Three Amigos in Love takes place four years after The Gift of Love ended. We'll start with a re-introduction to all of my major OC characters. In addition, here's the first short character.
Introduction:
The 3 Amigos are, of course:
Gretchen Rose House, 14-year-old daughter of House and Cameron. Tall and slim with a face like her mother's but with her father's blue eyes, she's a mixture of the two of them, sweet and caring, but quick on the uptake and always working on a scheme. She lives with her mother, father, little brother, and basset hound Junior at 17 Cherry Tree Lane in the Appleton subdivision of the Willow
Grove school district near Princeton. Her partners in crime are:
Thomas Gregory Wilson, almost 14 years old, and the son of James Wilson and Lisa Cuddy. Tommy has his father's light brown hair, warm brown eyes, and killer smile. He has never let his Muscular Dystrophy prevented him from doing anything he wanted. He lives with his parents and his basset Albert not far from the
House family.
And Emily Palmer Billings, 14-year-old daughter of Clair Palmer Billings (the head of the labs at PPTH) and adopted daughter of Arthur Billings, Clair's husband of over four years, a doctor in the same department as Allison Cameron House. Petite with short blond hair, Em lives with her mother and step-father,
his son Scott Billings, a college student, and Em's basset Carrie Anne in the Live Oaks school district. Emily and her mother had followed Gretchen and Cameron to Princeton five years before when they moved from Albany, New York, to be with House.
Together the three of them are formidable, but when you add in their friend Audra Swenson, they become the Fantastic Four. Audra lives with Wilson's younger brother, Marty, and his wife, Nancy Lloyd Wilson, and their cats Fred and Ginger in the house that Clair and Emily first lived in when they came to
New Jersey. Marty is the laboratory inventory manager at the hospital and Nancy shares an office with Cameron in Infectious Diseases. The couple is in the process of adopting the motherless girl with her grandfather, Nils Swenson's, approval.
Of course Tommy and his harem have other friends, including Ruth Schultz, Nelson Chung, Elizabeth Carmichael, David Sherman, Calene Romano, and NingFang Liu.
Other ongoing characters include:
Cameron's parents: Alexander (Butch) and Cheryl Cameron.
Her sister Bonnie Farmer, Bonnie's husband Billy and their two boys Kevin and Keith, who live in Chicago.
The Nayar family - the House's neighbors on Cherry Tree Lane: Sundra and Mohindra, his father Sushil, and their children Nita and Rav.
Clair's sister Victoria (Tori) Kelton and her on-again, off-again boyfriend Evan Conway who was Em and Audra's fifth grade teacher.
Hospital employees:
Josh Beaumont, the head of computer operations.
Sean Sullivan, the longest lasting assistant Cuddy has ever had.
Megan Mallory, a lab tech and Sean's girlfriend.
Roger Taylor, head of Infectious Diseases.
Robert Chase, who needs no introduction
Leslie Sullivan Chase, his wife and mother of his son Patrick, and currently an attending in Cardiology
And last, but very far from least, Alexander James House, Gretchen's 4-year-old brother, tall and slim with his father's long face and clear blue eyes. Quick to smile, and just as quick to pout, Alex is a powerHouse in his own right.
Chapter 1.
"Gretchen, why won't you play with me?" Alex whined at his big sister.
"Because I'm getting ready for school" she replied. She had her brand new pouch
on the kitchen table and was filling it with her notecomp, disc cubes, a packet
of pens, pencils and styluses, and other supplies. "It's my first day in High
School, in case you forgot" she added sarcastically.
"Yeah, I know, but nooo one will play with me!" the little boy continued to lament.
"Where's Dad?" she asked.
As if on cue, their father joined them. "You rang?"
"Dad, Alex is whining again!"
"Well, you never have time to play with me!" Alex said, trying to keep the plaintive tone out of his voice, so that it came out more as an accusation.
"You are such a pest!" the fourteen-year-old told her four-year-old brother.
"Seems to me you were the one who begged for a sibling. What happened? Reality bite you?" House asked his daughter.
Gretchen gave him an annoyed look, then saw the fourth member of their little family. "Mom, Alex and Dad don't understand that I'm too busy to play with them."
Cameron smirked, suppressing the laugh that threatened to burst through her lips. "You wanted a brother. Deal with it!"
"Ergh!" Gretchen growled. "I guess none of you care that today's a big day for me." Now she was whining. "Well, I'm outta here!" She grabbed the pouch and headed for the front door.
"Gretchen, did you have any breakfast?" her mother called after her.
"I took an apple," floated back to her and then they heard the door slam.
Cameron just shook her head and muttered. "Teenagers," as she poured two cups of the coffee she'd brewed half an hour before. She handed one to House and asked. "So, what do you guys want?"
"Pancakes!" her two guys answered.
While she grabbed a container of pre-made batter from the refrigerator and heated the griddle, House asked his son "Why do you even want to play with Kvetch? She's a girl!"
The little boy giggled, then shrugged his small shoulders. "She's fun. And she knows stuff. She's not like the dumb kids at pre-school."
House and Cameron exchanged a glance. They knew their son was struggling with his school. He was bored with the juvenile activities and frustrated because the other kids didn't know some of the things he did.
"Patrick's the only one who'll play cards with me, but I always beat him," Alex continued.
Patrick Chase was Chase and Sully's three-and-a-half year old son. "He's younger than you," Cameron told Alex.
"The other kids don't even know how to count or read or anything," Alex said.
Whenever the boy complained like this it brought back House's memories of long ago. He'd always been so much smarter than the other kids in his classes. On one hand, he struggled with trying not to be considered a freak or an outsider, and on the other he fought with teachers who wouldn't believe he knew or could
do all that he did. His parents didn't help. Even his mother didn't realize how hard it was for him.
They finished their breakfasts and Cameron prepared to leave. "Go wash your hands," she told her son. The boy looked at his syrup-covered fingers and for once agreed without a fight.
"Greg, what are we going to do with him?" she asked her husband.
"I think we need to find another school. Too bad he's too young for first grade."
"I'll ask around," Cameron agreed. "I know Kira's mother has been raving about the pre-school she went to. There's got to be a program that will challenge him or at least engage him."
"And an environment where he won't feel so alone," House added.
Cameron could see he'd been thinking about this and comparing it to his own early experiences.
"At least he's got two supportive parents," she said, giving House a sloppy kiss. They each thought back to the good time they'd had earlier that morning.
Alex returned and she hugged the little boy. "You have a good day. Maybe you can teach the other kids to count."
"You think?" he asked, sounding exactly like his father.
She grinned at him. "You can try." She hugged House again. "See you later. Free for lunch today?"
"Anytime, so long as you're buying," he said.
Cameron shook her head, smiled and left.