Title: Meow

Author: lawnmowerelf

It didn't take long for Wilson to drive to the hospital, though he did glance over at the gray kitten sitting in the passenger seat every few minutes. House just sat there primly, blue eyes wide and innocent, attempting to lull Wilson into a false sense of security by playing up his cute kitten-ness. He wasn't sure it was working, though.

In fact, he was pretty sure that it hadn't worked when Wilson pulled into the hospital parking lot, picked kitten!House up, got out of the car and carefully dropped him into the pocket of his lab coat. He grumbled quietly as he wiggled around trying to get his feet back under him, something made even more difficult in the limited space of Wilson's coat pocket due to the coat's swaying as Wilson walked.

Nope, he didn't have Wilson fooled. He'd just have to be sneakier. There was no way that Wilson could keep an eye on him all day. He'd just have to bide his time, and wait for an opening.

It wasn't until Wilson was in his office that House was able to poke his head up out of the coat pocket. He only had time to glance around before Wilson had picked him up by the scruff of the neck. The next thing he knew, he was hanging in mid-air, almost nose to nose with a very stern Wilson.

"House, please try not to get into any trouble. If the wrong person finds you while you're still a cat, you could wind up in the animal shelter and I'd never be able to find you again."

House was quiet as Wilson sat him on the floor by his desk. Winding up stuck in a cage at the animal shelter wasn't something he had considered, but he wasn't going to allow the admittedly unpleasant possibility to keep him from having some fun. He'd just have to be especially careful.

He prowled around Wilson's office for a while, both getting used to moving in his new body and waiting for a chance to escape. He was just starting to get really bored when opportunity quite literally knocked.

One of the nurses had poked her head in, and the open office door was calling him with its promise of freedom and mischief. He slunk towards it, keeping himself low to the ground and close to the wall to avoid detection. He had to stop himself from letting out the feline version of a chuckle when he realized that the theme to Mission: Impossible was ringing in his head. Then, with a victorious flick of his tail, he was free.

He looked around the hallway, and nearly cackled with glee when he noticed that the doors to the Diagnostics conference room were wide open, and all three of his ducklings were present. He slipped inside, doing his best for the moment to remain inconspicuous so he could scope out the terrain.

Cameron was doing paperwork while Chase and Foreman were apparently working on a crossword puzzle, and not doing too well from the sounds of their complaining. He snuck under the conference table without being seen, and was presented with an irresistible temptation: Cameron had her legs crossed and one foot was absently swinging back and forth.

House got himself balanced properly on his paws, licked his whiskers in anticipation and pounced.

Cameron shrieked and jumped back from the table the instant he got his front paws around her ankle, once again making sure he kept his claws sheathed. After all, he didn't want his ducklings to bleed on his carpet. That would be messy.

All of a sudden he was nose to nose with Chase who had crawled partway under the table to see what had scared Cameron. House widened his eyes and tried his best to look cute and harmless, something that apparently worked much better on Chase than it had on Wilson as the Australian smiled and reached in to gently pull him out.

"Cameron, it's just a kitten." Chase cradled kitten!House to his chest, his free hand rubbing the furry ears. "I didn't know you were afraid of cats."

Cameron huffed at him, tucking her hair behind her ears. "I'm not, Chase. It attacked my foot." Then she frowned. "What's a kitten doing running around in the hospital, anyway?"

"Maybe someone smuggled it in for one of the patients." Foreman shrugged when both of the other doctors turned to stare at him. "It's possible. Maybe some kid tried to sneak it in for a sibling, and the cat got away."

House wasn't paying much attention to the conversation, most of his attention focused on not purring, which was fairly difficult as Chase was hitting all the right spots as he rubbed his ears. He'd had no idea that the other man was so talented. His eyes were at half-mast and he had started pushing his head into Chase's hand when he heard the one voice he didn't want to hear coming from the still-open doors.

"Have any of you seen a gray tabby kitten?"

House's eyes flew open and he jumped from Chase's hold, extremely thankful that he was able to land on his feet. He dashed for the door, darting quickly around Wilson's legs and into the hallway. He'd come back to the ducklings later. There was still lots of fun to be had.