Author's Note: Please review and let me know what you think. Thanks, as always!
"Someone want to tell me what the hell that was all about?" Foreman asked, looking irritated. The muscle in House's jaw twitched as he watched Cameron and Sebastian step inside the elevator. His right hand gripped the handle of his cane tightly, causing his knuckles to turn white. "No idea," he seethed. "But I'm pretty sure I know someone who does," he said defiantly, as he pushed open the heavy glass office door, making his way to the lobby.
Megan saw him coming from the corner of her eye. At the unusual rate of speed he was moving, she guessed this was not going to be a friendly social visit. She rose from her chair, kicking it back behind her as she rounded the desk. "Dr. House, you can't go in there right now. She's in a phone conference with the New Jersey Board of Health," Megan said frantically, as she tried to keep him from storming through the second set of doors to Cuddy's office.
From over Megan's head, House could see Cuddy sitting with her back towards the office doors. "You cannot go in there Dr. House," Megan's tone was admirable, as she locked onto his eyes, but she was no match for someone like House.
A small smile began to turn up the corners of his mouth. In one quick backhanded motion with his cane, he knocked over her open bottle of water, spilling the contents all over the piles of important looking papers on her desk. Megan rushed away from the front of the doors to begin frantically dabbing at her desk with tissues.
"Nothing personal," he said, as he pushed open the door. "But I think she'll see me now," and with that he threw back the heavy door, causing it to slam against the wood trim on the wall behind it.
Cuddy swung around quickly in her chair after hearing the door burst open, realizing just who was insane enough to cause that to happen.
"Hang up. We need to talk," he demanded.
From behind her desk, Cuddy mouthed the words "what are you doing?" Rolling his eyes, House leaned over and disconnected the call.
"House!" she bellowed. "What the hell do you think you're doing? Have you completely lost your mind?"
"Megan, get them back on the line, please," she called out anxiously to her secretary, who unbeknownst to her had gone to the restroom to fetch paper towels.
"Get out, House. I don't have time for this right now," she said, hastily pushing buttons on her phone that failed to reconnect the call.
"Nope, not until you fill me in on why Dr. Do-good is insinuating himself around my office and my staff," he demanded.
Abandoning the call, Cuddy looked angry, but unruffled. "Now, I assume when you say 'staff' you're actually referring to Dr. Cameron, no doubt?"
House began to pace back and forth in front of her massive desk. "You know damn well what I'm talking about. Pompous, self- righteous jerks like that do not just drop out of the sky without a reason. He's here for something. What is it?"
Cuddy laughed softly under her breath as she leaned back in her chair to stare at House. "I'm sorry. Did you just call him self- righteous? That's rich, don't you think?"
House stopped pacing long enough to lean intrusively over Cuddy's desk. "You're enjoying this aren't you? Don't forget, I know where the provocative toys and lingerie is kept and the spare key to your house. That'll make for some fun at this year's Christmas party," he said, his eyes looking up to ceiling as if previewing the actual event.
The smirk slowly dissolved from Cuddy's mouth. "Oh, relax. Can't a girl enjoy watching you suffer for a few minutes?"
"Oh, I think you've had plenty of time at that," his voice was rough, and very annoyed.
"Right," she said, dragging out the word. "So, here's how it's going to work. Sebastian is in town for a week to run a TB free clinic for us on the college campus. It's something he said he's wanted to do since receiving treatment here-- sort of as a thank you to us for saving his life"
"I saved his life," House lobbed back. If he really wanted to thank me, I've got about 10 moving violations that need to just go away quietly," he said, sarcastically.
Cuddy rolled her eyes just imagining how he accrued those. "God, I don't even want to know what that's about".
"He's going to be here the rest of this week to set everything up and then all next week he'll be across campus. You'll hardly even know he's here except for the time you'll be working with him," she slipped in, waiting for his rant to begin.
"What do you mean, working with him?" he balked.
Cuddy smiled victoriously from her safe spot behind her desk. "Ten hours. That's only two hours a day. And, I'll even be so kind as to release you from your clinic duty here during the week. That should still give you plenty of time to torture fellowship applicants and a patient if one shows up. I like pink roses, if you're stumped as to what to get me as a thank you," she said, sarcastically.
House continued on, completely ignoring her subtle suggestion. "Let Foreman do it. He hasn't been doing any clinic duty for months".
Cuddy sighed loudly. "He will be doing it. Ten hours in addition to his hours in the clinic here. Make sure he gets that information, please," she smirked, while House still stewed. "Look, it's not just you- five other specialists will be helping out. And, believe it or not, they all want to. It's a chance to give back to the community," her words dripped with a mixture of condescension and sincerity.
"I don't think you heard me. I have interviews this week- for a position that I have a perfectly good doctor for. Cameron…" he started, before being cut off.
"You have no current cases, House. And, Cameron has been reassigned- temporarily. Let's just say she now serves at the pleasure of Dr. Charles and his team. You can have her back Friday evening of next week," she said, holding her breath as her eyes locked onto his expression.
House threw up his hands to rub his throbbing forehead as he stormed off for the door.
"I expect you to be on-board with this," she called back to him, sternly. "That means showing up at whatever meetings Doctor Charles has, working and acting like a professional physician of this hospital and being at that clinic a minimum of two hours everyday," Cuddy's voice became louder, the closer he got to the door.
"It's not going to happen," he said arrogantly, as he turned back to face her.
Instantly, Cuddy's professional demeanor switched off. Her voice became low and devoid of inflection as she rose from her chair to walk across the room to stand in front of him. "Are you saying that you are disregarding my request for this assignment? Undermining my authority as Dean of Medicine?" her normally blue eyes, turning a steely gray as she stood toe to toe with him.
House swallowed hard as he raised his gaze from her, breaking the lock her eyes had on his. A few seconds went by in silence before he shook his head softly two times. "No," he said, his voice was barely audible. And then he turned and walked out of her office.