Chapter 4

"Now, I ask again, who are you?" House says in a near whisper as the door closes behind him.

"You know, you might as well drop the show, we already know where you're from," The Doctor said.

"Oh I'm sorry. I guess you need to hear things in your own language to understand… 'oo da bloody 'ell are you blokes?" he said in a very heavy British accent.

"Fine, play it your way. This is Rose Tyler, as I mentioned before. And I am The Doctor."

"The Doctor? And I thought I was cocky," He answered once again in his normal voice.

"No, that's really what he's called… Just The Doctor," Rose said.

House rolled his eyes and said, "Fine, whatever. Sounds like your parents were real fond of you," He said with heavy sarcasm. "Now how about you explain to me what's going on here, or do I have to go find some Sodium Pentothal?"

"Ah, good old truth serum. Sorry wouldn't work with me."

"It doesn't work anyway," House said rolling his eyes. "Now tell me what I want to know now or I will carry through on my threat, but I won't stop with your toe."

"Alright then. I'm an alien who travels though space and time, saving the universe, making things right, and being a generally all around good guy."

Rose tried to hide a smile behind her hand. After centuries of having to explain himself to people, you'd think he would have gotten better at it.

House stared at him for a moment before saying, "you know, I might have been wrong about you two. I think that it would be best to send you on to the psych ward. I can refer you to several decent shrinks if you like."

"What, don't believe me? Fine, here," The Doctor said as he reached behind him and grabbed a stethoscope from the counter behind him. He held it out to House. House walked over and took it but didn't do anything else. "Go ahead, take a listen. I'm sure you'll find it interesting," he said as pulled his jacket away from his chest.

"What, all this is so you can get a check up?" House said with an amused grin.

"Here," the Doctor said as he took the end of the stethoscope and placed it against the right side of his chest and indicated that House should listen.

Rolling his eyes, House put the ends into his ears and closed his eyes as he listened. He distinctly heard the strong rhythm of a heart beating, everything sounded fine, except…

What was that? A murmur? It sounded like there was a second beat in between the pulses of the first. He opened his eyes and looked at the Doctor and was about to say something when the man moved the diaphragm from his right side to his left.

House's eyes nearly popped out of his head as he realized that it wasn't a murmur that he had heard, it was a second heartbeat. He could clearly hear this second heart now that the scope was right overtop of it…

Second heart?

"What the hell?" he said as he pulled the stethoscope out of his ears and let it fall to the floor.

"I told you… Alien."

The Doctor and Rose watched as Dr. House pulled out a bottle of pills from his pocket and began examining the label. "No, definitely Vicodin. But maybe someone got the pills wrong," and he popped the top and emptied a few of the white pills into his hand. He pushed them around with his finger as he carefully studied them. "Huh, that's not it. Must be something else wrong with me. Maybe I overdosed, though I don't remember taking more than usual."

"You're not hallucinating, he really is an alien," Rose said.

"I'm sorry, but I don't talk to delusions. Makes people think I'm crazy," he said as he poured all but two pills back into their bottle and dropped it back into his pocket as he swallowed the two pills.

"Fine, you wanted to know who and what we are, and now you're going to ignore us when we tell you. Guess that means we can go on our way then," The Doctor said as he went to walk by House to leave.

House stuck out his cane and blocked the Doctor's path. He just looked at him for a moment before he said, "Alright, let's pretend for a second that I believe you, why are you here in Jersey?"

"Jersey as in New Jersey? So that's where we are," The Doctor said.

"You're supposed to be an advanced alien capable of space travel and you don't even know where you are?"

"Well we hadn't exactly expected to come here. We were supposed to have been in London," Rose said.

"Great," House scoffed. "An alien who's supposed to save the universe can't even tell the difference between London and Jersey."

"It wasn't my fault," the Doctor defended. "But if you don't want our help, we'll be on our way."

"You haven't said what you're here for. How am I supposed to know if I want, or even need, your help?"

"We're not sure why we came here. Our ship is able to tell when we're needed somewhere and it'll sometimes take us there without us knowing. That's how we didn't know where we were," Rose explained.

"So I have two British sounding aliens in my office telling me that they were kidnapped by a spaceship and don't know why, but they are sure that I need their help somehow? Do have all this right?"

"Yup, that's about the whole of it, other than the part about two aliens. I'm the only one here who isn't human." the Doctor nodded with a silly grin as he stuck his hands into his pockets.

House looked at them for a minute before he nodded and said, "Alright."

"Alright? You mean you believe us then?" Rose said.

"Nope, I mean, alright I think I should go and have an MRI because clearly I am not really having this conversation."

"Fine, ignore us, don't care really. We're just going to go next door and find out why my scanner tells me that there is alien technology in there that doesn't belong here and be on our way," the Doctor said as he made his way to the door once again.

"Next door? Wilson's office?"

"I believe that was the name on it that I read before you interrupted us. So good day Dr. House, I hope your MRI goes well."

"Wait a second," House said. He wasn't sure why in the world he believed these people, but he needed to figure it all out.

The Doctor paused once again. He wasn't sure why he was allowing this silly human to slow him up, but he did find him a rather interesting being. And he still hadn't figured out why the paper hadn't worked on him yet. He had to be something a little special as far as humans go for that to happen.

"Why would Wilson have alien technology?" House said mostly to himself as he sat on the top of the conference table. He wasn't going to waist time asking these people questions since he was completely convinced that they were not telling him the truth, like everyone else. He needed time to think it all out for himself, make the connections and come up with the solution.

"Don' know, that's why we're going find out," the Doctor said as he opened the door and walked out.

"Wait. I'm not sure why Wilson would have that, but he has been acting weird lately," House decided to tell them.

The Doctor paused in the doorway and then came back into the room, looking at House. "Weird how?" he asked.

"He has been avoiding me for the past few weeks," House started.

"Oh, gee, I wonder why anyone would want to avoid you," Rose sarcastically whispered under her breath.

"For most people, that might be true, but Wilson has never avoided me. We're friends, in fact he's probably the only one who can stand me," House said.

"Alright then. What else?" the Doctor asked.

"Finally caught him this morning and he just wasn't acting right. Didn't get my jokes, didn't seem very responsive at all and he didn't sound right either. His speech patterns were all wrong. So I followed him when he left for lunch today."

"You followed your friend? Can't just respect his privacy?" Rose asked.

"Hey, never claimed to be a good friend, just that were are friends."

"Where'd he go?" the Doctor asked, not really interested in anything else.

"His apartment."

"That's all? You think that he's acting strange cause he went to his apartment for lunch?" Rose said.

"I didn't say he went into his apartment," House snapped at her. "He went down an ally next to it and went into a basement that no one there uses that I'm aware of. A while later he came back up and went back to work."

The Doctor seemed to think for a while. "Alright, let's go there," he declared.

"But he's right next door, why go all the way there when you could just see him now?" Rose asked.

"Because it doesn't sound right to me. I want to see what he's hiding down there so I can get a better idea of what we're dealing with," The Doctor explained.

Rose nodded and said, "Alright, let's go."

"No, I need you to stay here and make sure that he doesn't leave the hospital while we're gone," The Doctor said.

"What?" Rose was rather hurt that she couldn't go too.

"Rose, I don't want to be surprised by him while we're there poking about in his secrets. I need you to stay and warn us if he decided to head home. Alright?"

"I guess," she said, knowing that he was right, but still hating being left behind.

"Alright, let's go then… Doctor," House said as he got up and walked out the door, leaving the Doctor to follow.