A/N: Happy Father's Day. :) Thanks for the reviews.

(H/C)

Cuddy woke up five minutes before the alarm on Saturday and lay there for a minute thinking. Parallel itineraries lined up in her mind, not only the very organized plans for herself and the girls but also those for House and Thomas, wondering how it all would go, what they would talk about along the way, if House would let himself enjoy his father's company while irresistibly analyzing. Hopefully by the end of today, a little more of that decades-old wall would have come down.

For the girls, they would go to the park in the morning, weather permitting, and it looked like it would from the forecast, and then to their favorite stores in the mall. Rachel adored Build-a-Bear, and Abby liked it, too, although for Abby, it was more of an interesting process, while with Rachel, the result was the key. Abby was also fascinated by the piano shop, all the instruments there waiting for their new homes, and Rachel always enjoyed telling everyone in the store that her daddy could play all of these and do it better than any of them could. Lunch out together would fit somewhere into the stores. Then, after a break and naps in the afternoon, they would go to an actual theater movie late matinee at 4:30; there was a new animated one playing right now that looked toddler-appropriate. They should be back shortly before the men were.

A bird sang outside, sending forth one questioning trill at first as if testing the coming day, then settling into more steady song a moment later. She was glad the weather would be decent today for House's sake. He would have enough tension just from the situation without adding his leg's opinion of winter. Hopefully, the winter was just about over. Today was about the new beginnings of spring.

She turned on the bedside lamp and sat up. Her husband was still deeply asleep, and she ran a hand lovingly over his hair, lingering for a moment at the developing bald spot, which he would have protested had he been awake. Jensen had the dose on the sleeping pills cut way down again to just a gentle nudge off into rest, but House obviously had taken more than that last night. She was glad, though she hadn't wanted to suggest it outright herself and draw a stubborn denial of the emotional impact of this day. He needed the rest so he could enter today on a full tank physically. She was so proud of him for this idea. Of course, she knew it tied into a mental differential, and he no doubt had a painfully detailed scorecard ready and waiting to be filled out as he graded Thomas' every reaction through the day. Still, it was a test that he never would have thought of a few years ago, one with him right in the middle of it, uncomfortably in the middle of it, rather than on the sidelines observing the results.

He wanted this relationship so badly. He just couldn't quite yet believe it was possible. She marveled again at Thomas' patience, although the new light in his eyes was poignant, too. Thomas knew that he was already in, knew that he couldn't be dismissed from his new family at this point, and the pure anticipation and release, the new life in him were apparent. Still, he let House move as slowly as he needed to.

Today would be huge for the two of them. Belle interrupted her reverie at that point with a jaw-splitting yawn, followed by a pointed stare that was a clear feline mandate to either get up or to turn out the light and go back to sleep with the rest of them. Cuddy laughed. "Okay, I'm getting up," she replied aloud. She leaned over to kiss her husband, then stood. A few minutes later, now in workout clothes, she turned off the light and exited the bedroom, leaving her husband and the cat to sleep out the remainder of their night.

The girls were still asleep. They had needed attention only once during the night, at 2:30, and she had spent a good five minutes after that standing outside the door of the guest room with all senses alert. Nothing but silence could be heard. Of course, sound sleep through a door was just as silent as death. Finally, calling herself illogical and emotional and even using House's mental tone for it, she had turned away and gone back to bed. Coming down the hall now, she paused and listened again, wishing for at least a bed springs creak. Nothing. She firmly made herself walk on after a moment.

The yoga helped settle her, refocusing her thoughts, and it was the future, not the past, that was primarily on her mind as she watched the coffee pot after her workout. The coffee had just finished making when she heard the door in the hall open, and the final specter of the past and Blythe's Christmas visit vanished. Thomas entered the kitchen a few minutes later. "Good morning, Lisa."

"Good morning, Thomas. Do you want coffee?"

"Yes, please. Nothing in it." He sat down at the table, and she paused to smile as she turned with a full cup in each hand to face him. She had only registered his living presence a minute ago, but now, the details sprang to her notice. His hair was still ruffled from sleep and made him look irresistibly like his son, even if in silver instead of graying chestnut. His eyes were sharp and bright, though. Obviously, he was much more of a morning person than House was.

He tilted his head slightly, underlining the resemblance. "What?"

She remembered her task and came on to deliver the coffee. "Just thinking. It's good to have you here."

"It's good to be here. That's not a strong enough word, though." He took a sip from his steaming cup.

Cuddy sat down around the corner of the table from him, closer than clear across it but still letting them see each other without twisting too much. "Did you sleep well?"

