Chapter fou

Maybes

After House left her, Samantha briefly considered passing him off to another doctor, but she was afraid that if she did, everyone would know that somehow, in a matter of ten minutes, She had developed a crush on the elusive Dr. House. This was bad in so many ways. One was it was definitely not professional, Two, he was at least twenty years older than her and sarcastic, and Three, it was very hard to tell when House was being serious. She knew he hadn't been in a real relationship in years, and that all he had was Wilson, whose relationships he often sabotaged In order to ensure that he didn't lose his best friend. In the end she decided that she didn't have much of a choice, she'd have to keep treating House, and ignoring her feelings. Maybe if she ignored them, they'd go away. Or maybe if she would have just agreed to marry Foreman, this wouldn't be an issue.

With a sigh, Samantha returned House's file to the proper place and prepared to make her rounds to see the other patients. She liked to check in at least once a night to make sure no one had any pressing issues that couldn't wait until the next group or one on one session.

Thankfully, the rounds took her mind off House and Foreman, and it was nice to know that no one had any mini crisis' while she was away. In fact, she was glad to see that everyone seemed to be coping quite well. When she came to House's room she hesitated. She had just seen him an hour before, and really had no reason to see him yet again. Just as she put her hand on the knob, her cell phone rang.

"Dr. Brady,"

"Hey Sam, it's me."

Samantha let go of the knob as if it was on fire. "Hey Foreman, what's up?" she asked, thinking it was funny to refer to her ex by his last name. But then, during the relationship she had called him Foreman as well.

"Just wanted to say Hi. Heard you had House in your facility."

"Yeah, he's mine," she said, "I..I mean my patient!"

"Right, so…are you okay? You seem nervous."

"No, not nervous, just tired."? she lied. She couldn't believe she had defended something that only she saw as something less than innocent. "So how've you been?"

"I'm good." Foreman stated. Then added, "actually, I'm miserable. Sam, I miss you. I know we can get through this. So you don't want to get married, I can deal, but I don't want to lose you."

Samantha sighed. "Look, I miss you too, but I need more time." That much was true. She and Foreman had been dating a year when he proposed, and although that was a respectable amount of time, she just wasn't ready, and it put her in flight mode. She wondered at times if she was afraid of her true feelings for Foreman, or if she knew deep down she could never love him enough to be married to him. Until she got that all straight, she didn't want to put herself in the position of dating him again. At least not yet. She did care for him, and she missed his touch, his kiss more than she wanted to admit. But, still something held her back.

"Damn it Sami, I have given you three months, how much longer do you want me to wait?" Foreman yelled frustrated, then immediately apologized. "Look, I'm sorry, but this is killing me."

Samantha started to answer him, but stopped short when she looked up and saw House staring at her. "I got to go, I've …a patient waiting." Not waiting for his response she ended the call, and stood silently before House, waiting for him to speak first. She felt guilty for even briefly considering that she may be attracted to House when a great guy like Foreman was being more than patient with her. And then to see House's blue eyes poring into her, she could almost believe that he knew just who she had been talking too.

"So, I see you decided not to wait until you wore white," House quipped, wagging his eyebrows up and down suggestively.

Samantha took a deep breath and mentally prepared herself. "Keep fantasizing, House. I just came to make sure you were settling in okay."


House grinned. "well…I'm kind of lonely, wanna jump in my bed and try to catch some porn?"

Samantha rolled her eyes and turned away. "Good night Greg."

House waited until she was almost out of earshot before adding, "Goodnight, oh and tell Foreman if he screws up, he's fired."

Samantha somehow managed to keep her composer as she made it back to her office. Damn him, he was good. She never should have told him she had dated someone from his hospital. She should have know he would figure it out sooner or later. But did he have to do it so soon? And, why did he have to keep teasing her when she was so confused about Foreman.

This definitely wasn't going to be easy, and now she knew that it was just going to get worse. But, what could she do? For the next couple hours she kept herself busy catching up on paperwork, and reviewing charts. She'd soon have to call Foreman back and apologize, but she wasn't quite ready to do that. What she was ready to do, she decided, was to tighten her resolve, ignore any attraction to House, and be professional.