A/N: Thanks everyone for the reviews and to Hughville for her awesome beta skills :D

Chapter 10

She watched him go back to the lodge and when she saw more lights go on inside the cabin, she went inside to her computer. He didn't give her much to go on but she was always very resourceful when looking things up online. Even with the sketchy internet connection she was able to use the internet for a little while. She remembered he mentioned his friend Wilson. Was that his first name or his last name? she wondered as she typed in his name and the state where he died.

Dr. James Wilson, former head of Oncology at Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, in Princeton, New Jersey, lost his battle with cancer on September 29th, 2012. Interesting, she thought as she read more of the obituary. It mentioned his family but nothing of his friend, Greg Holmes.

Then Tory smacked her forehead.

"Of course they wouldn't," she muttered to herself, "he's supposed to be dead."

There wasn't much else written but it was enough for her to go to the Princeton Plainsboro website and look him up. She just hoped Greg wouldn't be upset with her for digging. He had to know she would, though. That's what she kept telling herself, at least. His name didn't come up at first, so she typed "Greg Holmes PPTH" into Google and got "Did you mean Gregory House?" so she clicked on that and found his obituary. Her heart almost stopped when a picture of him appeared with him looking very much like he did now.

"Well I'll be goddamned," she murmured as she stared at the picture. Then she began to read. "Dr. Gregory House, Head of Diagnostic Medicine at Princeton Plainsboro died tragically on May 21, 2012. He is survived by his mother, Blythe House, and his wife, Dominika Petrova House."

Upon seeing that,Tory nearly spat out her wine. "What the fuck? He has a wife? Son of a bitch!" she exclaimed.

She slammed her laptop closed and shoved it away from her, then sat back and let that stew for awhile.

There had to be a logical explanation. He never mentioned a wife or even a girlfriend. As far as she was concerned, he was free as a bird in a tree, so the saying went. Grabbing the laptop once more, she did some more digging but didn't come up with anything substantial other than he was one of the world's brilliant medical minds and many were sad to hear of his tragic death.

"Not so tragic," she muttered to herself. Part of her wanted to get into her boat, go over there and give him a piece of her mind, but what good would that do? He'd know she snooped and she had no reason to be jealous of his wife. She seemed to be out of the picture entirely since he never mentioned her even once. Maybe it ended badly? Who knew. She would definitely ask him about it though, even just casually. If he denied it then she knew there was something going on. He hadn't lied to her yet, however. As she read some of the comments to his online obituary, mostly from doctors, he was very sadly missed, especially by a Dr. Allison Cameron. Her comment was the most heartfelt one out of all of them, and Tory wondered if there might've been something between them. When Tory googled her, she found out that Cameron was living in Chicago, but that she had once been on a fellowship for House's Diagnostic team. Everyone who left comments called him "House." Nobody called him Greg, and she figured that's what doctors did anyway.

She closed the laptop and finished off her wine.

"Enough digging for tonight," she said as she put her glass in the kitchen and headed up to bed. Hopefully she'd get a chance to talk to him tomorrow.

Meanwhile, House berated himself for telling Tory so much. He hadn't planned on opening up to her, but she was very easy to talk to, and he felt he could trust her. If the police showed up at his door within the next few days then he'd have his answer.

He picked up his guitar and played a couple of songs before moving to the electric keyboard. A jam session with Tory might be fun. He'd enjoy teaching her some of his favorite blues songs. Since she was able to play the piano, she'd have no problem learning new songs. Then he could teach her the guitar if she wanted and...

He gave his head a shake. What was he thinking? She proved to be a little gun-shy when he'd tried to kiss her. He hoped he didn't scare her off. He figured she just wasn't in the mood. That seemed reasonable. They still had a lot to learn about each other. He had no doubt she was probably looking him up at that very moment.

Fine, he thought. Let her look all she wants.

She'd probably have a lot of questions and he'd have answers ready for her. How much truth was in those answers remained to be seen. He didn't know what she was going to find.

The snow was melting and House wondered what Tory was up to. He had to go into town and get a few more things and decided to ask her if she needed anything. However when he got down to the dock, he saw her heading his way.

"Hey, I was just thinking about you," he called out to her.

"Is that so?" she asked as she tied up the boat. "And what were you thinking?"

"Is there any place we can go out to dinner? If not Cache Creek then maybe Kamloops?"

Tory shook her head. "Not any place that's decent. What were you thinking?"

"Steak?"

"I could cook you a steak dinner that rivals any restaurant for a fraction of the cost," she told him.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

Dinner would be good. I could ask him about what I found out, she thought.

"Well, I was just about to come ask you if you needed anything since I'm going to Ashcroft to get groceries," he said.

"Oh, that's nice of you. I was actually going to do the same thing."

"Well then, let's just take my car," he suggested.

"Okay."

Snow was piled up along the sides of the road and they were slippery in some sections leading down to the highway. But once there, they were bare and wet.

