Author's Note: Bonus posting for the day! This is a short one; that's just the way it worked out. I still own nothing related to House. Darn it.

He looked at her without speaking for what felt like a long time and Sarah was afraid she'd made a huge mistake. Finally he looked away and started walking, moving toward the door. He got halfway there and then turned, going back toward the desk. She was so relieved to realize that he was pacing and not fleeing that she almost laughed.

"I had an infarction – a blood clot in an artery in my thigh. My only symptom was pain. By the time the doctors knew what it was, some of the muscle had died. A surgeon removed the dead tissue." He spoke while he paced, not looking at her.

"What caused it – the clot I mean?" He stopped pacing, looking over at her. "Clots don't just form at random, right? Something had to cause it."

"We never determined the cause," he said, resuming his pacing. "When it was happening, everyone was concerned with figuring out what was wrong and then with fixing it. Afterwards… I wasn't thinking very clearly, afterwards." He fell silent, continuing to pace.

"Well," Sarah said after a moment. "Thank you for answering my question." She pushed herself off of the couch arm. "I'm going to have a bowl of chili now." She went to the kitchen and got down a couple of bowls from the cabinet. She was just ladling out some chili for herself when she heard the thump of his cane and turned to find him in the doorway of the kitchen. She left the ladle on a spoon rest by the stove and took her bowl to the table. He joined her there a minute later with a bowl of his own. Sarah had to work hard to keep from grinning. Not only had he stayed and answered her question, but now he was sitting at her table, eating. She was getting better at this.

"I think your dog is hungry," he said, interrupting her ruminations. She looked over to see her dog jumping against the side of his chair. Sarah stood up quickly, moving to the cupboard with the dog food.

"Oh! I'm sorry, Maggie. Let me get you your dinner." She measured the dog's food out onto a plate and put it down beside her water bowl. Maggie looked disappointed to find that it wasn't chili but started eating it all the same. Sarah went back to the table. All her nerves were returning. She could still mess this up if she wasn't careful. She swirled her spoon through her chili, her appetite gone. After a few more minutes, he pushed his bowl away and she got up to take them both to the sink. His was still half-full, just like hers.

As she was cleaning out the bowls at the sink she heard him get up and leave the kitchen. She strained her ears, trying to hear over the running water, and exhaled the breath she'd been holding when she didn't hear the apartment door open. Music started playing and she realized he'd turned on her stereo. She heard Maggie bark once and when she looked over her shoulder to the doorway, a reddish-brown streak went by.


House ate half a bowl of chili. It was delicious but he didn't feel very hungry. His stomach was in knots. Sarah had tensed up half-way through the meal and hadn't finished her bowl either. When she'd taken the dishes to the sink, he got up and returned to the living room.

It took him a minute to figure out her stereo. When the music started he felt some of his tension ease. The dog had followed him and when he turned from the stereo, she was sitting with the half-stuffed blue dog in front of her, wagging her tail at him. He took a seat in the wing-back that faced down the hallway and Maggie barked. He snagged the toy with his cane and threw it down the hall, watching the dog race after it.

It was easy to know what to do with Maggie. He was less sure how to proceed with Sarah. He could tell that she was walking on eggshells around him, trying not to say the wrong thing. Trouble was, he wasn't sure what to tell her the right things were. Even talking about work had bothered him.

House scooped up the dog toy and pitched it toward the hallway. Sarah stepped out of the kitchen just as he let go and the toy flew at her, smacking her squarely in the face. The toy dropped from her face to rest on her chest for a second before falling to the floor.

House had frozen the second the toy hit, waiting for Sarah's reaction. Her startled expression was replaced with a frown as the toy fell away. Her stern expression was belied by her twitching lips, however, and a second later she burst out laughing.

House felt relief flood through him and he started to laugh too. Really, he thought, what am I worrying about? If she didn't run away when she saw all those pills, she's not going to kick me out for accidentally hitting her with a dog toy. The tension between them evaporated.

Sarah settled on the couch and House continued to throw the toy for Maggie to chase. They chatted about the music and the movie they'd just watched, Sarah regaling him with behind-the-scenes tales she'd read. The conversation moved on to different kinds of music and other movies. House told her about playing piano in a jazz band in college and she talked about working backstage for a college play. The evening passed quickly and House was surprised when he glanced at the clock and saw that it was after ten. In spite of sleeping in that morning, it had been an exhausting day and he was tired. Sarah had yawned a couple of times when she'd thought he wasn't looking. He knew he should go, but the thought of going back to his apartment made his stomach knot up again.

Sarah yawned again and he knew it was time. The drugs are gone, he reminded himself. I'm just going to go to bed. I'll be fine.


Sarah tried to stifle another yawn and failed. It had been a long day. She was tired and ready to go to bed but her neighbor didn't seem ready to leave. She didn't want to run him off but she was about to nod off in her seat.

"I should go," he said, sitting up straighter in the chair. She looked over at him. He was tense again. She felt torn. He clearly didn't want to go back to his apartment but she was really tired. Should she offer him the couch? Walk him to his apartment? She remembered last night and feared that either offer would be too pushy. Everything had been going so well; she didn't want to spoil it.

"Will you be ok?" she asked. He got slowly to his feet, rubbing at his thigh.

"Yeah," he said. He hesitated before turning to go to the door. She got to her feet as well. She needed to take Maggie out before bed. She walked with him toward the door, wanting to get the dog's leash and harness from the hook beside it. He stopped, his hand on the door handle and she stopped too. He turned toward her. He seemed to be struggling to find the right words. Finally he took a shaky breath and spoke. His voice was low and if she'd still be on the couch she wouldn't have been able to make out what he was saying.

"Thank you for… everything." He opened the door and stepped out before she could answer. The door pulled shut and Sarah stared at it for a second.

"Good night," she murmured.