Chapter 3

Welcome to my life…

The first hour spent in rehab was spent registering, and reviewing the rules. The next hour was spent unpacking his belongings and contemplating how he had ended up here, and ultimately back to Dr. Brady. House could only assume that once he met her, she would turn out to be a bore. She already had good looks and brains, so she surely couldn't be a have a good personality. Or, he pondered, perhaps she did have a great personality, and a great husband or boyfriend.

"Dr. House, we need you in the common room," came a soft voice, startling him out of his thoughts. "It's time for group."

House looked at the mousy red head whom had spoken to him. She carried herself with an air of shyness and lack of self esteem. House wondered in what ways life had beaten her down. However, he also found he didn't much care. "I don't do groups."

"Participation isn't optional," she stated staring down at the floor.

House smirked. Groups! Oh how he hated them. Everyone in a big room whining about the cards life had dealt them, blaming their addictions and problems on someone else, and though to an outsider it may sound interesting, it really was quite a snore. His first instinct was to outright refuse to go, but then he thought once again about Dr. Brady. Maybe after the little whine fest then he could ask around about her. "Okay, but I'm just going for the sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll. Oh, did I say sex?

The group session lasted an hour and a half, and by the time it was over House felt like he needed a xanax just to cope. It was probably a good thing that they had him locked up in here, or he may have done just that. He quietly surveyed the common room looking for someone he could talk to about the good doctor. He had to choose just right so that the person he was talking to wouldn't want to know his motive. Should he chose the little old lady in the back that looked like someone's grandmother? The girl in the revealing clothing that looked like a hooker? The hippie? He finally settled on a young man of about twenty with various piercing and tattoos. He shuffled over to an empty seat and dropped down.

"How'd you like the whine fest?" the young man asked smugly. "I'm Jake, by the way."

" I'm…Greg." He said hesitantly. House rarely used his first name, and yet he didn't want to divulge that he was a doctor, because this was the kind of young man who would love to tell everyone he knew about the doctor who was addicted to drugs. "how long you been here?"

"A Couple days, " Jake admitted, "a least this time around."

"So, how many times you been here before? You must like it OK here, to keep coming back."

Jake shrugged. "Been in and out about five times, and nah its not so bad here. The food's decent and the company's not bad, really. The worst is the damn gripe fest like we just had, but…eh…its made up for by the third shift hottie."

"Third shift hottie?"

"Yeah, this doctor chic. She's smoking'." Jake said, "sweet blonde, with an ass like an onion."

"It'll make you cry," House chimed in. "So, what's she like? A secret sex crazed nympho preying on her patients, while streaming the action straight to the net? "

Jake laughed. "What do you think? Nice, professional, and an ice princess. This chic is cold man. No feelings that I can detect. Or at least not In the romance department. Believe me, I've tried. She's…well, she seems to just keep it on the level of strict professionalism."

House smiled. This Dr. Brady was sounding better and better. Well, mostly better and better. His memory flickered back to just a couple days before when he had questioned Wilson about why he was dating the cut-throat witch. He had been at the restaurant where the pair was having lunch when he realized that Wilson was dating the female version of him. House didn't think that he could really handle that. He needed someone to compliment him, or at least someone completely unlike Amber, aka cut throat. Cutting off his thoughts, House stood up and decided to take a tour of the facility. He could see that in addition to the common room which featured a big screen flat panel TV, DVD player and stereo, the facility had a state of the art gym, an art room, and an indoor tennis court. He wandered along until he came to a door with a small rectangle glass window. There was a lot of the residents inside, but he couldn't see much, and there was no sign announcing what the room was, so House opened the door. As soon as he did, he choked on Cigarette smoke. Apparently, this was the smoking room, which he found to be odd. This was a hospital after all. He turned and backed out of the door. He may drink, and been accused of being a drug addict, but he had never smoked anything other than the rare cigar. But, it made sense he supposed, replace one addiction with another or smoke to calm to the cravings for something worse.

Having nothing else to do, House decided to retire to his room until dinner. After having an ok dinner, he went to the gym, more out of boredom than actual desire to workout. He was still there at 11:30 when a male nurse entered.

"Dr. House, It's time for your one on one counseling. Normally, we would have taken care of this earlier, but there was ten others to process."

"First of all," House growled, "don't ever refer to me as Doctor in this facility, and secondly unless this doctor is handing out goodie bags and prostitutes, I'm not interested."

