Chapter One

A cold wind sent brightly colored leaves swirling down the sidewalk. The hospital seemed to be carved into the intense blue of the sky. Allison Cameron shivered and pulled her oversized, threadbare coat tightly around her. She looked at all the people going in and out of the doors of Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. A cough worked its way up from the depths of her chest. She released her coat and put her hands, covered in worn wool gloves, over her mouth. Bending over, she felt her chest tighten with each forceful expulsion of air and tried to turn away. Her head throbbed and a cold sweat trickled down her back. She suspected she had pneumonia. When the coughing subsided, she gathered the little amount of strength she had left and slowly made her way inside.

The lobby of the hospital was warm but she shivered. Looking around, she saw the clinic on her right. She reached up and pulled her tattered watch cap down over her forehead and tried to smooth the tangled mass of blonde hair that hung over her shoulders and down her back. Straightening up as much as she could, she walked into the clinic and stopped at the desk. A dark haired nurse looked up from a pile of charts. She looked Allison up and down. Allison was used to such looks of derision.

"Name?" the nurse asked in a bored tone.

"Allison Cameron." Her voice came out as a raspy croak.

"What brings you in?"

"Fever, shortness of breath, severe cough with green sputum, weakness, elevated heart rate and diaphoresis."

The nurse looked up at her in shock. Allison looked back at her wearily. "I wasn't always homeless," she wheezed. "I have a medical degree."

Standing, the nurse picked up a blank chart. "Come with me," she said.

Allison followed her to an exam room. The nurse, who introduced herself as Brenda, helped Allison out of her clothes and into a soft hospital gown. Quickly and efficiently, Brenda took her vitals and wrote them on the chart. She raised the back of the exam table slightly and put a pillow down. Allison sank back and Brenda put a blanket over her. She smoothed back Allison's hair and smiled slightly.

"I'll go get you some clean socks and a blanket from the warmer," she said. Gathering up Allison's clothes, she walked to the door. "Be right back."

Allison pulled the blanket up, rolled onto her side and curled up in a ball. She was on the verge of sleep when Brenda returned with a warm blanket and socks. After she put the socks on Allison and tucked the warm blanket around her, she left. Within minutes, Allison was sound asleep.

Doctor Gregory House leaned on his cane as the elevator descended to the lobby. He faced an eternity in the Ninth Circle of Hell also known as clinic duty. He couldn't pawn his hours off on any of his minions since the Dean of Medicine, Doctor Lisa Cuddy, temporarily assigned them to other departments to cover for employees who were off for Thanksgiving. He limped across the lobby and entered the clinic. Every seat was filled and some people even leaned against the walls. House rolled his eyes and made his way over to the front desk. Nurse Bitch looked up at him.

"You're late," Brenda informed him shoving a file across the counter. "Allison Cameron, room two, possible case of pneumonia."

House grimaced at her and picked up the file. He saw his best friend, Doctor James Wilson, exit an exam room. House limped over to him and tried to shove the chart into his hand. Wilson pushed it back.

"Can't, House," he said as he walked away.

House grumbled and opened the door to exam room two. He wrinkled his nose slightly at the sharp odor of an unwashed body. A tangled mass of blonde hair spread over a pillow and there was a small lump beneath two blankets.

House flipped open the chart and pulled a stool over to the lump of hair on the bed.

"I'm Doctor House," he said loudly. "And you have pneumonia."

The blanket lowered and House found himself looking into two blue-green eyes set in a slightly dirty but incredibly beautiful face. An incredibly beautiful fever flushed face. Her eyes glittered slightly.

"I know," she said in a voice that sounded like she ate nothing but gravel. "I need some penicillin and a prescription cough suppressant."

"Are you a doctor?" House asked acerbically.

"I was."

He lowered his brows as he looked at her. She looked away. He slapped the chart closed.

"I'm admitting you," he told her. "You need chest x-rays, blood tests and a CT scan." He lifted the blanket. "You can't go back on the mean streets of Princeton in a hospital gown and floppy socks."

Allison closed her eyes and nodded.

House went back out and gave instructions to Brenda.

"Where did she come from?" he asked as he leaned against the counter and idly rubbed his right thigh.

Brenda shrugged. "Judging from the smell of her, I'd say under a highway passover or thereabouts. I'll have one of the nurses give her a shower before they take her upstairs. It's sad what happens to some people, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Makes you wonder. She hasn't lost her ability to diagnose herself. When you don't practice for awhile, you forget things."

"She doesn't seem to. She rattled off her symptoms like she did that kind of thing every day."

"Did she have any ID on her?" House asked as he leaned against the desk.

"She had a little silk bag in the pocket of her coat. I put it in the hospital safe for her so she can have it when she's released."

Doctor Lisa Cuddy walked up to them. Brenda smiled thinly and turned away.

"You're supposed to be treating patients not holding up the counter," she told House.

"Well, if I don't do it, who will?" he asked with feigned innocence.

"Get back to work," she told him.

"Can't."

She folded her arms and tossed back her hair. "Better be good."

"Just admitted a patient. Could be pneumonia, could be something else. Can't let her die, can I?"

Cuddy narrowed her eyes.

"You took my team," House reminded her. He widened his eyes. "If I don't treat her…"

"Fine," Cuddy sighed. "I'll send Chase to check on your new patient so you can finish your clinic hours." She turned on her heel and walked away.

Brenda rolled her chair back and began to hum the Wicked Witch theme from The Wizard Of Oz.

House grabbed a file. "That makes you her flying monkey, you know."