"We are… glad… to have you on the board," Cuddy told the tall man in a suit following next to her; she was trying to keep her tone levelled to not show any true feelings about this. While, yes, Edward Vogler donating 100 million dollars to the hospital was a blessing, under the condition that he became a board member, simply rubbed her the wrong way. She showed him around the hospital, having him meet as many of the wonder doctors and students as possible while avoiding one particular doctor.

Vogler hummed in response, taking in his surroundings.

"Yes… I'm certainly thrilled to make some changes around here," he said flatly, only causing Cuddy to let out a quiet sigh. "I've been hearing a lot about a Dr. House?"

The question that Cuddy had been dreading since accepting Vogler on the board. House. Vogler was a no-nonsense, ready-to-fire and replace businessman. She knew that this bump of the road would come eventually; she was hoping she would have more time to pull House aside and bribe him with less clinic duty if he behaved for a while until Vogler's power trip closed.

"Yes… He's the Head of Diagnostic Medicine."

"The what?"

That was the exact response Cuddy feared. No other hospital in the world had an entire diagnostic department; this was something made especially for House since he had a gift in the field. Add in the fact that being an expert in infectious diseases and nephrology, the kid deserved his own department. She just needed more time to compile evidence on how well House ran his department, why it was essential to the patients, and how much income the hospital generated. As long as she could keep House away from Vogler….

"Let's go down-" Before Cuddy could suggest them going forward up the hall, Vogler decided that he wanted to take a right. Where House's office was.

"Is this department needed?" He questioned, his hands behind his back as he watched for House's office to come up.

"I would say so. Yes."

"I'm not asking your opinion," Vogler cut her off. "How much money are we losing from this?"

"I don't have documents on hand. I can reassure you that Dr. House and his department are needed; he's a great doctor and a huge asset to the hospital."

Vogler stopped, seeing House's name printed on the glass door of his office in the corner of his eye. He didn't want to hear any excuses, especially on Cuddy's end, as to why they should or shouldn't keep a department or doctor. If they are generating enough money, then that would speak for itself; if not, then cuts would have to be made.

"I'm sure he's swamped right now," Cuddy continued, trying to move past the conversation.

Peaking in through the glass, the office space was empty, but what he saw in the connected conference room was enough to cause him to raise an eyebrow. Cuddy pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration; all House had to do was behave; why couldn't he do that for just a day? In the conference room, House had the VR headset over his eyes, swinging his arms with the joysticks in hand. How many times has she told him to stop messing with it unless he was being taught how to perform surgery? As much as she wanted to storm in there and chew him out for purposely disobeying her once again, but she knew that wouldn't look good for either of them in Vogler's eyes.

"Who is that?" Vogler questioned Cuddy, pointing at House with no clue that he was being observed like a caged animal.

"That is… Dr. House," she almost sounded ashamed to say it. Sometimes, Cuddy wanted to shake him and ask him why he couldn't act like Wilson. "He's very… busy…." She tried to smooth it out.

Vogler didn't say anything; instead, he tried to open House's office door, only to find that it was locked. He scowled; in his eyes, no doctor should have their offices locked; no doctor should ever be goofing off by playing video games while on call, either.

"He's been working on that surgery simulation," she knew that lying to Vogler probably wasn't the best thing to do. Still, she didn't know what else to say to make this situation look any better. Cuddy cleared her throat, grabbed her set of keys, and opened the door to House's conference room. "Dr. House," she started to get his attention, sounding more high-pitched and nicer than usual.

House was going to say something sarcastic, but he caught her off-tone and pushed the VR headset up over his forehead. It took him a second for his vision to readjust, but he could only stare at the two blankly once it did. The look on Cuddy's face screamed for him to be good and behave, but House looked past that at the man who was standing next to her.

"Hm…." He hummed. Cuddy knew he would say the most out-of-pocket thing he could think of, so she cut him off.

