A/N: I won't be posting the next chapter till later next week (I have finals), so I figured I'd write as much today as possible - and leave you hanging! Thank you for the reviews, keep them coming, I love to hear what you think about this story.

Chapter 8 - Waiting

Wilson was the one that ended up driving myself and Greg home from the hospital.

Cuddy had given us all the rest of the day off, and the entire team piled into Wilson's grey sport utility vehicle. I was completely speechless the entire drive. As we passed by Allie's school, my maternal instincts told me I should be running in there, as fast as I possibly could. Greg put his arm around my shoulder and told me I needed to calm myself down. Allie was safe inside school, probably terrorizing her teachers with pointless questions this very moment. I glanced once more and the school, and buried my head into my husbands shoulder...trying desperately not to completely lose it.

He assured me that they were going to find this guy, whoever the hell had planned it, and we'd never have to deal with any of this mess ever again. I silently hoped that he was correct.

Things had been so tough the weeks following Allie's return home - especially between the both of us. I'd forced her back into school too quickly, she'd rebelled - we did nothing but fight for a good two weeks. When the anger had tapered out, I realized that I needed to stop treating her like a child, and be the supportive parent who is ready to stand by whatever she's going through.

As soon as she realized that things were going to be okay, she'd bravely made the first steps towards finding out who she was and where she was going in life. Greg and I had enrolled her at Princeton-Plainsboro High School, hoping that there she'd find a reprieve from the wealthy students who only judged her on her social status. She'd come to the hospital after her first day positively glowing with pure happiness - her first friend in tow.

Since then, our lives had fallen into a nice routine. Greg and I would drop her and her friend Bridget off at school every morning, and continue on to work. After school, our next door neighbor's housekeeper would pick up Bridget and Allie and they'd spend the rest of the day happily working on homework, skateboarding or horseback riding, or causing trouble.

The first day of this routine, Greg and I had come home to find Bridget and Allie and a six foot high, paper Mache replica of the Eiffel Tower gracing our front lawn. They were laughing their heads off when Greg went closer to inspect, and the observation tower collapsed in a gooey mess on his head. I knew she was going to be okay front that point on - no doubts.

She didn't bring up her kidnapping and we didn't ask - she didn't seem to even think about it. Most nights we'd have trouble shutting her up, as she would ramble on and on about her day at school and the new friends she'd made. I worried for so long that she'd never find a place in society, that she'd spend the rest of her life trying to figure out where she belonged...and now I know I had no need to worry at all.

We were going to need to discuss these revelations with her, however. Security measures would need to be put in place at her school and at home, and I didn't think for a moment that she wouldn't handle these changes gracefully. She was back with us, so I assumed she'd know we'd do everything in our power to keep anything from happening to her.

This heavy feeling around my heart would not go away though. Chase, Foreman and Wilson were in the kitchen, making coffee. Greg sat in the recliner, watching me pace back and forth in front of the living room window. From this particular window, I had a good glance down the one fifty yard driveway to the gates that marked the entrance to our property. It was three fifteen in the afternoon and Allie was due home from school sometime in the next fifteen minutes, I was not going to be pacified until I saw the gates open and the housekeeper's car drive up to the house.

The team came back into the living room and sat down. I kept pacing back and forth until Greg stood up and put a hand on my shoulder.

"She'll be here Allison...sit down and please unclench," he told me.

Hesitantly, I sat down, eyes still glued to the window. I took a sip of the coffee Chase had placed in my hands, attempting to distract myself with something. The dark liquid tasted like dirt. I put the mug down, said I was sorry and planted myself down on the seat connected to the bay window I'd just been looking out of.

Greg came and sat down next to me, and we waited.

Three thirty passed and Greg reassured me that they were probably running late, knowing Allie she'd probably scored herself another detention for God knows what. I laughed a little and tried to tell myself that he was right. It was just last week that our daughter had received two half hour detentions for mouthing off to her teachers - which Allie claimed was a nice way of saying,"I am a dumbass and one of my students felt need to correct me."

The grandfather clock in our front hallway struck four o'clock a few minutes later and Greg stood up. At that very moment, the doorbell rang. If it were physically possible for my heart to come up through my esophagus and out my mouth, it would have. I ran to the front door, unlocked it and found my daughter's best friend Bridget standing on our doorstep. I stumbled backwards and Wilson caught me.

"Is Allie home? I didn't see her for the rest of today after she got called up to the front office! We waited for her but I figured she'd gotten a ride home with somebody else today?" were the first words her friend spoke.

Greg asked her what had happened and Bridget said during the middle of class, Allie had received a note summoning her up to the front office. She'd grabbed her backpack and books and headed up there, and she hadn't heard from her since.

Greg told her he'd not seen her all afternoon. Bridget looked at him, puzzled, and said she'd go home and make some calls to their other friends and see if she'd gone home with one of them. Greg nodded and told her thank you, shutting the door rather forcefully.

I took it upon myself at that moment, to call the school and find out exactly what had happened.

"Princeton-Plainsboro High School, how may I help you?" was the ever so polite reply the office secretary gave me. I took a deep breath and asked the secretary that I'd called to inquire after my daughter, Alexandra House, who hadn't returned home after school today." I heard the obvious sounds of typing on a computer keyboard when her voice came back over the line.

"Yes, she was checked out this afternoon by an employee of your work upon the request of (I heard the sound of more typing) her mother, Dr. Allison Cameron-House."

I dropped the phone and gasped.

Greg picked the phone up and once again asked the question I previously had. He frowned for a moment and suddenly exploded into the receiver.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN SOMEBODY CHECKED HER OUT? HE HAD AN IDENTIFICATION FROM OUR WORK? WELL, YOU IDIOT, DOES THAT EXACTLY GIVE YOU AUTHORIZATION TO PASS HER OFF TO WHOEVER THE HELL IT WAS? HOW STUPID ARE YOU? I'M GOING TO COME DOWN THERE AND -"

At that moment, after gaining the strength to stand, I walked across the room, grabbed the second phone and got on the line. Trying to sound calm, I cut off the barrage of swear words that were now coming from my husband and asked the secretary whom exactly, had checked her out of class today.

The sound of more computer keys being pressed filled our ears.

"Yes madam, I have the exact information. A man in a suit and labcoat came in to the front office around quarter to noon today and told us he was sent by Dr. Allison Cameron-House to pick up her daughter. Dr. Gregory House hadfell seriously illthat morning and they needed her to come down to Princeton-Plainsboro Hospital immediately and he was there to do the job. I told him we'd need to see some authorized proof that he could take her out of class, and he produced a letter authorizing the release of Alexandra with a Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital letterhead, signed by her mother. I was going to check the computer to make sure this man had authorization when he pulled a hospital identification badge out of his pocket. He told me Dr. Gregory House was in serious condition, suffering from something called "Acute Narcissistic Neurosis," and he was to take her there immediately. At this point Alexandra arrived at the office with a worried look on her face, so I figured with the hospital ID and letter, she was alright - this man seemed very concerned. They - "

Greg cut the woman off again with a loud, "WHAT WAS THE NAME ON THE IDENTIFICATION?"

We received the reply of, "That would be a Dr. Edward Vogler"

This time, Greg and I BOTH dropped the phone.