I've been unexpectedly busy this weekend, but fortunately I have couple of days off from work so I can update a few more times before Wednesday. Thanks for the reviews! However, I need to warn you all that I really have to bring this story to an end – there will be a sequel I promise! – because there is something else that I really have to write before mid-may. Once I have done that, I will get on with the sequel. But there will be a few more episodes of this story still.
-------------------------------------------
A couple of days after Cameron had stormed out of the Diagnostics House was in his office with Wilson. Kasumii was getting Aiko's bottle ready and House was entertaining his daughter with Mr. Panda while they waited.
"I've noticed Cameron has been a bit moody lately," Wilson said. "Do you know what is going on?"
"Not really," House replied. "Monday morning she had some kind of an argument with the guys but I'm not quite sure what it was about. I did send Mother to her, and they did talk but I was told it is privileged information. Mom says she is now working through some stuff and I'm to leave her alone."
"You? Yeah, leaving something alone is really your big suit," Wilson scoffed.
"You're forgetting that Mother can make me do things I don't wanna," House pointed out ruefully. "Her mere presence was enough to make me behave in court, remember?"
"True," Wilson nodded. "So you really are leaving Cameron alone."
"Don't have a choice," House shrugged. "At least not until Thursday when Mother leaves for her first marriage counselling session with Dad."
"Ah," Wilson was enlightened. "That does sound more like you. Though I think you ought to take into consideration the fact that Blythe will also return from her trip and you could find yourself in hot water if you have upset Cameron too much."
"True, true," House agreed. "Of course, if she has settled down by Thursday, I may leave her alone entirely. I'll just worm the whole thing out of Chase at a later date."
"You will, too," Wilson acknowledged shaking his head at his friend. "So where did Aiko get that Panda? It's bigger than she is."
"The guys gave it to her last Thursday," House explained absently.
"Guys?" Wilson was puzzled for a moment. "YOU HAD A POKER NIGHT! And you didn't invite me." Wilson glared at House.
"I didn't think you wanted to play with Mother so soon again," House defended himself.
"Yeah, that is true," Wilson calmed down – until the penny dropped. "Your mother was there? But not me? Your best friend, your only friend."
"Hey, I have other friends," House claimed.
"We have had this conversation before," Wilson reminded him.
"But that was years ago!" House dismissed. "Anyway, it does not change the fact that I didn't think you wanted my mother to wipe the floor with you again, so soon."
"And did the other guys fare any better?" Wilson asked pointedly.
"Of course not," House said. "But for them it was a new experience. Besides I couldn't just not invite my mother! She lives upstairs! She would have found out that I had had a poker night and hadn't let her in on it. It's one thing to make her sit upstairs watching Aiko during the Hooker night, but Poker night – no can do."
"You have not had a Hooker night!" Wilson tried to make it a statement, but there was just a teensy bit of doubt in his mind which made his statement sound almost like a question.
"Relax," House decided to have mercy on him. "Mr. Little hasn't seen any action in such a long time that I'm fairly sure he has forgotten how."
Wilson sighed in relief but before he could start chewing House's ear off for the scare Kasumii came back from the other room with Aiko's bottle. They settled down to talking about other things for half an hour while House fed Aiko and Kasumii saw to it that the nursery corner was neat and didn't need any supplies.
House had just finished feeding Aiko when his cell phone peeped indicating a message. He looked at it and then he got up.
"Infant," House said to Kasumii – who no longer bothered to glare at him. "Get Aiko ready for an outing, just an hour possibly two but no more. I'll get Mom and Cuddy. Meet us in the lobby."
"If we are going in your car," Kasumii interrupted. "We are not likely to fit in very comfortably so are we driving any distance?"
"Not that far, but you have a point," House admitted. "Ask Grey if he has time to join us. He can give you a lift."
"Hey! What about me?" Wilson cried indignantly.
"Don't you have patients or something?" House asked in mock surprise.
"Yes, I do," Wilson admitted. "But that doesn't mean that you couldn't be polite and ask anyway."
"And then you would say sorry, you have patients and we would have wasted time on pointless niceties with exactly the same outcome," House pointed out.