"This is Edward Vogler," she said quickly, motioning towards the man. "He's our new Chairman of the Board."

"Interesting," House said, sounding bored. "I'm gonna choose to ignore you both now, thank-" Before he could put the VR headset back over his eyes, Cuddy grabbed his wrist to stop him. "…you." House let out a huff.

"You do know what that means, correct?" Vogler questioned House, causing the young doctor to tilt his head to the side. Cuddy silently prayed that House kept calm; she knew he could get mean when he felt like he was being talked down to. "In a way, it makes me your boss."

House let out a small laugh, dropping the headset on the conference table before rubbing his eye. "Yeah. Sure. Nah, you're not my boss," House said with a shrug. "Are you even a doctor?"

"You don't seem to be wearing a lab coat," Vogler stated.

Two and two finally clicked with House's brain; the reason why Cuddy has been getting on his case about not wearing his lab coat for the past week. She was trying to get him in the habit before Vogler showed up.

"I am so, very sorry," House continued sarcastically. "I don't do lab coats. They itch."

"They… itch?" Vogler questioned.

Cuddy let out a small groan. She had managed to convince House to wear the lab coat for only a day and a half before he practically lost it and threw it away. Since then, she had been badgering him to keep wearing it, but he refused to now. She couldn't understand why he couldn't keep behaving; now, she would have to defend him twice as hard.

"Don't think too much about it," House mumbled. "Can I go do something else now?"

"Yes!" Cuddy agreed quickly, grabbing his shoulders, spinning him around, and leading him towards his office door. "I left files on your desk. I need you to go look at them and sign off on them, okay?"

He mumbled something under his breath, leaving the conference room. This had to be a joke, right? House didn't like knowing that somebody who didn't even work here, nor was a doctor, was trying to tell him what to do.

As soon as he saw the large amount of files that were now sitting on his desk, he let out a frustrated groan. Cuddy typically forged his signature on these documents since he never did them. In fact, it was to the point that she had stopped asking him to do his own paperwork and did it for him. Did the Chairman of the Board really hold that much of a title? Surely not. House had to assume that there was something else going on, but it would make too much sense as to why Cuddy had been enforcing so many policies that he was able to avoid for almost two years. Of course, House didn't think it was fair, especially since he was practically grandfathered in there with the policies.

House wanted to go back into the conference room to complain about this, but thinking back to how serious her tone and her expressions were, something in his petty brain told him to just drop it. For once, he complied with Cuddy's instructions, sitting behind his desk, grabbing a pen, and started signing off on the documents that he had waiting for him. He couldn't help but look through the transparent door from his office that was connected to his conference room, seeing Cuddy and Vogler still standing in there talking about what he could assume was business stuff. For some reason, seeing it made his blood boil. Having somebody who didn't work here was taking up space in his zone, and making changes that he couldn't do anything about made him feel like he was losing control. He would go as far as to say that it was ruining his everyday routine, which stressed him out.

The more he heard them talking, the more frustrated House was getting. How was he supposed to focus on paperwork when there was literally anything else he could be doing right now? Tossing the pen down, he moved away from his desk; there was only one place he could go to right now where he could calm down.

"What is his fuckin' problem?!" House shouted, entering Wilson's office and slamming the door behind him.

Wilson didn't even look up from the paperwork he was working on, already preparing to hear House's meltdown. He knew House wouldn't take the new Vogler situation well; it was only a matter of time before he snapped; he didn't think it'd happen this quick. House didn't take change well; something as small as somebody moving something of his was enough for him to throw a fit.

"It's only been three hours since you met him," Wilson pointed out, finally looking up at his best friend. "What could he have possibly done to you?"

"Exist!" House yelled, letting out a loud huff, folding his arms over his chest as he began to pace back and forth across his office.

Wilson let out a small, almost defeated sigh as he sat back away from his computer to watch his best friend pace in front of his desk.

"House," he stated, trying to help ground him from whatever jumbled thoughts he was having right now.

