A/N: Chapter 4 is now up. If you want me to continue and write and post chapter 5 soon please take the time to leave me a review. It really means a lot to me and I know that I get sort of discouraged when no one really seems to review, so please tell me what you think! It means the world!

Disclaimer: I don't own House, M.D.

It had been a few days since her first day at Princeton Plainsboro and it had been a few days since her conversation with Wilson.

She had finally started to get settled in nicely. She had her own apartment and it was the most independent she'd felt in a while.

Frances woke up and got out of bed. Running a brush through her shoulder length black hair and buttoning up a grey dress shirt, she opened her bedroom door and walked out into her living room.

"Gooood morning." She muttered sarcastically to herself as she began to make her morning coffee. The coffee pot brewed loudly in the corner of her small kitchen as she looked outside. Her apartment was in the heart of town, making up for the ridiculously small size of it. It was also very close to the hospital which was the only thing she really cared about.

She didn't really have any need for a big place. She didn't entertain, she'd left all her family and close friends in Boston, or one of the many other places she'd lived, so that wasn't a problem. Her work hours also meant that she didn't spend a lot of time at home either, other than to sleep.

Sometimes she didn't even do that. The diagnostics chairs weren't as uncomfortable as one would think.

Plus she usually opted to take the night shifts when they had a patient. She assumed that everyone else had someone to get home to, besides House of course. It wasn't an inconvenience to her. It seemed selfless but if she was being completely honest with herself she knew it was because she preferred to be alone. She just worked better that way.

Her apartment struck her as bland, which was something she tried not to think of herself as. All the walls were painted a generically plain white and her furniture was years old, scuffed up and worn from accompanying her on all her various moves. The only thing that really gave the place the impression that someone lived there was her various books, medical and not, scattered across floor to ceiling bookshelves and on her little coffee table. The two pictures one of a young Frances and her family and one of two teenage girls linked arm in arm, were the only sentimental pieces.

The coffee pot beeped and she walked over to it, after slipping on her black wedge heels. Pouring the thick black liquid into a plain white mug Frances sat down on her couch, she didn't have a dining room or a dining table. While drinking the bitter black coffee she reflected on her new life.

She was happy about her decision to move to Princeton. It was something she was unsure of originally when Foreman first called her, telling her that he had heard all about her work at Mayo and was very impressed. She was shocked when he told her that he wanted to offer her a job in his Diagnostics department. It wasn't too much of a change to move. She'd stayed in Boston for pre-med then went to Baltimore for med school at John Hopkins and then again to Minnesota to do her internship at the Mayo Clinic. Moving again to Princeton wasn't something drastic.

She didn't really get close to a lot of people during her various moves, just leaving the odd friend here and there. Her family wasn't that big of a deal, though her step-mother and sister called her incessantly to complain about never seeing her. It wasn't something that Frances regretted. She hoped to stay in Princeton for a while and hopefully maybe even develop some lasting relationships along the way.

She decided this would be good for her, she wasn't necessarily happy, but she was content.

And she could handle that.

She placed her empty coffee cup in the sink, deciding to leave it there till she got home from work tonight. She grabbed her bag from her bedroom after putting on minimal amounts of dark eye make up and headed off to work.

She still hadn't gotten her car sent in from Baltimore yet. So she stood at the bus stop on the corner and held her arms close to her body. It was a cold late October day in New Jersey and she didn't have the common sense to bring a sweater. She knew without even having to look that her normally tanned skin was dusted pink from the chill of the wind.

After waiting 5 minutes for the bus and then another 10 to get to the hospital, Frances finally walked in the doors of her new work. It was warm inside and she let out a sigh, her breath visible in the freezing air.

She walked inside, slipping on her white lab coat as she returned the courteous nods from some of the staff that had begun to recognize her. She was becoming to feel more welcomed at the hospital as the days went on and people began to remember her. There was even a male nurse who asked her out for drinks a few days earlier. She had declined of course, telling him graciously that she had a lot of work to do.

Truthfully she hadn't had anything to do and left the hospital ten minutes later. Alone.

Oddly, thinking about the male nurse with his bronzed skin, blue eyes and young face had her thinking about Wilson. Sometimes she truly hated her subconcious. Over the past few days she hadn't really had any contact with him. They passed in the hallways a few times and he gave her a friendly smile as they went their separate ways. That was it. Nothing more nothing less.

Riding up in the elevator on her way to the diagnostics office that morning she realized she hadn't heard his voice since their conversation last week.

'God I really need to stop obsessing over someone I have barely just met.' She thought inwardly scolding herself.

