Stress and a Newbie

DISCLAIMER: I don't own House or anything else.

I am using cases from House when Cuddy says there's a case, but there isn't really a certain season. And BIG thanks to confusedsarcasm for helping me out A LOT with this fic. You should read hers! They're awesome! Definitely Huddy!

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Early morning sunlight was creeping in through the windows in Dr. Lisa Cuddy's office. She had stayed at Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital almost all night yesterday, getting home to get some sleep before returning early in the morning to continue completing paperwork and dealing with Dr. Gregory House later in the day. She knew it would be a while before House strolled into his office, demanding coffee from one of his fellows, annoying a patient, or stealing food from Dr. James Wilson. It didn't really bother her that much; it became something like a routine for her. Of course, she did get a bit angry when House did these things, especially when she had a patient's family member coming to her because of something he said or did. She had to shudder in spite of herself, remembering some of the really bad things House had done, like breaking an MRI machine. She had to make sure House was doing his clinic duty every now and then, and not playing his Gameboy sometimes as well, but that was normal, and nothing to get overly upset about.

Cuddy sighed and put down her pen, tired of doing any more paperwork. She stood up from her desk, using her hands to push herself up. She walked to the door, heels clicking on the floor as she did so. She walked out of the room into the clinic, getting friendly glances from a few of the nurses and doctors in the clinic that looked up from the nurse's station, or were exiting patient's rooms. She grinned back politely, and then exited the clinic without speaking to anybody. The only thing she was carrying with her was a case file for House. She walked to House's room and opened the door, not bothering to look into the glass windows to see what he was doing at that moment. "New case." She said simply, handing the file to House, not acknowledging House's three fellows that were sitting at the brainstorming table, or the computer in one fellow's case, and doing various things.

Allison Cameron, one of House's fellows was sitting at the computer, finishing checking the mail. Eric Foreman was sitting with his hands folded, occasionally giving words to Robert Chase, who was doing a crossword puzzle. Chase was sitting at the brainstorming table, the eraser part of his pencil on his chin, staring at the crossword puzzle with concentration. Foreman was the only one who noticed Cuddy entering the room, but he didn't look up from where he was staring at the table.

House didn't look up from the tennis ball, and continued throwing it and catching it. Cuddy continued on anyway, knowing House would listen, throwing in a remark a few times before something sparked his interest and he took the file, hobbling over to the white board, talking about the case as he went. "Ten year old boy who thinks he has been cursed." Cuddy said, continuing on about the case for a minute.

"Boring!" House said. "This means that they are donors to the hospital, or you're having wild sex with the dad." House grinned as Cuddy rolled her eyes and plopped the file onto House's desk.

"Take the damn case." Cuddy said, looking at House sincerely.

"But mommy! I don't want to! I can probably diagnose this in ten minutes, and then I would have wasted ten minutes on solving the case, and then an hour or two having Cameron and Chase run tests to confirm, while having Foreman check the house to make sure I wasn't wrong. Then I would have to have somebody deal with the parent's whining and stupid questions about their son for a half an hour. By the time I would be done I'd have wasted about an hour and forty minutes! Of course, if I don't run tests and just treat him right away, I could save an hour or two. But then I'd get yelled at by you if it is wrong because I didn't do any tests to confirm. I'd get more clinic hours which would waste even more time. But if I didn't run tests, I wouldn't have to ask you if I can do anything extremely risky so I can get a diagnosis, which would waste your time, especially if you want to talk me out of it and-"House was rambling on, hoping that his confusing explanations would get him out of a potentially boring case.

"Well then, after that hour and forty five minutes, you can go back to playing with your tennis ball. You're going to take the case." Cuddy said, turning on her heels and walking out the door.

"What's got her panties in a knot?" House mumbled to himself as he walked up to the whiteboard and started the procedures needed to diagnose a patient.

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Cuddy was exhausted and a bit stressed under the recent load of paperwork that she had to do. She had made a quick decision that she was going to get a decent amount of sleep today to reduce the exhaustion and maybe some of the stress. She would be a bit happier tomorrow anyway, for she had managed to get the paperwork down to a normal amount. Maybe she'd finish by this evening so she wouldn't have even the tiniest amount of extra paperwork to do tomorrow. She was stopped for the moment, for she had heard the growling of her stomach and decided to get up and not skip lunch for a change. She'd have a salad, something fast that would dull her hunger until she got home to eat dinner. She slowly got up; putting her paperwork onto one side of the desk instead of the clutter she had at that moment, leaving the piece that she was working on the top of the pile she had made for herself. After that, she took one last glance at the paperwork and walked out of her office, heels clicking on the floor on the way to the cafeteria. She bought her salad and retreated back to her office, eating it in silence.

