Author's Note: My laptop is back, yay! And it apears it's not going to quit on my again, so that's another plus. Here's the next chapter. Sorry for the long wait. Hopefully, they'll be coming pretty steadily again now that I have my most important writing tool back. Enjoy!

House sat quietly at Rachel's bedside, forehead resting on the handle of his cane as he waited for her to come out of the anesthesia. Her surgery has been successfully completed, and her creatinine levels had already started to go down. Chase was doing well in recovery, and was expected to be back on the job in a couple of days.

"Hey."

House looked up at the sound of Rachel's tired voice. Her eyes were barely open, but she was smiling at him.

"How are you feeling?" he asked her.

"It hurts a little," she told him. "Mostly just tired."

"You'll probably be pretty drowsy for the next several hours while the drugs work their way out of your system."

Rachel nodded, her eyes drifting closed again. House started to get up to leave, but she grunted in protest.

"Stay with me a while?"

He sat back down, his eyes looking everywhere around the room but directly at her. "Someone will be in soon to discuss your regiment of anti-rejection medications."

"I know."

"You're going to need to be closely monitored for the next month or two, which means weekly checkups to keep an eye on your kidney functions and rule out any chance of rejec--"

"Stop," Rachel mumbled, cutting him off. "House, can't you..."

"What?" House asked when her voice trailed off and her eyes fell closed again.

Rachel sighed, forcing her eyes open again. "Could you stop being my doctor for five minutes, and be my father instead?"

She raised her hand up off the bed and held it out to him. House stared at it, not exactly sure what to do. It was obvious she wanted him to hold her hand, but then what? Should he remain in his chair, move to sit on the side of the bed next to her, stand?

"I guess I'm a bit rusty in the dad department," he told her as he reached out and took her hand in his, giving it a gentle squeeze.

"From what I remember, you were never very good at it to begin with."

"Yeah, well... at least I tried."

A silence fell over them as he tried to think of what to say to her. Any other patient would have wanted to be left alone to rest after an ordeal like an organ transplant. He had to keep reminding himself that this wasn't just 'any other patient,' though. She was his daughter, and like it or not he was expected to be there for her – which was something he had pretty much no experience in doing.

“I'm sorry I was such a shitty dad,” he finally told her, recalling the words he had thrown out to Wilson when he had been trying to figure out what the hell he was supposed to say to her to try to make things better between them.

“It's not your fault,” she said before yawning loudly. He raised a hand to cover her mouth and continued talk through the end of the yawn. “Most likely, you own father wasn't that great. You learned by example. Even if you had wanted to be a good father, you likely would have reverted back to whatever learned behaviors you got from him.”

House nodded once, his mouth set in a slight smirk as he stood from his chair, giving her hand one last squeeze before letting go.

“Thanks for the insight,” he said, then made his way to the door before she could protest. “But I really think you should get some more rest.”

Rachel called after him, but he closed door to the recovery room behind him, drowning out her words. He wanted to try to establish some sort of a relationship with her, he really did. What he didn't want, however, was to be psycho-analyzed by his own daughter.

Wilson nervously walked down the hall toward Rachel's new room on the third floor. She had been moved upstairs post-op and seemed to be doing quite well, which was a relief and a disappointment all rolled into one. It wasn't that he didn't want her to be well, he just knew that with her recovery progressing as rapidly as it was, House was going to be even more on his case about asking her on a date.

He looked over the bouquet of flowers in his hand and thought about what he was doing one more time. House had agreed that if she turned him down, he's back off on the whole dating issue. Part of Wilson didn't want her to turn him down, though, even if her saying yes meant an entirely new brand of prodding into his personal life, courtesy of her father. Maybe if she agreed to go with him to the party and things went well, he would ask her out to dinner – and not tell House about it.

“Dr. Wilson?”

Wilson looked up from the flowers in his hand to find Cameron looking at him curiously. He wondered briefly just how pathetic he looked standing outside of the door to Rachel's room holding a bunch of flowers with a pink ribbon tied in a bow around them.

“Dr. Cameron,” he addressed her with a nod. “Can I help you with something?”

Cameron merely smiled and reached out to give his arm a reassuring squeeze. “Don't worry. Just go for it. I'm sure she won't turn you down.”

Wilson opened his mouth to deny any knowledge of what she was talking about, but knew it was probably useless.

“House told you, didn't he?”

“Yeah,” she admitted with a laugh, “me and about everyone else in the hospital.”

Wilson groaned at his best friend's inability to keep his mouth shut about his personal affairs, then looked hopefully at Cameron.

“Do you think the flowers are too much?”

Cameron shook her head, smiling at him. “No, I think they're lovely. I'm sure Rachel will, too. Now get in there and ask her already!”

Wilson chuckled a bit at how much she was starting to sound like House, the way she was hounding him mercilessly. With a nervous grin, he stepped up to the door of Rachel's room and slowly slid it open.

“James,” she greeted him from her bed with a smile, raising the television remote in one hand to lower the volume before gesturing toward the bouquet in his hand. “Are those for me?”

He held the flowers out to her and she smiled even more as she took them from his grasp and looked them over.

“They're beautiful. Thank you.”

“You're welcome,” he told her as he moved to sit in a chair next to her bed. “Rachel, I was wondering if I could ask you something.”

“I'd love to go to the Christmas party with you,” she answered before he even had a chance to ask the question.

“How did you...” he wondered aloud. He honestly didn't think House would have told her about his plans to ask her out. Then again, he knew better than to put anything past his best friend.

“I overheard a couple of the nurses talking about a rumor they heard concerning a certain oncologist asking out a recent transplant recipient,” she informed him with a small laugh. “It doesn't take a genius to put two and two together.”

Wilson nodded, running a hand back through his dark hair. “So, you'll go with me?”

“I already said I would,” she said, settling back onto her pillow. “I take it my father will be there, too?”

“I'll make sure of it,” Wilson assured her, remembering the deal he and House had made concerning him asking her to the party in the first place.

“Good,” Rachel replied, beaming at him. “Because I have a plan to get him back for putting you through this.”