House still belongs to David Shore. Wouldn't it be nice if he took House out, dusted him off and played with him for awhile?

Thanks for the nice reviews instead of the torches and pitchforks I deserve for always taking so long to update. I can't begin to say how much it means to me!

Like Father, Like Son

Chapter 31

Greg woke up ready to start his internship with his dad. He was beyond excited to begin! The morning went well. It was so much easier knowing that he had a ride into work, that Cuddy and Wilson knew who he was, that his dad wasn't going to be furious that he was working there behind his back. There had been the potential for disaster, but not only was it narrowly averted, there had been a bond that had developed between all parties concerned. Life was good.

A voice startled Greg from his reveries.

"Get up! You're late already! Just because you're the boss's kid you can't expect special treatment!" House's voice was harsh. It filled Greg with the dread that most people must feel under the condemnation of Gregory House.

"Oh, Dad, I'm sorry! I always get there before you do. I didn't know that it was so late!" It was only 6:00 according to Greg's clock. Had he missed a time change?

"Sorry doesn't cut it with the team and it won't cut it for you! Get it right the first time! You're already behind!"

Where was the guy that was so much fun and so gentle with Rachel just the day before? Maybe Greg should have expected this though. At PPTH, House was going to be his boss. Could it be that House was setting the tone for the day so that there would be no confusion later? Greg hopped out of bed and showered as quickly as he could. On his way to the kitchen to see what Wilson had cooked up, he heard House's gruff voice, again.

"It's time. Now. Get your stuff; we need to leave."

"But Dad!"

"Now." House had on his hospital mask. The one that Greg had hoped he'd never have to witness at home. This was bad.

On the way to PPTH, as he drove, House stated the rules. "While we are at work, you will address me as House. Until you can prove to me that you're up to the task, the team doesn't need to know you're mine."

Greg was speechless.

"Answer me. Do you understand?"

"Sure, Dad. But I …"

"You either get it; or you don't. I don't want to be encumbered by the knowledge that everyone knows that you are my responsibility. I just don't need it."

Greg sat in silence the rest of the way. He must have done something wrong, but he didn't know what. Before he went to bed, he thought his life was just about perfect…and now this. What had happened?

"Dad, have you been taking your meds?"

"What? Of course, I have. Don't ask me that ever again. I'm no fool. I take my meds…and then some…." That last part had been said under House's breath, but loud enough for Greg to hear.

Greg, in his innocence, assumed that the words spoken under House's breath were connected to the breakthrough pain that he sometimes experienced. Had Wilson, Cuddy, or anyone on the team heard those words they would have realized that House was back on Vicodin.

"So it's your leg that has you in such a bad mood this morning?" Greg had to make sense of the pod person that looked like his father.

"This is what you get, Greg. This is who I am – who I've been for most of my adult life. Live with it."

Silence reigned for the rest of the trip. House parked in his spot, grabbed his backpack and left the car without a word to Greg. As long as he was already in trouble, Greg decided to call Wilson. Maybe he would know what had happened to make House so angry with him. It was then that he discovered that his phone was probably still on the night stand beside the bed.

Greg hustled to catch up with his dad who he discovered was waiting at the entrance for him. The doctor looked at his watch and shook his head. Greg practically had to run to keep up with House. He was nearly in tears, but he knew that crying would just make things worse.

Once they got to House's office, House barred the way and simply said, "There" as he pointed to the conference room. As Greg took a seat next to Thirteen, he noticed that no one would make eye contact with him and he realized that the problem wasn't with House, but with him. What had he done? Greg didn't have much time to consider, because his dad entered ready to go.

"Let's go people! Symptoms!" Everyone had a file, but Greg. He was lost and Thirteen, who had been so kind to him before, made sure that he couldn't look over her shoulder into the file.

House zeroed in on the almost imperceptible movement of the interaction that had happened between Greg and Thirteen.

"This is a team, Dubois. Why aren't you participating? Where are all those brilliant ideas that I've heard about? Maybe my team just felt sorry for you and allowed you to think that you have what it takes to be on my team."

"I wasn't given a file," Greg responded, weakly.

"Use some initiative, then and go find one!" House nodded toward his office and Greg got up to go look. "Don't take forever. There are people dying as we wait."

Foreman sniggered. "Yeah, no pressure." Chase and Taub smirked.

