Liars With Intentions

Chapter I

"He really just wanted to be my friend…so I…jumped him," Latest patient Amber Lincoln concluded, caressing the swollen lymph nodes on her right arm. She drew a loud sigh.

"Ooh. Someone should take the hint," Chase murmured as he slipped the needle into Amber's skin and injected her with a new drug they had just received. Foreman rolled his eyes, and Amber giggled.

"Stop it," Cameron snapped.

"Well, I was just saying…"

"We were just saying that all you need to do is treatment and you'll be fine," Foreman answered, with a signature glare to Cameron and Chase, who kept their eyes off each other after the quip.

"WRONG! Foreman, you need to go back to preschool. And what's wrong with our little lovebirds? Trouble in paradise?" a familiar tone bellowed from the other side of the room. Cameron and Chase whirled around immediately and Foreman reiterated with a sigh.

"House, how did you get here?" he asked, his hands massaging his temples slowly.

"By osmosis. Now-" but his voice was caught as Chase continue with a, "Weren't you supposed to be attending another patient?"

"She died a few minutes ago. Now, Ms…Amber Lincoln, you have this little illness called AIDS. It's nothing serious, really," House continued, ignoring the jaws of the Ducklings, which had dislocated and were now on the ground. House was about to carry on with his findings when there was a tap on the glass door - an old lady in a wheelchair was waving pleasantly to him as she was pushed by a younger man (presumably her son), with a huge toothless grin plastered on her face. He nodded and whirled around. The jaws were still on the ground, Foreman's returning to his face first.

"What, no applause? She's alive! It's a miracle!" He hopped around, disregarding the fact that his leg hurt like hell.

"AIDS? I thought it was just the infiltration of her metastases from her first stage cancer? That would bring about the swells, wouldn't it?" Chase spoke up. Foreman and Cameron looked on with their flummoxed faces.

"Seriously, ducklings – preschool. Test for HIV antibodies. Biopsy – ever heard of it?"

Eyebrows rose. Amber seemed to be playing with her IV drip.

House groaned. "Since I'm so cool, I'll get Cuddy's information for you. She's in a good mood. I heard Wilson gave her a cookie." Grasping his cane tightly, he limped out of the ward, a satisfied grin on his face.

"He is cool," Amber uttered.

"Oh you haven't seen him on his good days," Cameron winked.

As he made his way through the hallways of the hospital, which was literally at peak hour: filled with hustle and bustle of nurses, doctors, attendants rushing around, pages beeping on and off, stretches being wheeled here and there, House couldn't help wonder where Wilson was, when a cute nurse was caught in his line of vision, chatting with someone in a white robe.

"WILSON! DID YOU WATCH THE OPRAH RERUN LAST NIGHT? IT WAS THE EPISODE WHERE YOU COULDN'T STOP CRYING!" he screamed, not bothering to glance at the respective glances of Wilson and the nurse: astonished, and truly, truly apologetic. Hobbling to Cuddy's office, he realised it was full of people, mainly…policemen.

"Cuddy must be juggling again," he muttered to himself and smirked.

"Cuddles, baby, it's time for our daily appointment – oh! I'm sorry, did I interrupt anything?" House sneered after one of his famous pouts. Cuddy heaved an enormous sigh, as the policemen looked on, some with playful smirks decorated on their visages. A man dressed in a crisp suit with a slight frown on his face introduced himself as Detective Mac Taylor from the New York Police Department.

"Dr. Gregory House, Lisa Cuddy's sex slave. Jealous yet?" House shuts the glass door behind him, but before Detective Taylor got a chance to retaliate, Lisa Cuddy beat him to it first.

"House, be nice. Detective Taylor and his team are here to put one of your patients on surveillance. She's an eye witness to a crime…so he's going to be here for a long time until your patient wakes up from her…coma."

"I'm just surprised you don't call him Mac," House eyed Detective Taylor surreptitiously. As Cuddy opened her mouth, an unfamiliar voice piped up.

"Gregory House. I've heard enough about you to last me a lifetime," Stella Bonasera grinned and sauntered into a room, a grin on her face. As she introduced herself, Cuddy looked up, her eyes widening as she awaited the sarcasm to ooze out of House's mouth. To her dismay, all he did was stared back and forth from Stella to Cuddy.

"Same mother – different father? Cuddy, I didn't know you were Greek…or Italian…" House winced at the thought.

