Author note: It's been awhile, but I am back with another chapter. Thanks to all of you who keep hanging in there and reading even though I am not on any sort of regular update schedule right now. Still don't own House
Chapter 17: Like a brother
Kate parks her car and goes to the conference room connected to House's office. She is surprised to see the conference room is dark. She looks over to the office and sees the desk lamp on. House is sitting behind the desk with his feet propped up on it. Kate takes a deep breath and walks into the office.
House glances at his watch and says "Wow, you must've been downtown. There's no way you made that good of time from Cuddy's place."
"Let me guess, there's nothing wrong with my patient?"
"Well, besides the fact that she's mysteriously ill?"
Kate's eyes narrow. "Mrs. Hill didn't get worse suddenly, did she?"
"Who's Mrs. Hill?" House picks up the patient file from the desk. "Oh right, your patient. She's still stable."
Kate frowns. She takes her coat off and hangs it on the coat hook along with her purse. She sits on the desk in front of House and crosses her legs. "Ok, Greg. I give up. What is it?"
Greg is thrown. He expected yelling, screaming, and throwing of objects; not a calm response from Kate. "Did you test her for cancer?"
"Don't be stupid. Of course we did."
"Heavy metal poisoning?"
"She was negative."
"Drug use?"
"Occasional pot smoker, but she hasn't smoked in at least six weeks because she is looking for a new job and wants to pass any drug tests that may come up." Kate crosses her legs and makes herself comfortable on the desk.
"Lupus?"
"No. ANA negative, sed rate normal."
"Multiple sclerosis?"
"The MRI and LP were negative."
"Why are you leading Wilson on?"
"What? I'm not leading Wilson on!"
"Sure you are. All he does is talk about you. How much fun you are, how much you know about rheumatology, what a great job you are doing with my department. Admit it: you are trying to bed our little Jimmy."
Kate laughs at him. "I could never sleep with Jimmy. That would be like sleeping with my brother or something. Ew."
"You know he likes you."
"Good for him. I like him too. As a friend."
"He's absolutely cow-eyed over you."
"Greg, you're out of your mind. Jimmy thinks I'm too bossy and mean for his liking."
Greg nods thoughtfully. "Well, at least he still has some sense in his head. Frankly, I think he's a bit too OCD for you."
Kate can't help herself, she laughs. House frowns at her and says "What are you laughing at?"
Kate says "That is exactly what I told him when he and I discussed it this afternoon. He told me you were giving him a hard time and saying he wanted in my pants. We agreed that we don't have feelings for each other and furthermore, it would never work between us."
"And here I was worried Jimmy was about to get himself in to another messy relationship. My work here is done." House doesn't move from the chair.
Kate waits for him to get up to leave, but sees he isn't about to move. "That wasn't why you interrupted my dinner."
Greg nods in agreement. "A fair statement."
"Seriously, what do you want? I can't read your mind. In fact, I don't want to read your mind; I doubt I could afford the therapy I would need afterwards."
"Why did you come here?"
Kate rolls her eyes. "Because you paged me, you jerk."
"No. Why did you come to Princeton?"
Kate nods slowly as if she had been waiting for this question. "I was bored."
Greg shakes his head. "No, that's my line."
"You stole it from me."
"I see it more as I have bought it from you considering all the alimony I pay you."
Kate shakes her head. "Whatever."
Greg stares at her thoughtfully. She meets his stare without flinching. He says "Why would a talented, successful, in-demand doctor drop everything and come from the other side of the country when her ex-husband, the man she blames for nearly destroying her life, asks for her on his deathbed?"
Kate mockingly scratches her head and finally says "I know! I wanted to see you suffer!"
Greg shakes his head. "If that was the case, you would've turned up after the infarction."
"Nah, you still had your girlfriend around then. You were too busy making her miserable to completely focus on your suffering. Lisa and Jimmy told me about after the infarction. You made it your life goal to torture her and make her miserable. It helped take your mind off what she had done to you."
Greg's blue eyes become stormy. "Interesting theory there, Doc. Where could I have learned such destructive behavior?" He points at her and mockingly says "Oh yeah, I learned it from my lovely ex-wife. Granted, I was a lot more vocal in making Stacy miserable. I never was good at giving the silent treatment like you were."
Kate feels her temper begin to rise. "You were never home for me to give you the silent treatment. You hid like a coward at the hospital and threw yourself into your work!"
"And that right there proves how miserable I was! I hate patients! You should know—"
Kate puts her hand up to stop his tirade. His mouth snaps shut. She quietly says "This has gone completely off topic. You're trying to tell me that you had me paged while you knew I was in the middle of dinner to ask me why I came to Princeton?"
