I KEEP FORGETTING TO DO THIS, AND I REALLY WANT TO. I KNOW I SHOULD UPDATE MY OTHER STORIES, BUT THIS REQUIRES MY ATTENTION. I'M NOT SO SURE HOW GOOD IT'LL BE, WRITING HOUSE AS A HUMAN BEING AND THIRTEEN EMBARASSED ARE THINGS I HAVEN'T REALLY DONE BEFORE, BUT I FIGURED I'LL GIVE IT A WHIRL. ANYWAY, LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK! J

DON'T OWN IT.

As he lays in bed, he thinks about the previous two days' events. He remembers the surge of excitement as he watched the previously MIA duckling walk out of the prison, towards him. It was then that he finally realized how much he'd missed her. How much he needed her. Later, as they drove to her requested destination, he remembers watching her savor the fresh air. He remembers asking why how she managed to end up in jail, remembers the curt reply, the way it was oh-so-very-Thirteen. And then when she kneed the poor guy, he almost laughed. But he didn't, he was too focused on watching her. He flashed forward to the restaurant, the way he told her he and Cuddy had been dating. How she had reacted to him actually showing some sort of emotion. And then she surprised him; she told him she had killed someone. Just like that. He found it very strange, as this was Remy "Thirteen" Hadley -of course he didn't know the Remy part, and possibly not even Hadley, but that isn't the point. The Thirteen he knew didn't just give out personal information, never mind things that would get her sent back to jail -and possibly killed.

And then, he remembers waking up to the sound of sobbing. And it breaks his heart, though he'd never admit it. He carefully, so as not to make any noise, rolls over, just to make sure the heart-wrenching sounds are coming from his companion, because he was sure he must be dreaming. His fears are confirmed, and he decides it best to pretend not to know. He knows she wouldn't want him to. The next morning (or perhaps later that morning, he wasn't sure what time it was), he pretends nothing happened. Because if he did say something, it would be bad. First, it would hint that he actually cared, and secondly, it would make things extremely awkward.

So why, then, did he bring it up at the spud gun contest? Well, he hadn't actually brought it up, she just happened to say something that triggered that memory, and he couldn't resist. He hated himself for practically dragging the confession out of her, about the fact that she had a brother. He knew he'd been cruel. No, cruel was an understatement. She walked away, and he thought she was just furious at him.

Then he remembers finding her in that field, by the river, and he shudders at the memory. To think about his tough, too-much-like-him protégée standing there, tears streaming down her face, it makes him want to puke.

Then, perhaps even harder to take in, is the memory of the car. Of her hesitance to leave, her fear of being alone. He, in a rare moment he allows himself to act remotely like a human being, he tells her he'll kill her. And then he follows it with a joke, because they both know that if he didn't, things would get awkward.

And now he knows that throughout the course of those 2 days, he and Thirteen's relationship would never be the same. They had seen each other in ways no one else ever had, and the connection of seeing each other vulnerable would never go away.

I'M THINKING ABOUT ADDING ANOTHER CHAPTER WITH THEM TALKING ABOUT IT, BECAUSE I DON'T FEEL I GOT WHAT I WAS TRYING TO ACROSS, BUT YOU LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK, OKAY?