Chapter One

Pushing her blonde hair off her forehead, the young girl moved to her bedroom window to see outside. The sun shone down through the thin clouds, warming up the people outside but not warming up the ground enough to melt the snow. Smiling as a car pulled in her driveway, she turned and headed downstairs, pulling on her coat and scarf.

"Lily! Your gloves!" Spinning, she grabbed them off the table, and grinned.

"Okay, sir! I'll be back in a few hours," she called, and hurried out the door, moving quickly to her drive and climbing into the backseat of the car. The brunette boy in front of her turned around, and grinned.

"You ready to go, Lily?" She giggled.

"No, of course not, I'm just sitting here to think. Of course I am, Jimmy, let's go." He grinned, and reached over, pushing on her shoulder, as the car backed from the driveway and they headed off down the road.

"Smartass," he joked, laughing as they drove.

"So what movie are we going to see?" she asked, grinning. Jimmy tugged a piece of paper from his pocket, handing it back to her.

"The one we wanted to see. Breakfast Club," he replied, smiling back at her. Giggling, Lily clapped her hands.

"Yay!" she exclaimed, clapping and laughing. Jimmy gave a huge smile as they drove to the theater.

Lily climbed out of the car, but looked back in as Jimmy rolled down his window.

"Would you like to come in, Jimmy? Um…maybe for some cocoa?" she asked, rubbing her hands together although her gloves were keeping them warm. He looked over his shoulder at his mom, and nodded, climbing from the car.

"I can call you when I'm ready to come home, mom," he said, smiling at her. When the door closed, she waved and pulled out of the driveway, heading back to her house. Lily smiled, relieved, as she led Jimmy into the house and to the kitchen.

"F…Father? I brought Jimmy in for some hot cocoa, is that alright?"

"I don't care!" he called, from another room of the house, his voice muffled. Lily glanced at Jimmy, and hung up her coat and scarf, slipping her gloves into her pockets.

"Alright…thank you…" Forcing a smile at her friend, Lily took him into the kitchen and started making some cocoa, boiling water in the kettle on the stove before taking a seat at the table. Jimmy sat next to her, and for a couple of moments, neither of them said anything. When sound finally did come through, it was only from the kettle, and Lily stood quickly, making two glasses of cocoa before sitting back down.

"Lily?" Jimmy asked, looking at her.

"Yeah?" she replied, sipping her cocoa, and not looking up. He sighed, and sipped his.

"What are you going to do once you graduate?" he asked softly. "Are you going to do what your father wants, or are you going to do what you want?" Lily looked up at her friend, and bit her lip.

"I…I don't really know, actually…I wouldn't mind-"

"Girl?! You gonna bring me some of that, or what?" Lily flinched, and looked at Jimmy with somewhat frightened eyes.

"I'll…be back…" she said, grabbing up another cup and making more cocoa, hurrying off to give her father the glass, before moving to the kitchen.

"Lily, do you want to come over tonight, stay at my house?" he asked, looking up at her. She shook her head quickly.

"N…No…I can't. He'd kill me." Jimmy stood up, and took her elbow.

"Lily, are you going to be alright here?" She gave an uncomfortable chuckle, shrugging.

"I'm doing good so far, aren't I? Look…maybe you should go…I'll just…see you at school tomorrow?" Jimmy gave her a gentle hug, and kissed her cheek.

"Call me if you need anything, Lily. I am serious. Alright?" he asked, dialing his mother. Lily nodded.

"I will…Don't worry."

Lily looked over from her desk, and out the window as the rain pelted against it. Rubbing her eyes, she heard the bell ring, and looked up at the classroom of expectant students. She stood up, and picked up her marker.

"Morning, guys…"

"Morning, Ms. Evans," responded a few of the students. Smiling at them, she turned to the white board, and started to write.

Sitting at her desk in her apartment that afternoon, Lily started going through some of the New Jersey newspapers. A stack sat on her desk in front of her, while a bunch of crumpled ones lay around her on the floor. Sighing, she finally shoved most of the pile off of her desk, letting them flutter around to the floor. Putting her head in her hands, she found herself looking down into one of the papers, with an Apartment ad in it. Lifting it up, she re-read it to herself, and got a gigantic smile on her face, doing some quick math in her head before grabbing her phone and dialing the number on the paper.

"Sorry, I'm not home. Leave a message, I'll get back to you. Beep!" Chuckling, Lily cleared her throat.

