Later on in the morning, House was sitting next to Marius bedside, watching him doze after a visit from physical therapy. He was still thinking about Wilson's visit, well, both of them and still feeling confused. He finally decided to take the chance and dialed Nolan's number. He left a message and waited to see if Nolan would return his call. Just before lunch, his phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Dr. House, this is Dr. Nolan. What can I do for you?"

"I know we parted under bad circumstances but… some things have happened in my life recently that make me want to talk it through with you. I was wondering if you would at all consider taking me on again?" House asked, though he was convinced the answer would be no.

"I would be willing but I would have a few conditions I would expect you to meet," Nolan replied.

"What conditions?" House asked, surprise evident in his tone.

"First, I want you to agree to actually talk to me during these sessions. No sitting in silence unless you are completely emotionally overwhelmed instead of just being stubborn. Second, I want you to agree to at least 4 sessions. Have you gone back to the Vicodin?"

"Yes," House admitted, "but my levels are now in the therapeutic range."

"Is Wilson still prescribing for you?"

"Yes."

"Then my third condition is that you get another physician to prescribe for you. Preferable someone who specializes in chronic pain management and does not work at the hospital. If you are willing to agree to these conditions, then I will be happy to make you an appointment for the end of the week."

House was silent for a long moment but Nolan didn't prompt him. "Alright. I agree. I'll make an appointment with pain management but I can't guarantee I'll see them by the end of the week."

"The appointment is proof enough for the first session. Thursday afternoon, 4 p.m. then," Nolan responded.

"See you then," House answered.

Marius woke as the lunch trays were delivered and Lucius returned from making some business calls. House sat silent for a long moment then cleared his throat nervously.

"I've made an appointment with my previous therapist," he said quietly. "I want to talk with someone outside of my circle about things."

"Was he able to get you in soon?" Lucius asked curiously.

"Thursday afternoon. But because I walked out on him before and messed around in early sessions, he laid some conditions. Nothing drastic or unexpected. In fact, he took me back with little fuss at all really."

"Do you want me to drive you there?"

"I'd… I'm not sure. Kind of yes, but I kind of really want to go alone," he admitted.

"Well, let me know on Thursday morning," Lucius replied.

"I'm happy you took the initiative to reach out for his help," Marius said with clear approval.

"Yeah. I think I am too. But I probably won't be on Thursday. Plus, he's laid down a requirement to get a pain management doctor to prescribe for me instead of Wilson. I would like you to drive me to that appointment once I make it."

"Absolutely," Lucius assured him.

"Well, I'm going to go make some calls for that then," House said.

"Come here first," Marius said, motioning for him to come to his side. House stepped in close and took Marius' hand. "I'm proud of you," Marius said with a smile, reaching up and laying his hand on House's shoulder. "We'll be there to support you, whatever you need."

House returned to his office and pulled up his computer to research local pain management doctors, finally choosing one and making an appointment. The staff asked for background information and a referral for treatment as well as his medical records. When he gave them his name, they fitted him in on Tuesday morning as a professional courtesy. He called Chase into his office and asked him to write him a referral and then decided to distract himself from this whole mess by doing some clinic hours.

Tuesday morning, House was a nervous wreck. He had his medical records on his lap and was bouncing his good leg rapidly while Lucius drove him to the clinic. Lucius came in and sat down while House checked in. He had to give a urine sample first and fill out a stack of papers and permissions. Finally, he was called into an exam room.

"Dr. House? I'm Dr. McEvoy," she said, coming into the room and taking a seat. "This is quite an extensive medical record; it's going to take me some time to get through it all. Can you touch on the major points for today?"

"I had an infarction in the quadriceps muscle that went undiagnosed and resulted in muscle death. Surgeons removed all of the dead tissue, about two-thirds of the muscle. There's a lot of pain, muscular and neuropathic, on a chronic level with severe breakthrough pain."

"I can imagine with that amount of muscle missing. And you use only the cane for mobility?"

"Yeah. I use it on the same side for added support."

"Have you ever tried a brace for support?"

"In the beginning, but it pulls my knee to a normal position which then pulls on the remaining muscles, not to mention it bothers the scar itself."

"What are you taking now? Opiates, I see, but what and how much?"

"Vicodin, 5/500 mg, 1 tab at a time, spread to 8 times per day. Morphine injection for breakthrough pain. I have been previously treated for abuse of Vicodin, inpatient."

"Do you wake up to take meds?"

"Pretty much every night."

