allthingsslash

What will we do, what will we say?
When is the end of this game that we play?
Will we crumble into the dust my friend,
Or will we start this game over again?
 
James Wilson is very good at some games. Other games, like Monopoly or Snap he’s not so good at. But at games like Poker, he is brilliant. Games in which he has to cheat and bluff are his forté. He’s had so much practice at it during his marriages that he considers himself a master at deceit. After all, it’s pretty simple, keep a neutral face, stay calm and say the right things and you can have anyone eating out of the palm of your hand. House, however, is a different matter.
 
Wilson often wonders if House wears invisible lie-detecting glasses. Or maybe it’s just the fact that House makes him feel so vulnerable that Wilson is unable to lie to him. House has a way of tricking Wilson into telling him the truth. It’s only whilst bluffing to House does Wilson ever stumble. Games with his wives and mistresses, people he doesn’t really care about, these are the people he can lie to with ease. Not House. Wilson is making love to his third wife, trying to lose himself in the moment and eradicate House from his mind. He hates House for being able to beat him at his own game, but as House’s best friend he knows undeniably that Gregory House is very good at playing games.
 
What will we do, what will we say?
When is the end of this game that we play?
Will we crumble into the dust my friend,
Or will we start this game over again?
 
Allison Cameron thought she was quite good at games. More often than not, she won. Her father always told her she was just like her mother; beautiful and intelligent. Cameron always thought that it was her intelligence that gave her the ability to win. Obviously she couldn’t win all the time, there was always going to be someone smarter than her. That was what she thought, at least until she met House. So far, House hasn’t been beaten and she doesn’t understand why.
 
But maybe she does. His comment about how her looks could have got her anything she wanted is eating away at her. She worked hard, really hard to get where she was. It wasn’t her looks that got her a job with the famous Dr. House, he’d admitted that himself. But he’d also said it wasn’t her qualifications, either. Maybe the only reason she’d got far enough to have an interview with House was because of her beauty. It’s not like she hadn’t been told she was beautiful, her father had even tried to get her into modelling, but she’d refused, surely that proved something? But now she can’t help but wonder, if she hadn’t been given her looks, would she be where she was now? Cameron is staring at her reflection in the mirror in her bedroom, trying to eradicate House from her mind. Maybe she’d really lost all those games. In any case, one thing she knew for sure: Gregory House is very good at playing games.
 
What will we do, what will we say?
When is the end of this game that we play?
Will we crumble into the dust my friend,
Or will we start this game over again?

Eric Foreman doesn’t like games that much. He prefers gambling, taking a risk rather than following a set of instructions. That’s how he’s spent most of his life and that’s was how he always will. Naturally, with gambling there is always the possibility that you’d lose. You could lose a lot if you bet on the wrong thing, but fortunately for Foreman, he was a wise better. He’d bet his friend that they would get caught when they stole that car and they did. He also bet himself that because of his reputation House would be a jerk and he was. But one thing he hadn’t bet on was quite how much of a jerk House could be.
 
Foreman knew that accepting a job with House would be a big gamble, he could tell just from the interview that House wouldn’t be an easy person to get along with and in all honesty, Foreman reckoned that the only reason House was hiring him was because he needed a black guy on the team. Turned out he was wrong, House only hired him because he was a crook. That’s what Foreman hadn’t taken into account when he decided to work for House; the distance the maverick would go to get his own way. The way to win a game is to predict what is going to happen next; what the next roll of the dice will be or what your opponent’s next hand is. But you can’t do that with House, you can’t predict and you can never get realistic odds on the next time he’ll almost kill a patient. Foreman hadn’t anticipated House would dredge up something he’d done years ago, when he was young and foolish. He didn’t mind that House had told Cameron and Chase about stealing the car but he was grateful that he left out the part where he and his friend and knocked over and almost killed that girl. That was exactly why Foreman felt it was so difficult to place a bet on House, because you’d never know how he’d react. And just when you thought there might be something of a human being inside him, he’d call you a spade and you’d remember that this was House you were dealing with, after all. Foreman is sitting at his desk, staring at copy of his rap sheet and trying to eradicate House from his mind, but he can’t help thinking how Gregory House is very good at playing games.
 
What will we do, what will we say?
When is the end of this game that we play?
Will we crumble into the dust my friend,
Or will we start this game over again?
 
Lisa Cuddy isn’t very good at games. You could tell she was an only child as she was one of the people who always got unreasonably upset whenever she lost. The only game she ever played and made work for her was her job. She had made the right moves at the right time and managed to become the head of a leading, well-renowned hospital before the age of thirty five. But she has now got to the point where she has to start playing games within games to keep herself at the top. One of these games was hiring Dr. House.
 
House is, undisputedly, a fantastic doctor. Sometimes he is unethical and immoral but it is his reputation that keeps her hospital well funded. Whenever she feels as if it’s almost too much and that she can’t take anymore of his immature antics, she remembers the phrase ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer’. House is by no means an enemy, though it does sometimes seem like they’re on two opposing sides and the hospital is battle field, but it reminds her why House is so integral to her game. Cuddy likes to believe that House is a pawn in her chess match of a world. Well, maybe more of a bishop then a pawn, but either way, Cuddy believes that she is the one in charge, because, in the end, her word is final. However, deep down, she knows, as much as she may deny it, that she is really the pawn in House’s screwed up game. But whereas Cuddy’s game is one of work and ends when she leaves the hospital, House’s game is one of life and is goes on forever. Cuddy is sitting on her couch at home, eating a TV dinner, watching ER and trying to eradicate House from her mind. But then one of the doctors says something far too familiar, which brings her sighing back to how Gregory House is very good at playing games.
 
What will we do, what will we say?
When is the end of this game that we play?
Will we crumble into the dust my friend,
Or will we start this game over again?
 
Robert Chase was never any good at playing games. Some way or another, he always lost, regardless of how promising things looked at the start. There was always some snake that caught him out or some ditch that made him miss at turn. Chase is now playing doctors and the thing catching him out his House. Chase used to think that if you stuck to the rules, you would eventually win. Which is why he turned down all those nurses: no inter-hospital relationships and why he didn’t drink: no turning into your mother. But he’s now beginning to realise it doesn’t work that way. Not with House.
 
With House, rules are like manners; a pointless waste of time. What surprised Chase most about House was that his disregard for the rules that ought to get him banned from the game, was how he managed to win. So when Chase found himself bent backwards on House’s desk, with his boss on top of him, he thought that maybe if he broke the rules, he’d get a shot at winning. And when they were in House’s apartment and Chase saw House pouring two glasses of whiskey, he didn’t complain, he broke the rules and drank. But now he’s beginning to realise it doesn’t work that way. Not with him. Chase is sitting on his kitchen floor staring at a half empty bottle of absinth trying to eradicate House from his mind. He’s lost again, but he’s learnt a valuable lesson: Gregory House is very good at playing games.