Some days without Jim, a surprise and memories rushing back to me

Mood: puzzled but happy and all fluffy
Weather: sunny and pleasant
Drinking: coffee
Listening to: Direct to helmet - The Spinto Band

I am awfully happy!
I am so happy I am already scaring my fellow humans again who are not used to the sight of a grinning, smiling and humming House.
'Why the dickens?' you might ask now.
Of course because Jim is back!
He was attending an oncologists congress at Chigago and was away for 3 whole days!
Well....3 days I had to work, but the evenings without him were rather long.

Dr. F. by the way is still waylaying me at my usual hauntings which is utterly annoying. He always pretends we meet by accident though. What does he think? That I'm a bit dim? I am positively not!

Thursday afternoon I snuck out for a nap at maternity lounge. Cuddy's radar failed and I stretched out on the couch with a contented sigh when Dr. F. came in.
"Ciao, Dr. House!", he smiled down at me.
Heck, no!, I thought and gave him a bored look. "What the hell are you doing here?", I asked him and did not even try to hide my annoyance.
He shifted uncomfortably and thought of something to say now.
"Um...I..."
I sighed impatiently and waved him off. "You should go and visit Foreman. Maybe he knows what to do about your sudden aphasia."
Dr. F. chuckled and shrugged. "No, I'm fine. I just saw you here and thought...why not ask you...if...if..."
I snorted. "You waste my time!"
Miserable Marco took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a second. "I'm sorry. I am spoiling your break."
"There's a light at the end of the tunnel", I smirked and folded my hands beneath my head.
Well, I thought he'd be leaving now, but wide off the mark.
He was kneading his fingers and still looked down at me whilst I was beginning to feel uncomfortable on that couch being stared at.
Another deep breath and two sighs later he finally asked me what he wanted to get off his chest. "I...wondered if you would like to...have a few drinks tonight...Um....with me. At the new bar downtown...um...they say it's quite good..."
"Busy tonight", I snapped what of course was a lie. The only thing I'd be busy with was missing Jim for sure and popping some pills.
His disappointment was almost palpable. "Oh...what a pity..."
I closed my eyes and thought the fairly onesided conversation came to an end now. Alas, but no.
Suddenly I felt his hand on my shoulder and he was leaning over me. My first thought was slamming my fist into his face, but he just wanted to ask another question.
"So...what about tomorrow?"
"Busy as well..."
"And Saturday?"
Get lost!!!!!
"Out with Dr. Wilson."
"Oh..." A sigh could be heard. "Dr.Wilson...I see..."
Tick-Tick-Tick went the clock on the wall.
"Sunday?"
Oh bugger! Stop pestering me!
"Probably the same."
He looked at me a bit surprised but found his speech again soon. "Well...lunch then. Tomorrow. I'll pick you up at your office at noon."
With these words he spun around and left maternity lounge.
"Fuck!", I cursed under my breath and every thought of having a nap was gone. Tenacious Marco obviously was fairly unaware of the fact he was hitting on a married man. In a crappy mood I ransacked maternity lounge's fridge and cussed to myself.

Thursday evening when I came home I found a small envelope at the coffee table. It was yellow and Jim scribbled a smiling sun onto it.
'Huh?', I thought and picked it up from the table for closer examination. Underneath the sun I read the line For my ray of sunshine and all over sudden felt all warm and fuzzy inside.
With a broad and - I suppose - slightly dorky smile I opened the envelope. It contained a booking confirmation for a fishing hut at Lake Michigan - for the next weekend.
I scratched my chin and sat down on the couch staring at the confirmation. That hut rang a bell somewhere in the back of my head. Yes. We've been there before. Somewhen in the 90ies, as far as I remember.
We spent a long and lazy weekened there fishing, talking, drinking and enjoying the comfort that 'hut' offered which included a sauna.
And yes, I remember James stammering around quite often and behaving a bit odd. Well...now I know why, hm?
The memories of the evenings are quite blurred due to the heavy consumption of alcoholic beverages ...but...maybe...well...considering it now...something might have happened there.

I remember sitting in the sauna, we both had towels wrapped around our hips and talked about this and that. I can't remember if he was married to Susan or Bonnie at that time but he already told me that his marriage sucked.
That was no surprise.
All of his marriages sucked sooner or later...Most of them sooner than later though. And all of his wives seemed to harbour a great dislike for me.
Which was no big surprise for me either though.
Well...we kept talking, enjoyed the warmth and somewhere down the road Jim fell silent and just looked at me.
I stopped in the middle of my sentence and looked back at him. "Fwhat?"
He gulped and folded his hands in his lap. "N...nothing..."
I raised an eyebrow. "Did you see a ghost?"
Jim just shook his head and kept glancing at me.
My stomach twitched and I began to feel a bit uneasy and unsure. The feeling that glance aroused in me was something I wanted to keep deep down inside of me.
"So?", I asked.
"I...", he began.
Some minutes passed and I took a sip of my now luke warm Guinness. (Yes, I know you shouldn't do that!) "You?"
My head began to spin a bit and the last thing I remember was Jim leaning over me.
I can only imagine what happened there - maybe James will be able to tell us more.
It must have been rather pleasant, I suppose. There must be a reason he booked that hut again.

He refused to tell me anything about it on the phone though and told me to wait and be patient. I tried to. And I tried to get some sleep in that now much too big and lonely bed.

Friday morning I was in a lousy mood. Partially because I had clinic duty, partially because I knew Friday meant lunch with Dr. F.
So I limped into the lobby and everyone who was out of my way soon enough not to get acquainted with my cane was lucky.
The highlight of the day was a little boy with a sugar cane in his nose. I got it out and it was smeared with snot when I handed it back to him.
The boy beamed at me and began to suck it right away.
Disgusting.
But consequent.

Later I had the splendid idea just to be out of office at noon. But - alas - Dr. F. found me studying some X-rays.
"Here we go, Dr. House!", he beamed and patted my back.
I shot him a did-I-allow-you-to-touch-me?-glance, but he dragged me out of the room and whistled on our way out of PPTH. When we met Foreman, he just grinned and winked at me. Nice.
Well, he took me to that Italian restaurant around the corner and unpleasant memories of lunch with Allenby came back to my mind and made me even grumpier than usual. Which, of course, did no harm to Dr. F.'s horribly good mood. I could almost read his thoughts.
'Aaaaw...he's shy!'
Far from it! I was as impolite as possible which fueled his charms even more. So I was stumped and decided just to enjoy my - expensive! - meal.
When we came back to my office he even said goodbye with a hug (!) which left me fairly upset and disgusted.
"Stop it immediately!", I gnarled.
That only earned me a radiating smile.
"Grazie for the wonderful lunch break, Dr. House."
"Wonderful? Are you a masochist?", I shot back.
His smile broadened. "I really enjoy your company."
"Dork!", I grunted and closed the door behind me.