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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.

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"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."

"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.

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."

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

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

"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?"

"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."

"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."

"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?"

"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.

"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."

"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."

"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.

Mac gives him a little smile, biting her lower lip. "Want to know a secret? I'm terrible at it too. I was much better when I was bleeding all over you, that's for certain."

"Well I'd also be more impressive if you had some inscrutable disease," said House.

"Sorry, I appear to be in good health," Mac says, laughing a little. "I am sorry. If I come down with some inexplicable malady, I'll turn up on your doorstep in the middle of the night in need of saving."

"Well when you do, I live pretty much across the street," House said, pointing out the door of the bar.

"Mmm, very good to know. Much closer than mine," Mac says, glancing out the door before looking back at his face. "In case that becomes relevant, which it may very well be in an hour or so. You know, provided that you want to sleep with me, of course."

House was taking a drink when she said that, and he coughed.

"Thank god for forward women," he muttered. And held up a hand to the bartender to signal for another drink.

House had long ago given up on things like meaningful relationships, and so he had no qualms about taking her up on her offer, as bewildering as it was.

"I've been reminded repeatedly that I am not in a committed relationship," Mac says, shrugging. "So I don't see a point in pretending to be in jail waiting on Nikola Tesla to get his head out of his ass."

That was enough for another cough.

"Tesla? Really?" House made a face.

"I never said I had the best taste in men," Mac says, shrugging. "And apparently fucking me behind his boyfriend's back is the best I'm going to get, so, here we are."

Okay, at that, a little smile twitched at House's face.

"Suddenly I am very torn," he said, drinking again. "Because obviously you should not be in a relationship with Tesla since then you would not be here with me. On the other hand, you have no idea how much I would like to see someone steal that kid's boyfriend. Seriously. I would pay good money for that."

Mac laughs because it's just so damned absurd. "I feel like a complete whore, since we're being honest, but I really, really want to be the only one. Unfortunately Nikola sleeping with me doesn't seem to be a dealbreaker for the boyfriend."

She downs her drink quickly. "And there are other men who might treat me better, so. Why should I keep myself at Nikola's beck and call?"

House had more he could say on that subject, but he didn't really want to talk about Alcuin, because ugh.

"First of all," he said, "you are not a whore. But..." He hesitated. "If you're looking for a, uh, boyfriend..."

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