Blythe House had not been in her room when House and Wilson stopped there on their way to lunch, but she was there when they came back. Wilson had a patient, so he just greeted her shortly, but House stayed to talk with his mother.

"So are you going to fill me in on your troopers now?" Blythe asked.

"Mum!" House moaned. "They are not that interesting."

"But as they are my doctors," she pointed out, "I think I would like to know what kinds of people have my life in their hands."

"Don't you think that my letting them get their said hands on your life is enough of a recommendation?" House pretended to be insulted.

"I'm sure it is. And I'm equally sure that you are keeping an eye on them, but that is still not the same as knowing them, or having your opinion of them."

"They are doctors; they work for me and with me and they make a good team. What else is there?" House tried to prevaricate.

"Fine, I suppose that I just have to talk with them myself." Blythe sighed. "At least Dr. Cameron looks like a person who would appreciate your baby photos and mother's reminiscences of your childhood."

"You wouldn't!" House was horrified.

"Well why not?" Blythe could do the innocent look to perfection as well. "I'm sure that would break the ice just nicely and bring forth all sorts of revelations from her as well."

"Fine!" House caved in. "I will tell you what I can about my ducklings. But if they find out and start blaming me I will tell that I was coerced and blackmailed into it."

"I am duly warned and will take all the blame if need be." Blythe graciously agreed.

"You don't really have any of my baby pictures with you, have you?" House had to ask.

"No, I don't," she said. "But I could ask your father to bring some, if I need some leverage."

"You are a hard woman, Mother!" House grumbled.

"Relax. They are not that bad. At least we don't have any pictures of you doing anything truly embarrassing like crawling on a sheepskin in your diaper or anything."

"Why is that, by the way," House asked. "If I remember correctly that is exactly the sort of picture Grand-mother would have wanted to have of me? Did you talk her out of it or what?"

"Oh no, nobody could talk my mother out of anything," Blythe sighed. "No, that is not why. The reason such a picture was never taken was you. My mother was all set on taking it. Half her friends had such pictures of their grandchildren. She brought her camera and a sheepskin to the house when you were about eight months old and made ready to take the picture. The moment she put you on the sheepskin you started to yell blue murder! You would not stay still or quiet no matter what she tried. Finally your father rescued you and told my mother that you were too smart to let her take a picture like that of you."

"Wow! Pity you didn't get a picture of that," House said with some sarcasm. "Must have been the only time Father ever approved of me or my actions."

"Greg!" Blythe pleaded. "He did approve of you plenty of times."

"Never mind, I'm sorry Mother, didn't mean to bring that in now."

"It's ok. But you were supposed to tell me about your ducklings? Was that what you called them?"

"My entourage, yeah, I don't really know what to tell you."

"Well start with Dr. Foreman, you did put him in charge of my case didn't you?"

"I did. Right now he is the best choice. He has leadership qualities, but they need a bit honing. He can take charge, but if he needs to take charge of his peers or people he normally sees as his friends, he may end up having them walk all over him. He needs to understand that when you lead, you may end up being disliked. He is an excellent neurologist, and he will get this leadership thing right, too, in time. He will end up as a leading authority in his field one of these days – if I can break him off his habit of playing safe."

"Isn't playing safe a good quality in a doctor?" Blythe asked.

"Up to a point it is, but if it prevents you from keeping an open mind, then no. If the doctor uses both his hands to cover his ass he has no hands left to take care of his patient."

"That does not sound like the man I met this morning!"

"No, Foreman has never used both his hands to cover his ass, I have to admit that. But he does like to play things safe. Due to his background no doubt."

"What is his background?" Blythe wanted to know.

"Basically his was a decent family but unfortunate neighbourhood. He did get into trouble as a juvie, but he cleaned up his act and made it to medical school. But though that gives him street-smarts, it also makes him slightly afraid. He nearly had a bad end, and now he is afraid that if he breaks the rules he will slip again."

"You don't think he will?"

"He is not an impressionable youth anymore. He has a pretty clear idea of who he is and what he can do. If he learns not to fear his so called dark side, he will learn to use it to his – and his patients – advantage, and he will be a better doctor for it. I have faith in him. He will make a very fine doctor one of these days."

"You are proud of having had an influence on that?" Blythe asked.

"My feelings on that matter are not important. If he learns to be proud of himself, if he learns that the approval of others is not what matters but your own knowledge that you have done your all is all you need, I'm satisfied. And it doesn't even matter where he learned it from; me or himself or someone else entirely." House mused.

"What about Dr. Cameron, then," Blythe broke into his thoughts. "She seems like a nice young lady."

"Oh, yes. Allison Cameron. She is so sweet I'm about to get diabetes from her."

"Gregory!"

