You can live with dignity, but you can't die with it. [Semi-closed; complete]

[causticguy]

Who: House and Allen Walker (and Simca if she wants to join them).
What: The aftermath of Cross's death.
Where: Cross's house.
When: Following this log.

Comments

[causticguy]

House didn't say, "You're welcome." People thanked him for a lot of things: they thanked him when he solved their cases, when they found out they weren't going to die, when their loved one's treatment first started to take effect. But he wasn't the guy who got thanked for telling people they were dying (that was Wilson's territory), and he wasn't the guy who got thanked for trying so hard, or for all his work, or for how much he cared. He was the guy who patients' families wanted to kick or punch or just plain sue, whose bedside manner was only half a step up from the drill sergeant in Full Metal Jacket.

Allen thanking him, it didn't make sense. Unless the kid really was so objective that his mentor's death didn't phase him (which House doubted-doctors could work at it for years and still not become that objective with patients they only met a dozen times); or else he was trying to cover something up, shift the focus away from the fact that Cross was dead, feel like he was saying or doing something that mattered by making House feel appreciated.

It didn't matter. And he didn't feel-he didn't know what he was supposed to feel.

He gave the boy a little acknowledging nod, but his thoughts were already back on practical matters. "I'll arrange to do the autopsy at my house. It'll be easier than doing it here," he said simply. Obviously that was what needed to happen next here-at least it was obvious to House.