New chapter.... little bit of Daddy!House in this one, let me know if you like that side of him, and there's a poll up in my profile about this story, so go and vote!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 6

Night had fallen at Princeton-Plainsboro, and House was reclining in one of the chairs in the sleep lab, staring at the monitors. Foreman was in the chair next to him, talking to Rayne through the microphone.

"Just tell us if anything happens, okay?" he asked. Rayne nodded, and Foreman sat back in his chair, turning to address his boss.

"What?" House asked, not even turning his head to look at Foreman, staring intently through the glass into the sleep lab room where Rayne was settling herself to sleep. They'd tried to recreate the general idea of her bedroom based on what Stacy had told them.

"The other three might not know what happened with Stacy, but I do. So do Chase and Cameron. We were there…" Now House turned his head, a lost and confused look in his eyes.

"I know… you had to have been complete idiots to not think there was something up when I didn't come back from walking her to her car…" House sighed and looked back at Rayne.

"I saw Thirteen give you the paternity test results…" Foreman edged.

"I know what you're asking, and…." House hesitated, still staring through the glass at the daughter he hadn't known he had. "…yes." He shot a glare at the neurologist before continuing. "If you tell Stacy that she was right, I'll have you doing my clinic work for the next three months." He looked back at the little girl. "Why do I feel like I need to go in there and read her a bedtime story?" he asked in a soft whisper.

"Maybe you should… if we could get close enough to what happens in her home, she might be more relaxed, which might make it easier to do the test…" Foreman wasn't actually expecting House to answer him or to do anything, but the older man got up out of his chair and left the observation room to walk into the test room.

"Rayne…?" he asked softly, slowly stepping closer to the bed. The girl looked up at him, so he felt that he could continue. "What does your mom do to help you go to sleep at night?" he asked, finally coming to stand at the foot of the bed.

"She tells me a story and gives me a glass of water," Rayne answered, still lying down. "But mommy isn't here…"

"Do…do you want me to try to tell you a story?" House asked, stepping around to sit on the bed next to her. Rayne nodded, and House took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. He didn't know any children's stories, but he could remember part of a story he'd liked to hear from his own mother when he was much younger.

"A long time ago…" he started, his mouth suddenly feeling dry. He licked his lips and tried again. "There was a couple who were very poor and wanted a child. But they couldn't have one, no matter how much they wanted it…" He sighed. He had to be hopeless at this. But Rayne didn't seem to be complaining about his more-than-pathetic storytelling skills, so he continued. "They lived next to a large house with a beautiful garden. The woman would stare at this garden and ask her husband to go into the garden to pick some fruit. But the husband always refused because a wicked witch owned the house and garden…" He heard a soft click and assumed that Foreman had turned on the microphone.

"Why does the lady want fruit?" Rayne asked, her voice soft.

"Because she likes it," House answered, remembering asking his mother the same question when she would pause at that point. "But she kept staring at the garden, and asking him to get her some of the fruit, and he loved her very much and finally went into the garden to take some of the witches fruit to give to his wife. It was the juiciest fruit she'd ever eaten, and so the next night, she again asked her husband to go and get some of the fruit. He did, but the second he went into the garden and reached up to take an apple from the tree, he was stopped by a voice behind him…" He trailed off, stopping, because Rayne had a confused look on her face. "Something wrong?"

"I can't hear you…" she said. House narrowed his eyes.

"Do you want me to speak up?" he asked, and Rayne nodded, and he continued the story in a slightly higher volume. "The voice said 'who are you to come into my garden and steal my fruit?' The man turned and saw the evil witch standing behind him, and he was afraid."

"House…" Foreman's voice came over the microphone and House stopped again and turned to look at him.

"What is it, Foreman?"

"When she asked you to talk louder…I could still hear you just fine." House blinked, realizing that Foreman must have turned on the microphone to compare hearing in case the symptoms came back. "She's having an auditory distortion episode… We should check and see if there's visual problems right now as well…"

"Way ahead of you, Foreman…" House answered, raising his hand to gently push Rayne's hair from her face, feeling like it was a fatherly thing to do.

"Why do you walk with that?" Rayne asked suddenly, pointing at the cane. House blinked.

"Because…my leg doesn't work like yours does…" he answered after a moment. He held it up, testing to see if she'd reach out for it. "You wanna see it?" he asked, tilting the curve of it towards her. She nodded and backed up a bit. House narrowed his eyes slightly. "Did… Did it almost hit you?"

"Yeah…" she muttered before reaching out for it.

"Foreman…it's nowhere near close enough to have even touched her… We have visual distortion…"

-------------------------------

They'd managed to get Rayne to go to sleep, and they were back in the outer office with Taub, Kutner and Thirteen.

"The symptoms only manifest at night?" Taub asked with quite a bit of doubt. "That doesn't make sense."

"I didn't say they manifest at night, I said they get worse at night. There's a difference," House remarked, twirling his cane idly. "What causes migraines, audio visual distortion, and gets worse at night?"

"Nothing," Thirteen said. "Nothing fits. Maybe she's just a really young Munchausen…"

"She's too young to even know what that word means," Kutner rolled his eyes. "She gets plenty of attention from her mom, so we can probably safely say that's not what she's after. She's way too young for this to be drug-seeking behavior."

"There is one thing that fits, but the mom will never buy it." Foreman leaned against the wall by the kitchenette and folded his arms across his chest.

"Mom doesn't have to buy it. She's too busy trying to get her daughter's migraine to go away…start treatment for migraine prophylaxis…anticonvulsants, beta blockers, calcium channel blockers…antidepressants for good measure. We'll continue to monitor her overnight, discharge her in the morning." The team went off to do as House ordered, but Foreman stayed behind.

"House…you got attached to her, didn't you? Telling her a bedtime story put you in daddy-mode, which is kinda scary. I haven't told Stacy, but you probably should…" With that, Foreman pushed away from the wall and left the conference room, leaving House alone with his thoughts.