"No, I didn't really mean that." House nearly apologised. "I'm not sure about her as yet. She is a good doctor, but she cares too much. She just will put herself in harms way. I'm not sure what made her go to medical school, but I'm not sure it was a right choice for her. Not that I doubt her abilities or dedication, but she is setting herself up to be hurt and I don't know how much she can take."

"You worry about her?"

"Maybe. I don't know if she has the strength this profession needs. At least if she is pursuing a real career in her chosen field."

"She is an immunologist, isn't she? That is what you said."

"Yes. Of course she could go into research and find the cure for common cold, but I don't know. Family practise would seem more her field right now."

"She seems like a caring person," Blythe agreed. After a moment she went on: "She seems to care about you, too?"

"That's just her nature," House tried to explain, but Blythe's eyes demanded more. "Well, she did imagine herself in love with me at first. But I'm sure she is over it."

"What makes you sure?"

"We had a date, and it didn't really go well. I'm too old and too set on my ways for her."

"Don't you think that is her decision?" Blythe asked.

"What do you mean, Mother?"

"She is not a child, nor is she half as naïve as you seem to think. If she thinks you are not too old or too damaged or whatever for her, that ought to be her decision. Now if you don't like her or want her, that is – of course – your decision, but don't make up her mind for her."

"I'm not doing that," House said, very unconvincingly. "But even if I did, it's too late. She has come to her senses."

"If you say so," was all he got out of her.

"I do."

"Fine. So tell me about your young Australian then. What kind of a doctor is he?"

"Right now he is no kind of doctor at all," was the answer.

"What do you mean?" Blythe asked.

"He hasn't decided yet if he wants to be a doctor. He has some big shadows to fight first."

"What shadows?"

"His father was a world famous doctor and Chase was pretty much conceived in order to follow in his footsteps and carry on his brilliance."

"That does not sound very ... nice."

"It wasn't. Chase's father – for what I can figure out – pretty much married for the sole purpose of begetting a son who would carry on the family name and family tradition of brilliance in medicine. Rowan Chase did get what he wanted. And once he had his son, he pretty much discarded the wife and put his son on hold. He didn't really take any interest in Chase until he needed to push him in the right direction. He was lucky, I suppose. Robert is brilliant and he did get a medical degree. The problem is that he is brilliant enough to be anything he wants and being a doctor is pretty much the only thing he does not want to be." House explained.

"His father forced him?" Blythe asked.

"Yep. And I cannot totally disagree with him. Chase has great instincts. He is capable of connecting the dots in an unusual way; he has a feel to things. He can leap into conclusions that at first look are insane, but turn out to be right. He rarely lets himself do that, but there has been a few times when I have left something alone in order to focus on just making the right diagnosis and Chase has come through in an almost spectacular way. Once we had a patient who lost the sight in his left eye. I decided to let it go, as his life was in imminent danger, but Chase came up with a pretty brilliant solution to the problem." House told his mother.

"What kind of solution and what was the problem?" she wanted to know.

"The boy had a blood clot in his eye and due to his condition we could not go in and yank it out nor could we use blood thinners to remove it, but Chase suggested that we remove some of the liquid in the eye itself to give the clot room to move out. It worked and once we found out what was wrong with him, his recovery was complete and we didn't need to sacrifice his eyesight."

"And you complemented Chase on his idea?"

"I told him that it was a good idea, but that he ought to have thought of it sooner."

"That was rather harsh! Couldn't you just have complemented him and leave it at that?"

"No. Not if I'm to push him into deciding if he wants to be a doctor or something else." House said.

"Is that what you are supposed to do?" Blythe asked.

"That is all I can do. He is living in the shadow of his father and that is making it impossible for him to know what he really wants to do, or even what he can do. I know some of the shadow he lives in is also mine, he does associate me with his father in many ways, but the primary problem he has is his father. Rowan Chase may have been a brilliant doctor, but as a father... I really don't think he had any right to become a father at all. I know he came from Eastern Europe, and he probably did not have the happiest of childhoods, but some things you just don't have the right to inflict on your children. If he was so desperate to preserve his genes for the next generation he ought to have just become a sperm donor!"

"Is that why you empathise with Robert? Because you think you see similarities between you two?" Blythe asked almost apprehensively.

"No, Mother, I don't," House reassured her. "I do hold some things against Father, always will, but Rowan Chase was a real piece of work. I met him once and was not impressed. Rowan was truly incapable of loving anyone. Father and I just don't get along. Dad just never has understood me. I know he loves me, according to his lights, it's just not enough to make up for some other things. No, my wombat had a much harder deal with his father. And he didn't really have his mother there for him either."

"But you are here for him now?"

"I'm not his parent and I will not take on that role. All I can do is to try and push him till he makes up his mind where he wants to be pushed to."

"Well, I have to say you have an interesting entourage! I think I need to get to know them better."

"Just as long as you don't use my baby pictures to lure them into your web!"