Title: When the Thunder Rolls by The Queen of Blank

Summary: It's a stormy day in Princeton and House doesn't want to do clinic duty. But things get weird when House's office is freezing, things are strewn on the floor, and someone goes missing.

Genre: Humor/Mystery

Disclaimer: If I owned House, I would not be sitting in my house watching Dancing with the Stars right now. I mean, I could be in the Bahamas or something:)

A/N So I promised another story, and I know it took forever (hey, I was suffering from the worst writer's block ever!), but here is my new story! Please review when you're done reading!

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As he looked out the window of his apartment, Dr. House noticed the grey sky and the approaching greyer clouds in the distance.

"With this bad weather coming," he said out loud while he slowly rolled himself out of bed, "there is no way I'm working in the clinic."

He threw on some clothes that he found on the edge of his bed, grabbed his cell phone, pager, cane and an umbrella, and was about to walk out the door when he realized that he had no way to get to work.

"There is no way I'm riding a motorcycle in this weather," he thought.

Quickly flipping open his cell phone, House pushed the #2 button and was quickly connected to Wilson, who answered on the first ring.

"Hey Jimmy!" House said into the phone. "In case you haven't noticed, it's raining outside." He pulled the blinds down and peered out at the dark and damp streets and watched the rain pour down from the sky.

"Um, yes," Dr. Wilson replied. "Nice observation there, House."

House rolled his eyes. "I need a ride, unless you want me to kill myself on my motorcycle."

"Maybe I want you to kill yourself," Wilson said smartly.

House gasped. "No way! Why do want me to die? I'm the only person keeping you from getting yourself another wife!"

Wilson rolled his eyes. "I'm halfway there; meet me outside in about 5-6 minutes."

The line went dead.

"Well, 5-6 minutes makes for a good nap," House though and he lay down on his sofa and quickly dozed off.

He was awoken 16 minutes later by the sound of pounding on his door, followed by a desperate, stern calling of "House!"

House got up off the couch, threw on his motorcycle jacket and grabbed his things. He opened the door and couldn't help but smile when he saw his best friend standing in front of the door dripping water from his lab coat on House's carpet.

"Hi Jimmy!" House said and proceeded to walk out the door, lock it, and settle himself into the passenger's seat of Wilson's car.

Wilson sat down in the driver's seat and turned to face House with an unbelievable look on his face.

"What –" he was speechless. "I told you to meet me out here, House!" he exclaimed, and then sighed when House gave him a pouty face, his lower lip sticking out.

"Why do you do this to me? I chose to help you out and you returned the favor by falling asleep? You are unbelievable." With that said, he looked ahead at the road, shifted his car into drive, and slowly drove through the rain to work.

When the silence became unbearable for House, he reached over and turned on the radio, where the DJ was talking about the nasty weather.

"A flash flood watch is in effect for the area until 5:00 pm today. A severe thunderstorm warning has also been issued until 1:00 in the afternoon. We will take you live to the weather center now with Jill Jackson."

House reached over and turned off the radio.

"Nice weather we're having, eh?" he asked.

Wilson raised his eyebrows and looked over at House. "Sure," he said and smiled, and then looked back to the road.

--

As soon as they got to the hospital, House quickly sneaked in through the clinic and hurried into the elevator.

When the door opened a minute or two later, he rushed in and closed the door, not holding for the intern yelling for him to "hold the elevator!"

He walked up into his office and peered out the window, looking up at the sky where the grey clouds were still rolling in. He kept looking out the window, even when he heard his door open and someone walked in.

"House," the voice said, taking him away from his thoughts. "You're supposed to be down in the clinic."

House turned around and saw Dr. Cuddy standing in the middle of his office wearing a red sweater and a nice pair of black slacks.

"My, aren't we dressed quite conservatively; what's the occasion?" House quipped.

"Ugh!" Cuddy gasped. "We're not exactly getting the most perfect weather outside today, Dr. House."

House rolled his eyes. "As I said this morning, Cuddy, there is no way I'm working in the clinic. Not in weather like this. Besides, the only people down there are the retarded parents wondering why their kid got sick all of sudden after they played in the rain."

"I really doubt that people are that stupid, House. Now go down there."

House slowly half-limped, half-trudged out of the office and made his way over to the elevator. As soon as it pinged and the doors opened, House thrust his cane in the door, turned around and stuck his tongue out at Cuddy. After she acknowledged this, she started running towards the elevator, but he was quick to get in the elevator and close the doors just as she got there.

--

Down in the clinic, there was an unusual amount of women snuggled up next to a child who were wiping their noses with tissues.

"Here goes nothing," House said out loud s he walked over to the desk, grabbed a file, and walked over to the group of people.

"Jolie, Angelina?" he called out loud.

A man stood up and began jumping up and down. "Angelina Jolie!? Where! Where is she?!" He began running around in circles, screaming, "I LOVE ANGELINA JOLIE!" over and over again. Finally, he ran outside into the rain, into his car, and drove away from the hospital.

"Right," House said and looked at Nurse Brenda. "If that guy comes back, have him taken straight to the Psych Ward." Brenda nodded in return.

When no one else stood up, he said, "No one? Well, I'll just take my PSP and go into this exam room while I wait for her."

"Dr. House," Cuddy exclaimed. "What does that file really say?"

"Damn," he cursed silently. "Pitt, Brad?"

"House!!"

