Redemption Chapter 2, a house, m.d. fanfic

Chapter 2

Foreman

To most people, three weeks away from House would sound like a dream vacation. But so far for Foreman, it was a disaster. House had left Cameron in charge of the department. Foreman was angry that House hadn't chosen him. He'd already been in charge once before, and things had gone okay. He was mostly angry because he assumed House left Cameron in charge because they were dating. This was one of the many reasons he had tried to convince House that dating Cameron was not a good idea. No matter how hard you tried, two people in a relationship could rarely keep the relationship out of their work.

The first few days had gone relatively well. Cameron wasn't exactly a difficult boss to get along with, especially after House. It just grated on his nerves that he had to take orders from her. They'd had two very simple cases the first week. Well, maybe not simple by an ordinary standard, but simpler than the cases House usually accepted. They'd had one case of Celiac disease. It wasn't always easy to diagnose, but having seen a case of it previously the team was quicker to recognize it than the patient's primary care doctor had been. The second case they'd had was a West Nile case. Again, it was not exactly simple but routine enough for them.

When their new patient had been assigned yesterday, the team had hit a bit of a stumbling block. All their initial tests had come back negative, and the fellows were struggling to come up with some alternate diagnosis that made any kind of sense. Finally, Cameron had told him to go and rerun three of the previous tests. She told Chase to go back to the patient and go over the history again to try to find something missing and she was going to start researching other possible causes.

Foreman grumbled to himself as he left the conference room. Repeating these tests was a waste of time; they already had the results and they were negative. Foreman entered the patient's room to check on him. His vitals were stable, and the patient was finally sleeping. Foreman decided not to run the tests again; instead he went to the lounge to research other possibilities himself.

He'd been in the lounge for an hour or so when he was paged to the conference room. Hoping that the patient had developed a new symptom to help point them in the right direction, Foreman went directly there, never considering that Cameron would be angry.

"I asked you to repeat those tests over an hour ago Foreman, what happened?" Cameron asked him. Chase entered the room behind Foreman, having just returned from seeing the patient. He scoped out the tension and quietly took a seat in the corner of the room.

"Repeating those tests was a waste of time," Foreman replied. "We should be looking for a new idea, not recycling old ones."

"Which is what I was doing," Cameron responded. "Just because you disagree with me is no reason to avoid caring for our patient."

"If you want to care for our patient, then you can repeat useless tests. I want to cure him and the only way to do that is by looking for new information," Foreman countered.

"Why are you being so hostile? I'm just trying to do my job. Being in charge is hard enough without someone else intentionally trying to screw with me. Or don't you remember when you were supposed to be in charge of House?" Cameron retorted.

"At least I didn't get chosen to be in charge by sleeping with the boss," Foreman spat at her. He'd really had about enough of her passive aggressive crap this past week. Just as Cameron was about to really start in on him, Cuddy walked into the conference room from the hall.

"Dr. Cuddy, what a surprise," Foreman seethed upon seeing her. "How long did you wait before you ran downstairs to rat me out to your boyfriend's boss, Cameron?" Foreman turned on Cameron again, eyes blazing with righteous anger.

"Dr. Cameron did not come to see me," Cuddy answered his accusation. "Although she certainly would have had every right to. Dr. Foreman, I'm surprised at you. Dr. Cameron is in charge while Dr. House is out of town, and I expect you to treat any instructions from her exactly as you would treat instructions from him."

"How do you know that?" Cameron asked Cuddy. "Are you spying on us?" Cuddy didn't reply, and Foreman was insulted. Did she think just because Cameron was in charge that they'd all become stupid?

"You don't trust me to run things either!" Cameron exploded.

Foreman began explaining that just because House liked her better was no reason for him to have to take orders from her. He was only half catching what Cameron was saying, but it was something along the lines of being surprised that Cuddy would spy on her and how women in man's world should stick together. Cuddy was babbling some baloney about protecting her hospital while House was away. None of the three noticed Chase leave the room and return with Dr. Wilson.

"HEY!" Wilson's voice pierced through the din. "Not to sound like House but if the patient dies while you're in here arguing your faces will be so red." Cuddy merely rolled her eyes at him. "If I'm not mistaken, Dr. Cameron is in charge here. That means she gets to go first." Wilson waved his arm at Cameron to indicate she had the floor.

