How Does Your Garden Grow?

House narrowed his eyes and paced slowly back and forth in front of his desk, as he cast murderous glances at the small pink vase of bright white daisies sitting there.

Who would be sending me flowers...especially daisies...and in a pink vase?! Wtf?! House thought as he stroked the 3-day-old growth covering his chin. Daisies are just so...so girly, he inwardly cringed.

Chase entered the room just in time to see his former boss sniffing the handful of flowers and turning the small vase around carefully in his large hands.

"What's with the daisies?"

"Hell if I know," House growled, looking for the 10th time for a card or some sign as to who would have left the little white intruders in his office.

"Is it your birthday? Anniversary? Perhaps early retirement?" Chase asked this last question with hopeful eyes.

House glared at him, then returned to replaying every scenario in his life that could result in someone, anyone sending him flowers. Sadly, he continued to come up empty.

Foreman then entered through the glass doors, followed closely by 13. They both looked at House, then Chase, then the daisies, then one other.

"Flowers?!" they both howled in unison.

"How long have you guys been going out?" House asked, turning his gaze reluctantly away from the daisies to glare at the nosy couple. "I know they say that people start to look alike after being together for long periods of time. Even end up having the same pancreas size. But, since I doubt you two are going to end up looking like each other..."

Foreman and 13 simultaneously rolled their eyes, adding fuel to House's "togetherness" theory.

"What did the card say?" 13 asked, now also examining the cheery little flowers.

"No card," House said flatly.

"Maybe it's that cute new nurse in Cardiology?" Foreman asked and was swiftly rewarded with a slap on the arm.

"What cute new nurse? 13 asked. "And why haven't I met her?"

"Not your type," Foreman chuckled. "And speaking of types, what type of woman or species, for that matter, would be sending House flowers?

"Uh...still here in the room!" House said as he counted the number of daisies in the vase and hoped for some Keyser Soze-type clue. Once again, there were exactly 12 daisies and only 'Made in China' stamped on the bottom of the vase.

"You know what I mean, House," Foreman continued. "You don't exactly bring out the warm fuzzies in people."

"I'll tell that to my mother."

House rounded the desk and looked at the flowers from a different angle, hoping that would offer an explanation as to how they came to be in his office. "You know, the cute cafeteria lady always gives me extra pastrami on my Reuben. Maybe she wants a little man meat, a little somethin' somethin' from Dr. House? What do you think Foreman?"

"I think your ghetto vernacular is spot-on, Dr. House, but I doubt it's her. I've seen her arrive over several early mornings with Joe from Maintenance. I think they're an item. I'll check with Wilson. He'll know."

"Hmmm...?" House rumbled to himself as he went deeper into thought, ignoring ducklings past and present.

"Well, I've got surgery," Chase said as he headed for the door. "Why don't you just enjoy the fact that someone wanted to do something nice for you. Wanted to brighten your day. That someone out there actually likes you." House just stared at him like he had suddenly grown a second head. Taking that as his cue to leave, Chase turned and headed for the door. "Oh well, let me know if you guys get to the bottom of this little mystery," he tossed over his shoulder. "See ya."

"Someone sent House flowers," Chase whispered to Cameron, who was walking into the office as he was walking out. She giggled as his warm breath tickled her ear. "Try not to get pulled into 'The Mystery of the Daisies' he said in a spooky voice. "Don't worry," she said, giving him a quick peck on the lips before walking over to join the others in front of House's desk.

"Oh, that's so sweet," Cameron gushed as she leaned over to get a better look at and sniff the friendly little daisies in their baby pink vase.

"Sweet?!" House practically roared. "There is nothing sweet about this! If someone wants to meet me, all they have to do is come right up to me and state their business."

"Yeah, that's so you, Mr. Approachable," Cameron snarked while Foreman and 13 laughed out loud.

"Maybe they're from that new lab tech in Pathology?" Cameron offered, figuring that whomever sent the flowers had to be new and had yet to have the full pleasure of the Greg House experience.

"Who, Fred?" 13 asked, trying desperately to hold back the snort that threatened to escape her lips.

"No, the new Pathologist," Cameron said, trying not to laugh at 13's joke. "I can't remember her name right now, but the last time House and I were in there, I saw her give House more than a passing glance."

"Seriously?" House asked, his voice betraying him by rising half an octave.

