After lunch – which Wilson did pay for – House went to see his mother. John House was sitting with his wife, who had just been transferred back to her room, and was sleeping again.

"I thought you might want to have something to eat," House said to his father. "I'll sit here with Mother until you come back."

"Don't you have work to do?" John House asked civilly.

"Not now, I'll have clinic duty later in the afternoon, but I got the morning free," House answered.

"If you were free, then where were you during the surgery?" John was puzzled.

"I was watching it. As a doctor in this hospital I have access to the OR observation balcony," House said.

"But couldn't get me in there, could you," John asked a little miffed.

"Wouldn't have even if I could have," House answered. "I knew what was going on, what they were doing and why. For someone who has no knowledge of surgical procedures... well, let's just say it's the stuff nightmares are made off. You are better off without the memory."

"And you think it was your decision to make?" John was somewhat indignant to have his son determine something like this for him. "You always think you are right, you never listen to anyone else."

"Look, I think we have had quite enough arguments in front of Mother already," House did his best to bite his tongue, "do you want to go and have a something to eat or shall I just get on with my clinic hours?"

"Fine, have it your way," John sighed. "I'll go eat something. I'll be back in half an hour." He left the room in a bit of a huff.

"Thank you," Blythe said quietly when House turned to face her bed.

"I didn't realise you were awake," House said. "Did we wake you?"

"Not really," Blythe denied. "I've been drifting somewhere between sleep and awake since I woke from the anaesthetics."

"Nothing unusual about that," House agreed. "Want some ice?" he asked and as Blythe nodded he helped her to a sliver.

"Don't try to talk unless you really want to say something," House instructed her. "You had a bit of a rough time there and you need your rest."

"Light?" Blythe asked with a questioning look but also with a smile.

"You mean did you go to the light?" House asked, to which she nodded. "Actually yes, you tried," Blythe looked surprised, "so I don't think you ought to joke about it to Dad. He might not find it funny at all. You had some kind of a reaction to the meds, they are not sure which. That is not unusual as there are quite a number of them used during surgery. Though seriously, you didn't go towards the light, but your blood pressure dropped and your heart rhythm went haywire for a couple of minutes. They got is sorted out soon enough, so the operation was successful and even the patient survived. They got the tumour checked and it was benign, just as Foreman predicted."

"Good," Blythe breathed.

"That's what I thought," House agreed. "You ought to be able to leave the hospital within a week, if you want, but I don't know how long it will take to determine what is the best treatment for your MG, so if you want to stay longer it's ok, but you can also move into a hotel with Dad till you are ready to travel home, if that is what you prefer. But you did go through all this with Foreman, didn't you?" Blythe nodded. "Good. In the meanwhile, I promise you I will try and be civil to Dad and not fight with him. You don't need the added aggravation from that. I cannot promise that I will succeed, but I will try."

Blythe House smiled at her son and reached her hand to take his. He understood: it was all she expected and wanted that he would try. Sure, he had never been particularly good at keeping that particular promise, but he even trying showed her how much he did love her.

"Musketeers?" Blythe asked then, and again her son understood her shorthand.

"My ducklings? I'm afraid I have been a little hard on them lately," House confessed. At Blythe's questioning look he went on: "Not in the usual sense, they are used to my arrogance and abrupt commands. No, that is not what has them messed up right now. I was nice to them and now they worry there is something wrong with me. I know: a sad testament to my people skills that when I thank someone he must think I'm sick or something. And I didn't even do it on purpose – which I have to admit I could have – but just because I was worried sick over you. So please mother, for my sake and for the sake of the sanity of my minions, don't do something like this again, ok?"

"Sorry," Blythe smiled, "about your Dad, too."

"You are about 48 years late with that one," House joked. "Though I suppose it did seem like a good idea at the time, and I suppose I have to forgive you since you had no way of knowing what kind of a son you were going to get." Blythe punched her son lightly. "Ouch! Fine, I'll forgive you."

By the time John returned to the room Blythe had again fallen asleep and at his father's return House left to do his clinic hours.

----------

House got out of the clinic as soon as he could. There were no new cases for his team, so he went into his office to think. He stood by the door to his balcony, deep in thought twirling his cane. His troops were in the other room, Foreman was reading up on MG – not that he really needed to, but he wasn't taking any chances with House's mother! – Chase was doing his crosswords and Cameron was on the net trying to find an MG specialist somewhere near where the Houses were living to take over the case, once Blythe was ready to go home.

Suddenly House walked into the room with an unsettling smile on his face. He was up to something again! Usually that had his ducklings worried, but today they felt almost a comforting sense of familiarity settle over them as House told them to follow him.

"Come on me hearties!" House instructed. "We have things to do and we need one more member to our team. Sorry Foreman, I know you are usually the expert on call for these things, but this time we need a bit more mature experience than your juvenile record would indicate you having."

"What are you up to this time," Foreman asked, exasperated at the usual reference to his misspent youth, yet oddly relieved to have things back to normal. Maybe he wouldn't need to search House's rooms for those drugs.

"Just some procurement and acquisition, and I have just the man in mind for that job." House was leading the way past Wilson's office, which puzzled his followers as Wilson was usually the extra member they drafted along when House was up to something. In stead they now followed House all the way to his mother's room.

