What Chase found instead was a note scrawled on a torn off sheet of paper on his bed.

"Pick me up at eight in half an hour. My place."

And House had headed back to take a shower of his own. He did his own version of almost-shaving that kept him from getting a beard but kept the stubble, shook his hair dry (he still could not believe that some men used hair dryers), and limped back into the back room of the clinic to change. The last time he'd done laundry there had been this shirt sticking out of the clothes box that looked exactly like the blue button down one he'd had at home, the one Cuddy said complimented his eyes and made him "almost look nice." The fact that it had been freshly ironed made him figure he should save it for a special occasion.

So he put on a clean pair of jeans and that shirt, rolling up the sleeves to just at his elbows, and walked back out into the clinic.