Thank you for your reviews, they have – once again – inflated my ego quite nicely, thank you ;)
--------------------
When Perri came downstairs some time later she had changed her clothes, but was still wearing House's shirt. Apparently none of her clothes were suitable for wearing in the house. She had removed the last of her makeup, all the earrings and other body-jewellery, and though her nails were still long, they were polish-free. She stood at the foot of the stairs biting her lip – reminding House a little of Cuddy – trying to decide if she could, or wanted to, join the people in the living room. House didn't give her a choice. He beckoned her over.
House was at the piano playing something or other to entertain the kids. The Trips were sleeping in a fairly big crib that had room for them all and Aiko was playing with toys on the floor, though every now and then she took a toy and brought it to one of the adults. Dr Higa had joined the crowd and he and Blythe were sitting side by side reading a Japanese newspaper (Higa was helping Blythe to refresh her scant knowledge of the language). Cuddy was in an armchair reading a medical journal and Grey and Kasumii were on one of the couches talking – apparently about Perri, since they stopped when she came in. Having beckoned Perri to him, House turned away from the piano and took a good look at the teenager standing before him.
"Well, what do you know, she is actually human," House mused. "And not that bad looking either. At least you won't scare the kids now." Perri made a small face but didn't comment. Right then Aiko came over to her Daddy dragging Mr Panda with her. She was now just big enough to be able to tote the toy around – when she really wanted to. She stopped when she reached her Daddy's legs but she turned to look at Perri with curiosity. House smiled at her and then gave a considering look to Mr Panda and then he looked back at Perri: "Though, I have to admit, that I may have been a little hasty when I removed your makeup. Now that I think of it, your resemblance to Mr Panda was quite startling. Had I left it alone, you would probably have made instant friends with Aiko."
"I can go back and re-apply," Perri offered a little tartly but before House could say anything to that, Aiko took matters into her hands. She beamed at Perri and lifted the hand that was dragging Mr Panda, clearly offering the toy as a welcome gift to this new person in her house.
"Looks like she is quite happy to accept you as you are," House noted. "Take the toy, thank her and then give it back."
Perri did as instructed and was rewarded with even wider smile from Aiko, who was showing all her teeth (though there weren't that many of them yet), with her smile. She accepted Mr Panda back and turned to take it to her Grandfather next.
"I know your room is a bit bare still," House told Perri. "We moved Cuddy's office back to the hospital only yesterday and since we weren't sure how much stuff you were bringing with you, the ladies thought it safe to just have the essentials there and you can fill in what is missing later. When are the rest of your things arriving, do you know?"
"Rest of my things?" Perri was a little puzzled.
"Yeah," House nodded. "Don't tell me that you came all the way from England to spend two years here and all you have with you is two suitcases and a carry-all?"
"Well, yeah," Perri shrugged feeling a little stupid.
"Your parents aren't sending things like your books or your old toys, favourite chair anything to you?" House wanted to be sure he had understood what Perri was saying. He also noticed that Grey was shamelessly listening in on the conversation with a concerned look on his face.
"They didn't say anything," Perri tried to behave like it was nothing. "I didn't even think to ask."
"Ask?" House repeated. "It shouldn't have been necessary for you to ask." House gave a huffing sigh. He looked Perri up and down and couldn't understand how anyone could see her as anything but a child. "So how old were you when your parents first decided you were old enough to cope without their constant input?"
"I guess you could say seven," Perri shrugged touching one of her earrings. "At least that's when Cora went back to work full-time and Allan went after his next promotion."
"And they left you alone," House said neutrally.
"We had a live-in housekeeper," Perri defended her home.
"And how long did she last?" House asked.
"Till I went to boarding school at eleven," Perri replied, touching another one of her earrings.
"Interesting," House narrowed his eyes at her gesture. "And that is when you turned into Hermione Granger? At least judging by your grades."
"I suppose," Perri shrugged again.
"You keep shrugging like that you're going to dislocate your shoulder," House pointed out. "Good thing that the room is full of doctors. So, if your first earrings are for your parents abandoning you and another pair is for them sending you away from your home, what are the others for? I am assuming that most of your piercings are less than fourteen months old since that is when Grey saw you last."
"Nothing, it's just what everybody does," Perri didn't shrug but she did bite her lip again.
"It's alright," Blythe had come over to Perri and she put her arms around the distressed teenager. "We want to know because we care. You are part of our family now. And we take care of family. It's ok."
"No, it's not what everybody does," House denied. "At least not in the circles you move. But I'm guessing that the first three pairs are mementos of something, but the rest of them... You discovered how pain releases endorphins. You're not cutting yourself, are you?" House was clearly worried, which surprised Cuddy, who had abandoned her journal as was standing next to Perri with Blythe. Not that she didn't know that House could worry he just usually didn't show it. She glanced at Grey who had joined them, too. Kasumii and Higa stood back – entertaining Aiko – and just observed.
"No, I don't," Perri stated quietly.
"Good," House relaxed a little. "It's not all that it's cracked up to be. But you have been thinking about it, right?" Perri nodded. House shook his head. "That's why you have the piercings. You took them to get the pain but in a relatively risk-free way, while you pondered on your choices. How did you get your parents to consent, though? I'm sure you need parental permission to have something like that done?"