"Once I managed to get to sleep, although that took a while. I was too excited about today to shut my mind off."

She smiled again at the eager light in his whole being. "You do realize that today is some sort of test he's thought up, don't you?"

"Of course it's a test. What he doesn't realize is that I don't care why he asked. Lisa, I'm going to spend today with my son. I've never in his life had even fifteen minutes alone with him, certainly never been able to do anything normal together even as a friend, much less as a father, and now, I get a full day. I will gladly spend a day with him under any circumstances at all, doing anything, no matter what his motives are, and enjoy it."

"I wish he could hear you say that."

He shook his head. "He doesn't need to hear me say it; that's too much right now. He needs to come to some conclusions for himself first. But yes, I do realize that I'll be scored on today." He gave an impish grin that again underlined the resemblance. "I always enjoyed surprising the teacher on tests, giving answers they didn't expect but ones that they couldn't score as wrong." He took another sip of his coffee, then turned the subject. "May I ask you a personal question?"

Cuddy tensed up a little. He didn't say outright that turnabout was fair play, but the awareness of it was in his tone. There was also unspoken acknowledgement that he would let her off the hook if she insisted - and that was a difference from his son. "What do you want to know?" she asked.

Not a yes or a no, he thought. Apparently, it depended on the question. "Greg said once that you had known each other for many years. Why did you take so long to get together?"

The old regret of all those lost years surged up again. So much time they had wasted. "We were both being stubborn idiots," she replied. He chuckled, and she relaxed into his company and the moment and went on. "His reasons are his to tell you when he gets to trust you enough." Thomas could probably work out many of his son's reasons anyway. Hers weren't as obvious to an onlooker. "For me, I always had this mental picture of what I needed in a relationship, and believe me, he wasn't that picture. But I kept trying to pursue that instead of listening to my heart for a lot of years. I'm so glad now that I didn't actually find that other version." She had found a few close facsimiles to it, but the chasm between those men and what she truly wanted had been too obvious to ignore completely, although too painful to admit, so she had focused on other minor faults as excuses for backing away.

"I take it that other version would have been safe, steady, and totally boring?"

She laughed. "Got it in one. He was right there, and I knew it, but for the longest time, I was just in denial." Suddenly, as if a spotlight had switched on, she realized with painful clarity that it hadn't been her mental picture of a partner she had pursued all those years but that of her parents. Renewed anger at herself and at them for all that lost time hit her like a wave. "Damn it."

"Lisa?"

She focused and looked back over at Thomas, seeing the true concern in his eyes. "It's all right. I just realized something I never had quite seen before." She would have to talk about that with Patterson.

He didn't push, allowing her the distance that time. Instead, he reached into a pocket. "I brought you a gift." He read her automatic thought. "It doesn't matter whether you have anything for me. This whole visit is a priceless gift. But I wanted you to have this." He pulled out a necklace and handed it over.

She took it slowly, turning it to catch the light. No piece of cheap costume jewelry here. The stone was an emerald, and the setting was intricate without being overdone. It was also obviously decades old. This was an heirloom if she had ever seen one, and its value even monetarily alone would not be insignificant. "It's beautiful, but . . ."

He cut her off. "This belonged to my mother. It was a wedding gift to her from her parents. She always said she wanted Ellie to have it and give it to her daughter eventually, so Ellie took it when Mom and Dad died. But she never had children. Ellie gave it to Tim's wife, but they never had children, either." The old losses loomed again, and while his expression paid tribute to them, he steadily climbed over the griefs of the past, holding to his point. "After their funeral, cleaning out their place, I took it back, even though I thought we were a dead end, and Emily wore it for several years. Mom always had wanted it to stay in the family. Someday, it needs to go to Rachel or Abby, but for now, I want you to have it. Please."

She blinked back tears. He stood and walked around the corner of the table, and she let him take the necklace from her hands and fasten it around her neck. She picked up the pendant to look at it again. "Thank you, Thomas." She looked at her wedding ring, the one from House's grandmother, and a sense of belonging and heritage suddenly overwhelmed her. "Thank you."

He smiled at her and sat back down. The conversation moved on into less emotional points from there, him deliberately giving her some breathing space, but the rhythm of it was easy, two people exploring and enjoying each other's company and interests, underlining similarities, interested in differences. All too soon, it seemed, the girls woke up, and she was surprised to realize that the two of them had been talking for well over an hour. Touching the necklace a few times along the journey, Cuddy hurried back to the nursery to get her daughters up to enjoy some time with their grandfather.