A/N: Hi, readers! Sorry for the long gap. A whole lot is going on, both with work and otherwise. It's not necessarily all bad, though not all good, but I've barely had time to turn around on many days. There is also something within the next year probably (I'm at 90% sure) coming up that is huge and will be one of the highlights of my entire life, but it will require a lot of extra effort and time at work building to it. So, schedule insanity is going to continue through at least February. Sorry, but that's the way the cookie crumbles. If February works out, I should have a bunch of energy and be on a high after that.

Meanwhile back at the story, it's doing fine. It's just being written down more slowly than hoped for, purely due to time constraints. There are still at least two stories in the series after this, too, and they are building.

I will try on nights that I'm not totally wiped out by the end to put in at least five minutes or so on the writing. I'll just have to ask for your patience. I do appreciate the several folks who have said that they have filled in time by going back and rereading the full series. I had no idea where it was going to go that first day I started, or how large it was going to get. But it isn't done yet.

And now, a little Jensen. I do love Jensen.

(H/C)

"Good to see you, Dr. House," Jensen stated. It was his usual greeting, but it had more fervor behind it today.

House felt a pang of guilt at having kept the psychiatrist in the dark all this week. "I was thinking things over at first, meant to at least give you a Cliff's Notes version of Stacy at some point." He sat down in his usual chair and worked his leg up onto the ottoman. "In fact, I want your advice on the best way to proceed here. But then the work got crazy. I've had four cases this week."

Jensen handed him a cup of coffee and pulled the nearest chair a little closer with his foot before sitting down. "Four? Not all at once, I hope."

House shook his head. The last time he had tried three cases simultaneously back a month before the Chandler trial, he had nearly driven himself into collapse by the end, as Jensen well knew since Jensen's brother had been one of those cases. "No, not all at once. In a row, next patient arriving just as the previous one was diagnosed. They were nicely efficiently spaced, at least, but it has taken some time. Between those and dealing with Lisa - she still can't do as much as usual with the girls and such. Fortunately, the old man has been around to help."

"Speaking of Dr. Cuddy, how is she?" Jensen asked.

"Really getting better on the crutches, and it hardly hurts anymore. She's doing well, although of course, she thinks she ought to heal faster."

Jensen smiled, easily picturing her reaction to her current restrictions. "Did you solve all four cases?"

"Yes." House straightened up in the chair in pride. "Just got the last one this morning. Anyway, I really did mean to call you at some point just for a summary, but I never got around to it."

"So, what did Stacy want?" Jensen had been wrestling his curiosity all week, fighting the urge to call House himself for the Cliff Notes version, but no, that wouldn't have worked. The fact that House hadn't called him announced that either House needed to deal with it privately for a while or that he simply was too busy with other things to have time, and neither of those states needed to be interrupted by his psychiatrist. That was the correct answer, but Jensen hadn't liked it at all, and he had spent a good bit of his own unclaimed moments this last week speculating on Stacy's motives. House's attitude today only increased his interest. House wasn't really personally upset, nothing like when they were dealing with the major crises of Thornton or of Patrick Chandler, for instance. But he had an odd tension combined with resoluteness today.

House looked down at his grandfather's watch, tracing the band around his wrist, then looked over to meet Jensen's eyes. "Well, she didn't want to discuss the Christmas card or my past, as it turns out. What she wants is a child."

It was unusual for House to totally throw Jensen off balance with an answer to a question, but that one did. The psychiatrist nearly choked on a swallow of coffee. "She what?"

House didn't bother repeating it. "Strictly by the laboratory method, she clarified."

Jensen was speechless for a moment, then started to say something, then stopped himself with an effort from voting on that proposal. Instead, he simply waited. House extended the silence just enough to be sure that the psychiatrist was trusting him; he couldn't help conducting little tests on people at times when opportunity arose, even people he trusted. "I'm not going to do it," he said finally.

Jensen relaxed. "Of course you aren't. That would never work."

"Right, for a whole lot of reasons. I could never just have a kid out there in the world and stay back like she wants - like she was asking, at least. Do you suppose she might be trying to rope me back into her life in this way?"

The other man considered. "I doubt it. I still think that anyone who knows you as well as she does knows that there's no chance at all now for you two. Things are different."

"Yeah. But beyond that, there's Mark. She said they've both been worked up medically and that the issue seems to be him, and he's agreed to using sperm donation at this point. But to have my kid right there in his house full time growing up might be hard to cope with, even though he agreed to it in the first place." There was an edge of gruff sympathy in his voice there as he thought of that hypothetical child, growing up with a man who resented his biological father.

Jensen nodded. "I agree. From your description of that case with Mark, his attitude toward you might get in the way over time. Of course, people can change, but that's a long stretch. It might be harder to live with it daily than it was to agree to the idea in the abstract."

"Yeah. Given my luck, the kid would look like me, too." Somehow, House automatically assigned this hypothetical child who never would be more than that the male gender. Nope, it wouldn't have been another girl; Stacy would have wound up with his son. "I'm a dead ringer for my grandfather, and apparently, my brother Tim looked a good bit like him, too, with the two of us being from different mothers. So, there is a history of family resemblance there. If a little copy of me was growing up in their house, that's a lot to ask Mark to handle. I'm impressed that he agreed to donation at all. Of course, it would make his wife happy; maybe that's part of it. Or maybe he wants kids himself. You know, she told me that she'd always wanted a kid, even back when we were together. I never noticed that."

