1"Wilson!"

Dr. James Wilson of Princeton Plainsboro Hospital turned at the sound of his name being called by a cheery female voice. He was quickly met by the grinning face of his co-worker, Dr. Diane Davis.

"Diane. Did you need something?"

"Yes, actually. I had a question about one of our patients. Here I brought their ch-"

"Well if it isn't Dr. Wilson and his trusty sidekick, Dr. Double-D's."

The two looked up to see Dr. Gregory House approaching.

"I have half a mind to take your cane," Diane playfully quipped.

"I would be offended, that is, only if you had half a mind to begin with."

As the playful banter continued, Wilson rolled his eyes before doing a double-take and grinning widely as he saw a certain young woman making her way towards them. House was just about to reply to another of Diane's remarks when he noticed the woman as well. Letting out a low whistle, he muttered

"And just who might that be?"

Diane who didn't bother to look, rolled her eyes before grumbling,

"Gregory House, for once in your life can you NOT ogle a woman?"

"Hmmmm. No."

Only at that point did Diane look up and when she saw who it was she practically screamed in girlish delight, only taking enough time to steal House's cane and whack him hard with it with a saying of 'BAD HOUSE!' before tossing it behind her and running to the woman in front of her, ignoring House's cussing and Wilson's laughter.

"LIZ!"

As the two collided and hugged each other, the woman under siege laughed as Diane couldn't stop bombarding her with questions.

"What are you doing here? When did you get in? Where are you staying? Wh-"

"Diane! Give the poor woman some air! You're embarrassing her!" Wilson smiled as Diane paused to look around and find the hospital staff staring.

"Oops."

Laughing some more, the woman turned to embrace Wilson.

"Good to see you again James."

Seeing House's inquiring, but also unnerving gaze on her, she raised an eyebrow in question before saying,

"And you must be the famous Dr. House. Nice to meet you. My name is Dr. Elizabeth Harris." Before House could say anything, though, Dr. Cuddy's voice interrupted.

"Elizabeth! There you are," Cuddy strode towards the group, as House took the time to ogle the Dean of Medicine's chest as well as the new woman.

"Dr. Cuddy, it's good to see you," Elizabeth greeted Cuddy with a handshake.

"Please it's Lisa. Won't you come into my office and we'll get the paperwork filed," Cuddy said. Elizabeth gave Wilson and Diane a small wave before following Cuddy to her office.

Diane suddenly turned to Wilson and gave him a fierce glare. "You knew about this!"

"I might have."

"And you failed to mention this?"

"Not to cut the lover's spat short," House drawled. "Actually, I do. Cut the chatter, ladies."

"House-," Wilson started, but spotted the diagnostics team making their way towards the misanthropic man.

"House, we have a case," Dr. Eric Foreman said, waving a manila folder in his hands slightly. "Male in his mid-twenties, extreme exhaustion, bowel inflammation, and deep vein thrombosis." (FYI, it turns out to be Behçet's disease)

Throwing a disparaging look at his diagnostics team, House huffed. "Go forth, naive ones," he said seriously, pointing his cane in the direction of the Diagnostics room. The three obediently started left, and House gave Wilson and Diane a satisfied smirk.

"Like trained dogs." House sauntered away. Well, as well as he could with a cane, which was surprisingly good.

After House left Diane turned to Wilson with a raised eyebrow. The man shook his head when she opened her mouth.

"I don't know either, Diane. You know the only way to get along with him is to go with it."

"You're such a pushover, James."

"Pot. Kettle."

"Touché. Now about this patient..."

--

Ah, underlings. Why do the legwork when he had three slaves on his payroll? House whistled to himself as he walked down the hall, intent to steal whatever Wilson had for lunch, when he spotted one of his underlings. With the woman from earlier. Kind of early for Foreman to get his claws into the new meat.

"Foreman!" House yelled as he made his way towards the two, internally gleeful as interns fled from his cane. Like friggin' Moses. "I sent you to the lab, not to waggle your tongue at fresh meat."

Foreman glanced upward, as if looking for higher powers for strength, but Elizabeth spoke before he could defend himself.

"Dr. Foreman was coming to me for a professional opinion," she said, her hips tilted and one hand resting on said hips. Confrontational. Aggressive. Interesting.

"Professional opinion? Foreman, I didn't know you were interested in cross dressing. From what I heard, tuck backs are a bitch," House smirked. Foreman's eyes bugged out, awesome.

"He doesn't have the bone structure to be a drag queen," Elizabeth replied, and Foreman's cough of surprise made House's smirk widen. "You on the other hand, slap on some Tempting Seductress and a slinky black number, you'll be getting numbers in no time."

Foreman couldn't hold in his amused snort when Elizabeth gave House a sweet smile before turning back to Foreman. "I hope the case goes well, Dr. Foreman, anymore questions you can see me in my office." With an answering nod from Foreman, the woman turned and walked down to her office.

Without a word to Foreman, House spun stalked towards Wilson's office, where the people he was looking for were guaranteed to be there.