The nurse's face flickered with various emotions before becoming expressionless again. House was amused to watch as the nurse quickly flicker from annoyance to anger to disbelief back to calm. "Whatever you say, Mr. House," he said with sarcasm, "However, Dr. Brady is expecting you. I suggest you go see her unless you plan on failing this course, and then what a pity! A doctor down and out, oh no make that former doctor!"

House felt his anger surge and briefly considered punching the nurse in his smug little face, but instead he simply said, "right, Dr. Brady awaits. I wouldn't interrupt us for, oh say an hour, I think we'll be having an orgy party with the fat lady from first shift."

The nurse chose not to respond and simply lead him to Dr. Brady's office. He announced House and slipped away, quietly shutting the door behind him.

Doctor Brady barely looked up as she asked him to have a seat. She appeared quite interested in the file she was reading, which House decided had to be his. She read for a few more minutes before setting the file aside. "First of all, I'd like to welcome you to our center, though I know you didn't willingly chose to be here."

"No more than a wino chooses to be homeless," House quipped, disturbed his voice wasn't dripping with sarcasm as it usually did. He blamed her smoky voice for that.

"well, be that as it may, lets get to business." she stated, "I'm Samantha Brady, your doctor, therefore if there should be any issues, or whatever, you'll come to me. I typically do a one on one session with my patients the first day, then every couple days after that, just to see how you are progressing." She paused, noticing House was staring at her breast. "Enjoying the view?"

House smirked. "nice lady lumps doc." he stared a few more minutes, then met her gaze. " ok, continue."

Samantha rolled her eyes. "Look, House, If you're trying to break me it won't work. I am not like Cameron."

House blinked in shock. "C…Cameron? I don't follow." Who the hell was this lady? How did she know anything about Cameron? In HIS hospital it was common knowledge of course , but it wouldn't be in a neighboring hospital.

"What I mean," she explained, "is while I admire you, I'm not a love sick puppy. I intend to do my job to the fullest extent. I won't bow down to you, or be awed by your presence. Now, with that being said, what do you think of our little facility?"

House processed her words. She had said she wasn't in love with him, but she didn't say that she didn't find him attractive. It was more in what she didn't say that he focused on. In fact he could almost believe that she was attracted to him. He decided to use that to his advantage, and see what played out. If nothing did, well nothing lost…"Well, it sure as hell ain't celebrity rehab with Dr. Drew. I mean c'mon, where's the girls running around in wet t-shirts and food fights?"

To his surprise, Dr. Brady laughed. He liked her laugh, it was merry, and not unlike the sound of tiny bells tinkling together. "well, we do have family and friends days here, but what makes good tv doesn't necessarily happen in real life, so you should get that wet t-shirt image out of your head."

"How about I imagine you in one instead?" He said playfully. "Then I can send you pictures of me to your cell phone, and you can get outraged?"

Samantha laughed again in spite of herself. She was going to have her hands full with this one, no doubt. If she responded to his little dig, he would keep it up and then she'd get nothing done. And, the truth was it was a little scary that she found herself attracted to him, and actually liking his personality, when so many others openly loathed him. "Ok, so I assume you don't want everyone in here knowing you're a doctor, so is it okay to call you Greg?"

"You can call me Jorge if you wear a wet t-shirt."

"Greg it is." she answered, "so, now that we've addressed that, is there anything you'd like to know?"

House watched as a slow blush rose from her neck to her face. He was a bit surprised to see that she actually was attracted to him, but it wouldn't be fun NOT to play it up. "Well, yeah, your number, and when I get to see you in that t-shirt." His eyes twinkled with mischief. Oh yes, this was going to be fun, he decided, and at the end of the month he definitely would still be interested in her. He could picture the looks of Cuddy, and Cameron now. He loved it.

Samantha sighed inwardly. He'd noticed, of course, the stupid blush she had felt rising. She was determined, however, to maintain a level of professionalism with him. She was very surprised that she was attracted to him. He was the polar opposite of the men she normally dated. "No serious questions then?"

"Well, actually yes, how did you know about Cameron?"

"I…I dated one of your colleagues for a while." She admitted.

"Was it Chase?"

"No, and it wasn't Wilson, and definitely not Cuddy. If that's all, I'll see you again in two days. If you need me before then, for VALID reasons, my staff can contact me. "

House stood, and made his way to the door, trying to process everything that had just happened. "Dr. Brady?"

"You can call me Sam, everyone else does." She murmured, once again reading his file.

"okay, fine, Sam. If you wear white, I'll get you wet!" And with that, he stepped out of her office,

to let her process THAT thought.