A/N: Thank you for the reviews! What an amazing first episode, can't wait for the next one!

The case turned out to be an easy one, he solved it by the end of the day. So when he got home, he called Annette, but all he got was her voicemail. He left her a message telling her to call him.

Wilson arrived two hours later, House had just finished making dinner for them.

"Wow, you're making dinner? Are you having company again?"

"Nope, just felt like cooking."

"Right." Wilson stood next to him "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"I don't know, you tell me." House didn't answer and Wilson knew that House wanted to talk to him and it must be pretty serious. All Wilson had to figure out was how to push House into talking to him.

"If you want to talk you know where to find me." House just nodded and was glad the conversation was over.

As they were putting the dishes away after dinner, House's cell suddenly played 'knowing me, knowing you' He smirked knowing that it was Annette.

"House"

"Hi. I got your message. So when are you off tomorrow?"

"I'm usually off at 5." He smiled.

"Great, I'll have dinner ready at 6:30 then."

"Okay, should I bring anything?" At that Wilson's head shot up, House knew that he would never hear the end of that.

"No, just bring yourself."

"Alright, I'll see you then."

"Yeah, bye!" He hung up and was readying himself for Wilson's gloating.

"So, you're not going to be home tomorrow?"

"Nope"

"Are you gonna spend the night there?"

"What are you, my mom?" House was actually nervous about that, but he didn't want to talk about it with Wilson.

"No, of course not!"

"Well then drop it!" House snapped.

They continued to clean up the kitchen in silence. House was still thinking about what could happen tomorrow, it was driving him insane. Why was he so nervous anyway? He liked her and she seemed to like him, so it would be the next logical step. "This is crazy."

"What is?" House wasn't aware of that he had said that last part out loud.

"Nothing"

"Come on tell me."

"Why are you suddenly so curious? Just because you don't have a love life doesn't mean you have to get into mine!" House snapped

"So it is about Annette?"

"Listen, if I want to talk I can call Nolan!"

"Hey, I'm just trying to help you out!" Now it was Wilson's turn to snap.

House hung his head and sighed. "I'm nervous" He mumbled.

"Of course you are, but that's part of dating someone."

"But with Stacy I knew what I wanted. And now I don't know." He looked up at Wilson waiting to hear if he had something useful to say.

"Yeah, because you know what it feels like when the relationship ends." It sounded really girly coming from Wilson, but it did make a little sense to House.

"So what do I do?"

"You enjoy the time you spend with her and if you feel you're both ready, you take to the next level."

House thought the rest of the night about Wilson's advice.

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House had left the hospital at 5:30, that gave him enough time get home and change and to pick up a bottle of wine. He also bought some condoms, it felt weird buying condoms as a fifty-year old.

So now at exactly 6:30 House pulled into the parking lot of a very pricy apartment building. He wondered how she could afford to live here.

He rang the doorbell, but nobody answered. After ringing it a couple of times, he began to worry. Had she forgotten about their date? No she couldn't have, he talked to her only yesterday. Maybe he should call her. As he was fumbling in his pockets, not easy with his cane and the wine bottle, he heard somebody walking towards him.

"I'm so sorry," He turned and sure enough it was Annette, she carried what looked like four binders filled with papers and she had two bags around her shoulders. And he was complaining about his cane and wine bottle, how could she carry all of this?

"I got held up at work. One of my students didn't hand in his paper and I had to track him down and that led to a very long conversation. And now I don't have time to cook, and now I feel bad, because you made-" He silenced her with a kiss. She was babbling and looked like she was going to have a panic attack.

"Calm down and take a breath." He held onto her shoulders.

She took a deep breath "Good to see you." He laughed and was glad to see that she was back to normal again.

"You too"

"Could you take my keys? They're right there on the binders." She nodded towards the binders.

He opened the door for them and they walked towards the elevators. "Which floor?"

"Eighth." He noticed that it was the top floor, he was even more curious how she could afford to live here.

As the door opened again they stepped out and there was only one door. She pointed at it telling him to open it. He let her go in first so that she could put the binders down. As he stepped into the apartment he was shocked. Her living room alone was bigger that his own apartment . Over the fireplace was the biggest flat screen TV he had ever seen. He looked to his right and his eyes went wide, she had a pool table. God, she was living in a man heaven!

"Is it okay if I just order Chinese or something?" When she didn't get an answer she looked around and couldn't see him. The living room seemed empty, but she could hear him limping around. As she rounded the corner she could see him lining up his next shot at the pool table. She watched him as he sunk the 7th ball in the right corner pocket.

"Nice shot." He jumped at her voice.

"Thank you. Do you play?"

"Yeah. The pool table is the only good thing about this apartment." She didn't smile anymore, her eyes looked sad.