After throwing away her lunch, she grabbed the piece of paper she was working on and put it in front of her, but soon dropped her pen, something popping into her mind. She stood up, quickly this time, and walked out of the room again, deserting her paperwork.

The door closed and House looked up from his desk to see Cuddy entering the room. She walked up to his desk and placed her hands on it, a grin on her face. "Finish the case yet?"

"Nope." House said, looking at Cuddy, not bothering to stand up.

"So, apparently you were wrong when you said it would take an hour and forty minutes to do." Cuddy had a devious grin on her face.

"I was wrong, but we have a lead. So, everybody is with the patient, trying to prove it."

At that moment, Cameron walked in, followed by everybody else. "It's Leprosy." Cameron said.

"I'm done now mommy." House said, looking up at Cuddy, who just grinned and walked out of the room, back to hers to finish what was left of her paperwork of the day.

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Cuddy walked out late at night, having been busy. She was exhausted, and just wanted to get to bed. The air cold, though it was only fall. When she reached her home, she groggily unlocked her door and walked in, placing her things carefully down on the table, for she would need them tomorrow. She walked into her room, quickly changing into her pajamas. She was about to walk to her bed, but stopped, hearing a noise coming from outside. She walked to the window, looking out to see House. She gasped, opening her window. "House! What the hell are you doing here? How long have you been here?"

"Oh, I've been here since 8:30." House said. "Can I come in? It is kind of cold in here, and you don't want to have your favorite doctor getting sick, do you?"

Cuddy groaned. "Fine, come in." Cuddy said, grabbing her robe and putting it on before walking to the door to let House in. "By the way, you never told me why you're here."

"No reason." House said, walking in.

"So, basically you wanted to check up on me in the middle of the night because you wanted to." Cuddy said, crossing her arms.

"Well, I guess you could put it that way." House said. Cuddy rolled her eyes and groaned once more.

"House, I'm tired. I want to go to bed. I got up early this morning and didn't get much sleep. Unless you have something important to tell me, can you please go home?"

"Aw Cuddy! You always ruin the fun!" House said in a whiney, three-year-old voice.

Cuddy mumbled something under her breath before walking over to stand next to House. "Please, just go. You can visit me in my office tomorrow." Cuddy then walked to the door and opened it, waiting for him to leave. When he wouldn't budge she sighed. "What?" She shut the door with a slight slam.

"Just wanted to get a last glimpse of what you were wearing. You know, those pajamas really compliment your breasts." House said, watching as Cuddy rolled her eyes.

A sudden knock on the door made Cuddy throw up her hands with a groan, wondering how many people wanted to visit her late at night. She opened the door then moved away from it to allow the guest to enter her home. "Um hello…" Cuddy said, not saying the person's name for lack of knowing it.

"Hi, I am a new doctor at Plainsboro, and have a few things to ask you about it." The doctor said.

"May I ask you your name?" Cuddy asked quietly.

"Vanessa Robertson." The woman replied. She had brown shoulder-length hair and green eyes. She also wore glasses. She was about Cuddy's height, and she looked pretty intelligent, but the fact that she went to a person's house late at night made her seem a bit less intelligent than she looked.

"Please sit down." Cuddy said, not really wanting to talk about the hospital at this time of night. The one night she actually gets home at a decent time and is able to sleep for more than a few hours, she is stuck talking about the hospital, the place she didn't have to go until morning, the place she had just left!

Dr. Robertson sat down at a chair. Cuddy sat down next to her without a word. "Who is going to be your boss?" Cuddy asked.

"Dr. House." Dr. Robertson replied, folding her hands on the table.

"House, since you are here, you can sit down and talk about Princeton Plainsboro." Dr. Cuddy said, a grin forming on her face.

"But mommy, she asked you!" House said in the childish tone he used so much.

Cuddy sighed and groaned. 'This is going to be a long night.' She thought.