Kelly awoke when she felt the thermometer in her ear. House awoke when it sounded its result.

Thirteen had been awake for awhile, and when she'd found that Kelly's room was empty she'd procured another key to the sleep lab.

"Is she okay?" After several moments of awkward silence, it was House who was the first to speak. He was already up and wrestling with his shoes.

"Temp is right on target." She had a lot to say, but not in front of the patient. "Kelly, I'll bring you to your room in just a moment. Dr. House, can I speak with you outside?" When he nodded, more uncomfortable than she'd ever seen him, she made a quick exit.

Kelly had guessed what was going through his mind. "Greg..."

"Don't," he said warningly, looking everywhere but at her. "Don't bother."

"Oh, for pity's sake." She was on her feet now, annoyed. "It's baffling to me that you're such a frightened child beneath all of your ridiculous posturing. Look at me, House." He had turned away to button up his shirt, but she got in his face as she continued her gentle tirade. "You did something nice, and people are going to have to know. Rather than being your usual sunny self, why not just tell the truth and let everyone move on. Who cares if they need to adjust their worldview just a tiny bit?"

"You don't understand," he grumbled, truly angered by the whole situation and wanting to get away so he could take it out on Thirteen instead of her.

"Don't I?"

She stared him down until he finally threw up his hands in exasperation. "This is all your fault, you know."

"Don't blame me; if you'd just done your job in the first place, you'd have given me the prescription I came for and let me go die in peace. Now give us a kiss and go face the music." She tapped her cheek authoritatively, and laughed when he rolled his eyes and ignored her.

"By the way," He began as he stopped at the door and looked back at her sharply.

"Yes?"

"You're looking well rested."

She couldn't imagine how others didn't see it; his face and his voice were almost perpetually cranky, but his eyes gave him away every time. Perhaps they'd just never taken the time to look. "I am. Thanks to you."

He didn't close the door all the way behind him, and so she took up a position out of sight but not out of earshot to enjoy the proceedings.

His reaction seemed immediately oversized, so Kelly assumed an expression on the other doctor's face must have set him off. "For God's sake, she was desperate for some sleep. What did you expect me to do? Call in Taub or some fandom orderly and demand that they hop in the sack with her?"

He wasn't helping himself by offering defense for accusations not made. "You don't have to say anything, House. I get it. I mean, I don't get YOU, but I get what you were doing and why. And obviously it worked. I can't guarantee that people won't talk -"

"People like you, right, Dr. Hadley?" he interrupted. That was the first time Kelly had heard him refer to this doctor by anything except a number, which was something she'd yet to have a chance to ask him about.

"Look, none of us are going to doubt your intentions were honorable. Though I know that's not what you're worried about." Kelly couldn't see her face, but she imagined Thirteen had smiled then; she could hear it in her voice. "Only YOU would be worried people would get the RIGHT idea. "

There was silence for a moment, and Kelly peeked in to see what was happening. She saw that House was holding Dr. Hadley's arm and standing closer to her than she looked like she was comfortable with.

"You've all obviously grown attached to your glowing perceptions of the evil genius boss completely lacking in human decency and compassion." He leaned even closer and dropped his voice to a gruff whisper. "I'm so. Terribly. Sorry. To disappoint you." A pause. "If you and your little friends feel the need to analyze me, you can apply for a psych rotation and get the hell off my service. Otherwise, do your damn job and let me do mine."

Dr. Hadley was very quiet as she walked Kelly back to her room. Kelly felt like she needed to do SOMETHING to help the situation. "I heard you two arguing."

"We weren't arguing - " Thirteen started to protest.

"You were arguing. Listen, I needed sleep. He did what he had to do, and I'm sensing" - a small lie on her part; she knew it to be fact - "he did it at the risk of his reputation as a hard-ass. But I can promise you there was nothing remotely warm and fuzzy about it" - that was a bigger lie - "and frankly I appreciate that he did the job himself rather than playing pimp and bringing in some random warm body. Because at least I could be sure the bastard wasn't going to try anything."

