The next day found him sitting at his desk making phone calls to get some services lined up for himself. Maid service was fairly quick to set up and arrange to have the service done on Saturdays. It was better than having them come into his apartment during working hours, bonded or not. He made arrangements that she would do a deep clean once a month, and a light clean once a week and paid extra to have her do his laundry and changing his bed linens once a week.
That arranged, he dialed the number he'd gotten from Cuddy for the personal chef.
"Yeah, this is Dr Gregory House. Dr Cuddy gave me your number as I'm looking to have some meal preparation done for me."
"Hello Dr House. Trisha Ferguson here. How many meals per day and per week are you thinking about?"
"I was thinking just supper, five days a week. I'll have some snacks brought in by grocery delivery and I usually eat breakfast and lunch at work."
"Do you want enough leftovers to fill the other two days? Like a casserole or soup?"
"Umm… no. I'm usually somewhere else on the weekends. I'd prefer that you cooked it at your kitchen and delivered the meals since I can't guarantee what hours that I'll be home. Plus my kitchen isn't very big to work in."
"That's fine, Dr. House. I'll give you a detailed list of ingredients used. Do you have any food allergies? Anything you absolutely don't like, don't eat for religious or cultural reasons? Favorite foods?"
"Can't stand liver. And I don't want any exotic meats, like wild game, tongue, duck feet, anything like that. I have had clotting issues in the past so limit foods high in Vitamin K to once a week. No food allergies, no cultural bans. I'm a meat and potatoes guy, but I like Italian and yes more than just pizza," he added with a chuckle. "I also like Chinese and Thai food. I'm trying to eat healthier by doing this but I only want to take a couple of small steps forward from junk food king, not dive feet first into health food maniac."
"Alright, I get it," Trisha laughed. "What about desserts?"
"Oh, I like desserts," House said seriously.
"Good. Let me put some meals together, let's say 14 different meals. You can pick and choose which ones you like and don't like and we'll sub some in until we get a good set of meals that work for you. If they sound good to you, I'll cook them up and deliver them to your house with reheating instructions, as often as every three days if you'd like. Can I email you the initial meal plan?"
"Yeah, sure," House answered and gave her his email address. "I'll send you my home address. If I can't be there at delivery, I'll make sure someone is. How much and how do I pay?"
Trisha gave him a base fee per meal and said that some would depend on the price of ingredients used, depending on what he chose. He found that reasonable and agreed, asking her to send him a customer agreement stating the terms and prices to sign, which she promised to send over with the tentative meal plan.
House sat back after the call quite surprised at how easy it had been to arrange to have these things done. Hopefully this would ease the load of doing everything for himself and let him concentrate on just getting to work on time and trying to get a decent amount of sleep. He shook his head in disgust at the thought of needing to ease the load. It seemed so pathetic to him that he needed this, even though he could admit that he did indeed need it. Other people managed this load and more, with spouses and children added into the mix. How had he managed to fall so low that he couldn't even handle this much on his own? That should probably be the next topic of discussion with Nolan, he groused, grabbing his cane and heading into the conference room to get some coffee.
Chase looked up as House came in. "Got bagels here if you want," he said.
House filled his coffee mug and took a seat at the table, pulling the bag of bagels toward him to choose one. "Where's the rest of the kiddies?"
"Clinic for Thirteen and Taub. Foreman got asked to consult," Chase answered, grabbing another bagel for himself.
"And you're here keeping watch on the bagels. Well done, padawan," House grinned and got an answering grin from Chase. They both polished off their bagels in companionable silence. House remained in the conference room, scrutinizing the younger doctor.
"What are you looking for?" Chase asked, looking up from his crossword puzzle with exasperation.
"Just wondering how you're doing," House admitted, though he looked away and sat back in his chair with a huff.
"I'm good," Chase offered, puzzled at why he was asking.
"You still drinking as much?" House asked, looking back right into the younger man's eyes. In for a penny, in for a pound, he figured.
"No, actually. Didn't give it up but I've managed to cut back. Hitting an AA meeting every now and then," Chase shrugged.
