Chapter 43. A Brand New Day
Monday morning, when Cameron left for the clinic, House got into his car and headed south. He'd debated whether he should show up at Mercy early his first day, or even on time, but decided that he needed to set his own precedents. He had a starting time he was comfortable with, and no one was going to force him to change it.
He reached the hospital garage at 9:30. He hadn't gotten his credentials yet, so he parked in a visitors slot. He found his way to Meisner's office. The secretary he'd met the last time, Miss Klembach, greeted him with a big smile.
"Dr. Meisner is sorry that he couldn't be here to greet you, but he asked me to take you to your office," the older woman said. "We've left the C.V.s for the applicants on your desk."
"I guess I know what I'll be doing this morning," he said.
"They'll also probably call you from HR at some point. They'll need to take a picture for your badge and have you fill out some paperwork."
He made a face.
"I'd do it for you," she offered. "But unfortunately I don't have all the information I'd need, so rather than continuously bother you for the information, I think it would be best if you did that all yourself." The implication was that, if he needed anything else, she'd take care of it. That suited him.
The office they'd assigned to him was located on the same floor as Meisner's and many of the other doctors. The door was solid wood and a plate with his name on it had already been affixed to it. The room had a south-facing bank of windows that looked out over the hospital grounds. The desk and the equipment on it, including the computer, were all rather modern, but there was also a comfortable arm chair, two straight-backed wooden chairs with upholstered seats, and a short wall of book cases. House realized he'd have to send for his books from his apartment in Princeton before long.
Meisner had told him that he'd gotten a dozen or so applications, but when House walked into the office, there were three stacks waiting for his perusal. That had to be more than twelve.
House nodded a 'thank you' to the secretary, and she reluctantly left. Then he sat back in the desk chair, swiveled it once, made a few adjustments for height and back tilt, and stared at the folders on the desk.
"Might as well get started," he said to himself. "Who knows what I'll find."
An hour later he had a huge pile of rejects, about twenty in all, and a very short stack of maybes. He marveled over and over about what people would put in their resumes, and how they tried to stretch the truth that was obvious from their C.V.s. He still had one stack left to go through, and his eyes were going blurry, when a knock at the door was followed by it opening a crack and a pretty young head looked in.
"Dr. House? Miss Lancaster in HR will see you now," her squeaky voice said.
"And you are?" he asked.
"Me?" She seemed surprised by the question. "Oh! I'm Prissy. Miss Lancaster's secretary?"
"If you don't know, how do you expect me to?" he said, standing all the same and opening the door all the way.
"Huh?" She gave him a 'what are you talking about' look, but led him down the hallway to the elevator. The HR office was one floor up, giving House barely enough time to study the young woman. She was just out of her teens, with long blond hair and a little too much make-up, and she wore an inexpensive gray suit with a very short skirt.
Prissy led him through two massive doors with the words "Human Resources" in huge letters, and then knocked on the second door on the right, with the nameplate 'Edith Lancaster' on it, before announcing, "I've brought Dr. House, Miss Lancaster."
Lancaster was a short, slim woman with a cap of hair dyed pitch black, and a narrow, pinched face almost completely covered with huge tortoiseshell glasses. She studied him through them, then handed him the first pile of papers on her desk. "Please fill these out and return them to my office before you leave for the day," she said in a stern voice, as if she'd deal with him if he failed to comply.
Next, she passed him another stack of paper. "These are our rules of conduct. Read through them, although you won't need to memorize them. You'll find they're rather lenient." She looked him up and down with a frown that said loud and clear she thought they should be more severe. "And these are our benefit package selections. You'll need to pick a medical plan, although they're very similar and use the facilities here at Mercy, and you'll also have to select whether you want an individual or family plan. This is the page where you list your beneficiaries."
House never had beneficiaries before. He'd always automatically listed his mother as his next of kin, and as his beneficiary on his life insurance, but he realized he might want to rethink that.
"After you leave here, Prissy will show you where you can have your photo taken for your badge. It should be ready for you before you leave today, along with your employee pass for the garage."
So far, House hadn't said a word. Listening to this harridan go on and on, he wondered if it was worth the effort to declare his individuality. He certainly hoped he'd never have to deal with Miss Lancaster again, but you never knew.
"Is this all?" he asked, as he hefted the stacks of forms and stood to leave.
She smiled at him, but there was a glint in her eyes. "That's only the beginning."
House tried not to groan or even think about it as he followed Prissy down the hall to a much smaller office where a young man waited with a digital camera. The only other items in the room were a computer and a printer, and a straight-backed chair.
"Please have a seat," the young man said in a voice that indicated he was even younger than House originally thought. "I'll just take a couple of shots and then you can go while I process your badge. It should be ready after lunch."
House nodded, handed Prissy his stack of forms, and sat down, facing the camera with his right hand on the cane in front of him.
"You're allowed to smile," the kid said, surprising a chuckle out of House just as he took the first shot.
"You're good!" House said. "How'd you get a boring job like this?"
"I'm just here for the summer between high school and college," he replied. "My dad's one of the cardiologists at Mercy."
House nodded. "So what are you studying?"
"Well, not medicine," the kid said. "Don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with it. I'm just more into computers."
"Right," House said.
"Animation and graphics, actually," he went on, warming to his subject.
"Isn't everyone?"
"Yeah, maybe. But my teachers seem to think I have some talent and a future, so I'll stick to it."
"Good for you," House said with a nod.
"OK. One more," the kid said, raising the camera to get a slightly different angle. "I know you won't fall for the 'you're allowed to smile' line again, but how about the traditional 'pizza'?"
House didn't even bother to say the word. He just smiled for the camera, a genuine smile, because he kinda liked the kid.