"What?!" House snapped, now biting lightly down on his knuckle, not happy that he accidentally yelled at his best friend.

"First…." Wilson started, standing up now as he caught House as he paced by, gently moving the hand he was gnawing on. "Don't bite yourself. We talked about this. Second, just relax, okay? Vogler's just a donor for the hospital. He doesn't work here. He's not your boss."

A donor? Of course, that makes more sense as to why he thought he had so much power around here. He could only assume that it was a great amount for all the changes that Cuddy was enforcing. Still, it wasn't fair.

"He sure is acting like it…." House mumbled, snatching his arm away from Wilson. Typically, House was able to deal with physical contact only with Wilson and slightly with Cuddy, but today, he couldn't handle any of it. "Cuddy's just-"

"Doing what's best for the hospital," Wilson finished for him, hoping that he could paint Cuddy in a better light of the situation. "I see the lab coat didn't last too long," he said, hoping to change the subject a bit.

"I don't wanna talk about it."

"Of course you don't…." Wilson mumbled sarcastically. "Look, we'll go to that arcade bar that you love so much after work to get your mind off things. How's that sound?"

As soon as the words came out of his mouth, Wilson knew that he had wasted one of the chances of being able to calm down House. It wasn't exactly what he said but rather how he said it. House was highly hypervigilant of how people spoke to him, and anything that could possibly be twisted into sounding like they were talking down to him only made him furious. House was already cautious of who he befriended, especially at work; he is someone who's convinced that people always wanted something from him or wanted to get close to him as some sort of prank. Cuddy and Wilson both chalked that up as some sort of trauma of going to college at such a young age. Sure, he's a brilliant doctor, but there's a lot that he needs to heal from.

First chance: wasted.

"What's that supposed to mean?" House finally questioned in a harsh tone, stopping his pace as he glared at Wilson.

"What?" Wilson asked, trying to act as if he didn't realize he had used the wrong wording with him. "I thought you liked that place?"

"I do like that place…"

"So… you don't want to go, or…?"

"I don't want you asking me like I'm a child!" House finally snapped.

Wilson let out a small sigh, knowing he barely had one and a half shots left. He needed to be careful; the last thing he wanted to cause was a meltdown. If Vogler wasn't already on the fence with House, a meltdown would surely push it.

"Alright, no, you're right. I did word it weird, and I apologize."

"You're just saying that!" House let out a frustrated groan, burying his face in his hands.

Second chance: wasted.

"No, I'm not. I don't know why I said it like that." Wilson watched as House moved his hands from his face, letting out another huff. "Seriously, though. I want to go, and I want you to go with me."

Wilson knew that this would make or break House's meltdown. Watching him, he saw House's expression slowly soften. House still didn't understand why he was taking his anger out on his best friend; that was his toxic trait, and he was fully aware of it. Why Wilson stuck around, House wasn't sure. Honestly, Wilson wasn't sure either; there was something about House that he was hooked to and couldn't let go of. Maybe there was hope that he was able to 'fix' him.

"Fine," House mumbled again. He let out a small sigh, sitting on the small couch that Wilson had in his office, starting to fidget with his hands. "But you're paying my way."

"I expected nothing less," Wilson stated with a small smile, gently putting a stress ball into House's hands so he wouldn't pick the skin at his hands raw. "But you need to be off Vogler's radar."

House stared down at the stress ball in his hands, not saying anything as he continued to fidget with it. He knew Wilson wasn't trying to hurt him in any way, shape, or form, but rather, his own insecurities were trying to hurt him. The way Vogler looked down at him this morning just hurt him the wrong way, especially since Cuddy barely defended him. Maybe he was taking his anger out on the wrong person, but being unable to regulate his emotions made it difficult for him to see that.

"Therapy session was wonderful, Dr. Wilson. Thank you so much," House said sarcastically, standing up and tossing the stress ball back to Wilson.