"Glad to hear it," House nodded.
"How's Marius doing?"
"Much better now. Headaches are gone now and just the leg break to heal up yet. He's complaining about it being itchy and wanting to get into the jacuzzi," he smirked.
"Always a good sign," Chase grinned in response. "And how are you doing? Things okay with Lucius still?"
'Yeah. Things are okay with him," House nodded. "He's introduced me to another senior master's group, so that we can get to know each other. Backup master, for… reassurance," he added reluctantly.
"Really?" Chase asked, surprised at the notion. "So, if and I mean this as strictly hypothetical, but if Marius were to… die, wouldn't you stay with Lucius rather than go to someone else?"
House glared at the suggestion that Marius might die before him, but nodded again. "Yes, I would stay with Lucius. But I was… freaked out at the idea of being alone again and, okay, maybe, more than a little panicked when I said what if something happened to him too? What if the two of them were out somewhere, some meeting and had another car accident? What if their car got hit by a garbage truck?"
Chase grimaced at the reference to Amber but motioned for House to continue.
"So Lucius said that it might be good to have another master as a backup plan. Someone we could all meet and get to know now, so that IF something happened, we'd already have a rapport with each other."
"That's actually a really great plan," Chase murmured. "So… have you met this person then? Is it a male? What's he like?" he added when House nodded that he had met him.
"The first one was a total disaster. But the second one… His name is Gaius. He's intriguing. He asked me a lot of questions. Seems really on a level above Marius and able to even give Lucius a run for his money. By the end of dinner, I felt like it was worth getting to know him better. That maybe he would fit as a backup plan."
"Did he have any subs with him? Or are you just meeting him?"
"He had a sub, Thorn with him. Very androgynous. And he had two junior masters, Ekaterina and William both of whom had subs with them as well. So it was like, our clan met their clan. We all seemed to get along well enough."
"That's good. I'm really glad this is turning out so well for you. I was a bit concerned at first since it was so different from anything that I'd ever seen done before but I think it's been good for you and I hope it keeps being good for you."
House swallowed and nodded his thanks.
The two men fell into an easy banter, shooting zingers at each other while House mocked Chase's ability to solve a crossword, until Chase had to go and do his clinic duty. House went back to his office and decided to tackle his email. He really had to get someone, hell, who was he kidding, he needed to get Chase to handle this task.
The next three weeks found House starting to settle into the new routine he'd begun for himself. The cleaning service had been to his apartment for a deep clean the first week and now came every Saturday while he was with Marius to clean and do his laundry. Thanks to the personal chef, he was now eating better and more consistently. She had begun to deliver some pre-portioned snacks as well that he took to work with him and even once included a pint of homemade ice cream. Combined with his talk therapy with Nolan, the pain management care, and massage from Sidney, he found that he was actually feeling good for the first time in years. He continued to make it on time to work and had manage to guilt/cajole Chase into screening his emails and mail for him like Cameron used to do, although when they got busy with a case it all just piled up anyway along with all their files and billing.
This was what had him in his office after hours going over the budget for Diagnostics. As usual, he had missed the deadline last month but had stunned Cuddy by asking for an extension to go through it himself. He'd put each of the ducklings on the task, asking them to go through it separately and give recommendations while he did the same. He'd been going through all of their data, jettisoning some ideas, adding and amending some others to come up with the first really well thought out budget he'd turned in since he'd begun the department. Now he was studying it again, looking for enough leeway to hire someone as an assistant for the department. After three hours of tweaking numbers he finally found enough funds to cover another full-time employee. Sighing with a combination of relief and exhaustion, he turned to his computer to write the proposal for an assistant into the budget and emailed it to Cuddy around 10pm before driving home and dropping into bed.
Cuddy was waiting for him the next morning, with a big smile and an even bigger cup of coffee for him. "Dr House, can I see you in my office please?"
"For that coffee, I'd follow you into the clinic," he said, snatching it from her hand and holding it to his chest like a life preserver. He tucked his messages into his pocket and followed her into her office, sinking down onto a chair to savor the first few sips of coffee.
