Chapter 12

The piano tuner never made it on Saturday, but had promised to be there first thing Monday morning. With all of the threats House made, the guy realized that if he didn't, he'd be in big trouble.

So at nine a.m., the doorbell rang. Karen ran to let the guy in and got him started while House threw some clothes on and went to the living room to supervise.

Which he did. The guy was a nervous wreck inside of five minutes with House looking over his shoulder. It would have continued the entire time, except Karen pulled House away with the French toast she had made for breakfast. Reluctantly, he went to the kitchen.

When he finished eating, twenty minutes later, the tuner was done as well. House immediately sat down and started playing a few rifts, checking high and low notes until he was satisfied. Then he nodded, paid the guy and sent him on his way.

Karen was smiling at him. "Happy now?"

"Yeah, I guess." He saw her looking around. "What's up?"

"I can't find my clipboard. I've been looking for it all morning."

"Oh, no!" he said. "What will we do? We'll never function without it."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "What did you do with it?"

"Relax. This is our last day alone. The kids come tomorrow and I go back to work. And we still haven't christened every room."

"We don't have to christen every room right away."

"Yes we do." He said with a leer.

She laughed and decided, what the hell? The kids could help her with the unpacking when they got there. And he'd done a lot of work that weekend getting the house set up. She went to him and put her arms around his neck.

"Okay." She whispered. "Where do you want to start?"

He smiled and led her into the family room. She aimed for the sofa, but he stopped her. He grabbed a few throw pillows off the sofa and put them on the rug in front of the fireplace. Then he lowered himself down to the floor and reached up to pull her down with him.

"The floor? Really Greg? Aren't we old for that?"

"Nope."

She shook her head, but sat down beside him.

"If it were winter, I'd have a big fire going." He told her.

"That would be nice."

"We'll do that then. But in the meantime, we can turn up the heat in the summer too."

She smiled as he pulled her close to him. He kissed her gently on the lips as her arms went around his waist. Somehow their clothes disappeared and they were laying on the pillows skin to skin.

He bestowed little kisses up and down her body while she lay back and enjoyed it. Then his mouth moved up and met hers in a hard kiss. Just when she thought he was going to break it, he intensified it instead and pushed his tongue into her mouth. As she responded to the kiss, she felt him growing harder and harder.

She reached down with her hand and closed it around him. While he continued to kiss her, she moved her hand up and down his length.

As he got more excited, he finally broke the kiss and moaned a few times, before pulling her hand away and pushing her down against the pillows. Then he entered her slowly, moving slowly in and out, while she moaned in pleasure. He increased the intensity and before long they were both going over the edge.

They dozed on the pillows for a while, then got up. She made lunch and they ate in front of the TV.

They really wanted to spend the rest of the day making love in every room of the house, but they ended up turning on an old movie on TCM, which was followed by another one and another. So the day was spent curled up together on the sofa.

They ordered in Chinese food and found more TV to watch Eventually, they made it to bed and just curled up together and went to sleep. Somehow, that seemed even nicer.

House was up early the next day. Well, early for him. By nine thirty, he was out of the house and on his way to work. When Karen got to the kitchen, she saw her clipboard sitting in the middle of the table. She smiled and shook her head.

Just after lunch, Frank arrived with Daniel and Emma. Karen ran outside as soon as she saw the car pull up. She was so excited to show them their new home. The kids got out of their father's car and looked at the house.

"It's really pretty, Mom." Emma said.

"Cool." Daniel added.

"Your rooms are upstairs. Come on, I'll show you."

Frank followed behind with some suitcases as Karen led her children into the house.

Daniel stopped at the piano. "Whose piano."

"Greg's. Didn't I tell you that he plays?"

Daniel shook his head, then followed his mother and sister upstairs. Karen showed them where their rooms were and the loft area in between with the sofa bed. They seemed pleased.

Frank dropped their luggage near the sofa so that they could take it to their respective rooms, then went downstairs. Karen accompanied him as he looked around the living room.

"Did he pick this stuff out?" he asked.

"No, I did."

"Really? Doesn't look like your style."

"No, it doesn't look like your style. But it is mine."

"Do you really think…"

"Look, I know it's not Ethan Allan-last-forever stuff. But I like it. And since I'm the one living here, not you, I really don't care what you think about it."

He just stared at her. "I assume you're aware that your boyfriend spent time in an insane asylum."

She glared at him. "He was in a mental hospital for a few months to work out some problems. Which he did. What are you getting at, Frank?"

"Nothing. Just saying."

"Right. Oh, by the way, Donna said hi. She was here this past weekend helping us."

"Oh great! My sister helps my wife shack up with her boyfriend."

"Ex-wife, Frank."

"Right." He blew out a breath. "Well, I've got to go check out some apartments. Are we back on schedule now?"

"Sure. The kids are here this weekend, you can have them the next one."

He nodded, said goodbye and left.

When he was gone, she breathed a sigh of relief. She was glad she didn't have to put up with him anymore. Not that Greg was perfect by any means, but still.

House was almost disappointed that he didn't have a patient to keep him at the hospital. He wanted to get home to Karen, but he was a little worried. Her children were there now. He wasn't exactly sure what his role with them was or should be.

He warily walked into the house.

To find Daniel sitting at his piano, hitting keys with one finger.

Holding in what he wanted to say was hard, but somehow, he just managed to say. "Hi. What's up?"

The boy looked at him uneasily and jumped up from the piano. "Uh, hi. Sorry about sitting at your piano. I, uh…"

"You, uh, what?"

"Well, see I learned how to play back when I was a kid. But I got bored with it and begged my folks to not take lessons. So I stopped. But now that I'm doing the drum in the school band, I've been thinking, it would be cool to play piano and maybe even guitar, you know?"

"Yeah, I know."

"So, I was, like, wondering, if, like, you would maybe, like help me with them?"

"You want me to 'like' help you or really help you."

Daniel looked at the floor, not sure if the snark meant yes or no.

House knew what the kid was thinking and feeling. "I know what you mean. I lost interest for a while when I was young. Got it back around your age. And the girls like guys that can play guitar."

Daniel's half smile told House that was where the kid's thoughts were.

"You like music?" House asked him.

Daniel nodded.

"Okay, here's the thing. If you can remember how to read music, you're more than halfway there. The rest takes practice. Find some music you like to play and just play it. Keep playing it until it sounds good. Then play it some more until it sounds really good."

Daniel nodded again. "And the guitar?"

House shrugged. "I can show you. It's different from the piano. And I don't just mean because it's portable."

"Yeah, I know."

"Okay, we'll work on it."

"Thanks…uh, what should we call you?"

"I guess King of the Universe or your highness is out?"

Daniel smiled.

"Okay, then in that case, I guess Greg will do."

"Okay. Thanks, Greg."

The boy ran off and House continued towards the dining room where he found Karen standing with a smile on her face.

"Well, you're happy to see me." He told her.

"I like that you and Daniel are bonding."

He rolled his eyes. "Bonding? Give me a break. Kid likes music. I know music. I can help him. No big deal."

She continued to smile as she reached up to kiss him. "Right. No big deal."

Well, House thought, dealing with the kids might not be too bad, especially if it made Karen happy. Because when she was happy, she could make him VERY happy.