Based on the votes, this will turn into some kind of friendship.

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"I know, Mrs. Carmichael. It won't happen again." Ruby apologizes. She is picking pieces of shattered plate carefully off the floor, and scowling at the small, fluffy dog that had caused all this.

Ruby had been drying one of Mrs. Carmichael's dishes when the elderly woman's nasty little dog, Macintosh, starting yapping at her and made her drop the plate.

She hates dogs.

"Miss Bryant, 'sorry' is not enough! Sorry will not bring my plate back!" The woman's hands are planted firmly on her wide, roomy hips and her face is twisted into an ugly frown.

Mrs. Carmichael's triad is interrupted by Ruby's phone ringing.

"Hello?"

"Ruby?" The voice is familiar, but she can't quite place it.

"Who is this?"

"It's, uh, Greg House."

Ruby freezes.

"Why are you calling me?"

"Look, my house was trashed last night. My friend came over with one of his beer buddies and we all got shit-faced and tore the place up. Can you come by when you're done with work and help me put it back together?" His voice is wavering and insecure, almost tentative.

Ruby pauses. "Alright, I guess. Extra charge, though." She relents, and can feel his smile on the other end of the phone.

"Naturally." With that, he hangs up.

---------

In two hours she is hopping up his steps and knocking on his door. This time, he merely swings it open and stumbles back into his kitchen.

Ruby's jaw slackens when she sees his living room.

The couch is upside down, a ripped-apart pillow had flung its contents all over the room, his bookshelf is overturned and all his photos and books are lying haplessly about.

"Sweet zombie Jesus." She mutters under breath, and House smirks.

"I haven't heard that one before."

"This place is a dump. I was just here on Tuesday!" She turns to him and waves her arms, and Greg laughs.

"I know, I know." He moves forward and grabs one end the couch. "Help me, would ya?" So she comes forward and grabs the other side and they heave it onto its ass.

Ruby sets about collecting all the books and photos as House struggles to push the bookcase up, and she smiles as his eyes bug and he grunts and groans with the effort. His right leg is suspended in the air and quivering like a taut bow string, and she can see his abs constricting under his shirts and his biceps bulging.

"Oh, shit," He growls, shoving his arms in front of him as the bookcase finally rights itself against the wall. Ruby laughs, and earns a glare from him.

"Oh, and I suppose you could have lifted it with your pinkie finger?" He snaps, and she bats her eyelashes mockingly as the magazines are piled onto the coffee table.

House and Ruby work to pick everything off the floor and throw out the pillow and all its contents. Finally, she dusts her hands and smirks with satisfaction. "Well, I'd say that about covers it." She announces, and House grins wickedly.

"Not quite, Akaisha. How about you take the bedroom and I take the kitchen?" He waggles his eyebrows and she looks at him suspiciously, and then glances in the kitchen. The room is swamped with broken plates and dirty glasses, puddles of beer and something else she doesn't want to know. She heads toward the bedroom.

"Aaagh!" Ruby cries as she steps into the room, which is covered with beer cans, vodka bottles, an upturned bed and lots and lots of clothes and pictures on the floor.

She can hear Greg laughing in the other room.

She sets about with a basket for bottles and cans, one for clothes, one for pictures, one for books and magazines and one for trash, and she decides her boss deserved some snooping.

Under the bed frame she finds a letter on old, withered paper, with little stains that looked like small droplets of water blurring the words.

Sept. 27, 1992

Greg,

It's James Wilson. I just wanted to tell you that I had a great time last summer. I'm headed down to Plainsboro, NJ, to get my specialty in Oncology at Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. You mentioned you wanted work in the Diagnostics there sometime. I hope to see you soon. I really miss that pain in my ass.

Love,

Jimmy "Boy Wonder" Wilson.

Ruby reads the letter over twice. Is Greg House gay? Is this his lover? Is this the man in the picture she saw of him and his girlfriend? 1992, that was probably before he met… Stacy, was it? House was probably only in his thirties. Maybe he worked with him. Or went they were classmates, But if he was still getting his specialty, than that couldn't be it. How did they meet? What did they do that summer? And these droplets of water, could they be tears? Did Greg love this man?

She folds up the paper and sets it amongst the books and magazines, careful to avoid ripping it. This is probably enough intrusion on Greg's personal life for one day.

"You done yet?" She hears Greg holler from the living room.

"Almost!" She shouts back, scurrying to tidy up the rest of the room and put the mattress back on its frame.

"Ok. I'm done." She skips into his living room, where he is lying on his couch with a beer in hand.

"You want one?" He offers another bottle, but she declines.

"No thanks, I don't drink." She smiles, and he snorts.

"Pansy."

"So… is that all?" She ventures, and House shrugs.

"What's the extra cost?"

"Um, oh, I'd say $20." She replies, and House fishes the bill out of his wallet.

"There you are, kid." As she heads toward the door, he stops her.

"Do you have time to come in on Thursday as well as Tuesday?" He doesn't look at her, and she can tell he's nervous. Why, she isn't sure.

"Pretty soon you're going ask me to move in with you! Yeah, I've time on Thursdays." She answers, smiling, and waves good-bye. He simply stares.

As she is jogging down the steps, a man approaches. The man from the picture.

"James Wilson?" She can't resist, and is oddly pleased when he turns.

"Yes?"

She thrusts her hand forward. "Hi, I'm Ruby, Dr. House's new cleaning lady."

She can tell by the cock of his head he thinks she does a lot more than clean Greg's house. He gives her a lecherous smile, winks and enters Greg's house.

"Nice to meet you, Ruby." He calls over his shoulder, than walks through the doorway. "That's one hell of cleaning lady you got yourself, House," Is all she hears as the door closes behind him.

So, James Wilson, who seems to have met House before Stacy and was and is possibly his gay lover, just hit on her. Where's Stacy? What's Wilson doing still with House?

Ruby starting jogging toward the bus stop, a sickly smile on her face.

The plot thickens.

TBC.