House cursed when he saw how full the clinic was the following Saturday. Only one doctor was on call each Saturday, meaning it was up to House to clear out the patients. He had to call Philly twice to prescribe Vicodin for a back sprain and an obvious slipped disc. House had a few minutes during his lunch hour to get on the computer to send an email to Wilson. The desktop computer on his desk powered up. House's eyes flew open and his jaw dropped. His desktop background had changed.

He was staring at a photo of him nude, in bed, with a pig. There was a quart of half drunk moonshine on the night stand and a condom wrapper clearly in his hand. The pig's snout was up to his jaw licking him, one hoof on his chest. His penis was barely covered with a magazine titled, "Simple". His eyes were semi-closed, but not all the way. House started sweating. He sat for a minute until his heart rate came down and then opened his email box. There were four reply messages to his email entitled, "I Finally Found the One."

The first reply was from Wilson. "Please tell me that photo was staged and that you haven't started poking pigs."

Lisa Cuddy replied, "House, I don't know what to say. Did you think this was funny? What did your supervising doctor say about it? Christ, I hope she doesn't find out. House, get your life together. Start acting like an adult.

Thirteen wrote, "I see you haven't learned any lessons."

Chase's comment was, "Lovely girl. I hope the two of you will be happy."

House realized that the photo had been sent to the four people in his address book (which automatically added an address when he replied to an email.) Thank God I didn't send or receive an email from my parents. I can't believe she got me...she got me good. Have to admire her for that. She didn't wilt under my wit. House smiled to himself.

Monday, Mildred told Philly that House had cleared out the patients faster than she did. "He's smart and he's good lookin'. A little old for ya, but I bet he's got enough juice left in that pecker of his to get a girl in trouble."

"Don't give me that look. He's still an ass and I still love Wes." Philly told Mildred, who had made it plain she thought that Philly needed to lighten up.

Mildred nodded towards the exam room that House was in, "He don't seem to care what you say or don't say. Giving him the silent treatment won't work. Ya might as well talk to him. At least they sent us a smart one this time."

"Smart ass is more like it."

"Have ya read his file?" she looked at Philly who said nothing, "Well I have. It's a doozy."

Philly pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes, "Damn it Mildred, those files are for my eyes only!"

"Yep, so fire me."

Philly stomped off and slammed the door to the office for effect. She sat down and pulled out her laptop, plugged in the password and started reading her email. She was all smiles when she saw the one telling her that Wes would be driving through the following week. Her heart raced. It would be good to get off the mountain.

Philly sat, looking out at the autumn leaves. The weather had turned and she had finally relented, letting House shower inside. Philly would run into her bedroom and close the door when he came in to clean up or do laundry. She knew it was childish, but there was something so aggravating (or was it intriguing?) about him, that she didn't know what else to do.

She pulled out his file and started reading. It provided details of all the complaints against him for the last three years. What they all added up to was that he was an ass, a jerk, a teenage boy. But from the letters in support of him, it became very clear that he wasn't lying, he was the best at what he did. Philly felt strangely, inadequate. Her methods and abilities must see antiquated compared to his. She had to complete mandatory continuing education for doctors, but she did most of it by web. No one would relieve her in the clinic so that she could go to a conference out of the area. She tried desperately to keep up with the outside world through journals and web articles. But it was hard. It's always easier when you get the information in person.

She heard the doorknob turn, startling her. He walked into the office and over to his desk. She closed his file slowly so that he wouldn't be suspicious of what she was doing.

"Greg, you're entitled to a week off in another month, do you want to take it then?"

He started the computer and had angled the monitor for her to see the background photo of him and the pig. She started giggling. He said nothing about it. He had a baseball in his hand and was tossing it up and down. "Why are you asking?"

"I'd like to find a seminar to go to so that I can brush up on all the new ideas in medicine. I sometimes go to little ones held in Beckley, but they're put on by the locals. I'd like to go to one where the speakers are at the top of their fields. But I need some heads up so that I can book my flight, room and register for the seminar."

"Tell me when you're going to go and that's the week I want to take off."

She stopped in her tracks. He was purposefully being mean. "Forget it. I don't want to play games with you. But you need to let me know when you're taking off. I'm taking off next week for a couple of days."

"Wes is back and he's brought his snake?"

She closed her eyes and shook her head, trying hard to keep from spewing obscenities at him. "Yes. He'll be here on Wednesday, so I'm taking Wednesday and Thursday off."

He kept throwing the ball up in the air, "Gus and the others are worried about you. They say that you used to come down to Jed's several times a week. Are you staying away because I go down there? I go because they have satellite television. If you hooked up satellite, I could stay home and you could go see your friends."

"It has nothing to do with you." She lied, "I just don't feel like going. And I'm not getting television. I don't watch it."

"You don't go out much."

"I'm okay."

Mildred burst into the office, breathing hard and looking frightened. "It's Merville and Thomas, Jake's here and says they've gone and fallen off Possum Peak."

(Readers - I know this is short so as soon as you review, I'll post some more today. It's just that I didn't want to break up the next part so that it flows.)