This is a sequel to Nyx. I could have just gone on adding chapters to the original story, but since it's been a while since I updated that story, I decided to start anew. The chapters are more or less just comments on the episodes starting with 7x07. And in case you don't know Nyx, she is Night and House meets with her in his dreams. The location is usually the Garden of Death – Death being Nyx' daughter.

Back again

"What are you doing here?" Nyx demanded as she found House sitting in her daughter's garden again.

"Smelling the roses," House replied dryly. "Other than that, not quite sure."

"I thought you had left darkness behind you," Nyx wondered. "When you got together with Lisa."

"Darkness is never that far from me, as you well know," House shrugged. "But I did think that I was at least facing light. Apparently the light I saw was just an oncoming train."

"You mean her reaction to your lie?" Nyx queried.

"I can't say that I'm even that surprised," House nodded. "I did expect this to happen. I told her that this would happen."

"But all she wants is an apology," Nyx pointed out. "She isn't showing you the door exactly."

"But I didn't do anything wrong," House insisted. "I didn't lie to her about anything personal and surely she has learned by now that when it comes to the patient I will lie, cheat, steal and do anything else necessary to save them."

"Apparently she had forgotten," Nyx mused. "Or then she just believed that you wouldn't lie to her anymore; that now that you are closer you would find some other way to convince her."

"And when the patient doesn't have time for any other way?" House asked.

"Then you do what you must and then apologize," Nyx replied nonchalantly. "In fact, I don't understand why you don't just apologize now and get it over with."

"Sure, that would remedy all," House scoffed. "First I lie to her as her employee and then I lie to her as her boyfriend. And two lies make a right. Sorry, I don't lie to her about personal things."

"It's an apology, not a lie," Nyx explained patiently.

"When I don't agree with her that I did anything wrong, then it is a lie," House stated. "It's a false apology that I would give her just to get back to her good graces. Yes, she is hurt and I'm sorry that she is hurt, but I'm not sorry I lied. It saved the patient and I would do it again. In fact I will do it again and where will we be then? She will feel doubly betrayed because by apologizing now I would give her the impression that I won't do it again."

"Amazing," Nyx smiled ruefully. "You even have an honour code for lies. And you have caught yourself in a bit of a bind. How do you think you'll get out of it? You won't convince her that she is wrong."

"If I can't get her to at least agree to disagree, then we're done," House sighed. "I will lie to her again about the professional. There is no getting away from that. So if she can't live with it when I do; if she can't accept that when I do lie to her I do it because I judge it to be necessary, then we have no future."

"You'll need one heck of an argument to get her to accept that your point of view has any merit at all," Nyx reminded him.

"I need to try," House shrugged. "I'm not willing to throw in the towel as yet."

"That's good to know," Nyx said. "But are you sure you do need to lie. Masters has been doing rather well with her 'honesty is the best policy' approach."

"So far," House admitted. "Though she didn't do that well with our previous patient. He refused the better treatment against her advice because she told him it was dangerous."

"But it didn't matter in the end because, first of all, you gave him the treatment you wanted anyway, and secondly neither treatment was right anyway, as the illness turned out to be something else," Nyx recapped. "But she did well with Dr Brody."

"True," House accepted. "Apparently she can relate to professional pride."

"Maybe you ought to send her to Cuddy when you want permission for a procedure?" Nyx suggested. "As Masters can't tell a lie, Cuddy would have to trust the message."

"Unless I had lied to Masters, too," House pointed out. "Using go-betweens won't guarantee honesty. I could try it, though, just to prove a point."

"And what point would that be?" Nyx asked.

"That Masters can ask for any fool procedure I want and get permission because Cuddy wants to teach me a lesson about not lying," House shrugged.

"That would probably not go down too well," Nyx suspected.

"With me or with Cuddy once she found out that I had sent Masters on a fool's errand?" House clarified.

"Probably Cuddy if she thinks you were trying to make her the fool," Nyx admitted.

"Yeah, better not try that," House sighed. "She already thinks I've tried to put her in that role. That is why I'm in the doghouse right now."

"She trusted you," Nyx affirmed. "She does feel like you deliberately made a fool of her."

"And I'm sorry that she feels that way," House groaned. "But she shouldn't have trusted me. She knows I've lied to her over and over again for my patients."

"But that was when she was just your boss," Nyx insisted. "You did agree on brutal honesty."

"So maybe I'm the fool," House proposed ruefully. "I trusted her to mean it when she said she didn't want me to change."

"Wanting you to change some of your behaviours isn't same as wanting you to change as a person," Nyx reminded him.

"My patients have always gone ahead of everything else," House explained. "For Cuddy to expect me to start thinking of consequences to myself or my relationship with her or anything other than my patient, is expecting me to change as a person. I don't lie to my boss if I can see some other way to get what I want. And I don't lie to my girlfriend. Which means that I can't tell my girlfriend that I'm sorry that I lied to my boss or that I won't do it again."

"Look," Nyx sighed with resignation. "This is a new situation for her too. She needs time to figure out how to adjust."

"Or to figure out that she can't," House grunted. "As I predicted."

"So you're throwing in the towel after all?" Nyx was surprised.

"No. I won't do that," House insisted. "But I will brace myself for the eventuality when she will. But right now I need to find a way to get her to understand my side of this."

"Good luck with that," Nyx scoffed. "She took you by your word when you agreed that you won't lie to each other."

"I didn't mean it as an absolute contract," House rolled his eyes. "It's not like she won't lie to me about things! Only her lies will be personal. And she will call them 'white lies' and she won't even give them a second thought."

"So you think that she wants absolute honesty from you – who have never been absolutely honest," Nyx recounted. "But reserves the right to decide which ones of her lies are insignificant enough no to count as breach of contract?"

"Well she knows I don't expect total honesty," House pointed out. "And most of her lies are pretty insignificant."

"But it's still a double standard," Nyx asserted. "If you are expected to be totally honest then she needs to be too. Or then you need to renegotiate the deal."

"I'd need to catch her on a lie first," House pondered. "And though I usually do know when she lies, I probably won't care about the lie enough to take her up on it. As I said, hers are 'white lies' and she will not accept that there is any similarity between them and my lie."

"Well it was just a suggestion," Nyx shrugged. "So, what are you going to do?"

"I don't know," House sighed. "I'll probably try to make nice and hope she will accept that I see this differently and once it becomes apparent that she won't I'll fold, apologize and wait for the axe to fall the next time I'll lie to her."

"That's not a very good plan," Nyx mourned.

"It's the best I have," House said. "If you have anything better in mind, feel free to share."

"Sorry, no," Nyx noted. "I've been around a long time and I can't really get too upset about lies. They have been around as long as gods and man. You expect them, you tell them and you deal with them. And you hope nobody gets too hurt – mentally, emotionally or physically. We've both dealt with lies from the beginning. Your whole childhood was a lie and when you told the truth you got punished. It does affect your view of lies – and of life."

"Yeah," House accepted. "But though everybody lies…."

"Except – apparently – Masters," Nyx interrupted.

"Even she tells social lies," House reminded Nyx. "But as I was saying though everybody lies, not everybody agrees on what lies matter and what not. And that's where we need to find common ground, me and Cuddy."

"Now that is a puzzle for you to solve," Nyx laughed.

"Tell me about it," House groaned.

"Well, I suppose I better leave you to ponder on it," Nyx smiled. "Good luck."