Disclaimer: I don't own House.
Warning: Mentions drinking and drug use. Implied sex.
Spoilers for and tags to: Season 5 episode 1 "Dying Changes Everything" and anything up to season 7.
Thirteen had finally taken the plunge, and drawn a vial of her own blood for the test. As she waited for the test results to print she impatiently tapped her fingers. After years of wondering, she wanted to know. The sheet printed and she snatched it up. It was positive. She had Huntington's. She was dying. She sighed and put her head down on her arms but couldn't cry.
That was months ago. Now she sat in a bar, downing drink after drink. She ordered another rum and pineapple juice and downed it in one gulp, feeling the rum burn the back of her throat. She had work in the morning but she didn't care, she was dying. House would understand. After all, House was an addict. On impulse she ordered a tonic water with lime and popped a couple tablets of ecstasy.
"Okay, you're done girlie," said Alan, the bartender.
Thirteen swore and got up, she walked shakily to the bus stop. She was drunk enough that she shouldn't drive. She could hurt someone if she drove. She got on the bus and went to a club. After a few more drinks she began hitting on a pretty, blond girl.
"Hey listen, you're really pretty and all but I don't think my boyfriend would…" said the pretty girl, Thirteen thought her name was Nicole.
To shut the girl up, Thirteen leaned in and kissed her.
"Oh…" said Nicole.
"Come home with me," Thirteen said.
"Okay," Nicole said, "But what's your name?"
"What do you want it to be?" Thirteen asked.
"Seriously, I can't go home with you if I don't know your name."
Thirteen thought of Foreman for some odd reason.
"Erika, my name is Erika," Thirteen lied.
"Okay, Erika. Let's go home."
Thirteen woke up the next morning with a strange woman next to her. She wasn't bothered by it. She was too out of it to put an outfit together so she grabbed yesterday's wrinkled clothes from the floor and dressed quickly. She applied some quick make-up and caught the bus to work. Her head was pounding. She figured she had enough time before the rest of the team got in to give herself an IV of saline in an exam room of the free clinic. No one would think to check there. She and House both hadn't hid their disgust of working in the clinic.
Arriving at work, she snuck into exam room 2 and hooked herself up to an IV of saline. She was just starting to feel better when there was a knock on the door.
"I'm with a patient," she called.
The door opened anyway and Lisa Cuddy stood there, not looking amused. As she glared at Thirteen and crossed her arms, Thirteen unhooked herself from the IV and got up to follow Cuddy to her office.
Cuddy called House once they were in her office.
"I found her in exam room 2, giving herself an IV of saline," Cuddy told House.
"You're fired," House told Thirteen, "C'mon, we got a case."
Thirteen followed House out of Cuddy's office, "Please don't fire me. I'll do better, I promise."
"Did you do drugs last night?" House asked.
"Yes, Ecstasy," she admitted, what was the point of lying?
"Drinking?"
"A lot," she winced a bit as her head gave a throb.
"Sex?"
"What's with the twenty questions? I said I was sorry."
"No, you said you'd do better if I gave you another chance. Help me solve this case, then you're fired," House said.
Thirteen sat thorough the differential without caring. She threw out some possibilities but all she wanted was to go home and sleep. She really felt like hell.
"Are you okay?" Taub asked her.
"I'm fine," she said, pasting on a smile as she lied to him.
"Okay then," he said.
Fired, well was just her lucky day wasn't it? She thought as she went to go get the patient's medical history.