Author's Note: I know you know that I don't own House but I gotta tell you that anyway. Lawsuits are scary. I said there were a few speed-bumps left. We're about to get over one of them.

Thirteen had started to take Sarah to the diagnostics office, intending to get some supplies and take a look at her hand. Sarah has surprised her by asking if she could go see House first. Thirteen had nodded and chosen that floor in the elevator instead.

When they reached House's room, they could see Cuddy inside, talking to House. They were obviously arguing and Sarah hesitated for a second before opening the door.

"You have no right to pry into this. It isn't hospital business." Thirteen didn't think she'd ever heard House sound so furious before. He was glaring at Cuddy and neither of them had reacted to the door opening. Thirteen didn't think they were aware of Sarah's presence.

"You were attacked in the hospital," Cuddy said, sounding angry. Thirteen could picture the glare on her face. "I just want to make sure that this woman doesn't have any other exes who are going to come in here…"

"He wasn't my ex." House and Cuddy both started at Sarah's voice. Cuddy whirled to face her. House looked embarrassed. He stared at Sarah too. Thirteen wanted to leave, to give them privacy, but she couldn't think of a way to get Cuddy to go too. Sarah moved forward until she was standing at the foot of House's bed. Thirteen stayed where she was, half-way between the door and the bed.

"If he wasn't your ex, then who was he?" Cuddy demanded, and Thirteen cringed. This was a conversation that Sarah and House should have on their own.

"He was…" Sarah stopped. "We went out twice, ok? We weren't dating, there was no relationship."

"Cuddy, get out," House said.

"It doesn't matter," Sarah said. Her shoulders were slumped. She picked at the edge of House's blanket, not looking at anyone. "We both worked for the public library. When I was in college I worked at the main library. He worked at our audio-visual branch and sometimes I would stop there to get a movie. I like old movies and they had a pretty good collection. It was just a little store-front branch and he'd be across the room re-shelving cds or something when I'd come in. By the time I'd picked out my video, he'd be at the counter, ready to check me out. Even if there were other people working too, he'd be the one who checked me out. I thought it was sweet – he was cute and he had a little crush on me – but nothing ever came of it." Thirteen caught a glimpse of Chase in the hallway and shook her head at him. He took in the scene through the glass wall and retreated, taking Maggie with him. "When I graduated, I wasn't sure what I was going to do. I couldn't get on full-time at the library and I wound up working in an office supply store. Todd came in one day – it was when one of the new Windows systems was released, and we had a huge bundle of software that came with it. You had to ring in all the software and then you had to key in a bunch of coupons to make it free – each transaction took forever. He came through my line and we chatted while I was doing all that. I had been thinking about going to library school and we talked about that." Sarah was still picking at the blanket, obviously embarrassed. Thirteen considered physically dragging Cuddy away. House was looking appalled. Thirteen didn't know what to do.


"Cuddy, get out." House wished he could shove Cuddy out of the room, or that Thirteen would drag her away.

"It doesn't matter," Sarah said. She was standing at the foot of his bed, picking at his blanket. House wanted everyone else to get out of the room. She didn't need an audience for this. She went on with her story, ignoring the rest of them. She'd met the creep – Todd – when they both worked for the public library. At the time she thought the man had a crush on her and was harmless. They'd run in to each other again after she'd left the library and he'd called to ask her out. On their second date, he'd told her that he was living with someone else. Sarah had told him that he needed to figure out if that relationship was over and end it before he tried to start another one. He'd responded by calling her the next day, telling her that he was leaving the girlfriend and moving to Bloomington (where Sarah was going at the end of the summer) and wanted to get into library school too. He wanted Sarah to help him pick out an apartment there. She'd refused. The next day a dozen red roses were delivered to her at work. He'd come in to the store but Sarah had hidden in one of the offices until he left. He continued to come in looking for her off and on through the summer. He also called her home and sent her emails. She had avoided him and ignored his messages, hoping he'd realize that she wasn't interested in him and leave her alone.

When she'd moved to Bloomington to start library school, she'd found that, despite numerous calls she'd made over the summer asking that her information be unlisted, the university had posted her address and phone number to the internet. Todd had started calling her right away. He called her off and on during the first semester of classes, and during the second semester he turned up in her classes. Eventually she stopped attending classes.

"He got caught in a professor's office, going through her files. She happened to be my advisor. I found out about it when I spoke to the assistant dean about making up some of my classes. I hadn't done well that semester and I was in danger of flunking out. Other students complained about him too but the dean told him that if he did one more thing, he'd kick him out." Sarah gave a nervous laugh. "The assistant dean shouldn't have told me any of that but she was retiring that year and I think she was just furious about the whole situation. Anyway, she got professors to agree to let me retake some classes, but he was still there. He kept trying to get me to respond to him during class discussions. I wound up dropping out and going back home. I started seeing a counselor but he was useless. He found the whole situation fascinating but he couldn't tell me anything that I could do to help myself. He said that Todd was interpreting everything I said and did as some kind of secret message to him. It scared the hell out of me because it sounded like there wasn't any way I could convince Todd that I didn't want anything to do with him." Sarah went on, explaining how Todd had turned up in town a few months later. He'd shown up at her job. She left one job only to have him show up at the next. It went on for over a year. When he turned up at her apartment complex, she went to court to try to get a restraining order against him. The judge had thought she was "over-reacting" but issued an order, requiring Todd to remain at least 50 feet away from her. It didn't make Sarah feel any safer. Now Todd watched her from 50 feet away. The apartment management company agreed to let Sarah out of her lease if she moved into a different complex that they managed.