"I read through your budget proposal this morning. Congratulations. I haven't had such a thorough budget from you since the first one," she began as she pulled it up on the screen. "I just want to ask you about the assistant position. You haven't ever wanted to add more employees than your fellows before. What's changed your mind?"
"Well, I just… you know that I hate to do the mundane tasks and I do know that they eventually have to be done," he said, forestalling her motherly lecture with a smirk, "and that the task is always made harder by waiting so long. Generally, I use that as a way to torture one of my fellows. But lately we've had more cases to deal with and less available time overall. I've coerced Chase into screening the mail and emails but with his surgical rounds he doesn't have much extra time either. I won't give it to Foreman or Taub and Thirteen is a masochist, there's no fun there."
Cuddy rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Seriously? You want to hire someone else because you're favorite duckling to pick on is too busy and the other three aren't enough fun?"
"Isn't that a good enough reason?" he teased. "No. I thought about how things are easier in my life now that I've hired some help and decided that hiring some help for the same kind of boring mundane tasks in the department would leave us all with the time for what we do enjoy, treating the untreatable and researching new treatments and unusual cases in journals. I know Foreman and Chase both have an article they're working on, I've had four cases that I could write up. It makes sense, if we can find the right person to do the screening, answer calls and messages, do some of the basic billing and record keeping," he added, watching her nod along as he laid out his reasoning and the sparkle in her eyes at the thought of new diagnostic articles for publication.
"Now up to date billing is something I can get behind," she teased. "Alright. Consider the diagnostics budget accepted and approved. I'll get HR to send you some job specifications on the assistant position for you to customize to diagnostics. Be reasonable," she admonished with a grin, "and get it back to them so we can post the position as open."
"Aw, Mom! You're no fun!" he whined as he got to his feet and headed to his office. He hadn't been there more than an hour when Wilson came in bearing another cup of coffee and a chocolate chip muffin.
"Hey. I heard someone's department is getting an assistant," Wilson said with a smile. "I figured that called for baked goods with chocolate."
"Good call," House agreed taking a big bite of the muffin.
"You're really going to hire an assistant?" Wilson asked, nibbling on his own muffin. "Like, screen resumes, actually interview them…"
"I do know how, you know."
"Yes, but you also hate to do those things and so you screen them with the most bizarre interview questions. Do you want me to sit in on the screening? Arrange for and attend the interviews?" he smirked.
"Screening yes. You've had several assistants before this last one worked out for you. Hopefully that means you've got a feel for what makes a person a good assistant. I'll have Chase and Thirteen make the appointments and I'm thinking about making it a panel interview with the entire department. Not just me they have to be able to deal with, I'm just the most eccentric of the bunch," House shrugged with false modesty.
Wilson chuckled and shook his head. "Well that's certainly true. So do you want to go out on Friday night? Bowling, drinking, lots of mocking?"
"Sure, sounds like fun. As long as that includes you buying dinner."
"Oh, I wouldn't dream of not buying you food for the night," he promised.
They spent a half hour with Wilson's entertaining tales about nightmare assistants before he had to go for appointments. House had texted Marius while they were speaking about the plans for Friday and got an answer back to enjoy the night and to come over Saturday morning.
Around two in the afternoon, while the ducklings were going over files searching for a new case, House's cell rang. He frowned, not recognizing the number, and answered.
"House. This is Gaius. Lucius gave me your number."
"Gaius. What can I do for you?"
"I'd like to meet and spend a little time getting to know each other. Are you free this evening?"
"Uh… yeah. Yes, I am. What did you have in mind?" he asked nervously.
"Dinner, a drink or two. I would like to come to your house or meet you at Marius' pub. Which would you prefer?"
House hummed as he thought about the options. He wasn't sure about being alone in his apartment with Gaius but he didn't want to have a getting to know you conversation in the pub either. "Come to my place then. I get home from work around six o'clock."
"I will plan on arriving at seven, to give you some leeway time and bring dinner."
"I'll see you at seven then."