If he really allowed himself to think about it, Pathology chick was kind of cute in a Plain Jane kind of way. A little on the mousy side for his taste, but he had noticed the rather zesty bod lurking underneath her lab coat.

"Seriously, what?" asked Wilson as he walked in, immediately joining the crowd of curious onlookers.

"Nothing," House growled.

"Oh, I think it's quite a something," Wilson smiled as he gazed at the lovely flowers still sitting proudly in the middle of House's desk.

Frustrated, House turned and limped into the conference room and stood before his whiteboard with marker in hand. He was determined to solve this puzzle the way he solved all his puzzles, with lots of logic and a little bit of luck. Everyone followed him into the conference room and slowly took their seats as he began scribbling furiously: White daisies...pink vase...12...early delivery...no occasion.

"OK, differential, people."

"You expect us to diagnose why someone would send you flowers?" Foreman asked incredulously. "You're an ass!"

"All the more reason to get to the bottom of this," House quipped.

Falling into their normal routine, the team began offering possible solutions. "You did something nice for someone?" Cameron asked, not quite believing it herself, but feeling the need to play along.

"You didn't do something nice for someone and the flowers are really a bomb set to go off at some predetermined time," added Taub, who had somehow managed to slip into the room unnoticed. With that, all eyes drifted slowly toward the suddenly not-so-innocent looking daisies.

"Come on, people, focus!" House barked, snapping their attention back to the board.

"You, my friend, are nuts!" Wilson said as he shook his head and ran his fingers through his dark brown hair. This was going even too far for his normally radical thinking friend.

Since things were slow in the ER and House didn't have a real case, the group continued to humor their obviously insane boss.

"Maybe they're from Stacy?"

"Maybe they're from Cuddy?"

"Maybe they're from Georgia? Wilson offered. "You know, those syphilis-induced crushes last a really long time!"

Slamming down the markers and grabbing his cane, House bellowed to the giggling group, "Don't you guys have fingers to re-attach, stuff to pull out of people's orifices, make bald cancer kids cry...you know...work?"

"We're going, we're going," everyone grumped as they rose as one and headed out the door, Wilson bringing up the rear. With them gone, House was now able to ponder his posies in peace.

"I'm a little worried about him," Wilson said as he looked back at House, who was once again examining the daisies, but this time with the tiniest smile on his face, begrudgingly warming to the idea of the innocent little daisies and the person who sent them. Maybe I won't totally rip their head off when I find them.

Squeezing into the front of the elevator, the curious crew paid little attention to the other passengers in the car as they continued chattering about House and his flowers. When the elevator reached the first floor, Foreman, 13, Wilson, Cameron and Taub all piled out followed by a woman with a small child with a red runny nose and a petite brunette carrying a huge stack of patient files.

Stopping in front of the nurses desk as the other passengers flowed around them, they continued their half-serious, half-joking discussion of who was behind House's mystery daisies.

In an aha moment worthy of House, Cameron suddenly squealed, "Daisy! Her name is Daisy! I heard she just transferred from Boston General and is considered outstanding in her field. She's even been called the 'House of Pathology!' I did notice the last time I was in there that there's always these small bouquets of fresh flowers around the lab; roses, carnations, irises, all kinds, usually in pink, white or clear vases. I rarely see her, but I always see the flowers. I guess it's her way of brightening up the place."

Daisy smiled crookedly as she heard her Dr. Cameron mention her name. She rounded the corner and headed for the quiet of her pathology lab. Dr. House had spent many hours down in Pathology since she had arrived at PPTH, little of it, she noticed, on legitimate business. He was either hiding from Dr. Cuddy or having lunch as he watched some soap opera, but never paying much attention to the quiet doctor with the short brown hair and big brown eyes, who kept a variety of fresh flowers on her far corner desk and on the reception counter of the sterile lab.

"Hmmm...I don't know how he missed this, but I can't wait to tell him he has a secret admirer," Wilson said gleefully as he pressed the elevator button to head back up to his friend's office.

"NO!" the others shouted in unison, this time drawing shushes from the nearby nurses. Glancing back and forth from one to the other with just a hint of a smirk, they all knew exactly what they were going to do.

"You know, it's really kinda sweet," Cameron said to the group.

"And, we know how much House could use a dose of sweet," said Foreman.

Looking at one another with smiling eyes, the team made a silent pact that they would all just sit back and wait to see how House's garden would grow.

The End