"No," Wilson only stated, moving to block the door. "You use that tone when you're about to cause trouble and somehow drag me into it."

"I would never. Move."

"Whatever you're planning… Don't."

"I won't. Promise."

Wilson let out a frustrated sigh, knowing that he had no choice but to step out of House's way to let him do whatever it was he was about to do. Plus, he knew that House wouldn't hesitate to either shove him out of the way or climb out of the window. Wilson didn't want to particularly explain to Cuddy why they were injured because he wouldn't move.

"Please… just be smart with whatever you're planning."

"Always."

As soon as Wilson moved out of the way, House left the office, slamming the door behind him. House may not have told Wilson where he was off to, but Wilson already knew based on his patterns, which told him everything that he needed to know. He couldn't help but pick up the phone on his desk, feeling the need to call Cuddy to warn her about what was about to happen.

"Ah, ah!" Cuddy said loudly as soon as House entered her office without knocking. She held up a hand to him so he wouldn't speak. "I knew you were coming," she stated, not sounding exactly thrilled about the conversation they were about to have. "Sit," she commanded, pointing to the empty chair on the opposite side of her desk.

"Did Wilson-"

"Sit," she repeated more sternly this time.

With a frustrated sigh, House sat down, drumming his fingers against the armrests. House rarely listened to anybody, so Cuddy always had a strange sense of pride whenever he listened to her with little argument. Wilson always told her that what she felt had to have been a power trip, but that wasn't exactly what she'd call it. Even though it's never been spoken verbally by either Cuddy or House, there is undoubtedly a mother-son bond between them. Wilson could certainly see that bond, which is how he knew he could safely go to Cuddy if he was ever concerned about House. However, Wilson has expressed frustration that he only listened to his words if they directly came from Cuddy.

"Where's your lab coat?" She asked, looking back down at the paperwork in front of her. House frowned at that. It wasn't like Cuddy to be doing something else when talking to him.

"What'd you mean? I ditched it," he stated, sounding slightly frustrated.

"Well, you need to wear it. I can get you another one."

House was taken back a bit. He leaned back in his chair again, trying to process what she was saying to him.

"I'm not gonna wear another one."

"Then I'll be sending you home for the rest of the day," Cuddy said, looking up at a puzzled-looking House, who couldn't believe what she was saying to him. Cuddy had the most serious look that he had ever seen from her. "Do you understand, House?"

"What?" He finally asked in disbelief. "You… hm…." He trailed off momentarily, trying to get a read on her. "You're being controlling," he finally came up with, still frustrated.

"Oh wow! Your boss is being controlling? What a shock!" Cuddy said with a semi-sarcastic tone and an eye roll.

House looked down at his fidgeting hands, noticing that he had started to pick and pull at the skin around his fingers. He stopped for a moment, knowing that it would be in his best interest to stop hurting himself, but he also knew if he kept doing this, Cuddy would tell him to stop. Hopefully.

"Are you going to wear your coat or not?" Cuddy asked again, hoping that House would make the right choice. She didn't want to send him home over something as stupid as wearing a lab coat.

"If I say no, are you seriously going to send me home?"

"Yeah. I am."

The challenging tone was setting House off, and he wanted to see how far he could push her in this situation. After these past two years, Cuddy had never once sent him home, even after having threatening to. This time, she sounded serious, but surely she wasn't.

"Then send me home. I'm not wearing it." House had a smug smirk, leaning back in his chair again, as he had leaned slightly forward at some point.

He was waiting for the typical argument between them. Cuddy would give him orders. He would refuse. She would snap at him and tell him again, only for her to give up and allow him to continue to do what he wanted.

"Alright. House, go home."

House was silent for a moment; his expression dropped to one of confusion.

"Wait, what? Seriously?"

"House, I'm sending you home. You can return when you wear a lab coat and appropriate clothing. Is that understood?"

He couldn't believe it. Was Cuddy really sending him home? She never cared about the lab coat rule.

