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 was not known for being a man who particularly appreciated the wisdom of catching more flies with honey than with vinegar. It would have been easy-really easy-for him to be snide and condescending. But maybe at the moment it would just take too much energy. Maybe he was tired. Maybe he felt bad for the kid. Maybe-

No, he decided, he was just tired. And anyway, he expected the kid to still be a bit in shock. It would just take some time; he'd be all right.

"Healthy thirty-six year old men don't go into cardiorespiratory arrest for no reason. And even if the arrest is the result of his massive alcohol consumption, that still doesn't explain the pleural effusion-the liquid I drew from around his lungs.

"He didn't just drink himself to death. Something was wrong-maybe because of that bite on his hand, maybe something else. The alcohol was like self-medicating. We need to know what he was self-medicating for."

There it was-the "why"-laid out as plainly as House could offer it. He'd actually managed to be almost gentle. Not that he was going to sugar coat it, but there was no reason to be needlessly brutal either. He couldn't imagine anyone finding fault with the reasoning. For House, it was clear as day.