Me and Emily Chapter Four
Title: Me and Emily
Author: nomoretearsAS
Rating: K+/PG
Summary: When House discovers that Chase has a kid, he decides to find out more about both of them. House/Chase friendship.
Disclaimer: I don't own House, Chase, or any characters that you recognize.
Chapter: 4/?
AN: Sorry that this took so long guys. My new job is killing me slowly. I wanted to make it longer, but I wanted to get it out. Hopefully, I'll have chapter five up before the end of the weekend, cause it's seeming like my weeks are much busier than I thought.
Chase pulled out a frying pan and threw in three of the patties. While it was frying, he pulled out the hamburger buns and all the condiments. He set it all up on the table and then went back to the hamburgers. He flipped them over and then pulled out the green beans. He tossed them into a microwave safe dish and tossed it into the microwave.
He glanced into the livingroom and saw Emily and House both involved in the game. Emily was giggling as House got stuck and Emily got to move ahead two spaces. He cut into one of the burgers and saw that they were just about done. He pulled out cheese from the fridge, he knew Emily would want cheese on hers.
"Okay, let’s put the game on hold and wash up for dinner." he called. "Emily, please use soap!" he called to her. She jumped up and ran into the bathroom. House got up off the couch and moved into the kitchen. "House, do you want cheese on your burger or not?" he asked.
House looked affronted. "I said I wanted chicken."
"You also invited yourself over here. Do you want cheese?" he asked again. House glared at him for a moment before nodding his head. Chase threw cheese on another burger. He himself didn’t really like cheese, so he left his plain. Chase gestured to a tomato sitting on a cutting board. "Would you please slice that tomato?" he asked.
House gave Chase a disbelieving look before going to do what he told him. He was still a bit shell shocked from the whole thing. He started to slice the tomato and turned to talk to Chase. "So, how did you manage to keep her a secret for three years?"
"Honestly, I don’t know." Chase said, pulling the burgers off the stove and putting them on a plate. "Emily! Quit playing around!" he called out, realizing his daughter still wasn’t back yet. He turned to House. "She loves playing with water." Emily appeared in the kitchen seconds later. "Have a seat, baby." She climbed up into the chair with a booster seat and waited patiently for her father to bring her dinner over. Chase turned back to House. "Have a seat, I’ll bring the food over."
House sat down and Chase brought over the plate of burgers. Then he brought the green beans and the plate of the now cut tomatoes. "House, help yourself. Emily, wait for me to get yours ready, okay?" He asked.
House helped himself to a hamburger bun and a cheeseburger. He slathered on mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise, and some lettuce. Chase had put out a bowl of chips, too, and House took some of them. Chase put Emily’s burger on a bun and added a little ketchup and mayonnaise. He also put on some pickles. Then he cut the burger into fourths, put some green beans and chips on her plate and kissed her forehead, before starting to get his own sandwich ready.
"Daddy, I don’t want green beans." she whined. He scooped some onto his own plate.
"You have to eat some, Em. Just eat what’s on your plate and I won’t make you eat anymore, okay?" he compromised. Usually, he made her eat two helpings of vegetables.
"But House isn’t eating any green beans." She whined louder. He could sense a tantrum coming on. She’d had a long day and he knew that she wanted to keep playing her game. He stopped eating and turned to her.
"Emily, look in my eyes." He said, sternly. She looked away. "Look at me." he said again and she looked up. "You’re going to stop the whining right now. What House eats or doesn’t eat doesn’t matter. I get to say what you eat and you will eat those green beans. Or else you can get up right now and go to bed. Those are your options. What would you like to do?" he asked.
She sulked. "I’ll eat my green beans." she said. He nodded and turned back to his own food.
"Thank you." he told her. He saw House open his mouth to talk, but Chase interjected first. "Look, House, I will answer your questions, can you just wait until I put Emily to bed?" he pleaded.
"Yeah. I was just going to ask if you would pass the green beans."
"Oh, uh, sure." Chase said, passing the beans. House scooped some onto his plate. Chase suppressed a grin. He remembered him, suddenly, in a patients room, sucking anaesthesia to get little Adam to do it. Maybe he had grossly underestimated House, maybe he wasn’t the evil heartless bastard that Chase always thought he was.
After that, they had a pleasant dinner. House entertained the little girl by making faces at her and she ate all her food without complaint. In fact, she even ASKED for seconds on her green beans when she saw House take a second helping. Clearly, the little girl was fascinated with House.
When they finished dinner, Chase cleaned up the kitchen while House and Emily finished their game. Emily won and Chase wasn’t sure if House LET her win or if she won on her own, but she jumped up and flew into Chase’s arms, yelling, "I won! Daddy I won!"
"Good job, sweetheart." he told her. He hugged her tightly and kissed her tenderly. "Now, go put on your pajama’s and come out and tell House goodnight. Make sure you brush your teeth." he patted her butt gently as she ran off.
"Your cooking doesn’t suck." House told him, once Emily was out of the room.
"I’m assuming that’s your way of saying thank you, so you’re welcome." They sat in awkward silence for a few moments before Emily reappeared in her pajamas, smelling of bubble gum flavored toothpaste.
She looked at House for a minute before asking him, "Which leg is the hurt one?" He stared at her for a moment before gently patting his right leg. Then she climbed up onto his left one and put her arms around him. He did nothing. "Thank you for playing Candy Land with me tonight."
"You’re welcome. Maybe next time we can play Chutes and Ladders." he said and she looked up at him. You might have thought that he just handed her a million dollars from the look on her face.
"Really? You’ll come back!" she asked him.
"If it’s okay with your Daddy." he said. Emily turned to Chase.
"Can he Daddy? Can he come back?" she asked. He smiled softly at the little girl.
"Sure." he said. Emily hugged House again and this time he hugged her back. When they broke apart, Chase picked Emily off House’s lap and gave her a big hug. "Come on, Em, let’s head to bed, okay?"
"Okay." she agreed, but she pulled herself out of his grip. She kneeled next to House and planted a kiss on his cheek. House just stared at her. Chase took her hand and headed to Emily’s room. But first he turned to House.
"I’m going to tuck her in and I’ll be right back." he said and House nodded. Chase was gone for about ten minutes and soon he reemerged. "She’ll probably fall right to sleep. She’s had a long couple of days. And we weren’t here last night, so she’s happy to be back in her own bed." Chase said, simply to make conversation. He was dreading the questions that he had avoided for three years. "I guess I owe you some answers." he said.
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