Two days later, Taub and Chase accompanied House back to the new-old apartment; bringing cleaning supplies. "It's actually amazing, how parallel your life's been running to Foreman's," Taub was saying, as House led them in.
"Giving birth to four sets of quadruplets, always four years apart, is amazing."
"I know you don't like coincidences..."
"Without coincidence, I wouldn't be here. None of us would be."
"So you've reevaluated coincidence," Chase stated.
"Nah, not so much." House bent and picked up the mop bucket, and began limping his way down the hall to the bathroom.
"This'll probably fall on deaf ears, but don't hurt yourself," Chase said.
"I'm fine," came the predictable answer.
Taub rolled his eyes and looked at Chase. "You ever wonder what his idea of crazy is?"
"Yes. But I'm not curious enough to find out. Are you?"
"No."
They helped themselves to the variety of cleaning supplies. "It's going to be so weird to see Foreman working a cash register," Taub mused.
"Don't buy anything embarrassing. Or get a different teller."
Soon House came limping back carrying the full bucket. As he stumbled and ended up setting the bucket down forcefully, splashing water onto the hardwood, Chase and Taub paused in what they were doing and looked at him. He ignored their eyes and dug out his ringing phone, putting it on loudspeaker. "Yes, you've reached the limp, the shrimp and the wimp!"
Chase and Taub rolled their eyes as House went to the fireplace and set his phone on the mantle, then returned to the bucket and started mopping the puddle. All the while, Cuddy's voice came through. "Hi. It's Cuddy. I just thought I'd check in, see how it's going with the new place."
"It's fine," House repeated.
"It always is, isn't it?"
The tone of her voice made House pause in his mopping. "I was being honest."
"Right."
When House was quiet, Taub spoke. "Uh, how's it going with you?"
"Me? I'm good." Cuddy paused, which allowed the sound of rustling papers to filter through. "Uh, Chase, do you still...help everyone?"
"How do you know I was here?"
"Oh, please. We all have our nicknames."
"It could have been Cameron! Or Park!"
"But you're not. And I'm waiting."
Chase sighed, holding out his hands and then dropping them back to his sides. "Yes."
"Foreman's moving, too, but he had a conflict in his schedule. He just needs someone to oversee the movers he hired. Tomorrow."
"Well, I'll...have to check my own schedule. I'll get back to you."
"Okay. And I..." Cuddy's voice trailed off, then was softer as she added, "This is weird. No, wrong, there's—excuse me, I have to go." She hung up and Chase looked around, expecting House to retrieve his phone. But he and the mop were gone, with a trail of soapy water leading into the bedroom.
House exited the bedroom with the mop.
"Behind you," Taub said.
House turned around. "You should warn people more often. Anything higher than a park bench and they won't see you."
Taub extended House's phone. "You're the one she called."
"Should have called the wimp." House pocketed his phone.
Taub began to turn away. "You know, most people who aren't seen for twenty years come back different. And the slightest change can be surprising, but you...You're not surprising me. At all."
"I don't want to change."
"Well, you told Wilson you would, and if you wanted to honor him, you'd live up to it."
House watched Taub walk out of the bedroom and into the living room; then he started mopping towards his own bedroom from two decades prior. And as he cleaned, a thought occurred to him; making him falter, and he stood frozen for awhile, staring at the floor.
Raising his eyes, he looked worriedly into the living room, where he could see Taub shining up the mantle and Chase washing the windows. House closed the door and locked it as quietly as he could, then knelt, laying the mop on the floor. He found the all too familiar pattern in the floor that, when observed in a manner of pareidolia, resembled a butterfly with the beak of a bird and the tail of a fish; and wedged his fingers into the slight knick, pulling the floorboard up and exposing his old, Vicodin-filled vault. Still full. Still tempting. After all these years...
House lay the floorboard back in place and continued to clean the apartment, waiting for Taub and Chase to leave. Then he emptied the vault. And flushed all the pills.