She shrugged her shoulder to keep her bag up as she walked over to the office. Things had gotten better here, she felt relaxed around her coworkers. They all got along well. Entering the room she saw them all lounging at the table, Chase with his feet up, Taub flipping through a magazine and Park nervously taking notes on something. She assumed that their patient was stable for the moment. During the night Taub noticed that patient had a nose bleed and began bleeding from his mouth, indicated that they were wrong about Sjogrens. After a emergency differental at 1 am, only including House by telephone, they had all decided it was most likely aplastic anemia, her diagnosis, and that the kid needed a bone marrow transplant. She was proud of her diagnosis, a diagnosis she had only discovered while seeing the low white cell count earlier that day.

She was shocked to see that House was already there that early in the morning. Looking down to check her watch Frances saw it was 9 am. Raising her head again to make a snarky remark about House's unusual early appearance she was even more shocked to see Wilson standing next to him.

House had a sour scowl on his face, obviously displeased with whatever Wilson was telling him. Not having any idea what they were talking about exactly, since they seemed to stop when she came in, she sat down looking at both men.

Wilson noticed her entrance and smiled in greeting. "Hello Frances." He said casually. She hadn't even known how much she had missed the sound of his voice, until she heard it again. And after only one conversation with the man...

"Good morning Wilson." She replied just as casually, but she could feel herself practically beaming up at the man. An expression, which she was silently pleased he returned. She could have sworn she saw Taub give her an odd look, a happy greeting and disposition obviously unusual for her.

"Well, I can't just give up those tickets." Wilson continued his attention now back on House, who grunted. Frances noticed how his voice seemed even more velvety and gruff as he talked to her boss. "They're ringside!"

The excitement and desperation in his voice made him sound like a child begging for a new toy, she tried to hide her amusement.

House glared at Wilson who was heading towards the door.

Frances began to unpack all her things from her bag, laying them out on the table and pretending to pay attention to one of the articles she had in front of her. When really she was still focused on the two men, technically her superiors, arguing in the room.

At least she tried to be discrete about it, Chase and Taub were looking straight at them, gawking and listening to every word of their evidently interesting argument.

Wilson gave House a narrowed expression as the oncologist headed toward the door. He grabbed the handle with one hand, his body still facing the diagnostics office, and pointed at House steadily while walking out the door.

"I'm going to that game." Wilson said not breaking eye contact with House as he walked backwards through the hall, his finger still pointed toward House. She was surprised he didn't run into anyone, or anything. They were honestly such children.

House rubbed his leg, the emotional effect of his conversation with Wilson probably accentuating his pain, before sulking back into the office. He hadn't said a word to any of them since she got here. It seemed to be some sort of trend with House.

"So the patients still stable I assume?" Frances asked. Taub nodded and Chase scoffed looking over at her then down at his clinic paperwork.

"Yeah." He said in his thick Australian accent. "For now. But the mother's bone marrow was a slim match and she refuses to call the kid's biological fathr."

"I'm planning on looking more in the registry later." Taub added not bothering to look up from his magazine as he did so.

"Chances of finding a 5/6 match in the registry are low. His own mother only had 3/6. And it's not like House is going to be any help getting her to contact th father, since he's in such a bad mood." Park retorted from beside her, France looked over at her and hummed to herself.

"Speaking of which." She said in her low, emotion free voice. Her white teeth discretely grazed over her bottom lip as she pondered how to word her question. "What were Wilson and House talking about that made him so mad exactly?" She thought she felt Taub's eyes look up at her not so subtle mention of Wilson. She was sure she was just imagining things. Taub didn't even seem to be paying attention anyway. It was Chase who answered.

"A patient of Wilson's gave him two ring side seats to some highly anticipated boxing match this weekend. Wilson said he couldn't just give them up and House can't go because of his tether." Chase explained, Frances widened her eyes and gave a nod of her head. "Which accounts for him being pissier than usual." He muttered under his breath. Frances held in a snort.

"Don't forget about the fact that Wilson and House had plans to hang out and watch said boxing game Saturday night together." Park chimed in. Frances was slightly taken aback, the way Park explained it, it almost seemed as though House had a valid reason for being upset. And that Wilson was at fault. She didn't expect that to happen. Not that it was any of her business. Both men were nothing more than her boss and her bosses best friend. She didn't know why she had to keep reminding herself of that obvious fact.

"Do you all really have nothing better to do than gossip about House and Wilson." Taub said putting down his magazine and looking at them all with an accusing face.

"Says the person reading this months issue of People." Chase quipped back under his breath. Park snorted at his joke, quick to hide her smile once she saw Taub's face.

"And how do you know that anyway?" Taub asked his attention now on Park. She blushed and began to stumble over her worlds, obviously still conscious about what her co-workers thought of her.

"I overheard them, they were talking about it once they got out of the elevator a couple days ago and I happened to be walking behind them- Not that I was following them or anything, it just happened like that. Kinda crazy- well not really when you think about it since we all work in the same hospital on the same floor I just-" Park stopped, her mouth going 70 miles per hour the last second and completely stopping the next. Sensing her awkwardness Frances stepped in.

