A/N: Sorry about the extremely long break…its report card season and I haven't been very motivated to write lately. Hope you like this chapter. Please review! Any suggestions on things to come?
Disclaimer: I don't own House. Dr. Jones is mine. I'm not a doctor, just a nice junior high student with an obsession with House M.D. Sorry if not all medical information is correct.
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The large, dysfunctional team stood awkwardly in the empty hallway outside of Jones' office. Footsteps were coming towards them from around the corner.
"Why are you all standing out here? My office is your office. Don't be shy!" Jones smiled and opened the door.
House mocked him behind his back by making a sour face and shaking his head. They all filed through the door once again and sat around the circular table. Cameron noticed Chase's eyes looked rather red and puffy, but decided not to comment. Chase noticed her staring at him peculiarly and smiled at her. She quickly averted her eyes and focused her attention on someone who she thought was much more interesting.
Jones cleared his throat and began, "Last night I stayed up a little bit later to look for a case I thought you might find somewhat interesting." He passed a peach-colored folder to Cuddy, who read it over and continued to pass it along the table. "His name is Alex Freidman. He is a six year old boy who has been complaining of a sore eye for over a week now, after he failed his school vision examination. His eye doctor, Mrs. Munchkins, prescribed eyeglasses, but he still isn't seeing very well."
A burly voice said, "Great. Chase and Cameron, go get an MRI."
Cameron got up and left, with Chase in tow.
"Why an MRI? The kid is complaining of a sore eyeball." Foreman asked.
"Duh. Everyone at some point has needed an MRI for one reason or another. Plus, it could be a sign of a tumor."
"Right."
"Good. Go get a blood sample from him once Chase and Cameron are done the MRI."
"I'm on it." Foreman replied. He got up and left the room.
The only ones left in the room were House, Wilson, Cuddy and Tom. Nobody spoke for a few minutes. Feeling the tension, Cuddy asked if Wilson wanted to join her for lunch. He accepted, and they quickly rushed out of the room and headed towards the cafeteria.
"So, you have a tennis ball I could borrow?" House asked bluntly, hoping that Jones didn't. That would just be weird.
"No, sorry I don't."
Thank God, House thought.
"Oh, that's too bad."
"Yah, I guess it is." House put his feet up onto the table.
Jones gaped in horror and gasped, "What are you doing?"
"I believe I'd call it putting my feet on the table."
"Why would you do that?"
"Because I'm uncomfortable."
"But that's rude."
"You did say, 'my office is your office', did you not? In my office, I put my feet on my desk, so I see no reason not to now. Plus, I have a bit of a gimped leg."
"I guess I did say that." Tom glared at House as he slowly walked out of the room to find something to do. Silently, House smiled to himself.
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Cameron walked to a young boy's room. His mother sat beside him, occasionally whispering words of comfort to him.
She quietly opened the door and sweetly said, "Hello. My name is Dr. Cameron. How are you?"
The woman shook Cameron's hand and replied, "I'm Nancy, this is my son Alex, but you probably already know that," she gestured towards her son, "I guess I'm doing okay, right now."
"That's good. I need to take Alex for an MRI now, just to rule out a few things."
"Okay. Alex, will you be okay or do you want me to go with you?"
The boy looked up at his mother with his dark brown eyes, "I'll be fine mom, you worry about me too much."
"Okay dumpling, see you in a bit."
Alex rolled his eyes. "Don't call me that! See you later mom."
At this moment, Cameron grabbed the bed and pushed it carefully through the door and up to the next floor for the MRI. Chase met them and helped Alex onto the MRI machine.
"You're going to hear some loud clicking noises Alex, but don't freak out. Try to stay as still as possible, okay?"
"Yup, I got it. Loud clicking noises. Don't panic. Stay still. Wish me luck!"
Chase laughed half-heartedly and replied, "Go get 'em tiger."
Alex gave Chase a thumbs up, and Chase went to the back room where Cameron was operating the machine. She stared at the screen for a few seconds, and then decided she should talk to Chase.
"I noticed your eyes were red this morning."
"They were dry this morning, tried to put eye drops in, but I poked my eyes with the bottle."
"We're in Vancouver Chase." She glanced at him skeptically over her shoulder.
"And….?"
"It's right beside the ocean. It's hard to get any more humid than this place."
"Okay, okay. I'll tell you." He paused for a moment, "Claire called last night and broke up with me."
"Sorry."
"Don't be."
"Are you okay?"
"Yah, I probably would have broken up with her soon anyways."
"Oh, okay."
Cameron looked lethargically at the screen. "Nothing's showing up on the MRI."
"I wonder what's wrong with him."
"Me too."
