Chapter One
Dawn walked into the front door with a bag slung on her shoulder. She was trying to see where to go on her first day of work at Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. She felt nervous, and bit her lip. 'I can manage this. After all, eight years of college has let me have my dream of being a doctor.' She walked up to the front desk and managed a smile. "Excuse me, where do I go?" she asked as she handed the young receptionist her medical pass to check in.
"You're the new staff member for Dr. House?" the receptionist asked as she looked over Dawn's medical pass, shocked at seeing that he had picked a woman to be a part of his team. Eyeing over her shortly, she could see that the woman was confident about herself. 'I hope she's prepared to deal with House'.
"If that's in the diagnostics department, then yes, that's who I work for." Dawn stated as she looked up from the paper that she was signing her name upon.
"Well dear, I'm telling you good luck now, House is a tough case to work with… actually, there he is." The receptionist stated, pointing behind Dawn. "You can follow him up to his office, where you'll be working."
At that moment Dr. Gregory House walked into the front door of the hospital, his classic cane at his side, wearing one of his stylish t-shirts and a pair of dark blue jeans. "You know, I'm gonna have to talk with Cuddy again about moving my parking space closer to the door." He grumbled as he approached the main desk to sign the paper, checking himself in as well.
"Only you House, your parked close enough to the door now as it is." The receptionist smirked before gesturing over to Dawn. "This is Dawn, she is your new staff member… don't run this one off?"
House rolled his eyes as he leant against the desk, eyeing the badge that Dawn wore around her neck. "I can see that, come on my new minion, and follow me." He motioned before standing upright again and began the short trek to the elevators, knowing that Dawn would be right behind him like a good little minion should be.
The elevator ride was silent besides Dawn putting her bag on the floor before removing her jean jacket, slinging it across her arm before picking her bag up once more, awaiting to be let off onto the floor that she knew she'd now be working.
At the ding of the elevator House stepped out, Dawn following close behind him so as not to get lost in the sea of hallways and glass walled rooms. Stepping into his office, House walked to his desk, letting his body drop into his chair.
Dawn smiled as she found herself looking around the vast office, seeing the rest of the team members walk in from the meeting room that adjoined the office. 'It's nice to be a part of a team.' She thought to herself.
"House, I believe today is nothing but another slow day, we haven't got a case for you." Cameron stated as she leant against the door frame to the office.
House rolled his eyes. "Well then why don't you run around in your socks and see who runs into a door first?" he piqued, raising an eyebrow as he leant back in his seat.
Dawn looked to the floor, doing her best not to chuckle at House's little joke, sitting in the chair across from House's desk, putting her bag onto the floor in front of her, noting that House had placed a stack of papers in front of her that she knew she'd need to fill out for him.
"Well since House isn't going to introduce us, Hi there, my name is Foreman." A young man stated, sitting in a chair beside Dawn. "This is Cameron." He continued, pointing over to her, and that there is Chase." He finished, leaning his head to the blonde man standing opposite of Cameron.
"It's nice to meet all of you, I'm Dawn." She said with a smile, glancing around the room.
Cameron smiled softly, "Well, let's all go into the meeting room here and see if we can find ourselves a case." She stated, resulting in all the team members including their newest to follow her as she turned back into the larger room.
House stood slowly, leaning his weight on his cane before following his team into the other room, leaning against the door frame. "Alright kids, if we don't have a case by lunch I expect someone to do my clinic duties for the day while the rest of you do… whatever." He grumbled before turning back into his office, shutting the meeting room door behind him as he went, going back to his desk chair.
Sighing in his seat, Foreman looked around at the small group of people sitting at the table before zeroing in on Dawn, leaning towards her. "So… do you know everything about House? You'd have to know some if you willingly took this job."
"Yes, I know a bit about him. I know that he's sarcastic and that he can be rude to the general public… I don't mean to be rude but I just remembered that House gave me some paperwork to fill out a moment ago." She spoke as she stood, nodding to the group before walking back into House's office, opening and shutting the door quietly behind her as she went.
"She seems fond of House." Cameron smirked as she looked through a stack of files that lay on the table, trying to find a decent case for them to work on.
"Maybe, it's hard to tell that just from what she said." Chase spoke, standing to get a cup of coffee from the machine that sat on the counter against the far wall.
