CHAPTER TWO

The rain poured down on her windshield as Lisa Cuddy turned left into the non-descript half full parking lot of Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. It was a task she had done so many times, she could allow her mind to think of other things, usually the checklist of tasks she had to complete that day.

Today's list included a meeting with a potential donor looking to support new innovative cancer studies at the hospital that had been so kind to her husband in his last weeks. She had an arbitration meeting with the Service Employees Union reps to discuss her recent reprimand of Carl Hastings and his habit of wondering the hospital in scrubs and impersonating a doctor. She didn't expect that meeting to last long. It was pretty open and shut.

She needed to talk to Wilson about House's clinic duty. She'd asked him a week ago to make sure House was getting in his three hours a week. Wilson had been avoiding her ever since, which made her think he hadn't talked to House, or if he had, House had ignored him much the same way he was ignoring his clinic duty. If this kept up, she was going to have to talk to House herself. And she really didn't want to do that yet.

She glanced up at the glass and brick façade of the hospital. It was an impressive structure, the main building having been added on to several times as more money to expand became available, usually through her tireless pursuit of wealthy donors.

This was her hospital, her baby. She put her blood, sweat and tears into making it the best hospital in the state, and one of the top teaching hospitals in the country. She had been head of the hospital for almost ten years now. The thought made her smile a small, sad little smile. She was proud of her hospital, but it was really all she had. Where had the time gone?

She remembered how excited she'd been when she first got the job. She raced home to tell her boyfriend. She thought the man she was going to marry would be thrilled for her, but he turned out to be the man who couldn't handle the fact that she was about to make more money than him. He was now the state district attorney, but she still made more money than he did. She couldn't help but smile as she thought of the alimony he was paying his former stay at home trophy wife.

The smile faded as she thought of the family she had planned with him. She was young, beautiful, successful and in love. Her life was perfect. So why, ten years later, was she lonely and miserable? Where had it all gone wrong?

A decade had passed since she had her perfect life all plotted out. Sometimes she was happy that her life had taken a different path. She was highly regarded in her field, respected by her employees, at least by those who didn't work for or weren't named House. She had friends, well, acquaintances really, business acquaintances mostly. Now that she thought about it, House was probably her closest friend. That was an even more depressing thought than the loss of the dream family she'd never had.

She sighed. She couldn't think about it now. She was at the hospital, her hospital, her baby. This was her world now and it was her job to protect it and nurture it and make Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital the best medical facility she could. It was her legacy.

In her mental wonderings she hadn't noticed her body auto-piloting its way through the sliding glass doors that barred Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital from the outside world. She was barely aware of the intermittent greetings as she hurried across the busy main hall to her office.

"Dr. Cuddy?" Nurse Brenda Previn, head nurse and one of the first people Cuddy hired when she took over as head of the hospital came rushing over. Cuddy had her hand on the doorknob of her office, eager to get inside and spend a few quiet moments trying to shake off her thoughts but if Brenda was this anxious, it must be important.

"What is it Brenda?" Cuddy hid her agitation as well as she could. It wasn't Brenda's fault she was in such a foul mood this morning.

"If GSM doesn't get their check today they are refusing to deliver the new C-Arm unit you ordered."

"Is the unit here?" Cuddy took the special check from Brenda's hand and placed it on the closest flat surface, in this case her assistant Linda's desk. Linda watched with disinterest, only hoping her boss would leave her work space soon, as her online mate was blinking away at her on Instant Messenger and she needed to respond.

"Yes, it's here, but they've been instructed not to take it off the truck until they get this check." Brenda watched as Cuddy swirled a bold C before scribbling out the rest of her last name in a series of expertly unintelligible bumps.

"I spoke with Bill yesterday…" Cuddy shook off her protest before she could finish. It wasn't important. The check was signed, the C-Arm would be delivered and installed, and she now knew not to trust Bill Novich's empty promises. Lesson learned.

Brenda turned and headed back toward the loading dock to oversee the delivery of the C-Arm. It wasn't, strictly speaking, her job, and Dr. Cuddy hadn't exactly asked her to do it, but this hospital was as much Brenda's baby as it was Cuddy's, and the seasoned nurse liked to have her hand in as much of the pie as she could. Cuddy appreciated Brenda's dedication and attention to detail. It took many a load off her mind.

Cuddy was actually feeling a little better about her day now, knowing that she was not the only guard standing vigil at the hospital's gates. She was not the only spinster dedicating her life to the care of strangers. She wasn't alone.

That warm and fuzzy feeling of realizing her life maybe wasn't so bad after all went away quickly when she pulled open her office door and saw…nothing.

Her briefcase dropped to the floor as she bellowed her secretary's name. "Linda!"

Linda Nugent hurried from around her desk and stopped short at the office door. "Where is everything?" She looked around; a confused frown marred her smooth forehead.

"I was about to ask you that question." Cuddy took a deep breath and closed her eyes. When she opened them, she hoped to see the oak desk it had taken her weeks to find, that perfectly matched the blinds that covered the window behind it, the Tiffany inspired lamps she'd collected over the years, the potted plant a grateful patient had sent her from her nursery in the corner and photo's of her family, her sister and the girls, her parents on their anniversary, them standing beside her when she graduated Med School and other various personal belongings that had accumulated over the years to make her office a home away from home. Instead, all she saw was a bare tan rug in an empty room.

It was not part of Linda's duties to come in and check on her boss's furniture. It was something neither of them had ever thought necessary. Now Linda was kicking herself for not being more diligent. "I didn't see anything out of the ordinary…" the young secretary began nervously.

"It's not your fault Linda," Cuddy said dismissively, her mind on other things. There was only one person she knew who could possibly be responsible for something like this. How he'd pulled it off was a mystery to her, but when Gregory House put his mind do something, no one could stop him.