House: Bentley by DD Agent
Chapter Two
I know it's been a long time since I've updated, but I've got the ol' House muse working now, so you should expect semi regular updates (but don't count on it, I've got A Levels coming up)
Hope you enjoy, and I would advise reading chapter one before this (I had to!!)
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In his temporary hospital room, House sat up with Cuddy by his side. She had since removed her hand and was sitting with her arms crossed looking smug as she waited for House's explanation of his relationship with Gwen Bentley.
"I was having trouble with my leg. I didn't know what to do, other than lie and cover it up, as I knew you and Wilson would be all over me about it. I met Gwen, and everything just…changed. She was a physiotherapist, and in exchange for sleeping on my couch, she would help me with my leg. Then I screwed up, and so did Wilson and she left. Now, can you go and let me get my beauty sleep?" House explained, but Cuddy gave him a look that basically said she wanted more detail.
"Fine. Women huh? Always wanting the small, insignificant details."
XxX
Five Months Earlier
House walked past the notice board on his way to the couch. General Hospital was about to start, and it had been difficult getting his leg to cooperate. He had been getting sharp and sudden pains in his leg on and off for a while, but the stolen Vicodin wasn't helping much. Wilson might say that the ache was due to skateboards and eight mile runs, but House was sure that the Ketamine surgery was failing.
When he turned to the T.V, he saw that the couch had already been taken over. House was about to yell vigorously at the three gynaecology interns when his thoughts turned to a notice on the corkboard of the back wall. Usually it consisted of desperately painful advertisements that made any sane person cringe, but there was something about the purple card that drew House's attention.
Room Wanted (or couch, sofa, or anything resembling a bed).
Will pay rent and help out around the place.
Anything goes with prospective housemates, except homicidal tendencies.
Call or page Dr. Gwen Bentley on 555 - 678 - 239
Intrigued, House left the room and slowly made his way over to the front desk. Smiling at the pretty blonde nurse, he asked for Gwen Bentley's file. Flicking through it, he gained some interesting info. She was the middle child of five. She was extremely hot, if her picture did her justice. But what was the most interesting were her degrees. She was an oncologist, working under Wilson. But, she also had a degree in physiotherapy and was taking over as head of the department.
Normally, House didn't like helping people out except if it was the complete opposite of what people thought he would do. House couldn't let Wilson or Cuddy know that his leg was hurting again, but maybe the head of physiotherapy could help him with his limb discreetly.
XxX
"Are you saying you just gave this random woman a place on your couch just out of the goodness of your heart?" Cuddy asked, and House reached for a glass of water.
"No, I did it for the manipulative factor. Wilson's new oncologist would be fun to play with, if only to piss him off. She also looked cute, and any woman sleeping on my sofa would be sure to tick off Cameron too. Except for you, maybe."
Cuddy gave him a warning glance, and House knew those very well. "I'm beginning to see a new side to you House. It's interesting and a little disturbing."
"Bear in mind this is before Tritter decided to come into my life and screw everything up. I was a very gentle soul before then, willing to lend my sofa out to any young maidens who decided that they wanted to have it."
"Carry on with the story House."
XxX
Gwen Bentley was in the Clinic, checking her beeper every five minutes to see if anyone wanted to host her in their spare room. The patients were a thin trickle, but all those who got her went out in under five minutes. Gwen was fiddling with the portable television in the small room that was to soothe patients. It was funny how Dr. House never managed to get this room. She had already been warned about the sarcastic crippled doctor her first day here, but so far Gwen hadn't seen him.
Diagnosis Murder repeats were on, and Gwen was completely addicted to the medical drama. She had just turned the television on when a man came bursting in the door. He wasn't a patient, and although he didn't wear a white lab coat, the cane gave his identity away. Even if he was the infamous Doctor House, no one interrupted her Dick Van Dyke time.
"Are you Dr. Bentley?" he asked bluntly, setting his cane on the worktable.
"Actually, I'm her identical yet evil twin who's planning to take over the hospital with David Bowie melodies and hospital melodramas," Gwen replied, moving her concentration from him back to the television.
"Cute. If you are Dr. Bentley then I have a place for you to stay. If you're not Dr. Bentley then this conversation is irrelevant."
"Unlike manners in your case."
"Dr. House, I'm sure you've already had the lecture from Cuddy about me" he introduced, smiling. He liked her already; she was sarcastic and creative at the same time.
"Dr. Gwen Bentley. You say you have a room for me. But, I don't think you qualify for my housemate criteria," Gwen retorted, using one of the thick medical textbooks to hit the television. It was one thing to be disturbed by a doctor, but to have her Diagnosis Murder taken away by simple problems with the electrics was just taking the mickey. It was the highlight of her day.
"That was only once, and that was Wilson. It doesn't count," House smirked back, liking the girl increasingly each second. She wasn't afraid to stand up to him. He liked that. She was already half way to being just as bigger pain in the ass as he was. Give it a few weeks under his roof and soon he could annoy Wilson twice as much.
"So. Room?"
"First things first. You're the head of the physiotherapy department right?"
"Yes I am. Doctor Cuddy hired me after you scared my predecessor off. He really shouldn't have tried to get you to 'bond' with the cane. Treat it as an old friend you don't need any more."
