Blythe had been right, everybody did converge at the house again for the Sunday afternoon; even Miss Hill came over. Anna had originally been a little hesitant about accepting Blythe's invitation but after the egging incident House had confirmed her welcome, so she had decided to show up.
The first to arrive, however, had been Kasumii and Grey. Kasumii, naturally, lived in the house, so she really didn't need any reason to be there, but given that Sunday was supposed to be her day off, her bringing Grey there instead of staying in his place or going somewhere else altogether said quite a lot about the family that had formed itself around Aiko – and now the expected Trips. On their arrival Grey wanted to have a word with House and Cuddy.
"Look, I think I could go and give you a big speech about my feelings for Kasumii and try and make a case for myself, but you know all that and I don't want to waste any time," Grey said to House. "We've been through all that one way or another. The thing I need to know, we need to know, is: what is your policy about Kasumii having me stay with her overnight?"
"Well, I'm not sure we have any say in that," Cuddy mused.
"In our house, yes we do," House stated. "If we have rules for each other – not that we are going to enlighten you two about those – then we definitely have rules for the Nanny of our children, too."
"You seem to have thought this out," Cuddy observed. "So go on, have the floor. I'll let you know if I disagree."
"Am I correct in assuming that you two think you are going to be together for forever and a day?" House asked Grey and Kasumii.
"I want to grow old with her," Grey declared simply.
"And I like that idea very much," Kasumii agreed taking Grey's hand.
"So where do you live now?" House asked Grey.
"Actually I live in the same hotel that Dr Wilson used to live in until he moved into your old flat," Grey said. "Until I met Kasumii I wasn't sure I wanted to stay in New Jersey and since then I haven't had time to look for a flat."
"So your present location wouldn't be an ideal place to take a girl to," House nodded. "Especially if you are serious about her."
"Not ideal," Grey agreed. "But not impossible either. Besides I can get a flat for myself. Your decision will not make or break our relationship, we just need to know."
"Ok, then," House took his time to answer the question. "The main rule of this house is that the children come first. What is good for them is good for the rest of us and what is bad for them is not tolerated. What doesn't fall into those two categories is up to you. I don't want the kids to be introduced to a series of aunts or uncles but since you two are planning to stick together, I see no problem with Grey staying over."
"That's ok with me, too," Cuddy said.
"In fact," House went further than expected. "If Kasumii has no problem in sharing her room with you, you can even move in. In time! Not right now. We have enough adjusting to do as it is, but in a month or two, once we see how things settle down here, we can discuss that again."
"You're sure?" Grey was surprised at the permission.
"No," House replied. "But I'm willing to consider it and, as I said, discuss it again in a couple of months."
"And if you want," Blythe had walked in on the conversation, too. "You can stay in Neffie's flat till then. We were going to go on paying her rent till she returns even though I don't live there anymore, but I'm sure she won't mind if you take it over for a few weeks. She will return from Europe in seven weeks or so."
"Neffie?" Grey wondered.
"The young artist who lives upstairs in Greg's old building," Blythe explained. "She went to Europe for six months or so on a scholarship and agreed to rent her flat furnished to me as long as I took care of her paintings and things."
"That's..." Grey was a little lost for words. "That would be nice, I'm sure."
"If you can stand living so close to Wilson," House inserted a little derogatorily.
"I think I can survive his proximity," Grey surmised dryly.
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Later, when Chase and Foreman arrived – Wilson, Anna and Cameron had already arrived a little earlier – Blythe met them at the door and led them to the kitchen; she needed them to carry things to the back yard.
"And beware of Greg," Blythe told them a little ruefully as she gave them platters of goodies to carry to the pick-nick table outside.
"More than usual?" Chase asked.
"Yes, more than usual," Cuddy confirmed as she took a tray full of cutlery to carry.
"What is the matter with him, then?" Foreman wondered. He couldn't imagine how House could be worse than usual – surely his leg hadn't suddenly started to hurt more than it had lately.
"He is having an allergic reaction," Kasumii told them as she took a pitcher full of ice-tea from the fritz.
"What is he allergic to?" Chase was surprised. He had thought House was too superhuman to suffer from something as mundane as allergies.
"I'm pregnant and stressing so he has been nice to me, and he was all yesterday and all off today," Cuddy told them. "When Grey and Kasumii got here he was nice to them. He is always nice to Blythe..."
"I get it," Chase nodded. "He is breaking into mental hives over having been too nice for too long."
"Exactly!" Cuddy confirmed.
"Well, I'm surprised he managed to be nice even as long as you said," Foreman noted as he followed Kasumii outside – with Chase, Cuddy and Blythe following him.
Kasumii made a detour on her way to the pick-nick table stopping by House to ask if there was anything she needed to do for him or Aiko – who was resting contentedly against his Daddy, who was lying prone on the grass talking with Wilson. Blythe, Cuddy, Chase and Foreman went straight to the table and as they set down their burdens they saw House say something to Kasumii in response to her question. The answer made Kasumii give House a very angry glare. She bent down, set the pitcher of tea on the grass, took Aiko from House and gave her to Grey, who had come over to see what was going on, and then she picked up the tea again and poured it all over House without a word.
Spluttering House jack-knifed into a sitting position and there was a moment of absolute silence. Then, when everyone realised what had happened and were just about to burst into laughter they were silenced by a shriek of absolute fury from Aiko. She struggled against Grey's hold screaming at the top of her lungs and when Kasumii tried to take her she actually batted her hands away from her. House was startled enough to forget totally his own discomfort and he motioned Grey to give Aiko to him, which Grey did.
"It's ok," House crooned to Aiko. "I'm fine, no harm done. It's just tea, here, taste." House rubbed his finger against his cheek gathering some tea on his finger then giving it to Aiko to taste. "It's fine. I'm fine. Really. Kasumii didn't do anything wrong. I'm fine. Just fine."
