AN: Many of you are going to want to thrash me when you see that this is not the next installment of Dark Marlfox. But the writer's block has set in and this is one of those side stories I warned you all about.
Blackpelt: Oh Just shut up with the excuses and move with the story!!
Kyuubi: Alright oh great master. Do the disclaimer.
Blackpelt:Oh shall. Kyuubi owns nothing of this story. She only owns the main character and his puppy. And the plot of course.
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That was it. He had finally screwed it over with her. There was no way it could be patched up now. Robert Chase let his head slam loudly against the bar counter, ignoring the pain that followed. He lifted his head to order another beer, but his voice was drowned out as party of twenty swarmed through the double doors. A person from the middle of the pack pushed himself to the front and pulled up next to the bar, smiling widely. "I got the job Mark! The one at the Teaching Hospital!" Mark, the night's bartender, laughed loudly and smacked the other man on top of his head. "Congrats Lee! The fellowship? The one with that Doctor House?" The other man, Lee nodded, and Chase watched on in mute shock. "Yep. Hey Mark, round for everyone in the bar. On me!" There was a shout of appreciation from around the room. Chase let his head drop again as the beer was set in front of him.
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Clouds covered the morning sky on Lee Nomamaru's first day of work. "What a great omen." He muttered wryly, staring out the window as he buttoned the last buttons on his shirt. He was tall, so there were quite a few buttons and he had brilliant aqua eyes. His skin was tan and upon his head was a forest of midnight spikes. He dressed nicely, a light gray shirt and black dress pants, and he grabbed his messenger bag as he flitted out the door and into his nice car. He had heard rumors about Doctor House. And they weren't nice ones. As he pulled into the lot of the hospital, parked, and prepared to enter the sliding doors, he had a sinking feeling. He was feeding himself to the wolves.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Lisa Cuddy sat behind her desk, hidden behind mounds of paperwork, as a knock sounded at her door. She sighed heavily. "Come in." She called and raised her head from where it was bent over the desk and smiled when her newest employee walked through the door and sat in the chair in front of the thing she dare call a desk. "Good morning, Dr. Cuddy!" He chirped, smiling as he gazed about the cozy office. "Good morning Dr. Nomamaru. Welcome to Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. I'll be your new boss. Unfortunately, I can not save you from the hell that awaits you upstairs, in the form of Dr. House." Lee chuckled and shook hands with her. "I think I can handle it." She pulled out his folder from the middle of a stack and opened it, scanning the contents quickly. "Graduated from University of Mighigan-Rodchester with a Masters in Cardiology and top marks in all of you classes." Lee nodded. "Good. Let's get you a lab coat and locker and then you can head for hell."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Cuddy and Lee pushed the doors of the conference room open, surprising the three lambs and their Shepard in the middle of…nothing. "Doctor House. This is your new employee, Lee Nomamaru. And you're going to be nice to him." She added sternly at the end, throwing Lee's folder on the table. "Awww. A new lapdog? Cuddy, you shouldn't have!" Just as Cuddy was about to snap back a retort, Lee stepped forward and smirkingly responded. "If I'm a lapdog then I'd hate to find out what mange riddled beast you turn out to be." Everyone stared astounded at Lee, eyes wide as saucers as House blinked in uncharacteristic speechlessness. But finally, he smiled, blue eyes twinkling, and shook hands with the new doctor. "Gregory House." He turned and pointed at the other three doctors in the room. "The big black guy is Foreman. The little smart looking one in the middle is Cameron. And the hung-over wombat on the far side is Chase. These are your new playmates. Okay, mutt?" He added mockingly at the end, smirking. Lee rolled his eyes, set his bag on a chair and sat on the one next to it. "Well, not meaning to sound glib but, is this all we do?" He was jabbing jokingly. "No, but there's absolutely no new cases around so we're just hanging for now." Cameron said, looking up from her magazine, watching as Lee nodded faintly and grabbed his bag, flipping it open. He grabbed out a thick book and a thermos, set them on the table nad closed his bag, laughing at their perplexed looks. "It's tea and the book "Love and War". Never seen a person read before?" He queried of them and poured a cup of steaming tea into the thermos cap. "You don't drink coffee?" Cameron asked, laying the magazine down. "Nope! I grew up with nothing but tea. Was a family custom actually." Cameron looked at him, strangely, yet curiously. "What kind is that?" The other two ducklings were watching the proceedings with interest. "My my! Full of questions today, aren't you?" He chuckled as she flushed in embarrassment. "Relax, just playing with you. It's Madagascar Vanilla Red. You know what? For the rest of the day, any questions any of you ask, I'll answer." So began the drilling. Anything from where he had done his internship from House's occasional questions about his sex life, to which he had answered that he was still single. Before they knew it, it was Six-thirty and shifts were over. "Well ladies and gentlemen! It is time for us to depart with your new playmate. So say goodbye!" House chirped, mock waving in the air. Lee smirked and grabbed his stuff, shaking hands with everyone before trotting out the door. And ramming straight into somebody. Two grunts, two thuds and two groans. "Sorry! Sorry!" The voice shouted, scrabbling up and holding a hand out to Lee. He lifted himself up and grasped hands with the other man. "Well! You must be Dr. Nomamaru! Name's Dr. W-" but as he was about to answer, House's voice rang from the door. "Wilson! Don't you dare fill his golden head with your little rants about what kind of a horrible person I am! I actually think this one can put up a good fight!" Wilson blinked dumbly and stared at Lee, who was blushing in embarrassment, as he hurriedly picked his bag up. He flipped House off, and turned on his heel towards the elevator. They all could only blink.