"But I would have felt better," Wilson remarked.
"Right; and that is my mission in life: making people feel better," House was at his sarcastic best.
"Ah, you are right," Wilson rolled his eyes. "What was I thinking? I totally forgot I was talking to you. Sorry. I'll just toddle off to see my patients and leave you to spread misery and ill will to the world." Wilson left the office with House, who was heading for Cuddy. They turned to their respective destinations at the corridor. As they separated Wilson told House: "I expect a full report when you get back!"
"You'll get it," House promised. "Or at least as full as you can handle!" House was grinning all the way to Cuddy's office. He was sure Wilson's imagination was going to be working overtime until his return.
Cuddy was doing paperwork at her desk when House barged into his office, once again without knocking.
"You know, it would be nice if you knocked before you entered," Cuddy told him. "Even if only once in a while."
"Hey! It wasn't that long ago that I did knock!" House claimed. "If I do it too often you will start expecting it and then were will we be."
"I can't imagine." Cuddy muttered. "Who knows, I might even end up thinking I'm your boss."
"Exactly!" House was so glad Cuddy had got his point. Cuddy gave him her best glare.
"So what is it you want now," Cuddy sighed knowing that there was no getting rid of House until he had had his say.
"Get your coat," House told her. "I need to show you something. It'll take only an hour or so. I need your opinion."
"Just like that? In the middle of a work day?" Cuddy asked. "I don't think so."
"Oh, don't get difficult now!" House whined. "I already have Mom waiting in the lobby and Kasumii is getting Aiko ready and she is even drafting Grey into this so that you can sit more comfortably in the car. Come on, don't be difficult."
"It sounds like quite an expedition," Cuddy observed, curious against her better judgement.
"Yeah, and you are the only one who is holding it up," House urged her.
"Fine," Cuddy was sure she was going to regret agreeing to this, but she also knew that until she knew what it was all about she would not be able to do any work anyway. She got up and got her coat.
--------------------
Less than half an hour later House parked his car in front of a house and let Cuddy and Blythe out of the car. As he didn't have his chair Blythe carried Aiko when they walked to the front door. Kasumii and Grey joined them almost immediately as they had been able to tail House's car all the way. A woman – clearly a real estate agent – was waiting for them at the door.
"House!" Cuddy gasped once she had recovered enough from he initial surprise.
"Yes Cuddy?" House smirked.
"Not you, I was just stating that it's a house," Cuddy said impatiently. "And it's a huge house. In fact it's enormous!"
"But it is beautiful," Blythe noted with a secretive smile. She had been equally surprised when she first saw their destination but after one questioning look at her son, she had started smiling. Obviously she had read House's mind – or at least enough of it to be fairly sure where all this was leading.
Cuddy looked at the house. It was huge but it was in proportion. It did not look cumbersome or contrived. Though the main part of the house was two stories high, the ground floor seemed to be L-shaped and the part that faced the other street was on one floor. There was a huge Japanese Chestnut tree on the front lawn seemingly sheltering the entrance to the house. It was difficult to say for sure from the front but Cuddy thought that the house probably had a fenced back yard. The neighbourhood, the yard, the tree were perfect for Aiko, but what in the name of all that was holy was House going to do with such an enormous house!
"Are you out of your mind House?" Cuddy wondered out loud.
"Probably," House agreed with her. "In fact I'm probably a whole lot more out of my mind than you can even guess right now. But reserve your judgement till the end of this tour, because regardless of my mental state I still want your opinion of this property."
"Fine, I'll look it over for you, but I will be very, and I mean, very surprised if I end up recommending the purchase to you." Cuddy shook his head.
They toured the house. The real estate agent told them that it had been recently remodelled to operate as a bed and breakfast place. For that reason it had also been made handicap accessible with a lift to the second floor. Upstairs they found six bedrooms, two big ones at each end of the corridor both with en suite bathrooms and four smaller ones in between with two shared bathrooms. Downstairs they found one more bedroom with toilet and a shower near it though not en suite. Most part of ground floor was taken by the living room, dining room and kitchen which also had room for a small breakfast corner. Through the kitchen there was access to a small self-contained flat obviously meant for a housekeeper or a cook. The flat had a spacious bedroom, nice living room and a very small kitchen, mostly meant for making breakfast or evening snacks. From the main part of the house it was also possible to descend to the basement where they found a small gym, a steam room with showers and a Jacuzzi.
