“You can be House without the pills. You’ve got the cane and you’re certainly grumpy enough. Does that make me Wilson or Cuddy? Probably not Wilson since we’re not really friends. Cuddy it is then.” They slowly made their way out of the building and toward the car. Claire was still careful to keep pace with him even though it was almost painful for her to walk so slowly.<br/><br/>Once they reached the car, she let him get himself settled in as she headed around to the driver’s seat. “I don’t think that statement applies to physical therapists. I think someone made that up to apply to therapists,” she said, tapping the side of her head when she said therapists to indicate the kind that worked with your mind.<br/><br/>They left the parking lot and headed out to the highway as she tried to think of where they could go. She didn’t want to go back to the boat mainly because she thought he needed to be around other people for a bit instead of locking himself away like some hermit. On the other hand, she didn’t want to be too far away from his home so it wouldn’t be an inconvenience to get home home. Her fingers drummed a random rhythm on the steering wheel.<br/><br/>After a short time, she risked a glance at her passenger. “You know, you can’t fault people for wanting to talk about all the good stuff with you. They don’t have any idea how all this has affected you. They don’t understand that it might be painful to relive all those things that you can’t do anymore. They just want a way to connect with you and football is the only way they know how. It’s their common ground with you.” Claire paused, watching his face as much as was safe to do considering she was driving. “But if you don’t want to do that then we can just pretend you’re not you. You can be Greg House, amazing diagnostician and I’ll be Lisa Cuddy, your long suffering boss who you secretly have the hots for and we’ll see how long it takes people to catch on.”<br/><br/>By this time, they’d reached what she thought would be the perfect spot - a local neighborhood bar on the edge of the touristy section of town. It was busy enough at this time of day that they’d be able to hopefully blend in but not so busy that there would be a ton of people likely to recognize him.<br/><br/>“Come on, sunshine. Let’s get you that beer.”