"I see what this is…." House started as he stood up from the chair. "I should've noticed it sooner."

"House-"

"You're kissing Vogler's ass, huh?" He questioned, folding his arms over his chest, hoping that the accusation would get under her skin a bit. "I can't believe you sold out like that, Cuddy."

"It is not selling out," Cuddy hissed, closing the file on her desk before standing up. "It's me trying to get funds for the hospital. Do you understand that most of our legal funds are gone, and we had to dip into the funds we were going to use for new equipment because of you?"

"We won them all!" House exclaimed as if that would be any sort of comfort or excuse.

"We settled them all, House."

"Hey! I'm a doctor, not a lawyer! A win's a win, right?"

Cuddy sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. She couldn't believe she was having this argument with him right now. She knew it was his way of distracting her from sending him home.

"Were you aware that we had to hire a new lawyer because the old one quit?"

"Because of me?"

"Most lawyers don't want to work for a hospital with so many pending cases."

"I always knew they were cowards…." He joked.

"Stop it. Go home."

"Okay! Okay! I'll wear the stupid coat!" He held his hands up defensively as he slowly backed up away towards the door.

"That's not what I told you to do."

"You said to wear the lab coat."

"You lost that chance. I'm telling you to go home." Cuddy leaned over towards her computer, clicking several tabs and buttons. "I punched you out. Go home."

House let out a frustrated groan, hating that he was losing for once.

"I wanted to talk to the new lawyer today!" He whined, trying to figure out any way to try to get his foot in the door of not having to leave today.

"Bullshit, you wanted to talk to the lawyer."

"You always get mad that I don't get involved with our legal processes. Here I am today trying to, and you're sending me out!"

Cuddy covered her face, letting out a groan of her own. She knew that he was trying to manipulate her, and it was driving her insane. Then again, this would be the only opportunity to actually get him to set foot into the lawyer's office.

"Are you seriously going to go see Stacy?" She questioned once she removed her hands from her face, giving him the Mom Look.

"Who the hell is Stacy?"

"Our new lawyer, House…" At this point, Cuddy sounded exhausted and just wanted peace away from him.

"What happened to, uh…." House snapped his fingers several times. "Jackson?"

Cuddy let out a quiet, defeated chuckle.

"Jackson left last year. Just… go. Go meet Stacy or go home. Be…." She sighed, looking at him. "Be civilized, please. We can't afford another lawsuit."

House rolled his eyes before leaving Cuddy's office, who leaned back in her chair with her hands over her face, trying to do deep breathing exercises to keep herself calm from their interaction. Her door opened again seconds later, and she could only assume what it was. Without looking up, she already had the answer to House's answer before he could ask his question.

"First office on the right past the break room," Cuddy answered, still not looking up, letting out another sigh as the door closed again.

Did House seriously want to see the new lawyer? Absolutely not. He just didn't want Cuddy and Vogler to win by sending him home over something as stupid as a lab coat. Besides, maybe meeting the lawyer in person at the hospital rather than the courtroom would look better for him.

He didn't even bother knocking on Stacy's office door before entering on his own terms. He practically looked like a teenager being sent to the principal's office after doing something wrong. Once he entered the office, he saw a woman with brunette hair who appeared to be in her early thirties standing near the desk. He couldn't help but notice the extremely fitting clothing she had on, and his mood instantly perked back up.

"Can I help you?" The woman asked sweetly with a small smile.

"Yeah, I was looking for Stacy, but… I think I found someone better," House said, causing the woman to giggle a bit.

Obviously, his flirting and pickup lines were downright terrible, but his awkwardness and his looks seemed to make a great time.

"You think so, huh?" She leaned against the edge of the desk, eyeing him for a moment before setting the papers down that she had been holding. "What'd you need from Stacy, if you don't mind me asking…." She asked, leading him for his name.

"House."

