Chapter V

Solution and Endings

"So where's Mark?" House asked shrewdly. "He owes me big time."

"Mark's dead." She responded with finality. She smirked a bit as she saw the look of shock on her companion's face. "Weren't you always telling me not to take you so literally? I meant Mark the idea is dead," she said in a perfect impersonation of House's voice.

Without a trace of amusement in his eyes, House pressed on. "You told him, didn't you."

Stacy nodded, a mournful look in her eyes. "Everybody lies. But you shouldn't lie to people you love."

The doctor's face softened visibly. "And then he told you to get out?"

"No." Stacy said softly, tears starting to form in her eyes. "He just stared at me. You know we'd fought often ever since he started his treatment, but never in those fights did I see him look at me with such…hatred. After that, he didn't talk to me. God, I don't even know how many times I asked him to forgive me."

"But he didn't." House finished for her.

Stacy shook her head. "He didn't say anything. After two days of being ignored, I just…decided it was time to move on. So I told him to call me at work if he wanted to talk and…I left."

Greg looked into her eyes. They were filled with both sadness and hope, and he should have felt happy that now he could have her to himself. But as much as he had wanted her, he now regretted ever having led her away from Mark. "I'm sorry." He said softly, resting his forehead on the head of his cane.

"It's not your fault." Stacy said almost absently.

"Yes it is." House insisted, lifting his head up to look at her. "I wanted this to happen. All along I was hoping you'd leave Mark so we could be together, but in the end it ended up screwing both of us; you lost your husband…and I lost you again." As though tired by such a display of empathy, he sighed and stood up. He started to limp away but then turned when Stacy didn't rise to walk with him. "Well?" House said. "Are you coming?"

"Where?" Stacy asked.

"Anywhere but here." House replied almost bitterly. Rolling her eyes, Stacy got up and hurried to catch up with the limping doctor.

"I think we should just put the boy on anti-psychotics," Foreman said matter-of-factly. "This unknown father probably had a whole strew of mental patients in his family."

"It's possible." Chase said, nodding his head slowly, as though weighing the options. The coffee had helped a lot. "Psychosis explains the…psychosis and the steroids wraps up the rest into one neat little package."

"Aren't you two the least bit interested in how House and Stacy are doing?" Cameron put in impatiently.

"Not really." Foreman responded.

"You mean you aren't even curious?"

"I'm sure they're driving each other insane, but I'd really like to get this case solved so I can get home for the weekend."

"Although it was funny how you walked him right into that little trap." Chase mused with a grin. "Bet he was staring daggers at you as we left."

"Yeah she chuckled with a smile. "It seemed a little cruel. But he'll thank me for it."

"House?!" Chase said incredulously. "He wouldn't thank his…"

"Listen," Foreman said seriously. "If you guys want to waste your time talking about 'Dr. Scrooge,' fine. But I want to get out of here, so if you don't mind, I'm gonna go put the patient on anti-psychotics." With a sigh, he walked out the door as the other two shrugged complacently.

Chase chuckled silently as Foreman left. Reaching over, he took Cameron's arm and kissed the backside of her hand. "It was brilliant. Bloody brilliant."

Cameron smiled amorously, but frowned as she glanced over Chase's shoulder and saw House approaching. Strutting as usual, the diagnostician jaunted through the door. "Lupus." He said firmly.

"You're…back…" Cameron said vacantly.

"We were missing something." House said, pressing on. "We assumed the inflamed glands and fever were mono but they weren't."

"How did things go with Stacy?" Cameron asked, still looking confused.

"Put together those symptoms with the vomiting and anger management we attributed to steroids, and the psychosis he pulled out of his ass, and it all adds up to Lupus."

"But we know he has mono." Chase responded, also confused. "He tested positive for it."

"False positive." House said arbitrarily.

"I think he may be right." Said Chase, reaching for a lupus textbook.

"No don't touch…" House began to protest.

Ignoring the crippled doctor, Chase started flipping through the book looking up symptoms, but then stopped as he and Cameron noticed the bottle of Vicodin fitting neatly in the hole carved into the pages of the book.

"What?!" House shouted as the two stared at him.

It's late, Stacy realized as she read a sentence in her files for the fifth consecutive time. Getting up, she started to pack the unfinished work into her briefcase before realizing that she didn't have anywhere to go.

A sigh escaped her lips as she sadly put the paperwork down on her desk and walked over to the impromptu bed she had made out of her leather sofa. She was about to sit down when the quiet was broken by a knock on the door.

It's probably just the maintenance staff, she thought dismissively and sat down, slipping off her heels. The knocking continued though, and after it had gone on unabated for at least a minute Stacy finally caved and, slipping on her shoes, walked over to the door. With the click of her lock unlatching, she opened the door, only to find Greg waiting behind it. He looked, if anything, pensive.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey," was all Stacy could think to respond.

"I came to apologize for walking out on you in the park." His eyes were averted in a way that appeared almost embarrassed.

Awkward though the situation was, Stacy felt inexplicably comfortable with it. "It's okay," she replied conversationally as she leaned against the door frame. "Did you cure the patient?"

He nodded. "Lupus. The one thing it never is."

"You came all the way over here and up three flights of stairs just to tell me that?" she asked skeptically, nodding at his cane.

"There's an elevator."

"I know, but…all the way here for that?"

"No," he said softly. "I came to tell you that if you need a place to stay for a while, you can stay at my place."

Stacy was tempted to say no, that she was fine, that she was comfortable in her office, but as she opened her mouth to speak, she saw Greg staring into her eyes. She knew she shouldn't. Legally, living with House could be damning in the divorce proceedings with Mark. But his gaze…it was intense, yet soft, and spoke of greater passion than words could convey. Almost as though by holding her gaze, he thought her could prevent himself from having to hear the word 'no'. More than that though, there was a quiet vulnerability in Greg's eyes that she had seen far too rarely since she'd known him. "I'd like that," Stacy said finally, and taking her coat, she walked down the hall to the elevator beside the limping Dr. House.