CHAPTER 2

'It's never lupus'

Cameron opened the door of the conference room at exactly eight o'clock in the morning to find there two quite confused young doctors.

"Hey…" She said and smiled.

"Who are you?" Foreman snapped. Chase just stood there with his mouth open.

"I'm Allison Cameron, Dr. House hired me yesterday to work with you." She smiled again and approached them to shake their hands.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Robert." Chase said and nearly tripped as he hurried to shake her hand back.

Foreman watched her mistrustfully and she sat down at the table.

"So, what's there to do?" She asked.

"Not much, House's not gonna be here until like 2pm so you can have coffee and tell us something about yourself." Chase said and smiled widely. Foreman narrowed his eyes as he saw Chase's sudden interest in the new colleague.

"There's no patient?" Cameron asked again.

"No." Foreman hissed and took a newspaper sitting down.

"And um, what is there to do then?" She pouted.

"Not much, so…" Chase said and cleared his throat. "What made House hire you?"

Cameron grinned and shrugged.


House woke up at seven and rolled over in his bed. It was too early to get up. Then a certain memory made him widen his eyes. The new girl. He immediately regretted hiring her, she was pretty, yes… but way too annoying. He sighed and reached out to grab the orange bottle with pills. Then he had a thought…

When he walked into his office a couple of hours later he found his three employees chatting and laughing. Well, not all of them. Foreman was being his usual self, watching Cameron with a frown. House took a deep breath and stepped into the conference room throwing a couple of files at the table.

"New case!" He said loudly and limped to get his morning coffee.

"What is it?" Foreman asked and reached out to take one of the files.

"I just got back from the patient's room. Read it and weep…" He said.

They all took the files and buried themselves in reading. House watched them with raised eyebrows as the room became silent. Cameron seemed intrigued as well, reading carefully but he already knew how to take her apart. He smiled lightly watching her… if his plan worked, she'd be quitting by the end of the day and things could go back to where they were.

"So?" He said after a while.

"Not done reading." Chase growled.

"I'm not asking you…" House snapped and looked at the new member of the team. "Camomile…"

Cameron didn't even look at him as she grunted. "That's not my name… and I haven't read it yet, either."

"Okay, any idea so far?" House asked again raising his voice.

"It could be…" Foreman started.

"I'm NOT asking you!" House yelled. They all looked at him disbelief.

"He's asking me." Cameron murmured and sighed. She swallowed hardly and took a deep breath thinking. "I believe it might be, um… well I think… actually…"

"Do you think our patient has got so much time to wait for you to come up with something meaningful?!" His voice bubbled with anger. "Tick-tock… tick-tock."

"Um, if you let me finish…" Cameron protested.

"Well, it takes you forever… Are you an idiot?!" House shouted.

"Are you seriously asking me that?!" Cameron snarled angrily and looked straight into House's eyes.

"Do you know the answer at least to this?!" He raised his voice again as his eyes never left hers. Cameron sighed.

"Give her a break!" Chase interrupted him standing up.

"Whoa! A knight in shining armor! I know she's a catch but that's not what she's gonna get her salary for!" House growled, shook his head and dry swallowed a Vicodin.

Foreman watched this carefully with an amused grin.

"I think it could be a Sarcoidosis due to the abnormal collection of inflammatory cells." Cameron finally said to stop the stuffy atmosphere in the room.

"Bullshit!" House snapped and limped to the whiteboard. Taking the marker in his hand he started writing down the symptoms.

"How about lupus?" She tried again.

He turned around giving her a shocked look. Chase and Foreman sighed.

"Say it with me, boys…" House grinned.

"It's never lupus…" They said simultaneously and House laughed.

"Okay…" Cameron smiled lightly. "Then I suppose I'm out of guesses and I can go to the bathroom." With that she stood up and turned to leave.

"Aww, c'mon, Cammy, third time's a charm." House replied mockingly.

She stopped and looked at him. "So, I'd say it is a flu… if you like." She added a few seconds later and left the room.

House's eyes widened and the three doctors fell silent as she slammed the door shut.

"What the hell is your problem?" Chase asked angrily a few seconds later.

"I don't have a problem. I'm just trying to make her feel at home."

Foreman chuckled and looked at House. "How about pulmonary embolism?"


Cameron was standing in front of a mirror watching herself carefully. What an asshole, she thought. She took a deep breath and washed her face lightly still thinking about what had happened a while ago. The symptoms as well as the tests were inconclusive and the case was weird as such. But it was probably just too tricky for an unexperienced doctor like her.

Soon after she shook her head and decided to go back and face the bastard again. She wasn't about to give up, the job was a great opportunity and she wasn't really afraid of arrogant people. She despised them.

Walking through the corridor she heard somebody calling her.

"Allison!" Cameron turned to see Cuddy waving at her smiling. "How's your first day?"

"Um, could be better, I guess."

"Is House giving you a hard time already?" She asked with interest.

"Kinda…" Cameron smiled sadly and looked around. "He obviously doesn't like me."

"Oh, don't worry, he just doesn't like anybody." Cuddy replied sympathetically. "You should see the way he talks to me."

"Well, maybe I should start my internship with someone else." Cameron shrugged. "I have no idea what's wrong with the patient, I just took a shot and…"

"What patient?" Cuddy interrupted her.

"House's…" Cameron stated matter-of-factly.

"He's got no patient…" Cuddy said shaking her head.

"But…"

"I'd know that… I assign all the cases."

"So who are we doing the differential diagnosis on then?" Cameron asked.

"I have no idea but there's no patient."

"Wait a minute." Cameron said slowly and ran the list of the symptoms through her head. "Oh my god…Thank you!" She said briefly turning as she hurried back to the conference room.

"O…okay…" Cuddy said looking confused.

"It is a flu!" Cameron shouted as soon as she stepped back in the room.

Foreman and Chase looked at her with disbelief and even Chase decided not to stand up for her obviously stupid idea.

"You were saying…?" Foreman chuckled and then looked at House rolling his eyes. "Seriously, where the hell did you get this bimbo?"

Cameron walked over to the whiteboard taking the marker from House's hand without permission and pointing to the symptoms.

"Here are all the answers," she said and took a deep breath. "First, you said you just got back from the patient's room… Bullshit. I know very well you never visit the patients unless your team has no idea how to save them. There's no such patient. Maybe there is but not here, there are at least dozen of them downstairs in the clinic. Second, these symptoms are typical of it but your lackeys are used to looking for something much more complicated so you decided to mess around with me to make me quit. And third, no… I'm not an idiot. I may not be a great diagnostician yet but I can see right through you." She blurted out in one breath her eyes never leaving House. "And lastly, just so you know, I'm not quitting. I like you way too much to let go." She finished giving him an ironic wink.

House looked completely baffled until a half smile appeared on his face a minute later.

"Not bad, Camomile." He told her and started erasing the words on the whiteboard. "There's obviously more to this gorgeous butt."

"It's Cameron. And my cute butt is off-limits here." She snarled and sat down at the table.

"Did you hear that, Chase? Bad news." House stated his back still turned to them.

"Are you kidding me? You just made that up?" Foreman asked angrily as Chase smiled at Cameron.

"Good job, Allison." Chase said.

"Now, since there's nothing to do, Foreman covers my clinic duty, Chase gets me a lunch and Cameron can make me another cup of coffee." House ordered and waited for the two doctors to leave the room.

"So, Cammy…" He started looking into her eyes. "There's a question I've been dying to ask you."

TBC. Reviews are more than welcome. Thank you.