Sean: You know what? I don't even remember what your reviews said, but you're downstairs if I want to yell at you, so I won't give you an author's note. You don't get to feel special anymore.

Sara: See? I told you you would make it! But now we have to play graduation in a week and Brandon's a senior so you have to play one of the songs alone and both our parts are hard WAAAAAAAH MUTUAL FREAKING OUT!

Once again, sorry for the long wait. I start losing my voice, then find out that I'm playing the senior's graduation... which is less than a week... and that I'm first chair... and that's it's four pieces I've never played before... and they're hard as shit. Anyway, I'm going to be busy practicing for graduation, so I don't know if I'll be able to update until then. Also, question: is Thirteen's first name Rema or Remy? I actually have no idea. I assumed it was Rema for this chapter, but I may be wrong.

Warning: from here on out, this story will contain themes of self-harming and alcoholism- specifically, the sections about Thirteen. May trigger. These scenes will be set off as '13 13 13' instead of 'HOUSE HOUSE HOUSE' as a warning.

Chapter 12

13 13 13

"Foreman!" Thirteen practically shouted for the hundredth time, trying to get the older doctor's attention. "Hello, earth to Foreman!" she called, snapping her fingers in front of his face.

He jumped, then turned to her and apologized. "Sorry, I was thinking about something else. What do you need?"

She gave a small frown, then just shrugged and said, "So, since no one but the two of us is here and we don't have a case, it's not a problem if I leave early today, right?"

He shook his head automatically, then hesitated and turned back to her in confusion. "Wait, why are you leaving early? I thought you said yesterday you could at work all day today..."

Thirteen gave him a hesitant smile as she said, "I know, but something came up- I, uh... a relative died down in Alabama and I have a flight to catch."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Foreman apologized quickly. "When will you be back?"

She smiled and was about to get herself a week off, then hesitated. She had been right, yesterday; working really did take her mind off things. She hadn't had the urge to cut herself all day. That had to be a good thing, right? Well, she didn't see how, but surely it was good...

So she looked back at Foreman and said lightly, like it was no big deal, "Oh, tomorrow. All I have to do identify the body, that's all."

Foreman continued to search through the files for whatever he was looking for, but he still glanced up and gave her a slightly concerned, but mostly interested look. "Well, isn't somebody being apathetic?"

Thirteen just shrugged and walked over to get herself some coffee, trying to play it off as nothing. She really didn't want Foreman digging any deeper into the real reason for her absence. "No, I just barely knew the guy. He's my second cousin once removed or my first cousin twice removed, don't remember."

Unfortunately, her response piqued his interest even more and Foreman set aside the paperwork, now watching her in confusion. "Wait a moment... if you barely knew him, then why are they calling you to identify the body?"

Thirteen froze, but only for a second. "Oh! Um... well, we went to high school together. We weren't really friends, but I did see him every day."

"So the best person they could find was someone who knew him ten years ago? What about his other family, like a-"

"Are you interrogating me or something here, Foreman? Why the hell are you suddenly so interested in my personal life?"

He frowned, now giving her his full- and definitely unwanted attention. "When you started lying about it, which means there's something to lie about, which means I-"

"You know what, you've been spending too much time around House," she said as she reached for the cream and sugar. Unfortunately for her, she used her left arm- the one with all the cuts on it. She cried out softly, then immediately pulled it back and cradled it against her chest. When she looked up to find Foreman staring at her in shock, she swore under her breath and tried to move past him, but he caught her by the arm and pulled up her sleeve.

When he saw all the red cuts, some fresh, others partly healed, he let go of her like he'd been burned and looked up at her in shock. "Thirteen?" he asked, eyes wide.

Glaring at him, Thirteen stepped around him and stormed from the office, slamming the door behind her.

HOUSE HOUSE HOUSE

Chase frowned as he led Cameron down the hallway, searching for the correct office. While his only experience with this kind of stuff was TV shows, he didn't think you went to talk to the police, and less than 24 hours later, your case was already ready to prosecute. Nevertheless, he and several others of Eric's victims were meeting with SVU's ADA today - apparently, she had already filed the paperwork and the trial was set for next week.

