Alright, kiddies, anybody moans about me starting a new story I'm gonna bash them. I've just finished Family Ties and I'm almost finished House Breaking, so no whining, just be grateful I'm this benevolent.

This one is a drama with comedy undertones, over tones, highlights whatever.

Um, yeah, House is gonna be probably quite out of character for some parts of this but you'll just have to deal because some of these situations will not be very House-friendly. I am going to try and actually have a plot for this one, bit more along the lines of 'the Inspirationals' weight of writing (yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, update already) um…so not just a smut-fest…though there will be some of that in here too.

::grins evilly::

I'll update as soon as I can but I warn you that I have no internet access at home so it may be a while. I am getting broadband (thank god) but it may be a while yet.

Patience, virtue, et cetera, yadda, et al.

Read and review me!!

Chapter 1: New Arrival

Dr Gregory House stood in his office and leant against his desk. He could have sat…but he didn't want to, not really. The familiar ache of his leg gnawed at him and he ignored it in favour of watching the rain droplets race each other down the dimly lit window pane. He pursed his lips and thumped his thinky-thinky ball against his good leg idly. Thunder boomed somewhere in the distance and he smiled softly. He had always loved thunderstorms. He had loved to run out onto the huge flat of the airfields where his father had been stationed and the feeling of being the only person on the planet, alone in that storm. Thunder crashing overhead like the world's largest set of symbols. Lightening forming dramatic backlighting for his antics. The sound of his smaller ten-year old feet pattering against the concrete as he ran. The sound mingling with the staccato rain drops slapping against the world.

The memory washed over him and he welcomed the escape from the every day boredom of his current thoughts. He didn't have a case. Nothing interested him. He had even sent the team home and had remained here, in his office, alone, because he knew that more of the same stinking stagnation of monotony awaited him at his empty apartment. Usually he would have revelled in the solitude. He did genuinely like being alone but lately…he had begun to feel lonely.

Other men might have called it a mid-life crisis, but House was too smart for that. It was a realisation. He had begun to realise that he had more days behind him than ahead. He was forty five, living alone in the same apartment for the past fifteen years. The only woman he'd ever loved he'd let go. Not, as some naive oncologists might have believed, because he'd believed himself unworthy of her, he'd just cared enough about her to realise that it could never really work between them. He never lied and she lied too much.

The ball thumped down and arced up off the floor to perch in his hand. He sent it bouncing down again.

Thunder yelled directly overhead this time.

A pet.

He supposed he could get a pet. He wanted companionship and animals didn't talk back. It would have to be a cat anyway. He couldn't stand the sycophancy of dogs. His brief stint with Henry had taught him that much. Cats were their own kind of people. They owned a room when they stalked into it. House smirked at that. He thought about that some more. A kitten? A cute little ball of fluff that would mewl and stagger about his apartment on unsteady kittenish legs. Big eyes and ears not quite small enough to fit its face? House's mouth twisted, he really couldn't see him and a cute ball of anything going together.

Maybe he could go down to the pound and pick up a mangled alley cat. Something tough and grizzled that would be as disdainful and mean as he was…that idea had merit.

The ball thumped back up into his hand. Thunder roiled overhead like the growling of something incredibly large and very angry. The rain hammered harder against the window.

If he didn't know any better, House would have thought that sounded foreboding. Fortunately, House knew better.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for a Dr Gregory House?"

House looked up, faintly surprised to note that the door to his office had been pushed open without his noticing and a young woman stood in the doorway. She held a package, a clipboard, a huge tote bag and…a baby carrier about her person. Giving the impression that she had more arms than average. Must be take the sprog to work day, House mused quietly in his own head and nodded his head up in acknowledgement.

"Yeah?" He was even too bored for sarcasm today and she'd be gone soon anyway. Hopefully before the infant woke up and started squalling.

"Can I see some ID?" She asked, marching into the room in a business like fashion. She set bag, baby and package down on his chair and desk and flashed her own badge. House sighed and dug through his pockets before he yanked out his hospital ID. "Driver's license?" She asked hopefully and House worked that out of his wallet as well. She took them both and scrutinised them carefully, flipping through the papers on her clipboard carefully and apparently comparing several details there. She smirked in satisfaction and handed both ID back to him.

"Sign here and here, please." She instructed helpfully, pointing to red arrows at dotted lines. She ripped off the invoice when he was finished and double checked everything again. She didn't seem like a courier, House noticed. Dressed in a business suit with a flowing skirt rather than the simple courier uniform with hat at a jaunty angle that the companies usually went for these days. "Okay," she grinned sunnily at him and he didn't return the expression. Settling for bouncing his giant ball in a rather disdainful fashion instead. "That's all. Good luck." She handed the package to him and then spun on one heel, hitching her clipboard a little higher and then headed for the door.

It took House a full three seconds to note that she had forgotten her kid.

"Hey!" He called after and scrambled for his cane, lurching after her painfully. She turned at the door.

"Yes?"

"Listen, lady, I don't know how dim you have to be in your job, but you forgot your kid." He pointed emphatically at the still sleeping bundle of…something or other, in the carrier on his chair. The woman followed the direction of his finger and arched one brow.

"I don't know how smart you have to be to be a doctor," she returned smoothly, "but I would have thought that reading was up there on the list of things. The child is not mine. She's yours."

And with that, she spun on her heel and left the room. Leaving House too stunned to even call after her again.

He turned to stare at the kid.

No fucking way.