Meanwhile back in House's office Dawn sat in the same chair she had been earlier looking over the paperwork, reading over everything, leaning up to the desk to sign where she needed to on occasion.
"Do you need me to sign any of that? I wasn't really paying attention when I printed it all out the other day." House asked, leaning up to turn on his computer before reaching into a desk drawer, pulling a Gameboy from its depths.
"Most likely, but I haven't come across one yet." Dawn replied, as she looked up briefly from the paperwork meeting his eyes before quickly returning back to reading and signing her name.
House smirked, "Alright." He sighed, turning on his Gameboy, as he leaned back in his chair, ignoring that his computer was now fully booted up. "Just out of curiosity, why did you transfer to this hospital?" he questioned, glancing up from his game.
"Well… I like this hospital, and they have really talented staff that works here." Dawn easily answered; pushing a paper towards him that she found needed his signature.
"By talented staff I assume you mean this department." House stated, raising an eyebrow in curiosity, forgetting about his Gameboy, sitting it aside as he leant up to sign the paper that had been handed to him before silently returning it to her.
Dawn found herself chuckling. "Naturally." She smirked, taking the paper from him, only to give him another.
"So… you transferred here because you like this department, or is it someone within the department? Chase maybe?" he asked, being his nosey self, taking the other paper he was offered, quickly signing his name in a few locations before handing it back before turning towards his computer.
"I love the department, the staff, and its boss… they're all great and I'm looking forward to working here. But no, I'm not interested in anyone at this time." Raising her eyebrow in return of his, her curiosity piqued.
"Your file states that you went from purely clinic duty at another hospital before being promoted and given the option to transfer to here." House stated matter of factly as he clicked around on his computer, looking through Dawn's employee file.
"That's right, they thought that my skill wasn't being used to its fullest." Dawn answered as she moved to finally staple all of the papers together before placing them back onto House's desk for him to file away.
Suddenly, the side door of the office opened, as a flustered Chase walked through the door, a buzzing pager in his hand.
"What is it Chase? Timmy fall in a well?" House asked, as he turned to see the flustered Australian toss said pager at House's head. Smirking as he quickly caught it.
"Your pager has been going off for ten minutes, it's Dr. Cuddy." He sighed before quickly ducking back into the other room.
House grumbled, staring at the offending pager, blinking and buzzing away in his hand. "Well, looks like it's off to clinic duty… Dawn, coming along?" he asked as he slowly stood before walking around his desk and towards the main door.
"Sure, I'll come." Dawn quickly answered, standing to follow him. "Someone needs to babysit you." She smirked, her arm brushing against his as she past in front of him, leading the way to the elevators.
Back in the meeting room Chase sat back in his chair, grabbing a file into his hand. "I think House actually made a good decision in hiring Dawn. It seems she won't take any of his shit which is a good thing. But I also think she likes him… l mean like likes him."
Foreman rolled his eyes and sighed. "How do you know that she 'like likes' House?" he asked, holding air quotes up with his hands.
"I saw her purposely brush her arm against his as they left his office just now." Chase nodded to himself. "Isn't that flirting?"
Foreman sighed. "I doubt she did it on purpose Chase, it's a common occurrence in close spaces such as doorways." He chuckled, Cameron nodding in agreeance.
Back at the elevator Dawn found herself sighing and tapping her foot while they waited for an elevator to come up to their floor so they could take it back down.
House glanced at Dawn, a small smirk on his face. 'That was intentional back there… two can play at this game.' At the ding they both stepped into the empty elevator, House turning to push the button for the bottom floor. "Are you trying to catch my attention or are you trying to annoy me?" he asked, being forward about the whole thing.
A tinge of pink showed upon Dawn's cheeks as she cleared her throat. "Um… can we say both?" she asked, feeling bold in her statement, her eyes anywhere but on House.
"Hmmph." Was the only answer House offered as the elevator ride grew tensely silent. 'Not the answer I had in mind.'
When the elevator arrived at the bottom floor House and Dawn quickly exit and head into the clinic's waiting room area. House quickly glanced around the large waiting room seeing the few people waiting to be seen. "Alright, listen up to anyone in this waiting room, you on the left, you have a cold that's likely sinus related, get a prescription… the person in the back that's rubbing their hands, your either wearing a ring size too small or wearing your watch too tight…. Anyone else?" House smirked, bypassing the normal way to get through his clinic hours. "Good, and that took about ten minutes… I think that's a new record." He spoke, as he turned to leave the clinic.
