( continues...) verb, okay?”
“What the hell does that mean?”
The doorbell rang. “Think about it. Company’s here.”
Wilson intended to do just that, so much so that he couldn’t keep his focus on the game at all, between monitoring how closely Jaye and House sat together and thinking through the diagnostician’s little quote about charm, and was quickly in the hole for $50. Another thing of a hundred to keep from Julie...was it even possible that he ever hoped for the bedside light to be on when he came back from poker night? Dimly, he remember that it had been so.
Greg’s cards were hot tonight, or more to the point, he had turned “Everybody lies” into a into a system to challenge people’s confidence about their hands. Jaye watched eagerly as he won three hands, just through pure psyching-out.” Good game so far,” Jaye told him. “What’s your secret?”
House shuffled. “I could tell you, but I’d have to kill you.”
Jaye chuckled. “Good one.”
“Who’s kidding?”
”Need I remind you that Ms. Tyler has been through quite enough...he really is kidding, Jaye. Even if it’s in poor taste.”
“Oh, okay, Wilson. Make her feel better. Like Grace.”
”Never you mind about Grace.I never hated to lose so much I gave myself a headache, you know.”
House took a sip from his huge travel cup that had an eagle on it. Jaye looked at it and thought the post-9-11 flag-waving fad had gone on long enough.
”Wilson’s wrong,” House told her. “I hate to lose enough that I gave myself a migraine. If you’re going to gossip get it right...which reminds me, how many times did you bring Grace back from the dead after all?”
Wilson groaned. And just when Jaye thought the evening couldn’t be any stranger, the eagle said “Sit in. He’s got nothing.”
“No!” she told it, and to cover, although she didn’t know why, since giving yourself a migraine seemed pretty damn crazy to her, she asked “Who’s Grace?”
The eagle said “get in the game!” just as House said “ A patient in which Jimmy here took a very special interest...he’s a very crusading oncologist, Jimmy Olson, uh, I mean Wilson. “
“Shut up.”,
”Ooh, the boys at Mc Gill are gonna be wicked impressed with how your insults have progressed, eh?”
“You could own this whole place,” the eagle whispered conspiritorally. “He likes you enough to clean for you.”