I need to thank Dave Barry for the funniest part of this chapter. It's one of my favorites of his writing and I totally took it from him. But it so sounded like something House would say, that I had to use it. Thanks to everyone who has added me as a favorite. I'd love to hear what you think of the story so far.

NOTE!!!! I changed the end of this chapter just a bit. Plese re-read.

Chapter 46: A First

House had worked late on Friday on a case. By the time he came home everyone was asleep. He woke up around ten on Saturday to find the house empty. He had to go back to the hospital when he got up. It was after six by the time he came home.

The house seemed quiet, but he had seen Kate's car, so he assumed everyone was home. Maxi greeted him at the door. He patted her head, looking around for the others. He went through the house and finally saw them in Monica's room. Kate and Monica were sitting on the bed trying on jewelry. Emily was on the floor, playing with her toys.

"Hi." He said. "What's up?"

Kate and Monica had big smiles on their faces. Monica's eyes were shining with excitement.

Kate gave him a knowing look. "Monica has a date!"

House looked at them, caution in his eyes.

"A date with who?"

"His name is Brian." Monica said excitedly.

"She met him at her library group." Kate added. "He's a nice boy, I've met him."

House looked at the floor, then back at his wife. He wanted to say something, but the look on Monica's face stopped him.

"Kate, can I talk to you?"

Kate followed him out of the girl's room and closed the door. He moved into the living room.

"Are you crazy? She's too young to go on a date."

"She's fifteen."

"And how old is lover boy?"

"Brian is sixteen."

"Where are they going?"

"To the movies. They're meeting some other kids there. Greg, what are you…"

"How are they getting there?"

"He has a car. He's driving."

"He's taking her in his car? Are you crazy?"

"Stop asking me that. It'll be fine, Greg."

"Fine? Some pimply-faced kid is going to knock on that door and say 'Hi, I'm here to have sex with your daughter.' You think that's fine?"

"He's not going to say that!"

"Of course he's not going to say it! But that's what he'll be thinking."

"How could you know that's what he'll be thinking?"

"Because I was once a teenage boy and that's what I was thinking."

Kate just shook her head. Just then, Monica bounded into the room.

"Kate, do you like these earrings? I really think they match."

While Kate helped her with the earrings, House looked at the girl. She was wearing slim black jeans that hugged her hips with a baby doll top in a turquoise print. It had a scoop neck and was tight around her breasts, then fell loosely to her waist. It skimmed just above her jeans, revealing about a quarter of an inch of skin.

"What the hell are you wearing?"

At his words, Monica's eyes started to glisten. Kate glared at him. "Monica, I think those earrings are great. Go ahead and start on your makeup. I'll be right there to help you."

Monica quickly left the room. House started shouting at Kate. "She can't go out dressed like that! Or I should say undressed!"

"Greg, we spent hours looking for the perfect outfit. She looks adorable."

"Too much of her looks adorable. Why would you let her go out half-dressed?"

"You usually like low riding jeans on girls."

"NOT on my daughter. Make her get changed."

"No."

"Yes!"

"Greg, I can't talk to you if you're going to yell and be unreasonable." With that, she returned to Monica's room.

"I'm not being unreasonable! I'm the only one here showing any reason at all!" he yelled at her back.

He stormed into the kitchen, Maxi following behind. The dog sat at attention, tail wagging, in case he wanted to give her any of the food that he was looking for, when the doorbell rang.

Kate popped her head out. "Greg, could you get that? And BE NICE!"

Grumbling, House headed for the door. When he opened it, he saw a young man standing there. He was not much taller than Monica and he had glasses. He looked scared to death.

Good, thought House, he should be.

"Hello," the kid stammered. "I'm Brian. You must be Dr. House. I'm taking Monica…"

House pierced him with the full force of those blue eyes. "I know where you're taking Monica. The question is when are you bringing her home?"

"Whenever you say, sir."

"Damn straight. And what do plan on doing?"

"We're going to the movies."

"Not R rated, right?"

"No, sir, no way. PG13."

House titled his head to the side and grimaced. "I don't know. They can get a little racy too. I'm sure there's a Disney movie playing somewhere."

"Well, I…"

"Good, I knew you'd see it my way."

