A/N: Thanks so, so much to Mikesh for our first ever review on this story! Much love to you. CosmicGirl22 thought it would be a good idea to let you all know that the part of Drew is being played Drew Fuller... or a look alike. Whichever is more believable.
Disclaimer: We don't own anything related to House but we're certainly going borrow a few of the characters. Hehehe. Hahaha.
Chapter Two
House walked back into the gift shop, and ignoring the girl behind the counter, set up his TV on the magazine rack and turned it back onto his show. He propped himself up against the wall beside the magazine rack and sighed, thankful he'd only missed about fifteen minutes. The girl looked at him and almost said something, but then the door chime rang again.
"Can you show me your selection of flowers?" the robust man said as he came in. "My wife is having her tubes tied. I want to get her something pretty. She likes roses."
"Alright, they're right over here." Elise smiled and showed him her small display of fresh flowers. They were delivered bi-weekly from the local flower shop. The gift shop itself was small. With all the knick knacks placed around, it felt more like a walk in closet than a room, especially with three people in it.
"Looks like the only roses we have right now are pink or yellow." she said showing him the first two sets of flowers on the rack.
"I don't know..." the man looked at the price tag and stalled. "Aren't you supposed to get girls red roses?"
"Red is the norm for romance, because it means love, but pink signifies admiration and sympathy which is sort of fitting for your wife's circumstances, don't you think?"
"I think I'd really rather go with red."
"Ok, well we do have some red carnations. Carnations mean devoted love." she moved back to show him some other
"These look kind of wilted." he grumped.
"Actually we're supposed to get another shipment tomorrow."
"No good." the man sighed. "She goes home tomorrow. You're sure you don't have any red roses at all?"
"Oh my god, would you shut up!" It was House from the corner of the room. "She's already told you she doesn't have any. Do you think if you keep arguing with her she's going to amazingly pull some out of her ass?"
The man looked like he had been slapped across the face. He kept looking from Elise to House and back again. He had a 'you're going to let him talk to me that way' look on his face. Elise only shrugged.
"I'll order her flowers from a flower shop. They'll probably be cheaper anyway." he said finally and stormed out.
"Was that your way of helping me?" Elise said after a brief pause. "because you kind of just cost me a sale."
"It was my way of getting him to shut up so I could listen to this." House said, not looking back at her. "Besides he wasn't going to buy any of those anyway."
"Yeah, he was." she persisted. "All I had to do was reassure him I didn't have any red roses, then he would've tried to talk me down on the price. I would've thrown in the card for free and he would've bought the pink roses."
"I thought you said you hadn't worked here long?" House turned and raised his eyebrow.
"I haven't worked here long, but I've been in retail for a long enough to know when I've sold someone."
"Sorry, won't happen again." he said in the most insincere tone he could muster. She was about to throw him out when he winced at a pain in his leg. He fished into his pocket and pulled out some pills and chomped down on one. She felt sort of bad, he was a customer too and she didn't have any right to bawl him out. She walked over behind her counter and grabbed her stool.
"Here." she said and slid it over to him. He was about to slide it back to her, but then something about the look on her face made him reconsider. He stuck his cane on the rack behind him and sat down on the stool, and went back to watching his show.
"Well, I'm glad that one's done with," Foreman sighed. "I'll drop the file off and then I'm taking my break."
"No, I'll do it," Chase volunteered, showing his first sign of interest in the conversation.
"I thought you had a patient in ICU," questioned Cameron.
"I do," the Aussie agreed. "I also need am old file on a man who came in today."
"Alright." Foreman handed Chase the file, looking a little baffled.
Taking the file, Chase walked out of the room and left his fellow doctors to look at each other with confusion. He walked briskly down the corridors until he came around the corner to the file room. Then he stopped for a brief moment.
There was Tess standing at the window, laughing. Her head was tilted back, her eyes closed, and her brown hair hanging loose around her shoulders. "You are ridiculous," she said to the young intern that stood with his back to Chase, leaning casually against the counter. "Just give me the file." She held her hand out expectantly but the young man pulled the maroon file back and laughed.
"Not until you tell me your name," he said smoothly.
"Cher," she replied, jokingly. "Now, give me that."
He laughed at her joke. "Your real name."
For a moment she narrowed her eyes at him in mock anger and placed her hands on her hips. "Tess."
"A beautiful name for a beautiful woman," he said as he handed her the file.
Tess rolled her eyes and scoffed but she still smiled at the compliment. "Now, get out of here and let me do my job before we both get in trouble."
"But I haven't told you my name, yet," he whined, only half joking.
"It's Andrew." Tess pointed to his nametag. "Now scram! I have files to... file."
"Drew," he corrected as he backed away slowly. "And I think this is going to be my new favorite place." Tess merely laughed and shook her head as she returned to the files on her desk.
Once the intern, Drew, had gone, Chase continued his way up to the window. He watched as the young man walked off with a smirk and a twinkle in his blue eyes. Chase took an instant disliking to him.
