Chapter 10

House entered the kitchen door quietly. He went straight to the fridge and grabbed a beer. He held it in his hand, before putting it back. It was late, much later than he'd expected to be. The house was completely silent. He wondered if that was a good sign or a bad one. He hadn't expected Cuddy to wait up, and if she had, it wouldn't have been to finish what he started this afternoon. Well, yeah, she'd finish it, but not in a good way.

He grabbed the beer again and went into the living room. There were a stack of kiddy books on the coffee table, a stuffed animal on the floor. House leaned over and picked it up. The koala. Wilson the kid called it. He wouldn't be sleeping with Cuddy tonight, so might as well have second best.

Lisa stared at the ceiling. He made relatively little noise, but she'd been so attuned to the silence, she'd heard every move. She had spent the night alone with both girls for the first time. It hadn't been overwhelming, just different. The only difficult part was trying to get Rachel to bed, she didn't want to break the routine, but she usually spent between twenty minutes to an hour bathing her, dressing her and rocking her. She set Paige up in front of the Disney channel, but she kept popping in needing a glass of water or wanting to know when Lisa would be done.

Lisa realized she had to get a routine into place that included both girls. She obviously couldn't count on having someone else there. Even if House did a complete 360, his work wouldn't allow for him to always be there at bedtime. And clearly, he wasn't going to change.

She wasn't even mad at him. Oh, she'd seethed at first. She was absolutely incensed, she had so many little scenarios lined up to torture him with, but sometime after midnight she knew the only person to be mad at was herself. House had lied. House lies. She knew that and to get mad about a little lie like this was just silly. He needed to escape and he had. For once he'd done it without publicly humiliating her or endangering someone's life. Really she should give him credit for that.

"Today we're going to get you registered, they'll show us around and you'll get to meet your new teacher."

"What if I don't like it?"

"I think you will." Lisa wrapped the pink elastic around the blonde curls.

"Can't I just stay home with you?"

"No, honey, I'm normally at work when you'll be at school. Scoot. We're running late." The girl disappeared into her room, Lisa ran the brush through her own hair and went to get Rachel ready for breakfast.

House was in the kitchen fumbling around for coffee.

"So how's the case?"

He shrugged. "Allergic reaction to his new mascara."

"It took you over 8 hours to figure that out?" She asked skeptically.

"Well, surprisingly, I didn't think to ask him about his makeup regime until we ruled out everything else."

"Paige and I are going over to the school to get her registered. They told me the appointment would take about two hours."

"Man, you're going to want me to get all dressed up aren't you?"

"I'd like you to wear clothes at work yes…I'll be in around noon I think."

She could feel House studying her. "You don't want me to go to the school."

"I want you to go to work." She settled Rachel into her high chair and gave her some cheerios.

"Why don't you want me to go to the school?"

"Uncle Gory, can you help me with my laces?" Paige asked.

"Normally, your left shoe should go on your left foot. Not that I want to stifle your creativity or anything." He said before slowly crouching down before the girl. "You think I'm going to embarrass you or say something that will get the kid kicked out?"

"No, I think you won't be there."

"I never said I wouldn't go."

"Fine, you take her, I need to go to work anyway."

Paige's head shot up. "I want you to take me Lisa."

"We're both taking you. Eat your breakfast."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Driving? Because it's a little hard for a cripple to walk twelve miles, especially with a kid in tow."

"Why are you coming at all?"

"You're the one who wanted me to be an 'active participant'!"

"Yeah, well I want a lot of things I don't get, House." She hissed. "Turn left."

"What crawled up your enormous round ass and died?"

"Keep your voice down." Cuddy leaned back and smiled at Paige. The girl was staring out the window, seemingly oblivious to the adults.

"What crawled up your enormous round ass and …" He whispered.

"Nothing. We aren't having this conversation."

"What conversation? Geez Cuddles."

