When they arrived at House's parent's place all the close parking spots were taken and they had to park about fifty yards away. House sighed, he did not want to walk that far! Using a wheelchair at his parent's place was not a viable option, they had several steps in front of their door and the hallways and rooms inside would not be wide enough. Either way he would never agree to let so many people see he was not feeling well. In the end he figured he would be able to get there, there just was no way he could carry Catherine at the same time. So he turned to her: "Hey, little lady, do you want to walk or let Chase carry you?" Seeing her lips begin to tremble, he decided: "A lift by the strong prince it is for our handsome lady." and was rewarded by a brilliant smile.

He unbuckled her seat belt and hold her out for Chase to take as soon as his partner had opened the door. Then he started the slightly more difficult process of levering himself out of the vehicle and in a stable upright position. Until now his leg had cooperated astonishingly well and while he was a bit slower than usual, he made it to the steps on his own without further problems. Tackling the stairs would be a different thing though. He had been used to a few flat steps in front of his old apartment, but he had not lived there for quite some time now, and usually avoided any steps or staircases otherwise. Adding to that the fact, that the ten steps at his parent's place were definitely not flat, let him sink down onto them for a minute to gather his strength first.

Wilson was already leaning against the door, knowing by now that House would rather not accept help from him as long as Chase was around and he was not feeling well enough at the moment to offer either way. Carefully Chase deposited his valuable freight with Wilson before he went down the stairs again to sit next to his partner. Using House's key Wilson and Catherine went inside to find a nice place to sit down in the living room and making it possible for House to climb the stairs without witnesses.

House contemplated silently whether he wanted to head into the lion's den at all, where he would have to cope with more stories about how wonderful his father had been, but in the end he did not want to keep Catherine waiting for too long and levered himself to his feet again. Grabbing the railing with one hand and leaning on the cane with the other he made it up two steps before he had to take the first rest. Stubbornly he tried again, but after one more step that nearly resulted in him falling he relented the cane to Chase and accepted his support instead. It was still a slow progress with several breaks, but some time later they had made it.

Back on level ground he switched back to the cane, but kept holding on to Chase until they reached the door to the living room. He had just let go when his entrance had been noticed and suddenly all eyes were on him. House nearly turned around and left, until he heard a high voice telling him: "Here!" followed with a quieter "Please!" while patting on one of the comfortable easy chairs. So he joined Catherine and gratefully she curled up on the cushion he had quickly placed on his lap and fell asleep shortly thereafter, thereby giving him the perfect excuse to stay sitting down for the foreseeable future.

Looking around he did not see Wilson, but he had noticed that his friend had not been feeling well earlier and guessed he was probably by now lying down in one of the guest rooms. Sometimes he admired the easy way Wilson had talking to other people, even House's own mother. Speaking of the devil, he thought jokingly, when he saw her come towards him. "I am glad you came, thank you!" she addressed him, before confirming his assumption: "James needed to rest for a while. I heard you had a quite eventful week?" When he acknowledged that statement with a nod, but did not expand further, she sighed and offered: "I have the will here, you should read it."

House frowned up at her. He did not expect to inherit anything from his father and honestly he did not want any more memories either, but he dutifully accepted the document and started reading. As anticipated, his mother got the house and all the money, but his father clearly stated that from now on House should be fully responsible for Catherine. His mother offered with obvious hesitation to keep her where she was used too, but clearly she was not enthusiastic about that idea – and House did not like it either.

He knew since quite some time that "his little sister" was not at all related with him, since John House was not his biological father, and Catherine came from John's affair with a much younger woman about 8 years ago. Cathy's mother had died a year later in a car accident, which had required his father to take her in. House was well aware that she would have been in a care facility already if they could have afforded the costs. His mother had only reluctantly agreed to Cathy's stay in their household and done her best to ignore the child.

His hand still rested protectively on Cathy's back while he pondered his options. He had no idea how he should manage his busy work schedule while raising a child, especially one with as many health issues as Catherine, but there was no way he could let her stay with his mother who did not want her. Chase was living with him, but put in even more hours, and it was not his responsibility either way. In the end he decided, he might as well give it a try. He could always check out full-time or part-time care facilities in Princeton, should that become necessary. Either way, the kid really should be attending school soon, which would keep her busy for at least some hours during the day. He had never agreed with the decision of his parents to keep her at home and invisible to the world out of shame for her condition.

While Chase had read over his shoulder and obviously anticipated his decision, House surprised Cameron and Foreman with the announcement, that Cathy would be coming back with them. Foreman did not really seem to care one way or the other, but Cameron was delighted to be able to "take care of the sweet little child" and offered to babysit whenever necessary. House, knowing that Cathy's small size led people to underestimating her age by several years, was silently looking forward to that interaction. His little sister was usually extremely shy, but could be quite a handful when somebody went against her will and did not take well with unnecessary help or pity at all.