"I-uh…"

"Stella, I was waiting for you," Mac answered and a tiny smile appeared on his face. The other policemen were like mannequins, ignoring this exchange. Stella didn't answer – all she did was beamed, and leaned against Cuddy's desk. Cuddy stood up and offered to show Stella and the other policemen the ward which they were looking for. They agreed eagerly and left the room, Cuddy warning House once more to "Be nice".

He simply answered nobly, an illustrious, "Yes, mistress" and turned to Mac, who was about to follow them.

"Cuddy's pretty cute, isn't she?" House asked Mac, cocking his eyebrow.

"Um…" Mac's voice trailed off, but House picked up from where he left off.

"But you didn't know she used to be a dude. Tough," House clicked his tongue and walked out of the office, leaving Mac, confused and contemplating.

"WILSON! I NEED YOU NOW!" Mac heard House's voice echo through the open doorway, and figured he's going to be hearing that voice for the rest of his natural, reserved life.

"CHASE! Stop it!" Cameron giggled from behind the witness' ward curtain. Aiden rolled her eyes as she waited, placing her kit on the plastic chair. Danny didn't look too pleased either. They had been waiting in the room for over half and hour and Chase and Cameron had unwittingly been behind that curtain, checking the witness' temperature all that while.

"Okay, okay, let's get back to work," Chase's Australian accent pervaded the air. Danny sometimes wondered what the coma patient would do if she miraculously woke up during her…temperature-taking exercise.

"You know, I actually thought his accent was cute," Aiden breathed, and Danny raised his eyebrows.

"How about mine?" his thin lips pursed together and broke into a smile.

"We got the same one, stupid," she grinned and shoved Danny into a corner. He realised the movement behind the curtain had stopped and the curtain had drew open. Aiden coughed.

"Well?"

"Right. Body temperature's uh…normal…98.6 ºF," Chase said and Danny nodded simultaneously. He caught Cameron's eye and winked. Her eyes narrowed and she shook her head. Her cheeks flushed.

Chase cleared his throat.

"We'll…be right back," he said, beckoning Cameron to follow him outside.

"I want it," Cameron enunciated firmly.

"Wow, Cameron and a backbone – dream come true," House limped across the conference room, eyeing Foreman and Chase respectively.

"Foreman, you take it," he spoke as he pointed his cane at Foreman. A bit taken aback, Foreman raised his hands.

"I'm booked," he answered.

"Wombat. Do your thing," House assigned him accordingly.

"I can't. That girl tried to kiss me once. I just…can't," Chase admitted, his face blushing. It was perfectly etched in his memory – it was a cold night and Chase had surprisingly been forgetful and left his coat in the break room. As he rushed back to retrieve it, leaving a slightly annoyed Cameron in the car, he had ran into an ambivalent girl walking around. She had tried to make conversation with him, and being the guy that he was, he complied. He had discussed with her the illness that had plagued him and unknowingly gotten closer to her with every word. As she closed in for the kill, he dropped the red mug on the table and was snapped out of the little trance.

"Ooh, maybe we can jump in on your little reverie and tape it. Would sell. You're on the case," House said much to Chase's chagrin. His eyes shifted uncomfortably to Cameron's, but she wasn't bothered by it one bit. Anger flashed in her eyes as she tried to compose herself at her loss…again.

As House dragged himself out of their conference room, Cameron walked up to him.

"I want the next case," What Cameron thought was a plea, came out as an order.

"I want Cuddy for the night but we can't always get what we want, now can we?" House pouted and attempted to walk off, leaving an unmistakable cloud of grey hanging over Cameron.

"Witness seems alright…" Flack concluded as he closed his notebook. "Danny and Aiden have headed back to the lab, and I'm going now. If you guys need anything, call me up," he grinned at them as he puts on his sunglasses. The sun was going to set anytime soon.

"Alright. Thanks Don," Stella smiled and Flack left through the double doors. She turned to Mac.

"Good day?" she asked.

"Good day," he replied, answering her smile.

"Dinner?"

"Sure."

However, as they were about to step outside of Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital after what seemed like a long day, a familiar silhouette ran and flung herself onto Mac – leaving Stella slightly taken aback.

"Oh Mac Taylor, I missed you," she spoke up, a tinge of British accent in her voice.

"Peyton…what are you doing here?" Mac asked, his smile wide. Stella could only afford a grin and a nod of her head.

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