TITLE: Memos
PAIRING: Gen
RATING: PG
WARNINGS: Spoilers for 'A Simple Explanation'. Angst.
SUMMARY: At the bottom of House's trash can are three tiny balls of crinkled paper. A fourth is folded in House's front pocket.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own House M.D.
NOTES: What can I say? The angst inspires me.

Skutner

I'm trying to understand what I missed. I must have missed something. You smiled a lot. You were always happy. Maybe that was a sign. It's been a symptom before. Niceness, happiness, peacefulness- was I so blinded by what I wanted to see- an anomaly in my life- that I didn't look deeper? Were you trying to tell me, specifically, that something was wrong? What were you telling me? What didn't I see?

L. Kutner:

If I was nicer to you, would it have mattered? Did you know that I liked you? You were my favorite. You reminded me of, well, me. You did things that others wouldn't, you never backed down until you were proven wrong, you put your job on the line if you felt strongly enough, and your risked your life if it meant getting the job done.

Maybe that should have been my first clue. You were like an alternate version of me. A happier me. Maybe there is no version of me that can be happy. That should be happy. That is happy. I want to be wrong this time.

Lawrence,

The office is darker without you, which makes no sense due to the fact that Foreman is the only man of color around now. Everyone else is as pale as the clinic's walls. I wonder how much of it you were putting up as a façade for the rest of us, though. How much of that light that followed you around was artificial. Artificial lights tend to die quickly, with little warning. Just wake up one day and it's out.

Taub's a mess without you. Thirteen and Foreman closer than ever, but they're still rocky. The whole hospital is a wreck now that you're gone. I'm

Kutner-

Thanks for the puzzle. Sorry I found it too late.

House