Chapter 1: The Team
House sat quietly at his desk musing over the new pictures in the novelty electronic picture frame, that sat on the corner of his desk. He had become remarkably attached to Rachel and to Cuddy. Completely out of character for himself, he had placed pictures of Cuddy and the little girl on his desk and he really liked them. He knew that Cuddy had her own collection of pictures in her office and he went down often to see them. By day they were their usual selves. She ran the hospital: caused headaches, rectified collective agreements, and House's personal favourite: bossed him (and his team) around. In response House was an ass, avoided his responsibilities, cured unbelievable cases, and caused Cuddy to question her own sanity more often than she was comfortable with. No one would have suspected the change that had occurred had they not already known what was really going on. Those who knew him the best knew he had gone soft for the little girl and her mother. He worried excessively at the slightest sign of the sniffles and cursed himself when he realized how foolish he was being, but at work, for the most part nothing had changed for Gregory House, M.D.
As House listened to the 1980 Glenn Gould recording of the Goldberg Variations he thought about how his life had changed. He was pleased with his work. His team worked well together, he continued to be effective as usual, recklessly defiant, but at the same time he had found happiness and balance in the world. He lived drug free, coping with his pain and happy to know that there were people in his life that cared. He laughed at himself in acknowledgement of the changes that had taken place and how ridiculous he would have thought them to be if they had happened to anyone else. Yes, as the virtual picture changed from one picture of Rachel to another, and then another, he realized that he had gone soft but only by those who really mattered. It was easy to become distracted by it but he would work his way through it.
Without noticing it at first, House began to hear voices in his side office, it wasn't unusual to hear people as that was the primary gathering location for the fellows under his charge. He was content to have two of his three original team members with him, Doctor Chase and Doctor Forman. To round off the team the two newer members, Doctor Taub, a womanizing plastic surgeon and his newest, a Doctor Victoria Cicciliano, who reminded him of both mother Theresa and Mussolini all wrapped into one killer body. If anything, the woman of the group was there for all the men to look at but, lucky for her, she was also very smart and interested in learning House's methods. She had taken on the task of restoring House's files to their former glory, as established by Doctor Cameron, and made some wicked Biscotti that he had come to love and crave. The team had worked well together and the men had become reliant on Cicciliano as a leader and person to stand up to House.
House was sitting at his desk deep in thought, and payed little attention to what was happening in the other room until he could hear Wilson's voice among the babble that permeated into the other side of the office.
"What is Wilson doing consulting my team?" House asked himself rising from his desk. He turned to find strangers in his conference room with Wilson and his white board.
House did not play well with others and most of the time wouldn't let anyone else write on his white board: he was very possessive of his markers. Housed hobbled into the conference room and glared at Wilson and the unknown faces that stared silently back at him.
"What the hell?" House asked. "There is a board room up a floor and down the hall."
"Yeah we know," Wilson said, "there is also a union meeting and issues with the collective bargaining agreement, so Cuddy is in conference there."
"Ok… so there are three of you, why aren't you in your own office?" House asked.
"Team, this is Doctor House. You will see him often, don't worry about his rambling he's just a grumpy old man." Wilson said addressing the young doctors.
"Wilson, what is going on here?" House demanded again.
"I've taken on my own fellows," Wilson stated, "this is Doctor Bennett and this is Doctor Robinson."
House looked strangely at the man and the woman that sat at the table facing the white board.
"Still doesn't explain why you're in my office," House stated bluntly.
"Because I don't have a place for them just yet, and we have work to do." Wilson said.
"Well where is my team?" House asked.
Wilson shrugged.
"Hum!" House huffed and walked out of the office.
"Cuddy told me to use your office!" Wilson said as he followed House out of the office.
"Sure she did," House said as he walked toward the elevator.
"What are you doing?" Wilson asked.
"I am going to get to the bottom of this." House stated. "And don't touch my white board! That's for my team and my team only!"
"House it's a white board!" Wilson said rolling his eyes.
"IT'S MINE! And the markers are mine too! No one touches my markers except me," House yelled and stuck his tongue out at Wilson before the elevator door closed.