Greg checked House's desk, but no file was there. He checked by the recliner and the bookcases, but there was no file. He checked inside House's backpack.

"What are you doing in there?" barked House. "It's either there or it isn't. You don't need to go through my stuff! Who do you think you are?"

Greg dropped the backpack as though he'd been caught stealing.

"Hey! I have breakables in there! What kind of idiot are you?"

Returning to the table, Greg realized that whatever life that he thought he was going to have with his dad was not to be. The honeymoon was over and things would never be the same. He felt his nose tingle and knew that if his dad pushed him much further he was going to cry in front of everyone.

As Greg peered through the table at his shoes, a file obscured his vision. He looked at Thirteen and the malicious look on her face told him that she knew she had his file all along. She looked at House and gave an unfriendly half-laugh. Maybe the team already knew that Greg was House's son and they were angry because they thought that they were the last to know. If that was it, maybe Greg could clear the air. Maybe House was mad at him because he thought that Greg had already told them. It explained everything and so Greg decided it was on him to make things right. It couldn't get any worse.

"Can we just stop for a minute?" Greg made eye contact with each member of the team. "I'm sorry! Maybe I did this all wrong. I should have come clean from the start and told you who I was. I shouldn't have been trying to deceive anyone. I just didn't want you to decide about me because of my relationship to House." Greg looked at House. "Dad, I don't know how they found out about us. I didn't tell them, though!"

Foreman laughed out loud. "You don't expect us to believe that, do you? Seriously?"

Taub looked at House. "What is this kid trying to sell you, House? You don't believe him, do you?"

House shrugged; then, glaring daggers at Greg, he replied, "That's what he tells me."

"He's no more your dad than he is mine. This is unbelievable!" Chase sneered at Greg.

Thirteen had already started to take action. "A DNA Test will clear this up." She grabbed House's mug and snagged a hair from Greg's shirt. "I'll be back." Thirteen disappeared from the room as everyone else got back to the case. It was as if Greg wasn't even there.

GH GH GH GH GH GH GH GH GH GH GH GH GH GH GH GH

The next day, as they sat in the conference room, Thirteen returned with the results of the test. "The results are back and it's as we expected. House, your kid is a fraud."

House looked menacingly at Greg, "Well, SON, what do you have to say for yourself?"

"The results are wrong, Dad! What about Renee, and the music and how smart I am? I can't fake that! You know it's true!" Greg was grasping at anything to convince his dad of his identity. "Dr. Hadley, there must be a mix-up. Something went wrong! I'm Greg House! It's on my birth certificate!"

"It's over." As House left the conference room and went into his office he dialed a number on his phone. It didn't take long to discover who he had called, because shortly thereafter, Cuddy and two police officers arrived.

"I should have known, House, that this was too good to be true. I'm sorry. I should have run an identity check on this kid. I'll handle it from here."

The officers each grabbed one of his elbows and, none too gently; they removed Greg from the conference room as Cuddy followed.

The team got back to the case at hand, as Greg pleaded for his freedom and for someone to believe him.

GH GH GH GH GH GH GH GH GH GH GH GH GH GH GH GH

"Greg? Hey! Wake up!" Greg opened his eyes to find his dad and Wilson looking extremely concerned. He was in bed. His dad had grabbed hold of his arm on one side of the bed while Wilson was doing the same on the other to stop his flailing. He fell back onto his pillow and then sat up, still panicked.

"What if no one believes me, Dad? What if they make me get a test?" Greg was bordering on hysterics and from his words, it didn't take long to figure out what the boy's nightmare had been about.

"I believe you, Greg and everyone else will, too. We might need to have a paternity test done, but it doesn't mean that I don't believe you." House chuckled, and then continued. "I like you well enough that even if you weren't my son, I might keep you." House's worried eyes softened as he smiled. "We know Wilson would keep you. He's always trying to bring home strays!"

Greg took a deep breath and let it out with a sigh. "I don't want to make a game out of telling the team who I am, Dad. I really like them and I don't want them to think I'm trying to trick them."

"Not a problem. We'll tell them in the morning."

"Why not today?"

"Oh, we'll tell them today, but I think that they'll take the news better if we don't wake them at 2:30 in the morning to do it. Go back to sleep, son."

Wilson returned, (although they never realized he'd left), with a mug of hot chocolate for each of them. They engaged in small talk until Greg relaxed and seemed drowsy once again, then the men said their good nights and went back to their own beds.