Soo had got to the diagnostics room soon after the rest of the ducklings. Of course that was well before House was even expected to be there, especially since Mr. Park was their only case right then, but Soo still had plenty to do, as the "bigger ducklings" had decided to go through House's old cases with her and teach her what they could in the few days that she was around. House had come to work at his normal time and taken Soo to check on her father. Mr. Park's progress was promising: no cardiac arrests and tests showed that his body was handling the waste from the dead muscle cells without shutting down any organs. It was still not going to be a picnic for Mr. Park to come out of the coma the next day, but House was sure that normal painkillers would be enough by then.

After the visit to her father House had given Soo time off for couple of hours – mainly to talk with her family and make sure things were ok there, now that her mother had got the surgery she had wanted (or so she thought), and also to have something to eat and possibly spend some time with her friends before they all dispersed to their Christmas destinations. Soo was a little apprehensive about meeting her friends but obviously Nellie had had time to give a more detailed explanation about Soo's father to them – and Connie and her gang had confirmed her alibi for "the night", so though her friends were curious about everything that was going on they were mostly sympathetic because of her father. Of course Soo hadn't told anyone that House had referred to her as his "littlest duckling", and she wasn't going to! In such a competitive bunch of people as medical students were, friendship went only so far. There was no point in putting an unnecessary strain on it.

Soo was surprised that she had had time to actually finish her sandwich before the familiar whistle cut trough the cafeteria again. This time she didn't even bother to look up, just told her friends she had to go and stood up to follow House, who was already turning away from the door. Fortunately she knew that his destination was the clinic so she had no trouble following him.

"So what fun can we have today, Soo?" House said as they stopped at Brenda's desk at the clinic. "Charting could be a start? I believe we are supposed to make sure they are all up to date by the end of the year or something. Useless labour as far as I can see, but the paper pushers just aren't happy if they cannot push others to do it for them."

"Your charting is completely up to date," Brenda pointed out with a slightly gleeful gleam in her eyes.

"Are you sure?" House frowned. "It's not that long ago that you complained that I was about six months behind in my charting."

"The back log has been taken care of," Brenda informed him. "After all, you have been attending to your paperwork rather diligently for the past three days."

House turned to Soo who was not quite meeting his gaze. "I was not aware that we had been able to go through that many patients in such a short time." It was not quite a question, since House was very well aware that they had not gone through six months worth of patients at all.

"The number of patients you have in six months is not that large," Soo tried to explain. "After all, you don't see that many per day."

"True, true," House nodded affably – making Soo all the more nervous. "But I still think I would have noticed if we had gone through six months worth of patients. I'm quite sure of it."

"Well, I find charting interesting," Soo finally decided to confess, sort of. "And I like reading patient files, and since you had made some notes in them already and they weren't that complicated cases ..."

"You think you broke the code and are able to read my notes?" House asked. Soo decided to remain silent. House turned to Brenda and asked for a few of his patient files - ones that Soo had done herself. He opened them, read them and turned to Soo pointing at something in one of them. "You didn't think that notation needed to be deciphered?"

Soo looked at the file, swallowed and decided to go for it – as she obviously was in trouble anyway: "Well, I didn't think it was necessary to chart that you had been forced to spend an extra half hour in explaining to the mother that the symptoms she had found on the internet did not fit her daughter's condition even the slightest."

"Getting a little uppity, are we?" House murmured. "I have to see what can be done about that."

"Dr. House!" Brenda tried to intervene. "You cannot make her miserable for having done your charting for you."

"That does seem a little unfair, doesn't it?" House pondered. "Well, I'll just have to make her miserable for no reason at all."

Brenda was on the verge of saying something to House but a new patient needed her attention. House remained standing by the desk as he went through a few more of the files Soo had deciphered – and correctly, drat the girl. Though he seemed absorbed by the files he was aware of the conversation between Mrs. Simon and Brenda. Once Brenda told Mrs. Simon to wait till she was called, House reached out for Mrs. Simon's file.

"She is not one of your patients," Brenda tried to stop him.

"And why would that be?" House raised his eyebrow at Brenda. "I wasn't aware that you could pick and choose your doctor on a free clinic."

"She is a nice lady," Brenda stated. "She deserves a doctor with better manners than yours."

"There is nothing wrong with my manners!" House put up his back with exaggerated indignation. "But your statement seems to indicate that Mrs. Simon has been diagnosed as a hypochondriac."

"She has been coming here about every two weeks ever since her youngest went to college," Brenda admitted.

"Empty nest syndrome," House concluded, reading the file Brenda had reluctantly given him. "Or at least that is what some lazy good for nothing doctor has decided at some point early on." House went on reading the file and then he stared at nothing for a moment drumming his fingers on the table. He obviously came to some conclusions. "Brenda, page Chase for me, tell him to get his butt down here stat."

