Epilogue
Three days later found House's new patient cured, Kelly gone, and House sitting alone in his office. Wilson wandered in without knocking, and earned a glare.
"Nothing to do?" he asked carefully, knowing that House had been in a dark mood since Kelly had left. He would never admit it to anyone, but the kid had gotten to him. She had trusted him, and never looked on him strangely. He was just House, not Dr. House the famous diagnostician, not Poor House the cripple, just plain House who liked to talk, and had a nice cane. Wilson plopped into the chair opposite House's desk.
"She'll be fine. They are great people. Hell, you even checked them out yourself."
"I know."
"What, are you sad you didn't get to teach her the art of snark before she left?" Wilson asked, hoping to draw House out of the dour mood he was in.
"Yeah something like that. She'll never walk right again."
"Is that what's bugging you?"
"Partly, if people had only looked at her, just looked, they would have seen what I saw, it was THERE! For years she was just ignored and pushed aside, and abused because no doctor took the time to spend five minutes examining her. They just assumed, based on what they saw, and they saw wrong."
"And now we're back to you," Wilson said quietly.
"What!" House hissed
"You're not just angry because of what happened to her, you're angry because it also happened to you. House, you're allowed to be pissed about this, you were misdiagnosed, and it left you handicapped; that's a reasonable reason to be angry. You're worried that it'll happen again to Kelly, but she's safe now. She has a good family, one that has helped autistic kids in the past, and you have to let it go."
House's shoulders slumped a bit, and when he finally looked up at Wilson there was less darkness then there had been in a while.
"So, Chinese and beer at my place?" House asked after a moment, trying to bring life back to normal.
"Sure," Wilson replied with a small smile; everything was going to be ok, or as ok as it ever got with House, anyway.
THE END!