A/N: Howdy folks. Sorry for the lack of updates. This chapter was ready 3 days ago, but FFN was being a douchebag and wouldn't let me upload it. Anyways, here it is. This chapter takes place the Monday after Cameron made the bet. Sorry for the jumpage aroundage but this is how my mind writes the story. Curse you, ADHD! lol Thank you so much for the response that I've gotten. 43 alerts! Wow! Please review this chappie; I looooove feedback. Oh dear, I'm rambling again. Enjoy!

PLEASE INSERT MANDATORY 'I DON'T OWN HOUSE BUT I WISH I DID' DISCLAIMER HERE

Chapter 4

"House!" Cuddy bellowed, her high heels clacking loudly against the polished tile floor. House cursed under his breath and glared at the elevator. It always seemed to slow down exactly when Cuddy appeared, didn't it? He'd have to have maintenance check into that.

"Don't even try to run away from me, House."

"What do you want, Cuddy?" he sighed.

"You haven't taken on a case in over a week! People are dying! What have you been doing?" Her voice was rising with each word; he was waiting for a windowpane to crack.

"I've given you a reason for not accepting your dumb cases, Cuddy. And at the risk of sounding repetitive, I'll say it again: they were boring."

"I don't care if you can diagnose a patient with a stick up your nose and my foot up your ass," she growled, teeth clenched. "They're still dieing and you are still my employee. I give you a case; you solve it. This is not rocket science, man!"

House rolled his eyes and stepped into the elevator that had finally arrived.

"You find me something interesting. Although, really, that foot up my ass sounds kinda kinky. Can we still do that?"

The doors closed, and the elevator began to rise, leaving a steaming Cuddy glowering at the wall. House sighed and ran a hand through his graying hair. His watch read 3:00 but it felt like he'd been at the hospital for two days. Hopefully the underlings will be entertaining, he thought.

The doctor stumped to the office, fully expecting to see Cameron at his desk, Foreman stacking toothpicks and Chase doing his damn crossword. Instead, he started when he saw Cuddy writing on the whiteboard while his ducklings rushed to their seats.

"Cute trick. I am impressed," he said.

"The stairs are much faster than the elevator," she replied with her back to him. "You should try them sometime. Oh, wait. You can't. Never mind."

"Nice."

Cuddy snorted and continued writing. "16 year old boy had a seizure during his school play. His white blood count is through the roof but there's no sign of infection."

"What play?"

She looked at the man strangely. "Peter Pan. Why does it matter?"

House shrugged. "I had to make sure it wasn't Macbeth. You know what they say. Curses and all that. I'm a doctor. I need to know these things."

"Right," Foreman said. "Well, now that we've got that cleared up, can we get on with this diagnosis?"

House took the marker from Cuddy and erased her chicken scratches. "Don't touch my markers."

"Seizures, ataxia, high white blood count. He also had very low blood pressure directly after the seizure but its leveled out." Cuddy paused and flipped a few pages. "Also, his blood shows very low levels of mineralcorticoids, androgens and glucocorticoids."

Cameron frowned. "Low steroid hormones usually mean adrenal insufficiency."

"He's a bit old for that, isn't he? I vote for Addison's," said Chase.

"No, I agree with Cameron," Foreman said. "Low steroid hormones plus ataxia, seizures and low blood pressure almost always means AI."

"I'm with those two," House quipped. "Chase, you lose. Do not pass go. Do not collect 200 dollars." He turned back to Cuddy. "Put him on synthetic glucocorticoids to replace the deficient adrenal steroid hormones. He'll be back to diddling the Lost Boys in no time." With that, he stole the cookie Cameron was lifting to her lips and limped to his office.

"We tried that already. He's not getting any better," Cuddy called after him. House paused.

"You need to let the medicine do its job. That takes time. I know it's not Tinkerbell, but I'm sure the boy will understand."

"He's been here for 2 weeks! This was the first case I gave to you after the COPD diagnosis. You rejected this case once already; said it was 'boring.'" House didin't like the slightly evil look that was glinting in the brunette's eyes. She continued. "Look at the damn file, House. No one can figure out what's wrong. I can't even figure out what's wrong. Doesn't that feed your ego slightly?"

He turned slowly, one eyebrow firmly raised. "It's still boring." He limped back to his boss and took the file from her. "Just not quite as much as it used to be."