"Either way." She said stopping Park before she dug herself deeper into her hole. Frances voice was low and gave the impression of disinterest as she read over some clinic patient files, not bothering to look up as she stated her opinion. "It seems like a pretty unfair thing to do on Wilson's part. He could just give the tickets to someone else if he felt bad about it."

Taub definitely raised an eyebrow this time. "You disapprove?" He questioned. She looked up from her charts and at Taub. Out of all of her fellow coworkers it was Taub who she felt the most comfortable around. He was also the one who seemed to be able to read through her expressions the most, besides House of course.

"Well, sure. He made a commitment, he should have the maturity to stick to it." She found it odd that they were suddenly directing the conversation from House's mood to Wilson's maturity, but Frances found that she didn't really mind. She never got involved in the personal life of her 'friends' in all the other places she'd lived, why now was she gossiping like a high school girl? Especially about someone she had no business being interested in. She was interested.

"The mans a drug addict and a felon. Wilson is the only thing he has, and House always makes sure to constantly rely on and need him. The mans a saint for putting up with everything House does. I'd have given up years ago." Chase defended.

Frances had just opened her mouth to reply when House came hobbling out of his office. She closed it when she saw his sordid expression.

"If you're all just going to sit here and talk about me and Wilson, at least talk about our sex life." House sneered sarcastically, the bitter tone to his voice not doing anything to stop accentuating the rather decrepit look the man had today. "Much more interesting."

All four doctors observed House as he walked to the door. "Someone find the kid a bone marrow match. I don't care if Mommy has to face seeing Daddy after their divorce. I'll be in the clinic."

Taub and Park went to the registry to look for any bone marrow matches while Chases tended to the patient and tried, subtly yet desperately to get the mother to give them information about the patients father. She hoped that Chase didn't neglect to mention that if she didn't her teenage son would most likely end up dead. That meant that that left Frances to go work hours in the clinic. Oddly House wasn't anywhere near the clinic like he had said, she just presumed that he had lied and was in a patients room watching cable TV.

She signed in under Dr. House and made her way into one of the patient rooms. Honesty this had to be her least favorite part of her job, it was all just so boring. Nothing interesting had happened so far today. She dealt with a baby with a diaper rash and an overly worried mother, two kids who had a cold and an old man complaining of not being able to see clearly. She bitterly told him he needed glasses and he responded by pulling out a pair and telling her that the prescription in them was old. She replied that 'Sorry sir, the free clinic cannot give you a new prescription for your glasses'. He glared at her on his way out.

Opening the door to patient room 3, she glanced down at the chart. A 23 year old male complaining of chest pains. At least this seemed promising. She was at the point where she was just about ready to admit anyone who sneezed as long as it got her out of this clinic. She adjusted her coat before opening the door. "Hello you must be Mr. Jacobs-"She dropped her extended hand when she saw that the patient was already sitting on the table, being examined by another doctor.

Said other doctor turned at the sound of her voice and she gave an apologetic smile that turned into a circle of shock when she saw who it was. Of course it was Wilson. It now made sense why House was no where near the clinic since Wilson was here. "Oh I'm sorry to interrupt. The patient file was in the not yet addressed pile. My mistake." She said with a nod to the patient, who looked oddly embarrassed to be walked in on, by a young female doctor, with his shirt off.

Wilson smiled compassionately at her as he removed his stethoscope from the patients chest. "Oh it's completely fine Doctor- House..." He said squinting down at the name on her lab coat. He gave a knowing smile and turned back to his patient.

"Everything looks good and the EKG showed no abnormalities. Probably just a minor heart palpitation induced by the vigorous and ahem excessive exercise you were telling me about." Wilson said, his voice was gentle and immediately calming. She even felt herself begin to relax at the sound.

"Unless of course, you want a second opinion from Dr. House here." He said looking directly at her yet continuing his conversation with the patient. His eyes twinkled as he smirked at her. She saw the patient look at her with wide eyes, obviously intimidated by something about her. He gave a small shake of his head when Wilson looked back at him.

"I'm sure you'll be fine." She reassured the patient. Her eyes too were focused on the milky brown of her colleague in front of her, instead of the young patient to whom she was speaking. She never said things like that usually to patients, she seemed to lack the ability to be able to comfort them well. "Dr. Wilson is one of this hospital's best doctors. I'm positive his medical opinion is sound."

Wilson gave a quirky grin in her direction as the patient grabbed his coat and left the room. Frances looked down and handed Wilson the red patient file. "You'll be needing this I suppose."

He took it from her graciously, quickly jotting down his notes, as they walked out of the patient room together. He handed it to the clinic nurse and they continued to walk together in stride.

