Monday was everything House – and pretty much the rest of the hospital – had expected. House had made a special effort and gone to work on time. He had even managed to get to the hospital at the same time as Sheridan. He actually walked in through the doors with him. As they walked through the clinic towards Cuddy's old and Sheridan's present office, House looked ahead through the glass doors into the room bare of everything but a simple desk and a chair. Even the anteroom had been stripped bare of everything but a desk and a chair.
"Hey, your decorators seem to have failed to show up during the week-end!" House exclaimed with totally fake concern.
"My decorators?" Sheridan looked at him puzzled. "Why would I have needed decorators...?" His voice died down as he, too, looked ahead and saw the desolate state of his office. House had had even the carpet removed. "What happened to my office?"
"Dr Cuddy emptied it for you," House stated. "You were told that you can decorate the office any way you like, weren't you?"
"Yes, but I declined the offer," Sheridan looked like he would have wanted to cry. "I had no problems with the office as it was!"
"Oh," House shrugged. "I suppose you forgot to mention it to Dr Cuddy. She took it for granted that you had hired decorators for this week-end, so she made sure her things were out of the way."
"Ms Forbes was supposed to take care of it," Sheridan was still in shock. "She told me that she had given the message to Miss Hill!"
"Really?" House was surprised (sure he was). "Miss Hill is usually so reliable; it's difficult to believe that she would have forgotten something like that. Could there be a misunderstanding of some sort?"
"Who cares!" Sheridan nearly yelled. "It doesn't matter how it happened, I can find that out later. Right now I don't have an office and I set up meetings with all the department heads for today! How am I supposed to have meetings in a fish-bowl! And empty fish-bowl, come to that. There aren't even any shades on the windows anymore."
"Well, I suppose you could book one of the conference rooms for the day," House mused. "Oh, wait, they are all booked! The international workshops Dr Cuddy arranged for this week take up all the rooms. I think you have to change your plans and instead of having all the heads come to you, you have to go to them. But I would get Ms Forbes find me a decorator today, if I were you." With that House continued to the lifts with a wide smile on his face – that, though, Sheridan did not see.
------------------------
"I saw Ms Forbes arrive," Cameron nearly gloated as she came into the conference room. She had been the first to come to work that morning, but knowing the usual time at which Ms Forbes came to work, she had found a reason to be in the lobby when that happened. "I thought for a moment that her jaw was actually going to hit the floor. She was appalled! And very unhappy that she had to slum it for the rest of the day. I'm fairly sure that her first priority is to get her own space done and Sherry Darling will come a very distant second in her plans."
"How was she?" Chase wanted to know. "Were the blotches still as bad as on Friday?"
"Nearly gone, I'm afraid," Cameron reported. "What little there was left of them she was able to cover with make-up."
"Damn," Foreman swore. "I was so hoping for the sight of her sitting in that fish-bowl with her face covered in red blotches. Well, at least her week-end was ruined thanks to Miss Hill."
"I was looking forward to that sight, too," Cameron mourned. "Well, she still had a very bad morning. As soon as she got in, Sheridan collared her and they had a humdinger of a fight. They did try to stay out of sight, but with no blinds, they didn't quite make it. Too bad we couldn't hear what was said. Anyway, Ms Forbes flounced out of there to the cafeteria in high dudgeon. And I have a feeling Sheridan is going to need to do a lot of grovelling before he is back in her good graces."
"It's always risky having an affair with the daughter of the man on whose good will your job hangs," House pondered. "Of course, he is seriously overestimating Mr Forbes' power in the board. Especially if something were to happen to put a strain on the continued good will between Misters Forbes and Taunton. Though I cannot imagine what could possibly separate such good and long time friends."
"You are not going to out them, are you?" Cameron was suddenly concerned. "I mean, I don't care about Sheridan and Janelle – or even her father, but Sheridan's wife! And Janelle's husband! They are innocent in all this. They don't deserve to be hurt."
"They have already been hurt," House pointed out with utter seriousness. "They just don't know it yet. And I don't think I need to out those two. They are already beginning to show signs of carelessness. They haven't been caught yet, so they think they never will be."
"Besides, Janelle looks like the sort of woman who wouldn't care if they were caught," Chase observed. "She likes stealing things, and part of the fun in stealing husbands is that people know you did it. That you have the power to steal somebody else's man."
"I thought from the beginning that Sheridan's main attraction to her was that he was taken," Miss Hill joined the conversation from the doorway. "And I agree: they won't need any outing."
"Good morning Miss Hill," House greeted her affably. "And how are you this wonderful Monday?"
"I'm just peachy," Miss Hill responded in dulcet tones. "It's such a pleasure to come to work in a big, attractive, well-decorated office, don't you think?"
"Absolutely," House couldn't agree more. "The furnishings do make the office. The feel of a soft carpet under your foot, the welcoming arms of a familiar recliner, the soothing colours of the curtains and the reassuring privacy provided by the blinds are so essential to a successful day in an office. You are so right."
"Stop it, you two," Cameron insisted before she choked on her laughter. Chase and Foreman were having similar problems, too. Cameron turned to Anna: "But what I want to know is how you will get away with it? Sheridan is out for blood and he can't take Janelle's so you are next on the line."
"Hah! He needs to be up really early in the morning if he thinks to get any of my blood," Anna scorned. "He's not the first insolent little puppy I've led up the garden path. You see, it was the day after the first chocolate incident between me and Ms Forbes that Sheridan decided the matter so Ms Forbes and I were really snippy with each other still and when she informed me that Mr Rawls liked the office and Dr Cuddy wouldn't need to do more than remove her personal things out of there I informed her that everything in that office was personal to Dr Cuddy and to tell that to Mr Rawls. That was the entire conversation. Now I'm sure nobody can fault me if Ms Forbes didn't understand me!"