"Hello, Mother," House greeted Blythe, "do you mind if we use your room for a war conference? Because we need Dad for a little job where his military experience could come in handy."

John House stared at his son like he was an alien from another planet, but said nothing. His wife smiled and nodded: "I don't mind at all, as long as you let me know what is going on."

"Since we are going to use your room as the headquarters for this operation, you will definitely be informed," House promised. "Dad, the set up in this hospital is a bit similar to that in the military. You know that if you really need something, you will get it, only it will take forever due to the paperwork. So if you really, really need something right now, the best way to get it is to just get it and worry about the paper work later. Right?"

"Right, that is often the case," John agreed. "What is it that you really need now and how am I part of it?"

"Well ..." House looked around, "we really ought to have brought the white board with us! Ah, no help for it now, we'll just have to make do." House then proceeded to inform his co-conspirators of his plan, what he wanted to do, what was needed to get it done and how he planned to get it done.

"So you see it?" House asked and his troops agreed. "These are the items we need," he found some paper and a pen in the cabinet by his mother's bed and wrote a list of things on it. "These three things are to be found only in our VIP rooms. I cannot go there without causing suspicions as I have no VIP patients right now. However, the guest quarters are near the VIP rooms, so nobody seeing you there, Dad, will find it odd. And if you have Foreman with you - no problem - since he is your wife's doctor. So you two can go get these items. Chase, you get these and I get the rest of them. Take everything into my office and then report back here, to Cameron who will keep the list and follow our process. And Cameron, if you can think of some girly things to add to that list do so. You and Chase can get them once we have all the big items together."

"Are you sure about this," John had to ask. "This doesn't seem like something Dr. Cuddy would object to, so why not just go and clear it with her first?"

"Of course she wouldn't object to any of this," House exclaimed, "especially this time of the month." (Which exclamation made Cameron blush and brought some colour to his father's cheeks as well) "But Cuddy is the administrator here, she cannot just tell us to go get what we want, she needs to do the paperwork! And that would take forever – and frankly, Dad, we really do not have the time."

"If you are sure," John finally agreed. "I suppose you know Dr. Cuddy better than I thought. So let's do it then."

-------

As Foreman and John House were making their way towards the VIP rooms, Foreman decided to clarify something, just in case.

"Mr. House," he started a little apprehensively. "The remark your son made about Dr. Cuddy, I wouldn't draw any conclusions from it. House has a habit of making outrageous comments just to shock people, they don't mean anything."

"So what you are saying is that there is nothing going on between Dr. Cuddy and my son?" John asked.

"Secrets are extremely hard to keep in this hospital and there hasn't been even a whisper about anything going on there," Foreman confirmed. "I thought I ought to just mention it, as you are bound to meet Dr. Cuddy every now and then when you stay here, and I wouldn't want anything House has implied make those meetings uncomfortable."

"Hmm, I appreciate that, thank you," John frowned. "So what you are saying is that though appearances may deceive, Greg doesn't really kiss and tell?"

"My experience would indicate that if he tells he hasn't kissed," Foreman disclosed. "And if he has kissed he won't tell. But that really is just guessing on my part."

---------

About an hour later they were back in Blythe's room. A bunch of items were hiding in House's office and they were now making sure that they had all they wanted in there.

"Yep, the list is complete, even with the girly items you wanted House," Cameron said looking down the list. "The only thing I would like to get is the pink blanket, but that is not possible."

"Do we know that expression?" House asked his troops. "Not possible, does not sound familiar to me."

"May not sound familiar to you," Cameron explained, "but that is the case. The only pink electric blanket we have is in the clinic and to get it, you need to get past Nurse Brenda! If the blanket goes missing – in fact if anything goes missing from the clinic she will be on it like a blood hound!"

"Ok, Chase, go flip your hair at her and charm her out of the blanket. We want it." House told Chase.

"No can do," Chase said. "There is no charming Brenda; I have tried it couple of times."

"Fine," House groused. "I'll do it myself then." He limped out of the room.

"This I have to see!" Chase declared and followed him, with Cameron and Foreman at his heels. John, at least stayed with his wife regaling her with the details of the raid they had performed.

-----

House walked to the nurses station where Brenda was just finishing with her sift – the clinic was about to close in ten minutes. He waited till she noticed him in stead of demanding her attention. He leaned over the counter, a little closer to her and said something. Chase, Foreman and Cameron could not hear the conversation. House tilted his head a little, and looked Brenda straight in the eyes – Cameron started to blush! and she wasn't even near him, but he had turned on the charm like only he could when he wanted. Brenda tried to ignore the assault, but she was not immune to it, so she did listen to whatever it was House was saying to her. He reached with his hand, almost but not quite touching Brenda's cheek, just airbrushing a bit of hair out of the way, obviously giving her some compliment. He kept on talking, with an earnest look on his face, eyes pleading and then he just stopped, after clearly having asked a question. He didn't press, he didn't say anything, just looked at Brenda with his blue eyes, while waiting for her to make up her mind. She turned away, left the desk, went somewhere for a moment and returned with the coveted blanket in her arms. She gave it to House saying, just loud enough for the ducklings to hear: "Don't take this as a precedent! I'm not letting you get away with anything on the clinic just because of this."

"I would not even dream of thinking anything of the sort!" House promised and limped triumphantly to his minions.

"Got it!" He gloated. "All we need to do now is put it all together tomorrow."