"So did you Google me yet?" he asked her as he drove. He kept his eyes on the road but a smirk curved his lips.

"Of course I did, Dr. House."

"Find anything else interesting?"

"A few things," she admitted.

"Oh? Like what?"

"Like Dominika Petrova House."

He nodded. "My wife. And one of my biggest mistakes, for a lot of reasons."

"Oh, this should be good. Please, do tell."

"Quid pro quo, Clarice."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll tell you some stuff later but you first."

"I'd point out that it's still your turn but you're cooking me dinner so you win this round. Anyway, I married her to help her get her green card, and to lash out at Cuddy. It sort of backfired."

"How so?" she asked with genuine interest. She wanted to ask about Cuddy but decided to save that for later.

As they drove, House told her the story of his relationship Dominika. They arrived at the grocery store as he finished.

"That's kind of a sad story," she said as they went inside and grabbed a shopping cart.

"Yeah well not all stories have happy endings."

"True."

"She was at my funeral though. Dominika not Cuddy."

She remained silent as they gathered everything they'd need for dinner along with other necessary supplies. Once they bought everything, they stopped at the liquor store to get some wine.

The drive back was filled with Tory entertaining House with off beat court stories and he shared some about his clinic patients.

"You had to work in a clinic when you were a department head?" she asked in surprise.

"Yeah, it was one of the ways Cuddy thought she could control me. It never really worked the way she wanted it to."

"Who's Cuddy again?"

"My former boss, the dean of Medicine at PPTH before Foreman took over."

"Oh."

"She left after I drove my car through her living room window."

Tory's mouth opened in shock and he merely chuckled at her reaction.

"I really hope nobody was home at the time," she said after a few minutes.

House didn't answer and merely shrugged as he pulled up in front of the lodge.

"Your place or mine?" he asked as he got out.

"I'm sorry?"

"Do you want to cook the dinner here or at your place?"

"Oh, umm let's do it another night. I'm not really feeling up to fussing in the kitchen today. And I'm not as hungry as I thought I was."

House cocked his head to the side and stared intensely at her. "Is this about what I told you in the car?"

"No, not at all."

"Hmm interesting."

"What?" she asked defensively.

"You answered that too quickly. What's going on?"

"Nothing, I just don't wanna cook. In fact, I'll just go back to my place."

"What is your problem?" he demanded.

"What makes you think I even have a problem?" she asked with rising irritation.

"Oh, I dunno. Maybe the fact that you were all set to cook a nice dinner and now you're not. You can't even look at me."

"You drove your car through someone's living room. With people inside! What the hell were you thinking? Someone could've gotten badly hurt, or even killed. Did you think about that?" Her voice rose in volume with each question. She could feel the color flooding her face.

"They had all left the room at that point."

"That's not the point! What if they hadn't?"

"I wasn't thinking logically at the time. It was like… I don't know. I just snapped when I saw everybody… perfectly happy. And I wasn't. And it hurt. I honestly don't remember what moved me to do it. I even kicked Wilson out of the car, as he was with me at the time."

"Why did you go there in the first place?" she asked.

"She wanted me to return a hairbrush she left at my apartment."

Tory blinked, speechless for a moment. "A little extreme wouldn't you say?"

"In hindsight, yeah, but that's me. I do everything to the extreme." He looked at her and reached out to lightly touch her arm. "Come on, Tory. You don't really wanna go do you? We've got the steaks, the wine, and the other goodies to make a delicious dinner. I don't want to cook it all myself."

She sighed. He looked adorable. He even dipped his lower lip for effect, which made her giggle in spite of herself.

"Fine! We'll have dinner. But you're going to tell me more about this Cuddy thing."

"There's not much more to tell."

"Oh, I'm sure there's a lot more to it than that," she told him.

"You still have to tell me something."

"Deal. Come on, let's go inside. It's freezing out here."

Dave watched them argue outside for several minutes before they took groceries out of the car and went inside. Their spat obviously wasn't anything serious. He sighed and lowered his binoculars.

"Well, if Mohamed won't come to the sea, I'll have to bring the sea to Mohamed," he muttered to himself as he climbed back into his truck and drove to his place. Tory would come around eventually. She hardly knew that Holmes guy, but she'd known him a lot longer. He had plans for them. He thought she was coming around before she took up with Holmes. She went out on a couple of dates with Dave. He liked smarter, older women. They didn't play head games and knew what they wanted. He wanted to give her that. Hell, he wanted to give her everything her heart desired. He just had to make her see that he could be better than the old guy.

"So?" House asked as he spread garlic butter on a baguette. "A deal's a deal. I've told you a hell of a lot more than you've told me. I need some reciprocity."

Tory laughed as she uncorked the bottle of wine and poured herself a glass. When she held the bottle out to him, he nodded, so she poured one for him, too.

"Cheers," she said as she clinked her glass against his and took a long, healthy sip, hoping it would give her some liquid courage.