"Ah… so you're Dr. House," she said with a smile before handing him a large file, confusing him. "Then you'll need to review these and write your statements." Before House could say anything, she put on her hospital identification badge.

Stacy Warner.

"Oh, shit…." He mumbled, looking down at the file, knowing that he may have messed up and would only give Cuddy another reason to send him home. "I'm-"

"Don't worry about it," Stacy said, still with a small smile. "Dr. Cuddy gave me any warning she possibly could about you."

"Oh… well, that's good," he said, not sounding as confident as he once did. "I-I mean… it's not good, I meant that-"

Stacy let out another small giggle.

"Relax, it's okay. It wasn't all bad. Swear."

"Well, surely that's good, right?"

"Right," she confirmed. "If you have questions about your statements, let me know, Dr. House."

The words that House wanted to say were trapped in his throat, both because he had a lot he wanted to say at once while also heeding Cuddy's warning. He held up the file quickly before moving back towards the door. When he tried opening the door, he had looked back at Stacy for a moment, which caused his face to meet with the door. He quickly left the room with a red face, closing the door behind him. Looking back at the quick interaction, House cringed at himself. He couldn't understand why he had been so terrible at putting his words together when he could say the exact words to Wilson without any trouble. He rubbed his forehead where he had accidentally hit his head on a door, knowing that there would be a small bruise, and he wasn't prepared to explain what happened.

He remembered the heavy file in his hand. Flipping through it, he recognized that half of these reports were complaints from patients that he and his team treated. Well… to be fair, he made his team treat them exactly how he wanted, and since he was the Department Leader, the complaints fell directly onto him, especially since they were his idea. However, in his mind, since the team was the one who did what he had told them, he figured they should be the ones who were to make the statements.

House entered the conference room as a quick stop before going back to Wilson's office, where he saw his team sitting around the table working on… something. They had a clutter of x-rays, lab reports, and books.

"What're you losers up to?" House questioned them. The team wasn't even phased by his nicknames anymore; they were nothing more than his own way of expressing affection.

"Twenty-eight-year-old male-" Chase had started, only to be immediately interrupted by House tossing the legal file down in the centre of the table, sending some of the reports to the floor.

"Take care of that too 'k thanks, bye," House said quickly before leaving the conference room. Obviously, he wouldn't be of any help to them today.

Once House opened Wilson's office door, Wilson was more or less confused as to why he was still there and why he wasn't furious at him for warning Cuddy about him going to her office. He knew that Cuddy would send him home for not wearing a lab coat.

"House-"

"Wilson, how does it feel that you are no longer the apple of my eye?" House asked with a smirk as he sat on the edge of Wilson's desk.

"What are you talking about, House?"

Ever since the start of the year, House had made it extremely obvious that he had some sort of feelings for Wilson. He never hid the fact that he was aware that Wilson was married, yet Wilson did extremely little to tell House to stop. Possibly because he was getting more attention from House than he was getting at home.

"Have you met the new lawyer?" House continued.

"Uh… no. Must be because I don't get sued as often as… some people."

House couldn't help but roll his eyes at the extremely true statement.

"Whatever."

"Why? What happened? Another lawsuit?"

"No-… Well, yeah, but that's not the point. She's hot."

"Oh, so you're looking for a sexual harassment lawsuit, is what you're saying?"

"Not what I'm saying."

"You slept with half the nurses. I don't think you should push your luck with the lawyer."

House snorted a small laugh.

"I know, I know… you're jealous that we haven't slept together yet. All you gotta do is say the word, Wilson," he said with a smirk, trying to play off as if he was joking, but they both knew that he wasn't.

"Hm… I'll have to let Julie know about the arrangement. I'm sure she'll be thrilled to hear all about it."

"Yet you didn't say no. How 'bout it?"

Before Wilson could say anything, House let out a small laugh, seeing that Wilson's face was starting to turn pink.

"Aw, your face is turning red. I'm serious though-"

"Shut up," he interrupted, turning his chair around and pretending he was looking for something in his filing cabinet. "All I'm saying is maybe it'd be wise to not pursue the lawyer considering… she's a lawyer."