"Symptoms from the abuse?"

"Visual and auditory hallucinations."

"What treatment did they give you inpatient?"

"Ibuprofen and psychotherapy after detox."

"You definitely need something stronger than Ibuprofen. What else are you taking?"

"Warfarin to prevent further clots. Flexeril, not that it helps all that much."

"Gabapentin?"

"Took it earlier on but haven't for a couple of years."

"All right. I'd like to put you back on Gabapentin. Are you on an antidepressant?"

"I was but I stopped taking it. I've got an appointment with my therapist on Thursday. I'm thinking he'll want to put me back on it."

"I'll leave that decision to him, but SNRI's can sometimes help. Right now we'll add on Gabapentin and a low dose of prednisone. Try to reduce your intake of Vicodin to 7 tabs per day over the next week and keep track of your pain level. May I see your leg?"

"Here I was beginning to think you'd forget to ask. Damn," House said, standing and lowering his jeans. She rolled forward on the stool and looked carefully at the scar, lightly tracing both the gap of missing and the remaining muscles with her fingertips.

"Thank you. Is there a recent MRI in your records?"

"Six months old. You need a newer one?"

"No I think that will do for now. Any questions or treatments you've been considering?"

"I've pretty much given up hope."

"Then, can I ask why you are here?"

"It's a requirement from my therapist. Dr. Wilson is my best friend; my therapist wants an objective party prescribing for me instead."

"Good idea. All right. Here are your prescriptions. Make an appointment at the desk for next week and we'll see if the gabapentin helps at all. For the record, I'm not looking at taking you off painkillers completely; I want to lower the dosage by supplementing with other medications."

"Okay," House agreed, greatly relieved to hear that from her. "I'll see you next week then."

House made his next appointment and also gave them Dr. Nolan's contact information. Lucius stood when he came out and they both walked out to the car.

"Did it go well?" Lucius asked.

"Actually, yeah it did. Better than I thought it would."

Once they got back to the hospital, House turned in his prescriptions at the pharmacy and got them filled. She had even written a script for the morphine for breakthrough pain, much to his surprise. Returning to his office, he took the newest med additions and settled into his recliner.

Wednesday brought good news from Foreman and Chase, that Marius was being moved to a regular room now that all of his neurological symptoms had cleared up and provided he did well, would be released to home care on Saturday morning. House spent the afternoon working with Lucius to screen and hire nurses and physical therapists during his recovery from his broken femur. Of course, Sidney and Timmy would also be taking care of him. Spoiling him, House thought with a chuckle, as well as Lucius and House himself. It was on the back of this good news that House found the courage the following day to carry through with the appointment with Nolan, packing up and leaving on his own for Mayfield just after lunch.

He pulled up in front of Mayfield with about twenty minutes to spare. He sat on his bike and stared up at the gray, imposing edifice for a few minutes as memories of his time here flashed through his mind. Finally, he swung off the bike and made his way inside, finding himself in Nolan's waiting room.

"Dr. House," Nolan called, standing in his office door.

House got up and followed him into the office, taking a few steps around to look at the office, noting what was the same and what was different while Nolan went to his coffeepot.

"Can I get you some coffee?" Nolan asked.

"Thanks," House agreed, taking a seat nervously. Nolan brought over a mug of coffee, handing it to him and taking his own seat.

"I received the fax from Dr. McEvoy's office. I'm surprised they got you in so quickly."

"Professional courtesy," House shrugged, sipping his coffee and looking anywhere but at Nola

"So what's on your mind?" Nolan asked, leaning back to give him the illusion of space.

House took a moment to get his thoughts in order. "A couple of months ago, I met a dominant. You know that that is right?" House asked, looking sideways at Nolan to check. Nolan nodded. "I met him in a pub that he owns but I didn't know he was a dominant then. He propositioned me, I turned him down. But he told me to call him if I ever needed an anchor. Two weeks later… you heard about that crane disaster in Trenton?"

"I did," Nolan answered soberly. "The fault of the construction crew if I remember. Were you called on to treat patients?"

"Yeah. Cuddy called me out to the site. I tracked down a noise I was hearing and found a woman pinned by her leg under the rubble. Long story short, I tried everything to save her leg but eventually had to do a field amputation to get her out. She threw a fat embolism in the ambulance and died en route," House's voice was low and gruff, betraying how much he'd been affected by her death.

