Part Two: Warnings
"For now, I'll be giving you odds and ends to do, and you'll be able to observe different doctors and their daily routines."
"Sounds good."
"I'm really sorry about the mix-up, Samantha."
"Sam."
Cuddy smiled and reached for a small piece of paper on her desk. She handed it to Sam and continued. "I have a list of where you can start out. If you need me, I have my pager number at the top."
"Okay. Is there anything else I should know before I go?"
For a moment, Cuddy was silent, thinking it over. Then, her face sort of…fell.
"There's one man here who may give you trouble. His name is Dr. House. Try and steer clear of him, alright?"
Sam nodded. "Dr. House. Got it." She glanced at the list before remembering, "I'll try and retrace my steps to find that first form."
"If you can't, I'll get you another one."
"Thanks, Dr. Cuddy."
"Good luck."
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"Say 'ahh'."
The six-year-old House was examining was being much less annoying than her mother, who had been guessing what could possibly be wrong with her daughter since he came in.
"It could be chicken pox. She hasn't had them yet. Or mumps. No, she got her shot… Maybe she has bronchitis…"
House closed his eyes, ready to count to ten as he felt the girl's throat.
"Your child has swollen lymph nodes." He concluded, opening his eyes and standing.
"Wait. What?"
"Swollen lymph nodes." House repeated. "When a person has to fight off a cold or infection, nodes in the body swell. Has little Breanna been swallowing drainage from her nose?"
"Yes, she complained of that for a week or so; I thought that was normal with a runny nose." House shook his head to himself.
"Swallow enough of that yummy green goop and viola: the lymph nodes in your throat swell. I'll write you a prescription for Amoxicillin. Clear that right up. Goop, too, so to speak."
Hastily, he wrote the medication on his pad—giving him an excuse to have crappy handwriting—and gave it to the annoying mother. Then he was gone.
Was it really only two o'clock? The doctor sighed. Maybe he secretly wished one of his team had something—anything—interesting for him. Sometimes swollen lymph nodes were interesting. Not today, though.
"Dr. Wilson takes his hour lunch," House's friend announced, appearing again. "But I think I've earned mine."
"And what fun activities do you have to keep yourself engaged in Oncology, besides the obvious?"
"I'm showing the girl from Westside around. Have you met her yet?" Wilson dug into a brown paper sack he had in tow, retrieving a can of iced tea.
"Samantha Harding?"
"Sam."
"Yeah, that's the one." Snapping his fingers, House pointed to Wilson's bag. "We had a great conversation about what she eats. Or doesn't. Either way, it was fun."
Wilson blinked at him. "What did you do?"
"Nothing. We met, talked, and I returned a paper she dropped."
"No, really. What did you do?"
"I can't be nice to the new girl on her first day?" House asked, appearing 'hurt'.
"No." Replied Wilson bluntly.
"Take your lunch already. I still have another three hours to go. And the Clinic, she's a'callin'."
The doctors went their separate ways; one to patients, and one to wonder just when hell had frozen over.
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Sam approached the nurse's station. "Hi. I seemed to have misplaced an important paper. By any chance, have any been brought here?"
"Name?"
"Sam Harding."
"Yeah. Dr. House returned it here. Told me to give it back to you. I was swamped with calls, but I was going to page you over the intercom system."
"That's okay. Thanks." Sam took the form and paused. "Did you say Dr. House…?"
"I didn't get it either. Listen, I'd be careful if I were you. House isn't usually one to up and do something nice, got it?"
"Right. I consider myself warned." Sam nodded, then walked toward the stairs. Man, this House guy had to be one hated individual. Hope I don't run into him.
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Cuddy looked up from a patient file to see her favorite person in the world strolling casually up to her.
"Four o'clock. One glorious hour to go." He smiled at her.
"Tick tock." Cuddy monotoned. She closed the file, placed it on the nurses' desk, and selected another. "By the way, there's a high school student Job Shadowing here this week. She'll be observing you and your team intermittently."
"I've already met the illustrious Samantha. She's a popular one today."