"But he won't blame Ms Forbes," Chase pointed out. "He can't, because of her father. He will come after you!"
"Sure he will, but my contract says that only Dr Cuddy or the Dean of Medicine can fire me," Anna told them. "Now do you think either Dr Cuddy or Dr Wilson will do that?"
"But couldn't he take it to the board?" Foreman suspected. "Surely they can fire you over Cuddy and Wilson's heads."
"I'm sure they can," Anna was unconcerned. "But if you were jockeying for a permanent position as the head of this hospital would you go to the board and say that your secretary is having problems with Dr Wilson's secretary and would the board please deal with it?"
"That wouldn't give them a very good impression of your administrative skills, now would it," House pointed out.
"True," Foreman agreed. "It does seem you're safe! Excellent."
"Does anyone know what Sheridan is going to do with the meetings he set up for today?" Chase wanted to know.
"That's why I'm here," Anna responded. "Dr Wilson has a patient but he wanted to know if you have received the memo, too."
"No," House shook his head. "Haven't seen it. Of course, Cameron hasn't read my email yet, so it could be there."
"It probably is," Anna nodded. "Anyway, Sheridan is trying to move the meetings to tomorrow."
"Which he will find is impossible," House smiled. "Since everybody is so busy with the launching of Cuddy's international programme."
"Precisely," Anna smiled back. "If he wants to have them this week, he needs to do them today."
"And today he doesn't have an office, so he has to come to us," House sighed in satisfaction: it was always nice to see a plan unfold perfectly. "This immediately puts him in a disadvantage, authoritatively speaking."
"It's almost too perfect," Anna agreed.
"Almost," House said. "And we do have to take that into consideration next time. Sheridan is not an idiot, we have just been able to blindside him for now. If we try something as elaborate as this again, we need to be really careful."
"I don't think we need to do anything this big again," Anna pointed out. "Besides, we cannot expect the department heads to work with us again. This was easy, because they all wanted to have an advantage over Sheridan – something they never have with Dr Cuddy, though they have tried hard enough. But as I said, we won't need to do anything like this again, since it will take Sheridan the next six months to regain the ground he will loose today."
"But what if he doesn't do the meeting today?" Cameron asked. "What if he schedules them for next week?"
"That would be the smart thing to do," House nodded. "But I'm fairly sure he will not think of that as he is too rattled because of the office and the fight with Ms Forbes. I think he will want to show that he has some control over something on his first day at work. Of course, the ideal thing to happen would be that he meets with a couple of the heads and then rethinks his situation – having realised that in somebody else's office he isn't as much in control of the situation as he wants to – and then arranges the rest of the meetings for next week. If he does that, I won't need to do a damn thing for the rest of the six months: the power politics between different departments will do it all for me."
"Let's hope for that," Anna wished as she turned to go back to Wilson's office. "By the way, I disagree with your assessment of Sheridan. He is an idiot. Only an idiot would have anything to do with Ms Forbes."
"Doesn't that make her husband an idiot, too?" Cameron frowned.
"I understand they married young," Anna shrugged. "Everybody's an idiot when young."
-------------------------
The plan unfolded beautifully. And it went exactly as Anna and House had hoped: Sheridan was an idiot and rescheduled some of the meetings to next week. But even with all the fun going on with Sheridan; with all his plans coming to fruition House wasn't gloating. Sure he had been elated at first, but as the day wore on, he got more and more glum. The ducklings even saw him take an extra Vicodin, which hadn't happened in months.
"What's wrong with him?" Foreman frowned. "He should be gloating all over the place, explaining to us the brilliance of his plan and how perfectly he predicted Sheridan's reactions and making plans for the next phase of the campaign. He should be crowing in glee and stealing food from the cafeteria – you know!"
"I know, I don't understand this," Cameron agreed.
"I have a theory," Chase mused as he watched House pace his office.
"Well, share!" Foreman invited.
"No, I don't think so," Chase refused. "I need some proof. And I think I will soon get it."
The others looked at him half-angry, half-puzzled but before they could come up with a way to force him to co-operate the lift doors opened and Kasumii came out of the lift with Aiko. Kasumii was carrying a basket with some food and Aiko's bottle in it. As soon as the lift door opened House was out of his office and making his best speed for Aiko. Aiko too was eager for their meeting; as soon as she saw her Daddy she was cooing in joy and trying to reach for him. House got to her and lifter her into his arms. The moment he felt the familiar weight and warmth of his daughter in his arms he visibly breathed easier.
"Hello, Little Love," He greeted Aiko. Aiko said something back and House listened. "I know, I missed you too, but I'm sure you had a very nice day with your Nanny and MamaLisa." Again Aiko responded. "Yes, I know it's not quite the same as coming to work with me, but we have to start changing the routines to accommodate your siblings once they arrive." Aiko pouted and babbled something. "No, we cannot cancel them now. We don't even want to. You will love them once they are here, I promise." Aiko muttered something. "Really, I promise you. It will be fun!"
"We brought you your lunch," Kasumii decided to enter the conversation. "But you cannot eat it here, in the corridor."
"I suppose not," House agreed. "Aiko, will you let Kasumii carry you to my office so we can eat?"
Aiko frowned a little but didn't protest as House handed her to Kasumii but as soon as they were in House's office again, she indicated that she wanted her Daddy. House complied and in the end they had lunch together: House eating his lunch with one hand while holding Aiko who was drinking her milk.
The ducklings had observed the proceedings in silence and once House went into his office with Aiko and Kasumii Foreman and Cameron turned to Chase.
"Was that what you were waiting for?" Cameron asked.
"And what did that prove, then, if anything?" asked Foreman.
"It proved my theory: House was suffering from Aiko-withdrawal," Chase concluded.