"I went home and broke into my stash of Vicodin. In a hole in the wall behind the bathroom mirror," he revealed on seeing Nolan's questioning look. "I had the pills in my hand but I didn't take them. I don't know what stopped me. No one understood why I was so upset. I dug out my phone and called that pub. He answered the phone and all I could say was 'I need an anchor'."

"Marius," House hesitated briefly but continued when Nolan nodded that he'd caught the name and who it applied to. "Marius was there in fifteen minutes. Took me with him back to his house, away from the mess and the drugs. Made me leave a note if anybody came looking for me. He got me cleaned up and sleeping. Arranged overnight for some clothes and my shave kit to be brought over, for repairs to my apartment, and a selection of canes to pick from. I left mine behind in the wreckage when I rode with Hannah in the ambulance," he explained, voice falling low and pained as he memory of that ambulance ride flashed through in full detail.

"He watched over me. Not just that day but actually paid someone in housekeeping at the hospital to watch and report back to him. No, I still haven't found out who it is. He came to the hospital after a string of three really tough cases and picked me up."

"It sounds like he's taking good care of you," Nolan said, although he wasn't so sure about paying someone to watch House at work. On the other hand, he would have liked to have had a reliable spy when working with House.

"He is," House said with a small smile. "After a couple of weeks, he made me another offer to become his sub. After a lot of thought, I agreed."

"Have you taken the precautions to take out what types of activities and sexual behaviors are acceptable? Established boundaries and safe words?"

"Yes, we talked over boundaries and rules and yes, I have a safe word and he honors it," House answered. "Marius does BDSM different than I've ever seen before. He does it for life, 24/7 a day."

Nolan took a deep breath as he tried to decide how to approach this situation without triggering House's flight reflex.

"Don't… don't jump to conclusions and judge me or Marius," House said with a grimace. "He's been good for me."

"All right, I'll reserve judgment for more details," Nolan agreed.

"Wilson just had the opportunity to ask more details about the whole thing and he totally freaked out. Went out and got drunk then came back and wanted to know why I would commit to this. Said he wanted me to like him as much as I like Marius. He's acting like we were a couple and I dumped him or that I'm cheating on him. Fact is, I thought we were at least an Odd Couple. When I lived with him after getting out of here, he did a lot of things that made me believe that, including buying me an organ for the loft since I didn't have my piano there. Then he hooked up with his first ex-wife and told me to go back to my apartment because Sam didn't want me there. I should be the one who's mad at him. Now I finally found someone and something that is working for me. I'm feeling better, drinking less, using way less Vicodin, even getting along better at work, and Wilson's pissed as hell. Lucius thinks that Wilson wants to keep me just broken enough and alone enough so that he's the only one who can swoop in and save the day."

"Who is Lucius?" Nolan asked.

"Oh, um, Lucius is Marius' master. There's a lot to explain. Marius was in a car accident at the end of last week and he's been in ICU up until a couple of days ago, so I've been staying with Lucius. Wilson wanted answers and Lucius agreed to meet with him and give him answers at my place."

"Alright. So what you are asking for help with is how to deal with Wilson's reaction to your relationship with Marius and through him Lucius?" Nolan summarized and House nodded in agreement.

"James has always valued himself by how much people need him; you made those observations yourself," Nolan began, "which is not healthy for him. Have there been any serious changes to your relationship with him? Time spent, change of activities?"

"No, not really. The only big change is that we don't get drunk anymore. We still get together a couple times a week. Watch TV, sports, porn. Eat Thai or Chinese food. We go bowling, play poker. Only once did we go to Marius' pub, we went to our usual haunts after that," House answered. "We still hang out at lunch at work, trade banter and ideas for cases. Until this week, that is. I've been with Marius when not working and Lucius has been there too."

"How is Marius doing?"

"Better now. He had a head injury that had us worried for a few days but Foreman says there's no signs of residual damage or effects. We might still see some small things once he's home but it seems like he's going to fully recover. He has a couple of broken ribs and a broken femur but those should heal up without any trouble. He's due to come home this Saturday."

"I'm glad to hear that," Nolan said sincerely. "So what is James' objection to your relationship with Marius?"