"Um, hello…My name is Lily Evansfield, I'm calling about your advertisement in the newspaper, for renting out half of your apartment? I'm actually currently living in Detroit, but I'm really struggling to find a good enough place in New Jersey to move to, and I saw yours and thought I might call. I'm hoping to move out there in a few weeks, or a couple months, but I can stretch it if I need to…So…Please, call me back. Again, that's Lily Evansfield, and my number here is 893-555-2849. Thank you…" she said, hesitating a second before hanging up. Sighing, she set her phone and the paper down, and rubbed her eyes, leaving it all where it was and heading for the bathroom to shower before she collapsed on her bed.

Lily awoke the following morning to hear her phone ringing, but brushed it off, rolling over and turning off the alarm on her clock and just laying in the near-silence for a few minutes before she climbed out of bed. Rubbing her eyes, she moved out of the bedroom and pushed her finger into the PLAY button on her answering machine.

"Message One…Hi, Lily…this is James Wilson, you called about the apartment. I'm honestly desperate to rent off half of this place, and you are the only person to call me, if you can believe it, so if you would like, you can come out and move in anytime. Just, call me to let me know when, because I have a conference at one point this month, and if you're going to come while I'm gone, I will figure out a place to put your key, alright? Thanks, Lily." She laughed, and clapped her hands, moving out of the room with a big grin on her face as she got ready for work. She paused at the end of her bed, and put a hand over her stomach, moving slowly into the bathroom and fumbling with her medicine cabinet, opening a bottle of medicine and popping a couple pills into her mouth, staring into the sink as she waited for the feeling to subside.

A knock sounded at his office door, and he looked up over the rims of his glasses.

"Yes, Dr Cameron?" he asked, tugging his glasses off and placing them on his desk. The brunette girl walked in, setting a red folder on his desk.

"I need a consult…" she said quickly, and he lifted the X-Ray out, holding it up to the light to look at it.

"Well, Cameron, it's a spot on the X-Ray…you know what that is…" he said, looking back at her.

"I know…"

"Then why did you need a consult?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. She sighed, and reached out, handing him another file.

"Because this was his X-Ray from two months ago…" she said. Lifting up the second, he looked back at forth to see that in a two month period, the spot on the X-Ray went from nonexistent a little under the size of a baseball.

"This is the same patient?" he asked, bewildered, as he looked up. She nodded. Standing, he took both folders, and looked at her.

"Is he one of yours or one of House's?" he questioned.

"House." Nodding, he headed down the hall a little ways with Cameron behind him, and opened the door to see Dr. Gregory House at the table with two other young doctors. Tossing the file to the table, Wilson put his hands on his hips.

"Your utterly serious about these X-Rays, that they both come from the same patient two months apart?" he questioned. House looked up at him, and raised an eyebrow.

"No, Wilson, I just decided to pack those two random X-Rays together without a clue who either one was just to see if you would notice." Wilson chuckled, and shook his head.

"Two months apart, then, right?" House looked at Wilson, and turned his head to the white board, where in big red letters, it said APRIL FOOL'S DAY.

"Got ya," House said, smirking. Wilson rolled his eyes, and shook his head, waving off his best friend as he moved back to his office to see the light of his cell phone on. Raising an eyebrow, he picked it up and called his voicemail, smiling as he heard Lily Evansfield's voice on the recording.

"Hi, Mr. Wilson…This is Lily again. I just woke up a few minutes ago, otherwise I would have answered your call. Um, if it's alright with you, of course, I would like to be moved in there by the weekend, two weeks from now. I can get my job transferred out there, and the kids will be on a Spring Break by then, so it would be a seamless transition," she said, with a laugh. "So…sometime in the week, two weeks from now? Just…call me back and let me know, I'll be at work in about ten minutes, but I'll be able to answer again tonight, so, just…whenever you get this. Thank you!" He grinned a little, and called her back, pulling out his calendar.

"Hi, Lily, it's James Wilson again…you can call me James, Mr. Wilson just makes me feel old. Two weeks from now sounds good, that week I'll be gone from Thursday till Saturday night sometime, so if you're going to be here during that time, let me know and I'll put the key somewhere you can get it without a hassle," he said. "Talk to you soon." Hanging up, he sat down, and smiled as he jotted down a note in his schedule book that she would be out during that week.

Lily drove into town two weeks later, and looked around for signs that would lead her to the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. When she finally found it, she grinned and pulled up into a parking space, shutting off and locking up her car as she headed inside, looking around the entrance. Spotting the nurse station, she stepped up to it, and smiled kindly to the nurse behind it.

"Hello, may I help you?" the woman asked.

