Regarding his team lazily as he rocks back in his chair, House frowns as he is accosted yet again by that most unnerving smell.
Almonds.
Cameron.
He had used the soap beside her sink to scrub at his face in an attempt to eradicate any lingering traces of sleep, but now pays the price, continually catching that soft, sweet scent that sends his memory reeling, as he recalls detecting that same aroma ghosting countless patient files annotated in her neat, black cursive. His reaction to this assault on his senses frustrates him as he attempts to deny the strange feeling of comfortable familiarity; telling himself that it is more his dislike for change than anything to do with the young blonde herself that has him pondering such a thing in a positive light.
Glancing over at Thirteen, he takes stock of pretty, heightened features with clinical efficiency.
She's much sexier than Cameron.
Perhaps this is true, but the thought doesn't offer him as much smug comfort as he'd like.
She smiles less.
Also true. The sometimes severe brunette lacks that same ever-hopeful look that had irked him so during the years spent with Cameron working beneath him, and he imagines the stark difference in the features and expressions of the two women might say more than he'd like it to about where his head had been at when making that particular choice, despite their physicalities being similar.
Thirteen hasn't set herself up to continually endure the painful lesson that the world sucks, which blonde seems incapable of learning once and for all.
Hadley knows it can and that it often does.
She is easier to deal with.
When he spits spite to hurt her, she gets annoyed.
It isn't always such a goddamned fucking surprise.
"House!"
His irritable pondering is fractured by the sharp tongue of the dean as her bark cuts through the air like a whip.
Cuddy stands with her head poked around the door to glare at the diagnostics team with a flustered expression.
Second-guessing the reasoning behind her tone, House looks to his team with wide eyes of burlesque surprise, as though only just noticing them.
"What are you lot doing sat around here?! Do you mean to tell me that not one of you had the sense to take my shift down in the Clinic? You-"
"-Never mind your incompetence in following your job requirements right now; there's been a case file waiting for any one of you idiots to bother checking downstairs, and a patient who's been waiting in the ICU for over half an hour. Contrary to your beliefs, I'm not paying you- any of you- to sit around on your asses twiddling your thumbs, learning from the King of this discipline. Up! Go! Out! Now!"
The younger doctors that lounge around the desk that centres the DDX room come round from their apathetic state with a start; the room suddenly filled with the dull scrape of metal chair legs on carpet as they hurry from the room in the wake of the small brunette who stalks irritably back towards her office; shaking her head as she goes.
"Are you alright?"
Cameron inquires, raising a brow curiously as Foreman falls into the seat opposite her and scoots over to the edge of the booth. Taking his responsive grunt as a negative, she pushes her tray aside after rescuing the steaming cup of coffee that remains untouched and takes a sip, studying the neurologist thoughtfully.
"Patient trouble or House trouble?"
"Both... The patient's a mess-"
"-Uncooperative?"
"Unresponsive! Which of course means House is out to solve some great and wondrous mystery in his ever cryptic manner... Full of useless suggestions, and... Well... You know what he's like... And it's not the most enjoyable case as it is."
"Oh?"
"Twenty-three-year-old Hispanic female brought in suffering convulsions and internal bleeding."
"Liver failure?"
"We tested for it, but there was little point. The bleeding has nothing to do with the seizures; the girl's black and blue all over... Broken ribs, cracked sternum... You name it, it's either broken or has been at some point. The Clinic says she was dropped off outside and left for someone to come see to her. She's been conscious a few times, but never coherent enough for questioning... Which of course suits House just fine."
"She can't lie."
"Right, but it makes things difficult. We can't ID her, so we have no way of knowing whether she's allergic to anything, or if she's been prescribed anything in the past... We're doing the tests, but they're time-consuming, and she's deteriorating rapidly... I don't know, I just look at her and I hurt... Hate to imagine what it'd be like if you were working the case..."
Despite his sour mood, Forman offers a small smirk as he serves up this last part, and the blonde rolls her eyes mainly to humour him; sipping at her coffee pensively.
"That's hard though... Did you call the police?"
"Cameron..."
"Yeah, I know... If it's domestic, she has to consent... But-"
"-Yeah, 'but' is the part that's the real issue here. I don't know. She's just young, and that's a hell of a lot of hurting on one small girl."
"...Sounds it."
Cameron sighs, surprised that Foreman expresses his empathy so vocally, and clenching her jaw as she imagines just how bad that means the diagnostics team's case must be.
"If you need any help with tests or anything-"
"-Then the other three can do it... You left, remember?"
"I do... I just thought... I mean, if you don't want my help, then-"
"-You barely have time to get things done as it is, Cam."
Foreman interjects with tired patience; the blonde's apparent hurt at thinking him undesiring of her company all too evident on her face."
"...And anyway, aren't you supposed to be taking it easy? How's your hip?"
"I'm fine."
"Is it healing alright?"
"It's fine!... Shit, it's like everyone's a doctor all of a sudden!"
Foreman rolls his eyes at her crappy joke but doesn't press the subject further. He had heard from Chase the state Cameron had been in after her misadventures in the tub, and the two of them had shared the opinion that for all of her predictability and sensible nature, the blonde could sometimes go off the deep end and do something pretty insane without seeming to think twice about it.
Of course, Chase had professed the reasoning behind Cameron's most recent lapse of idiocy to be House, and while Foreman doesn't deem this theory to be all that ludicrous, he'd hope they were wrong.
For all their arguments and bickering, he cares for the blonde like a sister- having been forced to spend sometimes fourteen hours a day under extreme pressure in her company- and he is relieved that she seems alright following what had sounded like a series of very unfortunate events.
"Well, I'm glad you're fine."
Is all that he says, and she smiles before reminding him seriously
"I don't do taking it easy."
"Yes, that much I suppose I do know... And look, it wasn't that I don't want you around or anything with what I said before, I just know you're busy... I also know you have the absolute worst case of Florence Nightingale syndrome."
"You know, I was reading somewhere that she was actually rather unappealing in person."
"...As I was saying..."
Cameron's mouth falls open in mock offence, and Foreman shakes his head wearily.
"You just have a tendency to try and spread yourself too thin... Besides, you're currently in the decidedly enviable position of not having to deal with House."
"I guess... Well, anyway, as you said, you have a perfectly good team."
"They're alright."
"Yeah? Meshing well?"
"... Yes?
He frowns, catching a teasing lilt to the blonde's inquiry.
"Good."
"Okay...?"
"That's very good."
"It is... I- What? Why are you smiling like that?"
"Oh, I just imagine you're meshing with some better than others."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I'm sure Hadley's good to work with... Pretty, too..."
"Thirteen?!... Yeah... I mean, she's a good doctor..."
"Mmmhmm."
"Oh, stop it."
Foreman grumbles, scowling at the blonde as she smirks smugly.
"What? Am I wrong?"
"... I take it back; I don't want you around."
"Aw, come on!"
"No, seriously, I forgot what a pain in the ass you are."
"Rude."
"It's your own fault... To be fair, I'm not sure just how well the rest of the team would take to you pitching in..."
"Thirteen wouldn't like it?"
"Oh, for god's sake! Will you quit it?!... And, you know, of all of them, Thirteen might well be the most likely to be on board."
"Oh?"
Cameron raises a brow to match Foreman's own as he looks her up and down pointedly.
"And I'm sure House wouldn't mind either..."
He couldn't be more wrong.