The next morning though, she was gone before he was awake. A note on the kitchen counter stated: Have meeting, need to run. See you later. He threw on some clothing of questionable cleanliness and then took his bike to work, thinking up ways to torment his fellows today. They had been a bit light on the uncommon recently.
Cuddy caught him soon after he'd entered the building, before he had located any of his targets. That was the other amazing part of this whole situation--here, nothing had changed.
"House, I have a case for you." She followed him as he limped down the hallway to his office.
He shot back his standard response. "Not interested."
"Twenty-three year old woman, stroke, heart failure, no reasons for either . . ."
"Figure out what drugs she's doing."
"Toxicology screen is clean."
"Figure out what drugs she was doing."
He could see Thirteen headed his way down the hall, so he lead Cuddy into his office, listening to her description of the case with half an ear. "She graduated from college last year with top honors, has been gainfully employed until her medical issues began, I doubt she's done enough drugs to cause this type of harm to her body."
"Doesn't take much if it's the right kind . . . "
Cuddy tossed the file down on his desk, and launched into her lecture-mode. "House, you and your team are doing nothing right now except sitting around taking up space . . ."
"They're doing clinic duty, aren't they?"
"You're not doing clinic duty."
"Count theirs as mine. Good managers delegate."
Thirteen had paused outside his office, obviously waiting for Cuddy to finish with him before entering herself. Refusing to rescue him was not an option. He turned back to Cuddy and started "it appears that I have something more important I need to be doing . . . "
That was when he noticed that Cuddy was suddenly leaning for support against the edge of his desk, her full weight braced against a single hand. Her face had turned white and appeared to be trying to gather herself back together against a body determined to fall apart.
"House . . . " she managed in a strained voice, before--despite her efforts--her body simply shut down on her.
He was standing close enough to grab her and attempt to ease her to the floor with him, but caught completely off-balance and with his weight suddenly shifting onto his bad leg, they both went down harder then he wanted. His shoulder struck the side of his desk. Thirteen rushed in, a shocked expression on her face, and he demanded "Get a damned gurney and some nurses, will you?"