He was finally finished with the patient. It hadn't been that hard a case, but it had been frustrating and he was tired. Plus, his leg hurt, but what was new about that ?

House exited the hospital room after one last visit with his patient. At the sound of the commotion in the hallway, he turned to see what the racket was. A nurse, looking flustered and upset, was trying to stop a woman from entering a room a few doors down.

"I need to talk to her, right now!" The woman insisted in a harsh voice.

"I'm sorry," the nurse said, "My orders are no one gets in this room."

"I don't give a damn about your orders! This is life and death, don't you understand?"

House usually couldn't care less about patients or their families, not even his patients and their families. But something about this situation – and the woman – piqued his curiosity. He limped his way down the hall to the two women.

"What's the problem here?"

"Who the hell are you?" the woman demanded.

"Doctor." He stated simply, daring her to confront him.

"Cop," she said, holding up a badge and looking him straight in the eyes. "And I really hate doctors and hospitals."

"That's convenient, because I really hate cops. But our mutual dislike of each other still doesn't answer my question. What's going on?"

The nurse opened her mouth, but the woman spoke first. "The person in that room is a material witness to a serial rapist. She's the first one to survive the attacks and I need to get her description of the perp right now!"

The nurse finally spoke up. "Dr. House, I've been ordered not to let anyone in the room." She added, looking at the woman, "Especially the police."

House looked at the cop as well. She was tall and slim, with light brown hair cut short. No makeup, no jewelry. But somehow, he didn't think she needed any of those enhancements. Her skin was smooth and clear and her hazel eyes were bright with intelligence and determination. Not a bad package, from his view.

The woman looked at him as well. "House. So you're the infamous House. Tritter's whipping boy."

House looked into her eyes, a look of mixed anger and consternation on his face. Then he turned to the nurse. "Go back to your duties. I'll take care of the officer."

"It's detective, not officer. Detective Martin." The woman said curtly.

The nurse took at look at the two of them and went back into the hospital room. House turned back to Detective Martin.

"Detective," he said, stretching out the syllables. "No one whips me. Unless they're wearing black leather and I pay them to do it."

She gave him a glance, then said, "I really need to talk to that lady. Right away."

"Yea, I get that. But as a doctor, I can tell you that it isn't going to happen right now. They're probably doing stuff like, I don't know, trying to save her life. That sort of takes precedence over your investigation."

"Not if other women die because this scumball is still on the street. Look, doc, I get you're doing the whole hospital doctor thing. I appreciate it. But I need to talk to her!"

House was impressed. She hadn't backed down an inch when he attacked her. She was made of some pretty strong stuff, he decided.

"How about if I let you know as soon as I can slip you in to see her?"

She was taken aback. "You'll slip me in? Without the other doctor knowing?"

"Why not? You need to see her, she's not my patient." Yet, he thought, hoping she wouldn't turn out to have some unknown ailment and end up in his lap.

"I thought you hated cops."

"I do. Or mostly I hate one cop, but it's easy to lump all the rest in with him."

"Tritter's an asshole." She said, almost under her breath.

"My, my, that shows a lack of loyalty to your fellow officer."

She looked at him, her head to the side. "It's hard to be loyal to someone like him. What'd you do to him anyway?"

"Merely my job as a medical professional. I took his temperature."

When she continued to look at him with a question on her face, he added, "Okay, I took it in an orifice a little south of his mouth."

She stifled a laugh. "How did you manage that?"

"You don't think I know how to use a rectal thermometer?"

"No, I wondered how you were able to get it in. There shouldn't have been any room with the stick he always keeps up there."

House smiled. He liked this woman. When she saw the smile, she looked at him again and noticed the bright blue eyes in the unshaven face. The shabby clothes did nothing to hide the fact that the guy was sexy as hell. She took a deep breath.

"Okay, I get it," she said. "You guys need to do your stuff." She pulled a card out of her pocket. "This is my card. It's got my office and cell numbers on it. Call me as soon as I can get in, got it?"

""Got it," he said earnestly. She turned and walked down the hall. He watched her leave, keeping his eyes on her posterior as she went. Oh, yes, he liked this woman.