The psychiatrist looked thoughtful. "There are two main possibilities there. The first is that you were so locked down in your fears of fatherhood at that time that she recognized the stone wall and didn't fight it, thinking any efforts were wasted." Jensen typically didn't shy away from addressing the difficult answer.

House took out the letter opener that Thomas had given him, the one that had belonged to his grandfather, and began to fiddle with it. "I have been trying to see that, looking back." He shook his head. "I'll admit that I was totally dead set against kids, and I definitely let her know it. But I still can't see anything. Not even in retrospect."

Jensen gave him a moment to think, then switched answers. "Of course, the other hypothesis is that Stacy herself has changed, and what she's seeing now looking back isn't entirely accurate about her feelings then. Probably subconsciously if that's it. She might well have wanted children someday, just in a 'when we get to it' frame of mind. She was strongly career minded. If that was the case, she would have accepted your attitude much more readily at that moment, thinking there was always time later."

"Which option do you vote for?" House asked.

"Hmm. I don't know her personally, just from talking to you; observations of her over years would really help here. But she hardly sounds like someone who would be reluctant to speak up for herself if an issue were critical for her. I think it's either the second option or perhaps both, but I doubt it's the first alone."

House considered that. "If she did just think there'd always be time later, she may be hearing the clock ticking now."

Jensen nodded. "That's not uncommon. Many women who want children in a general sense but are busy doing other things do suddenly hit a point where it becomes urgent for them as biological reality kicks in. Of course, there is actually another possible contributor here, now that I think about it. She told you herself that things were not ideal with Mark. She might think that a child would help improve her marriage in addition to legitimately wanting one herself. That's a lousy reason to have a child, but many people have had that thought. Dr. House, why don't you tell me your conversation, word for word as much as you remember it?"

House did so, and by the end, Jensen was looking intensely analytical, sifting this data. House's team would have recognized the differential expression had they been there. "She does sound totally laser focused."

"Extremely," House agreed. "She is locked onto that goal now, whether she was years ago or not."

"She also hardly even mentioned Dr. Cuddy, and they knew each other fairly well as acquaintances, right? She asked about her injury briefly, but that was it. She didn't even mention the obvious point that you and Dr. Cuddy as husband and wife would need to discuss this. She asked you to think about it, singular."

"You're right," House said. "She was totally focused on me alone. What do you make of that?"

Jensen sighed. "This is a very long shot, understand. A pure guess. But I wonder if leaving your spouse out of this decision was subconscious transference on her part."

House shook his head. "You mean maybe she was actually leaving her spouse out of this and that spilled over to mine? But she said he'd been worked up medically and that he had agreed to sperm donation. She told me that flat out."

"Like I said, it's a very long shot, but I wonder if he might have agreed to sperm donation in general but not specifically."

House jumped as if a bolt of electricity had hit him, and in the next moment, he massaged his leg in apology. "You think Mark might not know she was going to ask me?"

"A pure guess, with disclaimers attached. I could be totally wrong," Jensen admitted. "But her wanting you to consider this, not you and your spouse, is odd. There's something not quite right there, and I don't think it's wanting to start something with you again."

Silence lengthened for a few moments, and then House said, "Well, I can sort that one out soon enough. I'll ask her flat out tomorrow when I talk to her again. In fact, that would be relevant information in where I go from here, which is part of what I wanted your opinion on today. I would like to help them if I could - though not to the extent that she wants. But she deserves that."

"You're thinking medically?"

"Yeah. She said they had both been totally worked up, but at least half the doctors in the world are idiots. Never hurts to repeat tests." He was fiddling with his letter opener but stopped there and looked back over at Jensen. "And Mark's going to love opening that topic with me. Any advice on approaches here?"

"Well, first of all, as you said, if he doesn't know Stacy was asking you, you need that information. And if he does know, you're right, he'll be even more reluctant to get into this. Let me think a minute."

"Okay." House returned his attention to his letter opener. He knew that he was putting Jensen on the spot here; the psychiatrist had had no opportunity to prepare for the main topic of this session. After a few minutes, Jensen spoke again.

"Keep it medical, of course. Just facts and figures and tests, nothing personal. I'm sure he's taking the lack of children as a statement about his inadequacy as a man. The great majority of men do. You might also assume in conversation that he's going for sperm donation to make Stacy happy and how admirable that is. Even if his feelings are mixed, allow him to work with you under that motive. That would save face for him, somewhat at least. But yes, it's going to be a very tough interaction no matter how you handle it."

House sighed. "Not the answer I wanted, but honest, at least."

"Yes, there's not an easy answer here. We're almost out of time, but down to you, Dr. House, I just wanted to say well done."

House looked up. "On what?"

"Immediately, first chance you had, putting Dr. Cuddy into the loop. Stacy may be trying to hide some things from her husband, or she may not. But you did exactly what you needed to. You aren't alone anymore, and you know it."

"Yeah." The one word had a universe of meaning in it. "Well, we're out of time, like you said." House started prying himself up out of the chair, which even on methadone would never be easy, and Jensen didn't watch, instead clearing away their coffee cups. They walked out of the office together, and as they parted at the parking garage, House tossed a promise back over his shoulder. "I'll let you know what happens tomorrow."

Jensen, walking on to his car, smiled as the prospect of another entire week of suspense melted away.