Hello House fans! Happy Holidays to all you Bah Humbugers. I'm taking a small hiatus from Alias in order to work on this seasonal story. I do not own House or any of its characters. Anyone who's looking for a pairing, you won't find it here for several chapters. Enjoy!

House absolutely despised the holidays.

Any time that united Christians, Jews, Muslims, Atheists, Hindus, Buddhists, Wiccans, Agnostics, and everyone else in the god damned world to act all cheery and give out presents made zero sense to him. And every time he said so, the person he had the misfortune to speak to just told him to get in the holiday spirit.

By now, of course, Cuddy knew better. When he yelled at a nurse this morning for trying to cheer him up, Cuddy shot him a nasty look while the nurse stood there, but when she walked away it was replaced by a sympathetic smile.

"Hey," she said walking over to him.

"You didn't come here to scold me, did you Mommy?" House said turning to walk away.

"No, just to make sure you really didn't want to come to the party tonight. Everyone will be there. Open bar, and undoubtedly some of those famous loose pediatric nurses," Cuddy smiled.

House was unmoved. He made the most serious face he could muster. "Does this look unsure to you?"

Cuddy scrunched her nose. "No."

"Good. Merry Christmas. Oh wait, you're Jewish. Happy Chinese food and a movie."

"Patient seems stable for now. BP is low but unchanging. Heart rate is just about normal," Foreman reported.

"Fantastic. But she's still in a coma and we have no idea why," House replied.

"That's not our fault," Taub answered. "We couldn't get an accurate patient history from an unresponsive woman and there are so many things we could be missing."

"And it never occurred to you to go find Cuddy and look through other hospitals' records? She can do that you know," House scoffed. Then he sang: "All I want for Christmas is my two brain lobes…"

"What's going on House, you're bitchier than usual," Thirteen stepped in.

"And you're uglier than usual."

"Nice comeback."

"Well, it's five and I'm going home," House said walking out the door. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw his team start to gather their stuff. "That didn't mean that you are."

They looked at each other in surprise. "House, it's Christmas Eve!" Foreman said.

"Well, if our patient can't enjoy it, why should you?"

"There's nothing we can do about the records until the 26th," Taub said. "And yes, I know that without my two brain lobes. Administrative offices close for Christmas."

"Then I guess you'll just have to keep taking blood until you find something," he said angrily.

"This isn't fair, House!" Thirteen cried.

"Life isn't fair." And with that, he left.

Thirteen sighed and Foreman shook his head. Taub twiddled his thumbs, and looked up at the other two.

"You guys should go. I can handle lab work myself," Taub said to them.

"We can't do that," Foreman replied. "Yeah, it's not fair to you," Thirteen chimed. Taub knew they were trying to be polite, but he could sense in both of their voices a "Yes PLEASE!"

Taub chuckled. "It's alright, I'm Jewish. It's a night like any other night to me."

"Are you sure?" Thirteen said raising an eyebrow. "And your wife won't mind?"

"It's not a problem. Consider it a Christmas gift."

Foreman smiled and shook his hand. Thirteen bent to give the shorter doctor a hug. "Thank you so much," Foreman said and Thirteen nodded. They then left to get ready for the hospital holiday party.

Taub walked to the pathology lab and sat down with a vial of the coma girl's blood. He made a list of ten tests to try. When he completed the first one, he stretched backwards and started smiling a creepy smile.

He had an idea.

Sitting on his couch, House nursed the lovely brown liquid that he held in his rough hands. It was the second brown one after the original clear one, and finally, he was starting to feel the beautiful side effects.

It started with the pain in his leg becoming all but nonexistent. All he could feel was a slight tingle where his muscles had turned to mush and soon he didn't feel it at all.

Then, he felt surprisingly light. It was easy to maneuver himself from the kitchen back to the couch, minus banging into several pieces of furniture.

And lastly, the colors in the room became washed out. The sounds became softer. He felt sleep washing over him, and eager for this night to be over, he happily obliged…

And then he felt a hand on his shoulder.

He opened his eyes dramatically. He turned his neck to see a small, soft hand, and he followed the arm up to a person that he knew, but did not know.

At least not anymore.

"Hi, Dr. House," the ten year old said cheerfully. She looked healthy and bright, with a full head of thick brown hair.

House didn't reply.

"Oh, I'm sorry, you must not recognize me. I was a patient of yours. I'm…"

"Andie," House said softly.

"You remembered my name? I'm impressed!" she replied sweetly.

"How did you get in here? Nice wig, by the way."

"Oh, this isn't a wig; this is my hair, silly! I never liked wigs."

House looked at her blankly.

"Well I didn't want to die bald," she said, unaware of why he was so confused.

Then he remembered. Five years ago, he had saved her from a blood clot in her brain. But it hadn't mattered; the girl was terminal before she even checked into the hospital. Her alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma had only given her a year left to live.

If this had been the first time he'd seen dead people, he might have been more worried.

"So I'm hallucinating again?" he asked.

"Again? You've hallucinated too? Ah, well that's not my business. Nope. I'm a ghost. And believe me, I don't want to be here right now, but I have to tell you that you must change your ways," Andie said.

"What's wrong with my ways? I'm still alive aren't I? Maybe you should've changed your ways," he scowled. He knew he was being insensitive to the little girl and his face fell a little, but she didn't seem to mind.

"That's not important. You must live a happier, more benevolent life before you are destined to remain here as a ghost forever. I'm here on a job, but some are forced to wander the Earth for all time. I've only been here a few minutes and I'm creeped out."

"You're creeped out?"

"Dr. House, unless you promise me now that you will change your ways, three spirits will visit you in the next three nights."

"And what will they accomplish?"

"Perhaps nothing," she responded. "But I hope they do what they're coming to do. Unless you promise."

"I don't promise a thing to dead children."

"Hmm," Andie hummed softly, and vanished with a gust of wind.

He stared at the television, playing some old movie about a greedy accountant. Uninterested, he blamed the whole ordeal on the alcohol and collapsed in his bed. Alone, the way he liked it.

He fell into a deep, deep sleep.