A Call To Apathy – Chapter X

House opened the swinging doors and walked down the glass walled hallway, no idea where he was going but still walking. Passing a group of nervous looking med students, he walked by an opened door and stopped. He recognised that voice. Turning around he looked into the door to see Wilson standing on the stage in the auditorium, a sea of blue scrubs and white coats in front of him.

"…One of my terminal patients, case 104, had an advanced case of hepatoma and was on a course of various pain medications…"

House stood at the door in silence, then looked for a seat. Sitting in the nearest vacant seat, he sat next to a woman with black hair and blue scrubs eating a packet of maltesers. As he moved his cane in front of him, the woman looked at House and smiled.

"Hey." She whispered.

House looked at the woman then back to Wilson.

"Dr Torres." She continued.

House looked back at her. "House."

"Ah!" She whispered. "So you're the Dr House. Meredith told me about you."

"Don't listen to the rumours. I keep a sock down there."

Callie smiled and continued to eat her maltesers. "You want one?" She offered.

House took some and continued to watch Wilson.

"…this specific case is one of my most personal and significant, for through an unnerving encounter with one of my co-worker's patient who was suffering from herpes. Miraculously, from only a touch of the hand, my patient contracted the disease and actually shrunk her tumour in the liver…."

House looked at the audience. Two rows in front of him he saw Burke. Grabbing some more maltesers from Callie, he sank down in his chair and started throwing the little chocolate balls at Burke's head.

As one hit him square in the head, Burke quickly turned around to see House sitting behind him, smiling mischievously and waving. Letting out an annoyed grunt, Burke turned back around and tried again to write his notes. He got hit again. And again. Burke tried to ignore it and continued to write down notes. But then another malterser hit him. And another. And ano…

"God dammit House could you stop!"

The whole room went silent as everyone turned around to see Burke swivelled round in his chair, glaring at House while Callie next to him was covering her mouth with her hand, trying futilely to contain her laughter.

Wilson looked up from his speech and took of his reading glasses, peering into the darkness in front of him. "House." He sighed. "Is that you?"

House sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. "You forget, Dr Wilson, that this encounter that your patient experienced, this encounter that actually led to the shrinking of the tumour was not at all to your liking at first."

Wilson put down his glasses and crossed his arms. "Yes but you must remember House, my patient was actually terminal. She was going to die and she was dealing with it until your 'faith healer' touched her. Then she got a false sense of hope even though her tumour had shrunk."

Addison put up her hand. "What happened to her?"

Wilson put on his glasses again. "She dies two months ago. Now," he said, reshuffling his notes. "Because you know so much about this case Dr House, you can either come up here and give the speech or you can leave."

House sat back in his chair for a moment then stood up and left the room. Wilson continued with the speech.

"Sorry about that. My colleague has what is best described as boundary issues. Now, case 203…"

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House was walking over the bridge in the foyer once more when he suddenly stopped.

"Dr House!" Came a stern female behind him. Turning around he saw Bailey once again charging towards him with the Chief following meekly behind her. House closed his eyes in pain and tried to walk away.

"Oh for god's sake.." He moaned.

"Dr House!" Bailey shouted again. House stopped once more and swirled round.

"Dr Bailey, what a present surprise. What are you doing here at Seattle Grace?"

Bailey glared up at House. "This is our Chief of surgery, Dr Webber." She indicated to the Chief. Unaware of Bailey's underlying purpose, Webber smiled happily and enthusiastically shook hand with House, who was far from enthusiastic.

"Pleasure to meet you Dr House, it really is an honour for you to be working in this hospital, and after when you've cured your patient, maybe we can discuss a more, well, permanent arrangement?"

Bailey coughed rudely. "So Chief, I think you should know that Dr House has been employing the help of my surgical interns."

Webber did not take the hint. "Oh, well that's fantastic Dr House. Good to see them revising their diagnostic skills. It will help them in the future, especially with post-op patients."

House stood there smiling sarcastically, eyebrows raised with fake interest. Bailey began to get annoyed.

"Sir, I don't think you understand. My interns are missing out on surgeries. They haven't been into a surgery in two days! What happened to experience?"

"Oh it's fine. Two days won't hurt them, especially when learning under such a renowned doctor as House!"

House smirked at Bailey as she crossed her arms and glared at him. "I have to go now."

Webber smiled once more then noticed Bailey had walked away. Quickly he looked back up at House and backed away. "Right, of course. I shall meet you again, Dr House."

House stood still on the bridge, watching Webber trot up behind Bailey who was now crashing through the swinging doors.

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Alex watched Izzie as she stood at the Nurse's Station, filling out various forms of paper work. Mustering up his courage, Alex walked up to her and picked up a file.

"Hey." He said, as casually as possible.

"Hey." She continued to fill out the forms. Alex put down the file.

"So look, we need to talk."

Izzie rolled her eyes. "I wonder what about?"

"This Chase guy, I don't think it's going to work."

"Why, because he's Australian? Or because he's got great hair?"

"He lives on the other side of the country, that's why. You're spending all this time with him when you know that in a few days, he's going to leave and forget all about you."

Izzie put down her pen and looked straight at Alex. "Look, the first guy I ever loved needed a new heart. You reminded me nearly everyday that he was going to die. Denny is still the love of my life, I still miss him with every fibre of my being, so liking a healthy guy who lives only on the other side of America doesn't seem like such a dilemma compared to Denny."

Alex looked down. "Sorry."

Izzie tried to fill out the forms then stopped and sighed. "Well, I'm sorry too. It's only been over a month since he…" She closed the file. "I'll see you at Joe's tonight."

Quickly she closed the folder, put it back into the holder and walked away.

"Ok." Alex mumbled.

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NB: Right, another more character filler chapter. In fact, so is the next one but just bear with me for a while, got to pad things out a bit before I get back to the patient, who is still dying by the way, in case you wanted to know. But dinner with Mer/Der is just so more important.

Anywho, I just wanted to say this: I have a fan! Ok Hannah, thanks to you my head has ego exponentially. Not good. But glad to know you're enjoying it! It's also good to know I've converted someone from Chase/Cameron. My work here is complete. But, just thought you'd all want to know that unfortunately the story's now up to its final ever chapters. tear . And I can't continue on cause basically I've run out of ideas. Now I know why Grey's and House have a team of writers. What am I going to do when it's over? Have a life? Maybe. Anyway, just wanted you to know so you could favour the last few chapters. But yes, please REVIEW!!! That's right: REVIEW!!! And remember: keep watching the stars!