The day was not getting better in House's eyes.

His leg was throbbing, shooting pulses of pain along his thigh that felt like someone was taking a dagger and digging it into him with every step he took. His vicodin wasn't even dulling it anymore. Cuddy had given his team a new case and a whole new wardrobe due to her outfit. If House didn't know any better, and he did. She was wearing a corset style top causing that, oh so heavenly bundles of joys she called breasts, to press together and give every baby in the building a demand to sample them… even he wouldn't mind a little suck. But that was besides the point, he found out, later on, why she wore such a revealing top. Which amused the living crap out of him, she was jealous! Was she worried that House would find the new case more desirable then her? Well yes, he did.

Peering in on his team as they busied themselves with their new case, he found their new victim, was a very pretty little number. Shoulder length layered brown hair with blond high lights, soft hazel eyes that watched Kutner speak with such polite silence. She didn't look sick, which got House to take the case. She had passed out at work and was found with internal bleeding. Nothing leading to the cause and no signs of abuse was shown on her body to give it affect. She simply walked across the floor and fell. Its been two days and every time they looked at her, she looked healthy and smiled, yet everything seemed to be failing on the side. She was like a mask, covering up what was really wrong. Her heart beat was weakening and her liver was threatening to give. But she showed no systems.

Which was hell on him and his team, how can they save someone and pin point the problem when there were no clues. It was like going into a blacked out room with no flashlight. They had to dig, point and stab to find every problem. They were lucky when they came across the liver problem, who knew what could of happened in time.

But much to his displeasure, they still had no idea what was wrong with her or why she kept bleeding internally. Telling his team to keep a close eye on her, he made his escape to his office. Even thou this women was dieing, which is not new to his department, he needed to sit down and get his leg to relax. Where was Wilson when you needed him? He could give his friend his pained look and he could have Wilson running off like hell was on his heels to get him something to settle him down. Which would be food since he was starving! Arriving at his office, he rose a brow in question.

He didn't remember turning the lights off.

Or did he remember closing the blinds.. This was weird.

Slowly he opened his office door and limped inside, closing it quietly behind him. Nothing seemed out of place, nothing touched or lifted so he wasn't robbed. Reaching his desk, he flicked the lamp shade on and a muffled sound made his back stiffen. Leaning heavenly on his cane, he turned and let his eyes settled on the answer to his questions.

Miss. Alice Covers, his new case, looked up at him sleepily from his couch.

"You're not suppose to be here." House stated

"Neither are you." She grumbled, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"Strange, I could of sworn that was my name on the door." Turning back to his desk, he pulled his chair out for himself, while reaching for the phone. "Yes but I thought you would of gone home by now."

He looked to her and watched her sit up, he rose a brow at the way she looked. She was wearing the clothes she wore the day she arrived, dark navy blue denim jeans trailing down her long legs to her bear toes that wiggled on the carpet floor. A red baby t-shirt hugged her upper torso, covering her, what he guessed, size C breasts. The shirt held a skull with roses spewing from its mouth, vines trailing across her chest and down her right side. Very rock, he liked it. Her arms bared mistreatment's of her two days of testing, bruises and bandages from ever needles that was stuck into her.

"Where is your IV?" He asked as he began to dial. She looked to her right arm that held the thick needle, its yellow cap where the wires of every medicine they fed her would flow threw, tapped to her throbbing vein, laid empty and bear. "I took it off." She stated simply.

"Why?"

"To get my clothes on. It would be kind of hard to take off my gown and get my shirt on with all those wires in the way." The corner of his mouth twitched a little from her come back. Looking away, he listened to the buzzing before he heard the voice of 13. "Hey, I want you to go do a CT scan of our new case. Don't ask, just do" Hanging up on 13 questioning voice, he settled back in his chair, pulling out his bottle of pills. "Care to share why you changed and came here?"

"Not really." She sighed, her fingers brushing her hair back behind her shoulders. She looked tired and sore by the way she rolled her shoulders. "Your going to have to take those off when my team finds out your not in your room." She gave a little coy smile that cause his heart to skip a beat, "Well, I hope they don't find out any time soon." The second those words left those full pink lips, his pager went off. He chuckled, holding it up to her eyes. "Looks like they just did." She joined in with his laughter before pushing herself to stand, grabbing his desk to keep balance. "In that case, I best be getting back."

Before she took a step, his cane shot out and blocked her path. "Sit." He ordered, making her eye brows rise up. She returned to her spot, letting him relax once again and lean back. "So, start spilling. Why are you in my office?"

