sends them all shooting awake, eyes darting to look for the threat. Only for their eyes to settle on House standing at the table and a large diagnostic book sitting on the table, clearly being what woke them up.

“You all look cheery” House says, by way of hello.

“That tends to happen when people get no sleep working for an ungrateful boss” Cameron sasses, but quickly follows up with, “Sorry, I get grumpy when I get no sleep”

“No matter” House says, waving off the scared look on her face. “We have a new symptom people!” He walks over to a whiteboard that already has “seizures, emotional outbursts, hallucinations, fever and joint pain” written on it. He takes a black marker and writes “bloody urine” under it all.

He briefly pauses, considering the information he has before turning back to the ducklings. “So, differential people!”

Cameron and Foreman both put forward several theories but Chase remains head down on the desk. A whimper escaped his lips, too quiet for anyone to hear. His mind darts to the lifeless body of the little girl he lost just 2 days before and he swallows the sob that gets stuck in his throat.

“Chase, care to share with the class?” House asks, drawing the younger mans attention.

Chase lifts his head and glares at House. His throat bobbed and he shot out of his chair. He practically sprints to the door, letting it slam behind him.

“I’ll go” Cameron says after a moments pause. She walks out, shooting House a warning glance to not follow her.

It doesn’t take her long to find him, tucked in a corner under House’s desk. His legs are tucked up neatly and his head placed gently on his knees. Every few seconds, he lets out a pitiful sounding sniffle.

“Hey buddy” She whispers, not wanting to spook him. “You ok?”

Chase looks up. His red, puffy but surprisingly clear eyes meet her concerned, clear ones. He lets out another sniffle before launching himself into his arms.

“Awe Bobby” Cameron coos, breaking out his little nickname when she realises that he’s regressed. She wastes no time in wrapping her arms around him and holding him.

They stay like that for almost 10 minutes. Just Cameron sitting on the floor with Chase on her lap, softly sniffling and babbling apologies. She would’ve stayed longer but the longer she holds the regressed boy, the more she feels her own fragile hold on her headspace breaking. She carefully picks him up, balancing him on her hip like an older sister. After make sure that he’s in a good position, she starts carefully carrying him back to the briefing room.

She opens the door with some difficulty. She walks in without saying a word to House or Foreman. In fact, she walks right pass them. She carefully sets Chase down in a corner of the room set up with some toys and pillows. She gives him a moment to get comfortable before turning back to the responsible adults in the room.

“He regressed” She says slowly, making sure that her words are coming out correctly. “I… need help.” She manages to get out. She takes a wobbly step forward before sitting down harshly.

House and Foreman immediately snap into action.  Both being flips, they knew how to take care of younger regressors and have babysat Chase and Cameron before. Foreman makes his way to Cameron, picking her up easily. “Hi silly girl,” He says to her softly, trying to get her mind off of the stressful situation. Allison giggles and kicks her legs. “How old are you feeling Bambi?”

She pauses for a moment before holding up a 5, then putting a finger down to 4, then back up to five. She lets out a whine, saying, “Not sure!”

Meanwhile, House beelines for Chase as fast as his leg will allow.  He can’t pick Chase up so he lowers himself painfully down to his level, sitting on the pillows with him. “Hey puppy,” House whispers, not wanting to scare him again. “Feeling better?”

Chase looks up from the car he’s playing with and whimpers when he sees House. “Am I in trouble?” Chase says, whispering so quietly that House can hear him.

Those words break House’s heart and he feels his grip on his headspace slip a little bit. He takes a steady breath before gently saying, “No bobby, you’re not in trouble”

Chase smiles, his anxiety easily eased in regression. He hands House a dark green car. Then he picks up light blue car and starts racing them around the small raceroad the team has set up. As the two play, they develop a complicated plot that both struggle to follow.

It doesn’t take long for Foreman to pad over to the 2 youngest regressors with Camerons hand in his (so she doesn’t wander off). “House?” Foreman speaks up, attempting to get his bosses attention. When he doesn’t look up, he just continues on anyway. “Um… I was watchin’ Cameron ‘n’ we was playin’ ballet pirates ‘n’ I accidently slipped?” Foreman mutters, hoping to get the next most responsible adult.

House turns around, having only caught the back half of what foreman said. He looks sheepish and doesn’t meet his eyes. “’M smol too…” He trails off.

