Two weeks later, Gaius and Lucius were seated in the study at Marius' house. Sidney brought in a serving cart with an urn of strong black coffee for them and a platter of assorted treats for them then closed the doors to give them privacy.

"I have decided that it would benefit both of our clans to be joined together," Gaius said as he sipped his coffee.

"Joined together?" Lucius asked, pausing as he reached for a danish. "I thought we were just looking at reciprocal backup master arrangements."

"So did I at first," Gaius replied, relaxing back in his chair. "But now that we've spent time together, I would prefer to have our clans joined. I enjoy my time with House a great deal and you and I have always been good friends. Ekaterina greatly enjoys her conversations with Marius and I would like to have you mentor William in dealing with Cal. You were always better than I was with those that needed pain to exorcise their demons. And Thorn says all of you need more care and he's conspiring with Ekaterina on that, so consider yourself forewarned," he chuckled.

"You know that I've never shied away from Thorn's ministrations," Lucius responded with a grin, "and I've passed that appreciation onto Marius. Joining our clans together would mean one of us yielding to the other as Clan Elder. I assume you wish to take that role?" he asked, meeting his gaze squarely.

"I do," Gaius answered. "You have done very well with your clan as Elder and I truly have no wish to topple you out of your position. I think it easier for the junior masters and especially the subs to have one person in overall authority. Since I am older than you, it seems logical for that role to be mine. But behind closed doors, I propose that you and I work together as equals, to direct the clan and to offer each other support that we cannot ask of our subs. I have been lucky to have Thorn to aid me in this, but if I am correct, you are not able to ask the same from Marius. Am I correct?"

Lucius pursed his lips and nodded silently, looking away for a long moment while Gaius sipped his coffee and waited for his response.

It had been years since his master died, Lucius thought. The loss had hit him very hard which was why he understood House's panic so well. And the struggle to adapt had changed him, though he wouldn't admit that to anyone. What Gaius was proposing was intoxicating and intimidating. Did Gaius miss it too? He must, he realized, as he mentioned Thorn aiding him. Could he give to Gaius what he missed the most from having a master? Having someone to snap him out of the broodiness he was prone to. Someone to satisfy his darker leanings yet keep him in check around the others. Yes, perhaps he could and he was certain Gaius could do that for him. It was one reason he had reached out to him as a backup in the first place.

"And you believe that I can be enough support to you?"

"I know you can, Lucius," Gaius answered. "I've been watching you with Marius and House these last few weeks. The way you've been able to be strong for them through this crisis, especially with House, tells me that you can. You've managed to keep him stable, to maintain the master/sub relationship between him and Marius while filling the role yourself. Well done.

"The kind of support I need is to have someone with whom I don't have to be the master for a time. Someone to whom I can reveal that I don't have an answer, or don't know what direction to take without sending them spiraling. To talk things through with for the perspective needed to make a decision. What I've seen tells me you can do this, Lucius."

"Then I agree to join our clans as one. What do we need to do to accomplish this?" Lucius asked.

"We'll need to agree on a base set of rules for the entire clan to adhere to and still allow for preferences within the household units," Gaius began. "And our other households should all meet each other as well. I, for one, would like to have more interaction between households, as that might offer some good training and backup opportunities."

"That's true," Lucius said thoughtfully. "I've two other households and Marius has another. They've all met, in fact, Sidney is from Marius' other household, but they rarely interact. That would be an intriguing thing to add."

"And I have three other households besides this one. Mine already interact to some extent although I have been thinking about increasing the frequency. We'd have to lay out the hierarchy very clearly to all at the outset to minimize the rivalry amongst the younger masters."

Lucius nodded in agreement. "Should we have all of the households meet before we make this official?"

"No. We have our senior households in agreement, I think it will be enough just to have the senior master of each other household come over to be introduced to each other and how this whole plan will work. Have House get a four day weekend from work soon and we'll arrange the first meet and greet then. In the meantime, you and I will lay out the hierarchy and inform our other households of the imminent change. We should look at how to create a new clan logo as well."

"House won't appreciate the idea of more ink," Lucius smirked. "He fought the idea quite fiercely."

"Perhaps it doesn't need to mean that for the existing household members unless they desire it, just something for incoming members. We could put it as a pendant on the day necklaces for example, or on the face of a watch."

"That would work. A pendant might be best, good for both men and women."

"Good. Ask your designer to draw one up. I'll have mine draw up a proposed tattoo for the incoming members. Now let's work out the seniority levels," Gaius said, going to the desk for a couple of pads of paper and pens while Lucius drew their chairs closer to the coffee table.


House was sitting at his desk waiting for the fourth applicant for assistant to arrive. He and Wilson had gone through the resumes and whittled them down to six choices. The three morning interviews had been busts. All were acceptable on paper but in person, they simply wouldn't last in diagnostics as they weren't able to cope with the interplay in the department, even with everyone on good behavior, including House. They'd all taken a long lunch after the first round, and House had cajoled Wilson into buying him steak for lunch as a reward. He really hoped that one of the final three would work out. He had no desire to wade through another stack of resumes.

He heard a knock on the conference room door and looked up to see the next applicant being welcomed by Thirteen and took a deep breath before getting to his feet and going in.

"And I'm Dr Hadley," she said, just finishing introducing the team.

"And I'm Dr. House," he added, pulling his chair out with his cane and dropping into it, watching the woman's reactions closely. "You would be… Celeste Hedricks?"

