House was still lying on the floor, though now Aiko was crawling around him, when his first hopeful candidate walked into his office. Actually she was his only candidate, but she didn't know that.
Doctor Perta Gilmar walked into House's office a little unsure about why she was here again. She had tried for the position once before, two years ago, and had thought that the interview went rather well, only to find out that House had rehired his previous fellow. She presumed that Doctor Cameron had to be an outstanding doctor and had obviously driven a hard bargain – and the interviews had only been a strategy on House's part. She partly resented having been used that way, but then, that was par for the course in hospital politics. You learned to live with them, though you didn't like them. The previous interview rankled a little still, but on the other hand, House was a legend of no mean proportions! If she managed to survive this fellowship – and the current three doctors House had in his team were the first who ever had – she could go anywhere. However, finding the said legend prone on the floor with a baby (about nine months she estimated) crawling all over him was somewhat disconcerting.
"Take a seat," House told her without really looking at her. "Unless you want me to look up your skirt, of course. I have no objections, but some might think it a little unprofessional."
"Thank you," Petra said not batting an eye, ignoring the rest of House's sentence and just reacting to the first part. She sat down in a chair that still allowed her eye contact with House – that is, had House really looked at her.
"So what makes you think I should hire you?" House asked. "Apart from the fact that you grew up with four brothers and think that you can handle me, that is."
That made Petra blink; she hadn't thought that House remembered the previous interview. She didn't let it faze her, though: "I think I'm a good doctor and though I can definitely learn from you, I'm sure I can also contribute to the work you do."
"No you can't," House stated categorically. "Your papers do indicate that you might eventually become a good doctor, but dismiss the thought that your contribution to my work is something a cage full of monkeys couldn't do as well. I think out loud; if I do it without audience they will lock me up in a padded cell. Mind you, there are times when they want to do it anyway. The only use I have for fellows is that my tenure depends on them: I need to teach to keep my job."
"If that is the case, why did you interview me two years ago?" Petra wanted to know. "You had two fellows left, why not fill Dr Cameron's place with a monkey and be done with it? Or does your tenure specify the number of fellows you need to have?"
"No, my contract does not do that," House pulled Aiko closer as she was trying to crawl out of reach. "But Dr Cuddy was of the opinion that I needed three fellows and since she is the Head of this hospital and I had just cost a hundred million bucks to her, I didn't feel I was in a position to refuse. So I interviewed. Fortunately I found a way to rehire Dr Cameron, so I was eventually only minimally inconvenienced."
"A hundred million dollars?" Petra gasped. "Dr Cuddy had a choice between you and a hundred million dollars and she chose you? I..."
"Boggles the mind doesn't it?" House agreed. "However, she had already chosen the money and was getting ready to fire me, but then things happened and... Well, anyway, I was not her favourite person for a while there. But then, I rarely am."
"I see," based on their previous meeting Petra had assumed that she could handle House and anything he had to say, but apparently there was more to the man than she had originally assumed. Mind you, the sight of a baby girl treating him as her personal mountain was enough to throw anyone for a loop: the stories that you heard about House made you rather think he ate babies for breakfast.
House noticed the puzzled looks Dr Gilmar was giving Aiko and he smiled inwardly: "So, how are you with babies then?"
"Babies?" Petra couldn't quite see how that was relevant but decided to answer anyway: "I have two nieces and two nephews and I get along with them just fine. They are older now, but I did baby-sit them when they were little."
"Good," House rejoiced and dropped the bomb: "Because I have three more of these at home and once Dr Cuddy's maternity leave runs out the kiddies will be coming to work with me until I'm sure their immune system can handle day care. Of course, Aiko is the one I'm most worried about as she has only just recovered from Blastomycosis, but the triplets were premature so we need to be careful with them as well for a while."
"Are you telling me that baby-sitting will be part of my duties?" Petra frowned.
"If I deem you reliable enough, yes," House stated self-evidently. "We do have a Nanny and we are hiring an assistant to her, but extra help is still needed with four babies. Everybody chips in."
"We?" Petra was getting too confused with this interview that was so different – yet so similar – to the one before that she just asked the first thing that came to her mind.
"Dr Cuddy and I," House informed her. "Dr Cuddy is the mother of my triplets. Aiko, however, is just mine. She is adopted. The rest of the gossip you just have to get from other sources."
"Oh," Petra sighed.
"So are you ready to start tomorrow?" House asked.
"You're hiring me?" Petra gasped.
"That is what start tomorrow usually means," House pronounced clearly. "Try to keep up with me girl."
"Yes, I can start tomorrow," Petra stated deciding to ignore the insults.
"Good," House nodded getting up from the floor though Aiko did protest when she lost her mountain. "Wear sensible shoes. Come on, I'll show you to the team." House lifted Aiko into his arms and took a few careful steps with her to the door opening it. "Cameron, come get Aiko!" He called.
Cameron did as House asked giving a curious look to Petra. Once she had Aiko safely in her arms she carried her to the play pen they had in the conference room. House followed her and Petra followed House. Before he could introduce the new doctor to Chase and Cameron, Foreman came back from his clinic duty. As soon as he caught sight of House it was apparent that he hadn't calmed down from the previous day. In fact, he looked even angrier than before.
"You called my father," Foreman accused immediately totally ignoring everyone else in the room.
"No I didn't," House shot back immediately.
"He told me that you did," Foreman growled.
