Samantha Amelia Mathews brought something to House's team that he never realised was missing until she came to work for him. He couldn't point it out exactly, but he felt a great sense of calm every time she spoke. When solving one of their many puzzles he felt the pressure rise due to the fact he was desperate to show her what he could do, though he badgered her and pushed her near to breaking point when he knew she could do it.

House wasn't the only one who felt a change in Sam's presence. Sam and Alison Cameron had formed a seemingly unbreakable friendship in the space of a week. The two were rarely apart, and House found it somewhat irritating to find them both twittering away about some male nurse or a TV show they have the same liking for.

Chase, on the other hand, seemed to be keeping his distance, but more than once House had caught him staring at Sam with a love-struck expression on his face, much to Cameron's annoyance.

Forman took Sam firmly under his wing, and the two formed a strong bond one particular lunch break when Forman produced an article he had been working on examining Neurological problems commonly found in children.

House was right in thinking she'd do well with cases concerning children; a seven year old boy was admitted to their care less then a month after Sam started. She successfully gained the trust of both the boy's parents and the kid himself, enabling House and the rest of his team to investigate the illness with very little interruptions. Chase and Cameron searched the family home, and the puzzle was solved when the young boy opened up to Sam about the new friends he had in school who had given him foreign sweets, sweets that had caused a near death allergic reaction.

The following case was as much of a doddle, the girl was twelve and had a tumour set into her brain. Not surprising to House, the girls parents thanked Sam after she broke the news that the girl had six months at the most left to live.

All this in mind, House was confident that again, with Sam now on the team, there would be little or no problems concerning ethics or anything else along those lines as he approached the conference room with another case in hand; Cuddy had pounced on him the minute he entered the hospital. The patient was another young boy, this time nine years old, brought in by his mother and sister.

"Nine year old boy." House announced as he entered the room to find all four members of his team sat at the glass table. He threw the file in front of Sam who picked it up again immediately. She began to throw out ideas to House who was scribbling on the whiteboard, with Cameron, Chase and Forman beating down certain theories and agreeing to others. As soon as they had narrowed down some ideas House sent them to run the usual tests and take the usual body samples.

Sam and Chase were heading in the direction of the patients room when a woman and a man, both dressed in formal suits, turned the corner. Sam stopped still, she recognised the woman.

"Sam?" Chase enquired. "Are you ok?"

"Chase can you get Cameron or Forman to help you with the MRI?" Sam asked him, her eyes still on the woman coming towards her. "I have a feeling I'm not going to be available for a while."

"Yeah, sure." Chase took the patient file from her. "I'll see you later then."

He passed the people approaching Sam, and as he turned the corner heard them say:

"Samantha Mathews? I'm afraid I have some bad news…"

Chase was thinking about Sam as he continued down another corridor, so he didn't see the escaped patient who was waving a syringe around until he walked right into him. He felt the needle pierce his skin, and as he fell to the floor the darkness drove both Sam and the patients MRI out of his mind.

House rounded a corner to find Sam leaning against the wall outside the lift, staring into space.

"Tests were clear." He said as the lift doors slid open. "Come on."

Sam followed obediently, not saying a word.

"I take it the MRI was clean?"

"Mmm." Sam bit at a nail on her left hand, not listening to a word House was saying. The lift reached their floor and they both continued back to the conference room, where both Cameron and Forman were sat waiting.

"So, tests negative, and we're one man down." House gestured towards Chases' empty chair. "Any more ideas? Come on, differential diagnosis people!"

"What happened to him?"

"What?" House stared at Sam.

"Chase. Where is he?"

"Attacked by a patient." Forman explained. "Injected him with a sleeping drug. Knocked him out for a while."

"But…"

"Sam, Chase is not our patient so he is not our concern." House said irritably, tapping the whiteboard with his pen.

"He was on his way to do the MRI!"

House stopped tapping and stared at her. Forman had been about to take a sip of coffee but his hand froze halfway to his lips. Cameron was frowning.

"I thought everything was clear?"

"I didn't do anything, I was-"

"You told me the MRI was clean." House said loudly.

"What? No I-"

"When we came up in the lift-"

Sam groaned.

"I wasn't listening to you!"

House opened his mouth to retort angrily when his pager beeped. He glanced at it just as Cameron, Forman and Sam were also paged.

"Crap." House muttered, throwing aside the black pen and heading for the door. "Kid's gone into respiratory distress."