Jensen had mastered being professionally objective during sessions with patients long since, but House, knowing him so well by now, could tell that he was startled by the revelation. "What did she want?" the psychiatrist asked.

House shrugged. "I have no idea. It was the same day Lisa fell on the stairs, actually, and I was tied up worrying about that. I shut Stacy down pretty sharply and told her to take a number." He gave Jensen a brief description of that short conversation in the lobby and the following phone call. "What do you make of that?"

"Interesting. You've no doubt been thinking about it several times since. You don't have any differential on it yet?"

"Not really. I've ruled out that she's just trying to start something with me again."

Jensen nodded. "That door is closed, and I'm sure she realized that was hopeless the moment she saw you, even if it had been on her mind before. For her to persist in wanting a private conversation after encountering you, yes, there's something else entirely that she wants to discuss."

House had started to fiddle again with the piano letter opener, but he paused at that statement. "Why do you think she would have given up as soon as she saw me? Hypothetically, I mean. I don't think she was thinking of that anyway, but if she were, I doubt she'd give up right away. She's persistent."

"A couple of reasons." Jensen counted them off on his fingers. "One, she is an intelligent woman. You'd never stay in a relationship with someone who wasn't, not for five minutes, much less five years. She's also successful professionally, a lawyer. She can weigh data and outline a case. Next, based on those five years, she knows you specifically quite well. And Dr. House, you have changed in the last few years since becoming secure in your family. There's a sort of deep restlessness that you used to have when we first started sessions that is no longer there. You have found fulfillment personally."

House snorted. "Ask a few people at the hospital how much I've changed, and you might get a different story."

"Most of them only know you more superficially, and I have no doubt that you are still notorious on staff, justifiably so. Although I think you'd be surprised at the number of them who still like you, eccentricities, difficulties, and all. But back to Stacy, I'm talking about a much deeper level. You are happy in your family, truly happy. Stacy has a woman's intuition and the intelligence to apply it, and she would recognize that, even if she didn't like the answer. She couldn't help seeing that. There's a difference between persistence and enjoying beating your head against a brick wall. Usually, persistence in something involving other people has to carry some hope, even if small, that you might succeed. Tell me something, Dr. House, just for confirmation, although I have no doubt of it. Have you ever been as happy and fulfilled at any time in your life as you are right now?"

House hesitated for a moment, not out of doubt of the answer but simply out of the old habit of being afraid to admit something mattered, lest it be taken away. Jensen waited him out patiently, and he knew that the psychiatrist of all people didn't misunderstand that brief silence. "No," he said finally, one word with a universe of meaning wrapped up in it.

Jensen smiled. "Well done. And that fact is apparent to people who know you intimately, Dr. House. Not to everyone," he reassured him. "But someone who shared a relationship with you for five years, who knew you to that level, she would see the truth in two seconds as plainly as a road sign. She would realize that her chances to insert herself into that simply didn't exist, not now. Furthermore, she knows from your last encounter, when you broke off an affair with her, that you do respect an existing relationship, hers in that case, whether it's happy or not. Notice that she did accept that decision, although I'm sure she didn't like it. She didn't persist. She knew that you meant what you said and would not continue a relationship with her, period. But your family life now is far from unhappy. She would have it confirmed immediately there's no chance for her the second she saw you, even if she had wished there were."

Jensen sat back. "But all of that is hypothetical, because you think she has something else entirely in mind. I trust your instincts there."

House sighed. "My instincts aren't telling me much at the moment."

"You're under a lot of collateral stress with Dr. Cuddy's injury. Still, you probably at least have a few theories."

The piano letter opener came into play again, a miniature keyboard of agitation. "I, um, forgave Stacy back at Christmas, too."

Jensen reached over and gave his arm a squeeze again. "Excellent. I am very proud of you for that, with her and with Thornton both. Even if it was just personally and you didn't tell them, it's a huge step. But you did tell them, didn't you?"

"I sent her a Christmas card. Just an impersonal Christmas card, the kind you'd give to any acquaintance, and I put the hospital mailing address on it."

The psychiatrist nodded. "Nice. A clear message to her, besides the written one, I mean."

"Right." House ran a mini glissando along the letter opener. "I really didn't want to hear from her. I wasn't trying to start anything. I was trying to end something. Just the three words, I forgive you. I was glad when she didn't respond - when she didn't respond immediately."

"You think she wants to discuss your leg now, on this new footing?"

House shook his head. "No. The only halfway idea that I've come up with is that she might want to discuss my past, specifically how I could have been in a relationship with her for five years and never told her about it. She has to have seen the publicity back at Patrick's trial. She knows everything now."

