CHAPTER ONE: BEGINNINGS

Lisa Cuddy sat at her desk, pouring over the hospital finances. Things were bad, and the offer that blowhard Vogler had given her was looking better and better. That kind of money could do a lot of good at Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. But it would also mean losing the best doctor she had, and right now, that just wasn't an option.

The door opened slowly, cautiously. Cuddy looked up from her desk. "Is everything alright Nurse Previn?" Her trusted bulldog of a head nurse stood before her desk, looking uncharacteristically weak.

"I need a few days off Dr. Cuddy." She sounded upset, angry with herself, or the situation.

"That's not like you. Are you feeling well?" Cuddy stood up instinctively and approached her employee. She stopped when the woman recoiled.

"I think I've come down with something." In the eight years Brenda Previn had worked at Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital she had never taken a sick day.

"Of course, if you're not feeling well…perhaps one of the doctors…" Cuddy was abruptly cut off.

"No!" Brenda caught herself off guard. Fear crossed her eyes briefly. "No thank you doctor. I just need some rest."

"You'll tell me, if you need anything?" Cuddy sounded skeptical. She had worked with enough stubborn, hard headed people in her time to know that they never asked for help.

"I will. Thank you." Brenda practically bowed before hurrying out of the office. Cuddy watched her carefully.

If only that had been the strangest thing to happen recently; but it wasn't. There was a young boy, came into the clinic with some very unusual symptoms. Symptoms Cuddy recognized all too well. That's why she needed Dresden. He specialized in this sort of thing.

Wilson had insisted it was cancer, and Cuddy went ahead and let him believe that. It was easier than trying to convince him of the truth. At first it did seem like cancer, a slow dark mass creeping through his body, destroying every organ in its path. But then she had that dream...

The dream is what prompted her to call Harry Dresden. It was one of those dreams you don't really remember when you wake up, but you know it was bad, real bad, near death bad. She'd woken in a cold sweat, screaming out into the darkness. Whatever it was that had been chasing her vanished when she opened her eyes, but she would have sworn she could still feel it there in the room, watching her, waiting.

She hadn't been alone in the dream. Actually, the more she thought about it through the rest of that long night, the more she felt that she wasn't the one running. She was chasing the monster. Why the hell would she do that? There was only one reason. Someone she cared about was going to be killed if she didn't.

Harry's phone rang and rang, suddenly someone picked up and just as she was about to say hello, she realized it was the machine. She was a bit relieved when she heard the slow, deep voice tell her to leave a message. She wasn't ready to face the real Harry, not just yet.

"Harry? Um..." she stumbled over her words. She'd prepared what she was going to say, but the machine had thrown her off. She wasn't expecting him to have one. Harry wasn't exactly hip to the latest technology, and to him, an answering machine was cutting edge technology. "I don't know if you remember me." That was a ridiculous thing to say. They had known each other for a few years. She hoped she wasn't that forgettable. She pushed on. "It's Lisa...Cuddy...from school." She wanted to hang up. She nearly did, but a flash of that dream came into her head. A tall man, running for his life, hampered by a pronounced limp. "I need your help." She knew that would get his attention, if he hadn't already erased the message. Damn, she should have started with that. "I don't normally..." beg for help, but..." it's complicated. Is there any way you could come to Princeton, NJ? I'll pay for the trip, hotel, everything." Or rather the hospital will. Consultant, that's what she'd call it. That's what it was, really. "Just please, let me know soon." Damn! The line went dead.

She stared at the receiver for a moment. She was about to redial and finish her message, but House burst into her office.

"I've got a case." He announced excitedly.

"Good for you." She put the phone down and looked up at him, waiting for the punch line.

"You said if I found a case you would commute my clinic sentence." He looked back expectantly.

She had promised. "It's not a sentence House. It's a..."

"Duty. Same thing. So, I get out of it, right?"

"What's the case?" Cuddy wasn't about to let House slip out of clinic duty with another case of the measles.

"Frank Fratelli," House proudly said the patients name. He was trying to show a personal interest, make her think this was a really special case. "Suffering from inexplicable broken bones..."

"Brittle bone syndrome?" Cuddy held out her hand and House placed a file in it.

"Nope;" like he would bother with a case of brittle bone.

Cuddy flipped through the file silently as House looked down at her, or more precisely, down her blouse which was slightly open in just the right place.

"Fine, you are off clinic duty for a week." She handed the file back. She tried hard to mask her concern.

"A week? What if the case takes longer?"

"You've got three highly trained, highly bored doctors working for you. A week should be more than enough." She had a very bad feeling that she could give him a year and he still wouldn't find a medical reason for this Fratelli guy's problem.

"A week." House trudged out the door. He had been hoping for an 'until the case is solved', but it looks like that trick only worked once.

Cuddy picked up the phone again. She dialed Harry's number. She hung up. What was she supposed to say to him? Last time they'd talked she told him she never wanted to see him again. Now she had to beg for his help? Maybe she didn't need it. Maybe she was overreacting. A few nightmares and she starts seeing strange things everywhere.

Brenda probably just needed a vacation. Maybe Cuddy should take one herself. Fratelli probably did have some rare disease. House would be able to figure it out, with the right incentive. Everything was going to be fine. She'd just been spooked by a few bad dreams. That was all it was; really.

Why couldn't she get herself to believe that?

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