Disclaimer…Nothing in this story is mine except a few doctors and Libby. You can even take the doctors if you want, but Libby's all mine. Alas, $31.65 still doesn't cover buying House. Darn. Nor do I own Jansport or Barbies. Darn!

Author's Note…Just to keep you guys in the know, the beginning of this chapter is in early July. That's pretty consistent with the story, right? Ok, prepare for comic relief and a much-needed break for this family…its lucky 13, people! And thank you so much for the lovely reviews…reviewers are pretty!

"Now close your eyes, don't open them, wait just a sec…"

"I can't believe I'm doing this. You suck."

Wilson was leading House to the lab where the X-Rays were posted. He wanted to surprise him. Well, this was actually more akin to taking a good five to seven years off his life.

"Can I open them yet?"

"Nope, not yet."

"Come on! Wait a minute…are you going to be naked when I open my eyes? Well, I'm flattered, but I really don't swing that way. Well, ok, maybe I'll sneak a tiny peak just to make sure I'm bigger…"

"Shut up. And open them!"

House surveyed the multiple X-Rays, not really sure what was going on. "It's like Baskin Robins all over again!"

Wilson tried to explain. "These are Libby's."

"Oh, I'm glad you told me because seeing her name on the bottom of all of them really threw me for a loop. I just didn't know what to think!"

"Look at the tumor. From the first one to the last one. And pay attention to all that meat in between."

"Dir-tay!"

Well, if Libby waking up is enough to get House this far back to his old self, this is might just send him pre-Vicoden.

House's blue eyes were wide. His mouth dropped into the shape of a small "o". He looked at the X-Rays, then back at Wilson, then back at the X-Rays.

"It's getting…it's getting smaller."

"Yeah."

"She's getting better."

"I know."

Suddenly, Wilson felt the incredible urge to jump around with House like a little girl, he was so happy. Now that wasn't dirty at all!

House whooped and pumped his fist into the air. They certainly weren't out of the woods yet, but they had a path now, a concrete path and they were starting to see the light.

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It was the last week of August. The tumor was gone. Test after test after painful test had sent a happy Libby home with a clean health bill. However, they were going to do another round of chemo in the middle of September, and one at the end of October, just to make sure. But for now, the two Houses had bigger fish to fry.

Libby was starting kindergarten.

Way back in the beginning of August, when it became apparent that Libby was getting better () Libby convinced House to sign her up, saying that if he needed to, he could pull her out, but she really wanted to make some friends and be a normal kid. And who was House to refuse her the chance to be normal?

But now, as the first day of school was three days away, she was starting to have second thoughts, but she never voiced them. However, House could tell something was wrong, and it was easy to deduce what, although he didn't exactly know why. Since she was living at home () the once ridiculously long list was of things that could bug her was greatly reduced and besides, it was easier for House to observe his daughter now that they were living in the same apartment again ()

The two days came and went, and soon it was their self-proclaimed "K-Day." House stood with her at the threshold of the kindergarten classroom, suddenly feeling incredibly bad for her. He knew the school had sent all the parents in the grade a note telling them to explain cancer to their child because a little girl, his little girl had it, but the kids were obviously ill-prepared. Libby visibly regressed as 22 heads full with hair of all different colors stared at her bald one.

That day went down as one of House's proudest days. He wouldn't have had the courage to leave his side if he was in that position, but Libby did. He watched with love as Libby cautiously made her way over to a, really the, group of girls that had all clustered together.

"Hi."

One girl who House would hate forever blurted out "why are you bald?"

Libby touched her head self-consciously, and it only took an awkward half-second for her to regain her composure. "What? It's a new fashion trend. All the models are wearing it." With a flourish, Libby pulled out something from her baby blue Jansport.

It was the magazine Cuddy had given her when she first started her chemo. It was filled with pictures of a bunch of celebrities and models and such all sporting cancer-related baldness. Libby smiled. "See? Everyone famous has it. It's just taking a while for the fashion to get here." Libby pretended to vogue. "Besides, I don't have a choice. Better to go out in style right? And who cares what we look like now? By the time we're in sixth grade, we'll all look different." The other girls giggled and everybody began talking at once about how beautiful baldness was and that they were about to play Barbies and would Libby like to play too. The teacher, who House didn't know why she hadn't intervened in the first place, raised her eyebrows at House as if to say "wow." House gave her a somewhat arrogant nod and left.

House didn't know what happened that day, but what happened the next day when Cuddy had tagged along to drop Libby off would leave an imprint on his mind for the rest of his life. When they got there, the room was completely silent. The trio all stared in shock. They had never seen anything so…incredible.

All the girls had shaved their heads bald.

Libby looked at them in awe as tears of joy rolled down her cheeks. Cuddy had her hand over her mouth and seemed to be crying too. House looked down at his cane and noticed that he was shaking.

Finally, Libby broke the silence. "You guys…you look…beautiful."

The girls all shrieked happily and in attempted-unison shouted "surprise!"