"I am. It's good to meet you all," she responded.

"Just a few things about the job before we get started," House began. "First, you should know that this department has never had an administrative assistant before, so there's no precedent or procedures set up to follow specific to the department. We'll be making it up as we go along so expect things to change quite a bit in the beginning. Second, there are a lot of strong personalities that often clash in this room. It's just the way we are and we aren't aiming to change anytime soon.

"Your hours would be a standard workweek, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with an hour for lunch. We may or may not be here during those hours depending on our current caseload, so you'll have to quickly get to where you can deal with things on your own or know what is urgent and what can wait. Dr Wilson's assistant, in oncology next door, can help you sort that out at first."

House nodded at Foreman and let him pick up the threads of the interview with the team while he watched how she reacted to them. They asked some of the standard interview questions that he himself despised, where did you see yourself in the next few years, what could you bring to the department, what were your strengths and weaknesses. He barely paid attention to her answers as everyone was just making something up they thought would sound good to a potential employer. Each member of the team had picked out a specific task they wanted done by an assistant and put them to her in turn for how she would handle each one. The morning applicants had all hemmed and hawed at this, each one invariably opted to put it aside and wait until the team had time to tell them what to do. Wrong answer. He wanted someone who was willing to think for themselves and take risks.

Celeste answered all the standard questions but she was watching the doctors. She had been a medical admin assistant before at a group practice but was nothing more than a glorified receptionist and biller there. It was the main reason she had applied for this job after looking up what the department did and the bio on its enigmatic leader. There was a clear ranking amongst the fellows, with Dr Taub at the bottom, Dr Hadley next. The top spot was contested between Drs Foreman and Chase, and although Foreman seemed to have been given the lead today by Dr House she had the sense that Chase was the actual favorite for the spot. House's eyes were on her the whole time and though it was clear he wasn't listening to the question and answer session, he did sit up to take notice when they reached the next phase.

The fellows went in reverse order of ranking with the next part, which meant Dr Taub set his task to her first. She thought about her answer for the moment and offered a standard answer, a safe answer, noticing immediately that Dr House sat back again. So when Dr Hadley presented her task next, Celeste decided to take a risk and offer a solution, watching as House appeared interested again. Drs Foreman and Chase's tasks were both challenging and ambiguous, but again she took a risk and offered a solution after a moment's thought.

The fellows looked to House after her final answer, passing the torch back to him. He sat silently contemplating her and the way she'd adapted her answers once she'd figured out what he really wanted. That was extremely promising.

"So, some of the things you might be asked to do on this job could include buying the coffee supplies, getting bagels for the team, running errands, running interference between us and the bosses, us and the rest of the staff, and us and the patients. You'll have to deal with strong personalities, lots of shouting disagreements, long hours, late nights, blunt and crass remarks and more. Diagnostics isn't much appreciated by the other departments since we don't often take their referrals and yet we demand their consultation and bump them out of line for tests, treatments, and ORs.

"Wow, you make it sound so attractive," Celeste quipped.

"Well, I don't believe in sugar coating anything," House smirked. "There are some good things about being here. It's rarely boring, always challenging, and always demanding. We're rotten at doing paperwork, especially billing. You'll have to hound us for information. But, if anybody gives you any guff we will stand up for you against them.

"There will be days where my pain levels are high," he continued, startling the entire team, who looked at each other in disbelief. "I'll be downright bitingly mean on those days. The only one who's allowed into my office on those days is Chase and it's up to you to make sure that happens. I'll give you the number to someone you should call if it seems like I'm worse than usual or spiraling out of control. Use it wisely."

Celeste frowned and looked around at the fellows then back at Dr House. "I may err on the side of caution until I understand what constitutes needing to make the call."

"Learn quickly. When could you start?"

"I could start on Monday."

"We'll let you know by the end of the day," House said, getting up and heading back into his office..

"Well… thanks for coming in, Celeste," Chase said after clearing his throat.

"Thank you, Dr Chase, and all of you. I'm looking forward to working with you all," she said with a smile.

"Right. See you on Monday," Foreman said, glancing over at House's office with a smirk. After she left, they looked at each other with knowing smiles and Foreman went over to House's office door.

"Should we cancel the other two interviews then?"

House glanced at the clock and grimaced. "Too late for the next one but cancel the last one. She was the one."

"Yeah. I think she'll fit in fine. I'll have Chase make the call to cancel."

"No. Tell Taub to do it. Chase!" he yelled.

Foreman shook his head and left as Chase came into the office.

"Yeah?"

"Get me a coke and a heating pad," he muttered as he eased his leg up onto the corner of the desk.

"Yeah, alright. Need a muscle relaxer?" Chase asked as he dug into his pockets for some change.

House looked up about to snap at him but he bit his tongue. "Yeah. Now go, I need to take these sooner rather than later," he answered, getting out his meds.

Chase was back in a couple of minutes, and House remained in his office during the next interview, letting the meds and heating pad do their work, since he'd already made up his mind anyway. This was the first time he'd had trouble with his leg at work for weeks now. He pulled out his phone and dialed Marius while he watched the interview.

"Hello, House. How goes the interviewing?"

"Good. Found the new assistant."

"Are you alright? You sound stressed."

"My leg is bothering me. First time in a while."

"You've been anxious about the interviews, so it's no surprise that you're having some pain. It should die down with the heat and meds. Come over tonight. Sidney and the hot tub will take care of you."

"Yeah, okay," House agreed. "See you later."