I know I suck for making you wait this long, but here is another UPDATE! I know have LOTS of muse for this. GO ME! I would like to dedicate this chapter to KRISTY! You know who you are. :] OK! Disclaimer: I don't own any of this shit except for the NPCs and Kara and Skylar.

Chapter Twenty Seven: Decisions, Decisions

Kara closed her drawer quietly, after folding her uniform neatly. She had changed out of her uniform into a simple jeans and shirt. She had never really been in her mother's house after school and it just felt weird. She pulled the end of her shirt uncomfortably and tip-toed her way to the hallway, peering carefully into the living room. House had discarded his jacket and his cane was on the table beside the couch. The television was turned up and House was sitting on the couch, leaned in towards it and absorbed. She hugged the back wall of the living room, careful not to bump anything or gather House's attention as she made her way to the other guest bedroom. She slipped in and glanced around. His alarm clock was plugged in, his pillows were on the bed, he had a few of his other personal items around the room. She opened the closet and saw some of his clothes hanging. So he was planning to stay for awhile. She turned to exit and suddenly his phone went off. She heard his groan and then the definite sound of him coming towards the room. With a frantic look across the room, she went to her knees and hid under the bed.

She saw him come in and grab his phone off the dresser. He glanced at it and with an almost amused shake of his head, he moved and sat on the bed before opening his phone. "Why aren't you nosey?" He asked happily into the phone. Kara frowned and leaned a bit closer to House's legs, trying to hear exactly who it was. The sound of her mother's voice was recognizable, although muffled. "No, we're currently sitting outside freezing and starving to death. I'm about to call Foreman to see if he can't use one of his break in techniques. Of course we're inside, and don't worry, I'll make myself at home." With that, his phone snapped shut. His right foot went forward and Kara went to move back, when his foot came back and stepped on her fingers. She tried not to let out anything, but she couldn't help it. The moment House's heel smashed her fingers into the hard wood floor, she let out an involuntary yelp. There was an immediate silence as House moved his foot.. "Kara." House said.

With an inward groan, Kara crawled out from underneath the bed and gave House a sheepish look. He didn't look at all amused. "Let me see your hand." He said, holding his own open. Kara, still sitting on the floor, moved and gave him her hand. He barely glanced at it. "You'll just have a nasty bruise." He told her. Kara nodded. "Do you mind telling me why you were underneath my bed?" He asked.

"I was checking for monsters." She told him innocently.

House gave her a scowl. "Well, next time you decide to snoop on somebody, don't leave the closet door open." He advised. "Now, go do kid things and play outside or something."

"So your Dad's going to live with you guys now and he didn't really say why?" Skyler asked from the other line. Kara was sprawled out on her bed, arithmetic homework spread out in front of her, phone nestled between her shoulder and ear. The smell of lasagna was wafting through the house and the only thing she could hear was her father's television program. Her parents had bickered once when Cuddy got home, but other than that, both didn't really talk to each other.

"Yeah." Kara answered quietly, plugging something into her calculator. She scribbled the answer down.

"That's weird." Skyler stated. "You think it has anything to do with your parent-teacher conference?"

"It has too. It's the only thing that makes sense." Kara told her.

"Well, look on the bright side. At least Operation MM can be carried out now." Skyler opted.

"Kara, sweetie, dinner's ready." Cuddy said, leaning into the doorway.

"I'll talk to you later." Kara said before hanging up. She placed her pencil down and stood up, glancing at her hand. Luckily it wasn't swollen, but it was turning a rather nasty purple black color. Sighing unhappily to herself, she pulled herself up and walked after her mother, hanging the phone on the hook in the process.

"Hou-Greg." Cuddy said from the kitchen. He barely looked up. "Dinner."

Kara sat down at the table first, watching as her mother came and poured her milk, before starting to serve her. House limped over and he got served as well and finally all three of them were at the table, eating dinner. Kara glanced at her parents awkwardly. Cuddy was busy buttering her bread while House was just eating. Silence hung heavy in the room. Kara put a piece of lasagna on her fork and ate it quietly. She looked up suddenly as something occurred her. Hiding an almost devilish smile into her fork, she finished eating her bite before pouncing on the idea. "So, how long is a little while?" Kara blurted out.

Both House and Cuddy froze, looking over at Kara. "Excuse me?" Cuddy asked softly.

"You heard me." Kara answered quickly. "How long are you going to be here?" She asked House.

