Dr. Gregory House had never been one to shy away from his feelings, at least, not when it came to diagnosing or pushing his team to their breaking points. But when it came to her, his usually impeccable ability to keep emotions under control was slipping. It started with that infectious smile of hers, the one that, despite his best efforts, had him inexplicably staring.

When she first walked into the hospital as a new doctor, all confidence and attitude, House had been entirely uninterested, well, at least that's what he told himself. After all, she was an ex-punk rock star, the kind of person who lived fast and loud, someone who probably thought his cane was just some quirky accessory, like the rest of the world thought it was.

But as time went on, he couldn't deny that something about her electric energy, her unpredictability, had started to catch his attention. When she wasn't saving lives with an almost unnatural ease, she was causing chaos in the halls, her sharp tongue cutting through the sterile atmosphere. Everyone around her knew exactly what she was about, and it wasn't just the rebelliousness of her past, it was the fact that she had an unapologetic presence. She had that rockstar punk vibe, born in rebellion, and House found it both irritating and captivating. She didn't play by the rules, but that made her dangerous, in a way he couldn't help but admire.

Still, there were moments, moments when her laughter rang out in the hallways, or when she pushed back against his most sarcastic remarks with even sharper wit, that he would feel an unusual warmth in his chest, like a coil tightening and unwinding all at once. It unsettled him. She didn't know, couldn't know, that House, of all people, was feeling this way. He had told himself it was nothing. A passing attraction. Nothing more than a fleeting spark that would be extinguished by the mundane grind of daily life. But as days turned into weeks, he found that he couldn't stop thinking about her.

The worst part? House knew everyone around him could see it. Cuddy, Wilson, hell, even Foreman, had made their opinions known with sly comments and knowing looks.

"You think she's cute, don't you?" Wilson had said one afternoon, leaning against the doorframe of House's office. House had tried to brush it off, snapping something about Wilson's inability to keep his mouth shut. But it was clear. Everyone could tell. Everyone except her. And that fact gnawed at him.

The real kicker was the age gap. House didn't care about the technicalities, but it was there, like an invisible elephant in the room. She was younger, yes, just enough to make him feel like he was crossing some invisible line. And the fact that she was an ex-rockstar made it even worse. She had been a wild child, unrestrained, living a life that seemed so completely different from his own. He couldn't figure out if that made him want her more or if it was the sheer challenge of it all that had him constantly second-guessing his emotions.