Disclaimer - only Shelly and Diedre are my own.

.::6

The night was long for House. After Shelly left he had endured the pleading advice and smothering concern as long as he could before chasing everyone out of his apartment so he could think in peace. He reflexively longed for a drink to smooth the rough edges of his thoughts, but even in his wasted state the doctor in him recognized that he had abused his liver too much for too long, and he respected it's cry of 'uncle.'

Wilson, Chase, Cuddy; their advice and theories repeated through his head. Cameron got no points for just staring at him with tear filled doe eyes when she thought he wasn't looking and biting her lip until she actually drew some blood. What they didn't know was, much to Chase's credit, House had actually looked up the Waismann method yesterday afternoon and figured that if he was going to do a detox, sedated sure sounded like the way to go. It beat trying to get Cuddy to ship him to Germany for another ketamine trial.

Over and over again, House turned the stem cell donation over in his mind. He had attacked the online medical journals to download the article Cuddy had referenced and re-read it so many times he could probably quote whole pages from memory. But one sticking point kept his mind from focusing on the task at hand. As he thought about the stem cell option, his thoughts would always wander away to his daughter. Diedre.

I wonder what she's like. Does she look like me? Is she short like Shelly? His brain conjured up and discarded mental images of teenage girls with differing traits as he struggled to form an image of his child in his mind. His child. House had always insisted that he never wanted children, but at the unspoken phrase he felt something raw and shuddering release inside him, and a craving unlike any he'd ever known before bloomed up in his chest. Somewhere out there in the world was a living, breathing, part of him. And the knowledge that he could have possibly seen her and never even knew it made him desperate with want. To see, to hear, to touch. Shelly had mentioned she had brought Diedre to his lectures, and he racked his brain to remember one of them, any of them, where the venue could have concealed a small child. Or gawky tween.

In a rush of adrenaline House spurred himself up from the couch and went directly to the computer. Bringing up Google he typed in her name and was met with a barrage of useless results.

"There is no way Jainchill is that common of a name," he muttered to himself as he scanned the pages. Pausing he thought for a moment and then typed in the address to Facebook. Using the friend locator he quickly typed in "Diedre Jainchill" and then held his breath as he clicked send. As the tiny thumbnails loaded down the populated list he peered at the screen in the dim light to make out the images. Six smiling faces down, he froze. His eyes. That girl had his eyes. It had to be Diedre.

The girl with her head tilted and making a funny face for the camera looked like the print of his mother that John House had carried in his wallet during each deployment. It was a photo of Blythe at 16, and House felt himself go numb at uncanny resemblance his daughter had of her grandmother. As his body went numb from the shock, his mind mentally picked apart the image, comparing features. The lips and hair were Shelly's, and the shape of her face was a little softer around the jaw like her mother too. But the chin, ears, cheekbones...he was staring at his mother's features. And the eyes were his. Hungry for more he clicked on the name only to bring up the screen that prompted him to login or join to see more. Frustrated he logged in with Wilson's information, but was then denied access again. Diedre only shares her information with friends. Add as a friend or send her a message. House muttered an oath, but then smiled slightly. At least the kid was smart. No cruising pedophiles could get any pictures of his daughter off of her Facebook at least. The quick swell of pride that sprung up inside his chest was unexpected and a little unnerving. House immediately pushed down the feeling and felt his mood darken.

She isn't smart with any credit to you, moron. Shelly is the one who would be getting all the credit for keeping a tight rein on her.

Such a tight rein he didn't even know what his daughter looked like, save for a small grainy picture on a networking site. With a bitter hand House logged out of the Facebook and grabbed up his cell phone rapidly scrolling through the contacts until he found what he was looking for. As the line connected he struggled up from the desk chair and returned to the couch where he slumped into the cushions. Finally he heard the click as the line picked up.

"Doc. What can I do ya' for?" was Lucas' cheerful greeting.

"I need information. And pictures. Anything you can get. For a kid. The name is Deidre Jainchill."

"Doc, you know I can't get evidence on a minor. Who is this girl? Patient's illegal house slave or something?"

"No, she's my d-" House faltered, and felt the word stick like a lump in the back of his throat. He cleared it and tried again. "My daughter."