"Why are you suddenly curious about how long I'm here for? Snooping around isn't good enough for you?" House asked back just as suspiciously. Cuddy looked from Kara to House, confused.

"I just want to know how long I should expect headaches." Kara answered simply.

"Headaches?" Both parents asked at the same time.

"Yeah, you guys argue a lot, so I want to know how long the arguing is going to last." Kara said innocently.

"We don't argue a lot." Cuddy began to defend.

"We might bicker a bit, but it doesn't mean we literally fight. We just disagree on a few medical choices." House offered up.

Kara rolled her eyes. "I just want to know how long I should expect to sleep at Uncle Wilson's, because I don't want screaming and headaches to keep me from sleeping. That's all."

"Why would you be sleeping over at Wilson's?" Cuddy asked.

"He's not your Uncle." House pointed out.

"You have a perfectly good bed here and we wouldn't be screaming." Cuddy continued.

"You don't have any Uncles. We don't have brothers and your mother has only one sister. He's just a family friend." House told her.

"Why are you continuing on the Uncle thing? It's a term of affection." Cuddy asked House.

"I thought we already passed the argument part of this conversation." House countered.

"Actually, I'm not that hungry anymore. May I be excused." Kara stated quickly, pushing her plate away from her. Both House and Cuddy stared at her for a moment before Cuddy nodded. With that, Kara quickly headed to her room, a wide grin spreading across her features. If she made her parents believe that they bickered, they would try to resolve it. Which would enforce them to work together and not have as many fights. If they did that, maybe they could realize the true feelings they had for each other. It was an orphan's dream to get her parents back together and have their family live happily ever after. And Kara knew that both of them were capable of this. They owed it to her.

"I don't understand why they have so many teacher in-service days at your school." House grumbled at Kara in the morning, pouring himself a cup of coffee. Kara grinned over at him from her plate of waffles that she had gotten out of the freezer and warmed up. "I don't remember hardly any teacher in-service days when I was in school." He continued to gripe as he sat down at the table and picked up a piece of toast. He narrowed his eyes at Kara as he bite into. "Figures, our tax payer money at work and the kids get more teacher in-service days."

"I think they were called Dinosaur Migration day back then." Kara told him cheekily. House froze for a moment and pointed at finger at her. Grinning, she looked back down and put some more syrup on her already maple syrup drenched waffles.

"Easy with the syrup." Cuddy said as she bustled out of the hallway and into the kitchen. She opened the refrigerator, took out a yogurt, and began to eat as she continued to move around. "We don't need you bouncing around the walls of the hospital."

Kara took a bite, wiping the syrup off her lips and took a drink of milk. "Do I have to go to the hospital?"

House and Cuddy glanced at each other. "Oh yeah, we're just going to leave you at home here unsupervised for who knows long." House answered, shaking his head.

"You don't have to leave me here. I could stay with Skyler. I think her parents are going to take her to the water park. I'm sure Skyler's parents wouldn't mind me coming along."

Cuddy opened her mouth, but House sighed. "You think? We can't just give you to other people. I'm sure they would do it, but you can stay at the hospital. You can go another time to the water park, but we're going to be late. So, hurry up." House said. Kara sighed and finished her waffles. Yeah. She doubted her father would ever think about going to a water park with her. And her mother probably wouldn't go either. She looked back down at her waffles dejectedly, knowing full well that Cuddy was probably giving House the look.

"Well what did you want me to tell her? We can't just ship her off to different people any time we wish." House snapped angrily later on that day. Cuddy had paged him to her office which he had obeyed diligently. She didn't know whether to be impressed or suspicious. Kara had fallen asleep in House's office chair not too long ago, which concern Cuddy slightly if Kara was getting a good night's sleep in her home or not. "Besides, it's not like we can return the favor for their daughter, not that they would want us too. They don't like me. They made that apparent already. They only allow their daughter to spend time with Kara because they were besties in the orphanage and it's kind of mean to ruin a friendship because they had such a 'hard knock life'."

Cuddy sighed heavily, not even bothering to comment on his rude Annie comment. "You could have said it a little bit nicer." She told him tentatively.

He scoffed. "She's not an idiot, Cuddy. She's too smart to let people sugarcoat things. Just so you know, she gets that from me." He remarked.