"I wish I knew!" House said, exasperated. "He's pissed that I'm doing it for life instead of just scenes on the weekend. He doesn't like Lucius at all. Of course that could be because Lucius called him on his shit," he added with a smirk but quickly grew serious again. "He thinks I'm being manipulated by Marius, that he's taking advantage of me. He thinks that this lifestyle is deviant, or that I have developed Stockholm Syndrome. He still thinks that I purposely blew up his marriages. That I don't trust anyone. That only Cuddy can control me and only Wilson can clean up the mess. That I can't relate to people so I need Wilson to translate and sooth over the mess. He kept asking me if I still liked him, that I spent more time with Marius than with him, that he wanted me to like him as much as I like Marius. He wanted to know what Marius could give me that he couldn't. He actually told Lucius that people don't understand me which causes problems, and that he thinks that's mostly my fault. That I don't know how to relate to people. Lucius thinks Wilson is threatened that I won't need him to rush in and fix things anymore."

"What do you think?" Nolan asked.

"I think Lucius is right on the money. I think Sam is about to dump Wilson again and he won't have me free every night to commiserate with. But he can't blame this one on me, not this time," House insisted. "I moved out when he asked me to, I left her alone, I didn't monopolize his time or call him in the middle of the night for a ride home from the bar. He asked for space and I gave it to him."

"Yes, this time he will have to come to grips with his relationship problems himself," Nolan agreed. "I'm glad that you know this one is in no way your fault."

"So let's go through his objections. From what I understand so far, his objections didn't become an issue until he discovered that you had committed to Marius for life. Without any details, I found that somewhat alarming, which I believe is why you and Lucius agreed to the question and answer session with Wilson. Am I right so far? Nolan asked.

"Yeah, that's right. And when he found out about Lucius. He seemed resigned to Marius but Lucius really threw him for a loop."

"What about that upset him?"

House took a deep breath as he thought over Wilson's reactions, taking care to follow Lucius' advice and not just take the words at face value. "He called it a deviant lifestyle. Maybe he thinks that since Lucius is Marius' master that it's some kind of polygamy cult."

Nolan pursed his lips as he turned this clue over in his mind. "Can you explain to me how it really is? We can then look for points that would ease his concerns."

House grimaced and looked down at the floor for a minute before rising and refilling his coffee cup. He surprised Nolan by offering to refill his as well before returning to his seat.

"Okay. They are part of a bigger group that separates itself into smaller clans. The clan is headed by the senior-most master, Lucius, in this case. There's a hierarchical ranking down from there, both within the master ranks and the sub ranks. I'm not sure if it happens a lot but the line seems to be blurred for me. I'm junior-most in Marius' household because Timmy and Sidney have been in longer, but I'm waited on by them, like Marius and Lucius are. I haven't figured out exactly what that means in the greater hierarchy yet.

"Lucius has other masters below him but I have yet to hear mention of him having actual subs anymore. Marius started out as Lucius' sub like twelve years ago but had graduated to master of his own subs. Myself, Sidney and Timmy. But he still assumes the role of sub for Lucius from time to time."

"So, does Lucius have say over you, Sidney and Timmy?" Nolan asked, trying to clearly understand before making any observations.

"Yeah, he does. I think Marius was supposed to consult with him before making me the offer to join and get Lucius' approval. That didn't happen. Lucius was out of the country on business. I was freaked out that Lucius would throw me out. But he didn't," House murmured as if he still couldn't believe that.

"He accepted you into his clan," Nolan said, knowing that House still needed the reassurance.

"He did. He's said that he can see that the bond Marius and I have is strong and he won't break it. He made me an official part of his clan."

"Does he or Marius have any control over you? Undue control, I mean, money, living arrangements, things like that."

"No, they don't. They don't have any control over my money, my place, my job. Wilson keeps asking that too. This isn't some kind of weird domestic abuse," House snapped, exasperated.

"I had to ask, but I'm glad that's not the case," Nolan said, relieved to have that question answered negatively.

"I don't know what to do. Wilson is the longest relationship I've ever had. I don't want to lose him. He's stood by me through some tough times. But he's never helped me like Marius has. Like Lucius has. I don't want to have to choose between the clan and Wilson," House said quietly, fiddling with his cane anxiously.

"I understand."

"But it might come to that," House said bitterly, filling in Nolan's unspoken sentence.

"It might. You have to do what is right for you, Dr. House. I'd like to put you onto an SNRI anti-depressant, to augment what Dr. McEvoy has put you on as well as give you some help with the upheaval you've been going through since the crane collapse. Will you take them?"

"Yeah, alright," House acquiesced with a shrug. "She mentioned an SNRI as a possibility."

"I'll see you next Thursday at 4pm then," Nolan said, handing him the prescription. "We'll pick up this discussion then. If you need help before then, call."