CHAPTER 13

Sorry for the delay

Thanks again to my awesome beta!

Disclaimer: My feet wouldn't hurt if I owned House.

Enjoy! (Loving the reviews!)

Chase walked in the next day with a spring in his step. He'd thoroughly enjoyed his impromptu day off. He'd managed to get down to North Carolina for the day and then ended the night with a lovely lady in his bed, which he couldn't for the life of him, remember her name.

He arrived at the conference room to find the others plus House, Wilson and Cuddy. At first he was going to comment on Houses tardiness but then took a closer look. He was wearing the same clothes and his usual scruff was longer. He was slouched over his cane, face mostly hidden as he paced heavily. Chase pushed the door open. Houses head shot up.

"Finally, he decides to gift us with his presence. Please, your highness, take a seat." House jibed and pointed at the seat. Chase sat and looked at Foreman and Taub who wore the same confused facial expression as himself.

House stopped himself from pacing and stood at the top of the table. Cuddy and Wilson stood to the side for moral support and to take over if needed.

"I'm going to tell you what's going to happen and you're not to ask any questions until the end. Is that clear?" Chase and the others nodded, still confused.

"For an indefinite amount of time, I'm stepping down as department head. I've decided that Chase will step in as my temporary replacement." Chase looked over to Foreman. He grinned internally at the sight of Foreman who was fuming.

Cameron came dashing through the door, stuttering apologies. House nodded and pointed towards the spare chair. She obliged.

"Why's Cameron here?" Foreman asked.

"NO QUESTIONS UNTIL THE END!" House shot back. Foreman retreated. As much as he wanted to contest House's choice, this was not the time to argue.

"As I was saying, I'm taking an extended leave of absence. This is because I found out that my son has osteosarcoma in his right femur. I need to be with him as much as possible and therefore won't be able to babysit you morons." Everyone gasped. Mouths wide open.

"Close your mouths, I didn't employ fish." House snorted. Cameron was the first to dare to say something.

"The boy that came into the ER, that Wilson said was his nephew. That was ... your son, wasn't it?" Cameron clued on, putting the pieces of the puzzle together.

"I knew you were clever." House winked. He turned back. "Anyway, I will still be around for consults but you have to go to Wilson first before disturbing me. You do not, in any circumstances come disturbing me when I'm with my son. He will need as much rest as possible. Now, questions?"

Chase's brain was left with millions of questions but he was too gobsmacked to even start to string together a sentence.

"How old is he?" Cameron asked.

"7 and the answer to the next question is his name is Daniel James House. Wilson is his godfather." A sense of horror took hold of Cameron as she realised what this little boy was going to have to go through. She wanted to give House a hug but thought that was probably not the best idea.

But the only thing that Chase could think of was how this child appeared. The child was probably a result of a one night stand and lived with its mother. It was the only reasonable explanation as to how House had managed to keep him hidden. But how little he knew.

It was Foreman that asked the inevitable.

"Where's his mother?"

"First of all, hisname is Daniel. Secondly, that's not important. All you need to know is that Its only me and Danny at home." He couldn't bring him self to say he was a single parent as it wasn't technical correct. Both Wilson and himself had spent the night in Dans room, talking about how they would break the news to the ducklings and setting a treatment plan. Daniel was still under after the procedure to insert his central line. Both of them agreeing it best to keep it simple and not explain the situation about Jen.

Wilson sensed that it was time to make himself known and went to stand next to House.

They all faced Wilson expectantly. House was glad for the attention to be off himself as he took a seat.

Wilson cleared his throat. "This is on a need to know basis and will NOT be shared with anyone outside this room. Understand?" The ducklings bowed down to the superior uncle and nodded there heads.

"The cancer Danny has is aggressive and there's not a short term cure. We would both appreciate if you would not discuss any of this outside this room as it is of personal matter. I will not let any harm come towards my godson and if I do find out that you have been spreading gossip to any other staff, which I would hope you wouldn't, I do have the power to ruin your careers." They all nodded, succumbing to Wilson's superiority.

Cameron couldn't control her motherly instincts and went straight up to House and embraced him in a hug. House just stood there. As still as a statue.

"Errr Cameron, I'm a one woman man." House awkwardly tried to get Cameron to get off him. Cameron stepped back and blushed. Her childlike romance for House never really disappeared. But at least she knew why it could never of been.

Through the seriousness, Wilson couldn't help but smile.

House let out an exaggerated sigh of relief.

"Right, Danny will wake up soon and will be wondering where I've disappeared to, so Daddy's got to go. Good luck my little ducklings." With that, House left. Wilson took centre position along with Cuddy who hadn't said a word since entering the room.

"I know this is a shock and I've said this but please respect Houses privacy." Wilson pleaded.

"He's never respected ours" Foreman scoffed.

"I know he's difficult but he's also a very different person with his son. You might think you know him but you don't." Wilson rubbed his forehead. Cuddy decided to take control of this situation.

"Right, go do something productive. Clinic duty will do. And you leave House alone. No interruptions or childish questions. If you don't, you will have me to answer to." She turned and left, Wilson in tow.

Everyone sat in silence for a while, looking anywhere but at each other.

