Standing in the corner of the elevator, he studied Thirteen. It wasn't until she rolled her eyes and started at him that he started to speak. "You don't have an emergency contact," House accused, matter-of-factly.
"You don't have any friends," she snapped back, in a similar tone. Out of all the staff to work for House, she was the one to refuse his games. She gave as good as she got and never seemed to let him manipulate her. If anyone was as stubborn and thickheaded as House, it was her.
"You also have Cuddy as your medical proxy," House said, curiously. What young attractive female had no one other than their boss to trust with those decisions?
"Jealous?" Thirteen asked, sounding more humored than annoyed. Arching an eyebrow at him, she waited for his response.
"Well unless you two have gotten really close, and I do mean really, that's just sad. You're becoming as pathetic and desperate as she is." He shot her his best concerned look, but was quickly cut off.
"Save it for someone who cares House. Cuddy's my medical proxy, because she was the most logical choice. Not that I need to explain this to you but, my mother is dead, my father pretty much abandoned me after her death, this job doesn't exactly leave much time for socializing, Foreman looks at everything from the perspective of how it will benefit him, Taub doesn't usually have an opinion, and well I'm sure you can figure out why I didn't ask you," patting his chest, she stepped off the elevator and headed to the conference room.
Walking in after her, he finally noticed that she'd changed her hair. "Red, huh?" he asked, indirectly.
"Yup red," Thirteen said, as if their conversation was perfectly normal. She put her stuff down and started to skim the chart the others had already blown off.
"Looks good," House said, approvingly.
"So glad you approve master," Thirteen replied, sarcastically. "Can we get back to the case now? I'm pretty sure our patient would prefer us to save his life over us discussing my dye job."
He nodded uncaring and gestured for the team to start throwing ideas out. When they'd narrowed it down to a few options, he figured it was time to wrap things up. "Okay Foremen run the tests, Taub go get a history, and you," he said maliciously pointing at Thirteen, "Go search her place Red." He wasn't sure why he had called her red, but it stirred something inside him long hidden away.
The group got up to go about their tasks, none of them noticing the strange look on his face.
He shook his head and pushed the thoughts out of his mind. There was no way it was possible. Needing something to do to hide from the flood of memories and pain, he headed down to the clinic. "Nothing like whiney people to keep me occupied," he mumbled.
Headed out of his office, Wilson walked by in the direction of the elevators. "Where are you headed?" Wilson asked skeptically.
Not bothering to look at him, House casually replied, "The clinic."
Wilson stopped instantly and stepped in front of him, "House, Cuddy already had a bad enough day without your influence, find somewhere else to stir up trouble."
"Geeze Wilson, I'm looking for peace and quiet, where better to take a nap?" He stepped onto the elevator and closed the doors before Wilson had a chance to get on.
A few minutes later, House exited the elevator and walked into the clinic. He had barely made it inside when a snotty nosed kid sneezed on him. Trying to control his reaction, he simply handed the kid his handkerchief and walked on. Headed towards the counter, he was met with a frazzled looking Cuddy.
"House today is really not the day, go nap in my office if that's what you're after, but I'm swamped and need all the exam rooms." She reached for her keys, but House grabbed her hand. "No nap, I just need to be busy for a while," he told her, then casually reached around her and grabbed one of the charts she had piled up.
Walking past her, he smirked, "Since when do I ever need your keys?" Calling into the waiting room he loudly said, "Thomas Archer?" When the man stood up, House led him towards one of the exam rooms.
About two hours later, he and Cuddy had made their way through the entire room. "Good work boss," House told her, as he put his last chart away.
"House?" Cuddy asked, concerned.
"I'm okay Leese, just fighting off some personal demons."
"Leese? God, you haven't called me that since we were dating. If you need someone to talk to Greg, I'm still your friend," she offered with a broken smile.
"Wanna go get dinner? My treat," House offered, nervously.
Cuddy looked up at him surprised, "I'd like that. Meet me in my office in about an hour?"
House nodded, and then quietly headed back to his office. House sat at his desk, well past his normal exiting time. His team was gone, exhausted from spending the past three days solely focused on their patient. Wilson had left forty minutes ago, begging him to let go of whatever was bothering him and go sleep. However, like all things that troubled House, he couldn't let go, not on the puzzles that didn't mean anything and certainly not on this one that did.
Staring at his computer, he pondered on what he needed to do. Hands trembling, he logged on to the hospital's mainframe under Cuddy's name. It took a matter of seconds to locate the employee file he was looking for. With a pit of both trepidation and excitement churning inside his stomach, he clicked the file open.
Her life, in black and white, listed before him. Skimming the details of the file, he searched for some fact to clarify what his brain and instincts were telling him. It couldn't be possible, but all the facts were leading him down a path that shook his very being. All his gruff mannerisms, his feigned indifference, and his persona of insensitivity wouldn't protect him this time.
It took him only seconds to find what he was looking for. Once he did, he stared blankly at the screen as the blood drained from his face. Printing the documents, he shoved them into a folder and into his bag before he gave them any more thought. This wasn't something he could do alone.
Cuddy was logging off her computer, when she was alerted that she was logged into two locations. Pinpointing the other location as House's office, she made a mental note to ask him about it later. She finalized some last minute notes, when her phone rang. "Cuddy," she answered tiredly. She couldn't help rolling her eyes when she heard Wilson's voice.
"I just thought you should know, House might be up to something. He was acting strange when I ran into him earlier. I would have called sooner, but I got wrapped up with a patient's family."
"Its fine Wilson, already taken care of," Cuddy assured him.
"Really? You are truly amazing. Well goodnight then."
"Goodnight Wilson," she said, quickly hanging up. Sometimes Wilson was as bad as a child tattling, she though shaking her head.
Shutting the folder she had been working on, she flipped her monitor off and headed over to get her coat.
House walked in and shyly nodded at her. Before she could reach for it, he had pulled her coat off the wrack and held it open for her.
"Thanks," she said, with a confused expression on her face. "Are you sure you're okay?" she was beginning to seriously get worried. She knew he had it in him to be nice and caring, but he rarely showed it.
"Just need some company, I don't -" he sighed, dropping his head, "I don't want to lose control."
Cuddy couldn't help it. She moved closer to him and slipped her arms around his waist. "I'm here for you. I know our relationship has always seesawed between emotions, but I would never turn my back on you."
Feeling her tears against his shirt, he wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her close, "Thank you. I could really use a friend right now."
Cuddy wiped her eyes and smiled at him, pulling back. She couldn't hide the smile that spread across her lips at the thought of being let back in. He'd kept her at a distance for so long, she couldn't remember the last time he'd considered her a friend. "Where are we headed?" she asked grabbing her messenger bag and tossing it over her shoulder.
"Someplace quiet?" he suggested. "I need to show you something." He looked around the room nervously.
She knew when he was being serious and this was one of those instances. "Okay. Wanna just order in at my place?" She was met with a very relieved look from the diagnostician.
"That would be great, thanks Leese. You're still the best," he pulled her closer and kissed her on the forehead.
Cuddy couldn't find the words to express her concern. Instead, she grabbed his hand and squeezed gently. "Let's go," she said quietly, leading him to her car.
"I should probably grab my bike," House said, unsure about their new dynamic.
"Please I think it'll be fine here for one night. You know I do have security staff hired," she said, smirking at him.
"Yeah cause Moses and Tommy Boy, back there, could really stop anyone," House snorted.
"Do you have no shame?" Cuddy asked, laughing. As they began to move along the crosswalk, she slipped her arm into his. It was just as much for her own stability as it was his. She always hated when the streets became sleek. She had a knack for landing on her ass.