House Tour

Yes, readers, the writing muse has revisited me! This will be a short story involving House, Wilson, Chase and my favorite dog from the series, Hector. It is based on something happening in St. Louis right now. I'm just getting my feet wet again in the writing world... there will most likely be longer stories to come soon.

The dark blue light of early morning leaked in dribs and drabs through a tiny slit between the curtains in his bedroom. He wasn't ready to wake up yet. He rolled over and yanked the covers back up over his head. A soft little yelp erupted from the pillow next to him.

Hector; oh God, I woke Wilson's damn dog up. "Shut up stupid," he muttered. "Go back to sleep." Hector yawned, a deep stinky-dog-breath yawn, licked his scruff and moved in closer, curling up under his jaw. Perfect place for an old, arthritic, stinky dog; he thought. Right under the jaw of an old, stinky cripple.

The last case had been somewhat atypical for him. Of course the diagnosis wasn't easy. They never were, once they arrived in his department. Often he would arrive at the correct diagnosis before his team did, but this time, he was just as puzzled as his fellows were. This time, it wasn't the teacher teaching the students. It was the teacher and students learning together. The outcome was a correct diagnosis, successful treatment and the subject of a future publication.

He did one of two things that helped relieve stress after work. He got drunk. Not the best way to deal with stress. It was a bad habit, difficult to break. It was not the best time to get drunk, either. He was about to embark on a new adventure, and getting drunk the night before was a horrible way to start.

As he lay in the gloomy blue light of early morning, several hours before he was accustomed to waking up, apprehension began to raise its ugly head. What had he gotten into? Was this something he really wanted to do? Had he completely thought this through before agreeing to it?

He was due at the Philadelphia airport in three hours. He'd taken a two month leave of absence from work, now that his last case was finished.

He and Chase were going on tour.