"Did you even see the look on her face once you finished talking? I feel bad, House. I feel bad that we can't always be reliable, that we're always busy. Don't you?" She asked him. House fell quiet for a moment. He had seen her face and the desolate look she gave the waffles.

"I don't think she's really suffering. Granted, this isn't the first place most people want to spend time in, but she finds things to occupy herself with. Just the other day she was with Cameron and asking her questions about what she was doing and why. And she practically commands the television in the break room." House said quietly, watching as Cuddy smiled slightly at the news. "Though I suppose that if you wanted to be reliable for awhile... we could both take some time off. Vacation or something? Or, you could change our hours."

Cuddy laughed. "We're not going on vacation. But, I'll think about scheduling our hours differently. I want to be there for her... but this hospital doesn't run itself. And neither does your department."

"Oh really? I thought the Keebler elves did it while I was asleep." House retorted. Cuddy gave him a look as he stood up and left. There were times when he didn't need to say his two cents, but he did. It was aggravating and yet… she couldn't help but like it. It was just him. There was no other way to say it. She shook her head, getting House out of her thoughts before she went to her desk.

"So which parent are you bringing to Career Day?" Skylar asked over the phone later on that day. Kara paused momentarily, hearing the noise of the television and tiptoed to the hallway and carefully peeked out. She could see the back of her father's head from the couch and the movement of his arm as he took a drink of something. Satisfied, she tiptoed back and silently closed her door. "Kara, are you there?" Skylar asked loudly. For some reason, Skylar always seemed to have bad luck with phones. She either accidentally broke them, lost connection, or the battery would die in the middle of her conversations.

"I'm here, sorry, I had to go check on to see what my dad was doing." Kara explained, her voice somewhat hushed. It would be just her luck to get overheard.

"You're taking your Dad then?" She asked eagerly.

"I don't know." Kara answered with a sigh. First of, Kara believed it was awfully stupid to have a career day at their prestigious school regardless and not to mention they were about thirteen and not little kids anymore. The teacher said it would be engaging and not to mention help them figure out what they want to do in the future. Both of Kara's parents were doctors, but she had a feeling that both would not be happy if she took the other one and not them. Each of her parents had pros and cons. Her mother was not only a doctor but the Dean of Medicine, and ran the hospital. She would be nice and sweet and answer all the questions, but she wasn't sure if her classmates would find her too engaging. Not to mention she'll probably fuss over it for the next few days getting ready.

On the other hand, she could take her father. He was Head of Diagnostics and was always busy with interesting cases. He was smart and not to mention she figured it would be engaging to anyone hearing about his job. But if she took him, he could be a right ass. He wouldn't prepare and probably call someone stupid, not to mention she had a theory that her homeroom teacher did not like her father at all. If she took her mother, her father would be upset, and vice versa.

"You're taking your dad right?" Kara asked her instead.

"Yeah, he's the only one that works right now." Skyler answered. "You do realize, Kara, that they are grown ups? You don't have to baby them. They won't throw you back in the orphanage if you hurt their feelings. I've seen the way they look at you. They love you."

"Sklyer, it's easier said and heard, then..." Kara began to tell her, but paused when she heard a noise. "I heard you pick up the phone." She said quickly, just to make sure Skyler didn't repeat herself.

"Who are you talking to for an hour?" House questioned from the other line.

"Skyler, who else?" Kara snapped.

"Get off the phone for now. I'm calling pizza." House told her.

"Mom said to eat the leftover lasagna." Kara pointed out.

"She's not here right now, is she?" He asked.

"Yeah, but Mom's leftover lasagna is." Kara answered.

There was a momentary lapse of silence and Kara could pretty much guess that he was smirking at her statement. "You can call Skyler back when I'm done ordering." He said.

"Fine." Kara huffed. "Bye Skyler."

"Bye Kara." Skyler chimed right back.

The good thing about the fact that Kara's father got out early was that he could always entertain her. When the pizza came, he found a movie and they began to watch it. It was a tad bit outdated, even for Kara, but it was pretty interesting and not to mention, scary. Kara had rarely watched scary movies in the orphanage, but she had far too much pride to tell her father to turn it off at the somewhat gory scenes. She was however fine with wrapping her blanket around her tightly. Throughout the movie, she had moved subconsciously from one end of the couch to House's side. It was a somewhat tension filled scene and the murderer, or at least who Kara thought was the murderer, was walking down the hallway cautiously.