Foreman brings Cameron over, and sits the 2 of them on the remaining pillows. He’s able to identify that he’s the oldest little and therefor has to take charge for the moment. “Ok,” he says softly, trying to formulate a plan of what to do. “Let’s figure out ages” he says, settling on that as a first move to figure out who can do what. “I’m around 10 I think” He says, gesturing to himself in an attempt to start the discussion. “What about the rest of you? he asks, careful to not pull any of them out of regression.

“Um… 6 or 7?” Cameron says, not sounding very sure. She shuffles a little closer to Chase and wordlessly takes his hand.

“4” House replies immediately. He glares at Foreman as if this should be obvious, then goes back to playing with his green car.

“Um… 2?” Chase responds, after a very lengthy pause, looking very out of it. He puts his car aside and climbs into Camerons lap, the game having gotten too complex for him to understand. He snuggles in, comfortable. Cameron deliberately ignores the look of betrayal from House and contently holds Chase.

“Ok ok ok” Foreman mutters, trying his best to take care of the three littles even though he’s regressed too. He gets up and starts pacing, trying to come up with a solution when he stops and looks at House. He crouches down at House’s level. “Do you know where Cuddy and Wilson are?” He asks.

“Wilsons in a meeting and Cuddy is doing clinic duty” House recites, still glaring daggers at Cameron.

“Ok, I’m going to go get Cuddy and Wilson. I shouldn’t be more then 10 minutes. Cameron, you’re in charge while I’m gone” Foreman says before dashing out of the room to find an adult to deal with the situation.

House keeps his eyes on Foreman, waiting until he’s out of ear range. As soon as he deemed it safe, he leant over and snatched Chase from Camerons lap. Chase immediately started crying from the shock of being moved and the stress of being away from Cameron. He reaches towards her, wanting to go back to the warmth and cosiness of her lap. His crying only makes House frown more. He awkwardly pats Chase’s head, trying to calm him.

“House!” Cameron gasps, jumping up. “You can’t do dat to the baby!”

House just sticks his tounge out at her and grips on tighter to Chase, not wanting him to go. When Chase doesn’t stop wailing, he roughly covers his mouth.

Cameron sees what House is doing and watches Chase start to struggle to breathe. She quickly pries Chase from his grip and sits him on her hip, trying to soothe him.

“No fair!” House whines, jutting out his bottom lip as he watches Cameron effortlessly soothe Chase. “You always get the baby”

“I get the baby because I’m better with the baby” Cameron says, taking a deep breath to try and steady her breath but leveling House with a glare that said “how dare he hurt Bobby”

Her glare makes Houses bottom lip tremble. He looks at Chase, contently watching the fan from her hip. “No you’re not! I do better with Bobby!” He shouts, upset.

“Then why did you try to suffocate him?!” Cameron shouts snapping. Her yelling causes Chase to burst out in tears. House looks at the 2 of them with wide eyes before wordlessly going and putting himself in the corner. He plops down and starts gently crying while Cameron tries her best to consol Chase.

That’s the site that Foreman, Wilson and Cuddy walk into. “Oh boy…” Wilson mutters, taking in the chaotic site.

“Right!” Cuddy says, putting on a cheerful voice and taking control of the situation. All heads turn towards her. “Foreman” She says, addressing the ‘oldest’. “You’ve done such a good job hon but we’ve got it from here. Why don’t you go read a book?” She says gently, wanting Foreman to get to be a kid too. Foreman shuffles over to the kiddy bookshelf and picks up a chapter book before settling into a beanbag.

“Cameron, come here.” A wide eyed and sniffling Cameron shuffles over to Cuddy. “I’m sorry” She says before Cuddy can say anything. The tears start flowing and she babbles, “I tried I did but peanut took Bobby n then tried to stop his cries by covering his mouth and I yelled I shouldn’t have because I was in charge and im so so sorry” She finishes, sobbing.

 Cuddy just pulls her into her arms. “It’s alright Bambi, none of you should’ve have been put in that position.” She looks over to a very overwhelmed Wilson. “Wilson, can you go and grab House?” She asks, knowing Wilson will deal with House best.

Cuddy continues consoling Cameron and Chase while Wilson and House chat. It takes a good 5 minutes but eventually Wilson comes back over, holding hands with a yawning and red eyed House and Foreman, whose dropped a little more and is rubbing his eyes.

