Chapter 19. HANGING BY THE TELEPHONE

After Cameron was gone, a thought suddenly occurred to Gretchen. "Dad,

we never played the piano for Mom."

House shrugged. "There's always next week."

"Teach me a new one," she pleaded.

"OK. Time to introduce you to the real classics," he said.

"Isn't that some of what I play?"

"I don't mean classical music," he told her.

They sat down side-by-side on the bench. "Ever heard of Jelly Roll

Morton?" House asked.

"Jelly what?"

"He's a 'who'. Guess you never heard of him." He proceeded to tell

her about the old ragtime and blues man. As he did he played a few

riffs of 'Jelly Roll Blues'.

"OK, now try this," he said as he played some ragtime chords. She

watched his hands attack the keys and tried to copy what he'd done.

"This is a blast!" she said when she finally got the chords down.

It was fun music to play, so they kept at it for over an hour until

hunger prompted Gretchen to make her nightly request. "I want pizza."

This time her father agreed, grabbed the phone and ordered their

usuals.

They both started to become anxious at 10 PM, although they each

tried to hide it. Again, Gretchen got to the phone first when it

finally rang at 10:30.

"Hi Mom," she said happily.

"Hi Sweetheart," Cameron said.

"Aren't you home yet?" Gretchen noticed that it was her mother's

cell phone number on the caller ID, not their home phone.

"Not yet. There were several accidents so traffic's been terrible,"

her mother told her.

House had hit the speaker phone button as she was talking. "Where

are you?" he asked. The concern in his voice surprised even him.

"The last rest stop before Albany. If I'm lucky I'll be home in less

than an hour. I just had to get off the road for a bit

and get some coffee. But I didn't want you guys to worry."

"Who, us?" House feigned nonchalance.

"Yeah, what was I thinking?" she laughed.

"Well, call when you finally get there," he said.

"It's already 10:30. It might be close to midnight," she warned.

"I'll turn off all the phones except the one in my bedroom."

"No!" Gretchen protested.

"Sweetie, you need to go to sleep," her mother told her.

"But I won't sleep well until you call," she argued.

There was a pause on the line, then Cameron said, "OK, but go to

sleep now. I'm gonna drink this coffee and then get back on the road.

I'll call when I finally get there. Bye Gretchen, House."

"Bye," they both said.

It was almost midnight when the phone rang again.

"Cameron." House picked up the phone in his room. The relief in his

voice was unmistakable.

"Hi, I finally made it." Cameron sounded exhausted.

"Hi Mom," Gretchen said on the living room phone. "You're finally

home."

"Yes, sweetheart. Now you can go to sleep."

"OK," the girl agreed, rather reluctantly.

"Goodnight Gretchen," her father called to her.

"Night Dad."

House listened for the click, and when it didn't come he said, "Hang

up the phone." He finally heard the living room phone disconnect.

"Doesn't she ever give up on anything?" House asked Cameron.

Cameron chuckled. "Is she still hounding you about you know what?"

She didn't wait for an answer but went on instead. "Did you try the

straightforward approach, say you agree with me and the answer is

still no?"

"Huh?"

"I didn't think so." She chuckled some more. "You've always been good

at deflecting questions that you didn't want to answer, but I can

see how that might not work with her."

"She's a little too sharp for me to try that," he said. He was chuckling

too now.

"But she's only nine. She hasn't had fifty-five years of practice

like you have. You can handle her."

"Not like you can," House told her.

She smiled at the almost compliment. "I've had a lot of practice.

She seems to have inherited your 'manipulation' gene." She thought

back to some of the challenges she'd had with the girl. "House,

parenting isn't a science. There's a lot of trial and error. I still

make mistakes, and you will too. But I've seen you with her. Your

instincts are good." She yawned loudly. "House, I'm exhausted, I'm

going to bed. Night."

"Thanks, Cameron. Good-night."

Chapter 20. MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACKING

Cameron had just gotten settled in her office Monday morning when

Clair burst in, anxious to hear about her weekend.

"So, how'd it go?" Clair asked, her eyes shining at the smile on her

friend's face.

"Oh, fine," Cameron said, trying to downplay her happiness. "We saw

some of the people I used to work with, met their families. Gretchen

had a great time with their kids."

"I asked about you," Clair insisted. "Obviously things went well. Did

you sleep with him?"

"Clair! My you're blunt this morning," Cameron admonished her. "I

shouldn't even answer that." She pressed her lips together. "No,

I didn't. But it was...I was going to say OK," she went on, her face

softening as she thought about the weekend. "It was a lot better than

OK. Frankly, I don't know where this is going, but you were right.

I'm just enjoying the moment and seeing my daughter happy."

"So, Gretchen and her father are getting along? How do you feel

about that?"

Cameron beamed. "As happy as I've ever been." Then she laughed. "You

won't believe this, or maybe you will. Yesterday, Gretchen asked for

a dog. When we said no, she changed her request. She wants a brother,

but said she'd settle for a sister."

"Oh, no!" Clair laughed too. "Kids!"

"Yeah. Of course, I said no and House went along with me, but I don't

think the matter's closed. She's too much like her father to let it

go like that."

"Maybe you should settle for the dog for the time being," Clair

suggested.

"Sully, do you like Dr. Chase?" Gretchen asked the cardiologist.

They were the only ones in the conference room that morning.

Sullivan looked at the curious child. "Yes, I like him," she said

after a pause. "I like him a lot."

"Do you love him?" the girl asked.

Sullivan wondered why she was asking these personal questions. She

didn't know whether anything she said would get back to her boss, but

she was curious herself about what the child was after. "I guess

that's a yes, too," she finally said.

"If you lived far, far away from him, would you move here?"

Sullivan finally realized that this wasn't about Robert and her

after all. She knew she had to tread lightly here. "It would depend

on why I lived far, far away. If I had a good job, an important job

there, it wouldn't be easy," she said.

"But you could look for a good job here, couldn't you?" Gretchen

insisted.

Sully laughed at her persistence. "I don't know." Sullivan wondered whether House

and Cameron knew what their daughter was thinking.

"Is Cameron back in New York?" Wilson asked his friend as they

stood on their neighboring balconies.

"Yes. She didn't get home until close to midnight last night," House

told him.

"And?"

"And what?"

"Oh, c'mon House. When she worked for you, you'd never admit that you

even liked her, but obviously you did. I mean there's Gretchen to

prove it."

"You're assuming too much," House countered.

Wilson ignored him. "And now she spent the weekend with you."

"She spent the weekend with Gretchen who happened to be staying with

me," House insisted.

"So, those looks you two were giving each other Saturday night meant

nothing," Wilson prodded.

"We're working out what's best for the squirt. Gotta put up a united

front or she'll roll right over us." There was pride evident in his

voice.

"Why, what's she pushing for now?"

"Yesterday it was a dog. OR a brother. Maybe a sister. The order of

preference is still undecided."

Wilson laughed. "You know, she may be playing you there."

"What d'you mean?"

"Know what I think she really wants? She wants you all to live

together, and any of those might lead to what she wants."

"Hmmm," House mused. He knew the kid was clever, but not that devious.

He headed back to his office.

"Where are you going?" Wilson asked.

"Gotta run this past Cameron."

"House, before you do, you should think about whether or not you want

the same thing as Gretchen," Wilson advised. He watched his friend's

face and saw the look of concentration as House considered what he'd

just said.