Chapter Three

Nicole stood at the patient's bedside, hugging the chart to her chest. "Dolores Endalstein, fifty-four. Symptoms include chronic headaches, low-grade fever, constant fatigue, muscle pain, and lymphadenopathy."

Chase stepped up and placed the drum of his stethoscope against her heart. "Ms. Endalstein, have you been having any night sweats, tremors,..."

"Epidemic neuromyasthenia, benign myalgic encephalomyelitis." House grumbled, hobbling into the room.

"Iceland disease?" Foreman squinted his eyes as he looked at the patient. "How can you tell?"

"Just run the test..." He turned to leave, but Cameron caught his arm.

"...but Iceland disease is most common in younger woman..."

"Run the test!" He barked. He knew that would be his last angry moment of the day, at least that other people would see. Outside the room, he watched as his team prepared everything to confirm the diagnosis and set up treatment. He would never admit to it, but House loved when they questioned him, it made him feel superior. He needed that feeling after the morning he's had.

Nicole glanced at him through the glass doors. He waved a hand, signaling for her to join him out in the hall. "See how easy that was?" She smirked, standing at his side.

House rolled his eyes, followed by deep breath. "Did you take your pills today?"

Nicole stepped back, a hand raising to her chest in disbelief. "What?"

"You yelled at me before. Either you're PMSing or you didn't take your meds. Now it narrows that down to the latter because when your 'Aunt Flo' comes for a visit, Chase is almost as miserable as you...," House lifted his cane and pointed to Chase who was still attending to the patient, "...and he seems relatively chipper. So, I ask again. Did you take your pills today?"

"I forgot, okay. It's not like I'm going to die for missing one day. Right?"

"Oh, but how wrong you are. See, your Wilson's may not kill you, but I just might. I'm in for a long day, I accept and loathe that, and you don't want to make it worse." House turned away from her and started walking down the hall, towards his office. When he noticed she wasn't following, he stopped and coughed loudly. "What part of our job description are we forgetting?"

Nicole walked up to him and waited for him to turn around. "Let's see... I already did the patient's history. That leaves watching you stare at your white board, watching you play with your ball... which is not half as amusing as it sounds, but I'll do those later. Then what? Pay for your lunch? No, that's Wilson. Take you out to dinner. No, still Wilson..."

"Is this going to end sometime before Armageddon?"

"Hold on, almost there. Kiss your ass? Cuddy. Not to mention Chase, Foreman, and Cameron. Oh... I remember!" Nicole moved so she was inches from his face, and made her eyes grow as big as they could while still allowing her to bat her eyelashes. "Dr. House, has anyone ever told you you are absolutely the best, smartest, and most handsome doctor in the entire world?!"

"Am I interrupting something?" A small, mousy girl came sliding up to them. "Dr. House," she squeaked, clicking her heels and pulling on the hem of her skirt, "My name is Jessica Harris. I'm your..."

"Where's Cameron?"

A/N:

I will be the first one to openly admit that these chapters are very short. I will also admit that i made a promise that i would be working on this over Christmas break, and have not. simple reasoning: i hate my father. downstairs, where our computer is, is where he usually is and i can't stand to be around him. mostly because he completely doesn't trust me and is constantly looking over my shoulder. I HATE THAT! so, this holiday season i made every effort to ignore him, and the triple F (Forced Family Fun).

sorry for the rambling, but i'm usually a person of my word. i felt i needed a chance to explain myself...

Anyhoo... i hope you like it so far and continue to review!

Ruby