The other end buzzed with silence until House heard Lucas emit a low whistle.

"Daughter, huh? Who was the lucky lady? Wait, hold on, just give me some background info." House could hear Lucas moving around in the background, the shuffle of papers, the clicking of computer keys. "Okay, mother's name. Tell me everything you know."

"Shelly Jainchill. Birthday is April 9th, 1966. Mother's deceased. I think she lived in the Midwest somewhere. Went to Michigan State University before graduating from some music school in Pennsylvania..." House started to struggle for facts and was a little ashamed that he knew so little about Shelly. "Diedre was born on September 19th, 1993. In New Jersey." He could hear Lucas clicking away at the other end of the line as he waited.

"Shelly and Diedre Jainchill. She's practically been living in your backyard, House, they're in Hamilton." He quickly rattled off a number and an address and House scribbled it down. "Wow. She's a good looking girl, man. And a smart kid. Good grades, National Honor Society. And check this out, she runs track. Pretty fast, too. Ranked 27th at the Mercer Conference last spring."

House was hanging onto the phone and jotting notes. Greedily drinking it all in.

"Do you have pictures? Can you send me some? Where are you finding the information?"

There was a pause on the phone as Lucas seemed to debate for a moment. "All this stuff is just from the newspapers, man. Her high school published the honor roll list every quarter, and the other stuff is just free local info." There was another pause and House could sense that Lucas was debating again. "Can I ask you a question, Doc? I mean, you know I'm always straight up with you."

"Shoot," House responded without hesitating.

"Why are you calling me for this? If you ask me the person you should be dialing is the mother of your child. Or even your daughter. I mean you find out you're a father and don't even demand the basic contact information? Its obvious she hasn't been skulking in the night, shielding her identity from anyone's knowledge. Why don't you give her a call? She's listed right in the phonebook." House felt the anger rise in him but was also aware of something else bleeding in from the periphery. Fear and uncertainty. He was silent a moment trying to sort through his emotions. "If it helps any, Diedre's been waiting for you to find her," Lucas added, jolting House from his silence.

"She what? How could you know that?"

"She posted up on the Adoption and Orphans message board on a genealogy website. Three years ago in September. On her thirteenth birthday I guess. The subject line is just your name, 'Doctor Gregory House.'"

"What does it say?"

"How about I just send you the link and let you see for yourself?" Lucas replied, and more clicking and mail software's sent chime could be heard over the phone. "I really think you need to take my advice with this one and just call. I'll give you a 85% guarantee you won't be sorry."

"Only 85%?" House replied bitingly, trying to mask his emotion that was bottling up in his throat.

"Yeah, well. No guarantees on what your baby mama has to say, but I'm certain your daughter wants to know you."

Lucas' dry attempt at humor cracked a small smirk on House's face.

"Thanks, man."

"Sure, Doc. No charge for this one, okay? We'll just take it out of my retainer. Good Luck." And Lucas disconnected.

House threw down the phone and hobbled over to his computer to wake up the screen and open his email. Sure enough there was an email from Lucas. No subject and the content was just a link. Clicking on it he waited for the screen to load, the cheery advertisements for long lost ancestor search engines and genealogy DNA lab kits blinking happily while the content he wanted to read seemed to take forever to appear. And then finally it was there. 5 blissful lines.

Subject: Doctor Gregory House

Location: USA New Jersey

Posted September 19, 2006 at 1:14am EST

Hi Daddy.

If you find this, I hope you'll understand. Mom tells me whenever I'm ready we can tell you, but I don't know if I'll ever be brave enough to call. So I hope you find this someday and then come find me. I can't wait to know you.

~Diedre

House felt the wetness on the back of his arm before he realized he was crying. Swiping at his face he read the message over and over. I can't wait to know you.

House pivoted to look back at the couch. The scribbled notes he took down from Lucas were abandoned on its arm, and the phone sat unsuspectingly on the cushion. With one last look back at the online message board House again traveled the distance to his couch and picked up the scrap of paper containing his notes. 10 little digits. Flipping open his phone he punched in the numbers. Then he drew in a deep breath and pushed "Send."

After a moment the phone connected, and he could hear it start to ring.

-tbc