"Lisa, my name is Lisa. Try hard to remember that. If you screw this up for her…"

"We'll send her to another school…you can't be worried about that." House stole a look at her. She was royally pissed off, but he didn't know what it was about. Was it the kiss? Did something happen with the crazy social worker? "You're not on the rag." He observed.

"Excuse me?"

"Did I say that out loud?" House asked.

"Did it occur to you, that maybe I just wanted to handle this on my own?"

"Okay, we're going in circles again."

"It's right here. We're late."

The Headmistress' Office was nicer than Cuddy's if possible. House sat silently twiddling his thumbs. He didn't want to screw this up for the kid. She'd been excited to see the playground and the classrooms. If it didn't work out now that she had seen it…no he didn't want to screw up, so that meant being quiet.

"I'll admit Lisa, I was a little concerned about this, but I think it will work out. We just lost a pair of twins…the father was transferred to the DC office, so we have the room. Paige's test scores are impressive, her grades don't seem to reflect them however."

"What'd she do color outside the lines?" Dammit, he just couldn't keep his mouth shut.

The woman smiled. "No Dr. House. It just appears that she was struggling. It could have been any number of things."

"Christine, do you think she'd be better off back in Kindergarten?" Cuddy sounded so worried.

"No, I think she'll do just fine in the First Grade. Ms. Noonan has been with us for four years now. She is one of the best. She will keep us apprised of Paige's progress. If Paige needs extra help, she'll get it. And of course, we expect our parents to be involved too."

"I plan to be. Since the school is so close to work, I can come once a week if you'd like."

"That would be wonderful Lisa…and Dr. House?"

"Greg's schedule isn't really conducive to volunteering."

"Yeah, my boss is a real b…" He stopped himself mid word. Cuddy stiffened beside him and the principal looked confused. "Is really big into families…I'm sure I can arrange to be here."

"Great. Well it was nice to meet you Dr. House, Lisa we'll have to have lunch soon."

"I've scheduled your meeting with the board for tomorrow at 10. They'll be expecting a draft of the budget cuts, and the presentation about that new clinical trial that oncology wants to run. Is there anything else I need to add to the agenda?"

"Yes, I need about 5 minutes to address an personnel issue with them, other than that I think we're good."

"Okay Dr. Cuddy." Her assistant smiled and left the office, passing Wilson.

"Knock, knock."

"I'm busy Wilson."

"What's wrong?"

"Other than I just told you I'm busy and you're still here?"

"What did he do?"

Lisa slammed her pen down on the desk and leaned back in her chair. "I'm catching up on a day and a half of missed work…if you need me for something related to that, I'm all ears, but I'm not in a mood for a heart to heart."

"Lisa…I know."

"You know what?"

"That he kissed you…"

"What?"

"He kissed…"

"I was there James. I don't care about the damned kiss."

"Oh of course not, that's why you're giving him the cold shoulder and …"

"You aren't going to leave me alone are you?"

"No, can't."

"Because House is driving you up a wall and your office isn't safe."

"Partly." Wilson admitted. "But mostly because you're my friend and something's bothering you."

Lisa buried her face in her hands. "It's stupid."

Wilson sat down in front of her desk.

"He lied." She laughed. "He told me he had a case and he didn't."

"Oh."

"Oh…that's all the helpful feedback you're offering."

"It's just…how do you know he lied…never mind forget it."

"You know where he was…You two went bowling or out to a bar and left me to deal with the social worker by myself!" Lisa swiveled her chair away in disgust.

"No…I was here last night. I lost the Manning girl."

Lisa knew she should apologize, but she couldn't force one out.

"I know where he was though…"

"That makes one of us. And it's not like he'd EVER lie to you."

Wilson debated furiously in his head about telling her, but something else caught his attention.

"What the hell is this?"

Lisa turned back in surprise. "It's none of your concern James."

"The hell it isn't." He pulled the paper closer to him. "Don't do this."

Lisa snatched it out of his hands and slid it into her briefcase. "I meet with the board tomorrow. Once I tell them I'm living with House…one of us will have to leave." She said coolly. "They'll ask for my resignation and I'll give it to them."