A/N: Thirteen's back and the last two episodes have really piqued my curiosity. Something is happening between them and I must've channeled the writers a while back, writing about him killing her and this finding its way onto the show. So, from a short interlude to Chase/Thirteen, I'm back with Thouse. This is set during the first time Chase tries to get something from Foreman.
Disclaimer: All the characters belong to David Shore and some lines to Eli Attie who wrote the teleplay for this episode. I would love to own House and Thirteen but sadly, no. I only have a desktop of Olivia Wilde and my dreams of Hugh Laurie.
House wondered what it would take to get a rise out of Foreman. His blood pressure was still normal even though he had insulted his intelligence and asked about his brother and mentioned Thirteen. He unconsciously stepped closer to her now and the look Foreman cast him was threatening but his BP stayed the same. Interesting.
Sure, she wasn't his girlfriend any more but she had been and he knew Foreman had loved her, maybe even still loved her. He leaned a little bit closer.
"And she'll never live up to the memory and the thrill of finding her will wear off and he won't even be able to dream about being happy."
"Interesting."
Thirteen must've figured something was up. When their eyes met for a brief second, she gave him a strange look as if to ask what he was doing.
"The patient may have found some long ago nooky but it doesn't mean he hasn't had some in the mean time. Herpes encephalitis."
"Explains the neurological symptoms. EEG to confirm, IV him Acyclovir to treat."
He had thought of coming this far, just standing next to her and watching Foreman's menacing glare. Now that her warmth and her incredible cinnamony smell was so close, he just didn't seem able to pull away. Looking once into her eyes – those gorgeous icy blues, mirroring his own – he saw her pupils dilate ever so slightly and that was more than enough for him to lean in and press his lips to her own.
She was warm and soft but frozen in place by the unexpected contact and before his hand could rise up to pull her closer like one part of him suddenly desired to do and he would forget why he'd kissed her in the first place, he pulled away.
Foreman's eyes had practically bulged out of his head and he was breathing quickly through his nose, even though his BP hadn't changed. Chase and Taub had apparently forgotten every word in the English language and it brought House back to what was around them.
"How's Foreman's BP holding? Same? That's strange since I unplugged a lead thirty seconds ago." With that, he walked away, leaving behind one aggravated, two speechless and one very confused doctor.
"We are who we are and lotteries are stupid." She started to walk away, not planning on showing him how much what he had said had hit home, how true he had been but his words stopped her the last moment.
"Let's eat."
She gave him an incredulous look. "Are you asking me out?"
"Why? Would you come?" Thirteen wasn't sure if he was teasing or not. Neither was he.
"Fine."
Thirty minutes later they were sitting in a quiet bistro, trying to quell the sudden feeling of unease. They could talk about fatalism all they wanted, joke and flirt with each other between the safe walls of the hospital but this was bordering on intimate. And that was something neither wanted.
"Why did you kiss me?" No point in beating around the bush, she thought.
"To see the effect it would have on Foreman, of course."
He wasn't exactly lying but she knew it was more of a lie than a truth.
"So you kissed me to see if Foreman would react but you had unplugged the lead so you knew, in fact, that it wouldn't change anyway."
House didn't have a response for that but he should've known Thirteen would see right through that one. She was anything but stupid and his cover had been one stupid half-truth. He didn't really know why he had kissed her. Yes, to play with Foreman but her closeness had sparked something else in him, something forgotten and not exactly new.
She realized he wasn't going to say anything and smirked, sipping on her beer instead. Food arriving at that exact moment saved the quiet even though between the two of them, it was pointless to feel uncomfortable.
They exited the bistro and the chill wind brought her perfume to him again. So perfect.
"Foreman was definitely pissed, even if he did tamper with the machine. So, in a way, you succeeded."
She was giving him that challenging look again, the one that had made him kiss her in the first place. Worse, now he knew what it could be like and a thousand thoughts of just leaning in again raced through his head. What was it about her?
"Just make sure to check before you cross any dark alleys so he wouldn't vent his stress on you. Now there's double the reason to dislike you."
She was saying things and he was listening but it was like underneath all that meaningless talk, there was so much more. The subtext was screaming between them, at them, wanting to be heard but they weren't ready.
"That was nothing. He knows it was just a ploy to trick him."
But it wasn't.
"And I am his ex-girlfriend, so he really doesn't have any right to be angry."
I wanted to kiss you back.
They settled on this half-truth again, this time neither willing to shatter the delicate balance of turning it into a joke. It was a precarious position they were taking, dancing on the edge of a precipice, knowing they could only jump off together. But she wanted to run and he didn't want to know what was waiting over the edge.
He couldn't try to love again and she didn't want to be loved again and they were stuck in this place of being the same and not being enough. There it was. She was the same he was, in a peculiar way and that drew him to her, made him want to try if she was as miserable as he was or if they could have a something from their broken pieces. It was crazy, it was pointless, it was exhilarating.
"See you tomorrow."
I want to kiss you.
He nodded, forgetting that he was supposed to ignore the unsaid, and it was like everything all over again: his lips, her lips, but this time she moved with him and was close to being so pliant under his touch and surrendering everything.
I'm scared.
He ended it abruptly and turned away. She couldn't lean on him with her emotions; it was way too soon, way too much, way too everything.
I am not ready.
"House."
Their gazes locked but there was no confusion, only crystal clarity and he knew that she knew and she knew that he understood.
We are who we are but we are the same.
A/N: I'm not sure if I like this. I had a weird feeling that he would kiss her during the episode, just to spite Foreman and the thought just kept spinning in my head and evolved into this. So maybe you like this, maybe you don't.