FATHERLAND

Part IX

(Sequel to Remember Zion)

By GeeLady

Time-line: Post final season. Alternate Universe/Future events

Summary: "Suffer the children to come unto me. . .for such is the kingdom of heaven."

Pairing: House/Wilson/Foreman/Chase/Others

Rating: NC-17 SLASH ADULT. M-PREG!! Angst. (You have been warned).

Disclaimer: The blue-eyed babe with the cane - sigh! - is not mine.

As by reader request, here is a short family tree for the House family in FATHERLAND:

Children By Foreman and House - Reid and Gordon

Children by Wilson and House - Lee (who was murdered by the town's people of East New Dawn), the Un-named still-born (that House gave birth to in the woods outside of New Dawn), David James, Greg-Michael & John-Daniel (the twin Blue-eyes now the "property" of the Interim Government), and James Evan (another Blue)

Children by Chase and House - Jordan, Rowan and Callum

Child by Danny ("Jesse") Johnson (who was murdered) and House - Shamus Drake Johnson-House (whom House refuses to call anything but Drake)

Children by Eli (who was shot) and House - Reuben and Duncan

*House also had one child by Josh (the kidnapper/rapist)whom he namedEvan, (who died of an untreatable metabolic condition known as Tyrosinemia - though House actually put his baby to death so he would not have to suffer any longer).

The returning caravan rolled up main street the next afternoon.

House locked himself away in his bedroom, telling Brad "Tell them I'm laying down, and make sure Foreman comes to see me first. Just keep the others occupied or something, with the kids."

Brad assured him that he would do his best, and took Foreman aside as soon as he spotted him among the milling welcome-ers. Hugs and kisses were exchanged, then people hurried away to their own homes.

Foreman knocked on House's door and, without waiting for word, entered.

House was seated on the edge of the bed, leaning over to his right, as though he had a turnip under his left buttock and it was making life a bit uncomfortable.

Foreman gave him a warm kiss of greeting. "Hey." He said.

House answered "Hey. Any word on the twins?"

Foreman sat beside him. "No. We have to wait for them to send notice."

House nodded as though he had fully expected nothing else. Foreman could see the lines of tension around House's mouth and his sunken eyes. "What's going on? You look thinner than when we left, and I didn't think that was possible."

House tried to make light but he wasn't feeling it. "After three weeks on the road, you're no prize." He rubbed gently at his left side. It was then that Foreman noticed the bulge beneath House's baggier than usual shirt. "Holy shit - are you pregnant?"

House nodded. Foreman wasn't displeased at all, and grinned like a man about to be a step-dad-ied all over again. "Looks like Chase kept himself occupied while we were away."

"Shut-up." House snapped.

Foreman sighed. Yup, same old House. "Then tell me what's going on with you. Why the weight loss and why are you avoiding Wilson?"

House took a deep breath and grimaced.

Foreman crouched down in front of House, placing his right hand on the left side of House's belly. "Are you having labor pain?"

House shook his head. He nodded to the door where no one stood. "I need your help with the others."

Odd request. House meant Wilson, Chase and the new guy. "What sort of help?"

House shook his head this time. "Just Wilson and Chase. You know Wilson will freak when he learns I'm pregnant with Chase's baby."

"Yeah, but he'll just have to deal, won't he?"

"And that's just the ante. Wait until you hear the raise." House took another deep breath. He looked like he hadn't slept in days and he sounded ground down to one-quarter the man he was just a few weeks ago. "I went to another Doctor here. Doctor Green. Heard of him?"

"Sure. Old ob-gyn. Until we arrived, he was the only physician in town. Lives next to the hospital." A building, Foreman knew, that was hardly fit enough to be called such. No antibiotics, no array of particularly useful drugs, and few other specialized medicines. They had managed to scrape together a collection of anesthetics and some liquid analgesics, the looters most likely leaving those behind because they had no idea what the labels meant. Blankets, sheets, rubber gloves, a large box of sterile gauze and one out-of-date surgeons kit with the scalpels missing made up the bulk of their hospital's inventory. No working autoclave. Some limited electricity. Boiled, filtered water. A good collection of gowns and sheets, however, all hand-washed in home-made ash and lye soap, then disinfected with a mixture of baking soda, hydrogen peroxide and vinegar, each batch laced with lemon juice to keep the sharp smell under control. Not as effective as chlorine bleach but it did the job.

"Yeah, well, he did an exterior pelvic -"

Foreman gripped House's thighs, preparing himself for the worst. He sucked in a breath. "Is the baby okay?"

House nodded, looking very convincing. "Yes, fine. For now. But the bad news is I have a bilateral neoplasm on my endometrial wall, right side. It's been causing some bowel interference and Green thinks the sooner it's gone, the better."