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Chase

To most people, three weeks away from House would seem like a dream vacation. To Chase, that was what it had seemed like at first. But today, well today was another story all together. Today was kind of like day six of a ten day trip when you realize you've seen everything there is to see and all that's left is to spend the rest of your vacation trying not to piss off the people you were with.

Normally it was Cameron trying to make peace with everyone and keep tempers down, but not this time. She was the one in charge, and to Chase it seemed like maybe House had been wrong for once. Not that he didn't think Cameron was good doctor, he did. And he certainly didn't mind taking orders from her. Actually, Chase didn't really mind taking orders from anyone. He just didn't think Cameron had quite the backbone to stand up to Foreman. She managed with House, but Chase suspected that was for a very different reason. He'd always suspected that House had a thing for Cameron, and he knew how much House hated emotional scenes. He probably backed down from Cameron when things got too tense or too personal for his tastes. Of course, now that they were dating that would be another story.

Chase couldn't quite get his head around that. He knew Cameron had liked House, who didn't she'd practically announced it to the entire hospital when she forced him out on that dinner date. But when she'd called him last year the night she got high, he thought maybe she was over him. Now he knew she was just lonely. He'd suspected House had a thing for Cameron, but really what man wouldn't? She was gorgeous, and just different enough to keep House guessing.

Anyway, when their new patient's tests had all come back negative, things started going down hill. Foreman and Cameron were already at odds about how to handle things. Cameron wanted to repeat a few of the tests, which Foreman thought was a waste of time. Chase didn't bother to point out that while Foreman was probably right, he also had no new suggestions to offer. Why step in the middle? He'd readily agreed to go back and speak to their patient again to try and ferret out some little detail they'd missed the first time around.

After spending about an hour in the patient's room, Chase had nothing new. The man's life was a bore. He was a tax attorney and hadn't left New Jersey in five years. He was unmarried and had no family nearby. He had few friends and not much of a social life. Chase asked him everything he could think of that might explain even one of his symptoms, but came up empty. Dejected, he started back to the conference room to report to Cameron. Arriving, he heard what sounded like an argument. Great, he thought.

"Repeating those tests was a waste of time," Foreman was saying to Cameron. "We should be looking for a new idea, not recycling old ones." Chase decided to wait out the storm before telling them he was going to be of no help, and seated himself in the corner.

"Which is what I was doing," Cameron responded. "Just because you disagree with me is no reason to avoid caring for our patient."

"If you want to care for our patient, then you can repeat useless tests. I want to cure him and the only to do that is by looking for new information," Foreman countered.

"At least I didn't get chosen to be in charge by sleeping with the boss," Foreman spat at her. Chase watched as anger flashed in Cameron's eyes. As Chase prepared himself for the screaming that was to follow, Dr. Cuddy walked in from the hall.

"Dr. Cuddy, what a surprise," Foreman seethed upon seeing her. "How long did you wait before you ran downstairs to rat me out to your boyfriend's boss, Cameron?" Chase inhaled sharply, waiting for someone to call him the rat, even though he'd had nothing to do with it.

"How do you know that?" Cameron asked Cuddy. "Are you spying on us?" Chase wasn't surprised. After all, she'd known the whole time he was the one feeding info to Vogler, but had done nothing about it. She would stop at almost nothing to protect her hospital.

"You don't trust me to run things either!" Cameron exploded.

Chase decided this was going to get ugly, and he was not the one to make it go away. He got up quietly and walked around the corner to Dr. Wilson's office.

"Dr. Wilson, we need your help," Chase said to the oncologist, who appeared to be trying to catch a nap on the couch.

"Sure," Wilson said. He dragged a hand across his tired face and struggled up from the couch in his office.

"Got a new case you need a consult on?" Wilson asked Chase, stretching slightly before following him into the hall.

"New case, but we don't exactly need a consult," Chase answered.

"What's the problem then?" Wilson asked. As Chase and Wilson rounded the corner from Wilson's office to the conference room, the voices drifted in to the hall, all three of the occupants of the conference room now on the verge of actual screaming.

"That's the problem," Chase answered. Wilson and Chase paused in the doorway to watch as Cuddy, Cameron and Foreman all tried to talk together. The noise was even worse than when Chase had left.

"What happened?" Wilson asked Chase.

"Cameron told Foreman to run some additional tests on our new patient, and he blew her off. Cameron went to check on him, the patient I mean, and saw the tests weren't done. When she asked the nurse about it, the nurse told her Foreman hadn't ordered any tests. I guess Cameron didn't cover very well that she was mad, because the nurse went and told Cuddy. Now Foreman is pissed because he thinks Cameron ratted on him, and Cameron is pissed because Cuddy gave the nurses instructions to let her know if anything weird was going on down here. And I don't really know why Cuddy is pissed. I sort of gave up when she started yelling," Chase finished.

