A/N: Short update. The house is next. And yes, Thornton's foot matters, but that's a few chapters down the line. Thanks for the reviews.

(H/C)

Once the family was settled at a large table and the orders taken, House jumped straight into Japanese and fired a question like a shot across the table to Thornton. "So you just happened to tell that neighbor what hotel I was at? What the hell else have you just happened to tell her?" He couldn't resist a quick sidelong guilty look at the girls even while swearing in a different language. They were getting so quick to parrot things back; he and Cuddy were both trying to watch their words.

Thomas met his son's eyes without flinching. "Greg, she asked me a direct question, had I seen you yet, and was worried that because you hadn't been by the house, you might not be in town yet and might miss the service. It would have been far more suspicious to dodge answering."

"Try lying," House advised.

"Why? Save the lies for when you have to use them. Also, the truth reassured her. If I'd lied and said I hadn't seen you yet, she would have been much more on edge when you came in and might have passed off some of that onto you even while trying not to. Besides, this is a large hotel. Saying we happened to wind up at the same one isn't even close to publicly announcing the relationship. She might have even thought the choice was intentional because we're friends. Supposedly," he added, but a sad edge crept into his tone on the final word.

House studied him closely, dissecting the expression, analyzing the tone. That sadness at the end had been the strongest emotion in that whole response. As carefully as he looked for it, there was no deceit, no sense of coverup of other questions Thornton was glad he hadn't been asked. His father went on after a moment. "Greg, I haven't told the people here anything that indicated a closer relationship. Everything that came up with John when I shut that topic down for the funeral was just based on reported facts they'd all already read, and they have no idea I set up the service. Patsy isn't suspicious at all. Besides, it's a good thing she could find you this morning."

"She'd better not be suspicious," House grumbled, though he was reassured.

The other adults had been watching this exchange with curious concern, but Abby broke into the conversation here, banging the high chair tray with both hands. "No!" she said sharply. She was much louder than they had been, and a few other diners looked over.

House relaxed a little. He couldn't help it. So familiar, that sense of frustration when something he knew was right there in front of him was proving elusive. "I apologize, Abby," he said. She was placed next to him, and he reached out to run one hand through her chestnut hair affectionately. She leaned into her father's touch, and Cuddy, looking across the table to Thomas, saw a moment of pure hunger that had nothing to do with the late breakfast.

"What?" Abby demanded. She was willing to accept the apology but still wanted to know what she'd missed. Wilson straightened up in his chair, poised.

"I'll tell you later," House said. Like about twenty years later. Or thirty. Jensen grinned, reading the thought. Abby didn't look satisfied. "The food should be here in a minute." He tried for distraction. Rachel looked around to see if she could spot it coming, but Abby was unwavering. Reluctantly, he went for a sideways, not-quite lie. He hated lying to his daughters. "We were talking about Patsy. That lady we just met in the lobby. She wants to buy Grandma's house. You wonder about the words, don't you? That was just another language, Abby. There are lots of them. Like Marina speaks one sometimes. But if you know how to speak others, you need to stay in practice. Like playing the piano. All we were doing is practicing. Someday you'll speak other languages, too."

She smiled, and his tight shoulders released as he realized that for the moment, he had escaped the hot seat. He would have to watch it around them, though. Couldn't forget those little eyes and ears. He looked over at Thornton, plainly if silently telling him to be careful. Thomas looked annoyingly unruffled, even amused, by that whole explanation, reminding House that he himself had been the one who changed languages in front of everybody this morning. Thomas hadn't yet pulled that stunt in front of the children.

Rachel had been curious about the words, too, but she accepted House's answer faster than her sister did. Looking over to Thomas now, she said, "Thomas! My horsey is Ember!"

He smiled at her. "Really? You named your stuffed horse Ember?"

"Uh huh. From Daddy for Christmas."

That time Cuddy felt Thomas' lightning-fast mood shift. "Rachel," she said, "you know we told you girls those presents were from Santa Claus."

Rachel shook her head vigorously. "From Daddy. He looked 'spicious." She was obviously proud of the word and the deduction. House sighed, and Thomas relaxed, realizing that the misplaced credit hadn't been an intentional slam at him. Marina, watching that exchange closely, realized for the first time who actually had given the horse to Rachel.

"Abby's little music computer was from Santa Claus, too," Cuddy said for Marina's benefit.

Abby perked up. "Music?"

"Not right now. Breakfast," her mother answered. The waiter was making his heavily laden way across the room with a cart. Plates were distributed all around, and they started eating, everyone hungry by this point. Even House approached the food with more interest this morning than yesterday, in spite of the scene about the house. Watching his girls drained some of the tension out of him as Cuddy and Marina started cutting up child-sized bites of pancakes and spooning up cereal, both of them efficiently feeding themselves with the other hand at the same time.

Marina, proving her multitasking skills, even went for a third activity. She obviously wanted the full back story on Thornton now that she knew his identity. She questioned him thoroughly during the meal as to parents, raising, locations, family, and career, all of which he answered, his straightforward and friendly attitude impressing her along with his resume. Rachel was listening, too, and she chimed in a time or two.