Soo didn't dare ask anything so they waited in silence for Chase. Once he got to the clinic House pushed the file at him.

"What do you think?" House asked. "Read just the symptoms she has been complaining about, don't care about the conclusions the previous idiots have reached."

Chase read the file as quickly as he could while still making sense of it. "She has been here several times for different reasons, but they all seem to reoccur. Well, menstrual pain would, of course, but there are headaches, problems sleeping – which seems to be the reason for her being here today, too. She has suffered from irritable bowel a few times, strange numbness and tingling in her fingers and toes, unspecific pain, generalised pain, just aching all over for no apparent reason. ... Well, I cannot say with absolute certainty that the previous doctors have been wrong but this does read a lot like Fibromyalgia."

"That's what I thought," House agreed. "But I'm not the one with a world famous rheumatologist in my bloodline. Also Brenda seems to think that Mrs. Simon deserves someone with better bedside manner than mine – go figure. So she's all yours Chase. Take Soo with you, she can use the experience no matter what you find. Besides she doesn't actually need to be with me to do my charting now that she can read Da Vinci." House grabbed a file for himself and limped off.

"Da Vinci? What did he mean with that," Chase asked as he took Mrs. Simon's file.

"The code," Soo explained. "I have been doing his charting for him and was able to decipher some of his marking without asking him."

"Ok," Chase acknowledged. "Mrs. Simon! This way please."

----------------------------

House had just shown his first patient out – a simple case of a sinusitis - when Wilson came to see him. He looked depressed.

"If you want antidepressants you know where the psych ward is," House flipped at him.

"Very funny," Wilson wasn't in the mood to be amused. "I just came by to tell you, you were wrong."

"That would definitely be a piece of news that would make you go out of your way to deliver," House stated. "Though I doubt that it's true, whatever it is."

"You told me that I would not see Pam again until perhaps in a month or so when she would come by to tell me that she is moving to California," Wilson explained.

"Pam who?" House asked.

"Pam!" Wilson repeated. "Andy's mother!"

"Oh," House did not seem concerned. "I don't think I ever heard her name before."

"You didn't know her name?" Wilson wondered.

"I'm pretty sure it never came up," House told him. "But how do you know she will not be moving to California in a month's time? Did you check your crystal ball or something? Or did she promise to stay?"

"No," Wilson sighed. "She came by this morning to see the final details here and she told me that she is leaving in a week. She is going to her cousin in Washington State."

"Ah!" House nodded. "So you are telling me I was wrong about the time and the place but not wrong about her leaving?"

"Pretty much, yes," Wilson acknowledged. "I hope you are not going to say I told you so."

"If you didn't want to hear that, why did you come to me?" House asked.

"Just... I ... Fine," Wilson gave in. "I wanted to see your reaction to the news."

"My reaction?" House was puzzled. "What did you expect my reaction to be?"

"I didn't really expect it to be anything," Wilson said. "I just wanted to see it. To see if it told me anything. I'm sorry House, but once it became clear that you had not had Soo in your bedroom that morning I came by with your parents, I did wonder if perhaps. Well, Pam had been missing, too. I'm sorry. If you didn't even know her name there is no way she would have been that intimate with you. I'm sorry."

"I have to point out to you that I do not know the names – or at least the real names – of all the women I have slept with," House decided to point out.

"I know, only too well," Wilson was slightly irritated. "But those were different kind of women."

"You have a point there," House agreed. "However I don't quite see how you became to suspect anything at all. I'm sure there were plenty of women unaccounted for that particular night, why suspect her having been the one with me?"

"No reason, really," Wilson sighed. "She was wearing a man's shirt the next morning, so she had been with someone. The only reason you came to mind, was because you had had company."

"She is a beautiful woman," House said. "There is no real reason to believe she has no men friends, even if her only priority in life has been Andie for a number of years."

"You could be right," Wilson nodded. "At least it seems that she is leaving him behind, too."

"She made it clear then, that she is moving west all alone?" House asked.

"Yes, she was quite clear about that," Wilson said.

They sat in silence for a while just letting their thoughts drift as they may.

"So what are you going to do for Christmas?" Wilson finally asked.

"I don't know," House gave a deep sigh. "I need to spend some time with my parents, a prospect that does not fill me with cheer. Other than that, I have no plans."

"I don't know either what to do," Wilson told him. "Perhaps we could do it together?"

"Yeah, that would be ok," House agreed. "You could come with me to whatever it is Mother has arranged and get some of the Fatherly pressure off me."

"I could do that," Wilson said turning ready to leave. "Let me know what your Mother has planned."