"Well, week two is off to a rousing start," Wilson said.

"I never thought I'd say this, but I may be glad when House gets back," Chase blurted out, the look on his face giving away his regret at letting the thought out of his mind.

"Your secret is safe with me," Wilson said quietly to Chase.

"Hey!" Wilson said. Getting no response he increased the volume of his voice. "HEY! Not to sound like House but if the patient dies while you're in here arguing your faces will be so red." Chase chuckled. Thank goodness for Wilson. "If I'm not mistaken, Dr. Cameron is in charge here. That means she gets to go first." Wilson waved his arm at Cameron to indicate she had the floor.

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Cameron

To most people, three weeks away from House would seem like a dream vacation. But Cameron had expected it to be nothing short of nightmare. Not only was she worried about him to the point where she could barely sleep, but he'd left her in charge of the department while he was gone.

The first few days, before they'd gotten a case, she'd wondered if he hadn't done it to try and prove to her that he trusted her. After they'd gotten through the two cases they'd had so far, she wondered if he hadn't done it to give her the chance to prove to herself that she could do it. But, now that they were stumped on their newest case, she was wondering if he hadn't done it just to torture her a little. Maybe this was just House's way of giving her a parting shot without having to actually talk to her about anything.

Cameron shook her head; she was just tired. She'd barely managed four hours of sleep the past few days. She took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes for a moment before turning back to the impossibly long list of possible illnesses she'd compiled on their new patient. She crossed another possibility off the list and slumped back in her chair in disgust. If House were here, he would call her pathetic and insult her ability to come up with a good idea and run with it. He would be right, and she would hate him for it.

Cameron decided a break was in order, as she was getting nowhere with her research but deeper in the hole. She went to go check on their patient. The short walk to patient's room did nothing to help clear her head, and upon seeing that the tests she'd wanted Foreman to repeat hadn't been ordered, she seethed. Nurse Molly confirmed that Foreman had been in to see Mr. Stephens, but hadn't ordered any new tests. And Chase wasn't here either, had he even gone over the patient history. Cameron marched back to the conference room and paged the boys.

"I asked you to repeat those tests over an hour ago Foreman, what happened?" Cameron pounced on Foreman as soon as he walked in the door. Chase walked in behind Foreman, but Cameron ignored him for the moment. He sat in the corner, and Cameron was pleased, although ashamed of herself, to see that he looked a little frightened.

"Repeating those tests was a waste of time," Foreman replied. "We should be looking for a new idea, not recycling old ones."

"Which is what I was doing," Cameron responded. "Just because you disagree with me is no reason to avoid caring for our patient." He would never have done that if House were here, Cameron thought to herself.

"If you want to care for our patient, then you can repeat useless tests. I want to cure him and the only way to do that is by looking for new information," Foreman countered.

"At least I didn't get chosen to be in charge by sleeping with the boss," Foreman spat at her. Cameron inhaled sharply. How could he think that! If anyone should know that being in charge was a thankless job, it should be Foreman, he'd done it before. Cameron opened her mouth to tell him what a self-righteous pig he was, when Dr. Cuddy entered from the hall.

"Dr. Cuddy, what a surprise," Foreman said sarcastically. "How long did you wait before you ran downstairs to rat me out to your boyfriend's boss, Cameron?" Cameron was insulted. Did he really think she was so weak that she couldn't handle him herself?

"How do you know that?" Cameron asked Cuddy. "Are you spying on us?" Cameron accused. How could she? Did anyone here respect her at all? "You don't trust me to run things either!" Cameron exploded.

None of them noticed Chase leave the room and come back with Dr. Wilson. Cameron began berating Cuddy for treating her like a little girl, instead of giving her the respect that she would expect from someone else. Cuddy tried to explain that she was only trying to protect the team and the hospital; while Foreman launched into a vicious spew about how this was what happened when you dated your boss.

"HEY!" Wilson's voice pierced through the din. "Not to sound like House but if the patient dies while you're in here arguing your faces will be so red." Cameron gave him a slightly disgusted look. "If I'm not mistaken, Dr. Cameron is in charge here. That means she gets to go first." Wilson waved his arm at Cameron to indicate she had the floor.