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The cafeteria was bristling with people, hurrying about, trying to find a spot to eat. Wilson and Cuddy quickly shuffled over to the lunch line. Wilson looked down at the food. Hamburger helper, chicken burgers, a tossed salad or chili were the only options with a choice of mashed potatoes, french fries or an apple. Cuddy ordered a chicken burger and an apple, while Wilson opted for the chili and fries. The pair searched for an empty table, and after a few minutes, they found one. They sat down. Wilson immediately picked up his spoon and dug into his chili. Cuddy looked at him with interest and then followed suit.
In between bites, Cuddy decided to make some conversation.
"So, how's Vancouver for you so far?" she asked.
Wilson looked up from his chili. "It's okay I guess. This place is a little humid for my liking."
"Yah, I agree with you. I prefer it hot and dry."
They continued to eat.
Spontaneously, Cuddy began to talk. "What do you think of my hair today Jimmy?"
"Umm, it's nice. It looks the same as it does everyday."
Cuddy glared at him.
"I'm just giving you my opinion."
"I know. I just tried to make it extra pretty this morning. It must be the humidity, made my hair frizz."
"Probably."
Cuddy finished off the rest of her apple and sighed, flicking her somewhat frizzy hair over her shoulder. Wilson squirmed uncomfortably across from her.
"How was your sleep last night?" Wilson asked Cuddy, who was now twirling her hair.
Cuddy, looking very excited at the prospect of Wilson engaging in conversation with her, answered happily, "It was good, but could have been better."
"That's good." Wilson grinned sheepishly and looked down at his tray.
Cuddy crossed her legs and tried to rub her foot against Wilson's.
Wilson jumped and stood up.
"What was that?"
"What was what?"
"You just tried to rub your foot against my leg, that's what."
"Oh. That was nothing." My plan is backfiring. Must think of plan B. Now he's staring at me like I'm some kind of loser. "My toe was itchy." Phew, he seems to have bought that.
"Right, page me if you need me for anything. Talk to you later."
Wilson picked up the two trays and tried to walk away from Cuddy as fast as possible, leaving her to ogle at him from behind.
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Foreman arrived at Alex's room just as Cameron and Chase were coming back from the MRI. Cameron waved at Foreman, who waved back. She pushed the bed through the doors, with Chase following her, looking somewhere she probably wouldn't want him to. Foreman, seeing this, decided to be a good friend and distract Chase's attention.
"Yo Chase! What's up my home dog?" Foreman bellowed over to the confused blonde.
Chase blinked repeatedly then said, "Since when do you talk like a black person?"
"Chase, I don't know if you've noticed this over the past few years, but I am a black person."
"I know that. Just, you never talk like that; it's like against your religion or something."
At this comment, Foreman chuckled and thought, yes! I've distracted him from my poor, naive colleague.
"That's right Chase." Foreman decided to humor him.
Remembering what he came here to do, Foreman slapped Chase on the back and walked into Alex's room, where he saw Cameron chatting up the mother.
Foreman gave a small wave to Alex and walked over to the two chatty women.
He cleared his throat, then began, "Sorry to interrupt you two but I need to get a blood sample from your son."
Nancy gestured over to her son and said, "He's all yours sir."
"Thanks, but you can call me Dr. Foreman."
"Great."
Cameron left the room to search for something to do, and Foreman strode over to the young boy's side. He noticed Alex had dark brown hair and a small scar just above his eyebrow.
"Where'd you get that from?" asked Foreman as he pointed to the scar.
"When I was three I was jumping on my bed and I fell off and hit my head on the corner of my nightstand."
"That's cool. I'm going to take some blood from you now so we can do some tests to see what's wrong with you."
"Sounds great." He held out his forearm for Foreman to use.
Soon, Foreman had collected all the blood he needed and left the room to run some tests.
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Cuddy walked into her temporary office for the week. It was a small room, and had a window beside her desk. One wall was lined with bookshelves full of legal papers and medical reference books. On the other wall was the desk. She flicked the light on and sat down in her chair.
I hope Wilson doesn't hate me. Maybe I was a little too aggressive. I should calm down a bit. I suck at this whole relationship thing.
Cuddy stared dreamily out the window, when suddenly, the phone rang shrilly.
Should I answer that?
The phone rang again.
Well, no one else is going to. I may as well.
"Hello? Vancouver General Hospital. Dr. Cuddy speaking. How may I help you?"
"Hello Dr. Cuddy. This is Ronald Lee. You're just the person I was looking for. I have some bad news for you," said a deep voice on the other end.
"What would that be?"
The deep voice sighed, and then continued reluctantly. "Err…well…some of the hospitals in the partner program have declined due to one of your staff members."
Cuddy shook her head and then put it in her hand.
"Let me guess….Dr. House?"
"Yes. The hospitals in Regina, Winnipeg, Quebec City, Charlottetown, Fredericton and St. John's have declined because they seem to think he is a liability to their hospitals."
"Most people do."