"I got it," Perri started to shrug but remembered House's remark about the dislocated shoulder and stopped in mid-action. "I told Cora that the other girls were having things like that done and she didn't want to be un-cool mother, so she signed the forms. Same for the tattoo."
"Yeah, the tattoo," House smiled. "How did they do that? Did they use and extra long needle or is there some special equipment that makes it possible to locate them in your butt?" Perri looked down on the floor and blushed a little. "Yeah, I caught that one. Unlike your parents I don't feel the need to be your friend and give you the benefit of the doubt. The schools you have been to would never give you straight As if you didn't know your grammar. But don't worry, I found it amusing enough to forgive you. I did say some lip is tolerated under those circumstances."
"Yeah, you did, but I'm sorry anyway," Perri muttered. She wasn't really sure she wanted to apologize to House, but Blythe was there and she had been so nice and welcoming – almost like a Grandmother, or what Perri had always thought a grandmother would be like – that she didn't want to appear sullen in front of her. Judging by the small smile House had on his lips he understood her situation perfectly. He seemed to understand a lot of things, which was odd, given how blunt and – well he had said it best – rude, crude and socially unacceptable he was.
"Apology accepted," House stated magnanimously. "Though I'm curious why did you not start cutting yourself? Most teenagers don't think of the risk, or they find it adds extra thrill to it all."
"There was a girl in my school last year," Perri explained. "She used to do it, and then once she cut too deep. She nearly died. It caused a huge uproar. Her mother quit her job and they had family counselling and all."
"And you weren't yet ready to find out if your mother cared enough to do the same?" House asked gently. Perri gave the tiniest of nods but it was enough to make Blythe hug her tightly and Grey to put his arm around her as well.
"Well, I have good news and bad news for you," House stated lifting Aiko up to stand on his knees. She had left her grandfather and had come over to see why so many adults were converging around her Daddy. "This is the first one: Aiko may be little, but she is full of love. She loves everybody in her family unconditionally and totally. You are now part of that family so you have one person at least who accepts you for who you are, unconditionally and without any questions." Aiko smiled at Perri and reached up with her arms: she wanted to get a closer look at her new family-member and the best way was to get picked up by her. "Go on," House gave his permission. "You can pick her up, just mind the nails." Perri took Aiko carefully into her arms and lifted her up. Aiko promptly started to explore her face and hair. House smiled but continued his statement. "The bad news is that I don't really care what your life has been like before. You are now part of my House-hold and you do as you're told. The bright side of that is that we really do look after our own."
"And I'm here, too," Grey reminded Perri. "You're my favourite cousin, the kid sister I never got. You're not alone. Even your parents really love you they are just too stupid to know how to make you feel it. But I'm not stupid. Nor is anyone else in this House-hold. You're one of us, now. You belong!"
"But I still don't know how they did that tattoo," House whined deciding that the atmosphere needed to lighten up a little.
"The normal way since it's here," Perri put her hand on the side of her upper left thigh.
"At least tell me it's something morbid like a skull and crossbones?" House demanded.
"Sorry, it's some kind of a falcon," Perri gave him a small smile. "I saw the picture and just wanted it. The bird is descending, probably to attack something since the talons are extended and it just looked cool. The tattooist said that she thought it was an appropriate choice for me, I don't know why, but she thought so. She said what type of falcon it is, but I'm not normally into birds so I don't remember."
"Appropriate huh?" House pondered on it for a second. "Was it a Peregrine?"
"Yes, something like that I'm sure," Perri frowned in concentration.
"Falco Peregrinus the migrating falcon," House ruminated. "Peregrine is used as a name, too and Perri used to be the short form of it until it gained a status on its own. Very appropriate, I would say. And I think it will turn out to be a good thing for us all that you migrated here. We'll work it all out, somehow."
----------------------------------
Later on Grey found House in the kitchen drinking coffee.
"Thank you," Grey stated simply. "It would have taken me ages to get that much out of her. Some of it I already knew but I failed to make the connections and see how badly they had already managed to damage her. You always forget that neglect can damage you as much as abuse. Thank you for getting all that out in the open."
"No problem," House shrugged off the thanks. "The surgeons may take pride in their skills with the scalpel but sometimes, when you want to crack something open, a blunt instrument is the best tool for it."
"And they don't come much blunter than you," Grey acknowledged.
"We do our best with what we have," House indicated. "You might want to ask if Cecil has time to see her. If she wants to, of course."
"I will definitely suggest therapy," Grey agreed. "She needs someone neutral to help her deal with all the emotions that she has suppressed."
"You might want to recruit my Mother for that mission," House suggested. "She seems to have adopted Perri already. And since she is seeing Cecil herself, she can definitely talk from a position of knowledge."
"Ok, thanks for the suggestion," Grey thanked him again. "And after what you did today, you don't own just my ass, you can ask for my first-born as well."
"Thanks, but no thanks," House declined the offer. "I'm up to my ears in kids already. I definitely don't need any more."
----------------------------
Even later that night in House's flat, Cuddy got in and found House in the bedroom. He wasn't getting into bed yet he was standing at the closet looking for something. When Cuddy walked in he turned to look at her. She was fully dressed, too, but she didn't start taking off her clothes. She just walked right up to House, put her arms around him and kissed him. Long and hard. Then she hugged him, rested her head on his shoulder and said:
"I'm so glad that you are the father of my children."