The direction I think Season 7 should take

A/N – Let me preface this by saying I'm a slowly-reforming Huddy. That is to say, I was a Huddy, but now I'm not quite so convinced that relationship is even a good idea, let alone something that would work. I'm a bit on the fence about it and this work of fiction is my attempt to explore what I think should or should not happen during Season 7. This is going to start with House's discharge from Mayfield, then move on quickly and pretty much ignore most of what happened during season 6.

Also, I really have no idea what to call this story so, when I get the proper inspiration, I'll change the title to something more appropriate. I'm going to add to it, but I want to get reviews first – they'll help me, believe me!

Hilson fans, this one's for you!

Chapter 1

Those who knew him thought he was broken when he went to Mayfield. What a horrible way to describe a human being – "broken". What did they think was broken? His personality? His spirit? His sanity? If he was "broken", who broke him? People aren't just born broken, and they don't just break for no reason. More to the point, they very rarely break alone. Someone else is almost always involved, either as an enabler, a co-conspirator or some type of would-be savior. Someone else always knows the victim is breaking, and either plays along with it, does nothing to help, or doesn't know how to help. People never break without someone else knowing they're on a downhill slide long before they actually get to the "broken" stage.

He went to Mayfield a lonely, depressed chronic pain sufferer who thought, since he had lost his sanity and had to kick the Vicodin, that his only other option was to kill himself. Not that he hadn't tried to kill himself before. Every prior attempt at suicide was chalked up as some bizarre way to test or prove that he was right about some theory or another. He wanted everyone around him to think he was just that obsessed about finding the answer to some theory that he would risk his life to find the answer to some medical mystery. The last thing he wanted everyone around him to think was that he was really that depressed. But victims are often blind to what others around them actually do see. What's worse – to think that the people around you really don't know how depressed you are, or to think that they do know you are that depressed and they just don't give a damn anymore because they don't know how to help you or they don't want to help? Cuddy was clueless as to how to help him when he was in the throes of full-out psychosis. Wilson should have had him committed involuntarily after he tried to kill himself with the insulin, but he did help immensely by making the arrangements for House to be admitted to Mayfield when even Wilson recognized that there was no other option. It was incredibly sad that it took so many suicide attempts to make Wilson realize that House was beyond any ability to help himself.

During the trip to Mayfield, Wilson had plenty of time to ponder how he could have been so blind to his friend's condition.

Seven weeks of inpatient detoxing and psychotherapy later, which House endured alone because none of his "significant others" even visited him let alone made any attempt to get involved, he was discharged from Mayfield and made the long trip back to his home alone. Alone again because nobody even came to pick him up. While he was in Mayfield, Lydia was good for him, but like Stacy before her, that relationship didn't last. He never expected it to. After the sex, that'd be that. And that's exactly what happened.

Of the relationships that had passed the test of time, and he only had two, neither of them was there for him when he needed them most.

He walked out of Mayfield on a bright, sunny day, looking forward to recovery, and was forced to ride the bus home, alone. As fate would have it, the bus that pulled up to the bus stop was identical to the one in the horrific bus crash in which he was badly injured and Amber was fatally wounded. Wonderful. Why couldn't he enjoy some tiny little part of his recovery without Fate throwing in some huge obstacle, showing yet again that happiness always comes with a price?

Part of his psychotherapy involved learning how to form and nurture healthy interpersonal relationships; how to trust other people. What did it say about his recovery when he thought he was ready to get back into life, but was forced to start this new phase of his life alone because neither Wilson nor Cuddy, two of his closest acquaintances, was there to accompany him home?

He knew ahead of time that one of the conditions of his discharge was that he was to reside, at least temporarily, with someone else. He was not to live alone. Given that he only had two relationships currently, and only one of them really involved any kind of friendship, he decided to take Wilson up on his offer. Which was what made the bus ride "home" (well, to Wilson's, anyway) that much more difficult of a test to try to pass.

I'm being forced to camp out with Wilson, but in order to get to Wilson's, I have to ride alone on this Death Bus for Cutie and remember the bus crash and my head injury and Amber's death all the way back to Amber's boyfriend's house.

In the table of pros and cons, why do there always have to be two cons for every pro?