A/N: So, the wonderful, beautiful, amazing Olivia Wilde has left the show and this Monday was her swan song, even though she was there a lot less I was expecting. I decided to bid my own farewell with this story. All you need to know is Thirteen never showed up at the hospital with the food after the phone call but after she'd already been fired in the end.
I own nothing but my ideas as all the characters are property of Fox and/or David Shore.
There was an impatient knock on his apartment door and he had an odd sense of déja vu, knowing just who it would be. He opened the door and was met by a pair of blue eyes similar to his own.
"Sorry, a booty call will not unfire you."
She stepped in with a bemused smile on her face and held up a small paper bag. "Lo mein from Naan Palace. Figured you couldn't afford a trip down there."
He gave her a curious glance but conceded. "Plates are in the second cupboard to the right."
While she prepared the dish, House kept looking at her, wondering why had she come. Was this a I will never see you again at work but let's have dinner kind of a thing? After having worked with Thirteen for nearly four years, she was still an enigma. And he loved every minute of that.
"So, girlfriend kicked you out? Maybe if you had sex with Foreman, he might allow me on a vacation to Mykonos."
"Funny. You have to eat something else than hospital food, so just enjoy it."
They settled for eating then, quiet with only the clinking of their forks against the plates and the silence surrounding them. It occurred to him that she was probably the only person he could really be quiet around and not be bothered by it. She didn't need small talk to socialize and it wasn't awkward or strange, but somewhat familiar.
"Her name is Melina, she's of Greek origin and we have been together for seven months. And yes, I think I'm in love with her. You were not asking very loudly at the hospital."
Just like that. Thirteen was looking at him now, her clear blue eyes scrutinizing every move he would make, every look, every word.
"Can I come watch? What I mean by that is, she should come over and we could have a fun little sleepover."
He didn't disappoint her in his response and she chuckled as she rose and cleared the table. They could always communicate in banter and teasing and his offensive or crude jokes could never faze her.
They sat down on the couch and he decided to prod her for some insight. "So, what do you think of new girl and newer girl?"
"If I was of the insecure type, I would say you have been trying to replace me and if I was overconfident, I would say even the two of them don't quite add up to me. Also, I think you're trying to play them off against each other and from the looks of it, you're succeeding."
Now it was his turn to chuckle and admire her talent for seeing right through all the schemes and scams he came up with.
"I will have you know that Dr. Park punched his last supervisor because he tried to grope her and she's really good at persuasion when she wants to."
"You mean she's an emotional roller coaster with anger management issues who's really there because she didn't have anywhere else to go."
"And Adams is like you 2.0 with more eagerness and naivety."
"She comes from old money and yet she worked at a prison hospital and now she's agreed to work for the ex-convict of a doctor. She's trying to prove she's not her parents while everything she does concurs just that."
Of course she would have seen it all during her time at the hospital and recognized them both for what they were. Thirteen could read people but she herself was like a book, written in a language no one had invented the words for.
"So, are Chase and Taub coming back to work for you?"
He nodded and she was not surprised. "They are very loyal. You even have Foreman to keep tabs on you."
"Loyalty I don't need. Taub is miserable because he wants to escape from the baby drama in his life and Chase is bored out of his mind, although now that he's over Cameron, not so miserable. And Foreman gets off on the power he gets from being the Dean and how it lets him control me."
"You even persuaded me to come back."
He looked at her now, really looked. He hadn't missed the relief on her face when he'd fired her and essentially made the decision for her. House might have been a misanthropic ass who didn't have the ability to empathize but for some peculiar reason, he hadn't been able to accept her guilty conscience acting on her behalf.
"Yes, and then I fired you. And here you are."
"I did say you were a friend to me once and I wouldn't cut you out of my life just because I have some other source of motivation as well."
"I got you back that time you went to Thailand."
She gave him a curious smile, the kind people would describe as a Mona Lisa smile. "Yes. And I would've stayed now as well."
"Which is why I had to cut you out myself. You would've been unhappy at the job and with your girlfriend and..." he stopped because his train of thought couldn't possibly explain why he cared about that. Unfortunately for him, she'd seen his direction.
"And you make it your mission to make people around you unhappy. Why do you care about my well-being?"
It seemed there was no answer for that, not even a chaos of thoughts in his head, just a whole lot of nothingness. He couldn't verbalize this, didn't know what he felt or what it meant.
And somehow she understood whatever he couldn't say as he watched her features turn into a delicate smile and felt her hand on his knee. There wasn't anything sexual about it and while she stayed quiet, everything became a lot clearer in House's head.
"Because you're...my friend?" It came out as a question but the look in her eyes made him aware of the fact that he didn't have to be asking that.
"You were my friend once and if you really wanted to, you could be one now, House."
His thoughts gave way to one that seemed to have formulated out of thin air but rang true. Because you are like me and I want to see you be happy when I couldn't.
It was what he didn't say but she nodded like she could know what he meant.
"So, we could have friendship bracelets and then we could braid each other's hair. And talk about boys. Or, well, girls."
He brought levity to the situation, defusing the possibly explosive seriousness in the room and they could both breathe easy. A big expose of feelings wasn't what they were comfortable with, at least not with each other.
"I'll bring some Disney movies next time, then." She rose to leave and he followed her to the door, surprised and delighted by the promise of a next time.
"Night, House." She gave him the same look of astonishment and relief and understanding as she had at the hospital but this time it was followed by a quick kiss on the cheek and she was gone.
He smirked, absentmindedly touching his cheek. He might've said Adams was Thirteen 2.0 but she would never really rise to the occasion of being the one enigma he couldn't crack.
A/N: Before the episode, I was totally rooting for a Chase/Thirteen pairing having happened in the time that had passed but I just couldn't change that much, so she can be happy with her girlfriend/partner. Please leave a review to brighten my day.