House could see that Cameron and Foreman were already in the office as he stepped out of the elevator. He had to admit that he was more than a little surprised that Cameron was actually there and not off somewhere with Sebastian. The thought of the two of them going out the night before irritated him more than he ever expected.
"Foreman," House bellowed. "In my office".
Foreman shot Cameron an odd sideways look before levering himself from his chair at the conference table and following House into his office.
"What's up?"
House threw his backpack at the foot of his desk and sat down dramatically in his chair. "You left last night before I had a chance to give you the Cliff notes on my meeting with Cuddy.
Foreman leaned back in the chair opposite House's desk, crossing his right leg over his left knee. "Does this have something to do with Dr. Charles, because Cameron's been even tighter lipped than usual this morning. Don't tell me Cuddy's asked him to work in Diagnostics with us," he laughed.
House tossed his cherished red and gray ball back and forth between the palms of his hands. "Close, except we get the pleasure of working for him," House lobbed back.
Foreman sat quietly, searching House's face for clarification.
"Dr. Hypocrite will be here for a week to run a TB free clinic on the college campus. You and I have had the good fortune as being tapped to work two hours each day at his good deed sweatshop, extolling his virtues while helping him cure the masses. Oh, and you've still got to do your normal rotation through the clinic downstairs as well--that's a little gift from Cuddy".
Foreman didn't look as displeased as House would have liked. "God, please tell me you're not happy about his. Bad enough for an entire week I've got to look at Suzy Sunshine out there eagerly waiting to cure each and every case of TB in New Jersey. I don't think I could take it if you do the same thing".
Foreman grinned and finally spoke up. "So, Cameron's working the clinic too, I assume?"
"Yep. Except that Cuddy's reassigned her to Charles for the entire week. I guess she figures Cameron's not going to be around here long enough to actually produce any more life-saving diagnoses for this office".
Foreman laughed softly under his breath. "Well, it's not exactly like we're swimming in cases up here".
House rolled his eyes dramatically. "Oh, not you too. Jeez, you're all I've got left. You better not turn traitor on me, or I'll tell Cuddy you still can't find your own ass to wipe it or tie your own shoelaces".
Foreman sighed heavily. "House, you're overreacting. Why do you let Dr. Charles get to you so much? You know you're a better doctor than him any day of the week. Why do you keep giving him way more credit than he deserves?"
House returned his ball to its circular, footed holder on his desk. "Just find us a case while you're down in the clinic this week. I don't care how diagnostically boring it is. I can make anything sound good enough to string Cuddy along-- just get us something and fast or else she'll also have us working the line at the YMCA soup kitchen by next Friday, just for good measure".
Foreman laughed as he rose from his chair. "Yeah, ok House. I'm headed down to the clinic now; I'll see what I can do.
Without any cases in the department to work on, Foreman had stayed downstairs in the clinic a few hours later than he was required. House had spent most of the morning sitting in his office staring at the stack of new fellowship applicants Cameron had meticulously organized by order of experience and compatibility. He glanced quickly over to the conference room and in particular, Cameron's desk.
The day had turned out to be much more painless than House had anticipated. As expected, Sebastian had called a meeting for the following afternoon, but had stayed out of the Diagnostics office and most importantly, away from Cameron. Wilson had heard a rumor from one of the nurses that Cameron and Sebastian had ridden into work that morning, but House hadn't worked up the courage to pester Cameron about it.
She also hadn't shared any news on the status of her interviews since he'd seen her looking at the mail in the elevator and as much as he wanted to know about it, a bigger part of him dreaded actually hearing the news that she had found another position. Of course, the worst possible scenario would be that Sebastian would play on her amiable disposition and convince her to go to Africa.
"Let me guess, bikini-clad Angelina Jolie playing frisbee on the beach with a topless Carmen Electra…" Cameron's voice shook him from the thought he was having of her sweating her spectacular ass off in some nameless, disease ridden village in Africa.
"And then you always show up and ruin my fun," House recovered flawlessly, as he swung his legs back down to the floor from where they'd been resting on the top of his desk.
"What? Idiot boy hasn't figured out what to do with you yet?" he jabbed, staring at her form as she leaned against the doorframe between his office and the conference room.
Cameron exhaled sharply and clenched her jaw to keep from sparing with him on his own level. "For your information, he's been in meetings all day with Cuddy and the Board of Health".
House leaned back in his chair, twirling a pencil between his long fingers. "He's been here a whole day and he's not saving people yet? I'm shocked he hasn't been treating people from that very expensive hotel room he's got across town. Must be hard to go back to a dirt floor, grass hut once you've slept a week in the Presidential suite," he seethed.
Cameron tilted her head disapprovingly. "I'm sure I wouldn't know about that," she lobbed back. "Anyway," she said, trying to change the subject abruptly. "I wanted to give you a quick rundown of who you're interviewing tomorrow before I call them to confirm their appointments".
House laughed lightly under his breath. "Right. Ok, let's get this over with," using his best annoyed tone as he swept out his hand, offering her a seat in front of his desk.
Cameron put on her glasses and pushed her skirt up slightly as she sat down, crossing her long legs. "First one, 9:00 am. Dr. Michael Parker," she said, pulling the file from the stack and putting a bright yellow sticky note on it with '9am-- sharp!' written on it. "Immunologist, board certified with two previous fellowships in Oncology and Infectious Diseases at Sloane-Kettering and Johns Hopkins, respectively".
When House failed to acknowledge that he had processed the candidate's information, Cameron moved onto the next folder. "Second interview, 10:45am-- Dr. Janice Bertram. She's an Immunologist, also board certified, previous fellowships in Nephrology and Emergency Medicine at University of Virginia Hospital at Charlottesville. And, the last one is at 1:00pm, Dr. Jeffrey Peng…"
House fidgeted impatiently in his chair. "Yeah, yeah. I get the picture".
Cameron laid the three folders on the desk in front of him as she took her glasses off and dropped them into the pocket of her lab coat. Her eyes pored over his frame as he got up from the desk to stand in front of the window. "House…" she started, softly.
"Where will you be tomorrow when they come in?" his voice was equally as soft and low, as he cut her off.
Cameron rose from her seat to stand beside the desk. "I'm not really sure, since I don't have to cover your clinic duty anymore. There's a possibility Dr. Charles will have something for me to do".
House turned quickly to look back at Cameron. He stiffened at the mention of Sebastian's name and the muscle in his jaw began to twitch as he locked his eyes onto her face.
As if to protect herself from his steely gaze, Cameron pulled her arms up to cross her chest. She moved to stand beside him, her eyes now fixed on his. "I still work for you, House. If there's something you want me to do tomorrow, tell me and I'll do it".
Cameron stepped closer to him, placing her hand on the back of his arm. House pulled back his arm from her touch and then raised it to knock over several books and a heavy bookend from the cabinet behind his desk, sending them crashing onto the floor.
Before she could get a word out, he angrily pushed past her and walked out the door.