026. Teammates
Teamwork
When House stumped into the Diagnostic Medicine conference room with the mother of all scowls on his face, Chase, Foreman and Cameron almost instinctively hunched their shoulders and waited for the snark to fly. They were more than a little surprised when House said nothing. He merely poured himself a cup of coffee, growled at them indistinctly then retreated to his office where he promptly turned on the most obnoxious music he possessed.
"Okay, that was unusual," Chase said warily.
"House being pissed off isn't that unusual," Foreman replied.
"House being pissed off and not taking it out on us is unusual," Chase insisted. "We're normally target number one."
"Chase is right," Cameron said before Foreman could reply. "You know House likes to spread the misery."
"Well, okay fine," Foreman conceded. "But so what? For once he's keeping his bad mood to himself. That's something to be pleased about, not get curious about."
"Unless he's saving it up for some reason," Chase said ominously. "He might come out of his office in half an hour and make our lives hell."
Foreman considered that for a moment then winced. Chase was right; it would be a very House thing to do.
"So what do we do?" he asked.
"Dr Wilson's staying with him at the moment, isn't he?" Cameron said thoughtfully.
"Yeah, while his divorce goes through," Chase replied.
"Well then, that makes things easier," Cameron said. "We ask Dr Wilson what's going on."
"Okay," Chase said with a shrug.
The three doctors got up and shot wary glances into the office. House was ignoring them. In fact he was lying on the floor behind his desk so they felt fairly safe in sneaking out of there. They wandered next door to Wilson's office but he was nowhere to be found. His secretary informed them that he'd come in early that morning and hadn't been in the best of moods.
They walked away from Wilson's office with looks of apprehension on their faces.
"House is pissed and Dr Wilson's in a bad mood," Chase said flatly. "We are in so much trouble."
"Unless we find out what's wrong and try to fix it," Cameron said thoughtfully.
"What?" Foreman yelped. "Are you crazy? I say we stay as far out of this as possible."
"How can we?" Cameron countered. "You know that anything that affects House ends up affecting us. I say we get this sorted as soon as possible so that we can go back to our nice normal lives."
"I'm with Cameron," Chase said. "I think trying to sort this out is the lesser of two really evil things."
Foreman stared at the two of them for a moment then threw up his hands in disgust. "Fine! Since the two of you are completely insane and can't keep your noses out of other people's business. So what do we do?"
"You're probably the best at dealing with House when he's in a pissy mood, so you go back to the conference room and keep an eye on him," Cameron said briskly. "Chase, you go and talk to the Oncology nurses. They might have more information on why Dr Wilson's in a bad mood."
"What are you going to do?" Foreman asked with a disgruntled expression.
"I'm going to find Dr Wilson and talk to him," Cameron replied.
"Good luck," Foreman said reluctantly. "You're gonna need it."
Cameron gave him an exasperated look then walked away own the corridor. Foreman shook his head then patted Chase on the shoulder and headed back to Diagnostic Medicine, leaving Chase to find some nurses.
Cameron walked down the hallway and considered where Dr Wilson might be hiding. She'd already dropped in to see his secretary again but she'd had no idea, only suggesting that perhaps the clinic might be an option. She paused at the end of the corridor and debated whether or not to check the clinic. Dr Wilson's secretary might be right but then again the clinic was an obvious place to be and if Dr Wilson was looking to avoid House, he wouldn't be likely to be anywhere obvious. As she stood there, the sounds of the gossiping nurses not too far away caught her attention; mostly because the names 'Dr Wilson' and 'Dr House' had just been mentioned.
"…and then Dr House turned up in a foul mood or so Connie told me," one of the nurses was saying. "She was on the front desk this morning."
"Do you think it was a lover's quarrel?" a second nurse giggled.
"Let's hope not," a third, older nurse said, rolling her eyes. "Though it is nice to see them make truth out of the rumours."
"How do you know it's truth?" the fourth nurse said cynically.
