DISCLAIMER: I sadly own nothing (except the character Allen I created) both from the show and life so please don't sue because you wouldn't actually get anything out of it.

CHAPTER ONE:

1…2…3…

Greg House was currently positioning a fourth pencil and aiming it just right so it would stick into the ceiling of the janitor's closet along with the three already hanging there. The batteries of his Game Boy had died about 10 minutes earlier and he wasn't about to take the risk of going back to his office to fish around for some fresh ones in his desk. He didn't want to take the chance of running into "The Devil" or Dr. Lisa Cuddy, Dean of Medicine, as she was more commonly known as around Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. On that particular day House was in a fouler mood than usual and he was pretty sure that he would snap if he was forced to listen to hypochondriac mothers in the clinic rave and rant about how their precious little angels from above were dying when in reality is was only a stuffy nose or mild fever. Luckily for him there were quite a few things in that closet that could keep him occupied for at least another 20 minutes or so.

"House?" Wilson knocked on the door and stuck his head in. He had been trying to track House down for the last hour and a half and as usual when he was avoiding clinic duty he wasn't answering his cell phone or pager.

"Sorry Dr. House isn't in right now please leave a message after the beep."

Wilson simply shook his head in amusement and pushed the door fully open. "Quick close it!" House yelled his voice full of alarm.

"Don't you think it's getting a little old hiding from Cuddy to avoid doing your job?" Wilson asked. "She basically knows all of your hiding spots by now."

"Well Jimmy my boy believe it or not but our fair bosomed boss is not the only enemy I' am currently dodging…"

"That's actually why I came looking for you." Wilson interrupted him. "There's a man down in the clinic that bares a striking resemblance to you and shares the same last name. He's waiting to see you House."

House let out a defeated sigh and his head fell back against the wall with a loud thump. He had been trying to prevent the inevitable from happening all day but it looked as though he was actually going to have to face his brother. The man after all did jump on an all night flight from London to New Jersey just so they could meet with some scumbag lawyer to go over their father's will. Yeah the man was a real saint; he couldn't make it to the funeral two weeks before but now that money was involved he was more than happy to take time from his busy life just to find out how much he was getting from the old bastard.

"You know that you're going to have to see him sooner or later House. I strongly advise sooner over later. Just get it over with; like pulling off a band aid."

Reluctantly standing up House grabbed his cane from the shelf beside him and made his way over to the door. "Good metaphor Wilson considering I do actually compare my brother to a dirty band aid at times." He pushed past him flicking off the light switch leaving Wilson alone in the dark janitor's closet.

……………………………………………………………..

House sent a mocking cheerful wink in Nurse Brenda's direction as he walked through the clinic over to the reception desk. There standing in all his glory in a perfectly tailored fine Italian silk suit was none other than Allen House. He was an extremely attractive 44 year old man with a head full of thick brown hair and piercing ocean blue eyes. His square cut jaw was stubble free and in his right hand he held an expensive leather briefcase.

"Greg!" House cringed. For some ludicrous reason he was praying that maybe, just maybe, Allen wouldn't see him and would turn around and walk out of the hospital as well as his life.

"Allen." House greeted his brother coldly. They engaged in an overly awkward handshake and then about a minute of uncomfortable silence. "I thought I wasn't going to see you until tomorrow when we met with the lawyer."

"Yeah I know," he cleared his throat, "I just thought that I would come early and maybe we could go out for dinner or something like that my treat of course."

"Allen in case you haven't noticed this is a hospital jam packed full of sick people and I'm a doctor. How could I live with myself if one of them died while I was out with you enjoying a medium rare steak and a cold bottle of beer?"

Allen let out a snort knowing full well that sick people weren't the reason for him not wanting to go out for dinner. He knew full well that his brother didn't give damn about any of his patients. "Well Greg I've got to hand it to you that is possibly the weakest excuse I have ever heard from you and believe me there have been some pretty good ones in the past."

"Look I'll see you tomorrow at the court house. I will sit there high on Vicodin as Mom finally gets some closure and you get you greedy little hands on half of Dad's money. Then you can take that money and shove it up your…" House stopped talking when he realized that Allen was no longer paying any attention to him. He slowly turned around to see what had caught his brother's eye.

There standing outside of her office going over a schedule with one of her nurses was Dr. Lisa Cuddy. She wore a light grey business suit that hugged her every curve to perfection and her wavy black hair fell loosely around her shoulders framing her beautiful face; her four inch Prada heels only made her amazing legs look even longer. Even House could understand why an image like that would capture Allen, hell any man's attention.

"Who is that?" Allen asked his voice full of curiosity.

House studied his brother watching Cuddy for a long moment and he honestly didn't like it. There was something off about it that didn't settle right with him. "That little bundle of joy is my boss."

"Your boss?" Allen repeated. "How the hell do you get any work done with a woman like that walking around all day?" He quickly straightened out his tie and discretely checked his breath.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" House asked.

"What kind of gentlemen would I be if I didn't go over and introduce myself to such a gorgeous creature? Why I don't know if I could live with myself. Listen forget about dinner I'll see you tomorrow." With those last words he roughly slapped House on the shoulder and began making his way over to Cuddy.

Was that the foreign feeling of jealousy creeping through his body just now? House was snapped out of his unfamiliar and unwelcome daze as Nurse Brenda shoved a clip board at his chest filled with pages of clinic patients he was supposed to see in the next couple of hours.