Part 51
"Jump!"
Lisa yelled in frustration as the little sliding turtle knocked her out of the game. Again. Despite frantically pushing the button to make the little man jump out of the way.
"A sadist invented this," she grumped and handed off the controller to House. He was sitting in the floor in front of her, leaned back against the couch.
"You must learn patience, Grasshopper," House told her, trying to sound like the old man in Kung Fu. It wasn't a particularly good impression based on her memory of the Sunday afternoon re-runs she'd seen growing up. Her dad had loved that show for some reason.
At the recollection, Lisa felt a wave of sadness settle over her. She hadn't thought of her dad directly in a few days. It bothered her that she hadn't. She should have. She loved him and he'd only been gone a week.
"Hey, where'd you go?"
Lisa looked down at House. He had leaned his head back against the cushion and was looking at her, upside down. He was concerned.
She caressed his cheek. "Just thinking about my dad. He liked Kung Fu," she said with a fond, if watery smile.
At her revelation, House asked, "He was a doctor, yeah?"
She nodded. She don't know he knew that, but it didn't seem to matter.
"So was my grandfather and my great-grandfather."
"You'll be the first female physician in the family then?"
"Yeah," she said softly, continuing to caress House's cheek. She felt tears well as she looked down into those bright blue eyes. "He was proud when I told him."
House's expression shifted and she watched a pained sadness wash over him, too. But she suspected it was intrinsically different that what she felt. It wasn't anything she could define, just something she sensed.
Lisa took his face in both her hands then she bowed and kissed his brow, as he'd often kissed hers. When she drew back, his eyes were closed still.
She had a thought then. It was an out-of-nowhere impulse with no root cause other than she just wanted to do something fun.
"Let's go play in the snow," she said.
House's eyes opened and he smiled.
"Okay."
