Chapter 6, in which Wilson meets the family...

The drive over to House's place was silent, each man absorbed in his own thoughts. House had informed Wilson that on Monday nights Bonnie had a book group that went on until about 9:30 in the evening, so, whilst it wasn't a regular occurrence for Wilson to eat at House's, it wasn't unheard of.

Wilson's apprehension grew as they wound through the Princeton streets. He wondered why they weren't heading for House's apartment, then immediately berated himself for expecting five people to be living in a one bedroom flat. The House in this world had probably never even been there, let alone lived in the place.

"Nearly there now." House broke the silence as he turned into a residential street. About halfway down he pulled into a drive-way and switched off the engine. "This is it."
He opened the door, but Wilson caught his arm to stop him from getting out.

"Wait!" he exclaimed. "I don't know a single thing about your kids, what they're like, what you're all like as a family... how am I meant to just walk in there and make conversation? Give me some background information, or something."

House nodded. "Well, Joel's ten, as you know, very sporty, quite protective of his siblings; Alex is quiet, smart, takes after his mother more than me, interested in geography- y'know, globes, atlases and stuff; and then there's Lucy. She gets spoilt a bit- mainly by me. Loves dogs and puppies; Stacy and I are planning on getting a puppy for them all for Christmas. Don't let that slip."

"Okay, so how do I act? I take it they know me quite well."

"Yep, you're their Uncle James; you wrestle with Joel, take Alex to the bookstore, give candy to Lucy and pick them up from school when me and Stacy can't. You're a third parent, basically."

"Right... okay... phew." Wilson took a few deep calming breaths. House looked on, face serious, eyes amused. "Here goes."
House patted him on the back (Wilson hid his surprise at the contact) and pulled himself out of the car, retrieving his crutches from the back seat. "Good luck," he said.

They headed up to the front door.

"I take it Stacy knows I'm coming?"

"Yeah, I called her earlier. I... I might tell her later on about this... situation."

"What? Do you think she'll believe you?"

" Yes. We trust each other."

Wilson followed House in through the door in a dreamlike state after hearing that sentence being uttered by his friend. Inside, it wasn't much better. Wilson felt slightly unsettled at witnessing House being hugged by his children. His children. His children. His children, for Chrissakes! Wilson very nearly turned around and ran out the door, but Stacy had already seen him.

"Hey James, how are you?"

"Um... fine, thanks." Act normal, act normal, dear god, act normal. Wilson tried to hide the sweat shooting from his palms.

"Joel, lay the table, would you?" Stacy called after the boys, who were trying to sneak away. House and Lucy had disappeared into what Wilson presumed was the kitchen.

The older boy groaned and called to his sibling.

"Alex, mom asked you to go lay the table!"

"What? Mom? Joel's lying!"

Stacy rolled her eyes. "Never mind, you two, go play. Dinner will be ready soon."

They quickly made their escape, matching grins on their faces. "Yup, those kids are all House," Wilson thought.

"Come on in, James," Stacy said and he followed her into the kitchen. House was sat at the table whilst Lucy showed him some drawings, pointing out who was who. Stacy handed both the men a bottle of beer and went over to stir the food.

"See Daddy? That's me, you, Mommy, Joel and Alex." House nodded appreciatively.

"Yeah, I see it. Good stuff, kiddo." Wilson noticed there was no trace of sarcasm in his voice.

Lucy turned around and noticed him. She grinned and flung herself at him. "Uncle James!"

House's eyes pierced his and he found his voice from somewhere. "Hey, kid, good day at school?"

"Uh huh. Come see my picture." Wilson went over to examine the little girl's artwork. It wasn't brilliant, Wilson thought, but then she was only five. He noticed with a jolt that the stick-figure House only had one leg. He realised that none of the children had known him any other way and wondered how House felt about that. Wilson knew he felt very inadequate physically after the infarction; did the same hold true here?

"Nice," he commented. "You got your daddy just right." Wilson felt House's eyes on him again. So the leg was a touchy subject, just not in front of the kids.

"That's what Miss Walker said," Lucy replied. "But she says that to everyone, just to be nice, I think."

Wilson was surprised. "She's so perceptive."

Stacy turned away from the stove. "I know, after her first day at school, she came home and told us that there was a bully at school. Greg asked why she thought that and she said a boy in class had bruises all up his arm. Two months later, the gossip amongst the moms was that the boy's parents were being investigated for abuse after their teacher noticed the injuries. Two months later!"

House smiled. "That's my girl," he said proudly. "Now, wanna help me lay the table?"

"Okay, Daddy." She went over to the cabinet and waited for House to crutch his way over. He leaned against the cabinet, opened the drawer which was too high for Lucy to reach properly and began passing her the cutlery. She went back and forth, placing it on the table. The two did the same with the plates and when they were done, went and sat back down. Wilson almost chuckled at this simple solution to the problem of House not being able to carry and walk. It was so completely domestic.

Stacy stuck her head out the kitchen door. "Boys!" she called. She sat down and tens seconds later Alex and Joel came in, plonking themselves down at the table. Stacy served up the food. "Dig in, everyone."

A/N: Not too keen on this chapter, but it needed posting... tell me what you think.

There'll be a couple more chapters on the House family etc and then we'll dig into the real reason as to why Wilson's here...