"I hope you understand. Have a nice day Dr. Cuddy."
"You too."
Cuddy hung up the phone just as someone walked into her office. It was House. He limped slowly over to the chair across from her and sat down. For the first time, Cuddy realized House looked nervous. He twisted his hands in his lap and looked somewhat clammy.
"I have something to ask you." House said boldly.
"And I have something to tell you," stated Cuddy.
"Go ahead. You can go first."
Cuddy sarcastically said, "Aw, you're such a gentleman." She continued, "Anyways, someone called and said that six out of the ten hospitals won't accept us in the partner program because of you."
"Oh well."
"Oh well? How can you say that? Now our hospital is going to get a bad reputation."
"And Lord knows you can't live with that. You'll get over it."
Cuddy glowered at House, but continued, "So, you were saying…?"
"Yah, well, I was wondering…umm…now probably isn't a good time to ask you but I was wondering if you wanted to go to the aquarium in Stanley Park tomorrow with me?"
He what? This definitely proves the "chaos theory". Hmmm…I know…
"Sure, I'd love to." House sat up a bit straighter when hearing that Cuddy would actually agree to this, but she carried on, "I'll ask Chase, Cameron, Foreman, Wilson, and Jones to join us."
House looked like someone just punched him in the gut, almost.
Gruffly, he replied, "Yah, it'll be loads of fun."
He hobbled out of the room with half as much enthusiasm as usual.
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Beep! Beep! Beep!
Simultaneously, Cameron, Chase, and Foreman's pagers went off. They all rushed to Alex's room where his mom was sitting beside him holding his hand, and looking very worried. Alex looked very scared.
"I can't see! There are dark spots everywhere! What's happening?"
Cameron, being the nice person she is, immediately ran over to the bed, followed by Foreman and Chase.
"Its okay Alex. You're going to be fine." Cameron said consolingly.
"I think he's got a detached retina." Foreman determined.
Chase offered, "I'll go schedule surgery as soon as possible."
Cameron, looking at Foreman, said, "We need to talk to House."
The two comforted Alex and his mom, telling them he would be fine for now and left to go find House.
Five minutes later, the pair showed up in the meeting room, where they found House playing with a bouncy ball.
Foreman eyed the toy suspiciously, and then said, "House, Alex has floaters in his eyes. We suspected retinal detachment, so Chase went to schedule surgery."
House stood up and looked at Foreman like he had two heads.
"Are you nuts? Don't you think we should maybe get an optometrist to look at the hooligan first?"
Cameron took a step forward. "I'll go do that."
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An hour later, everyone met back at the meeting room. The optometrist concluded that Alex's retina had split into and began to bleed into his eye, which caused the dark spots, or floaters.
"I believe he has Juvenile Retinoschisis. It's found predominately in young males and is an inherited disorder which relates to the X chromosome. We can give him laser surgery to prevent further problems, but he may become blind later in life," said the optometrist grimly, and then he left.
House mocked, "Hey Foreman! It's right up your alley!"
Foreman rolled his eyes, "Ha ha, very funny House."
"That was mean," Jones said annoyed.
"That's just House." Cuddy said, grinning slightly. She proceeded, "Earlier today, House invited me to Stanley Park tomorrow to visit the aquarium. I was wondering if any of you would like to come with us?"
Cameron's eyes lit up as she excitedly exclaimed, "I've always wanted to go to an aquarium! They look so cool. I'm definitely coming." She grinned, "I'm going to go back to the hotel and get a good sleep. Its 10:30 already and getting later every second. See you all tomorrow; we'll meet back here."
"If Cameron's going, I'll go too." Chase informed them.
Wilson cried, "Sure I'll go. I haven't been to one before. I like marine creatures."
"Great. That just leaves you two." Cuddy pointed to Foreman and Jones.
Taking a deep breath, Foreman agreed to join them and Jones decided he'd come too because he wanted to bond with everyone.
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Before she stopped at the hotel, Cameron thought she'd pop in to Alex's room quickly to wish him luck on his surgery the next day, and to say goodbye. Soon, she was in his room.
"Why are you here Dr. Cameron?" Alex questioned.
Cameron smiled sweetly. "I just wanted to check in on you to make sure you're all ready for your surgery tomorrow morning."
"I'll be fine! You're like my mom." Alex protested in his toughest voice.
"Aren't you a feisty one?" She raised her eyebrow, making Alex giggle. "I have to go now. Goodbye Alex."
"Bye, bye Dr. Cameron! I'll miss you."
Hearing this, Cameron's eyes started to water the tiniest bit.
"I'll miss you too Alex."
Cameron exited the room, and was left to think of kids and motherhood.
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A/N: Yes I know, very lame ending, but what can you do? Hope you liked this chapter….please review! Here's the deal, I'm not going to post chapter 4 until I get 4 more reviews. Muahaha!