Foreman stared at House like he was crazy. Then his eyes shifted to House's belly, and didn't move. "Holy shi...well - fuck - I agree. Just how bad is it? Have you had a biopsy?"

"We're going to get all that done, but the thing is Green thinks he should do a cesarean as soon as possible. He thinks going full term with a tumor this size will pose too much risk to the baby. Could interfere with delivery or cut off his oxygen."

Foreman closed his eyes. "Shit." He whispered. "Shit, babe'....this tumor would have to have been there a while."

"Yeah. Probably a few months at least."

Since before Evan was born then, and growing ever since. "Green's right, and so are you, about Wilson that is - he is going to completely freak. Double - triple freak. Does Chase know about this? I assume he knows about the baby since he was at the face-off, but what about the tumor?"

"I haven't told him yet. Thing is, Green needs an assistant. Either Chase because he was a surgeon's assistant, or Wilson because he's the oncologist."

That would be tough. Neither could directly assist because neither would be good candidates for objectivity when the baby and father at risk was their own BM and his unborn son. Foreman shook his head. His bad news was relatively tame compared to this. "Holy shit." It wasn't quite the home-coming he had expected. "I'll assist."

House nodded, relieved Foreman wanted the job. He was an excellent doctor. Wilson or Chase would both be too emotionally involved to be able to make the right choice if the choice had to be made. "Thanks. I need someone with a clear head in case something goes wrong." House looked at him, expecting, now, the professional to be showing, and ready. "If it comes to a choice between my life or the baby's - you're to choose the baby."

Foreman considered it. Professional or no professional, he wanted both to come out of this all right. "If it comes down to that, and only if in my judgment it's clear the baby has a good chance to survive, I'll adhere to your wishes. But I'm telling you right now, if I think he's going to die with or without the sacrifice of your life, I'm going to choose your life."

House nodded. Dad or no dad, he himself was still a doctor. He knew the risks and he refused to let his emotions argue against reasonable medical judgment. "Fair enough. Probably won't come to that. Green thinks the kid is healthy."

-

-

Wilson demanded to do his own examination when he learned of the tumor. At Chase's and Foreman's urging, House finally agreed and lay down on the couch while Wilson palpated his abdomen much the way Green had, though where Green's touch had been strictly clinical, Wilson's was clinical and tenderly affectionate. Wilson also did a check of House's lymph's from his cervical to his popliteal nodes.

Wilson was done. "No swelling of any nodes." He nodded to House that he was finished, and House pulled his tee-shirt down, zipping up his jeans as far as they would go. The metal snap would no longer close around his expanding lower belly. Wilson looked pale and drawn. "We're operating tomorrow."

House objected. "The baby's not due for another three days."

Wilson washed his hands, wiping them on a tea towel. "I know."

"The greatest part of the baby's growth is during the final week." House reminded him. "Even three days early could be too early."

Wilson. "What if that tumor is malignant? Or is about to become so? The sooner we get it out, the safer for you."

House stared at his mate from beneath angry brows. He understood a little bit about cancer, having worked along-side Wilson for many years, and being that he wasn't an idiot. "If it's malignant, it's already too late. If it's not, an operation could spread the cancer anyway. If it's a benign mass, there's absolutely no harm in waiting. Junior'll a least have a better chance."

Wilson rubbed a hand down his haggard face. "One day. I'm willing to wait one more day."

House set his lip. "Two. Minimum."

Wilson could see House would not be moved. "Fine. Two days, but we operate in the morning and no argument from you."

It was an empty demand, House knew. Wilson had nothing to either offer or withhold. But House figured he'd pushed Wilson's nerves far enough, and Chase looked like he was ready to be sick. "Fine." House said. "Tell Green to get it ready."

-

-

The next day, while House was laying down, Foreman fetched Green for a final case discussion prior to the operation itself, which was set for the following morning. Green described the procedure to his two surgical assistants. "I welcome your skills, Doctors, believe me. A cesarean on a male is far more complicated than on a female. We'll use general anesthetic because that's all we have. He looked at Chase. "I could really use an anesthesiologist, Doctor Chase."

Chase nodded. "Brad had agreed to stay on and watch the kids for a few days longer."

Foreman wasn't sure it was a good idea. "Are you sure you're up to this? You know House's feelings on the matter. Can you keep a cool head if, well, if we lose the baby? The risk to both him and the father is about equal."

Chase nodded. "I want that baby to survive, but I wouldn't want House to die for it." Still he was shaky. Why in hell couldn't the Devil leave them the devil alone? "I'm okay."

Green continued. He'd drawn up detailed figures and handed them around to the group. "We'll wash and shave his abdomen."

Chase raised a finger. "I'll do the surgical prep'."

