A/N: To help put a smile on your face as we progress through the hectic holiday season, I recommend Googling "6 videos of little girls totally freaking out because they got a horse for Christmas." I saw it at horsenation dot com but am sure it made the rounds of a few sites. I could just picture Rachel in a few years while watching these.

Enjoy this chapter. Sorry they're so short at the moment, but life is busy, and I've been sick the last two days, too. It will at least make the story last longer. Will try for more Monday before I head off on a trip, but if that doesn't work, I should be back by Wednesday and ought to have writing time then. Merry Christmas to my wonderful readers and safe travels to those who are traveling, especially with the winter weather around so much of the country lately.

(H/C)

House stabbed viciously at end on the cell phone. He watched the road unspooling in a dark ribbon before him, and his annoyance with himself increased with every turn of the wheels.

They should have expected this. He should have expected this. Her parents hadn't had a visit since mid December, and Susan at least had wanted to come after the explosion to hover over him. They'd had trouble staving her off for the last two months; he knew her patience was limited. Part of him wanted to take the next exit to anywhere, trading this highway for another, but a larger part of him was thinking of Cuddy there right now having to deal with it. He knew that it was his own sensitivity, his own timetable, that had kept her from notifying her parents. Damn it. Even the old man had suggested telling them. Even Jensen had mentioned the eventual introduction a time or two, though always backing off when House shut down on the point. Did he really think they could have kept it a secret indefinitely? Thornton was here, permanently, irrevocably here. Eventually, he would have to meet the rest of the family, the team, the hospital. The days of House taking things at his own pace had had an expiration date slapped on the moment he'd agreed to the old man moving up to Princeton.

What were they making of Thornton? The girls would be there, complicating the situation horribly. Rachel would be prattling on cheerfully, and Abby would be watching and confused at the undertones. Hopefully Thomas had at least managed to keep things fairly edited around the girls until Cuddy arrived. They were not going to learn about John yet, and any full-length explanation of Thornton's sudden reappearance and why that was an issue would irrevocably wind up there.

He and Cuddy should have set up a meeting, in private, away from the girls. Instead, his in-laws had inserted themselves into things, as they had done a time or two before. He should have expected this, shouldn't have thrown it onto Cuddy (and the old man, his mind added softly) to deal with them on a surprise visit. He definitely shouldn't have put his girls in the line of conversational fire.

Damn.

He picked up the cell phone again and hit Jensen's number, ready to divert some of this annoyance onto someone else. Jensen made a far better shrink than he did a prophet.

The psychiatrist answered partway through the second ring, and the pure concern in his voice shocked House, momentarily displacing the irritation. "Dr. House? What's wrong?"

House abruptly realized that the psychiatrist knew he couldn't be home yet. Jensen was imagining not some issue in Princeton but a wreck on the highway. House had meant to start out with a snap that something had happened after all, but somehow, he couldn't string the other man along, even briefly. He quickly switched to reassurance. "I'm okay. Haven't had a wreck or anything."

Jensen let out an audible sigh of relief. "What's wrong?" he repeated, but the tone was steadier that time, the concerned friend ready to step aside for the therapist if needed.

"Lisa just called. Apparently, her parents showed up."

Another sigh. "After Thornton was in charge of the kids?"

"Yeah. Don't think she'd even gone in yet for details, but Marina would have called her if it was earlier." Anger flared out again, still looking for any other target besides the one he knew held most of the blame. "He should have called her, too, but it sounded like she just drove into it blind."

House heard footsteps, followed by a closed door before Jensen's reply. "He's probably got his hands full with crisis control. And he's busy looking out for the girls."

"He'd better." House's free hand tightened on the wheel. "They just turned up, no notice."

Jensen cut through the blame game to handling the evening. "How far are you from home?" he asked.

House's hand tightened up a little more. "You ought to know. You know how long that drive takes, and you know when I left."

There was an undertone of warm approval underneath the psychiatrist's next words that was reassuring, giving House permission to take notice of his own progress. "You can handle this. You and Dr. Cuddy, and don't forget Thornton. He's good with people. He'll be a good ally to have in your corner."

"The girls are there. Damn it, I should have told her parents weeks ago."

"You weren't the only one hesitating on this, Dr. House. Her relationship with her parents is complicated."

"Just got a lot more complicated."

"Yes. But they do love your family. They'd never do anything to hurt Rachel and Abby. Not intentionally."

He did believe that much. "Unintentionally is something else."

"And that's where Thornton will be at his best helping to manage the situation until the girls are asleep. After that, try to talk to them but let them vent. They'll have to vent some before they're ready for a real conversation. They are going to be hurt about this."

"You said nothing was going to happen tonight." House remembered his earlier grievance.

"I know. I meant nothing related to negligence on Thornton's part, but you're right. I shouldn't have phrased it like that, and I apologize. I thought I was past thinking I was omnipotent, but once in a while, the ghost creeps up while I'm not looking."

House suddenly wished that Jensen were in charge of life. Things would be a lot easier, or at least a lot more straightforward. "Might call you later tonight," he said gruffly. Patterson might be getting an evening call, too.

"I'm here." A simple reply that said everything. Silence for a moment, and then Jensen went on. "You are not solely responsible for this situation, Dr. House. There are too many elements here to assign blame, even if that were productive, which it isn't. This easily could have happened even without your contribution. And realize that Dr. Cuddy is going to be blaming herself full-tilt, too."

"Save it for a session when you're on the clock," House replied, but there was that note of unspoken gratitude in his tone, and Jensen heard it.

"I'll be here tonight if you need me, Dr. House. I'll let you go now so you can focus on driving, but good luck."

Good luck, House thought as he drove on toward the coming confrontation. He didn't believe in luck, but if he did, the verdict was in a long time ago what type of luck he had. He should have talked to her weeks ago about her parents and brought them into the loop. He'd been too busy being a coward.

It wasn't until five minutes of that thought that he suddenly realized that he didn't hear the accusation in John's voice in his head. Always, it had been John who called him a coward. Tonight, John was silent. In the smack middle of a new crisis, John was silent, dead like he was supposed to be. With a momentary surge of pride beneath the self-recrimination, House drove on toward Princeton.