She looked at him quietly for a moment, unsure. She seemed to nod to herself with an answer since she placed her hands back in her lap. "I figured it was the best place to hide."

"Hide?"

She gave another nod, her eyes closing as she tilted her head back to rest on the edge of the couch. "The lights in my room were to bright." House twirled his cane in his fingers as he watched, mostly the every rise and fall of her chest. "So you snuck out?" She smiled a little, letting her eyes glance to the ceiling. "Took a while, had to convince the short big nose guy that I was asleep to make him leave." She reached up, her fingers rubbing one of the many bandages on her forearm, "When I was alone, I unhooked all those wires, got dress and went for a walk. Figure I could find a nice dark place to clear my mind. I came across your office and I remember one of your doctors saying you were one mean son of a bitch and cared more about yourself then others. Pretty harsh huh?"

"But its true."

"I figured as much, so I thought you might not be here but be at home, curled up in your nice big bed. So I came in, and that was that."

His pager went off again, letting him see the message blinking across the small screen. Kutner had checked the roof of the building to find her with no luck. He smirked to himself, "That," her voice went on, causing him to look up. "And I figured, since you don't give a flying damn about my condition, this place would be the last spot they would look for me." He was impressed with that, normally all the other idiots would hide on the roof, in another exam room, hell one even hide in the morgue!

"Very smart of you. But you don't expect me to buy you coming in here just to sleep." He watched her carefully as her finger paused their movement, letting it fall back to her lap. "You're very annoying, you know that?"

"I've been told that." He chuckled.

She tilted her head to look back him, her bangs brushing across her forehead. His fingers tingled with the sudden urge to get up and push them back, what was wrong with him?! He needed to get laid and fast, he was starting to get those fluffy thoughts from a run away! She whispered, her voice seem to drip with every word of pure tiredness.

"I don't want to hurt no more."

His fingers curled a little into his knees, knowing the feeling. A small voice told him to comfort her, strangely it was Wilson's voice but he only stared at her, his words coming out more harsh then he planned. "Please, you don't know the meaning of pain."

She shock her head to his words, "You're right. But I didn't say 'pain', I said hurt." He frowned, "it's the same thing."

She only shock her head again, "Pain is something you feel no matter what. A tooth ache, a bruise…. Hurt Dr. House. Hurt is placed on you, stabbing, poking, endless sticking into muscle and bone… into veins and tissue, every pore…."

"The testing."

She gave him a small smile then, happy to see him catch on. "You have to get tested to find out what's wrong with you or you know, you'll die."

"In the next five minutes?"

"Its possible."

"Well! If something goes wrong, I have one of the best doctors here to take care of me." She claimed happily, waving her hand to him.

Lifting his cane, he shock it at her dramatically, "In case you forgot, I'm cripple over here."

"Oh I know you'll think of something." She scoffed, "Yeah, I'll figure out how to limp both your and my butt into the hallway." That only earned him a laugh, "Well you could always just take care of me in here, it's a nice excuse to feel me up."

"And what makes you think I want to do that?"

"Your eyes have been staring at me chest for some time now Dr. House."

"Don't blame me, blame my hormones."

"Well! In that case, I suppose I'll have my own look see." He rose a brow but he watched her lean forward and let her eyes rake across his form. For the first time in a while, he felt his skin get warm. He could almost fell every movement her eyes made from his head to his chest, down his arms, along his waist to his legs. It was like she was undressing him with her eyes.

He was liking her more and more.

"Like what you see?" He asked, lifting his arms for show. She only leaned back, giving a helpless shrug, "I'd tap that."

He couldn't hold that back, he barked out in laughter, seeing such a sweet looking young women use a slag word like 'tap' with such a straight face, he couldn't bear it. Her laughter soon join in, leaving them to share a rare moment. When he finally settled, his hands on the arm rest, he watched her chuckle still, her right hand covered her mouth as thou she would spew spit. As he looked, he noticed something off.

"Alice are you color blind?"

Her laughter stopped as her eyes widen at his claim. She looked at him, almost shocked, her lips parted in a gap. With a shake of her head, she gave a sad smile, her eyes casting away. "What gave me away?" She asked weakly. He frowned, she was sad? Almost… embarrassed? A nod of his head, he muttered, "You're earrings."

He watched her hands grip her thigh for a second before reaching out, touching her ears, feeling the long beads. They were same, style, amount of beads, length, but just one thing was off.