When House started quizzing his mother about some details of their last week, Cameron realized that he had been keeping up with Cathy's development and medical information all the time. While he had new ducklings by now, she had been filing his post long enough to register the new reports that arrived regularly every week, even though she had never actually read them. It was quite obvious that he was well aware of everything that had been going on with exception of the last days. On the other hand, she had long suspected that he read much more of his mail that he let on, there was just no other way to explain his vast knowledge.

During their talk it became clear as well, that his mother did not wish to live on her own and they were not sure whether she would be able to any longer. While she had kept the household going during the long absences of his father while he had still been on duty in the military, this had not been necessary for quite some time. She considered moving closer to her son, and House did not seem completely opposed to that idea, more thoughtful. Seeing that look on her son's face she continued: "Don't fret now. I will not be moving for quite a while, hopefully, I want to enjoy some time with David first." Recognizing the confused look on the younger people's faces, she pointed to the family friend who had supported her during the funeral.

House acknowledged that with a nod, grateful to be able to solve the problems one at a time, and ended the topic with: "Well, let me know when you change your mind."


Chase, Foreman and Cameron offered to start packing Catherine's stuff, which was all situated in her room on the second floor. Having seen the kid walk earlier, they wondered how she had even been able to navigate the stairs, but they shrugged off that thought shortly thereafter. If it had been a problem, she would probably have had a room on the ground floor.

They were surprised when House gave detailed instructions which furniture to pack as well, and looked questioningly to his mother, who only answered: "Greg bought these items for her, it is only fair that he takes them along." Quickly they realized they would not be able to fit everything in the cars they had brought. Even though they had used two cars, House's stuff already took up nearly all the space in the trunk of one car. And while Foreman did not exactly have a small car, there was just no way they would be able to fit the furniture together with her clothing and other stuff in there. So Chase wandered down again and got the name of a moving company to rent a trailer and with Blythe's permission grabbed some more boxes from the basement to pack up Catherine's things.

While Chase was certainly helping the other two pack, he managed to check in on House and Catherine regularly and unobtrusively. While carrying some stuff up or down the stairs, he often times stopped in the living room for some time to refill glasses and cups with water and coffee respectively. Usually House would detest behavior like that, but since he was not really able to move at the moment without waking Cathy, he appreciated the concern, especially when he realized he could not even reach his Vicodin. Thankfully Chase always carried a second bottle around.

Several of the older ladies tried to involve House in their discussions and sometimes he joined in for a moment, but got quiet as soon as the talk came to his father. They also tried to offer him a piece of cake more than once, but he declined politely every time. Chase watched him slightly resigned: House seldom refused food, especially unhealthy one that was brought to him, unless he was nauseous. He should by now know, how good of an actor his partner was, he realized and tried to remember whether House had had any breakfast. Even if the pain was not bad enough to induce nausea, which he was not sure about, the emotional turmoil of the last days combined with the crowd that could not be avoided right now would be enough.


A while later Catherine woke up again and kept watching all the people around her carefully. Several of the older ladies tried to ask her questions as well, but she only buried her face against House, who did not protest, and waited until they found another topic. After their attention was sufficiently diverted, House checked with her: "Have you already done your exercises today?" He was not surprised, when she answered by shaking her head. Even though he knew the therapist had prescribed them to be done three times a day, his mother had probably not been up to it the whole week, so he started especially slow.

While he did not see his little sister often, he knew her routine well from the medical files. It was soon clear, that she was only able to do about half of the stuff she had been prescribed, but he had expected that. Not willing to hurt her more than necessary he stopped for now and decided to slowly work their way up to the prescribed amounts over the next days. She would have to go to a new therapist either way, who would probably change the tasks, since he was neither willing nor able to drive out here every week just for a PT session.

Wilson had come back and taken the chair next to House at some point, neither Catherine nor House knew exactly when. He still looked tired and definitely not well, but not as exhausted as earlier. Throwing another glance at his friend, House took a pill bottle out of his now accessible again pocket, opened it and handed some pills to Wilson together with some water. On Chase's questioning glance, House signaled him that he would answer questions later and a quick look around confirmed that nobody else had watched the interaction.

About five minutes later Wilson looked much more awake and to the astonishment of several of the other guests, he could easily engage Cathy in a lively conversation even though nobody besides House was able to tell what exactly they were speaking about.

After his next trip downstairs with some more boxes Chase walked over to them and squatted down in front of Cathy. Together they told her, that she would come along with them this evening and live with them from now on, which was obviously a source for excitement. Being together with her beloved Uncle House and closer to Uncle Wilson seemed to be a wish come true. A bit surprised by her behavior Chase carefully tried to explain to her that they had already packed most of her things. Then he offered her his arms, so he could carry her upstairs and she could inspect the room and control, that they made no mistakes and did not forget anything. House was glad that she was taking to "her new friend Chase" so easily and fondly watched the two go.

