Ch 52: Face Behind the Face

House was still in the hospital a week later and was growing even more frustrated, as were those around him. "Maybe we should just write this off and let it go," Wilson suggested after House nearly bit Cameron's head off for bringing him more jello for lunch.

"Good idea. I'm tired of this bullshit and it's less than a month until I'm supposed to get married. We need to get back to our lives!" he said, standing up to pace around the room. "I need a case or I'm going to need to be put in the nutter…"

Wilson stifled a laugh and covered it by clearing his throat. "House can go back to work and this never gets out," he suggested.

"What about all the waste this is going to be accredited to?" Cudded wanted to know. "That's on me…all of it."

"Just say that some nurse fucked up," House offered. "One of the one's that are ready to retire anyway…like Nancy on the fourth floor…"

"HOUSE!" she admonished.

"I'm not staying here," he said firmly. "Figure something out…I'll be getting back to my job. And my life."

Wilson handed his best friend the clothes that he had brought in upon the decision to spring House and he pulled up the pants in front of them, not caring that Cuddy and Wilson saw bits of his bits. "I'll see you in about an hour," the oncologist said. "I've got to meet with a patient about a tumor." He left House and Cuddy staring at each other, the latter at a loss for words.

"I'm sorry…I just can't take this," he told her.

She sighed, then nodded, giving in. "We'll just write it off." She turned away to gather up some papers and he felt a bit guilty for putting her on the spot. She didn't respond to his apology, however. "Let's just go to lunch," she said with a forced smile. "I know you'd much rather have a burger than more jello."

House groaned in appreciation as he sank his teeth into a steak. He and Cuddy had opted to get out of the hospital for a bit longer and he was enjoying his release immensely. She couldn't help but grin as he smiled at her around a mouthful of meat. "This is really good!" he said, his actually words sounding more like "Thith ith weeeleee goft."

"I'm glad you're enjoying yourself," she replied, taking a small amount of her own steak onto her fork. House had been very pleasant since his escape and she was at least grateful for that. She wasn't about to have someone fired to cover her own ass, but was certainly not relishing the idea of telling the board that the hospital had wasted approximately $10,000 somehow. She sighed once more, giving in to the realization that there was little that she could do and wondering how the actual culprit was faring, knowing that House's career and her integrity had been put on the line because of their little 'trick.'

They returned to the hospital after House had had his fill of greasy meat and fattening buttered bread and House stepped into his office and breathed in the scent of abnormal cases that were waiting on him. He picked up a handful of files that had been placed on his desk and sifted through them, wondering who had brought them in. Neither Foreman or Sundai were around.

He selected the most recently admitted case, a woman with a tumor on her optical nerve that quite possibly had nothing to do with her excessive bleeding. He popped down to the clinic to try and gather his team before visiting her room personally to get a patient history when they were nowhere to be found. He left her room hours later ready to poke his brain out with a q-tip. She had been quite detailed in her various medical experiences. He decided to have one of his lackies do the rest of the work that involved the doctor-patient contact portion of treatment and tossed the case down on his desk, the others having been tossed away.

Sundai appeared at 2 p.m., looking excited and ready to work. "I'm glad you're finally back," she informed him. "It's been so boring around here that I considered going downstairs to help in the morgue!"

He laughed. "Thanks…we've got a patient. Room number is on the folder…and unfortunately I already did the history. I need a full workup done. Do you know if Foreman is in?"

"He should be. I had lunch with him today."

"How's he been keeping himself busy?"

"Droning on about how annoying it is for you to be gone, mostly," she replied. "Did you guys figure out who slipped you the Vicodin?" she asked, lowering her voice.

"No. I don't really care anymore. I'm done with that. Cuddy's still on the tangent though, so don't mention it if she happens to come in."

"Alright. See you in a while then!"

House turned on the television once she was gone and found his soap opera fairly quickly. Fortunately his room had had cable. He propped his feet up on his desk and waited for something spectacular to happen.