"Hardly everything," Jensen reminded him.

House gave a humorless smile. "Yeah. Patrick only had a few highlights." He sighed again. "We never really had in-depth talks about things when we were together; we did things. Neither one of us were great communicators personally. But everything has changed now, and since she knows my past, thanks to Patrick, and knows that I'm not blaming her for the leg anymore, thanks to that card, maybe she wants to have all the in-depth discussions now that we never had back then, starting with my history. And I do not want to have that discussion. Not tomorrow, not in this century. That's what made me worry that maybe I hadn't forgiven her after all."

Jensen easily carried the extension forward. "And that's what got you then worried about Thornton."

"Yeah." House studied the letter opener, though he wasn't fiddling with it at the moment. "Back at Christmas, I just felt like I needed to let go of what she did, and probably like she needed to let go of it herself."

"As long as you were taking the even larger step of forgiving Thornton, you wanted to get that dealt with, too." House nodded. "Dr. House, like I said before, you are doing fine. This is like exercising a muscle that you have never used, and keep in mind, you have an entire lifetime of not talking about your past, many decades more than you have about not talking about your leg. All of the additional weight of that threat against your mother plays into that. Even with the leg, we're still working through all your feelings on that, and it's still not an easy thing to talk about, not even with Dr. Cuddy. Your past is even larger. Of course you don't want to discuss it with Stacy. But that doesn't mean that you didn't do a good enough job forgiving her for your leg. You also were caught totally off guard that morning in the hospital, something that you hate with anything. Your reaction to her that morning makes perfect sense."

House relaxed a little. "So, what do you think she wants to talk about?"

It was Jensen's turn to take a moment to consider. "I don't know. I think in that, your guesses will be better than mine. You know her much better; all my information is second hand. It could be indeed that she wants to discuss the past. To a woman especially, once she learned the back story, she might take your silence in your relationship as a personal statement against her, rather than a general statement against everybody. Or it could be something totally different. But you'll find out tomorrow."

"Yeah." House ran another letter opener glissando.

"One suggestion. If she does seem to take that personally, you might inform her that you never told anyone about that voluntarily. Dr. Cuddy, James, Patrick - all of them, in different ways, found out for themselves. It wasn't your choice to bring up the topic. That makes it less about her and more a general policy. But if that is it, you don't have to have the in-depth conversation. Tell her she had a lot of company in ignorance and then close the subject. Whatever else there is she wants to discuss, if anything else, I'm sure you can handle it once given data. You think very well on your feet. But you are in control. This meeting is at your time, on your turf, under your rules."

House nodded and looked at his grandfather's watch. "We're out of time."

"Yes, we are. Couple of points in wrap-up. First, I am impressed at the way you've handled this whole thing from deciding to forgive them on. You also told Dr. Cuddy first about Stacy, which was definitely the right move, bringing her in as a partner in this situation as soon as possible. You've done extremely well, and I do think you forgave both Stacy and Thornton. That doesn't mean you wouldn't react when encountering her by surprise and thinking she might want to talk over your past."

"Thanks," House said. It was still a difficult word for him, but it was becoming a little easier at times - and with certain people. "Actually, the old man was interesting in that whole encounter. He backed me up, but then he didn't push for more once we were alone."

"You can trust him, Dr. House. I know that's a process, and forgiving him doesn't bring you automatically to the finish line on trust, but you are making tremendous progress. He is on your side when you let him be. That brings me to my last question, just out of curiosity. You mailed Stacy a Christmas card, you said. How did you tell Thornton?" Jensen couldn't imagine House actually saying it face to face to his father yet, improving relationship or not.

"I put a Christmas card in his car, but it was written in hieroglyphics."

Jensen laughed. "That's perfect. Make him work for it." He stood up and moved his chair back a little into position; he always pulled it closer during House's sessions. "If you want to tell me about tomorrow's conversation, you're welcome to." There was a gleam of curiosity in the psychiatrist's eye, though it was firmly professionally held under control.

"I will if I can. I might need to - think about it a while. Depending what it is. And then talk to Lisa, too."

"Of course. Well, Dr. House, goodbye for now, and safe trip home."

"How's Melissa doing?" House asked as he stood and worked a few kinks out of his leg. Jensen's wife was, against all odds and against all past history, pregnant, something that both she and her husband had considered with good reason to be pretty much impossible. They had had to enlist nearly every procedure and medical assistance in the book to have Cathy years earlier.

"She's doing fine. Very regular checkups, of course. We're all cautiously optimistic." Jensen opened the door of his office. "Good luck tomorrow, Dr. House."

House hoped he wouldn't need it, but he was thinking as he left the office building that he would take all the luck he could get.