for House

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It takes a few days before Mac is really able to put weight on her foot again and even still, it's not a sexy heel like she prefers and a flat little flip flop instead. Still, she's happy to just be walking on it and that means she can cash in House's raincheck. She still doesn't know what his first name is, at all, and finds that she's not really bothered.

She'd found him earlier that day and asked him to meet her at The Winchester, since it was closer, and that's where she is now, nursing a drink.

Comments

[misanthrope_md]

House was happy enough to meet at the Winchester, since it was pretty much across the street from him. Less walking was always better in his book. She was already there when he limped in, and he slid onto the stool next to her, leaning his cane against the bar.

"How's your foot?" he asked.

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"Somewhat better," Mac confirms, wiggling it a bit. "I can put weight on it now, which is a vast improvement. You were excellent."

[misanthrope_md]

"Glad to hear," said House. "I don't have any extra canes lying around." He asked the bartender for a drink of his own and then said, "How long have you been here?"

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"Since September. Long enough to be miserable." It's something that she knows many of the island's residents face - the idea that they can no longer perform their functions in life and have to find new ones. Mac isn't so sure she's adapted all that well.

"I miss having actual things to do. Important things."

[misanthrope_md]

House had trouble mustering up a lot of sympathy for those who had been here what he considered a short time. "Yeah," he said. "Me too."

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"So, where are you from? The accent betrays me, I'm not actually English. Well, raised there, technically American. It's confusing. I'm here from New York," Mac explains. It's all a little jumbled up and she hopes she isn't making herself look like an idiot.

[misanthrope_md]

"Princeton, New Jersey," said House. "But I was an army brat." Something about her hair and features and frame made him think of what Cameron might have looked like ten years older. Which honestly was how he would have preferred her.

"I guess there's not as much news here, is there," he said.

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"No, afraid not," Mac says, shaking her head. "I tried to make some drama at elections but even the elections are clean. There's no scoop to be had, I'm afraid."

While that might have been a nice life for some people, it's torture for Mac, who has worked herself to the bone since she got out of school. "I've been working on a documentary but I don't really think there's any point in it other than amusing myself. Mostly I've been spending my time getting drunk with the rest of you fine people."

[misanthrope_md]

"Yeah? Me too." House was glad that he had a drink in front of him now, and took a healthy swig before adding, "I was on the Council for a while, you know. I even did some arguably useful things. That was back in the days of kind of still gave a shit."

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"Did the island make you into a bitter bastard or were you that way before? It's a compliment, by the way, don't be offended." Mac tries to temper that with a bit of a smile. She's found that the bitterly sarcastic tend to also be somewhat brilliant and intelligence is a turn-on for her in a way little else is.

[misanthrope_md]

"I was like this before," said House, not sounding offended in the least. "Of course, the next question is whether I was like this before the limp. And the answer is, kind of. At that point it was more cynicism than bitterness."

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"I would ask about that but it's rude, even for a journalist," Mac says quietly. Still, curiosity has always been what gets her in the end and at least it's out there in case he does want to talk about it.

"I've always been incurably hopeful about things. It's my most annoying quality."

[misanthrope_md]

"Amazing how this place will just stamp that right out of you," House said dryly. He'd tell her about his leg. Eventually.

"You want to know what will really make you feel hopeless? I've been here for over seven years and eight months."

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"Jesus Christ," Mac says, shaking her head in disbelief. "That's fucking...wow. Yes, you need to drink as much as possible to try and get over that. I would be insane by now."

That isn't to say House isn't insane but he seems to be holding it together better than Mac thinks she would.

[misanthrope_md]

House was wearing a long sleeved shirt, but if anything progressed he'd have to explain the scars on his wrists eventually. Not now, though.

"Yeah, well - " He took another drink. "If the journalist in you has been dying to know more about the early days of the island, here I am. I don't know anyone who's been here longer."

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"Not tonight. I've got...other things in mind aside from work. I'm determined to enjoy myself," Mac says.

[misanthrope_md]

"You really should have opted for better company then," House pointed out.

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"That's selling yourself short. I mean, look at you. You're a doctor. You're bored as shit on this island, which means you're a smart doctor, and I happen to find you incredibly good-looking. I think you're fantastic company."

It's all true, more or less. "So, when you were stitching me, you asked if Magnus and Phedre put me up to it. Put me up to what, exactly?"

[misanthrope_md]

"I've been kind of... hermit-y for a few months," House said. "I wouldn't put it past them to get some pretty stranger to try to lure me out of my house."

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"Ah hah, so you do think I'm pretty. I suspected," Mac says, finishing off her drink and ordering another. She has nowhere to be in the morning, so it's all right.

"Glad to see you out and about, though."

[misanthrope_md]

"Well, I didn't say it wouldn't have worked, had it actually been a ruse," House said.

He eyed her for a moment. "So you didn't actually do any journalistic homework on me? Ask around about the cranky old guy with the limp?"

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"No. I make it a point not to snoop in the personal lives of others. It tends to fuck me in the end, I have terrible exes, but I respect your privacy. If you want to tell me about yourself, I'll have you do it, not me snoop around and find it."

It's a weird sort of integrity, but it's hers and Mac has never compromised it.

[misanthrope_md]

"Oh," said House. "Well... in that case, I can at least assure you that I'm not a serial killer or anything like that. Though I suppose with the small population here that would be pretty unlikely."

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"I met one when I first showed, actually. Jack the Ripper. I'm talented that way," Mac says, laughing nervously. "Luckily, he did not decide to gut me. That could have been awkward."

[misanthrope_md]

"Oh, that guy," said House. "Yeah, good thing."

He tried to think of what else to say and finally settled on, "I've always been really bad at this." It felt like a date, was the problem. He thought of that awful date with Cameron he'd had back in Princeton... god that was a long time ago.