“Ok! Naptime” Cuddy forces herself to announce cheerfully. To her surprise, no one fought her on it. So the little group of six walked to an empty ward, Cuddy holding Chase on her hip and Cameron with her other hand and Wilson holding hands with House and Wilson. Cuddy glared at every employee who opened their mouths.

Soon, the odd little group was all tucked in and Cuddy and Wilson were left watching them sleep.

A repetitive banging noise echoed through the DDX room. Cameron, Foreman and House all pause their conversation, curious looks sent to chase, who is continuously banging his head on the glass table, bringing it down with a fair bit of force.

Cameron gently holds her hand out, taking some of the impact on his head. She winces when his head hits her hand.

House’s look softens when a small whine sneaks its way out of Chases mouth while face down on the table.

“Cameron, Foreman, I want 3 idea’s when I get back and at least one of them must be semi reasonable.” House barks at his subordinates. He then grabs Chase by his arm and all but drags him into his office.

Once they enter his office, House sits Chase in the chair before shutting the blinds to the DDX room. Then, he sits on his own chair and faces Chase, scanning his face for a moment.

“’M sorry” Chase mumbles, not meeting House’s stare.

“What for Bobby?” House asks gently, tilting his head up. When Bobby finally makes eye contact with House, tears brimming in his eyes, a small coo comes from House.

“’gressed” Chase mumbles, confirming House’s suspicions. House just tuts and pulls Chase into his lap as best he can.

“You’re allowed to be small ducky. It’s important to me you know that” House whispers, trying to bring Chase down from his anxiety. “Why didn’t you tell me you were feeling slippy?” He gently asks.

“No wan’ make Als n  Ricky slip” Chase babbles, snuggling closer to House.

“Oh bubby” House whispered, his heart melting a little bit. He goes to say something else when his pager goes off. He sighs, then takes Chase’s hand before walking out into the DDX room.

“A certain little wombat seems to have slipped. Cuddy has unfortunately found a… present I left for her and I’d rather not have have any little ones with me when she finds me. Can one of you two watch him? I’ll pay.” House asks, while Chase hides behind him, hiding his face in his shirt.

“Yeah of course we can watch him” Cameron replies, smiling warmly at Chase.

“We can play some games, right Kiddo?” Foreman adds, getting up and walking over to the part of the DDX room with all the kiddy stuff before grabbing a picture book and some baby games.

House hands Chase over to Cameron, double checks that they’re alright, then leaves.

Foreman and Cameron settle themselves in a pile of beanbags before setting Chase up with a bottle and snack before they start reading. By the time they get through the third book though, Camerons dropped. And shes at the lower end of her age range, somewhere around 3ish.

“Bee?” Cameron asks softly, tugging on Foremans sleeve. One look at Cameron and Foreman knew she had slipped.

Cameron let the sleeve of her favourite pink jumper make its way into her mouth and suck on it as she stared at Foreman with wide eyes. “’M really smol…” She whimpers, curling in on herself.

Foreman internally swore as he took in the sight of Chase trying to eat a wooden block and Cameron shrinking into herself on the verge of tears. His own hold on his headspace broke as soon as House brought Chase in regressed.

Foreman had been resisting the urge to slip since he got into the hospital that morning. He had been veering in and out of littlespace all day but luckily he was only regressed to 15 so he was able to keep a mask of functioning.

He quickly felt his grip on his mental space slipping as he realized he was solely responsible for little Chase and baby Cameron. He’s pulled out of his wallowing when a sharp wail cuts through the room.

He pulls himself into somewhat functioning, even though his mental age is rapidly dropping.

“Awe Bambi come here.” He comforts, pulling her into his lap. He awkwardly tries to soothe her but she keeps shrieking. Foreman’s chest constricts a little at the noise. Even when he’s fully aged up, he’s very sensitive to loud noises. Her wailing sets off Chase who starts sobbing at the noise.

Foreman puts Cameron down and darts between the two sobbing littles, trying his best to calm everyone down. Both of the babies wail and after a minute of trying, Foreman collapses on his bottom and wails as well as his headspace drops.

Forman sobs on the floor as for the first time in years, his headspace drops below 5. He curls into himself, his whole body wracked with sobs. He kicks and screams as he finally allows his emotions take control of him and throw a tantrum.