Cameron, however, didn't agree with him when he said it was weird. "Chase, I'm sure it's fine," she assured him once more. "This is probably just a big name case and the cops are giving more attention than normal. Either that or life is not comparable to TV." She gave him a small smile, then glanced up at one of doors and nodded. "This is her office." She knocked on the door and, almost immediately, a voice called for her to come in.

Chase opened the door and followed Cameron inside, focused more on the lawyer behind the desk then the two in front of it. Cameron, however, glanced down at them, then froze, staring at the pair in shock. "House? Cuddy?" she gasped in the middle of the lawyer's introduction. "What... what the hell are you doing here?"

House and Cuddy glanced at each other in surprise before the former stood up and said, "I should be asking you that."

Cameron hesitated, then said quickly, "That letter about Chase you gave me is from a serial rapist; this is the lawyer prosecuting our case."

"Your case?" Cuddy asked in confusion. "What are you talking about? I'M here because... uh..." she trailed off uncomfortably when the lawyer interjected.

"You people know each other?" she asked, glancing between the two couples.

After a moment, Chase answered, "Yeah, we work together- now, House, Cuddy, why are you guys here?"

Cuddy opened her mouth, then shut it again and swallowed nervously, clearly unsure of how to continue.

Finally, the redhead lawyer said, "Dr. Chase, the same man stalking you raped Dr. Cuddy several days ago. We're all here so soon because one of his previous victims just found out she was pregnant, which gives us the DNA evidence to finally take this case to trial. Once she gets here, then we can begin- and I'm Casey Novak, by the way."

Chase stared at Casey for a second, then looked back at Cuddy, clearly shocked. "Wha- but- how...?" He turned to look at Cameron and was more than surprised to see that she wasn't

shocked by the news- far from it. She bit her lip guiltily and looked away at his stare, and Chase exclaimed, "Wait a second, Cameron, you knew about Cuddy? When? How? Why didn't you tell me?"

"I'm sorry, Chase," she said quickly, gripping his hand in her own, "I was the doctor who preformed the rape kit- but she asked me not to tell. But I had no idea that the guy stalking you and her rapist were the same person..."

Casey hesitated, then said quickly, "Okay, let's start this over. We all know each other now, and I'm the lawyer who's prosecuting your case. I'm going to try and make quick work of it, since I know Doctors Chase and Cameron won't to get back to their lives, which they can't do because they're in protective custody, but I can't promise anything. I've already talked with all the other victims about this, and the pregnant one I mentioned earlier should be here soon... I told her the same time I told you-"

In the middle of Casey's statement, her office door opened once again and a disheveled brunette rushed through it, clearly in a hurry, her eyes downcast. "I'm so sorry I'm late, traffic was bad and-" The woman froze as she raised her eyes, staring around at everybody in shock.

Casey watched them all in confusion, then finally asked, "Um, do you all know each other except for me?"

Cameron, the first to recover, finally managed to gasp, "Thirteen?"

Thirteen's eyes widened, and she stumbled backwards, immediately scrambling for an excuse to get out of the situation as fast possible. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry, uh... um... I was just meeting with Casey here because, um... she... I..."

Casey walked around her desk to stand beside Thirteen, watching her in concern. "Rema?" she asked hesitantly. "Do you know these people?"

"Y- yeah," she stammered, biting her lip as she took another step backwards. "Yeah, I work with them- um, look, Casey, the pregnancy thing, I was wrong, it was a, um... a false positive, that's it, there's no evidence, so we can all just go home, right?" She turned and tried to dash away from the office, stopping when Casey grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

"Rema, it's all right," she said gently, moving to stand between her and the door. "There's no reason to be ashamed. Just because you know some of the other victims- that's no reason to back out."

Thirteen opened her mouth to protest, then froze and whirled back around to stare at the other doctors. "Wait... other victims? You don't mean-"

"Dr. Cuddy was raped, Dr. Chase was being stalked," Casey said gently, still watching Thirteen warily.

Thirteen stared at them in horror, them slumped against the wall, closing her eyes and hiding her face with her hair. "I... I'm sorry, I..."

"Come on," Casey murmured, leading her over to another chair in front of her desk, the other doctors still staring at Thirteen in shock. "It's okay. Give me a minute to explain what's going to happen at the trial, and then we can discuss your options."

Please review. Haha, Sean.