Author's Note: My second House fic and I hope you enjoy it. Please note that as usual I don't own House or its characters. Duh. Hahaha.. Thanks.. here's chapter one!
Chapter One-
The woman's name was Virginia Watson and she was still lying in her hospital bed, asleep. She was badly bruised and suffered a broken leg and minor concussion. Other than that, she seemed to be perfectly healthy, at least for right now anyway. Doctor Cameron sat in a corner of the room, writing in a notebook and occasionally peering out the window. Obviously she was upset and House could see that.
"Okay, spill, what's the matter?" He limped into the room.
"What? Nothing, I was just…"
"Oh would you stop! Don't you know me well enough to know when I'm being sarcastic, unless of course you were actually upset about something and in which that case I really meant the question." House replied.
"It's just really messed up how the patient was attacked and it's a week until Christmas."
"That's life. I mean, someone has to be sick for Christmas; it's not likely that everyone can be well and home with their families. That would be impossible."
Cameron agreed, but added, "Her husband just died, though. It must be like going through Hell for her."
House gave up, he could tell that he wasn't going to make her feel better and if he didn't change the subject soon they could be here for hours. "Okay, so it must be hard and all, but her injuries aren't bad. She'll be out of here in no time and then you can be happy. Anyway, we've got other people to cure, come on. Foreman told me to come and fetch you and bring you back to my office."
Sighing, she stood up and left the room with House. In a few minutes, they were up in House's office where Foreman and Chase were waiting.
"Good, you've captured the princess!" Chase said sarcastically.
Foreman raised an eyebrow, "Princess?"
"Yeah, Cameron, I wouldn't be too flattered… I heard Prince Charming over here likes to take advantage of pretty young woman, especially ones with blue eyes and brown hair."
Cameron looked away and Chase gave House the most evil look he could muster. Unfortunately, it made House want to laugh, but he stopped himself.
"Okay, so where were we?" Foreman broke the silence, "Yeah, that's right; a patient. If you would, please direct your attention to the white board and stop glaring at each other. Anyway, the patient is a thirty-two year old female Caucasian."
Chase seemed to start paying more attention after Foreman mentioned thirty-two year old female and House stifled a laugh.
"She's been suffering from migraines for over three years and now she's losing her vision at a rapid rate. Recently, her neighbor came over her house and found her collapsed on the stairs. For the past two days we've had her here she's been absolutely normal. Her blood test was normal and all the scans came back clean. Still, she's dying and we need to find out why. Cuddy figured House would be interested, so she handed the case over to us. Right now I'm going to have House and Cameron go get the patient's family history and have a look at it. I believe it's in a folder in the patient's room. Chase will…"
House cut him off, "I think Chase should go do something productive and out of the way, say clinic duty. I don't want him getting emotionally attached to the patient which you described as a young female."
Foreman smiled, "As much as I agree with you, I don't think Chase should have to do your clinic duty hours. Instead, Chase, you can go over the patient's blood tests and scans and see if we can learn anything from them."
Everyone was just about to head out the door when House stopped in his tracks, "Wait, what are you going to be doing, Doctor?"
"Oh, well, you know. I thought I'd sit up here in my office and play with my Gameboy or watch Soap Operas, doctor stuff," Foreman replied.
Cameron laughed, but stopped herself when House looked over at her.
"Geez, House, take a joke," Foreman laughed, "I'm kidding… Unlike you, I actually plan to do something around here, but that will be after I go and talk to Cuddy."
"What are you talking to Cuddy for?" House inquired, "Now that you've stolen my position you think you're going to be all buddy-buddy with her now, eh?"
"No, actually, I'm still keen to avoiding her, but she asked to see me in her office and I don't want to get into trouble."
House rolled his eyes and then started in the other direction. Cameron tagged along and Chase followed after her.
Once they were a little ways down the hall, Cameron spoke up, "Don't be so hard on him, House. He didn't ask for Cuddy to make him your boss; it just happened."
"Well can't it just un-happen?" asked House. "I've just about had it up to here with Cuddy." He gestured with cane and just about touched the ceiling with it signifying how annoyed with Cuddy he was.
Cameron shook her head, "Who cares? Foreman won't be you boss much longer and things will go back to the way they were. You'll be bossing around Chase, bossing around me, and generally ignoring Foreman, being best buddies with Wilson, and going around with your Gameboy avoiding Cuddy. Just get over it for the next few days and stop making a dig deal out of everything."
Frankly, House didn't know what to say. Cameron would get like this every once in a while and it put him in a state of awe. Still, he felt like he had accomplished something. Foreman was being sarcastic and Cameron was yelling at people; and to of all people, him! He felt good inside and took Cameron's advice to shut up and deal with his problems like a man.
They arrived at the patient's room and House and Cameron walked in. House took a seat in the chair next to the patient's bed and started looking at the papers in the folder. Cameron, however, turned around to leave. House caught her just as she was getting out the door.
"Where do you think you're going?" He inquired.
"If you haven't noticed, we have two patients. You can handle the patient's family history, so I'll go see to the other patient."
"And who gave you the authority to do this?"
Cameron just looked at him and after a few minutes responded, "If you haven't noticed, Foreman is in charge and well, he didn't exactly say that I couldn't get the other patient's test done and leave you here to do the family history."
"Whoa, I'm surprised. Well, run along little duckling, I hath taught thee well!" House said with much sarcasm.
Cameron rolled her eyes and left down the hallway, only to run into Cuddy and unfortunately knock a stack of papers out of her hands.
Cameron bent down and picked everything up, handing Cuddy a very messy pile of papers, "Oh God, I'm so sorry…"
"It's fine, do you know where House is?" Cuddy asked.
"Uh, yeah, he's in room 217," replied Cameron.
"Thanks, oh, and can you go down to the clinic for me. I was supposed to meet Virginia Watson's friend. He's the only person we could find that knew her. Her parents were away and her husband is deceased. Just show him where the room is and I'll be there in a few minutes."
"Okay, sure."
So now Cameron's route was redirected to the clinic. She made her way down the hall and to the elevator where, also unfortunately, she ran into Chase, though not literally. She'd rather have to share an elevator with Stacey than Chase.
"Going up or down," he asked.
"Down."
He pressed the buttons and then backed up, leaning against the back wall of the elevator. After a few seconds, he spoke up.
"Wait, what are you doing going to the clinic anyway? You aren't doing House's clinic hours, are you?"
"No, I'm meeting someone down here for Cuddy." And with that, the elevator doors opened and she stepped out and headed towards the front desk.
She noticed a man about her age standing by the desk, reading a newspaper and occasionally looking around the room in search of something or someone. Cameron walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder.
"Excuse me, are you here to see Virginia Watson?" she asked politely.
"Yes," He stuck out his hand, "I'm Matt. Are you Dr. Cuddy?"
She shook his hand and replied, "No, I'm Dr. Cameron. Dr. Cuddy sent me down to meet you and show you to Miss Watson's room. She's going to meet us there. You can just follow me; I'm going up to her room anyway."
"Oh, thank-you."
Cameron smiled and showed Matt up to Virginia's hospital room. They arrived and Cameron also introduced Matt to Cuddy.
"Hello, it's nice to meet you; my name is Cuddy and I'll be seeing that Virginia is well taken care of here. Right now probably isn't the best time for her to be having visitors as she's about to go have some tests done. It might be best if you come back sometime tomorrow afternoon and you can talk with Virginia. If you'd like, we can let Dr. Cameron do her job and I'll talk with you in my office."
"Sure, sounds great," Matt replied.
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Author's Note: Well, that's the end of Chapter 1, let me know what you think! )