A/N: I'm glad you all enjoyed the first chapter. Here's some more. Thanks for the reviews! Keep em coming :) It inspires me to write more :D Add this story to your alerts so you don't miss when I post another chapter. Thanks for reading!

Chapter Two

"Find out where House is yet?" Cuddy asked Wilson for the third time that week. It had been almost a month since House had left and she seemed to be the only one who still cared. Since the chilly reception Wilson got when he last talked to House, he had no intention of bothering him.

Wilson blinked and stared at her. "Oh, I was supposed to? I thought we'd dropped that subject."

"What? No? He needs to come back here. He has a department to run."

"It seems to be doing just fine," he said and went back to writing his notes.

"I've hired a private investigator since Lucas wouldn't help me."

"See? Even Lucas respects House's privacy. Why can't you? What do you expect to happen, Cuddy? If you find him, then what? Are you going to storm over to where he is and drag him back by his ear?"

She folded her arms across her chest in defiance. "The board is putting the squeeze on me. If I don't get him back, they'll fire me."

"Well I guess you best start looking for another job. You know as well as I do that if House doesn't want to be found, you won't find him."

"He has to be working somewhere. So unless he changed his name, it should be easy to find him."

"What if he's not practicing medicine?"

"Why wouldn't he? It's what keeps him sane. Although I don't know who the hell would hire him."

"Really, Cuddy?" Wilson snapped. "You think he's that much of a pariah that nobody would want anything to do with him? He's world famous. Any hospital would be lucky to have him."

"But he belongs here!"

"So you can control him and keep him in the clinic? Did it ever occur to you that maybe he just wants to be left alone?"

Cuddy narrowed her eyes at him. "You know something. Has he called you?"

Wilson rubbed the back of his neck. "Fine. Yeah, he called me a few weeks ago," he said, and raised his hand to stop her from speaking, "and he's fine, but he used a burner phone that can't be traced."

"We'll see about that," Cuddy said and stormed out of his office.

XXX

House made arrangements with the building manager of his old apartment to have movers come and pick up the piano and the rest of his personal items.

However, Wilson was driving past and saw the moving truck so he quickly parked across the street and went to investigate. One of the movers was standing outside smoking a cigarette when Wilson approached.

"Excuse me, is this Dr. House's piano?"

"Yep."

"Where are you moving it to?"

The mover scowled at Wilson. "You a cop?"

"No, I'm a doctor and I'm a friend of his."

"So you're a friend but you don't know where he moved to?" he scoffed as he flicked his cigarette on the ground at Wilson's feet. "Some friend." And with that, he wandered back inside to help the other guy.

Wilson went inside as well and found the building manager, Bob, standing outside House's apartment.

"Hey, Wilson," he said.

"Hey, have you heard from House?"

"Only when he called to have me let the movers in. Why, haven't you? Aren't you guys buddies?"

"Yeah, and he just up and took off, and nobody knows where he went. Do you have a forwarding address for him?"

"Yeah. And no, I'm not giving it to you."

Wilson frowned. "Why not?"

"House's orders. He warned me that there would be someone asking where he went and gave me strict instructions not to let anyone know, especially you, and I promised I wouldn't. So you're outta luck, pal. What happened? You two have a falling out, or something?"

"No, I wouldn't say that. I'm just worried about him. He's never just packed up and left town without a word before."

"Well, I don't know him that well, but if he did do as you say, then maybe he just wants to be left alone. If you're really his friend, you'd respect that. As much of a jerk as he was, he was a good resident and I'm not going to rat him out. You wanna know? Come back with a warrant, and good luck getting that."

"There's no need to be rude," Wilson said. "I'm just concerned…"

"Yeah well he sounded fine to me when he called. That's all I'm saying."

"Do you mind if I go look around his apartment?"

"Knock yourself out, but you're not going to find anything. Everything's all in boxes and they're almost done."

But he did find something. He managed to catch a glimpse of the work order that was sitting on a desk. However, the mover he spoke to was onto him and quickly snatched the invoice away. "Get outta here. We're busy and you're in our way."

Wilson put his hands up in surrender. "Fine, whatever," he said, and left, content that he at least had a general idea where House was, even if he didn't have an actual address.

"He's in Florida," Wilson told Cuddy on the phone that night.

"How do you know?"