Cuddy all but slammed down the file. "Oh my god. What did you do to her?"
"Why does everyone keep asking me that?" questioned House, somewhat annoyed. "It's not like I'm Satan."
"His brother, maybe." Remarked Cuddy.
"The good-looking brother."
"Listen, you'll be nice to that girl or so help me, I'll…I'll give you more Clinic hours."
"Keep your shirt buttoned," House snarked. "I'll avoid her like the plague until she's 'shadowing' me. And then I'll be a saint."
"Uh huh. I'll make sure the three of them watch you like a hawk." The dean promised, taking both files with her as she departed.
Biting the bullet, House limped back to the Clinic to finish his day. Just what he needed: a high school kid tagging along on his daily journey around the hospital. He already had three Ducklings—he didn't need a fourth.
But it might not be so horrible. If she kept conversation to a minimum like she had at lunch, and didn't bother him with details or get in the way, more power to her.
It was going to be an interesting week.
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The next day, House went in search of Cameron earlier than usual. She was already in the lab, working on something or other. Not important.
"Have you met her yet?" He asked, poking his head in.
"Have I met whom?" Cameron adjusted the focus on her microscope.
"The Shadow."
"Sam? Not yet. She's going to be working with me in the morning, and Chase in the afternoon."
"Gee, no Foreman to follow?"
Cameron smiled. "Tomorrow."
"Ah."
"Cuddy wants you on your best behavior. If the kid's in tears by lunch, your ass is grass."
House cocked his head. "Is that an exact quote?"
The immunologist removed the slide she was examining and switched the microscope off. "Is it really that hard to be civil to someone? Will the stock market crash and the ice caps melt if you say 'good morning' to her?"
"Then she might think I'm like that all the time." House feigned worry. "And what if word spread throughout the hospital that I'd gone soft?"
Cameron rolled her eyes. "I gotta go. Sam will be here soon."
"Have fun with that."
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Sam arrived at the hospital slightly more at ease, and definitely comfortable. Dr. Wilson had been kind enough to inform her the day before that she didn't need to dress up for the whole week. On that note, she now wore a black Labyrinth tee over a black long sleeved shirt; khakis, and brown, off-brand Birkenstocks.
There was a female doctor waiting for her, her dark hair pulled back in a ponytail. "I'm Dr. Cameron. You'll be with me for the first half of the day."
"Sam. Ready when you are."
Cameron showed her around the lab, explaining a little about what her duties were. She asked to take a drop of Sam's blood and put it on a slide for her to see under the microscope.
"I'm sure you've done similar experiments in one of your science classes," began Cameron. "If we needed to test your blood for any reason, we'd take a blood sample. Follow me. There's a patient on the second floor who needs that done."
As they were en route to the elevator, Cameron turned to Sam. "Speaking of blood, I take it that since you chose this profession to Shadow, you don't get…squeamish?"
"Nope, blood's fine."
"Needles? Urine? Vomit? Anything like that?"
"I'm good." Sam shrugged. "Plus, I watch The X-Files all the time."
"There may be some things you'll see here that never happened on The X-Files." Cameron assured her. Sam smiled.
"Joking."
"Touché." Suddenly, the doctor's pager went off. She glanced at it and sighed. "House."
"You work with him, huh?" Sam queried.
"You bet."
"Fun. I've been told to keep my distance."
"Lucky you."
"What's so bad about the guy? Does he kick puppies?"
Laughing, Cameron shook her head. "He's just a little rough around the edges." She paused. "Okay, the guy is barbed wire. He's got this shell that's impossible to crack. And a sharp tongue to boot."
Sam wet her lips, thinking. "Sounds like you know him pretty well."
"Well enough, I guess. But no one really knows House. He—"
The pager went off again; Cameron glared at it. "I'll be back. Will you be alright here for a few minutes?"
"Yeah, sure." Sam grinned. "Have fun."
"Tons."
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Hope you guys liked it. I have a confession: I've had most of these chapters done for months, sitting in my notebook. I'm just the world's biggest procrastinator. The next chapter should be along shortly :)
L.S.