House stared at Cameron's back as she walked away from him, twisting the hem of her lab coat sleeve as she went. He didn't really know what he was supposed to do next. Was he meant to wait with Hayley? Or just come up with an excuse to get Foreman out of the room and then leave Hayley by herself. He didn't even know how long Cameron was going to be; presumably she would need to talk to her mother before taking her to see Hayley, but contrary to popular belief he couldn't read minds.

He twisted his cane inside his palm for a few moments, mulling thoughts over in his mind before ambling towards the elevators. Once inside he drummed out a rhythm on the floor, drawing irritated tutting noises from the middle-aged woman with whom he was sharing the ride. The elevator doors pinged and opened and House escaped the woman with as much speed as he could manage. Making his way towards Hayley's room he was still weighing up his choices. It wasn't often he had no idea what to do; with patients it tended to be fairly simple – this is good for them, this is bad for them. With the whole Hayley and Cameron situation, it was totally new territory.

This was why he didn't talk to patients.


"Do you have to treat me like I'm three years old?" Hayley scowled at Foreman as he laid out five picture cards in front of her. He had just asked her to rearrange them so that they would tell a story; hardly taxing on her brain. Foreman raised an eyebrow at her, and repeated his question.

"Can you arrange the pictures to tell a story?"

"Well of course I can." Hayley said, "But I don't really want to." Foreman sighed, biting back a comment that he knew Cameron wouldn't approve of. Seeing his frustrated expression Hayley relented. "I don't mean to be difficult, really. I just don't understand how sorting some stupid pictures means my brain is ok?"

"Because we're the doctors and we said so." House's voice interrupted from the doorway. Hayley rolled her eyes, and Foreman groaned quietly.

"You're supposed to be wearing a gown." House told Hayley, noting as he entered the room, that she was wearing a pair of jeans and a sweater. Her hair was tied into two plaits.

"We already had that discussion." Foreman pointed out, "But-"

"Allie brought me my own clothes 'cos she knows I hate hospital gowns. She said she would clear it with you."

"She went all the way to New York to pick up jeans and a sweater?" House asked.

"No, I keep a load of stuff in my room at her place." Both House and Hayley were ignoring the frustrated motions that Foreman was making. "Foreman, you're needed in the lab." House told him, and Foreman looked half-confused, half-relieved. He left the room without even picking up his picture cards. Hayley glanced down at them and then back up to House – who by now was stood nonchalantly at the foot of her bed. With a triumphant smirk she flipped the pictures around so that they told the story.

"Foreman doesn't like me. He thinks I'm a spoilt rich girl who took drugs to get attention." Hayley told House as he moved to sit on the chair beside her bed.

"He doesn't think that." He said. "And of course he likes you; you're essentially a stuffed animal, just like your sister." Hayley suppressed a laugh.

"I am not a stuffed animal. And for that matter neither is Allie."

"Yeah, right." House snorted.

"Am I gonna be able to leave sometime soon?" Hayley abruptly changed the subject and House reached towards the foot of her bed to grab her chart. "I mean, you worked out the reason for the brain haemorrhage…and none of the other symptoms are life-threatening, are they?" House's eyes flickered as he scanned the medical chart, reviewing the alphabet soup of medications used to treat the bleeding in Hayley's brain. "I really hate hospitals." Hayley said when he didn't answer.

"I think we should keep you in for one more night minimum. There's obviously something else going on, you think you could stay with Cameron for a while 'til we figure it out?" House thought aloud. Hayley shrugged.

"I'm supposed to be in school, but I guess given the fact that my brain was bleeding…they should be fine with it. And I have my own room at Allie's place anyway."

"You mentioned that. You spend a lot of time there?"

"I've had a room in every apartment Allie's lived in since she left college. I stay with her over Christmas, Spring Break and all but one week of summer vacation." Hayley twisted a stray thread on the sleeve of her sweater, in the same way that Cameron had been earlier. There was a companionable silence in the room, broken only when House asked;

"So what other illegal stuff have you 'felt' like doing?"


"I can't believe you're making me do this." Cameron said, taking the pen her mother was offering and swirling her signature in all the right places on the papers in front of her. She and her mother were in the hospital cafeteria, going over a few things before visiting Hayley.

"I have no choice Allison." Penny Cameron answered wearily, taking a sip of her cafeteria coffee. "This is terrible." She said, wrinkling her nose.

"You do have a choice Mom. You could try talking to her." Cameron ignored the coffee comment and slid the papers back over to her mother. "This'll devastate her; you know that, don't you?"

"I have no choice." Penny repeated, slipping the pen and the file back into her purse. "Shall we go?" Cameron stood and led the way towards the elevators, her icy, well-dressed, mother following smartly in her wake. She tried to contain the urge to throw up as she heard the even footsteps behind her.


"You are so lying." House laughed, and Hayley shook her head, giggling. House had both his legs propped up on her bed, and she was sat with her legs tucked beneath her.

"I am not! Seriously, it was hilarious."

"I think it's touching how you find your sister's humiliation so incredibly amusing." House remarked. Hayley giggled, about to reply when;

"Hello Hayley." The teenager's head snapped around from House to stare at the doorway, where her mother stood stiffly. Behind Penny was Cameron, looking exceptionally awkward and like she wanted to cry or die or both.

"Mom!" Hayley gasped, her face lighting up when she realised her mother was actually there, in her hospital room. Cameron saw it too, and it only made the sinking feeling in her stomach worse.