"You have a sister?" She looked at Abby.

"Yes, I had a sister, Rachel." He didn't expand on the tense, and that wasn't where Rachel was headed anyway.

"A little sister? Like Abby?"

"No, actually, she was a big sister. I was little. I had a big sister and a big brother."

She looked at him, wide eyed. "You were little?"

"Yes. A long time ago. You'll get bigger, too, Rachel. But you'll always be the big sister, just like Ellie was my big sister."

Abby abruptly threw in a question of her own, going back several facts previous. She had obviously been thinking of it in silence for a minute. "He played music?"

"That's right, Abby. My father played music. He played the piano."

She looked over at her own father, then back at this stranger who was around so much the last few days. "You play music?"

"No. I didn't get that talent from him, I'm afraid. I wished I could. My big brother could play some. But Dad was incredibly good at it. I loved listening to him play. I tried for a while, but I just couldn't learn to play the piano myself, nothing like he did. It was so different that I decided I just wanted to listen to him instead."

Rachel nodded wisely. She was in that same position at the moment, enjoying her father's music tremendously but finding her own lessons more and more frustrating. "I can run," she announced, shifting to a field she was better at. "Can you run?"

"Yes, I can. I've always liked to run." He definitely had the long legs for it, Cuddy thought, as well as that graceful, distance-eating stride.

"Daddy used to run," Rachel said. "So I run like him." House flinched, and Marina quickly launched another question of her own.

Toward the end of the meal, the horse came up again. "Can I see Ember?" Rachel asked again, reverting to the previous day.

Thomas sighed. "We live a long way away, Rachel. But I'll tell you what." He quickly pushed on, trying to forestall her asking again if he could move. "I'll bet you could find a pony ride somewhere around where you live, like at a fair or a zoo. Ask your parents sometime, and you probably could go see a pony that way."

"I wanna see Ember," she insisted.

"But you could ride a pony at a pony ride."

"Can I ride Ember?"

"No." It took a moment for House to realize that Thomas had answered in unison with him, even if less sharply. He looked at the other man, surprised.

"Rachel," Thomas explained, "Ember is too big for you to ride. She's very tall. It's a long way up there. She fits me, not you." The mare also, though well trained, was too sensitive. She wasn't a beginner's horse. But Thomas thought Rachel could understand the valid point of the size more easily. "That's why you ought to go to a pony ride at the zoo or a fair if you want to have a ride. They have little ponies just your size." There were also stables with lessons, even ones starting with young children on leadline, but Thomas wasn't about to raise that subject yet, even though he was already planning (hoping) to offer ultimately to pay for it.

Rachel looked stubborn. "I don't wanna be little."

"You won't always." He leaned across the table a little and dropped his voice to a stage whisper. "I'll let you in on a secret. Like I said, you will grow. You and Abby both will grow. It just takes time, but it will happen. I promise."

She looked a little cheered by this news. House stepped in firmly there, though his tone wasn't as sharp this time. "You're corrupting my daughter." Thornton shot him a look that both admitted to and dismissed the point. Marina and Cuddy smiled near-identical knowing smiles, and House pushed his chair back. "Enough of this. We'd better get out of here before they charge us for lunch, too." He stood up and started to free Abby.

Cuddy returned to the subject of the house as they waited for the elevator. All of the adults had been thinking of it, but the buck was willingly passed from the others to her. "Greg, I want to go over to that house today. I want to see what's there and look for the legal papers, too." She studied him carefully. He was tensing up again, but he was silent. She looked briefly at Jensen, who gave her an encouraging nod, and then pushed on. The timing was rushed on this, but with Patsy's news, they had no choice. It had to be done while they were here, and she knew he would regret it eventually if he threw it all away blindly. "Do you want to come with me?"

"I already know what's there," he insisted.

"Not everything," Jensen said. "There will be surprises. Some of them will be good surprises. And it would be easier with everybody along to help."

"Help?" Abby asked, picking up on the word. She was watching her father with her concerned look growing again. "I help?"

"Oh, yeah, you two would be a lot of help," House muttered. She ignored his tone, still watching him closely. "One hour," House snapped finally, looking at Cuddy. "We get one hour over there, so do your inventory fast. And I'm not joining you on it. Abby and I will just let you do all the work while we play the . . ." He came to a dead stop, startled, as for the first time he remembered that the piano would be in there. His mother's piano. His first piano. Damn it. He couldn't throw away a piano. What else was in there?

Cuddy gave him a moment, then broke the silence. "Okay, Greg. One hour, and then we'll leave if you want. Thank you." She hugged him, and Rachel, whose hand she was holding, and Abby joined in, a tight family knot, as the elevator doors dinged open. Jensen looked back at Thomas. He was watching from the sidelines, painfully aware of his position there. The elevator started to close again, and Cuddy abruptly came to herself and dove at it, commanding it to wait as the rest of the group filed in.