Traditions

"You do know that they are still talking to each other," Nyx observed as she sat down on the couch next to House. "You are going to be busted."

"I know," House didn't sound too worried. "I'm perfectly fine with getting busted as long as I have got my 'own time'. I'm charged and ready."

"And of course you did drug Cuddy's Mon," Nyx pondered. "So you do have a lot of credit just now."

"There is that," House agreed. "Though she wasn't as happy about my drugging Wilson."

"I don't think she really minded that much," Nyx mused. "She just felt she had to protest as drugging people really is not the thing to do."

"I bet she has wanted to do it many times," House assumed.

"I'm sure she has," Nyx nodded. "But that is what impulse control is for: you want to do something but since you know it really is wrong you don't do it."

"Are you suggesting there is something wrong with my impulse control?" House wanted to know.

"No," Nyx denied. "Because the problem is not so much your impulse control as your ethics in general – which does rather bring us back to your lies. Why can't you just tell them what you need?"

"I did! Remember!" House pointed out.

"Only after you had already pissed them off with your deception," Nyx reminded him. "Had you been adult about it in the first place, you might have fared better. Though probably not on her birthday, I do have to admit that."

"But that would totally mess up our old tradition of communicating through lies," House exclaimed. "Can't mess with tradition."

"Your patient had a tradition of letting his family down and leaving his wife to cope with everything on her own while he pursued his futile dream," Nyx pondered. "Some traditions are meant to be broken. In fact, some traditions can't be broken soon enough. Or do you want to end up like Taub? I'm fairly sure it wasn't his cheating that hurt his wife most, but all the lies involved in it."

"I wouldn't lie to Cuddy about anything important," House muttered.

"I think you have already found out that things that aren't important to you, may well be very important to her," Nyx argued.

"Ok, maybe I was wrong," House conceded. "But even when I was doing it I had my doubts. I just dismissed them as silly since I assumed that she would get my point about the need to compartmentalize. Work is work and our relationship is separate issue. I told her I wouldn't lie to my girlfriend."

"Only you just did," Nyx stated.

"I repeat: not about anything important," House countered.

"How would you know?"Nyx asked. "Or do you just trust in dumb luck. And what about the times when you are fairly sure or even certain that you won't be found out? Will you reason that as long as she won't find out it won't hurt her?"

"That is a possibility," House mused. "But I think I would argue that she won't know that she has been hurt rather than that she hasn't been hurt."

"And that would make it ok?" Nyx wondered.

"Nope," House stated. "But I've never minded being a hypocrite as long as being one keeps me from getting hurt."

"Oh! Is that why you stopped hiding behind a sick man and went to confront Cuddy the Elder?" Nyx asked.

"I didn't know she had a train to catch," House said. "I thought she had all the time in the world."

"I think you would have faced her anyway," Nyx stated. "Once you got nerve up, that is."

"She is scary," House observed.

"Now you know how your team feels about you," Nyx laughed.

"I'm not like Major Cuddy!" House exclaimed.

"More than you'd think," Nyx insisted. "Though there are definite differences as well. But the main point is that you're both scary."

"Am not," House denied.

"No?" Nyx didn't sound convinced. "I thought you rather liked keeping your team on their toes and scared."

"Yeah, yeah," House shrugged. "Of course they need to fear me, but that's differend. That doesn't make me like Cuddy's Mom. No way."

"If you say so," Nyx decided to let it go. "As I said there are differences as well. I'm sure she would never think to drug anyone."

"Except possibly with boose," House pondered.

"Meaning?" Nyx asked.

"Well she did rather jump to the conclusion that she had drunk too much though she didn't even have a hang over," House stated. "That suggests to me that she either tends to drink too much – at least on occasion – or she is used to plying difficult people with alcohol."

"That is a possibility," Nyx realised. "But alcohol tends to be more acceptable than sedatives."

"Don't really know why," House claimed. "I don't see that much difference between them: both can be addictive and dangerous when misused."

"Rather like you," Nyx realized. "By the way, did I tell you that I found it rather endearing that you lost it with Cuddy's Mom when she was saying bad things to Cuddy and not you."

"She was being unfair and hurtful," House said. "Just because Cuddy likes sex doesn't mean she is in any way a slut."

"You have on occasion called her outfits slutty," Nyx promted him. "Maybe not in exactly those words but definitely the sentiment."

"She has a great body," House shrugged. "Why not flaunt is, especially when it gives her an advantage over a lot of the men she needs to deal with on daily basis. It's not like she doesn't don a lab coat when she needs to be a doctor. And it wasn't just that. Cuddy is good with Rachel. There is no need to criticize her mothering. Sure, Rachel may not be the smartest and quietest kid around, but she is clearly happy and healthy. It ain't broke, why try to push it into some old model that didn't work that well for the kid in the first place."

"What makes you think it didn't work that well with Cuddy?" Nyx wondered. "She turned out ok."

"Except her relationship with her mother isn't that good," House pointed out. "Cuddy senior complained that Cuddy doesn't tell her anything and Cuddy has told me that she regularly lies to her mother and has done so since she was 12. I'm not saying there isn't love, but it's not an easy relationship either."

"You could be right," Nyx agreed. "And throwing your siblings at you as better examples isn't going to remedy things either. It is possible that Arlene has an idea of what she thinks her daughters ought to be like and she just tries to push them into the mould willy nilly. That usually makes nobody happy."

"Don't I know," House sighed. "Sometimes you just need to be left alone."

"You sound like Greta Garbo," Nyx laughed. "I want to be alone, but really, don't you think it would be better if you just asked them and not trick them. Especially as you will be found out?"

"If they listened to me, yeah," House nodded. "But Cuddy already gives me plenty of space. The problem is that then Wilson wants that space and he won't accept any other excuse but Cuddy. So I tell Cuddy that I have promised to be with Wilson, and as I do that first I'm not actually telling a lie. THEN I go to Wilson and lie to him. I reckon that once I have done this a few times, they will figure out that I really mean it when I say that I need to be on my own just now and then. Then I may be able to tell them the truth. Besides, Wilson is due to get a crush on someone soon, if he stays true to his normal schedule, so the problem could be solved that way."

"And so the tradition goes on," Nyx sighed. "By the way, you really need to wake up and go to bed or your leg is going to kill you tomorrow."