"And totally into me."

Wilson looked at him for a moment.

"Yeah… maybe you missing out on the high school experience was a mistake."

"Every time I come into your office, you verbally abuse me," House joked as he moved away from Wilson's desk. "Sometimes it'd be nice to cuddle." He tilted his head to the side to play off a puppy dog look, but he knew that his look wasn't as convincing as Wilson's with his big doe eyes.

"Look, I can't control what you do. Whatever your conscience says, be sure to do the opposite." Wilson picked up a couple of files before standing up. "I have appointments to go to."

"You're literally the only doctor who's on time to your appointments," House whined, not happy that his best friend was having to pick work rather than having a back and forth with him.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. You're a velcro dog." House frowned at the nickname. "I'll see you at lunch."

House huffed, following Wilson out of his office. There was a lot going on at the hospital today, but nothing that he wanted to actually work on. Wilson knew he would have to give him some sort of push to get with his team to see what cases they had going on today. Wilson stopped walking, knowing that House wasn't too far behind him.

"Look…." Wilson started, turning around to look at his friend, who still didn't look pleased about how his day was going. "You're lucky Cuddy didn't send you home over a stupid lab coat," he started as he shrugged off the white coat he had been wearing, handing it to House. "Just wear it, okay?"

"They're itchy!" House wasn't sure how many more times he could stand to explain himself to people.

"I understand that," Wilson said, sounding just as frustrated with having to hear him repeat himself over and over. "My coat's worn, okay? It shouldn't be as itchy as newer ones. Just try it, okay?" He watched as he could see House thinking about it for a moment, unsure if he was going to hate the texture as much as the newer coats.

House looked slightly suspicious, but did eventually carefully touch the lab coat. With it being used for so long, it was broken in, a bit softer than the brand-new ones he had been offered. He hated, hated the texture of the lab coats. Not only that, but it felt so constricted and like he was choking and being restrained. They made his skin crawl to the point where he swore it was painful. He knew it was all psychological, but that didn't make it any less valid. It wasn't fair to House; he didn't understand how everyone else could casually wear anything they wanted without having to go through the steps that he had to go through. Test the material, wear it to ensure it doesn't feel restricting or painful, and then slowly transition to wearing it. He always looked at others like they were crazy when they threw someone new on and went about their day, much like how they looked at him when he acted up like this.

"Wear this one. It'll get you through the day," Wilson explained. He was the only one who understood House's dislike for certain materials; while he may be one of those people that House thinks is crazy for being someone who can wear anything he wanted, but he still understood. House had many quirks that drove everyone insane, but Wilson acted like it was just as normal as anything he did. "It's okay, I just washed it. Honest."

House was a bit hesitant in taking the coat to the point where Wilson had to coax it into his hand, making sure that House wasn't going to freak out upon touching it. All the tension in his shoulders and the anxiety of feeling the coat instantly dissolved when he realized that the material was soft and not as stiff as the new one. Without saying anything, he slipped it on over his arms; it was a bit bigger on him, so it didn't feel as constricting; add in the fact it smelt like Wilson's cologne mixed with laundry detergent, which made it the more comforting.

"You're not getting this back," House stated.

Wilson only smiled, assuming that he said that in reference to that it was more comfortable for him to wear and not because it brought him any sort of comfort knowing that it belonged to him. He was just glad to see House was finally listening to Cuddy, even if there had to be a compromise for it to work.

"Where's your badge?"

"Huh?" Before House could answer, Wilson took House's ID badge that was hanging on his belt loop, hooking it where it should go on the coat. "Is that a symptom of your OCD?" He genuinely asked; when Wilson told him that he had OCD, House was trying to learn as much as he could about it, only to discover that it's practically different for everybody.

"Nope. I don't want to give Vogler a reason to pester Cuddy into sending you home."