"Doctor House." Penny stretched out a hand, which House slowly took. He eased his legs down from the bed, to settle his feet on the floor, and watched the uneasy meeting. Gradually the ecstatic smile on Hayley's face was fading, Penny was stood stonily at the foot of the bed and Cameron…House had never seen her look so uncomfortable.

"Shouldn't you be at work?" Hayley asked, her eyes locked onto her mother's face. Penny's steadfastness seemed to falter, just for brief second as her eyes darted towards her oldest daughter. "Mom?" Hayley asked again. House felt as if he was prying, yet something in the way Cameron was avoiding everyone's gaze but his told him that she wanted him to stay.

"Mom!" Hayley repeated, louder.

"I took a personal day." Penny answered, rummaging inside her purse and drawing out a thin file. Hayley gave a glimmer of a smile at the thought of her mother taking a personal day – the first in almost nine years, to come and visit her in the hospital.

"I went to see Richard Timmons." Penny continued, and Hayley looked confused.

"Richard Timmons as in Uncle Richard? Dad's old boss?" Penny nodded. "Why?" Hayley asked, for the first time looking at Cameron's uneasy face.

"What's going on?"

"I've signed over legal guardianship to your sister." Penny replied without a single hesitation.

"What?" Hayley gasped. She felt winded; as if someone had hit her in the chest with a baseball bat and rushed all the oxygen out of her system.

"You are no longer my responsibility. Your father will still have his parental rights but as of today Allison will have primary responsibility for you. She's now your legal guardian." Cameron ran a hand wearily over her face. She hadn't wanted to agree, she hadn't wanted to do this to Hayley.

"I don't understand. You're my mother, you can't do this." Hayley's mind fizzed with thoughts.

"I already have, Hayley. It's done, the papers are signed. Once you're discharged from here, you'll move in with Allison and finish up high-school in New Jersey. I can't do this anymore."

"Do what?" Hayley suddenly felt a rush of adrenaline at her mother's words. "Can't do what, Mom? Ignore me? Punish me? Hate me? Which of those can't you do?"

"I can't do this. All of the fighting, and the rule-breaking and attention-seeking. It's too much, and I can't…I won't do any of it anymore."

"Attention seeking?"

"The drinking and sneaking around, staying out all night and not eating, and now drugs? Everything you do is to get attention focused back onto you."

"Back onto me? Attention was never on me! It was always Michelle, always! Even after she died, you acted like I was invisible. You act like I'm a murderer!"

"Hayley, you have to calm down." Cameron approached her little sister, who was trembling with a mixture of anger and distress. The monitors which Hayley was still attached to were showing a dangerously high heart rate. House stood, surprisingly easily he found, and adjusted various monitors. His eyes connected with Cameron's over the top of Hayley's head. She had one hand wrapped around Hayley's shaking wrist and the other one holding on tightly to her sister's shoulder. Hayley paid no attention to the doctors; she was focused solely on her mother. Penny Cameron remained like a statue at the foot of Hayley's bed.

"Mom, please. Please don't do this." Hayley pleaded, tears beginning to stream down her cheeks.

"This is all I can do." Penny answered. She indicated the thin file she was holding. "This is your copy of all the important documents. There's another one for your sister; you'll need them to register at your new school. I've already contacted the best ones in the area; all you have to do is visit and decide what one you want to go to." Penny said this as if it was a gift; a kind of silver lining.

"You can't do this." Hayley whimpered and Cameron tried to put her arms around the devastated girl. Hayley shook her off. "Mom please!" she pleaded.

"I'll call in a few days to see how you're doing." Penny said, with a nod at Cameron. She turned around and began to walk out of the room.

"Mom! Mom, come back!" Hayley yelled after her, but Penny didn't look over her shoulder; she just continued walking steadily. "MOM! Mom! Mom, please, come back! Mommy!" Hayley's voice grew to a scream and Cameron managed to reach her arms around her sister. Hayley was shaking fiercely as sobs wracked her body.

"It's ok, it's gonna be ok." Cameron tried to soothe, but nothing could console her devastated sister. House slowly withdrew from the pair and limped as fast as he could manage down the corridor after their mother.

She was stood at the end of the hall, waiting for the elevator.

"Hey!" he called, but she didn't turn around. She barely even flinched. "HEY!" He said, and he wasn't sure if she turned because of the added volume of his voice, or because he was barely three feet behind her.

"Doctor House, Allison is in charge of Hayley's medical care now. You have nothing to talk to me about." She said, her voice clipped. The elevator doors opened and she stepped inside, pressing the correct button. House slipped in just before the doors closed.

"That's where you're wrong." He replied darkly.


I love love love reviews. And I've tried to reply to everyone who's reviewed so far but just in case, I want to say thank you to...

saz89, bones4life, mongoose 187, mikesh, bglswrth454, voice of 1000 thoughts, lalakid87, souker, aerohead1980, Braelyn Rae, FizzyWater, DarkAngelXF, band122005, KewlKid, Limaccia, eldritchangeling, AllyCameron, BrittElizabeth, i.have.an.idea, fresh42jazz, SapereAude, RosaLev, tubazrule, ColorOfAngels, Lady Theadora, mishy-mo, Teardrops 13, mitfordgal, Purple.H

...because you make writing worthwhile, and cheer me up with your great reviews.

And I realise that I may have bugged some people with the semi-cliffhanger but hey, I guess you'll just have to wait for the next chapter! Sarah :D