"I switched jobs at the same time. I guess Todd got frustrated when he couldn't find me right away. I had a few months of peace before he broke in to the management company's office. He got into their file cabinets and took a computer. I know he was there to try to find out where I was but there was no proof of that. He got six years for burglary. I thought that things were finally over when he went to jail, but then I started getting letters from him. When I heard he was up for parole, I knew I couldn't stay there. I moved here." Sarah looked up at him for the first time and he could see tears in her eyes. "I'm so sorry." House wished she would come closer, but Cuddy was in the way, standing at his side. When he looked over at Cuddy, he found that she was staring at Sarah, her face full of pity.

"Cuddy, get out," he snarled. She stared at him for a second and then nodded. Thirteen went with her. Once the door was closed, House looked back to Sarah.

"You have nothing to apologize for," he said.

"I should have told you this sooner, given you a chance to walk away…"

"Why would I walk away? This isn't your fault." She was still down at the foot of his bed. He reached out his free hand to her, but she stayed where she was.

"I keep thinking that I should've done something differently."

"You didn't do anything wrong," House said. "The guy was crazy."

"Yeah," Sarah wiped away a few tears. "I still should've told you."


"You have nothing to apologize for," Greg said and Sarah almost laughed. He was lying in a hospital bed, because of her, and he didn't think she owed him an apology? This was her fault.

"I should've told you this sooner, given you a chance to walk away…"

"Why would I walk away? This isn't your fault." Sarah stared at him. He held out his hand to her but she didn't move. She'd dated a few men since Todd. He'd scared off two of them. She'd tried telling the third about him herself, a sort of preemptive strike, but he'd gotten this skeptical look on his face. He kept questioning her over and over again about her "relationship" with Todd and couldn't seem to accept that it really had been just the two dates.

"I keep thinking that I should've done something differently."

"You didn't do anything wrong. The guy was crazy."

"Yeah. I still should've told you."

"Come here," Greg said, holding out his hand again. This time Sarah reached out to take it and he pulled her to him, putting his arm around her. "I wouldn't have walked away."


Once Thirteen was sure that Cuddy was really leaving, she'd gone down to the office. Chase was in the conference room, sitting on the floor outside of House's office, playing with Maggie. He had House's tennis ball and was tossing it down the length of the room for the dog to chase.

"You're getting dog slobber on House's ball," Thirteen said as she came in. Chase looked up at her, smirking, and they both burst out laughing. Thirteen dropped down beside Chase. She couldn't seem to stop laughing.

"You're slap-happy," Chase told her.

"Yeah." She wiped away tears from her eyes. "It was pretty tense up there. I thought House was going to kill Cuddy. She just wouldn't leave."

"I don't understand her. House has walked away and left her alone with Lucas, and now she won't leave him alone."

"I don't think she thought he'd move on," Thirteen said. This conversation was sobering her fast.

"She's disappointed that he isn't trying to break her and Lucas up? That's crazy."

"Yep." They sat together quietly after that, Chase continuing to toss the ball for the dog.


Sarah was lying beside House on the hospital bed. He had moved over as far as he could so that she could fit next to him. He had his good arm around her and her head was on his shoulder. She'd told him what had happened the night before at her hotel and that Todd was dead. House had felt his temper flare when she described the detective's questioning. She'd broke down into tears and that was when he had moved over to let her climb in beside him. She'd finished her story there, telling him how Graham had come back to tell her that they thought Todd overdosed on amphetamines and how Thirteen and Chase had convinced her to come up here.

She was quiet now, her breathing slow and regular, and House thought she'd fallen asleep. He wished for the umpteenth time that his left arm wasn't in a sling. He wanted to move her hair aside where it had fallen over her face .

Movement outside his room caught his eye and he looked over to see Wilson staring through the glass at him. His arm tightened around Sarah as he met Wilson's gaze. They stared at each other for a minute and then Wilson walked away.

"Mm." Sarah stirred and House looked back at her, Wilson forgotten. She moved her hair out of her face and tilted her head to look at him. "I'm sorry. I guess I fell asleep."

"It's ok." She looked down again and he could see that she was bracing herself for something.

"I was horrible to you Monday night," she said.

"We both made mistakes Monday night," House said. "I should've backed off when you said you didn't want to talk." They were both quiet for a minute after that. House had a question he wanted to ask but he was afraid to push her again.

"I was actually relieved when you didn't ask me about myself at first," Sarah said. "It let me pretend the whole thing with Todd didn't matter." House took a deep breath and asked his question.

"Why did you think that I would walk away if you told me about him?"

"I… I told one guy, once. I'd dated a couple of guys after Todd but he scared them away – sent letters and made phone calls I think. I really liked this guy and I decided that I was going to tell him before Todd could." House waited, letting her take her time, but he had to bite his tongue at the next thing she said. "He didn't believe me. I explained that I'd only gone out with Todd twice but he said that didn't make any sense. He was convinced that there was more to it and he kept asking me. I blew up. I told him that the whole 'relationship' had been two dates and two kisses and that if he didn't believe me he could just get the hell away from me. He left. He said there was no way a guy would chase me like that if all I'd done was kiss him." Sarah stopped talking and they were both silent for a minute.

"That guy was an idiot," House said finally. "You're a great kisser." Sarah made a sound and for a second he was afraid that she was crying. He was about to panic when he realized that she was laughing.