"Yes…I'm looking for a Doctor Gregory House, is he in?" As the nurse opened her mouth to speak, a lower, sort of rough voice spoke up behind her.

"Not presently, but if you leave a message, he won't get back to you." Lily turned around, and raised an eyebrow at Dr. House.

"So then am I to presume you are the machine for Doctor House?" House nodded, and headed for the elevator.

"Who're you, then, if you knew to ask for me?" he questioned, as he pushed the button with his cane.

"Um, I am Lily Evansfield…James Wilson told me to come find you for a key to his apartment?" she said, hoping he hadn't forgotten.

"Ah…so you're the new roommate?" he questioned. Lily chuckled.

"Uh, yeah, that would be me. Do…do you have the key he left me?" she asked hopefully, and House looked at her as he climbed into the elevator, her following. As the door closed, he looked her over, and nodded, not saying anything as the doors reopened on his floor as she followed him to an office that had the words Dr. Gregory House, Diagnostician written on the door. He moved into his office and reached onto his desk, turning and tossing her a Hide-A-Key. She caught it, and opened it, looking in at the key.

"There you go. Enjoy his place while he's gone…"

"Oh, well, um, one…more thing, if you wouldn't mind." House dropped into his chair, and picked up a ball off of his desk, tossing it into the air and catching it as he put his feet up on the desk.

"What?"

"I actually don't know where it is…You see, I came right here from Detroit, and-" House reached out, grabbing a piece of paper and a pen, waving his hand at her to stop and jotted down a mini-map, with a red line from the Hospital to Wilson's building.

"Here…apartment 4A," he replied, and she smiled, taking the paper.

"Thank you, Doctor House. Goodbye," she said, waving her hand and walking back out, tugging a pill bottle from her pocket and popping a couple as she headed for the elevator. House raised an eyebrow, watching her, and put his feet on the floor as Dr. Cameron walked in.

"Cameron, I need a patient history," he said, looking at her.

Lily looked around the apartment, and smiled, taking a few of her boxes right back into the room that had a sign with her name on it, and started unpacking in the near-empty room, arranging it up to her liking. When she had finished, she shut off the light, climbed into her bed, and fell asleep quickly.

Lily sat in the gymnasium, her knees pulled up her to chest as she watched the actors rehearse on stage. Jimmy crossed the stage, letting his lines pass his lips and ring out through the room, well enough for her to hear even when she was hardly listening. She inadvertently smiled at his voice, but never lifted her eyes from the floor, even when there was a ka-thunka, and after a second silence, laughter. The director waved his hands.

"Alright, alright…Jimmy, get up off the stage…We'll call it a day, and meet back tomorrow," he said, smiling. Standing, Jimmy hopped off the stage as he rubbed his shoulder, moving over to Lily and crouching beside her.

"Hey, Lil…You ready to go?" he asked. She nodded, grasping her bag in her hand, and stood.

"Yes…I'm ready…" she said, giving him a very soft smile as he picked up his things. Reaching out, Jimmy put an arm around her shoulders, heading out to the car with her as his mum gave them a ride back to her house first, then off to Jimmy's. Waving from the door, Lily walked inside and set her bag down, hanging up her jacket before grasping her bag and going to the steps.

"You are late!" She froze at the bottom step, eyes wide, for a moment before turning around.

"What time is it?" she asked, softly. He walked from the living room, his hands crossed over his chest.

"One hour later than it should be when you are walking in that door…"

"I…Jimmy had rehearsal, I had to wait with him. I thought I'd told-" He walked over, and thwacked her in the side of the head, making her flinch and close her mouth.

"Don't talk back, you didn't tell me shit…Get to your room. I'll be up shortly." Lily turned around, and moved up the steps, her bottom lip trembling as she placed her bag against her closet door. Looking out the window opposite the door, she watched the dark sky finally open up, as the rain beat down against her window. She sniffled, and put her hand on the cool glass, closing her eyes and listening as the footsteps ascended the steps.

When the footsteps descended the steps, Lily dragged herself into the bathroom, shakily locking the door and pulling open the medicine chest without looking, only to see that the iodine, the hydrogen peroxide, all of it was gone. Sniffling, she looked around, and moved back into the hall, listening to the front door slam. A moment of silence that was followed by the engine of the car turning over caused her to hurry to the phone on the hall table, dialing the first number she could think of.

"Hello?" She took a deep breath.

"Hello, um…is…is Jimmy there?" she asked, trying to hide the fact that she was crying.

"Just a moment…Jimmy! Phone!" After a few seconds, she heard some shuffling and another voice came on the line.