House stared at the boy some more, making the kid more and more edgy. As he swallowed nervously, House leaned in close to him.

"Oh, and by the way. Just so you understand. You might look at this cane and think, I can take that guy, but you'd be wrong. I can take this cane and cause you a boatload of pain. So, consider that before you think about doing anything I wouldn't approve of with Monica. Got it."

Brian swallowed. "Yes, sir."

At that moment, Kate and Monica came out of her bedroom. Monica smiled at Brian and said, shyly. "Hi."

"Hi." He said, his voice cracking.

"So what are you kids going to see?" Kate asked.

Brian quickly said, 'I thought we'd go see the new Disney movie."

Monica looked at him in confusion. "Why?" she asked.

Kate scoffed. "That's for little kids. Go see that Adam Sandler comedy. That'll be more fun."

Brian quickly looked at House, then back to Monica. "I don't know."

Kate immediately realized what was happening. "Brian, please disregard anything that Dr. House said to you. He is severely brain damaged. Go and see whatever movie you guys want."

House gave her a cold stare, then looked back at Brian, a warning still in his look. He continued staring as the teenagers left. House then moved to the window and peered out.

"What are you doing?" Kate asked him.

"Checking out his car." He said as he retrieved his coat from the rack.

"Where are you going?"

"Duh, I'm following them."

'NO, you are not following them! Have you lost your mind?"

"Actually, I'm the only one here who still has a mind. She comes waltzing in with 'I'm going on a date,' and you smile and do her hair. What father in his right mind lets his fifteen-year-old daughter go out with someone who could be a teenage serial killer and not follow them?"

"The one with a wife who has a gun. You take one step out that door and you will experience lead in your butt."

He gave her a steely look. "You'd have to catch me first."

"Don't push it bud, you know I'm faster than you are."

He considered her words and the determination on her face. "You'd really shoot me? Your adoring husband?"

"You try to screw up that kid's date and we'll see how adoring you are."

House stopped, looked at the door, then back at Kate. Finally, he put his coat back on the rack.

"Okay, the woman with the gun wins the battle. But we'll see who's so smug when something happens to her."

"Nothing is going to happen to her. I've met Brian before. I've met his mother. They're nice people. And she has her cell phone. She can call us if anything's not right. We had a talk about this. She understands, she knows how to look out for danger. She'll be fine."

Still grumbling, House returned to the living room and sat down.

"Now what? We just sit here and wait for her to come home?"

"Well, yes. But there's no law that says it has to be boring. I need to put Emily to bed, but when I'm done, we'll have the entire house to ourselves."

He looked at her, saw the grin on her face and the twinkle in her eye.

"So, are you thinking you'll distract me with sex on the dining room table?"

"Will that distract you?"

"It might."

"Well, then, why don't you go have your dinner while I take care of Emily. Then, well, we'll just see…"

Oh yeah, House thought. Maybe the kid going out for the evening wasn't so bad.

When Kate came out of Emily's bedroom forty-five minutes alter, House was sitting on the sofa with a scotch in his hand.

Kate sat down beside him, reached or his glass and took a sip.

"You really amazed me tonight."

"Just because I'm not overjoyed about Monica dating?"

"No, because three times you called her your daughter."

'No, I didn't."

"Yes, you did."

'Well so what if I did? We're adopting her, right? At least I think those papers we filled out said that."

"Adopting her just makes her legally ours. By referring to her as 'your daughter', you've accepted her inside you. And that's so much more important."

House was silent. "Yeah, I guess I have."

"I know that you don't like to think about being happy, but I think we've got a pretty good deal going on here, don't you?"

"Well, you're still hot, the kids are cool and even the mutt's okay." He scratched Maxi's ears. "Yeah, it'll do. Just don't screw it up. No more of you dying on me, got it?"

"Got it. I plan for us to grow old together. It will be fun seeing you as a grumpy old man."

"What makes you think I'm going to be a grumpy old man?"

"Because you're a grumpy young man. People don't change. Nice old people were nice young people and grumpy ones were always that way."

He thought about that. Maybe he was a little grumpy. Lately, though, he had felt less reason to be. Except for tonight, of course. Which reminded him…

"So what about that distraction you promised me? Before I get too old and need Viagra."

Kate just smiled.