Thanks for your patience. I know there wasn't alot of House in the first chapter, but our favorite doctor makes his presence known in this one. Trust me, once this gets going, it's all aobut House. Just need to set it up.

P.S. I apologize in advance for wimping out on the medical aspects. I was goign to research some disease to use for this chapter, but when I start reading medical stuff, my eyes glaze over and I get fuzzy. So forgive me for making it vague, but I think I got the point across. Thanks!

Chapter 2

Three months later…

Cameron tapped her foot impatiently, waiting for House to let them leave. There was really nothing more they could do for the patient tonight and Michael was waiting for her. They were celebrating their five-month anniversary with a special dinner and she was already late. They had driven to work together that morning (after spending the previous night together), so Michael wouldn't leave without her.

As the time wore on, she knew she was getting impatient. House, of course, noticed her impatience and dragged out the DDX. He knew she was dating someone in the hospital and that she probably had a hot date. So of course, he had to keep her waiting. There was also the fact that they weren't coming up with anything to explain the symptoms the patient was exhibiting. Something was missing here. His team couldn't see it and he was stumped as well.

He started to browbeat them again, asking questions, dismissing their answers and calling them stupid when they named diseases that didn't make sense. Cameron suggested an autoimmune problem for the tenth time and he blasted her.

He was staring at the whiteboard and telling them to try again, when he heard an unfamiliar voice say, "Maybe if you stopped yelling at them long enough to let them think, they would come up with the right answer."

House turned around to see a young, dark-haired man standing there.

"They don't know the right answer." House told him.

"Do you?"

"Maybe. Do you?"

"I think so."

"Well?"

"Why should I tell you? I don't work for you."

"Tell me the right answer and you could."

Michael eyed House cautiously. He glanced quickly at Allison, who was trying to keep all emotion out of her expression. "Okay." He said and named an obscure disease.

House watched him, his mind working. He turned back to the whiteboard, staring at the symptoms. "No, thanks for playing, but that doesn't have these symptoms." He told him what symptoms it usually had.

"Not everyone presents that way. There have been documented cases where it didn't."

"It doesn't explain this." House said, pointing to a symptom on the board.

"Sure it does. If you take this into account." He wrote something else on the board.

"Who said she had that?"

Michael pointed out that the board said she was suffering from one symptom that usually caused another. And that was the one that Michael had written.

House stared at the whiteboard once again and so did his team. He had missed that. How had he missed that? It made perfect sense.

"Chase, go check it. If it's positive, start her on the medication for it. Foreman, run the tests again to make sure." He turned and looked at Michael. "I assume you're Cameron's latest boy toy."

Michael eyed the older doctor, then said, "I'm Michael Newman, I work for Zaleski in Cardiology."

'I'm sorry."

"Why?"

"Zaleski's an idiot."

Michael tried to hide the smile. House was right, but he knew it wasn't wise to diss his boss in front of a colleague. "Well, not everyone can be the brilliant Dr. House."

"True. Well, Newman as a reward, you can take Cameron out of here and have hot, wild sex to celebrate the fact that you're smarter than she is."

"Smarter than you too, apparently."

House narrowed his eyes. "Don't push it kid. Someone will have to spend the night with the patient. If you don't want it to be your girlfriend, you'd better quit while you're ahead."

"Wow, I'd heard better about you." Michael said as he started to lead Cameron out of the conference room.

"What do you mean?"

"Didn't think you'd play the power card that early to win an argument. Really expected better." They were in the corridor and making their escape at this point.

House watched them leave, a smile appearing on his face.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"…and then we just walked away and Michael never looked back at him!" Allison told Marianne. "It was amazing. No one talks to him that way!"

"So, what did 'the jerk' do then?" Michael and Allison always referred to Allison's boss as 'the jerk'. Marianne didn't even know his name. But since her son didn't work for him, she really didn't care. He didn't sound like a man she'd ever want to meet anyway.

"I don't know." Allison said. "We never turned back. I can't believe Michael did that!"

"Why?" Michael asked. "What was I supposed to do? I solved his case for him and he acts like an ass."

"Actually, he was pretty nice to you."

"He was?" Michael was incredulous.

"Sure, he let me leave. He didn't have to."

"Yeah, but he made sure to make sexual comments about us first."

Marianne was shocked. "He did? That's terrible! He really is a jerk."

"No, that's just his way." Allison said. "I mean, he is a jerk. But he uses sexual comments a lot. It doesn't really mean anything."

"Still, if he makes another remark like that about you, I'm going to punch his lights out. I don't care if he is a department head."

Both women looked at Michael affectionately. Marianne because she was proud that her son would stand up for the woman she could see he was falling in love with and Cameron because he would stand up to House for her.

Later that night, when Michael and Allison were alone in her bed, they talked about it again.

"But Michael, aren't you excited that you solved the case?"

He smiled at her. "Yeah, how about it? I did something the great Gregory House couldn't do. Pretty cool, huh?"