"She's pretty no surprise there." Wilson teased.
"Sorry to disappoint you but I'm not hiring her because she's pretty."
"Right." Wilson said giving a disbelieving look.
"I'm not only hiring her because she's pretty, she's interesting."
"She's lived three places in five years; before you can even find out who she is she'll be packing up and moving on." Wilson countered.
"Would you rather I hire the stripper? She has an IQ of 158."
"The stripper?" Wilson said letting his mouth hang open in disbelief.
"No you moron, Peyton."
"She does not; you wish she had an IQ of 158 so you wouldn't look like an old pervert for hiring every pretty girl who hands you her resume."
"These didn't come with headshots! Here." House handed Wilson a piece of paper from across the desk.
Wilson scanned the page; there in black and white was Peyton's IQ score.
"Okay so she's smart but that doesn't change the fact that she isn't reliable."
"No, that means she's really really smart. Like smarter than you smart. Which will make her useful for whatever time she's here; maybe you'll learn something."
"You're not hiring her because she's smart, you like the fact that she's running from something and you think you can pick her apart to entertain your misery." Wilson said while pointing a finger at House.
He hated Wilson's psycho babble. He hated more that more often than not he was right but that rarely ever stopped him.
"I'm hiring her because she's…interesting and because she's smart and b/c she's nice to look at."
"It's your department; you can clean up the mess." Wilson threw his hands up.
"The mess being what we have another Cameron who can't resist my wily ways."
"No she's smart remember." Wilson stated sarcastically to his friend.
Cuddy stood in front of the nurse's station deep in conversation with Nurse Brenda when House came lolloping towards her with the employee file in hand.
"Are you girls gossiping about me again? Me and my huge cane, the rumors are true; it's long, hard and...".
"We have better things to talk about than your wood." Cuddy snarked.
"I love it when you talk dirty, but please not in front of the help." House whispered tilting his head toward Nurse Brenda.
She took the hint, rolled her eyes and walked away.
"House. My office." She barked
He let out a low sexy growl "Dominatrix, I like it. Are you going to spank me?" He said limping towards her office.
When they were safely in the confines of the Dean of medicine's office, doors closed and Cuddy seated at her desk Cuddy spoke.
"Your week is up; I am hoping that file is the employee you have chosen."
He took a moment to look around not really saying anything. He was suddenly reminded of the disturbing find in this room a week earlier. For a moment it made him uncomfortable. This was the first time he'd let the thought cross his mind since that night. And now she was sitting in front of him and that image was probably sitting before her just inside the desk drawer. Knowing that the scan was there was like a having a corpse in the room suddenly. He couldn't ignore it; it distracted him and haunted him at the same time. It was burning a hole in the desk. Normally he would make a snide hurtful remark to hide his own feelings of discomfort and lash out at whatever made him feel that way. But that would involve him letting her know he had seen it. He wasn't going to do that and then he realized more importantly he didn't want to. This was a change from his normal pattern and he didn't know how to handle it. He was furious with himself for even letting it bother him. He mentally kicked himself again. He didn't care about it, shouldn't care about it and now he refused to care about it.
"HOUSE." Cuddy yelled getting his attention.
"The file, is that your new employee?"
"It's actually a hooker I ordered for Wilson and I thought since it's medicinal and important to his health that we should expense it." He snarked handing the file to her.
She rolled her eyes and opened the file.
"Wow, I can't believe you actually hired someone in a week and brought me the file. Are you okay?" She commented looking over the file.
"I need you to run it through HR today, she starts tomorrow." He started to leave waiting for her to notice, he knew it was coming.
"This isn't one of the candidates I gave you….In fact I've seen her resume. Where did you get this?" She said suddenly turning towards her computer and typing quickly. "Samantha Peyton, Pulmonologist…..she's had three jobs in five years. She's only worked for private practices and has no real diagnostic experience. Where did you get her resume?"
House looked away whistling and pretending to look innocent.
"Did you hack into the admin mainframe again?" She said looking shocked.
"No actually I didn't… I just came across it."
"You mean you broke into my office." She shook her head as always. "How did you, wait I don't want to know. Is anything in this hospital off limits to you? Do you have any respect for my privacy?"
"Hey that was public information; I just got it from a non-public place."
"You are not hiring her. She won't last a week with you."
"So then we'll be right back here, doesn't matter because I already hired her." He said making an ohh well gesture.
"Then un-hire her." She bellowed.
"If she doesn't work out I'll hire one of your picks." He gave her the bone that always made her give in but made her think she had the upper hand. She never did though.
She pursed her lips together and made a frown; she was obviously thinking about it. He knew she was going to cave. She always looked at him the same way before she finally agreed to one of his insane tactics. He had her. She let out a frustrated sigh and tossed the file back to her desk with implied irritation.
"One month, and if she's still here then I decide whether or not she is up to par. God knows she's probably attractive if you hired her and I am not letting you keep some brain dead dysfunctional doctor because she makes you tingle inside."
He smirked and gave a half smile, half laugh. Just enough to show her he was pleased and just enough to not show that she made him feel better. He always felt better after he had a row with her. It was something about the way she fought him that just made everything stand still. It had made him forget briefly about the object sitting in her desk drawer anyway.
He nodded and continued his earlier exit leaving her to mull over the storm that was now brewing in her head. He had made it as far as the lobby when Kutner appeared from the elevator walking briskly towards him file in hand; which could only mean one thing and it was too late to turn and head in the other direction.
"35 yr old female 25 weeks pregnant. Flu-like symptoms, swollen lymphs and encephalitis." Kutner excitedly rattled off handing a file off to House.
"Fever?" He asked opening the file to the current list of symptoms.
"103."
He shoved the file back at Kutner and headed toward the elevator. This was going to be a long day.