Green nodded, pleased. "If you notice in the diagram, the first incision opens the abdomen. With a female, this would have been either a vertical from just below the navel to the top of the pubic bone or a horizontal incision across and above the pubis, what they used to euphemistically call a "Bikini cut"." He cleared his throat. "But neither of those are useful on a pregnant male. Anatomy-wise, male pregnancy is a bit more complex. As you can see on the second page, we need to use a half moon incision.

"The male endometrial wall lies against as is attached to the underside of his anterior pubic abdominals. The womb itself is a thick membrane, very much like the female uterus, only it's posterior portion is contained and protected only by the pelvic membrane. During the first two weeks the baby will generally lie transversely over the pubic region, in between the anterior pelvic muscles and the inner portion of the rectus. At this stage, the head of the fetus almost always lies against the rectus where it is more protected from impact or injury, and the legs and feet pressing against the inner abdominals. The torso of the baby puts great pressure on the bladder and the prostate.

"As the baby grows he shifts into a horizontal position to accommodate his lengthening body, but just prior to the start of labor, he again shifts back to his original position so his father's body can do its miraculous thing, and send out the birth canal between the posterior section of the bladder and the coccyx bone. The abdominals begin their caterpillaring and the baby is squeezed out head-first through the perineum, between the scrotum and the anus. Hence our dear BM's labor pain comes at him from two fronts.

"To perform a cesarean; because of the location and nature of the male womb, we must cut through and then lift the pelvic abdominal muscles along with the womb while the wall is still attached to them. This is an extremely delicate procedure. We have to lift the womb and the baby out of the abdominal cavity still intact - we literally fold the lower section of the rectus abdominals back. Hopefully we manage this prior to the formation of the birth duct, which in and of itself would cause more difficulties. But I won't go into that right now."

Green shifted his old bones on the stiff kitchen chair. It was putting his ass to sleep. "While this exterior mass is held steady, we tie off the main arteries and veins that bring oxygen, nutrients and wastes to and from the amniotic sac. We all know how many other crucial arteries an veins run through the inguinal region, so we have to be very, very careful what we tie off, and what we cut into. But once that is done, we can cut into the excised womb sac and remove the baby, tying off and cutting the main umbilical in the process. normally we would then simply fold the abdominals with the womb-wall back in place and close."

Green nodded to the papers each of the men were examining and passing along. "But not this time. The second stage we will have to do involves separating the womb-wall from the inner abdominals and doing so without causing massive hemorrhaging. The endometrial-wall is laced with thousands of micro-fibrous structures that have come to be called nano-tendons. These develop intrapartum to keep the temporary sac attached to the abdominals. Moments post birth, if everything goes according to plan, these tendons start a self-cytolytic process, die and release the sac from its parenchymal womb-wall and host musculus. At that point, we can tie off and cut the secondary artery and vein. Then we fold the muscle wall back and close the incision."

Green sighed. "I know that part sounds simple enough, but remember we'll be taking the baby early, prior to the natural schedule. If the micro-tendons do not disintegrate, we need to cut and cauterize any bleeds while we remove the sac. Then we will have to cut away the womb-wall away from the underlying muscle structure, cauterizing those bleeds - and, trust me, there will be a whole lot more - as we go. And we have to go fast, gentlemen, leaving the abdominal cavity open any longer than necessary poses a serious risk of post-operative infection."

"Has that every happened?" Foreman wanted to know. "How many cesareans have you lost?"

Green nodded. "Well, in thirteen cesareans I've had to perform for various reasons, in two of those cases, the micro-tendons did not dissolute."

"What happened?"

"Well, with one of the BM's, the father survived though he lost a lot of blood, but the baby was several days premature and died. The second BM died shortly after we delivered the baby, and the baby died a few days after that. The womb-sac is catacombed with blood vessels, we didn't have a surgical electro-cauterizer, and the red-hot end of a probe was a damn poor substitute. Unfortunately, the earlier you try to take a BM baby by cesarean, the bigger the risk to the baby and its father. I'm hoping that, by waiting until almost the last possible hour, the nanotendocytolytic process will occur naturally, so we won't encounter that problem. That way we only have to cauterize at the final stage."

Chase looked beat. They all were. "When did you decide to become a.." He made up a word..."OB-Androhysterogenologist?"

"When my old clients died out. Where the new wombs could be found seemed to be where I would be of the most use."

-

-

Green closely supervised Foreman's technique. "Now, just work your fingers slowly, very slowly, beneath the open wall of the sac. Excellent. Yes, Now, when I say lift, you very gently lift. As you're lifting I will be folding back the pelvic structure." Green nodded to his second assistant, waiting and ready to help. "Doctor Wilson will hold it in place while I tie off the primary artery and vein." Green took a deep breath, grasping the crudely constructed but effective cauterizer that had been mocked up by a local new resident, a former electrician. "You ready?"