Surprise!

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It turned out Libby had as many people skills as House didn't. By the end of the week, she had enough play-dates in her future to keep her content for the next three years. The final round of chemo was done, and House could see Libby's hair starting to return. The angelic strawberry blonde curls were back in action, and they were very much welcomed by Cuddy, who had taken to doing Libby's hair on weekends.

Libby was still small, definitely the smallest girl in her grade. Also definitely the prettiest. House and Wilson didn't miss the looks on a few kindergarten boys' faces when she talked to them. They thanked their lucky stars that for the time-being, Libby seemed pretty shy around boys.

September came and went and soon it was the middle of October. House was facing a challenge he hadn't anticipated. To tell the truth, he wasn't sure if he would be so lucky. Parent-teacher conferences.

Libby was on a Girls Scouts trip pumpkin-picking. House didn't even remember signing the slip letting her go, but was relieved that he didn't have to worry about her as he sat on this random orange plastic chair that was set up temporarily outside the classroom.

He was so thankful that he wasn't in another type of orange plastic chair.

"Dr. House?"

House stood up and sat across from the teacher. She was an older woman, presumably in her late 50's, scary thin, with a creepy drawn out face. Poor Libby has to be with her every day.

"Hi, I'm Ms. Kay. I assume you're Libby's dad?" Ms. Kay? That's so clichéd.

"That's what the test said, but I've got my reservations."

Ms. Kay frowned. "Oh, ok. Well, we're not here to talk about you."

"If I had a nickel…"

"We're here to talk about Libby. You know you have a very bright girl on your hands."

"Yes."

"She's very advanced for her age. When we finished the alphabet, she started piecing the letters together to form the words she knew. It was amazing what she could do on her own. Then, during reading time, all the other kids just looked at pictures, but she picks up a story-book she had never seen before and was able to read it to me! And, well, have you ever heard of Mrs. Robinson? She works here?"

"Yes, I've heard she's very popular with Jesus."

Ms. Kay's frown deepened. "Well, we have a special reading teacher here named Mrs. Robinson. She helps kids who are having some difficulty reading. But a few other teachers, the principal, Mrs. Robinson and I have talked about this and we decided that Libby could go to her on every odd day at 11:30-you know what odd day means right-an odd day in the rotation-anyway, she would go to her every odd day at 11:30 and she would formerly teach Libby how to read. We discussed possibly moving her up to the first grade, maybe even second. But then we thought that we would say how the reading classes went."

"I haven't been to school in a while, but if I remember correctly, we did math in the first and second grade too."

House was staring her down. Ms. Kay blushed. "Well, she's quite good at math too. We taught the kids all the numbers, 1-10, then she raised her hand and asked what would happen if you put them together. I couldn't believe it. This brings me to my next proposal…"

"I don't think I'm ready for a proposal yet."

"Listen, bucko, if you don't want your daughter to succeed in life, that's your own beef to bill. But dammit, I will not let another kid of mine be a failure!"

"Wait a minute…you have other children! You should have told me when we first started dating!"

Ms. Kay was fuming. She gritted every word out. "I'm. Going. To. Ignore. All. Further. Comments. We. Have. A. Math. Teacher. Like. Mrs. Robinson. Named. Mr. Naunbaum. He's. Very. Good. He's. Willing. To. Work. Out. A. Similar. Deal. Ok? Ok."

"Ok, so odd days with Mrs. Robinson and when with Mr. Naunbaum?"

"Even. Days. At. 9:00."

"Ta-ta, Ms. Kay!"

"GOOD-BYE!"

She practically blasted House from the room. He chuckled on his way out and couldn't wait to talk to Cuddy. Now where was she?

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He found her at her house, watching a television.

"General Hospital is better. It starts in half an hour."

Cuddy turned to him. "What the…oh, hey. Yeah, I was just waiting for it to begin."

"Oh."

The both stood next to each other awkwardly, fighting a sudden magnetism. House took a step towards her, then two steps back. Cuddy frowned. Isn't that how it always is?

"Sooo…I just got back from parent-teacher conferences."

"How's our girl doin'?" Cuddy blushed. "That's not how it…it sounded better in my head."

House was turning red too. "Ummm, she's doing great. Really smart. They're thinking about moving her up a grade."

"Wow, that is great!"

"Yeah, it is."

House nervously shuffled his feet. He felt just like a little kid asking a girl to a dance. Which was incredibly stupid because first of all, House was no little kid, as his mother assured him. Second of all, he wasn't asking Cuddy anything, anywhere.

Then why did he find himself getting closer, closer, closer to her face until he was kissing her?

And why did she kiss him back?

Author's Note…Wheeee, they finally kissed! Aww. I love this story. Ok, my pretties, please review! Thank you! Oh, and by the way, I'm guessing your all pretty happy over Libby's clean health bill. Just please keep the title in mind…it might come back to haunt you until next chapter. But don't worry…do I ever leave you hanging for long? Don't do me the same injustice…please review!