"I was driving by his place…"

"Stalking, you mean," Cuddy chuckled.

"Call it what you will, but there were movers there and I happened to glance at the invoice before one of them took it and I saw where it was going."

"Did you get an address?"

"No, but at least you can narrow down the search."

"Me?"

"Yeah. I've done my share," Wilson said and ended the call.

XXX

House was sitting outside in the front yard when he watched Jaime's car pull up and saw her slamming the door shut.

"Long day?" he asked as he held up his beer in a salute.

"You have no idea."

"Want a beer?"

"I'd love one," she said as she came and sat down in the lawn chair next to him while he grabbed her a beer from the ice bucket.

"So what happened?"

"Oh, the Physics teacher quit and the AP Biology teacher is going on mat leave in a week and the teacher supposed to stand in for her decided to take a job somewhere else so now we're out two teachers."

"Wow."

She took a long sip of the beer and closed her eyes, placing the cold bottle against her forehead. "I have a headache, which is ridiculous because it really has nothing to do with me, at all. But I'm friends with the head of the Science department and I feel so bad for her. She's losing her mind trying to find a replacement."

"Temporarily or permanently?" House asked, clearly intrigued.

She glanced at him. "Why? Do you know someone who could help us out?"

He said the words before he could stop himself. "You're looking at him."

Jaime burst out laughing. "You?"

House smirked. "Don't laugh. I am a doctor you know. Teaching Bio would be a walk in the park and so would Physics."

She looked at him in disbelief.

"Want me to show you my transcripts?" he grinned.

"Have you ever taught a class of anything?"

"I've done a lot of conferences and lectures, and I was a TA for some of the professors and what not when I was in med school. I'm just putting it out there. Do what you want," he shrugged.

"I thought medicine was your thing? I mean, aren't you world famous?"

House grinned wider. "Yeah, but I'm trying to put that behind me. I've had enough of medicine. At least for now. I need to do something else. I've always loved Science and especially Physics."

Jaime nodded. "I'll talk to Laura, she's head of the Science Department, and see if she'll see you. Don't get your hopes up though."

House shrugged and kept drinking. "It is what it is."

XXX

Two days later, House got a call from Laura.

"Is this Greg?"

"It is. Who's this?"

"Hi, this is Laura McKenzie, I'm the head of the Science Dept at Lake Haven High. How're you?"

Her voice was deep and husky, like Kathleen Turner, and he liked it. "I'm good. What can I do for you?"

"Jaime tells me you're interested in the teaching positions here and I was just calling to see if you were serious."

"I wouldn't have offered if I wasn't."

"Do you have a resume?"

He laughed. "I haven't needed a resume in twenty years."

She laughed on her end. "Well, do your best. I just need something on paper."

"I'll see what I can do."

"Great. Be in my office bright and early tomorrow morning and we'll see where we're at."

"Sounds good."

"Great, see you tomorrow, Greg."

"Just call me House. Everyone else does."

There was a pause. "Wait, you're not Greg House? Diagnostician Greg House?"

"Yep."

"Wow. You treated my cousin a few years ago. We thought we were going to lose her but you saved the day."

"Glad to help."

Once he ended the call, he opened his laptop and went to work on creating a resume. He didn't want to use Cuddy or Wilson as references so he didn't bother adding those.

When Monday morning finally arrived, he was at the high school, waiting to see Laura.

When she came out, he had to admit he was surprised. She looked nothing like the image he had in his head. In fact, she was downright beautiful.

She smiled as she approached and extended her hand. "Dr. House, I presume?"

He grabbed his cane and stood up, taking the hand she offered him. "And you must be Laura."

"Yes. Please, my office is just down the hall," she said, gesturing to the door. He followed her down a long hallway into an office area that sat between several classrooms on each side.

"This your office?" he asked, looking around.

"Such as it is. I like to be the center of the department. All these classrooms on each side are just for Science."

"So you can see all that's going on," he said, thinking it reminded him of Cuddy's office overlooking the clinic.

"Yeah, well all the science teachers get their own desk back here because this is where we teach so it makes sense to have our own area. As you can see, everyone's got their own computer and there's a photocopier and scanner. Each class has an overhead projector as well."

"Old school. I like it."

Laura smiled. "A lot of teachers just use their laptops and project their screens but some like the overhead projectors. So, come have a seat at my desk and we'll talk turkey."