"Good choice," he said as he took a sip as well.

"I know my wines."

"So do I, but I've never had a BC wine before."

"It's VQA."

"Ah, Vintner's Quality Assurance. Means the grapes are the best from right here in the Okanagan Valley. Makes it even better." He licked some butter from the side of his hand. The he put the bread on a baking sheet to bake later and then got out the ingredients for a Caesar salad "Okay, stop stalling, sweet cheeks, and start talking," he said as turned his full attention to her.

Tory rolled her eyes and sighed in resignation. "Okay, okay, what do you want to know?"

"Who or what you're hiding from."

"You really think I'm hiding?" she asked in an attempt to stall him.

"Why else would you want to live up here year round? Hell, why would anyone?"

"You are."

"I'm a different case."

"A headcase maybe," she teased as she sliced some mushrooms for their steaks.

"Now that's just mean."

"No it's not."

He laughed and shook his head. "So any old boyfriends I should be aware of?"

Tory blinked. "Where did that come from? And what business is it of yours?"

"Testy," he said as he tsked at her. "I'm just curious as to what your type is."

"Well it's not Dave Myers, that's for damn sure. The guy is a meathead and he's no match for me intellectually. I like men who can keep up with me."

"Oh I think I can keep up with you there," he assured her.

"I'm sure you can. One of these days we'll have to have a debate."

"Anytime, anywhere, baby."

"Uh-huh. We'll see."

"When was the last time you were in a serious relationship, then?" he asked.

"How is this relevant?"

"You said I could ask you things. You didn't specify what."

"Damn, I knew you'd throw a catch in there."

"You didn't say I couldn't."

"Okay, okay. I guess the last boyfriend I had was about five years ago. I think he stronger feelings for me than I did for him. I was just too busy at the time. I had switched from Provincial to Supreme court, which meant bigger cases and a lot more time spent reviewing them. He was a lawyer who specialized in small claims court. Anyway, at that point in my life, I was tired of being alone, and so I was willing to settle if it meant not having to come home to an empty house every night."

"So? What happened?"

"He died," she said simply.

It was House's turn to blink. "Well, that was sudden."

"Very, but not unexpected. He liked to hit the bar after a tough day. I guess he had a few too many. He crashed into a telephone pole. His internal injuries were too severe and he died. Alone."

"That's rough."

Tory shrugged and seared the tenderloin steaks in the cast iron pan. House stirred the mushrooms she cut in a pan with butter. Then she opened the oven and put the pan inside, setting the timer for seven minutes.

"How do you like your steak?" she asked him.

"Medium is fine."

She nodded. "Only way to eat them, if you ask me." She took the pan of mushrooms from him and set them at the back of the stove to keep warm. "Okay so I told you my sad story."

"That's all there is to it?"

She shrugged and took another sip of wine. "Yeah, pretty cut and dry. It's a shame because he had the potential to be a great prosecutor. That's what he was working toward. He used to help me when I was a lawyer."

"I see."

They stood there facing each other, wine in hand, while the steaks sizzled in the oven. "Well, isn't this cozy?" she grinned.

"Yeah. I guess I should go throw some more logs into the fireplace."

"Yeah you should. And the furnace," she reminded him.

"How do you heat your place?"

"I usually do the same, using the fireplace, but I do have propane for when it gets really cold. Works to take the chill off a bit when the fireplace isn't enough."

"I see," he said and then went to toss in some more logs and stoke the fire.

"So tell me more about Cuddy. It sounds serious if she left something like a hairbrush behind. She must've spent a lot of time at your place."

"It was just easier. She has a kid, a young kid, and she used to try and get me to babysit, and would withhold sex when I didn't," he told her.

"Wow. Manipulative, much?"

"Oh, yeah. She had that down to a science. And I gave in because without her, I didn't have anything else. Well, I had Wilson, but he had his own issues with his ex-wife. They reunited and might've gotten back together but he was a habitual cheater. They used to call him the Panty Peeler of PPTH."

Tory laughed as the timer went off. House took the steaks out, turned them over, and put them back in the oven for five more minutes. He also put the pan with the garlic bread in next to them.

"You know your way around a kitchen."

"I took cooking lessons with Wilson a few times and I liked it, because it was like Chemistry. I love science."

"Me too. I loved Chemistry, too. I sucked at the math part of it, but I enjoyed it all the same."

"Yeah I can understand that. I took chem, and biology, naturally. I knew I was going to be a doctor, against my Dad's wishes," he told her as he leaned against the kitchen counter and sipped his wine.

"What did he want you to be?"

"A Marine, like him. He was a Colonel in the Marine Corps."

"Ahh, so you were a military brat."

"Yep."

"Poor you. Must have been tough growing up."

"It was." House was relieved when the timer went off, ending that conversation. "Saved by the bell." He took the steaks out, put them on plates and covered them with foil until the garlic bread was ready.