Chase did not really want to leave House alone for too long at the moment, and therefore hoped to be able to leave Catherine with Cameron and Foreman to find any missing things, but he had felt her tensing up already and was not sure how well that would go. Upstairs Cameron was glad to finally really meet House's new girl and walked over quickly, only to make Catherine hide her face in Chase's neck as soon as she came closer. A bit disappointed, but not willing to overtax the clearly already distraught child, Cameron left for the kitchen, figuring there would be more work waiting.

Chase just resigned himself to staying on the second floor with Cathy and prepared to send Foreman down to run interference whenever the talking got to much for House, when Cathy initiated a conversation with an equally surprised Foreman: "Hi, I am Catherine! Who are you?" She had carefully pronounced each syllable, which astonished Chase, but he did not have time to ponder about that now.

After Foreman answered the question, Chase expanded: "You know, how your Uncle House has several people working with him? Foreman has been working for him a very long time now, we worked together for a while and then he kept working for House while I worked someplace else in the hospital. He is a good friend of mine and I am sure, he would like to be your friend as well." He waited a moment to give her the time to think that over, but before she could make a decision, he added: "I need to tell you a secret, though, he is a bit like your Uncle House: Even though he might sometimes look a bit grumpy about one thing or another, he would never hurt somebody and you can definitely trust him!"

Foreman was surprised by Chase's glowing recommendation and tried his best not to show that. Slowly he offered to take her and after another careful look, Catherine switched over, declaring that even though Foreman was smaller than Chase (and therefore obviously not as strong and as reliable as him), he had broad shoulders, making him strong as well, in contrast to Uncle Wilson, whose back was hurting too much today and Uncle House, who was strong in his head – and when he sat down. Both men had to struggle to keep from laughing after that statement.

"What's going on with Wilson?" Chase inquired, he had not really noticed anything off, but Foreman only shrugged his shoulders. "Back hurt! Uncle House knows" came Cathy's decisive answer.

"Okay." Chase wondered how Cathy knew better than them what was going on with the oncologist, but had to put considering that on his growing list of things he could not afford spending time on right now.

Not willing to delay any longer, Chase announced: "I am taking some more boxes down, okay?" He wanted to make sure before he left, that Cathy was really fine staying with Foreman to check the room, and was very glad when she agreed.

Gently Foreman explained to her why her room was so empty and asked her to make sure that nothing was left behind that she would want to have. Cathy nearly had a meltdown when she realized, that they packed the stuff from the middle part of the wardrobe as well, which she was not allowed to access at any time. Chase promised to clear that up with House's mother and then took the next set of boxes downstairs.


Cameron had been heading straight for the kitchen and started to refill drinks, putting away used plates and silverware and packing up some care packages for the neighbors to take with them. Upon seeing Chase standing next to House during one of her refill tours, she cautioned him against eating any of the food, since several items contained strawberries and one could not be sure the same knives had not been used for the strawberry-free items as well. They agreed to get some fast-food later on their way home and tried to convince House to have a self-made dinner together as soon as they reached their place. House did not seem delighted by that prospect but did not outright refuse the idea either, so they assumed this decision would be made later.

Foreman meanwhile was trying to figure out how to handle Cathy. Chase had told him earlier, that she was already seven years old, even though she looked only four. Her vocabulary was very simple, usually she used one or two word sentences to communicate, which was more appropriate for a child about two years old. She did not attend any school at them moment as far as he could tell, but she did not seem to be slow in her thinking, where she easily reached the level of a seven year old. Maybe she was even more advanced than that, but it was not easy to tell due to her limited vocabulary. Especially her observations earlier concerning the strength of the different members of House's team had been spot on, obviously she was very good at watching other people. From the short interaction he had seen, she seemed to use her findings not so much to mock others like House was fond of, but to try and help them. Her coordination however was atrocious, walking unaided had looked painful and unbalanced earlier and he had seen no indication, that she knew how to paint or hold a pencil at all. Wondering how to best handle the situation, he asked her once again to make sure they had packed everything that was important.

In response she ordered Foreman to let her down and turn around. Shakily she tried to walk across the room, but soon had to realize that she was not up for that at the moment without holding on to something. Not willing to let anybody know about her hiding spot, she got down to her knees to crawl over to a loose floor board where she kept some of her treasures, an old card board book and an even older looking teddy bear. After making sure to realign the board perfectly she crawled back to Foreman with her things before she allowed him to turn around. Foreman in the meanwhile had observed her doing in the window, even though that made it really hard for him to keep quiet. He lifted her back up on his arm and together they went back downstairs where he put her on the chair next to House, quietly playing with her bear.

A few minutes later she suddenly turned around to House and used her small hands to massage the sides of House's right leg. The few guests who knew House were very surprised that he allowed her to do that, and especially Chase was nearly interfering before he realized that this was obviously not the first time she had done that and House even seemed to enjoy it. He had never before seen him relax that quickly and that completely when a cramp was about to hit. A few minutes later Cathy went back to her quiet game as if nothing had happened and House swallowed a Vicodin, obviously tired but no longer in a greater than usual amount of pain. He even offered to read the book to her and soon they are both engrossed in the story of the three friends.