It had been a long night.

House had worked all night long on a particularly vexing case, along with staying partially off of his Vicodin due to.. simply forgetting. He scribbled along with his papers, shaking his head. He pinched his nose bridge, groaning quietly.

He felt a bead of sweat run down his forehead, and slightly leaned down, threading a hand through his short hair as she reached for his Vicodin bottle, popping one— no— two. Just for good luck.

’What could this be?’ There was no way of fully knowing— his patient was clearly burdened by a cocktail of ailments, he just needed to find out which one.

He wasn’t necessarily on a time trial, no, but simply wanted to be petty for the sake of being petty. He needed to be the one that solved it.

He grabbed his cane and stood, beginning to wander around, pacing, in thought. He tapped his chin, before putting both hands on the handle of his cane, leaning forward. He narrowed his eyes, as he looked upon the hung X-ray scans.

He pinched his nose again, before rubbing his eyes. Goddamnit.