"House, you need to see the patients, some have more than just the obvious symptoms." Cuddy spoke, as she waited at the entrance to the clinic area, her arms crossed over her chest, a stern look on her face.
"There's only two people sitting in here, I'm going to the lounge, me and my new minion Dawn have more paperwork to attend to." House replied gruffly, feeling that Dawn had come up behind him and rested her hand on his shoulder.
Cuddy rolled her eyes and sighed, shaking her head. "Fine… you're lucky that the waiting area is so empty." She grumbled before she turned to walk back down the hall to her office.
Dawn moved to face House, quickly removing her hand from his shoulder, embarrassed at her actions. "What are we going to do now? It's a full two hours until lunch."
House sighed softly, thinking to himself a moment. "Do you like motorcycles?" he suddenly asked, raising an eyebrow, a soft smirk appearing on his face.
"Yeah, why do you ask? Do you have one?" Dawn quickly answered, backing up a step from her boss. 'What is this man up to now?'
"I do… a Honda, what do you say to going on a ride with me after lunch?" House glanced at the floor before looking back up at his newest employee.
"Sure… that'd be fine." She said with a small smile. "Let's get back to your office, see if the others have run across a case yet."
At House's nod being his only answer, they both made the short trek back to the elevator, and made the ride back up to the floor that his office and diagnostic room was seated in. When House opened the door to his diagnostic room House and Dawn found Chase, Cameron, and Foreman sitting around a small television.
"Game on?" House asked, causing the three of them to jump and turn to face them, watching as they both sat down around the large table.
"No, but we've been watching a season of the soap you watch that you left in the player." Chase replied, leaning back in his seat, crossing his legs.
House rolled his eyes, as he leaned back in his sea, propping his legs up on the empty seat nearest to him. "Oh I did hm? Well, turn that off and turn on the game little a good little British man."
"Australian." Dawn and Chase answer simultaneously, causing Dawn to blush and scoot back a bit from the group.
Forman chuckled softly before interrupting the sudden quiet. "So, are we going to the coffee shop or the bar for lunch?" he asks, looking between everyone.
"Coffee shop is closer; don't have to ride near as far." House answered, watching Dawn begin to sift through the files that sat on the table.
Foreman nodded along with the rest of the group as they all turned back to the tv, as it was now on the baseball game that was currently playing on the screen.
House sighed, twirling his cane in boredom as the game progressed through three innings. "When is lunch?" he asked, moving back in his seat to grab for his phone within his jeans pocket to check the time.
"Now actually." Cameron spoke as she held up her own phone, showing that it was eleven, which earned happy sounds from everyone in the group. Foreman stood and turned off the tv as the group all filed out of the room and headed towards the elevators.
Upon exiting the elevators, the small group walked to exit the building, Chase turned to face Dawn as he cleared his throat. "Dawn would you like to ride with us?" he asked as they now stood beside his car, Cameron and Foreman already having climbed in.
"No thanks, House offered me a ride on his bike, I'll ride with him." She said softly, causing a shrug from Chase as he climbed in the driver seat of his car, then slowly pulled away and out of the parking lot.
"Are you ready House?" Dawn turned to ask, but didn't see him around, only to feel herself jump at the sound of an engine roar to life. She smirked as she watched House walk the bike up to her from around the side of another car.
"C'mon before I make you walk." House smirked, hiding a smile as he leant down to place his cane in the plastic clip holder underneath his leg.
"Very funny House." Dawn replied with a slight chuckle before she climbed on the bike, leaning closer to House, cautiously wrapped her arms around his waist as he revved up the engine before raising his legs when he got up enough speed, leaving the parking lot and headed towards the coffee shop to catch up with the rest.
"What's taking them so long?" Chase questioned as they had all been sitting at a table in the coffee shop for a good ten minutes. "Stuck in traffic?" he guessed openly.
Foreman leaned forward in his seat, causing the other two to lean in as well. "I don't know about any of you, but I noticed that both House and Dawn signed out for the day before we left the hospital." causing two sets of eyes to widen at his statement.