"Why should we just accept this? We've worked with this man for 10 years and we know nothing about the guy." Foreman fumed. A sort of strange kind of anger. House just helped himself to their deepest darkest secrets but they weren't even privileged to know that he had a son.

"I mean, I want to know about this mysterious woman. He didn't want to tell us anything about her." Taub commented.

"Bet it was a result of some hooker that didn't want the child." Chase scoffed. Taub and Foreman nodded.

"Did you hear the comment he said to Cameron about a 'one woman man'? That was definitely odd." Taub added.

"Guys, stop! Whatever this is about, or why House decided to keep it secret is not important. What's important is that a little boy has cancer and that he needs his Dad." Cameron finished, morally outraged that they would even talk about this right now.

"I'll respect that boy but I'm getting to the bottom about this woman. I think that after all the shit we've taken from House, we deserve to know." Foreman stood to leave and the rest followed. Like a Shepard leading his heard.

—

House sat next to Danny's bed, watching Spongebob on the TV. Cuddy had made sure to pay for cable for them both. It had been a long night. Danny was still groggy from the sedation used to insert his central line.

Danny shuffled in the bed but winced at the pain. He grabbed his dads hand and squeezed tightly.

"Is your leg hurting you bud?" Dan nodded, face scrunched tightly. His leg was elevated but it was still throbbing and painful. House grabbed his chart and saw he wasn't due for anymore pain meds for another hour. "Try and stay still, then you won't hurt it." House softly added.

"When can we go home Daddy?" Danny asked innocently, unaware of why he was still in hospital and why he had a stupid, itchy tube above his left nipple. His dad had to keep grabbing his hands to stop him scratching at it.

House reached for the tv remote and turned Spongebob off.

"You're sick, Danny. Something bad caused you to break your leg and we need to get rid of it." House calmly stroked his sons hair.

"But I don't feel sick Dad. And James from school broke his leg last year and he didn't have to stay in hospital. He could go to school. Can I go to school?" Danny felt confused, his eyebrows raised and his lips scrunched into a pout.

"I'm sorry Dan, it's not that simple. Do you know what Uncle James does?"

"He's a Doctor, like you! He makes people better!" Danny cheered. He loved that his Uncle and Dad saved people.

"Yes he does, and he's going to make you all better too." House smiled softly at Dan.

"But Uncy is a cancer doctor. Why would Uncy make me better when I've broken my leg?" House sighed, his son finally understanding.

"Because there was a big, nasty lump, called a tumour, in your bone that caused your leg to break. Uncy will have to give you some medication that will make you feel sick, so it will reduce the size of the tumour so we can take it out. The tumour caused cancer. That's why James is your doctor. I'm sorry." House continued to run his long fingers through Dans head.

"Oh. Will you be here with me?" Dan asked, trying to understand everything his dad had told him and feeling overwhelmed. He just wanted his Daddy nearby.

"Of course! If, for some reason, I can't be with you, Uncle James or Lisa will be with you. You'll never be alone through treatment and I'll be here in the night." He reassured Dan. Wilson walked in with some breakfast.

"Morning! Got us some food to eat!" Wilson cheered. He sat the array of pancakes and condiments on the wheeled table. House switched Spongebob back on and Danny was fully absorbed into the stupid sponges antics.

"Have you broke it to Dan yet?" Wilson asked quietly.

"Yeah. I think he had trouble understanding some of it but he understood that he was sick." House, reverting to old mannerisms, looked at his lap and rubbed his thigh.

"You know this might not work House? It's spread to the tissue." Wilson worried, not wanting to get House's hopes up.

"I know, but we've got to try Wilson. I'm not going to let them take his leg before we've tried to shrink it." The two men looked at each other in agreement. Nobody wanted that to happen.

"Eat up kiddo, you need the food!" House encouraged.

—

By lunch time, Wilson was ready to start Dan on chemo. House and Cuddy had agreed to start Dan on a combination of three Chemotherapy drugs. It had more of a chance of attacking the tumour. The problem was that it was going to completely wipe out Dans immune system by the first dose. It was also likely that Dans body wouldn't be able to take the treatment. But to defeat this, they had to hit it straight on and soon.

He entered the room to find House and Dan playing cards. A pain shot through his heart as he knew that Dan wouldn't have the energy to do this soon.

House acknowledged Wilson and saw what Wilson was carrying. He felt a lump grow in his throat.

"Hey kiddo, I'm just going to attach this medication to your tube. You can keep playing cards though. You look like your beating your old man?!" Wilson started to hang up the anti-emetic and the combination chemotherapy of ifosfamide, cisplatin and epirubicin.

"Yeah! He sucks at snap!" Dan grinned. House gently tapped him on the hand. Wilson cleansed the sight of the central line.

"Do not! I just let you win, otherwise it would be no fun!" House laughed. Wilson connected the drugs to Dans central line.

"Lair, lair pants on fire!" Dan chanted as the drugs started to filter through his IV.

"Do you want to play Uncy? Daddy's rubbish!" Dan pouted.

"Sure, why not. Deal me in then." Wilson sat in the other chair. In about 20 minutes, Dan will loose his energy. In about 35 minutes he will start to feel sick. In 40 minutes, despite the anti-emetic, he will start to violently vomit.

In 24 hours, he would of been transferred to a clean room, his small, underdeveloped body trying to fight off the most innocent of infections.