Arrangements were made for 'it' to be 'seen to' after work, and somehow he was in the hallway again. Later, House would speculate that she'd hustled him out of her office before he could come to his senses - or she could. For now, those senses were a fond memory as he aimed vaguely toward his department, making his way down a corridor that seemed to have changed worlds in what couldn't have been more than a half-hour.
But after all, he thought wryly, time was subjective. The past few weeks alone had seemed longer than quite a few of the months preceding them. Or had the world sped up? That seemed apter. Vogler's arrival, almost innocuous at first but quickly snowballing. The hospital in chaos. Chase's betrayal. Cameron's quitting. And then Cuddy's betrayal and Wilson's quitting. But Cuddy hadn't betrayed them after all and suddenly Vogler was gone. And no catching a breath in his wake, for then there'd been the meningitis outbreak that seemed to have happened purely out of spite, after which Cameron got in on the fun and threw him for another loop.
And as that awkward dinner faded into the past and she began to act normally again, along came this, these last few minutes that had been a roller-coaster in themselves. A part of his past he'd all but forgotten come rearing up to take away even the semblance of a life he had. Cuddy, of all people, taking exception to this.
Cuddy. Dr. Lisa Cuddy. Hospital administrator, bane of his existence, technically his boss...and somehow, ridiculously, his fiancée. His wife, before the day was out.
What the hell was next?
The answer to that question, it turned out, was 'Cameron again'. She had resumed handling his mail, but was still dealing with the backlog from her absence, and so hadn't read his copy of the INS letter until he was in Cuddy's office with his pager off. Now, as he limped down the hall, he spotted the familiar dark-haired blur just in time to get out of its way.
It was almost comical to see her skid to a stop and whirl around. "Dr. House!"
"So I'm told," he muttered. He had expected this, if not quite so soon, so at least he had a story ready.
Cameron thrust a familiar envelope at him, obviously agitated. "This -"
"Yes, I know." He took it without looking. "They're coming to take me away, ha ha."
House let her stare blankly at him for a moment, then explained. "I just came from a meeting with Cuddy about the exact same thing. She's put her pet lawyer on the case and isn't worried."
"Oh...oh." She shook her head bemusedly. "So it's all right?"
"Depends. Do you consider my having to pay for the lawyer in extra clinic work 'all right'?" That coaxed a smile from her. "Yes, it's fine. And I'll thank you not to noise it around."
"Right."
He noticed her eyes straying to the envelope again and shook his head. "Long story. Now, have you seen the other two musketeers? As you've left them unsupervised, they're probably off hunting for a new case to spring on me..."
And turning, he walked away, not needing the soft tap of her footsteps to know she'd fallen in behind him. With half an ear, he listened to the chatter about just where Chase was and where she thought Foreman was and how the latter might have sniffed out a potential patient but that it sounded really interesting...
Though House would never have said so, he agreed with that last. A good, baffling illness - a proper human jigsaw - was just the thing that would take his mind off of a much more disturbing puzzle.
He hoped.