"What do you mean?"

"My father bought this apartment for me and I just don't feel home here. It's just way too big for one person."

House nodded, he picked the wine bottle up from the floor "I hope you like white wine." He said and handed it to her.

"You didn't have to bring anything."

"It's okay." Her smile turned to a frown.

"I'm sorry that I didn't have time to cook."

"Hey," He took her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze "I didn't just come for a home cooked dinner."

"Oh, really?" House was glad that he had turned the frown into a smile again.

"Well there's this cute red head," Her face lid up "with killer legs, sexy accent and has a great sense of humor," His face turned serious "I really like her."

She cupped his cheek "The red head wants you to know that she likes you too." They leaned into each other and their lips met in a passionate kiss that left them both breathless.

"And know that I know she has a pool table, I might never leave her apartment." She laughed and slapped his chest playfully.

"Is it okay if we just order Chinese?"

"Sure" He fished his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed a number "Hi this is Greg House, I'd like to place an order… Yes, the usual, but for two this time. Yes… No deliver it to this address." He gave them the address and hung up.

"You have a Chinese restaurant on speed dial?"

"I order a lot of take out. It saves time." He shrugged.

"Do they even deliver in this part of town? Your place is on the other end of town."

"I ordered from the restaurant a block away." She frowned in confusion. "My own apartment is two blocks away."

"Okay." She still looked pretty confused.

"I only moved in with Wilson after I left Mayfield. My own apartment is on Baker street."

Annette nodded finally understanding. An awkward silence hung between them.

"I'll go open the wine." He nodded and continued his pool game.

He stopped playing when he heard the TV being turned on. "Wow, now that's what I call a big screen TV."

"I was gonna see if there was a movie on. Otherwise there are DVD's in the drawers over there." She pointed to a shelf unit on his left side.

"Oh look, Shawshank Redemption is on in 5 minutes. Do you want to watch it?"

"Yeah sure, it's a good movie."

"So how come, you don't just move out and buy your own place?" he had been wondering about that.

"Well, right now I'm saving money for furniture and stuff. It's just so that I can move into my own place without my father's help." She got a dark look in her eyes and left for the kitchen.

House started to follow her, but the ringing of the doorbell stopped him. Their dinner was there. He paid and limped towards the kitchen. He saw her standing at the sink looking out the window. So he set their food on the table and limped slowly to stand beside her.

"I didn't mean to upset you, Annette." Even though his voice was quiet she still jumped at the sound of it.

"I know, I don't blame you." He took a step closer to her and placed his hand gently on the small of her back, there by urging her to talk to him.

"All my life my father has always taken care of me, even when I started making my own money, he always bought me a fancy apartment or gave some extra money." She shook her "This sounds so lame."

"No it doesn't. I get it…" He told her "You want to be an independent woman. It's like you're 21 all over again, you want to get away from your parents as fast as possible. Believe me I get it, I moved out as soon as I could. I think that's very brave." He didn't want to tell her the real reason he moved out was because of his father. That was something he wanted to keep to himself for as long as he could.

She turned to him, her eyes were filled with tears. Did he say something to upset her again? "What's wrong?" Instead of answering she embraced him tightly, sobbing into his chest. He was still confused, but he slowly hugged her back.

"The food will get cold." He told her quietly, he really needed to sit down because of his leg, but she didn't need to know that.

"Sorry… it's just that you're the first one that understands how I feel. My ex-boyfriend worked for my dad, so all the people we knew were from my dad's company." He could barely hear what she was saying as she was still sobbing in his chest. It was really heart breaking, but he was relieved that she wasn't upset with him.

She calmed down eventually and as she looked up at him she must've seen the pain in his face. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, my leg hurts nothing new. I just need to sit down."

"Let's eat then." She took the wine and dinner and walked to the living room.

"No plates?" He asked following her.

"Nope. You're not supposed to use plates when you order your dinner, especially Chinese." He smiled, she really got the concept of ordering dinner home. The whole point of ordering take out is that you don't have to do the dishes when you're done. Wilson always used plates, when they ordered.

She gave him a carton and they took a seat next to each other on the couch. The movie had already started, but that didn't matter to him, he knew by heart. And apparently so did she, because she was mouthing along to the dialog. House realized that he was happy just sitting here enjoying Chinese and a movie with her, life couldn't get much better right now.

At the last commercial break she put the empty cartons away and opened another bottle of wine. Had they been through a whole bottle already? When she returned she gave him his glass and took a seat next to him again, but this time she was much closer. Their shoulders and thighs were touching. Slowly he put his arm around her and pulled her even closer, she sighed and placed her hand on his right thigh rubbing it gently. He was glad that his scar didn't freak her out anymore. It relaxed him even more when she laid her head on his shoulder.