Once they had toured the main house they went through the living room to the side entrance which lead to the annex or granny-flat as the agent called it. It was obviously the part of the property where the owners had intended to live. The annex was a two bedroom flat with a spacious living room that had a window alcove big enough to serve as a dining area. The kitchen was not very big but well fitted. The flat had its own front door which gave to the other street. Outside they did indeed find a fenced back yard suitable for children and dogs.
When the tour was over the estate agent left them alone saying she would be back in half an hour to get the key but that till then they could have the house to themselves.
"Before you go, could you tell us why this is being sold?" Blythe inquired.
"A divorce I'm afraid," the agent replied regretfully.
"Oh, I see. There seems to be quite a lot of that going around." Blythe noted mildly.
The agent left them alone and Blythe took Kasumii, Aiko and Grey with her as she decided to take another look at the house leaving House and Cuddy alone.
"Are you thinking of starting a bed and breakfast place or what?" Cuddy asked trying to understand what House was up to.
"No, it's much more simple than that," House rubbed his forehead trying to find a way to explain himself. "Come on sit with me on the stairs."
They sat down and Cuddy turned to House to find out what all this was about.
"Do you have a plan for taking care of the triplets while you work?" House asked Cuddy.
"Well, I'm only just getting used to the idea of having them so I haven't really given it much thought. Why?"
"When we assumed that you were going to have only one baby, I had no intention of being closely involved in his or her life," House revealed. "Sure I meant it when I said that I would help, but you would have been the child's only parent. I would have been more like an uncle or something. But now there are three of them and the situation is different. I really need to be more involved because you really need the help. That also means that Aiko will be even closer to them than originally planned. If we are going to co-parent the kids, we need to be closer to each other. And I mean that literally. No way can it work if we both live where we live now. Besides, even though you do own your house it is not big enough for three kids."
"Are you asking me to live with you?" Cuddy wasn't sure how she felt about that possibility.
"Hell no!" House replied instantly. "Even if we were madly in love with each other we couldn't live together. Not you and I. We are too different in many ways and way too similar in some other. If we lived together one of us would murder the other within six months if not sooner."
"Then what are you talking about," Cuddy was puzzled.
"I would like for you to move into this house," House said.
"How would that help?" Cuddy didn't feel particularly enlightened. "If you stay where you are living now, we will be even further away from each other than we are now and if you move to live in here as well then how is it different from living together?"
"I was thinking of moving into the granny flat," House stated.
"I see," Cuddy said to win time to think because she surely did not see.
"Yeah, I know, a most unconventional solution," House squirmed a little. "See, the idea I have is that you, Kasumii and the kids would take over the upper floor, mother would live in the housekeepers flat – or if she doesn't end up divorcing Dad then we get a housekeeper. I will live in the granny flat and the ground floor is common ground. That way I have my own space, you have your own space and when we cannot stand each other we can retreat into our corners. I know it would not be easy, but I cannot see how else we could be parents to the kids."
"So we would be parents to the kids," Cuddy repeated. "What about us? What would we be to each other?"
"Friends?" House suggested. "At least when I'm not getting too much on your last nerve."
"I need to think about this," Cuddy felt confused and not a little overwhelmed. House was behaving responsibly, a shocker in it self, he was being rational and putting somebody else's need ahead of his own. Sure, ever since Aiko had entered his life he had shown himself a good parent, but it was still something so new that whenever Cuddy came really face to face with it, it still tilted her world.
"That's fine," House was agreeable. "I need to decide on the purchase fairly soon, but even if you cannot agree to this idea, I'm sure we can come up with some kind of plan."
They got up, found the rest of their party and having left the key to the agent they went back to work. However, Cuddy was fairly sure she was not going to get much work done. She had much too much on her mind.
