14Aug 01 – Five Years
Chapter Summary: Buffy's with House for five years before the inevitable happens. **Part of the 2018 LiveJournal's Twisted Shorts FaD** challenge.
Challenge: for the livejournal 2018 August Fic-a-Day Challenge.
Timeline: pre-series for BtVS; vague for House.
Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. House, MD characters belong to David Shore and Fox. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.
Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, New Jersey
The first year they met, she changed his world.
The second year, she almost ended it.
The third year, he wanted to lock her away.
The fourth year, she amazed him beyond words.
The fifth year, he finally broke her heart.
Year 1
Gregory House was not one to want a child. Anyone who met him could tell you that. So why was it when his sister and brother-in-law died in a car accident, leaving their baby daughter in his custody, did he say yes?
It would have been easy to give up custody. Hell, with his addiction, it would be a battle to keep it. But one look into her eyes and he was lost. He had to try for his little Buffy.
Year 2
Even though he tried to give up the pills, he couldn't quite shake it until that awful, terrifying day a year after he formally accepted guardianship of Buffy.
Everything changed when she was able to move, crawl and climb by herself. He was distracted by a medical journal and only looked up when he heard the distinctive sound of pills hitting the wooden floor.
Buffy had managed to grab his pill bottle off the end table – and since he didn't bother with child-proof caps – she got it open with no trouble whatsoever. She was just about to grab one of the pills when he dove across the room to stop her.
The following months were hell as he detoxed, but whenever he was tempted to backslide, he saw her little fingers grabbing a pill and shoving it into her mouth. Nothing was worth the horror of losing her.
Year 3
House wondered how early you could send a girl to a convent…or all-girls school. He hated the little boy that dared to kiss his girl! It didn't matter that said boy was only 4 years old…he had no right!
Fortunately, before he could do anything that could get him in trouble, his precious darling pushed the boy away with a frown and yelled, "Yucky boys!" House grinned broadly at that and hoped she'd keep that attitude for at least the next 3 or 4 decades.
Year 4
When he was called into the daycare to discuss Buffy, House couldn't begin to imagine what was coming. He looked around at the other toddlers and thought to himself that his daughter was so much smarter and prettier and better than all of them combined, but he knew he was biased beyond words.
"I think Buffy belongs in a special program for gifted children," the director said.
'Guess I'm not as biased as I thought!' House mused to himself with a smirk.
Year 5
He didn't mean to, but on Buffy's fifth birthday, he broke her heart. He was on his way to her birthday party when he realized he forgot her present in his office at the hospital. Making a detour to grab it wouldn't have been a big deal any other day, but this day was fate's way to bring a little more suffering into the life of the future Slayer.
House barely got through the doors of the hospital when the shot rang out and he was hit by a bullet from the crazed husband coming after his wife after she left him for one too many 'accidents' that ended up with her bruised and in pain.
Buffy never even got the chance to say goodbye to her Daddy.
A/N: Okay, maybe not the happiest of fics to start the month out on, but Musie couldn't help herself.