"Hello," he said to Tess, still looking where Drew had walked off.
"Hi." He turned to see her smiling at him. "I didn't expect to see you back here again."
"Why's that," he asked, brow furrowed.
Her smile widened. "Most doctors have nurses or interns drop off their files."
"Well, maybe I'm not most doctors," he shot back.
Tess chuckled. "What do you need?"
"I need a file for a Mr. Thomas Dorian," he said, forgetting about the file he held in his hand.
"Dorian, Thomas," she repeated as she moved off to a shelf labeled "A-F" There was a brief silence as she searched for the file before she reappeared with it in her hand. "Thomas Dorian, DOB 4/27/79?"
"That's the one," he replied, taking it as she handed it to him over the counter. "Did you finally get that place cleaned up?"
"Enough to make a prudish librarian proud. It actually wasn't as bad as I made it sound. I just like to complain." They shared a smile at her joke.
Chase opened his mouth to compliment her, just as her phone rang. "Just a second." Reaching down she picked up the receiver. "Filing, how may I help you?" A pause. It was the Churchill Memorial Hospital in the next town over. "Francesca Jenks? How long ago did she say she was here? ...Uh-huh. Let me check the computer." She sat down and began typing away quickly.
Chase looked around and noticed a stack of sticky post-its on her desk. They were just in his reach and on an impulse he ripped one off and stuck it inside the file he held. Taking the pen from his pocket, he scrawled a quick note before closing it. Tess looked up at him and he pointed over his shoulder to signal that he was leaving. She nodded and returned to her mad search for Francesca Jenks's data.
As she waited for a page to load, Tess reached up to the counter and picked up the file Chase had left. Out of curiosity and boredom, she flipped it open. A small smile spread across her lips and she glanced up to see if he was still there but he was long gone.
Still smiling down at the little note, Tess was pulled out of her thoughts by the filing clerk on the other end of the line. "Are you still there," she asked waspishly.
"Yes." Tess turned back to her computer, still smiling. "Yes, I'm still here." No matter how hard she tried she couldn't forget the little note.
Your hair looks nice today.
Elise sat looking at her plate of hospital lasagna and sighed. The job wasn't too bad but the food sucked. She made a mental note to start bringing her own lunch. Her mind kept going back to that guy from the gift shop. After his show was over he had turned off the TV, bought another bear and thanked her for letting him use her stool. She shrugged it off and was making designs out of her green beans when Tess plopped her tray down beside her.
"Don't even think about it." Tess said when she noticed Elise was eyeing her chocolate cake.
"Probably too dry anyway." Elise shrugged and took a forced bite of green beans. "So, how has your morning been?"
"Busy." Tess said between her first few rushed bites. "Honestly, whoever ran my section before me must've been blind or senile. Or both. We've been here for two weeks and I've only just gotten the place cleaned up." She took a bite of her cake and grimaced. "Tastes like Jenny Craig."
"And I thought my day had been bad, helping little Sally pick out just the right color of balloon for her big brave trip to the big scary hospital. You'll never believe this one weird guy that keeps coming into the shop. He watches his TV show then buys a bear and leaves."
"You have no idea how hectic it is up there, " Tess sighed, "but it has its perks."
"Perks?" Elise's eyebrow raised.
"Well, there are some pretty nice looking doctors that drop by." She grinned
"You're kidding me!"
Tess shook her head. "Nope, and I think one of them is finding files to bring to me."
"So basically I'm stuck in a broom closet while you're having fun at 'Club MED'."
"Yeah," Tess grinned, slightly enjoying her friend's jealousy. "He's this really hot Australian guy, and then there's this other one who is an intern in surgery, Drew something."
"No fair! You get to hobnob with hot, young, rich doctors all day, while I'm stuck with teddy bears and some guy that's using the gift shop as his personal lounge."
"Don't be that way!" Tess grinned. "When we get home we'll watch a movie so we can both ogle hot guys."
"Hello, ladies." Tess and Elise looked up to see Dr. Cuddy standing above them. "How are your first few weeks going?"
"Great." Elise plastered a smile on her face and hoped to God her boss hadn't heard her complaining about her job.
"Now that I've got most of the filing sorted, its getting better." Tess half laughed.
"Oh, I know." Cuddy said with a sympathetic nod. "Mrs. Regina was a sweet woman, but I think she had lost it a bit there at the end, but its good to see you two settling in. Now, I don't have time to chat but if you need anything you know where my office is. Now, to go find Dr. House." Cuddy said more to herself than to them and headed off in the direction of diagnostics.
"Hmm... Dr. House." Tess said slightly interested. "A lot of the staff say he's a real asshole."
"I suppose most doctors are." Elise said absentmindedly then upon seeing the look on Tess's face. "Except the really hot Aussie, and intern ones of course." Tess smiled, and continued eating.
"Well, I guess Ill go back into my closet and stare at the kitty poster that says 'Hang In There' for another four hours," Elise picked up her tray. "See you later. I get to pick the movie."
