Chapter 2 FBI Office—Newark, NJ—forty-five minutes later
After wrestling with traffic for most of the way between Princeton and Newark, Cuddy parked her car in one of the "guest" slots. While she had hoped to have some conversation with her passenger, he had simply tuned her and everything else out, staring out the window. "You can rejoin the world now, House. We're here."
He squinted at her sarcastically. "You should try looking at the duckies on the side of the road. Really interesting stuff."
"Some of us actually had to watch the middle of the road. Come on," she replied, not giving him an inch.
"Careful, Cuddy. Remember, be really meek and humble in there."
"I'll keep that in mind, Mr. Pot," she cracked as they entered the building. After getting through the metal detector relatively painlessly, they entered the reception area. "Surprised you didn't set that thing off."
"I made sure to leave all of my pointie metal things at home," he deadpanned. "But then the twins behaved themselves too, didn't they?"
"Seeing you would cause enough excitement," she retorted, rolling her eyes at his latest bit of harassment.
He smirked, getting a rise out of the security guard's reaction to his last comment. "We are out of our territory, my Dear." He labored through the door into the Bureau's reception area and up to the desk. "Hi. We were told to be here by the nice agents."
The receptionist, an older woman with a white pony tail and a floral print blouse, looked at him over the top of her wire rim glasses. "Yes. I gathered." Her eyes narrowed. "Dr. House."
"Member of my fan club up here? Wow."
"Maybe we could talk to Agents Singleton, Petersen or Pauls please?" Cuddy interjected.
Seeing the former administrator made the woman's expression lighten a bit. "Certainly. Just make sure he behaves himself." She picked up the receiver and talked into it for a minute. "They're waiting for you in Room 3, Dr. Cuddy. So nice to see you again."
Cuddy smiled politely. "Thank you so much. Shall we go, Dr. House, before any other members of the fan club come calling?"
"Why not? Company's lousy out here," he assessed as they headed for the room in question. As they approached, they saw Steve waiting for them. "Ah, our tour guide."
"Sorry about the mess out front, Agent Petersen," she apologized.
Steve smirked. "It's not my home office but then again, Ms. Nathers has interesting stories about the visit to your clinic. By the way, House, you should watch it around the security guard. Any other place and we would have arrested you for the wisecracks especially the one about the sharp pointie things."
"Thanks for the reminder, Agent Petersen," she expressed, shooting her companion the Glare.
"Whatever," House declared, brushing it off as they entered the room to give their statements concerning the whole Vogler deal.