--

"You two!" House shouted accusingly as he entered Wilson's office, interrupting the conversation that had been going on between Wilson and Diane as they ate their lunch.

"Something we can do for you House?" Diane smirked.

Grabbing the other half of Wilson's sandwich, which Wilson knew better by now than to protest against, House flopped into one of the desk chairs before propping his feet up. Taking a bite, he mumbled,

"Yeah. I want the information on this new chick. Now. And I know the two of you know it, so cough it up bitches."

The other two exchanged amused glances. Hmmm. From House's tone he must have had a run in with Elizabeth. And she must have snarked back. They were only sad they missed it.

"She's the new head of the Neurology department," Wilson answered first. "Met her when the Board had to approve of her. Very nice."

"I didn't want the Reader's Digest version, Wilson," House said around his sandwich. "Double D's, I know you have the dirt. You squealed like a harpy when you saw her. There has to be a history here. Ex-lovers, perhaps?" The leer was evident even with the mouthful of food.

"You wish," Diane shot back. "And she had to have unleashed her sarcasm on you because if she was boring you wouldn't even bother with her. So why should I make it any easier for you?"

Wilson bit back a laugh as he sipped at his drink and Diane shot a wink at the man. House didn't miss a beat and gave an exaggerated pout.

"An hour of your clinic duty."

"Crappy negotiation. And just so you understand, that's a no, House."

"I'll make Chase wear his short shorts."

"Chase isn't my type."

"Then what?"

"An hour on the bike."

"No way."

"Only option."

"This better be good," House grumbled as Diane smirked in victory. "Fine. An hour on the bike. No more than that."

"Deal. James, you hear that?" Diane asked as House grudgingly shook her hand to finalize the deal. Wilson nodded as he schooled his face in a serious face.

"Yes. Your information for an hour on the motorcycle. Now it's sharing time," Wilson answered, while House glanced at Diane pointedly. She sighed but put her sandwich on Wilson's desk, and took her time to brush off crumbs from her clothing.

"I was a junior when I met her in college, over in Columbia," she began. "She was a freshman, but somehow we ended up going to the same medical schools, so we kept in touch. When I came here we still talked for a bit, and she told me when she was transferring from Bellevue, but I didn't realize she was coming so soon."

"And?"

"And what?" Diane grinned. "You didn't specify what and how much information I had to reveal." Her smile was sickeningly sweet as she picked her sandwich back up and took a bite.

"You have to admit, she got you there," Wilson said, trying to hide his grin. House glared at both of them before leaving.

"Point to me," Diane quipped. "That was rare."

--

She knew she shouldn't do it on her first day, but a cigarette was what she really needed. Elizabeth leant against the stone balcony that was outside her office, the lit cigarette dangling from her hand as she lazily observed the comings and goings of the hospital below. A knock on the sliding door made her look back and grin.

"Starting already?" Diane joked, making her way next to Elizabeth. She held out a hand and wiggled the fingers. "Gimme."

Elizabeth laughed as she exhaled a stream of smoke, using her free hand to pull the pack of cigarettes and lighter out of her lab coat and dropped it in Diane's hand. Diane grinned, pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and handed the pack and lighter back to Elizabeth.

"Haven't had one of these in a while," Diane groaned as she smoked. Elizabeth gave her an incredulous look.

"You? Nicotine was how you got through medical school! Well, other than the booze," Elizabeth joked. Diane rolled her eyes and gently knocked her shoulder against the other woman's.

"Shut up. You know why I don't smoke anymore," Diane sighed, brushing a lock of light brown hair out of her face.

Elizabeth nodded, before a smirk grew on her face. "Oh, right. Your clandestine lover doesn't like it."

"He is not clandestine!" the other woman defended. "I don't want to upset Danny's lungs. He's only a year old. Walking around him smelling of smoke isn't the best thing to do, so I had to quit."

Shaking her head at Diane, Elizabeth scoffed and shot her friend an incredulous look. "You've got it bad. How is Don doing, anyways?"

"Pretty good. They've settled in well," Diane answered, staring at the cigarette in her hand, only half smoked, and put it out on the concrete wall. "Visited them last night, actually."

A shark-ish grin grew on Elizabeth's face. "You slag. Late night booty call from the family doctor? How cliché!"

Diane choked on air and glared at the other woman. "Stop reading harlequin novels. We just had dinner at his place and watched a movie there. You perverted-"

"Oh like it hasn't happened before."

"... Well it didn't happen last night, so there," Diane shot back, glancing at the slim watch on her wrist. "I just wanted to have your 'It's my new job and I'm slightly panicked' cigarette with you. Gotta go freshen up before a meeting with a patient."

"Aw, I didn't think you cared," Elizabeth said jokingly, but her gentle smile said otherwise. Diane gave her a smile, walking past the sliding door, before turning to glance back at her.

"And you're the only one that knows about Don. So don't spill the beans, because knowing House, it'll just provide fodder for him."

"My lips are sealed," Elizabeth answered, waving as Diane exited through her office.

Princeton Plainsboro was a new beginning, and Elizabeth was glad at least this new journey started with a friend by her side.