"I'm sorry." They all told him the next day. They were speaking to him now. Words of consolation, as if they expected him to care. He didn't care. This was just something that had happened. Who they really should be apologizing to was the injured man. He'd woken up, or at least that's what they told him. He was beyond fixing. None of their machines, surgical know-how, or medicine could return him to the man he had once been.

In the injured man's mind, he was eight years old. He would stay that age for the rest of his life. The ultimate Peter Pan. Only in this case, there was no Wendy to come and try to convince him that growing up wasn't all that bad.

He didn't go see him. There would be nothing to say even if he did go. Saying his was sorry wouldn't work because he wasn't and you shouldn't lie to children. He could tell him that it wasn't his fault but he didn't believe he had to prove that to anyone.

They told him he should go visit the patient but he choose mountains of paper work instead. But soon he realized that the papers were white. His bandages were white. He abandoned the task saying it was pointless. He went off to the clinic.

He thought the clinic would be safe. Random people who just came and left, none of them knowing a thing. But there was a little boy who spoke no words. He starred with green-blue eyes and let pretty blonde hair flop into his face. The clinic had decided to get its revenge for him never liking it. He just picked up and left. Someone else would be able to treat the little boy. It was stupid of him to have gone there anyways. The hospital all together was the wrong place for him to be. He needed fresh air.

No one was at the park for obvious reasons of the killing cold. He kept eyes closed so he wouldn't have to see the pureness of the very snow he laid in. So not to see the grey sky that stretched out before him, never ending. Someone who felt guilt would have kept their eyes open. They would want to see everything, they would want to visit the man now boy. So there he stayed, too stubborn to get up and open his eyes.

"Are you alive, sir?" A voice asked him lined with worry and caution. He didn't answer. A guilty person would have replied. He kept his mouth shut. "Doctor! I think I found a dead man!" The snow crunched beneath the feet of both the person who had spoken and the one who had been called. Warm fingers searched for his pulse.

"House!" So this doctor knew him. He didn't want to talk or get yelled at so he just told whoever it was to go away; he was busy not feeling guilty. The person was persistent however and forced him to sit up and look at her. It was the girlfriend, worrying as always. "Are you okay? What are you doing on the ground?" But something caught his attention which caused him to pay her no mind.

There was a man wearing scrubs and bandages on his temples standing a bit farther back. He had large green-blue eyes and floppy blonde hair. "What's he doing out of the hospital? He should be in the ICU." He was angry. She'd taken him outside only days after a devastating injury. He had only regained consciousness that morning! Did she really think it would be okay? Of course she did. She did it because she felt guilty about his condition. She hasn't been able to say no when he'd asked her, "Pease Miss? I've never seen snow before." She could only look away ashamed.

He told her that their relationship had ended as soon as his car had tumbled off the road. He told her that she had to leave. This wasn't like her husband. He wasn't dying. If she ever wanted to be happy ever again she could never see what was left of her boyfriend ever again. If she stayed out of the guilt, it would ruin her. He told her all of this and she could only stare back at a loss of words. She couldn't just abandon him in his time of need. But his time of need was the rest of his life. He told her to go one more time and she finally did, giving once last glance at the man who used to be.

The injured man just stood there, slightly afraid and even more confused. He'd liked that doctor; she was pretty and made him feel special. House didn't speak to him. Instead he just stood up and began to walk back to the hospital. The man followed knowing subconsciously that it was what he was supposed to do. He trusted him to lead him somewhere safe just like any child would an adult. It was further proof that he was broken beyond repair.

While the whole walk back he wanted to say something, he found that he couldn't make a noise. The man followed him so full of innocence and naivety. He didn't know that he was following the same person who had done this to him. He was the one who took away his past and future. He was reaching out and grabbing the hand of the man who had killed him in a sense. Rejecting the hand would have proven his guilt so he held on tight as he escorted him back to his room in silence.

He told the nurse's to keep him in bed. "Don't fall for the little kid act, that's how he gets all his women." For some reason they thought this joke was going too far when it was no different from the ones he'd been making for years before. He had to keep joking. If he treated this any different, it would prove something that wasn't, is true. So he went back to his office with and ever so clean conscious only to see the rival there waiting for him.

He held an envelope up in the air, waving it in his face. "What did you say to her?" The girlfriend must have quit. Good for her. Not that he cared, but now she at least had a chance. Not that he cared.

He told the rival exactly what he had told the girlfriend and shouts soon filled the room. All sorts of things spewed from the mouth of the man who had hated the now boy. He said she needed support, not to leave. He just ranted and ranted. Should he feel guilty for this too? No, not at all. It was for her own good that she left and she wouldn't have done it if she hadn't found truth in his words. She'd probably been looking for a reason to leave anyways and not look like the bad guy. The man lying in that bed was only what she wanted on the outside. It was a fact they were all going to have to accept; he was just trying to make the process go by a little faster.

So he told the rival all that needed to be said. How he was trying to push his guilt on him and how he really wasn't upset that she was leaving. But then he stopped. The realization brought a smile of triumph to his face. He had not been a rival of intelligence or personality but rather in love. "You dog! You got the hots for her!" There was no response. There was no way he could properly do so. "If you think she needs comfort, do it on your own time."

So there he stood alone. He'd driven them all away so all that remained was the cold office that wanted him to feel… Feel something, feel an emotion he did not posses within his being. He could not give them in which he did not have. "Leave me alone." He irritated told the glass walls as made his escape.

He soon found himself in a memorable spot. The place where the man had had betrayed him. The place he had punched him. The same place where he had told him that he loved him but was going to try and win back the girlfriend. At the time he had disregarded the feelings completely. People didn't just fall in love with him. He felt a bit proud when the now boy had said he wasn't going after him. The entire hospital had memories, none of them more guilt worthy this. But he wasn't guilty. Only if he was…

Those green-blue's had been irritated when the confession had been made. He had bugged him into telling him telling him his true feelings, not expecting what he actually got. When he had slipped his innocent hand into his earlier that day, it had been like that same confession being made all over again but only much more bitter sweet. He couldn't have him even if he wanted him now. He would have to become like her and leave to survive. But to leave would be an admission of guilt so he refused. He had to stay and he had to see him, the man in the bandages who was now a boy. He had to keep him close.