He shrugs. "Sure. And to piss you off."
Kate stands up and stretches. "Ok, you score a point for pissing me off. Frankly, I'm at as much a loss on why I came here as you are. It makes no sense for me to be here. But yet I am. Maybe it was out of curiosity. I hadn't spoken to you in years and all of the sudden you are asking for me on what could have easily been your death bed? Either you were hallucinating thinking you were a cast member of General Hospital, or you had some ulterior motive. Hell, maybe you wanted to apologize to me for sleeping around on me."
House looks askance and says "I know I must've apologized for that by now."
Kate walks behind him and bitterly laughs. She stares out the window and says "Please! Greg House doesn't apologize for anything! Greg House has no regrets because Greg House is above reproach!"
Greg winces at the bitterness in her voice. He stands up and goes to her side. He gently touches her arm and says "Kate… I know I had to have apologized to you. I must've apologized at some—"
Kate angrily shakes his hand off and stomps over to grab her coat and purse. "You didn't! Trust me; I would've forgiven you if you had just apologized." She yanks her coat on and says "Go home, Greg. Go plot how else you are going to make my time here unpleasant. You'll want to think of some really good things to do to me, because I sure as hell will be figuring out how to make your life hell."
Kate stomps out of the office and nearly knocks Foreman over. He grabs her arms to steady her and says "Hey, Dr. Kowal. Are you ok?" Kate fiercely nods as she wipes some tears away with the back of her hand.
"Sorry. Didn't mean to bump into you." She casts a baleful look back at the office. Foreman follows her bitter stare and sees House on the receiving end.
"Look, I'm sure he was a complete asshole to you, but he doesn't deserve your tears. He's a bastard."
Kate sarcastically says "Oh believe me, I know that." She emits a shaky laugh when she realizes House is staring at them. "Why are you still here?"
Foreman says "Just following up on our patient. She is still stable, no changes. I was waiting for Chase to show up and relieve me for watching over Mrs. Hill."
Kate nods. "Chase is here then?" Foreman nods. "How about you come get a drink with me and tell me what a creep House is for awhile? I'm in the mood for some House-bashing."
Foreman laughs. "Who isn't?" Foreman glances over at House and then back to Kate. "Sure, I'll join you for a drink. Let me grab my coat."
Kate glances back at the office. House is still staring at them. "I am going to wait for you in the stairwell. He can't follow us there."
Foreman nods. "Ok." Kate hurries down the hall to the stairwell. Foreman goes in the conference room and collects his coat. House waltzes into the conference room and starts in on Foreman.
"She's a bruiser. She nearly knocked you over. Don't tell me you are gonna take that from Whitey?" House arches an eyebrow at Foreman.
"Why are you here? I thought you were banned from the office during your recuperation?"
"I was just checking up on my favorite set of ducklings and the wicked witch of the west."
Foreman pulls his coat on and asks "Does that make you the wicked witch of the east?"
House chuckles. "I suppose so."
Foreman says "Then you should be careful nobody drops a house on you, House. Whatever you said to her got under her skin." Foreman heads for the door.
"Where are you going?"
"Dr. Kowal invited me out for a drink. I'm going to go meet her."
"You mind as well give up all dreams of getting your jungle fever on. She likes the white meat."
Foreman shakes his head and opens the door. "You're a pig." Foreman heads down the hallway.
House won't be outdone. He grabs his coat and hat and pulls them on. He hurries out to the hallway. He heads for the elevators, expecting to see Foreman and Kate. Instead, he sees them heading down the stairwell. "Dammit!" He hurries to the elevator and jams the down button. The elevator takes its time coming. By the time he makes it to the lobby, there is no sign of Foreman and Kate. However, Wilson is walking into the lobby.
Wilson is dumbfounded. "What are you doing here?"
House grumbles "I work here."
Wilson says "Not while you're on medical leave. Besides, you wouldn't be here after hours to work."
"Sure I would. I'm devoted to my job."
Wilson snorts. Then his eyes narrow in suspicion. "Did you see Kate?"
"She went to go get a drink with Mandingo."
Wilson incredulously asks "She's out with Foreman?" House nods. He avoids meeting Wilson's eye. Wilson suspiciously asks "What did you say to her?"
House feigns an innocent look. "Me? What would I possibly say to my lovely ex-wife that could possibly upset her?"
Wilson sighs. "Never mind. I'll ask her myself in the morning. How did you get here?"
House sighs. "Taxi. Will you give me a ride home?"
Wilson nods. "Sure, although I'm sure you don't deserve it."
The two men walk out of the lobby with Wilson lecturing House about being nicer to Kate.