"Hello?"

"Jimmy? Do you have any peroxide…or iodine?" she asked. Raising his eyebrow, he looked at his mom.

"Yeah, Lily…Why?"

"Can I…Can you bring it over?"

"Right away…" He hung up the phone, talking to his mom as he headed to the bathroom, returning with the peroxide and some cotton balls. "C'mon mom…" She drove him down the few blocks to Lily's house, where he hopped out of the car, and came right inside, to find her sitting on the top of the steps, head in her hands.

"Hey, Lil…C'mon," he said, taking her hand and moving her to the bathroom as he helped her out. When she looked at him, though, he jumped at the black eye and the blood across her face. "Jeez, Lily…Why do you stay around here?"

"I don't have anywhere else to go, nobody believes me except you," she said, looking up at him. Pouring peroxide onto some cotton balls, he helped clean her up, before taking her hand.

"You can come say with me."

"No I can't…he'll drag me out of there, or the cops will, because you can't legally house me without his permission…He's my guardian, in the legal sense," she said softly, shaking her head. Jimmy set the ball and peroxide on the sink, wrapping his arms around her.

"If he does it again, Lily…" She nodded, and hugged him back.

"I know…Thank you, Jimmy…"

Lily stood at the stove, watching her eggs cook as she waited for them to be cooked enough to eat. She heard the locks clicking behind her, and turned her head, looking over her shoulder as a tall, handsome brunette walked in with a suitcase hanging off his shoulder. He locked the door and set the bag down on the floor before turning around to see Lily at the stove. He smiled as she flipped off the fire, moving the eggs to her plate. As he hung up his coat, he walked over, sticking out his hand.

"Lily, right?" he asked. She smiled, and wiped her hand on her jeans, sticking it out for him.

"Yeah…uh…I'm Lily. It's nice to meet you, James." James nodded, and lowered his hand.

"I see you found the place alright…was Dr. House a hassle when you went for the key?" Laughing slightly, she shook her head, and plucked a fork from the drying rack.

"No…actually, he pretended to be an answering machine rather than himself. Not too bad, honestly," she replied. "Are you hungry? I can make up something if you want…" she offered, pointing her fork to the stove. He shook his head.

"That's alright, thank you though. I'm just going to put my things away and take a shower," he said, heading back across to the door and picking up his bag. "I take it you've gotten set up in your room…?" he asked, turning to look at her. Lily nodded quickly.

"Yes, I did. It's a nice place here, James. I'm amazed there wasn't anyone else wanting it." He chuckled.

"So was I, but I'm glad to have a roommate finally," he said, smiling at her. "Do you need to use the bathroom?" he called as he opened his bedroom door.

"No, thank you!" she called back, sitting on the couch, and turning the television on, putting it on Lifetime to watch "What Should You Do?"

Within about twenty minutes, James moved into the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge and moving over to sit in the chair near the couch.

"What's this?" he asked, as she stood at the commercial.

"It's this show, 'What Should You Do?'" she said, glancing over her shoulder as she headed to the kitchen. "They give scenarios of things that can happen – piercing your heart with something sharp, getting stalked, shot, saving lives – and tells you what you should do, and what you shouldn't do." James nodded, and chuckled.

"I wonder how accurate they are," he replied, glancing at the TV. She washed her plate, and set it in the drying rack, sitting back on the couch.

"Quite, actually. I was going to be a doctor, but I couldn't deal with the possibility of losing patients, so I took on a different major," she said, chuckling. James looked at her.

"Really? Well, I'm sorry to hear that, but I can understand not wanting to lose patients…I'm an oncologist, so most of my patients do…lose," he said, shaking his head and staying quiet for a minute. She bit her lip.

"Sorry, James…" He flashed a soft smile.

"It's alright. Not your fault," he said truthfully, and Lily smiled over at him as she glanced at the clock, yawning and rubbing her neck.

"Geh…I'm going to head to bed. Will I see you tomorrow?" she asked, turning around from the other side of the couch. "Maybe we can get to know each other." James smiled up at her, and thought.

"I work during the day, but I'll be back here around six, unless House needs me for something," he said with a shrug. Lily smiled.

"Then I'll see you tomorrow evening…Good night, James."

"Night, Lily," he replied, watching her walk to her room. She closed and locked her door, and leaned against it, staring at her bed in semi-shock at who her roommate was. She glanced down, back at the door she was against, and took a deep breath, moving over and dropping on top of her covers, laying still and quiet for at least a half hour before finally drifting off to sleep.