"I've finished my clinic hours for the day and it's almost noon. Do you wanna go to the cafeteria and grab a bite?" He asked her, she nodded and he smiled as they walked together through the hospital.

"Just the turkey sandwich and the small water." Frances told the woman at the register, she gave the cashier an awkward grimance when she noticed that her voice was somewhat harsh and lacked inflection. Wilson was standing right next to her in line, holding his own tray with a salami and Swiss cheese sandwich and fries. He stepped closer to her and put his tray on the register as well.

"We're together." He said and she felt a small tingling at those words. God knows why. Every since she had come here she hadn't been her usual self. He spoke quietly just to her. "Don't worry I've got this."

"Wilson, it's fine really." She protested, she didn't want to let him pay. They were just acquaintances, barely even friends and she actually was independent. She wasn't just going to let him pay for her. "I might have been wearing House's jacket but that doesn't mean I'm going to mooch food off of you too." She mumbled sarcastically.

"You're not House." He countered handing the money to the lady before she could put up more of a fight. "Which is precisely why I'm treating you to lunch. At the very prestigious La Princeton Cafe no less"

She sighed as they each took their food and found a table near the back corner of the cafeteria. She wasn't going to let this bother her, the opposite, he just did a friendly gesture for a coworker. "Oh that sounds fancy." She joked her voice low and sardonic. Little to no inflection in her already low voice made her cynical comedy that much more humorous."Is it french?"

He laughed taking a bite of his sandwich, she resisted the urge to chuckle at the image of him trying not to laugh while eating. He had a boyish grin when he replied. "Actually it's just called the Princeton Plainsboro Cafeteria, but don't tell anyone."

She gave a sly smile and took a bite of her lunch. "Your secrets safe with me Wilson." She was out of her element here, making small talk and jokes but she found it wasn't difficult. The man just had a quality, he was easy to talk to.

"So tell me." He said, she raised an eyebrow and leaned instinctively closer to him across the table. "How are you liking the hospital so far, now that you've been here almost- a full week right?"

She nodded as she spoke "Yeah it's great honestly. Diagnostics is always interesting and busy. I love the late nights and the fast pace of it all. I do miss having recurring long term patients a little."

He nodded as he understood completely. "I guess that's one of the benefits to Oncology, you have to develop lasting relationships with the patients since their illness and treatment is so long term." He voice was slightly bittersweet as he said this and she felt slightly unsure of what to say. The familiar feeling of awkward silence overwhelmed her, well she was certainly starting to feel more like herself now that she was at a loss of how to respond.

"That must be part of what makes it so rewarding." She went with "I know I could never handle the emotional pressure of it. Maybe that's what makes working for House so suiting." Her expression went from it's usual serious default to slightly surprised. He hadn't seemed to have noticed as he continued to look at her intensely, taking a bite of his sandwich and wiping his chin with a paper white napkin. Why was she telling him all of this? These deep emotional things that she wouldn't even tell her best friend or her family. She barely knew the man.

Her gave her another compassionate grin "What we both do effects people immensely. They're not so different. I'm sure you'd be great at both. If you can deal with House then I'm almost certain you can do anything."

She chuckled at the lightened mood "Yeah well if we measure how well we do thing based on how well we deal with House, then I'm not sure there isn't anything you wouldn't be able to do."

He laughed in return and picked up a fry and twirled it around his fingers, a scheming grin appearing on his face. "Want a fry?" He asked, holding it out to her. She felt the mood of the conversation turn more toward the joking wit she could handle. Her eyebrows raised in a sly look of questioning, before taking the fry from his hand. She overexaggeratedly examined the fry making both of them grin, trying to hold in their own laughter.

"Hmmm. I might take you up on your offer Wilson." She quipped back, looking closer at the fry while he picked up his own from his plate and ate it.

"Come on." He joked back. "It's French."

They both laughed and finished their meals when Frances saw Taub and Park running over to her.

"Finally we found you!" Park said putting her hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath. Frances and Wilson were both confused and it was apparent on their faces. "What are you doing here anyway?" Park asked once she composed herself.

"I didn't realize the cafeteria was such an obscure place to look for me." Frances retorted back.

"That doesn't matter." Taub said in a hurried tone. "The patient's blood pressure dropped so we gave him the best donor platelets we could find. 4 out of 6. That's when Chase paged and said he had an allergic reaction."

She nodded and stood up, grabbing her empty plate and setting it down atop the garbage container. "Thanks for lunch Wilson." He gave her a casual smile as he got up too.

"Anytime." He replied, Taub and Park stood looking at her waiting for her to come with them. Shooting one last friendly glance at Wilson she started fast walking with her coworkers.

"Lets go tell House." Taub said as both the girls nodded.

Please review! Thank you for reading!