She worded the last part as a joke, and Thirteen relaxed and laughed with her.

By the time House had showered and dressed and made his way to the meeting like a death row inmate after his last meal, Thirteen had already reported the overnight success and managed to diffuse the bulk of the team's incredulity. A few quick jokes that he countered with the appropriate quick retorts and then the matter was more or less closed.

He silently cursed Kelly when he felt himself inclined to thank Thirteen for her obvious efforts on his behalf. Not that he ever would, but even the inclination annoyed him.

He experienced a few other foreign inclinations that day as they wrestled with what came next. Like the inclination to be patient and know something conclusively rather than plow ahead with unpleasant procedures that may or may not help but would most certainly make Kelly feel miserable if they didn't.

The day's conclusions turned out in her favour: keep her stable, and spend some time with the MRI doing stimuli testing. The hypothalamus had scanned clean before, but a problem there was the most obvious answer. Really, the only answer.

But at the end of the day there were only questions. Everything had scanned clean again.

The biggest question in House's mind was how his team would choose to deal with the patient's overnight requirements. He purposely stayed out of it, and was in his office playing on his DS when Foreman appeared.

"We need you to sleep with the patient again."

House's eyebrows raised. "I don't think you could afford my fees on your salaries."

Foreman rolled his eyes. "Does that mean you're saying no?"

"Of course I'm saying no." He pretended to keep playing the DS in order to seem nonchalant about the whole thing, but he'd already lost the round. "Why don't you do it?"

"Well, frankly I offered; we all did. Though we felt pretty damn strange about doing it, but figured we'd be torturing her to put her through what happened the other night if we didn't have to. She declined. Rather forcibly. And I don't blame her, I guess."

"Why don't you bring in a water bed? That seems to have done the trick." Even he found his disinterested tone believable.

"We may very well have to. But it seems unlikely we could arrange that tonight."

House put down his game. "Come on, Foreman. You've done the tests. Do it with room temp control. Do it with heating pads or ice or whatever the hell you need."

"Dr. House, with all due respect," - Foreman's tone was less than respectful - "we're tired. We're tired and I for one would like to get a substantial amount of sleep because we're probably going to have to cut into that girl's brain in the next day or so and my hands shake less when I haven't been up all night trying to keep a patient from dying of hypothermia in her bed."

"Taub's a plastic surgeon. Unless he's worried about the scar you'll leave -"

"I already sent everyone else home. Besides, ever heard of the path of least resistance?"

House stood and started walking, followed by Foreman. "She already said no."

"You convinced her last night. And it worked. Why ruin a good thing?"

"Are you asking me to seduce her? Because that's really not my style."

They were in the elevator now, and the two nurses that shared the car were openly intrigued by their conversation.

"You obviously know how to get what you want from her. Unless you gave her a reason -"

"Enough. Go home. The nurses can deal with it; I'll tell them what to do."

"The nurses have enough to do."

"The nurses will do what I tell them. Go home."

The elevator opened and House walked out, using his cane to keep Foreman from exiting with him.

Foreman shook his head and sighed. "I'll be back tomorrow with steady hands. Please don't kill her before I can cut her open."

House arrived at Kelly's room a moment later, and found her arguing with a nurse about the rectal probe.

"That won't be necessary," House piped up. "She'll be staying in the sleep lab again tonight."

The nurse, whose shift was almost over anyway, made a hasty retreat, glad to be free of both of them.

He didn't approach her, but just tossed the key onto her bed. "I found my jeans to be rather chafing last night. Think you can manage to not catch fire if I leave you on your own for a bit while I find something else to wear?"

She shrugged, and in that moment his weren't the only eyes giving things away. "I'll do my best, but there are no guarantees. You should probably hurry."

He didn't need to be told twice.