The second nurse giggled harder. "Because Eileen caught them at it," he said, gesturing to the older nurse.
The other two gaped at Eileen and demanded details.
"I didn't catch them at it," Eileen said with amusement. "But it was obvious to anyone with eyes and a nose they been at it. And in one of the exam rooms too. Just as well the clinic was pretty quiet. There weren't any patients at the time."
"So what were you doing looking in the exam rooms?" the first nurse asked eagerly.
"Dr House hadn't returned the file for his last patient," Eileen replied. "I didn't realise Dr Wilson had come down. He must have snuck past when my back was turned. He had the good grace to look rather embarrassed but Dr House just looked smug."
"Dr House always looks smug," the fourth nurse said, rolling her eyes, then she shrugged. "Besides if I had just had Dr Wilson, I'd look pretty smug too."
"What a waste," the first nurse said regretfully. "Though I suppose it explains the three marriages."
"Guess there must be more to Dr House than meets the eye," the second nurse observed. "I can't imagine Dr Wilson putting up with him if it wasn't worth it."
"Well, he is pretty good-looking once you get past the scruffy clothes and the stubble," Eileen said speculatively. "It's just his attitude that puts people off. Why would you put up with that unless you were in love? Or unless you get to see a side of Dr House that we don't?"
"Well, I think they look very cute together," the second nurse said decisively.
The other nurses laughed and agreed with her.
"I just wish they wouldn't bring their lover's quarrels to work with them," Eileen said ruefully. "Dr House will probably hide in his office unless he gets forced into doing clinic duty then woe betide anyone who crosses his path."
"Thank goodness he's not on the roster for today," the first nurse said fervently. "Because I am."
"I feel sorry for his team," the fourth nurse said. "They work together pretty well unless Dr House is stirring them up and you can bet that's what he'll do in this kind of mood."
"And no Dr Wilson to settle him down," the first nurse added.
"Come on," Eileen said abruptly. "Here comes Dr Cuddy. Back to work."
The four nurses scattered and Cameron ducked back down the hallway and found an empty room. She leaned against the wall and swallowed hard. House and Wilson were lovers? She didn't doubt the nurses; if you wanted the latest gossip on anything you went to the nurses and nine times out of ten they were right. Why hadn't they seen this? House wasn't the most discreet of men; she'd have expected him to be making plenty of public comments. To see Dr Wilson get flustered if nothing else.
On the other hand, this did explain House's bad mood rather handily. Wilson was the only one who regularly won arguments with House and that usually never failed to get House in a bad mood. Only what could they do about it?
She slowly made her way back to the Diagnostic Medicine conference room where she found Foreman and Chase sitting at the table. House was apparently still in his office since the music was blaring away.
"He hasn't budged," Foreman said when she walked in.
"The Oncology nurses wouldn't talk to me," Chase said rather plaintively. "In fact they were pretty snippy. I think they're taking Wilson's side of whatever argument those two are having."
"They're lovers," Cameron blurted out.
There was a moment of dead silence before Foreman said carefully, "Who are?"
"House. And Wilson," Cameron replied with a slightly eerie calm.
"Okay," Foreman replied. "How do you know?"
"I overheard one of the nurses saying that she nearly caught them having sex in one of the exam rooms," Cameron replied.
"Ooookay," Foreman replied, his eyes wide. "I'll accept that."
"It's a lover's quarrel?" Chase asked incredulously. "Oh no, I think we should stay right out of this one."
"I agree," Foreman said fervently. "I am not getting involved in their personal lives."
"I'm in…complete agreement," Cameron said still with that eerie calm. "I think they can…sort this out for themselves."
The three teammates looked at each other for a moment, quite comfortable with their mutual agreement.
"Let's get out of here though," Chase said with a nervous glance at the office. "I think staying out of this one is going to mean literally staying out of this one."
Foreman and Cameron nodded and the three doctors rose in unison and beat a hasty and mostly dignified retreat.