Can I take a moment to say that I am positively OVERWHELMED by the reviews that I got overnight? It has inspired me to write another chapter. I'm afraid I haven't quite worked out the plotline, so it will be a lot of HousexCameron fluff for a bit. (though there's nothing wrong with that)

The two adults stood, looking into each other's eyes as the piano music faded into something more sombre; House recognised it as the first movement from the Moonlight Sonata.
"What are we going to do?" asked Cameron.
"We'll manage something," he told her. He exhaled slowly, and said, "blimey, this changes everything." It was perhaps the first sincere statement she'd ever heard from him.
"We can't tell her," Cameron said, "not yet."
"We have to!"
"You," said Cameron defiantly, "didn't know she existed until ten minutes ago. This one's mine, okay, House, it's one aspect of my life that I don't want you ruining. Heaven knows you've messed up most of my life already."
"I'll just butt out of my own apartment then!"
"You're a bastard, House, and if she wasn't half yours, I'd be gone already."
"Kitten can bite, then?"
"Piss off, House."

The piano playing stopped abruptly and Carly yawned widely, pushing her hair off her face. "I'm gonna head off to bed," she said, "it's like, midnight in England."
"Okay," House said slowly, as if that explained everything. "Except for the bit where we're in America, I don't know if you've noticed..."
"I only flew over this morning," she told him.
"But you have... accent... wait, what?" It was the first time in many years that House had been lost for words.
"Nah, I just picked that up this morning," she told him, and reverted back to her original English accent, which he correctly identified as Home Counties. "I lived near Guildford."
"Say tomato," he instructed.
"Tomahto," she said, and looked bemused when he smiled. "What?"
"Nothing." he said. "Spare bedroom's that door- you're on the sofa bed. Goodnight, Carly."
"Night..." she said, and looked at him questioningly.
"House," he told her. She couldn't change everything.
"Goodnight, House."

She grabbed her holdall and headed into the bedroom, and Cameron turned to House with a great beaming smile on her face, and laughed out loud.
"What?" he asked, childishly.
"I just saw you," she stopped to giggle again, "caring."
He made a grumpy face and she grabbed his arm, and said, seriously, "Thank you."
He softened slightly. "This might work," he said.
"I know."

--//++\--

At three o' clock, Carly woke up, expecting to see weak June sun streaming through the windows, before remembering she was in New Jersey. Realising she wasn't going to be able to sleep any longer, she pulled on an old jumper and headed out to the dining / sitting / piano room, and nearly dies of fright when she sees House standing there.
"You're up early," he tells her, seemingly ignorant of the fact that he was up too.
"It's eight in the real world," she tells him, stretching.
"No, it's three in the real world."
"You can't argue with GMT," she says, and they both stop sniping, and stand in amicable silence for a bit.

"I miss her, you know," Carly says, after a while. "It was just the two of us, in a flat in Guildford. And now I'm an orphan. God, I never thought this would happen."

A strange feeling is welling up in House; a fiery desire to take her in his arms and protect her from all the evil in the world. He decides he's had far too much Scotch, but this train of thought is interrupted by her speaking again.

"Why are you being nice to me?"
"I-" House paused for thought. "I'm a very nice person?" he tried.
"No, you're not, I have my sources," she said, and, catching his eye, added, "don't worry, not Aunt Allison."
"What? Oh, Cameron," he replied. "Why would I worry?"

She gave him a look and shook her head, smiling, before walking over to Steve McQueen's cage. He made a mental note to find out exactly who she'd been talking to, before saying, snipingly, "he's not a hamster."
"Gosh, you're right!" she'd said in mock surprise. "Is he a dog, then?"
"You're so like your father," he'd told her, before realising what he'd said.
"And how do you know him?"
"He's talking to you now."

There was no going back then. So he'd told her, and Cameron had woke up, and (being Cameron) had asked her how she felt.

"It's okay..." she'd said. "It's like... I've lost a family, but I've gained another."
"We're not a family," said Cameron nervously, catching House's eye.
"But..." Carly seemed lost for words, "the way you look at each other..." She'd stopped to avoid trouble. "I'm going back to bed."

Adults, she decided, took a long time to realise the obvious.
So it looked like they'd need a little nudge in the right direction.

--//++\--

In the end, as there were only two weeks left of the school year, Carly came to work with Cameron and House ("you'll learn more there than you ever will in Science," House had told her, after she'd confided she wanted to be a doctor too), dressed smartly, agreeing to say she was Cameron's long-lost daughter but, for the moment, keep her father's identity secret.

"Hello," she'd said, "I'm Cameron's daughter."
"Doctor...Cameron?" Chase had asked, in utter confusion.
"No, Cameron Diaz," she'd said sarcastically, rolling her eyes, and House gave a small grin in pride.
He'd blinked stupidly, and said, "You're English."
"Thank you for pointing that out to me," she'd said sincerely, "I'd never have noticed."

House grinned, already plotting many, many tricks to play on Chase.
And a few feet away, Carly was plotting something else...

Two reviews, people, and I finish the next chapter.

I'm sorry I didn't get round to personally replying to the last reviews but I've been v. busy today and decided the next chapter took priority, I'm hoping to update once a day.

And this story will go on for as long as people want it and I can write it, by the way, it's not ending anytime soon.