"Kim Jones," he said, finally giving up on the fight. "You know, Dr. Cuddy, the other two names were way less simple."

Cuddy shook her head. "Exam room 1 is open, Dr. House."

House sighed and walked into the exam room, closing the door behind him.

"So!" he said while he limped over to the stool and pulled on a pair of gloves. "What seems to be the problem?"

"She's running a fever of about 101.6º, and she's sneezing and coughing all the time," Kim's mom explained.

House picked up the thermometer. "Open," he said to the little girl, and put it under Kim's tongue when she complied.

"What did she do last night or this morning before you noticed that she was sick?" he asked while he pulled the thermometer out.

"Well, she was running in the rain last night," her mom replied.

House mentally sighed and thought, 'Cuddy owes me for this.'

"She has a fever of 101º," he stated. "Get her home, give her some of this, and don't let kids play in the rain." He tore the paper off of his prescription pad and walked out of the exam room.

On the way out to the nurse's desk, House stopped Cuddy while she was headed to her own office.

"You owe me big time for this," he said. "One more kid that was running in the rain and I am so out of here."

Over the next hour-and-a-half, House dealt with another 4 cases of parents who let their kids run out in the rain out of the 8 total patients he had treated.

2 had been complaining of back pain, and there was one who thought that he had an STD.

"People are so stupid," House said to himself as he made his way back to his office.

He opened the door and walked in like he had done many times before. But this time, things felt a tad bit off. Once he walked into the office, he felt a sudden burst of cold air slap him in the face.

House shivered and walked over to the thermostat so he could turn the temperature up.

'How strange,' he thought when he noticed that the temperature was at 81º.

He walked over to the office where his ducklings were standing around, obviously feeling the same bone-chilling temperature.

"House," Dr. Foreman said agitated while he hugged himself trying to warm up. "Did you turn the temperature down? It's freezing in here."

Chase and Cameron nodded in agreement, while House shook his head.

"The current temperature in the office is set a bone-chilling temperature of 81º. This is not my mastermind work; I don't think I could figure out how to do this."

There was a long moment of silence, and then Chase blurted out, "Maybe the office is haunted or something…"

Cameron and Foreman both laughed mockingly at the thought. No one had noticed that House had disappeared from the room.

"You think," Foreman said in between laughs, "that a ghost is in this office?" He laughed even harder.

Foreman and Cameron continued laughing while Chase sat down in his chair and watched them as they gasped for air through their laughs.

"Wooooooo…" They suddenly heard from the other side of the room, and the laughing stopped instantly.

"W-what was that?" Chase asked nervously while pushing a piece of hair behind his ears.

The ducklings all huddled close to one another, afraid that what Chase had said was right. When a flash suddenly came from the other corner of the room, they all jumped out of their shoes and quickly ran against a wall.

They heard an evil laugh coming from the area where the flash had come from.

"Who are you?" Chase yelled.

"You idiots, it's me!" the voice said and walked out from his secluded part of the office.

They all waited anxiously, and then yelled out in surprise when House popped out from the dark area.

"I didn't even notice you were gone!" Cameron exclaimed, holding her hand on her chest. "I was about to have a heart attack!"

"I'm sorry," House said smiling. "But this picture," he said pointing at his cell phone, "is definitely going to go on the Internet!"

Everyone sighed. "It's still cold in here," Foreman whined. "Why is it cold in here?"

House just shook his head and shrugged. "I'll go tell Cuddy to call maintenance," he said, and walked out of the office.

"So… should we do a séance or something?" Chase asked, and Foreman responded by whapping him in the back of the head.

"This office is not haunted," he said rolling his eyes. "I'm going down for lunch now."

"We'll come with," Cameron said. They all walked down to the cafeteria; Chase rubbed his head all the way down.

--

When House returned to the office, he found 3 things.

His ducklings were gone.

2.It was still freezing in his office.

3.Everything from his desk was strewn on the floor.

"That's strange," House said as the ducklings filed in behind him.

"What happened in here?" Cameron asked, shocked at the mess that she had just walked in on. She walked over by where House was standing. "Was this another part of your 'scare-us-to-death' plan, House? Because it's not funny!"

House shook his head. "It was like this when I came in here," he explained. "If this were my handiwork, I wouldn't have broken my red coffee cup."

Foreman raised his shoulders and shuddered as a sudden chill crept up his spine. "It's still cold in here," he complained, trying to rub the goose bumps off of his arms.

"Cuddy's sending someone from maintenance down as soon as she can," House replied in response to Foreman's whining. "Until then, we should take refuge in a clean office, warmer office."

The ducklings all nodded in agreement, and followed House all the way down to Wilson's office.

"Hey Jimmy," House said happily when he walked in. "We decided to throw a party in your office, without you knowing about it."

Wilson raised his eyebrows. "And why can't you have this party in your office?" he asked.

"It's hau-" Chase started, but was cut off mid-word when Foreman whacked him in the head again. "Will you stop doing that Foreman? It still hurts from last time!"

"Boo hoo, Chase," Foreman replied. "The office is NOT haunted. There is no such things as ghosts!"

Just as Foreman finished his sentence, the lights in Wilson's office went out. Lightning flashed outside. When the lights turned on, one person was missing from the room.

"Cameron?" Chase called.

--

The end of chapter 1! So if you like it, review and tell me if I should continue because at this point, I'm not sure what you guys want (unless you review!). So review and I'll start writing the second chapter!

The Queen of Blank