The television blared into life and Gwen jumped into the seat. The older doctor groaned inwardly. He would have to get her out of the habit of watching Diagnosis Murder. There was nothing wrong with General Hospital, in fact it was better than its competition. House dangled a key in front of her, and Gwen's attention switched from Dick Van Dyke to him.
"My leg is hurting. You help me fix it, you get the room," House announced, his face completely still.
"Why not tell Dr. Wilson or Dr. Cuddy? I thought they were your friends."
"Are you suicidal? Because I'm not! They don't get told, you don't get kicked out, comprende?" House declared.
Gwen stared at him for a few moments, wondering if the offer was genuine. She had only been here a month, but already had heard plenty of stories about the legendary Dr. House. She turned to the television for a moment, but out of the corner of her eye saw him rubbing his leg. She liked helping people, and if all it took to get a room were to do her job for a few more hours a day then she would do it.
"Give me the keys," Gwen asked, and House chucked them. The throw went a little wide, but close enough for her to catch them with her left hand. However, the physiotherapist missed completely.
"I'm not that bad a thrower."
"No, I'm just a bad catch," Gwen retorted, shoeing the diagnostician out of her room.
Reluctantly, House left. Gwen stared at the door he had gone through before smiling gently to herself. This was going to be interesting.
House stood outside the clinic room and contemplated on his meeting with Doctor Bentley. She was hot, sarcastic and had didn't seem to mind him. This arrangement could work out quite well. But there was something about Gwen that had an air of mystery, some secret she was hiding. Going through her file again, it mentioned nothing about an injury, but she should have at least been able to catch those keys, or even scrape them with her fingers. But she didn't. Gwen Bentley was a mystery, and House liked mysteries. She was one he was definitely going to solve.
XxX
Wilson looked at Gwen with a mixture of sadness and longing. He hadn't seen her in two months, and their last meeting hadn't been exactly fruitful. In truth, she had slapped him and walked out of her office, her job, and her life in New Jersey. Her hair had light blonde highlights now, and she seemed to hold herself better too. She still had that twinkle in her eye that had made her seem so attractive to him. Instead of that perky, beautiful smile he had looked forward to seeing, it was one of sympathy and sadness.
"You may want to get in there," Wilson replied, and Gwen nodded. She bypassed Chase and went into the room with her sisters. They stared at their brother for a moment before Caitlin got up and closed the door on the doctors waiting outside. If Wilson felt a little perturbed at their behaviour, he gently reminded himself that he wasn't part of Gwen's family, and although once he would have liked to have been by her side, that time had long passed.
Cameron was intrigued at the relationship that Doctor Bentley seemed to have with both Wilson and House. But before she could ask the oncologist, he had walked away. The ducklings split up to return to other duties, each needing a break from each other. Foreman noticed how much Chase and Cameron were avoiding being in the same proximity, and he rolled his eyes as he made his way back to the office. Office romances were never a good idea.
Up in his office, the wall was brought under considerable distress by Wilson's fist meeting the plasterboard. Seeing her again had brought many old feelings back to the surface, feelings he didn't exactly want coming out. A knock to his office door brought him back to earth, and putting his bruised hand in his pocket he opened the door.
It was Cameron.
"What's going on between Doctor Bentley and House, and you and her for that matter?" Cameron asked, and Wilson took pity on her. He let her into his office and offered her a seat.
"Gwen was an oncologist under me when she started here. She was compassionate but fiery, always managing to help her patients but never hinder them. I have no idea what her relationship to House was, but the last time I saw her before today we had this massive argument where she accused me of betraying him. It was during the whole thing with Tritter, so it was understandable. It didn't make any sense at the time because I didn't know that they even knew each other."
"Did you love her?" Cameron asked, her tone sincere.
"Believe me, I've been asking myself the same question since she left." Suddenly there was another rabid knock on the door, and Wilson opened it to find Chase on the other side. He was surprised to see Cameron there, but his reason for being there in the first place soon turned him back to Wilson.
"Doctor Wilson, you need to come down to Mr Bentley's room immediately. One of his sisters has collapsed."
"Mary."
Wilson, Cameron, and Chase raced down the hallways back to the ward where House and Bentley were. On the way there, Wilson filled them in on Mary Bentley. She had been one of House's patients a while ago but there was nothing more that diagnostics could do for the teenage cancer patient. House had tried everything to help the young girl respond better to her cancer treatments, but in the end Mary was given eight months to live. She had chosen to stay in the hospital, and Cameron remembered going down to visit her the other week.
But when they got there, it wasn't Mary who was on a gurney but Gwen. Wilson ran through the last few paces to reach her side and help out the two nurses by her side. Mary rambled about how she was coming out to find House and she just collapsed. Just as Wilson was about to issue instructions about Gwen, House stumbled out of his room. He made his way over to Gwen and pulled a water bottle out of her small bag. Unscrewing the lid, he took a gulp.
"Mmm…Vicodiny. Put Doctor Bentley on a bed and take a blood sample. Hopefully all we have here is her upping her pain meds," House ordered, before making his way back to his own room. Wilson reached for the water bottle and saw that the supposedly clear liquid was slightly hazy.
"Get this tested."
Wilson watched as Gwen was wheeled away, Mary going with her and Caitlin staying with their brother. Chase went with Gwen, but Cameron went off to run tests on the water bottle. Cuddy had gone back into House's room, an angry expression on her face.
"Vicodin filled water bottles? You have a lot of explaining to do mister."