Games

House trolled his way through the ER until he found his bestie, "Hey! Who's the sickest patient you got?"

Cameron came over and walked in step with him, "I've got a guy who'll be dead in the next ten minutes." She said sarcastically before she chuckled, "Oh! You mean someone who might actually survive a diagnosis."

House gave her a look as he started pulling curtains with his cane.

"There's nothing here. Just the usual cracked heads, gunshots, false alarms."

"Who'd you pick to fill your narrow little flats?" He stared at her with a grin.

She smiled back, "So you could fire them off my recommendation? Nice try."

"Hey! Who do I have to grope to get some turn-down service in here?" A guy moaned out from one of the two curtains House hadn't opened.

Cameron pulled it back to reveal the patient to House, "Jimmy Quidd. He is a punk rock singer."

"Punk rock star to you." He looked at both of them.

House picked up his chart and reviewed it, "Repeated trauma, self-cutting, fever, arthralgia, hyper inflated chest, fatigue, anemia, blood in the stool and urine." He almost grinned at the guy… almost, "I've died and gone to diagnostic heaven."

Cameron took his chart back, "His blood results shows booze, cocaine, amphetamines, opiates. The only mystery here is how he made it to be thirty-eight."

"I'm twenty-eight." Jimmy said as he gave her a look while pulling out a cigarette.

"And he lies. And he's a pain in the ass." She looked over and grabbed the cigarette from his mouth.

"Hey, c'mon."

"No." She struggled with him a moment.

House had that 'this is cool' look in his eye, "Wrap him up. I'll take him to go."

~0~0~0~0~0~

After Amber won the stupid eyeball and the first test, Thirteen found her standing outside the men's room. She knit her brows and walked over to her.

"Is he in there?"

"Yeah."

"Why'd you go right for the drug theories?"

"If he had a history of shoving cancer into his veins, I'd have guessed cancer." The blonde said sarcastically.

Thirteen nodded, not really agreeing, but understanding nonetheless, "Okay. You're an idiot. Either that or you've decided you can trust a smoking addict alone in a bathroom with an oxygen tank."

It was at this moment that they heard an explosion from inside.

~0~0~0~0~0~

For the second DD, Thirteen was not taking 'no' for an answer, "Who gets the eyeball next?" She stared at House.

"I haven't run my test yet. It still might be a lung issue." Amber almost whined the words out.

The brunette turned to the blonde, "You can't run your test. The patient had massive smoke inhalation. Do a bronchoscopy, it'll set off a laryngospasm."

"I'll do an open-lung biopsy instead."

Thirteen paused just long enough for the pause to be effective, but not get cut off by anyone else, "You want an invasive surgery because you screwed up?"

House started ducking behind the white board, while Amber began arguing back, "The patient snuck a cigarette."

"The patient is an addict. It's not his fault he's jonesing for whatever he can get his hands on."

"Not his fault he's jonesing? In what universe does that make any sense?"

House decided to come back out as this argument was not getting anymore heated and actually a bit blasé for him, "Get him on a nicotine patch. It'll keep up with his joneses. Do your biopsy."

Thirteen gave Amber a smug smile as she took the eyeball and left the room.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Thirteen was sitting in the seat across from Cameron's desk, "We lost the patient, Babe… we actually lost him in the hospital."

Cameron thought about it, "We did that once too… at least yours wasn't hallucinating a lacrosse game on the roof…" She gave her girlfriend a look, "Where did you find good ol' Jimmy Quidd?"

"You know our patient's name?"

"I admitted him…" After a short stare, she continued, "You really think House was going to do it himself?" she shook her head.

Remy nodded, "Right…"

"So where did he wind up?"

Thirteen gave her a look as if she were asking for a puppy, "We found him in Peds… He was entertaining the kids."

Cameron mirrored the look, "That's precious." Thirteen made a face, "But something happened…?"

"He kind of collapsed in front of the kids and we had to calm all of them down and get him stable enough to move…" She pursed her lips.

"Yup… Good ol' Jimmy Quidd." She looked up at her girlfriend who gave her a look, "What? He should have been in bed no matter how adorable he is…"

Thirteen squinted her eyes, "You know, I could say the same thing about you, but I would mean it in a completely different sense…" She waggled her brows.

Cameron shook her head, "Naughty, naughty, Dr. Hadley." She gave her a cheeky grin, "So what did House do when you told him? He told us that there was nothing a guy with a bum leg could do about it and to call him back when we found our guy."

"He told Taub to check the lost and found and me to come with him…"

"And how was the principal's office?"

"Lovely." Thirteen challenged, but when Allison cocked that brow, she was done for, "He asked my why I loved drug addicts…"

"And…?" Allison stood up and walked around to pop herself up on her desk in front of Remy. She spread her legs just enough for Remy to scoot in and hug her and kiss her tummy.

"I said that there was more to him than the drugs… and after a few more witty jabs at each other, I told him that drugs are always a mask for something." She paused for a moment and looked up at her blonde lover, "And he said that was the dumbest thing he'd ever heard…"

Allison leant forward and held her tight. She kissed Remy's hair, "Only 'cause he knows it's true."

~0~0~0~0~0~

House walked into the classroom that night with a small record player. He took a record from its paper casing and placed it delicately on and started playing it. A lone guitar began playing.

"A little mood music. Build the suspense." House said as he leaned over and stared at it spinning for a moment.

"Sounds more folky." Kutner said.

House gave him a look, "You seriously have no idea when to shut up, do you?"

Kutner sunk down in his seat and House nodded then moved towards them.

"Amber, please stand."

"You didn't call me 'bitch'. Is that bad?"

"You play the game better than anybody else here." She smiled at his statement, but he continued, "But for the wrong reasons."

"Reasons don't matter. Results are the only thing—"

"You were wrong." He stared at her a moment, then pointed to the record player, "Twenty years ago, this was recorded by Jim Moskowitz. Who later became known as Jimmy Quidd. Loves kids, apparently has a heart, perhaps even a soul. If you're gonna work for me, you have to be willing to be wrong, willing to lose. 'Cause you just did… You're fired."

She didn't say anything to make him take it back, she only sat down with a defeated look in her eyes.

"Thirteen, please stand." She did as asked, "You're fired."

Thirteen was in complete shock… House wasn't allowed to only have men… was he? She did try to protest, "You just said I was right about—"

"He was a drug addict… Four applicants, two spots. If I had three, I'd keep you."

Thirteen stood there feeling Taub and Kutner's eyes on her and Amber as House limped out, "Game over!"

~0~0~0~0~0~

Thirteen was sitting on the bench of the locker room staring off into nothing. Her phone rang and clicked the answer button but said nothing.

"That firing you thing… Never happened… again."

"What?"

"I needed three—"

"And it was the only way." Thirteen grinned.

"See you tomorrow."