After he calms down some, he gathers Chase and Cameron closer to him, the former already calming down. Chase sucks in a calming breath before looking around and noting for the first time ever that he was the oldest little and therefor he was in charge.

The trio sinks into the beanbags and nap together, hugging one another close.

“Ricky… Als” He murmers, hugging them a little. He whispers comforting things to them as he pulls out his pager and pages Wilson, House and Cuddy. He cuddles the younger littles close to him as their sobs downgrade to sniffles.

It doesn’t take more then 5 minutes for House, Wilson and Cuddy to com racing up the stairs to the DDX room, Wilson and Cuddy both skipping 2 steps at a time. They burst into the room, startling the littles awake.

Cameron sucks in a breath, about to start crying again when she spots Wilson. Instead, she coos happily and reaches up to him. He quickly picks her up, resting her on his hip. He takes a look at her, noting the tear tracks and snot. “What happened Als?” Wilson asks softly, tucking her hair behind her ears.

“Foremen read stories ‘n’ ‘m felt smol ‘n’ ‘gressed smaller den bobby” Cameron whimpers, snuggling further into Wilsons chest. “Dada come now, am ok.” She whispers before promptly falling back asleep.

Meanwhile, Cuddy’s picked up Chase and is entertaining him with some games off to the side, being well used to entertaining the kiddos while House and Wilson are both working. Soon, giggles fill the room as the two play together.

After checking his other kids are occupied, House limps over to Foreman. He slowly and painfully lowers himself down to his eldest’s level. Foreman stares at the ground, pitiful sniffles escaping him every couple of seconds.

“Eric” House says simply, waiting patiently for Foreman to meet his gaze. I takes several moments but eventually Foreman lifts his gaze to meet his Papa’s. As soon as their eyes meet, Foreman feels a spark of anger light in his chest.

“Not fair.” Foreman mumbles under his breath, tears once again threatening to leak. But this time, instead of overwhelm, all he feels is frustration.

“Can you say that again please?” House asks, making sure to keep his voice low. He watches as Foremans gaze hardens and takes a deep breath, hoping to avoid a tantrum.

“Not fair! Don wanna be a big boy! Wan be little like Bobby!” Foreman shouts, quickly dissolving into angry tears. “Not fair! Not fair! Not fair!” He screams, breath weezing as his shouting and sobbing pick up. He throws the stuffies around him and beats his arms against House’s chest weakly.

House calmly moves anything out of his way and lets him get it out of his system, sensing that this has been pent up for a while and needs to be let out.

Foreman quickly stops flailing, his earlier tantrum having worn him out. He sobs into himself as his pent up emotions and thoughts finally flow out of him.

House scoops him up and just holds him as he cries himself out, his heart absolutely breaking for his eldest. He signals to Wilson and Cuddy to take Cameron and Chase out of the room as Foreman cries, hoping to avoid a meltdown from another kid and give Foreman some privacy.

They sit in comfortable silence for a good five minutes, Foreman slowly calming down with the presence of his dada.

“You ready to talk now baby?” House asks softly, gently stroking his back.

“ ‘M sorry dada” Foreman mumbles.

“What for?” House enquires, allowing Forman to stay snuggled in his lap as a way of comforting the boy in a way beyond words.

“havin’ a tantrum” Foreman mumbles sleepily.

“Bubs. I need you to look at me.” House says gently, pulling Foreman back to meet his eyes. “You will  never ever get in trouble for being a kid. You are allowed to be messy, naughty, emotional and anything else. Your papa and I will always be here for you. It’s important to us that you know that.” House takes a breath, searching Foreman’s eyes. He waits for Foreman to nod before continuing. “Now do you wanna tell dada why you threw a tantrum?”

“I guess I’m always the big brother. I always have to help take care of the babies and Cameron and Chase were both crying and I was frustrated because I had to be a big boy and help and I was feeling small and I don’t wanna always be a big boy.” Foreman rambles, it all coming out in one breath.

“Baby boy, you don’t have to be a big boy. Ever.” House exclaims. “Papa and I have the babies. If you wanna be a baby, then you be a baby. If we need a third caregiver we will call Cuddy. Your littlespace is yours.”

“Promise?” Foreman sniffles.

“I pinky promise” House says, a small smile creeping onto his face. “Do you want dada to make you a bottle and a snack?” House asks. Foreman just nods, allowing himself to sink into nonverbal.