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Ring ring ring! Ring ring ring! Lee groaned and swatted blindly at the bedside phone, groaning quietly. Ring ring ring! Lee's answering message came over the phone. He instantly regretted not answering it. "WAKEY WAKEY MUTT! YOU NEED TO COME TO THE HOSPITAL NOW!!" Lee lurched forward with a shout and stared blankly at the clock. Two in the morning. Lee growled as he drew himself from the bed and grabbed the pair of scrubs he had planned to wear tomorrow from his bedside table. He threw them on and tossed on his coat, knelt down to pet his shiba inu Sasha and waltzed out the door. His car was warm when he sat in it and drove it out of his drive-way and out onto the streets. Ten minutes later found him pulling into the hospital and ready to strangle House. Cameron was waiting for him when he arrived. "Sorry to wake you up so early Lee. House made the call though." She supplied when he cast her an annoyed look. Chase filed into the door that minute, looking like he'd gotten into a fight with a hairdryer(and lost) as he met in the main lobby with the other two doctors. "Good morning." Lee huffed wryly as Foreman and House exited the elevator, House smiling broadly the entire way. "Good morning lady and gentlemen. We've got a thirty-five year old male in the E.R presenting with-" He dropped his gaze to look at the folder in hand. "High blood pressure, rectal bleeding and he keeps falling asleep. One of you needs to go keep him awake after the nurses move him upstairs while the others come with me for a differential. I vote you, mutt." Lee looked up in shock. "If he's bleeding too much it could mean a clotting disorder. Which means it could get to his heart!" He was practically screaming "Hello! Cardiologist here!" House gave him a "You're so stupid." Look. "Room two-oh-three mutt. We'll come get you when we're done." Lee huffed angrily and stomped off towards an elevator. "That wasn't very nice, House." Chase said and House gave him an appraising look. "I'm not nice."
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Lee grumbled sullenly as he slid the door of their patient's room open, slapping on a fake smile. "Hello Mr. Joplin. Who are you today?" The patient growled at him. "Well I'm bleeding out of my ass. How do you think I feel?" Lee rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Yes, well unfortunately I have to stay here and keep you awake for a while so…" Lee chuckled nervously as Mr. Joplin snarled at him. Oh well. Lee drew a chair up to the bedside and settled in to wait wait wait.
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Alright. That's it. Go run the tests and Cameron can go wake up the mutt and let the invalid know he can go to sleep." The ducklings nodded and filed out of the room, all filing down then hall to the patient's room. And stumbled upon an almost passed out Cardiologist. "Mr. Joplin you have to stay awake." Lee grumbled and swatted the man in the leg, dodging back when the patient swatted at him. Foreman chuckled and patted Lee on the shoulder while pointing out the door. "You can go upstairs now. There's some hot water and those tea bags you left up there with your name on it." Lee smiled crookedly and stumbled up, waltzing out the door, zigzagging in exhaustion.
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Lee slumped into his chair at the table with his mug of steaming water with a tea bag floating in it. He let his head come to rest on his arms and his eyes slowly drifted shut. Seven hours. Oh my god he had been keeping that damned patient awake for seven hours. The only reprieve he had gotten was when the other ducklings came in to run their assorted tests. His breathing evened and he let himself drift to sleep, unaware that his private life was going to be blown wide open for his entire new team to see. When Lee had fallen asleep, House had levered himself from his desk, paged Wilson and hobbled out of the room. He had a locker to ransack.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*"Are you sure we should be doing this?" Wilson queried as House jimmied the locker open and began riffling through its' contents. "Inhaler. Cold medicine. Lunch, MP3 player and his thermos." Wilson shook his head and set everything on the bench beside him. "Ohhhh, his messenger bag. Let's see. Deodorant, toothbrush, boxer's tape, bandages and a toothgaurd and… oh-ho! What's this?" He proclaimed. Pulling out a small prescription vial. Wilson leaned down and read the small label. "Oxycodone. Wonder what happened to him that's really that painful?" House set the vial inside and grabbed the last item from the bag. "Oh my god." Wilson muttered, grabbing the garment from House's hands. "This is…this is." Wilson stuttered and House nodded grimly. "But that's impossible." House shook his head. "Not really. I've seen this crest before. The Moon Dragon Sword Core. An elite Japanese sword fighting unit way back in the time of the emperors. I heard the ways were still taught to students…but never so near here." Wilson shook his head adamantly. "Maybe it's just a decoration." House shook his grimly. "In the bottom of the bag he takes everywhere? I don't think so. Besides, the Core doesn't just give these out as souvenirs. Must be what the Boxer's tape is for. The swords they use must leave bad marks." House grimaced as he pulled up a matching blackbelt and a haori that proclaimed "Sixth Dan". Wilson gasped in shock. "Impossible."