"What are you watching?" Cuddy's voice suddenly snapped from behind. Kara didn't mean too, but she let out a strangled cry and jumped, pressing against House's side and tugging her blanket even closer. "House! A scary movie? Seriously? I swear I can't trust you with anything." She said, coming from behind the sofa and grabbing the remote. House looked up at her, one hand around Kara.

"No, no don't pause it! It'll only make me even more paranoid. Besides, I want to see the ending, and more importantly, I want to see who is the murderer. I think I know who it is, and I need to be shown that I'm right." Kara quickly begged. It was half true. Kara loved to be shown or even told she was right, but she didn't want them to start bickering yet. She saw her mother's eyes glanced over at the pizza box and she quirked an intimidating eyebrow at him, before nodding slowly and continuing the movie.

Kara was faced with a choice when she woke up the next morning. She had heard her parents argue semi-quietly after she had gone to bed, talking about not eating the leftovers and then discussing the movie. There were several times they did get loud with each other, but then they quieted down a bit. They weren't fooling her. She looked up from her cereal, watching her mother rush about the kitchen, grabbing her purse and then digging for her lipstick, and then rushing over to get something else and then rushing back. She seemed like she was always in a rush. Her father on the other hand looked rather upset, since he usually was late to work apparently and living with Cuddy met he was going to be on time. It was Career Day and you had to either bring a parent, or a signed excuse why your parent could not come. She glanced between them both quietly, trying to find the right time to broach the subject.

"You're still not finished?" Cuddy suddenly said, picking up Kara's bowl. "I'm sorry, but it's time to go." She told her. "Go brush your teeth. Let's go."

Kara nodded and headed towards the bathroom, her decision already in place. The drive was a quiet one and Skyler sought her out after she got out of the car. "Which one did you pick?" She asked. Kara smiled at her.

"You'll see."

Kara never liked to go to any office for any reason, but this was the only exception. The receptionist was a rather old lady, unlike the sectary to the Principal, but she seemed to have the same personality and work ethic as the sectary. Kara stood at the desk for a few moments before the lady finally looked over at Kara. "What can I help you with, young lady?" She asked.

"I need to call my uncle. I don't know his number, but I know it's filed under my emergency contacts." Kara told her.

The lady raised her eyebrow at her. "Why do you need to call your uncle? Can't you talk to your parents?" She asked.

"My parents are away and I need to talk to my uncle. If you're not willing to let me call my uncle, I will be happy to inform my parents when they return." Kara answered, smirking slightly at her point. The lady blinked at her before turning around to face her computer and coming up with the file. She picked up the phone and dialed the number before handing Kara the phone. Kara took the phone and moved away from the receptionist. She waited until she heard Wilson answer the phone. "Wilson, I need you to come here. Don't worry about bring my parents. I'm not bleeding. I feel one hundred and ten percent good. I don't need a signature and this isn't a parent teacher meeting. I just need to speak with you... face to face. I can't talk to you through a phone. Will you come?" She paused as she waited his answer. Smiling, she gave the receptionist back the phone and waited in the office.

Wilson arrived shortly after, looking a bit worried. "Kara, what's wrong?" He asked.

"I need you to do Career Day for me." She answered simply, looking up at him.

"Career Day? You pulled me away from a meeting to do something that you should have asked your parents about?" He asked incredulously.

"I didn't make you miss your meeting. You did that all on your own buddy." Wilson blinked at her response. It was like talking to House. "Besides, have you ever had to decide between my mother and my father? No. You're my dad's friend. You're biased. I have both of them and if the other one found out, the other would be pissed. It's like elementary school... or so I heard. I've been home schooled. Sort of." She snapped at him, leading him towards the classroom. "Homeroom is about to start in ten minutes."

"You want me to do this now? I don't have anything ready. And I don't think your parents will like this idea." Wilson hissed after her, following.

"You'll be fine. Just say some medical stuff that no one can understand and then tell them cancer sucks. It's easy." Kara told him.

"Don't tell me this is going to be easy. And don't think we're not going to talk about this later." Wilson said.

"Just don't embarrass me." She told him, waiting outside the hallway of her class. After a few moments, the bell rang for homeroom and she entered the room with Wilson in tow.

Dun dun DUN! What are House and Cuddy going to do when they learn that their daughter rather enlist Wilson than ask one of them to do something for school? How will her homeroom teacher react when he realizes that Wilson isn't her father.