Foreman didn't feel all that ready. He had his hands inside his three weeks pregnant BM mate, ready to elevate his womb-sac complete with unborn baby out into the cold air. It was simply surreal. "As ready as I'll ever be."

"Okay," Green instructed. "Lift."

The womb sac was incised and the tiny baby was swiftly removed to a second table, encouraged to breath and cleaned off. A tiny mewing wail set up in the room, signaling a healthy set of lungs. "Music to me ears." Green remarked. But there was more to do. "Okay, we still have to excise this womb."

An hour and one half later, after Foreman put the last of seventeen stitches into House's antiseptic stained abdomen, he covered him with a sheet, removed his gloves and joined the rest of the team in the wash-up room. Here there were showers and sinks and benches to rest upon.

Chase was busy settling House in post-op recovery. Then he joined his fellow physicians, plopping his tired bones down beside Foreman, who threw an arm over his shoulders. "Baby's all right, Chase. And House, too."

Chase nodded, limp with relief. They all could breath again.

-

-

The sting of an alcohol swab along the jagged line of his incision woke House up from a dreamless sleep. "Sorry." That was Wilson's voice, apologizing for the discomfort he was causing him. "I'm trying to be gentle, but we have to make sure to keep your stitches clean."

Wilson would know that House would know that. Wilson always talked when it wasn't necessary. Never-the-less House managed one reassuring "'s-'kay." He was so tired, and so sore. "What did you guys do to me?" This time his speech was much clearer. The anesthetic was leaving his body.

"They baby's fine, House. You did good."

"'N th' tumor?"

Wilson's voice was light with relief. "Benign."

A sort of calm swept over him. He had been far more worried about that than he had let on. "You did the biopsy?"

"Yes. Green confirmed. Pregnant women sometimes got benign growth, it has to do with raging hormones. Guess it was only right that men would have to suffer the same risks."

House nodded, not concerned about it now. "How was the trip?" He asked. "Did you miss me?"

Wilson knew what he was asking. "I didn't detoxify from your irresistible body, if that's what you mean."

House smiled a bit. Coughed. "So the mixture's doing the trick, huh?"

Wilson nodded, recalling that he was wearing, even now, one of small patches of "sexy mojo" that House had concocted so Wilson could take the trip in the first place. The answer to Wilson's bizarre addiction to House had been so simple as to be ridiculous, and, according to Wilson, a little gross. A mixture of House's own saliva and other body fluid, (other than wastes), had been collected. Once a day, all Wilson needed to do was wear one of the patches, soaked in House's "essence" against his skin. Wilson could feel the thing under his left armpit. Definitely gross. "These things start to smell after a day you know." He would need a bath tonight.

"I still think most of your addiction is psychological. You just can't live without me."

"It's not just psychological." Wilson loved House very deeply, but he was not addicted to him only in his mind. "This is not a conversion disorder."

"Your argument, Wilson."

True, Wilson had hammered that point against House's forehead for years about his Vicodin use. How ironic that he found himself in the opposing position now. "Well, anyway, it worked."

"'Course, I'm a genius."

Wilson leaned over the bed and kissed him. House was too weak to even lift an arm to push Wilson's wet lips away. House was pale as the pillow case, but he still looked better lying here awake with his body intact, rather than split open on an operating table. Wilson shoved a flat pillow beneath House's right knee. "How's the leg?"

"A lot better than my stomach."

"Mmm." Wilson said. "How are you feeling? Really?"

"Really? Really tired, now go away."

"I'll bring you some soup later." Wilson left him alone, and House tried to shift his backside into a more comfortable position, but there was no way he would be able to sleep on his side yet. In a day or so, maybe. The operation had been a success, he was rid of the tumor, the baby was safe, and he would live.

But also, there was something missing from him now. He felt the odd cavity of the daddy-hood organs that he had carried for nearly five years. There was a hole in his body, something that should be there but was now gone, making him incomplete. As strange as having a womb plus accessories had seemed when new, it was even weirder to feel their absence. No longer would he become pregnant. As much as that was a relief, it also brought with it an unexpected feeling of loss.

House never thought he would feel sad to see that aspect of him go. Sex would be easier - no worry of pregnancy anymore, but that very ability, the part he played in all their lives that had made him special for years, had also ended. House now couldn't help but wonder in what other ways his life was about to change.

And he was right to wonder it, because there was one immutable fact that had been seared into his brain in this new, upside-down fucked-up world: nothing ever stayed the same, but changed. Sometimes for the good, often for the bad. Life was a gamble, and change was life's last river; the final card. The sole remaining, unwavering truth.

House closed his eyes against the uncertainty. No point in worrying about the things he could not see. Tomorrow was another day in this new life, and he slept.

XXXXXXXX

Part X asap