Kasumii got down to her knees next to House and tried to reach Aiko, but Aiko absolutely refused to even look at her. She clung to House and made small, distressed sounds. House tried to make her at least look at Kasumii, but he was unsuccessful for quite a while, finally he succeeded in calming Aiko and got her to listen to him. Aiko still refused to communicate with Kasumii, but at least she was no longer clinging so desperately to House.
"Come on, Little Love," House was almost as distressed as Aiko. He totally ignored his wet clothes and the fact that he was also getting Aiko's clothes all wet. "Nothing bad happened. Just some horseplay between adults. You know we sometimes behave idiotically, it's just what adults do."
It took some fifteen minutes for House to finally get through to Aiko and in the end he actually had to kiss Kasumii on the cheek to make Aiko finally accept that Kasumii hadn't done anything bad to her Daddy. He even managed to get Aiko to kiss Kasumii, too. After some more conversation Aiko finally agreed to let Kasumii take her inside to change her clothes – she had got all wet from the tea that had saturated House's clothes – and House, too, went inside to change.
"We didn't just see that, did we," Chase commented to Foreman.
"Well, we saw something," Foreman stated cautiously. "But we couldn't possibly have seen what we thought we saw. I mean, Aiko is a smart baby, but her cognitive development is not far enough for her to have concluded that Miss Tanaka was hurting House. Most babies would not have even properly noticed what happened as it wasn't involving them directly and even most toddlers would have thought it was just funny. For her to conclude... Well there is no way she could have concluded anything at all. There is no way that what we saw actually happened. It has to be all in our minds."
"Yeah," Chase doubted. "I think someone forgot to tell that to Aiko."
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Some fifteen minutes later House had had a shower and he was wrapped in a towel trying to find some clothes to wear. Because of his leg and being one handed due to the cane it always took him longer to rummage through his closet and drawers than before his injury. Therefore when Kasumii knocked on his door he was still in the early stages of changing his clothes.
"House?" Kasumii's voice sounded from the door between the main house and his flat. "Aiko is still fretting, can I come in? Are you decent?"
"Never," House grumbled back. "But the important bits are covered so you can bring Aiko in. Just carry her to the bedroom."
Kasumii walked in and settled Aiko in to her crib. Aiko sat up in it, but the sides kept her safe and Kasumii handed her Mr Panda to explore, so she was ok as long as she was able to hear House's voice. Kasumii was about to leave, when she glanced at House and frowned.
"You have gained weight, haven't you?" She asked.
"So what?" House frowned back.
"That's not good for your health," Kasumii concluded. "I know you have cut down on greasy foods, and your alcohol, of course, but it seems you still eat too much fat and probably too much carbohydrates. Your weight gain probably indicates elevated cholesterol levels, too, and that is not good news for either your liver or your heart."
"You are Aiko's Nanny, not mine," House grumbled.
"Yes, I am Aiko's Nanny," Kasumii agreed. "But you just said this morning that what is bad for the babies is not to be tolerated and you dying sooner than you have to, because of your eating habits is bad for the babies! I'll have a word with your mother." With that Kasumii left House to splutter in indignation.
"Now that was mean," House told Aiko. "That is what you should be protesting against, not some ice-tea!"
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The rest of the Sunday went comfortably. House joined the others with Aiko and the tea incident was ignored totally. Aiko did receive some strange looks from the doctors but once House forced them all to play at least one round of fish with her, everybody forgot the strange connection Aiko seemed to have with her father. All the attention soon exhausted Aiko and House took her inside to have a nap. After a while Blythe followed him. She found him sitting on his bed and watching Aiko.
"What is it Greg?" Blythe had noticed her son had been unusually pensive all afternoon.
"Nothing much," House sighed. "I just thought I would have more control."
"Control?" Blythe wondered.
"Yeah," House nodded. "I thought I could pick and choose. That I could decide what changes I had to make and what I didn't. And when I had to make them. I knew that having Aiko meant that I had to make some changes, like starting to take better care of myself and accepting more people into my everyday life than I comfortably wanted to. But I was wrong. Aiko is the one who decides what changes I need to make and when."
"What do you mean?" Blythe asked. "What changes are you talking about? Because as far as I can see you have made huge changes and Aiko has been your main concern ever since she came into your life. This house, Lisa, Kasumii, even accepting Grey – you have been quite amazingly ready to change."
"Yeah," House didn't sound very convinced. "Really amazing. I have been willing to change my environment and I have been willing to put up with things but I haven't really tried to change myself. And I need to."
"I'm still in the dark, son," Blythe said.
"What happened today cannot happen again," House sighed. "I cannot provoke Kasumii to retaliate. It distressed Aiko. And when there are four children in the house I cannot treat Kasumii and Cuddy quite the way I'm used to treating them. They are adults and they can handle anything I throw at them, but that does not matter to the children. If I appear to undermine Cuddy and Kasumii and their authority – no matter how well they can handle it and how well they can put me in my place – that will affect the children and the way they behave. I need to show respect, not just have it."
"You are talking about how Aiko reacted to Kasumii dousing you with the tea," Blythe realised.
"Yeah," House confirmed. "Aiko is not old enough to understand that I provoked it. She reacted to just what she saw. I cannot cause her similar distress again. And there is no saying how the trips would react in similar situation. And as Kasumii just reminded me – though in different context – I'm the one who made the rule that what is bad for the children will not be tolerated. So I have to change. I just don't know how!"
Blythe came over to sit by her son. She kissed him consolingly on the cheek and told him: "You will figure it out. You always figure things out especially when they are important. And because of Aiko and the Trips this is important, you will figure it out. I promise you."