"They're not the same color." She kept her eyes away from him, her lips pressing in a tight line. "I could have been in a hurry." She whispered, leaving him only to shrug, "then it's a lucky guess….Were you born this way?"

She chuckled half heartily as she shock her head, her hands dropping from her ears. "Four years."

"What happened?"

She closed her eyes a little before looking over to him. "I was opening up my store for the day when it happened. I had just walked to the counter when someone came in. He had a gun and demanded I give him all the cash I had." House closed his eyes a little, his fingers curling, he heard worse stories but for some reason, this one effect him, angered him… What the hell was wrong with him?

"I gave him all I had… and when he was leaving, he spotted one of my co-workers. She was nine-teen and he wanted to take her to the back room. I.. was so angry and scared."

"So you played the hero?" He offered.

She looked away from him, her fingers lacing together. "When he grabbed her, I got behind him and stuck him. She got away and ran outside to get help, He pushed me off him and spun around and hit me." She rose her hand, touching her temple. "The butt of his gun socked me and knocked me right out… When I woke up, all I could see was bright white light… and then when everything started to settle into place. All I could see was gray… The blow did something to me…"

"Its not in your chart."

"I didn't tell them." She muttered. He frowned at her, "I work in a fashion store Dr. House. Colors are everything, if my company found out what had become of me. I would be…."

"So you lied to keep your job?" He mused, the like for this women starting to disappear. He hated people who were like this, selfish. She only shock her head. "No… if people found out I was colored blind, they would pity me." He rose a brow to her words as she went on.

"No costumer would trust my word… if an outfit looks good on them, how would I know? What if someone asked me to grab them something in a certain blend, how can I tell? They would pity me, they wouldn't fire me, they would pity me. They would take me away from the one thing I love and place me in an office, away from everyone, away from everything, that way I wouldn't feel out of place, an embarrassment. Dr. House, I may be able to handle a lot of things life throws at me. But when its pity… I just can't take it."

He looked at her almost at a lose for words. She really surprised him. His fingers touched his leg slowly, musing, agreeing. He hated pity, all those sad looks he gets from strangers when he limped by. The questionable stares from mothers and patients when he examined them, un-sure of his skills. A doctor should be in prefect health, he should be able to walk right without a problem. Not a cripple, not like House…

He knew the anger and pain of pity, the need to hide what he had from others. To shrug it off and act as thou it doesn't bother him when all he wants to do and put an end to his misery. He knew to well…Looking up, he stared at Alice, watching her stare at the floor. They… had something in common, and he liked that. Squeezing the arm rest of his chair, he pushed himself to stand at the same time the door of his office slammed open.

"House! Your team is freaking out over here, they can't find your patient!"

Wilson fumed at his best friend, his hands on his hips. This had to be the fourth person House had lost under his care! How could he be so careless! Why wasn't he helping his team or at least yelling at them? "What if something happens to her House? Cuddy is going to be all up in your ass about it, you'll be swimming in an law suit so fast it'll make your head spin!"

"I'm not going to sue."

Wilson's stomach dropped when he heard another voice chuckling behind him. Slowly he turned, his face red. He didn't notice the young women in the room! Alice got up, smiling to Wilson happily. "Looks like you found me! I suppose this is when I have to go back to my room hm?" Wilson mouth moved a little but no words came out as House simply sighed. "Go and get back in your gown and stop giving my team a panic attack."

She chuckled to his words, making her way out the door. "Yes sir master." She slipped out as quietly as she came in, leaving Wilson and House alone.

House smiled to himself, very amused to Wilson embarrassment. But it was short lived, since Alice popped her head back and whispered, "And House… Thanks for letting me use your office. I had a great time." And with a wink she slipped back away, leaving Wilson to spin around and stare at House dumb founded. "Y-You two didn't do what I think you did, did you?!" He hissed, House blinked before turning his back on his friend, picking his cane back up.

"If you're thinking that I sat here for twenty minutes and listened to her wise ass remarks and tell me her life story then yes, we did." His best friend shock his head before pointing over his shoulder, "You don't expect me to believe you sat and listened to someone 'talk to you', that's not possible!"

House only sighed, "Your right as always Wilson." He smirked, limping his way past his friend. "She gave me a blow job that would put hookers to shame." He walked away, leaving his friend speechless back in his office. With a grin on his face, he made his way to the elevators to go home.

Over all, his leg had stopped throbbing and tonight.. Well… tonight wasn't as bad as he thought it was.