Author's Note: Just a little something I came up with after watching Dying Changes Everything (twice). I don't really think there are spoilers as long as everyone's seen the episode, or the season 5 promos (which I'm sure everyone has…).
Disclaimer: I don't own House MD
Storms and Rosemary
He didn't like the silence. It seemed far too big and loud in the skeleton-room. His gaze swept the expanse of office, taking in the empty desk, the bare bookcase. Nothing. There was nothing. Not even the box with the knickknacks from his desk was left. There wasn't even the faintest shadow of memory on the walls. It was as if he'd never existed, but then again, maybe he never had.
Everything he'd ever done, it'd all been for him. He'd always been there, a great shadow stalking his every move. It was always the same: he'd give and give and give and define his life by the smile as rare as the bloom of the Bramhakamal flower, and just as fleeting. But he'd never minded such a life – and never seen the destruction of such an existence for always being in the eye of the storm.
But that had changed. As swiftly as the changing of the wind or the crashing of a bus. The storm was howling around him, trapping him in darkness more complete than the black of nothingness. He couldn't stop the storm. He knew that now, as surely as he knew that the sun would rise, the earth would spin, and life would go on. He had to get out of the storm and pick up the pieces, before he could keep going. But then he would wait. Even hurricanes blew themselves out. Wasn't the sky most beautiful right after a storm?
Dark eyes wandered back to the desk; to the only splash of meaning left in the cold, unforgiving room. A single sprig of Rosemary with flowers of purest white, freshly cut, and smelling of a winter forest. He knew, of course. He had given it to him, yet one more trick, one more apology, one more message. He pocketed it, slowly. He hoped he would understand, but then, he always did.
He could hear the soft tap-tap of a cane in the hallway. He gave a last cursory glance around the room, and straightened his shoulders.
It was time to confront the storm.
Notes:
The Bramhakamal flower is a white lotus that is traditionally said to bloom once a year during the darkest hours of the night.
Rosemary is said to represent Rememberance.