Another long day in the clinic gone by.

Boring clinic duty, avoiding Cuddy, and one annoyingly stupid youngster who wanted to get out of gym class. Thought it wouldn't be that much of a deal to sprain his ankle but accidentally managed to break it by jumping of a 6 foot high wall.

It had caused him to miss 20 minutes of his soap.

House sat at the bar, swirling his glass of scotch and ice, occasionally taking a sip and smugly enjoying the fact that he managed not to have to go to the boring seminar Cuddy and Wilson were attending at that time. Wilson had commented on how he conveniently seemed to not have been invited, and House had shoved the waste paper basket a bit further under his desk with his left foot.

He didn't want to think about work, because work automatically brought Stacey to mind.

It was hard enough to be around Stacey - and Mark - all day long, he thought, staring into the depths of the golden liquor, and he didn't want her in his head on top of that. He took another gulp of his drink.

Let's just sit here for half an hour or so, and go home, no obligations. A comfy chair, a TV and a piano, maybe some music and some micro-waved food . And maybe some more scotch.

He put down some money on the counter, put his coat on and reached for his cane, then headed for the door towards the parking lot.

Just outside he heard glass shattering and as he got closer he saw two teens breaking in to a red van that was parked nearby.

"Hey !", he yelled..

But in stead of running away, scared because someone caught them red handed, the kids headed for House.

Not the best move ever, he thought.

"Listen…", he began, but before he could finish the sentence one of the guys punched him hard in his stomach.

He folded over, gasping for air , still dazed glimpsed up only to see a round kick coming his way.

He half attempted to block it by swinging his cane at the fast approaching leg, but was much too late.

He registered the clattering of wood on the asphalt as a shoe made contact with his upper arm making it go temporarily numb. Bloody hell, it's not even my own car ! he thought. Trying to maintain his balance he put his weight on his right leg, that predictably gave way and seconds later he was on the ground. Pain shooting through his thigh, gasping in agony, nausea came over him.

And then another kick to his ribs...his leg...too much pain...followed by darkness.