A/N: Right. So, CosmicGirl22 and I are back with another fic. Hopefully all you House fans will enjoy it. It's our first House fic so be gentle. Constructive criticism is always welcome and reviews in general are always wonderful. So, tell us what you think. : )

Disclaimer: We don't own House... but we're going to borrow the characters and have our ways with them!! MWHAHAHAH!!!

Chapter One

He stepped inside the gift shop narrowly avoiding Cuddy. House hid behind Hamilton, the pink pig and Petey, the pink flamingo and watched her through the window of the gift shop. She stopped and looked down the only two directions he could have gone. One direction led down another hallway towards radiology, the other direction led to a flight of stairs. Cuddy sighed and walked down the corridor towards radiology. House smiled smugly; he was free and clear, for the time being at least.

"Hello." House spun around. There was a young woman standing behind the counter. The look on her face made it obvious she was wondering what he was doing peeking out the window. "Can I help you find anything?" Her tone confirmed it.

"Yeah," he said thinking quickly to throw her off, "Where do you keep the alcohol, tobacco, and firearms?"

"This is a hospital," she began and he pursed his lips. This was partly why he rarely talked to people. Idiotic things came out of their mouths, as if he didn't know that this was a hospital. "Which means there's no smoking. Firearms--clean-up's too messy, and the alcohol, well, we reserve that for the really special customers You know, doctors and nurse."

House had to admit he was impressed, he almost told her that he was a doctor to call her bluff but then decided better of it. He wasn't in the mood to give free medical advice about her mother's bunions at the moment.

"In that case I guess I'll just have the gum," he said and threw a 35-cent pack of gum onto the counter and reached for his wallet.

"That's it?" she asked with her eyebrow raised.

"Was I supposed to buy something else?"

"That same pack of gum is a quarter on the third floor vending machine." she said.

"Ok? Is there a reason you don't want to sell me gum, or do you always tell your customers where to shop cheaper?"

"I'm just saying this is a gift shop and whoever you're here to visit would probably like something besides gum."

House reached over and picked up a nearby teddy bear. "Have you worked here long?" he asked as he threw it on the counter.

"No," she said and kind of shrugged her shoulders. "I've been here about a week. It's an ok job, just gets kind of lonely in here, no one ever really comes in."

House paid for his things and went to the door, doing a quick swipe of the lobby before exiting. He had a feeling he would start coming in more often. At least until Cuddy discovered his new hiding spot.

House absentmindedly set the teddy bear on the desk and began riffling through his drawer for his mini TV. Dr Wilson and Dr Chase entered House's office, clearly still in the conversation they were having in the corridor. House looked annoyed and tried to ignore them by turning up the volume on his soap.

"I'm just saying she's exhibiting signs of depression, we might want to take that into account." Chase was saying.

"I told her two days ago she had less than two months to live, she's allowed to be a little depressed." Wilson defended, but Chase's eyes were deflected towards the suspiciously red teddy bear on House's desk.

"That's new." he said. House winced realizing he should have gotten rid of it.

"Ooh, red," Wilson had followed Chase's eyes to the bear. "Supposedly the color of love. Someone sending you presents, House?"

"I'm busy." House said and inched the volume up higher.

"Let me guess, that elderly lady from a few months ago? The one that wrote the poem."

"Depression indicates a chemical imbalance, have you tried putting her on mood stabilizers?" House asked.

"You know if I didn't know you better, I would say you're trying to change the subject." Wilson laughed.

"Oh, you know me so well." House dismissed and grabbed his TV off his desk and stood up, grabbing his cane too.

"Mm..." Wilson shook his head. "By the way, Cuddy has been looking for you all morning. Something about clinic duty?" Chase slightly grinned.

"You certainly had no trouble finding me," he replied making his way back to the door. If Cuddy was looking for him this place was no longer safe.

"I know it's time for your beloved soap, and you had to come here for your TV." Wilson pointed to the object in House's hand.

"So, you're right." House said. "If you see her again tell her I'm in the cafeteria, or better yet the men's room." House then turned to Chase, who had picked up the bear from Houses desk, and was examining it. The price tag indicated it was clearly from the hospital's gift shop. "Give me that."

House snatched it out of Chase's hand and tossed it to Wilson who barely caught it. "Give it to one of your amazing bald midgets in the cancer ward. Excuse me."

Then he pushed past Wilson and headed off in the direction of the elevator. Wilson looked at Chase suspiciously. Not only had House offered something to a kid with cancer but he had also said excuse me.

"Chase." At the sound of his name, Dr. Chase stopped on his way out of House's office and turned around to see Foreman coming his way. "Are you heading to lunch?"

"Yeah," he replied in his Australian accent. "Why?"

"I have a patient that can't wait but this needs to get to filing." At this, Foreman held up one of the maroon files. "Think you can drop it off on your way to the cafeteria?"

"Sure thing." Chase reached out and took the file. Foreman called a thank you over his shoulder as he walked briskly in the other direction.

As he walked down the hall, Chase flipped through the file. It was nothing special. Just a mother of three complaining about constant migraines. All the tests had come back clean so Foreman had written it off as stress.

Rounding the corner, he walked up to the rectangular window, which looked into the filing room. It was a large room with shelves adjacent to the window, stacked to bursting with files. Under the window was a small desk with a computer, printer, tabletop shredder and a phone.

Normally an elderly woman sat at the desk but as Chase leaned on the counter, he saw no one.

"Hello?" He called into the seemingly empty room.

"Just a second," a voice called back. Whoever the woman was, she didn't sound old. Probably a temp or something.

There was a THUNK! followed closely by an "OW!" Slightly curious, Chase looked to one of the end aisles to see a young woman appear, shaking her hand. Her knuckles were red, probably from accidentally hitting her hand on a shelf. Her other arm was full of files.

"What do you need?" She asked as she dropped the stack on the desk next to the shredder.

"Just dropping off a file." Chase held it up and handed it to her over the counter.

As she took the file she rolled her green eyes. "Gee, thanks," she muttered. "Another one." She tossed it onto the desk into a pile he hadn't seen yet.

With his brows furrowed slightly, Chase asked, "I'm sorry?"

She looked up at him. "Let me ask you something. Did you people have a dyslexic ape working in here before me because, I've seen toddlers who could do a better job organizing."

"I didn't know there was anything wrong with it." As he spoke, Chase looked from the woman to the shelves and back again.

"Wrong with it?" She scoffed. "There are files in here that are over twenty years old and should have been shredded long ago. I've found 'R' names under 'L'. This place is a disaster."

"Well, it shouldn't take too long to fix, right?" Chase had no idea how offices worked. He'd never had to do anything remotely secretarial in his life.

She looked up at him with despair. "I've been working her for two weeks."

His blue eyes widened slightly. "Oh."

They stood in silence for a moment, neither really knowing what to say.

"I'm Tess, by the way." She offered him her hand a weary smile.

"Dr. Chase," he replied, shaking her hand.

"I better get back to work," she said, looking at the mess of files on her desk. "It was nice meeting you."

"Yeah," he replied, smiling slightly. "You too."