Disclaimer: Fox owns House, Md. and all of its characters. Sera and anyone else you don't recognize belong to me!

THE EYES CAN MISLEAD

CHAPTER 1

House stepped off of the elevator as the doors opened. He slowly made his way to the clinic area, looking furtively at the nurse's station. He groaned inwardly when he saw who was working. "Lil' Hateful", as he had dubbed her, was sorting charts. He wondered if one of the stacks had his name on it. Last night, while contemplating the intricacies of the O.C., he had an epiphany.

Whenever Hateful worked in the clinic, he wound up treating way too many patients. He had no idea how she did it, which was the part that really annoyed him. He had already realized early on that she had a tendency to give him the weird cases. "In fact", House thought as he narrowed his eyes at her, "it looks like the pile behind door #3 belongs to me". Hateful had opened the chart, and then burst out laughing before placing it on the smallest pile.

House recognized that laugh. The last time he heard it, he wound up treating a man dressed in a costume who had, while pulling up the zipper in the back, gotten a bunch of back hair along with a good chunk of flesh caught between the zipper teeth. The injury itself wasn't that bad, but considering the patient was a scrawny, hairy man wearing a Superman costume, it was rather funny. He couldn't help but wonder what horror was going to be waiting for him now.

House returned to his previous reflections. Why on earth did this woman inspire him to work? His clinic output nearly quadrupled when she was on duty. He didn't think it was the cases she weeded out to give to him. Maybe it was her attitude. He had dubbed her "Lil' Hateful" because she could actually out-snark him. For every sarcastic, mean thing he said, she zinged him back, usually with something worse. He actually found himself brooding over a comment she had made one day (that was the day her moniker was created). When he had greeted her with the name two days later, she laughed and said that she loved her new name. Then she handed him a file.

Whenever he tried to give Hateful lip about taking patients, she would simply stare at him with her dark, almost black eyes. Something about her eyes bothered him. They didn't seem to fit her, somehow. And they were incredibly dark, especially, it seemed, when he was being difficult. Quite frankly, her eyes scared him a bit. They looked haunted and sometimes made her seem almost…dangerous.

House shook himself out of his reverie and shook his head in disgust at his thoughts. Dangerous? Lil' Hateful was about 5 foot nothing and maybe weighed 115 pounds soaking wet. He had overheard her talking to another nurse about some martial arts training she'd had, but he doubted she was an expert or anything. The only dangerous thing about her was that she somehow turned him into a total pansy, unable to refuse her quiet, yet forceful demands that he see more patients.

House glanced at her again and realized that she was staring back at him. She smiled and crooked her finger at him, beckoning him over. His brain told him to turn his back on her and walk away, but apparently his body had successfully launched a coup d'étatagainst his brain because he found himself walking towards her. House sighed. He hoped Cuddy never found out about this.

In the dean's office, Lisa Cuddy was pinching the bridge of her nose as another nurse manager, this time Sonya in ICU, was complaining about House's treatment of one of the nurses.

"…and it took me an hour to get her to stop crying. Yes, Carla made a mistake, but it was her first day on the job. She was still getting her bearings. She was supposed to stick with her mentor today, but Lucy had to use the bathroom and she left Carla alone for a few minutes. I know it's not Lucy's fault, and she did tell Carla to wait outside the room. When the patient went into cardiac arrest, Carla ran in to see if she could help, which is a natural reaction. Dr. House had given the patient a shot of Atropine, I think 1 mg. Apparently, the patient wasn't responding, so he told Carla to give him another dose of Atropine while he was performing CPR. She tried to tell him she wasn't authorized to give meds yet, but he yelled at her to stop being an idiot. I think he asked her if she was an actual nurse or not. So, the poor girl did what anyone in that situation would do. She gave the patient a dose of one of the pre-drawn syringes, which, by the way, I've always thought were a bad idea."

Cuddy ignored Sonya's little disclaimer at the end. "So Carla injects 1 mg of Epinephrine instead of Atropine."

Sonya seemed a bit flustered. "Well, if Dr. House hadn't been shouting at her, she wouldn't have made such a…"

Cuddy interrupted Sonya. "The patient suffered from tachydysrhythmia and is now lucky to be alive. And you want me to write Dr. House up for being rude?"

Sonya sighed. "Look, Lisa, I know Carla screwed up. She should have stuck to her guns and told Dr. House she couldn't do it until she finished her orientation period. She should have run into the hall and gotten another nurse. At the very least, she should have verified the medication before giving it to the patient. I know she messed up. But the point is Dr. House is a nasty individual who doesn't care about anyone's feelings…"

Cuddy had had enough. She interrupted Sonya again. "Feelings? FEELINGS! As you've pointed out, Carla messed up. Period. If she can't handle pressure or people yelling at her and wounding her delicate sensibilities, then she's in the wrong profession. I know House is a jerk and I know he can be hard to take. But believe it or not, I've dealt with worse. You've dealt with worse. Carla needs to toughen up, or she'll never make it. The next time, she might kill someone. And if that happens, I don't think anyone is going to give a dmn about her feelings!"

Sonya sat back. She knew Dr. Cuddy was right. She was just sick and tired of House and his attitude. He treated all of her nurses like crap and she was royally sick of it. She told Cuddy so.

Lisa sighed again. "Sonya, I wish the SOB wasn't so good at what he does. Right now, we need him here. I'll talk to him and see if I can get him to agree to back off. This incident is actually the first major problem I've had with him since he came back from leave after the shooting a few months ago. I was kind of hoping the incident had mellowed him out a bit. He's been flying under my radar lately. In fact, I haven't had to nag him about clinic duty in a while."

As Lisa talked, a slow smile began to spread over Sonya's face. Lisa looked at her quizzically. "What?" the dean asked. Sonya, grinning, told her. "I was talking to Elaine, the clinic manager, the other day. She was telling me about Dr. House and his unusual clinic habits and a particular trend she was noticing. It involves that new nurse…your friend, Sera."

Lisa's eyebrows shot up. "What about Sera?" Sonya shook her head. "We need to get Elaine in here so she can tell you herself."

Lisa looked at her for a few seconds before reaching for the phone to page Elaine. She definitely wanted to know what her friend had to do with House and his clinic duty.