Hello my dearest readers,

I know you're all probably just about ready to kill me for not updating in so long, but here's a chapter…? I'm so sorry! I don't have any excuse!!!

So, instead of studying for my maths test tomorrow I've decided to finally buckle down and give you an update. Naturally, I chose tonight of all nights to finish writing this! I haven't had a chance to proofread, cos I thought I should probably get it up!! So here is the effort of my avoidance of study -

"You know maybe I should…" Lena said trying to find an excuse. She had already exhausted her vast supply on the way over here.

"Lena," Jason said, "You are going inside."

"Yeah but -,"

"Oh just get inside already!" Jason said, suppressing the urge to laugh. She did look utterly adorable while stammering nervously – something he was not used to seeing in regards to Lena.

"Alright!" Lena said, raising her hands in mock defeat, "I'll go inside!"

Just as she turned around and raised her hand to knock - unnecessarily really considering she had a key, though she felt weird using it at the moment - the door flung open. She stood in shock for a moment. She stood face to face with House in the doorway of his apartment. Suddenly, the speech she had been mentally preparing on the way escaped her.

"Hi," she managed weakly.

She then noticed that he was not alone and that Cuddy was in fact standing behind him. They had been together…in his apartment…alone. A grin spread on her face.

"You run away and then all you say is 'hi'!?" House said, forgetting to be sarcastic and ended up sounding more like a worried father.

"Hi, dad?" Lena tried. House rolled his eyes. "Were you and Cuddy busy?" she accompanied the 'busy' with air-quotes. "Because you know I can come back later if you like?"

"The only thing we were busy doing was trying to find you," House said, sounding rather irritated now that he knew she was alright. Lena had the good grace to look slightly guilty.

"Yeah about that," she said.

"Um, guys," Jason said awkwardly, "I'm just gonna go. You have a lot of things to sort out. I'll tell Jordan."

"Oh okay," Lena said.

"Call me later," he said, walking off.

House, Cuddy and Lena all re-entered his apartment and sat down in the living room. Lena fidgeted a little nervously. None of them said anything for a while.

"Um, look," Lena said, breaking the silence, "I'm really sorry about just leaving. I… I was so stupid."

"No arguments here," House said. Cuddy smacked him on the arm playfully.

"You guys are such a couple," Lena grinned.

"Weren't you just in the middle of saying something?" House scowled at her comment.

"Oh right," Lena said, "Jason made me realise that I was just scared -,"

"Wait who is this Jason?" House said, once again scowling at the thought of his daughter being around boys. He then mentally slapped himself, since when did he worry about these things?

"The guy who was with me…" Lena said, "Just before. He's Jordan's brother, duh."

"How did he find you?" Cuddy asked, noticing House's frown.

"He was coming back from an inter-school lacrosse game and found me at the train station," Lena explained.

"He plays lacrosse?" House asked, suddenly not looking so displeased. Cuddy smirked.

"Yeah, anyway," Lena said, "I just wanted to say that I was scared. I thought that you didn't want me…and I was so upset because I thought I'd finally found a family only to have that torn away. It was irrational and I was being overly emotional."

"You sound like Cuddy with all of this analysis," House mumbled.

"House," Cuddy reprimanded. "She's being honest with us! Stop acting like a three year old." Lena noticed the use of the word 'us' in Cuddy's sentence but decided not to push it. This was, after all, what had gotten her into this mess.

"What I said earlier," House said, carefully avoiding actually showing too much emotion. Lena nodded. "It's not true." Lena beamed at this, knowing exactly what he meant. "For what it's worth, if you still want to, you can stay – permanently."

"I suppose I could put up with you," Lena said sighing over-dramatically, but not able to stop smiling. "I'm gonna go re-make my room!"

With that, Lena sprung up grabbed her bag and walked – almost skipped – to her room smiling the whole way.

House and Cuddy, who were still sitting on the couch, suddenly felt very uncomfortable without Lena's presence. It had been one thing to be alone together while they were both panicking about Lena, but now without the urgency they couldn't quite suppress the pent up emotions from the past week.

"I should get going," Cuddy said a little too quickly, rising to her feet. "Now that I know Lena is fine…"

"You don't have to go," House said, softly. He looked up at her, his bright blue eyes wide and almost innocent, not wishing to be cut down.

"I guess I could stay and make sure she's okay," Cuddy said, sitting back down. House nodded, clearly relieved. "I'm going to call Wilson and let him know." House nodded.

I know it's not very long, but hopefully it tied some things up. This is NOT the last chapter though, don't worry.

HUDDY is coming up, of course.

Oh, and have some virtual cookies, an apology for my belated update!!

Cassy