"Oh, you mean your father," House pretended to remember suddenly. "Yeah, I did call him. Horrible of me, I admit, I don't know what I was thinking. Just because his son is my patient is no reason for me to call him."
"You never do!" Foreman nearly yelled. He would have yelled, but he saw Aiko just in time to lower his tone. "And he thinks you are going to keep him posted, too."
"I am," House shrugged. "Is there a problem there?"
"He trusts you!" Foreman hissed. "You never keep your promises, you habitually lie to the patient's family, you ... you... I'm the one who needs to pick up the pieces here!"
"I keep the promises I want to keep," House pointed out. "And since your father does trust me, and will accept my recommendations for your brother's care, I don't need to lie to him. I respect your father Foreman. I will keep him posted."
"You told him that he doesn't need to come here," Foreman accused. "And he just complied!"
"He is taking care of your mother as you well know," House reminded Foreman. "Right now he is not needed here, but if the situation changes I will alert him."
"This is my family you're messing with!" Foreman ground at him through his teeth.
"No, it's not your family I'm messing with," House denied. "Just you. And I seem to be doing a pretty good job. You are not upset because I called your father, you are upset because I didn't tell you I was going to, so that when you finally got round to calling him yourself you found that he already knows and all your carefully worded reasons why he doesn't need to come here right now were wasted because he had already accepted my word for it."
"You... I don't like you," Foreman was so angry that he couldn't even find words to express it – at least not with Aiko in the same room.
"I know," House patronised. "The thought of that keeps me awake at nights."
"I bet," Chase muttered from his seat at the table where he was doing his crosswords.
"Right, now that we have established that, can I possibly introduce you to Dr Petra Gilmar?" House wanted to know.
"Hi, I'm Allison Cameron," Cameron tried to defuse the atmosphere in the room by being polite. "Are you consulting or just visiting?" she asked.
"Gilmar is my new fellow," House gloated. "She is the first one of the new team that will replace you all."
"You're hiring already?" Foreman had only just got his previous anger under control and now this new piece of information nearly set him off again. "We haven't even given you notice yet."
"I didn't think I needed to wait for that since I told you three months ago that you had six months to get your asses out of here," House shrugged. "Now, of course, you only have three months left of that time."
"Are you going to hire the rest of them before we go, too?" Chase asked curiously. "Just thinking that this room could get a bit crowded."
"No, the other two I will find once you are gone," House told him.
"Ok," Chase accepted. "I suppose it makes sense that at least one of them has a chance to benefit from our experiences first. I'm Robert Chase, welcome."
"Thanks," Petra didn't quite know how what else to say. It seemed that her arrival had been a complete surprise to House's fellows, though Dr Chase seemed to accept her presence without a problem.
"Gilmar starts tomorrow but you can show her around right now if you have some interesting test results for me," House announced magnanimously.
"Yeah, I think I do," Chase grimaced. He took a file and gave it to House: "You said to test for anything and everything we can think of. And the MRI was done this morning so those images are there, too."
"Fine, you can go then," House nodded already reading the test results. "Oh, one thing Dr Gilmar, or actually it is two things. Having failed to caution my previous team against it, I've decided not to make the same mistake again. First, no falling in love with me..."
"I'm over you!" Cameron exclaimed.
"But the shoe seems to fit still," House remarked snidely. "And the second thing is: no sleeping with colleagues"
"We stopped doing it," Chase muttered.
"Yeah, and it was the stopping that interfered with your work," House explained. "And it always does stop!"
"I don't think there is any danger that I will break either one of your rules," Petra announced feeling that House had a rather inflated idea of his own attractiveness – even if Dr Cameron had, for some reason, apparently had feelings for him.
"That's what they all say," House mourned. "Of course, Dr Wilson is fair game, if you want. He is between wives right now. And he is a nice Jewish boy – apart from being a serial polygamist, that is."
"Thank you for your advice," Gilmar replied with exaggerated politeness. "I will keep it in mind."
"Do that," House smiled gleefully. "Now shoo, all of you. I have work to do."
Chase and Cameron did leave with Petra to show her around but Foreman refused to leave. He gave House a stubborn stare and said:
"I presume your work is about my brother?"
"True," House admitted. "But you're not his doctor."
"I still have the right to know," Eric insisted.
"Actually, you don't," House pointed out. "Your brother is conscious and capable of making his own decisions so you need his permission to get this information." Eric glared at House like he wanted to strangle him. House relented; he didn't want the younger man to burst a blood vessel or something. "However, since you are a doctor in this hospital, and part of my team you can access this information any time you want regardless, so for me to keep it from you is rather pointless. Not that any of this will make you happy." He gave the results to Foreman.
Foreman read the file and looked at the images: "Early onset Alzheimer's."
"We need to do a few more tests, but yes, that is the logical conclusion," House nodded. "Probably facilitated by those concussions he has suffered and of course his substance abuse."
"And genetics," Foreman pointed out.
"Yes," House agreed. "But without the head trauma and the drugs it would have taken longer to develop."
"So what now?" Suddenly Foreman felt totally drained. He wasn't angry anymore; he felt numb.
"That I will have to talk over with your brother," House pointed out.
"Yeah, I suppose so," Foreman accepted.
"I better go and do it now," House sighed. "Can you stay with Aiko? I don't think I ought to take her with me for this visit."
"No, that would probably not be a good idea," Foreman agreed. "I'll stay with her. And Cameron will probably be back soon as well."
"Good," House nodded and left the room leaving Eric to Aiko's care.