Joy to the World

Foreman was working on Thirteen's arm, for trial purposes.

Thirteen looked out to the waiting room then turned back to him, "Where's the woman I spoke to last week? The trial patient, um, with the advanced symptoms."

"She dropped out."

"Is she okay?"

Foreman nodded, "Not health-related. She just wants to drop out."

"Why?" She knit her brows.

"She didn't say. And I only break into the houses of very special patients to understand them better." He smiled at her.

Thirteen wasn't sure if she should take it as flirting or friendship… She decided to just take it as friendship until something obvious happened, "I do good today, boss?" She asked as she hopped off the bed.

"No rigidity. No cog wheeling. So, absolutely, I'd call that good."

"Great. Thanks." She smiled at him and made her way back to diagnostics.

~0~0~0~0~0~

She couldn't get the wonderment behind Janice dropping out, out of her head. She actually felt a pull towards the other woman and she decided to go see if everything was alright. She got to the home that Janice was staying at and found her in the lounge by the TV, "Janice? I'm Remy. I'm—"

"Yeah! I remember you." Janice said.

They both ignored Janice's advanced inability to control her limbs, "I heard you left the trial."

"Yeah."

"If there's some way I could help…"

Janice chose not to look at her while she answered, "Um. It… it was that doctor. He… The one that was running the test."

"Dr. Foreman."

"Yeah."

"He's a great neurologist. He's… a good guy."

"Huh. You like him."

Thirteen smirked, "Only as a friend… He helped me get into the trial… Why don't you like him?"

"I told him that those injections were making me sick in my stomach and he just gave me antacid."

Thirteen looked off to the side a moment, then back to the woman before her, "We were warned that nausea's a side effect and giving you antacids is all he really could do."

"No! He told me… 'Get over it.'" She paused a moment then calmed and reasoned with Thirteen, "With or without these drugs, I don't have a long time. I'm not gonna spend it being his guinea pig."

~0~0~0~0~0~

Thirteen walked into the trial room that Foreman was in, "I spoke to Janice."

He looked up at her, "Is she okay?"

"Yeah. Her nausea… She said you told her, like, 'Get over it'?" She asked disbelievingly.

Foreman looked at her like nothing was wrong, "And?"

"Nausea isn't something you can overcome with sheer will power." She crossed her arms.

"Which is why I didn't prescribe will power. I prescribed antacids. If she can't handle that, she'd have to leave the trial anyway."

She nodded along with him, but pushed on, "Just call her. Say you're sorry. She'll come back."

"No."

"God, you're acting like House now." She shook her head at him.

Foreman's anger reared, "No, I'm not acting like House, which is exactly why I don't need to apologize. I'm not being cruel. I'm not being manipulative."

"You said the same thing to me when I told you I was having a hard time."

"And it worked."

Thirteen huffed her breath out and tried a different approach, "She's a 40-year-old woman who's falling apart, physically and emotionally. She's dying."

"Look. I know seeing the ghost of your Christmas future is tough, but the only way I can help her is by making sure she follows her regimen, not by becoming her life coach."

Her nostrils flared, "You're not acting like House. You are like him." She stalked out of the room.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Thirteen walked into Cameron's office to find her doing paper work and charting and something she wasn't sure she recognized.

At Remy's confused look, the blonde spoke, "Departmental Budgets… mine and House's…" And as the other confused look, she smirked, "He'll owe me a favor now…"

Remy made an 'O' with her mouth then turned and started pacing.

"Rem…?" Allison put her pen down and walked around her desk.

"He just…" She shook her head, "He doesn't care. At all. He stood there like it was the weather we were talking about."

"Okay." Allison put her hands out and stopped Remy's pacing. She held her shoulders and stared, "I'm gonna need more than a pronoun so I can know who—"

"Foreman."

"And what were you talking about that is not weather related?"

"Janice."

"The woman with the advanced symptoms?" Remy nodded and the blonde didn't know where to take the conversation, "What…?"

"She left the trial because she told him she was feeling nauseated and he told her to get over it."

Cameron bit her lip, "Honey… I know this is hard for you—"

"Do not side with him." The brunette took a step back.

"You know that normally I wouldn't. Not when it comes to patient care, but this is a clinical trial… he's not allowed to care… I was talking to the doctor that's actually running it and she said the reason she chose him was because she knew he could see the patients as numbers…" Remy tried to push her away, "No. No, don't do that." She pulled her back into her hold, "I am not siding with him, but I'm trying to get you to see why he did it…"

"I told him he was like House." She scrunched her face.

Allison gasped and tried to hide her smirk, "Honey, you know he hates that!"

"That's why I said it." She gave an innocent shrug.

"Well… it sounds like you've said your peace…"

Remy nodded and leaned in for a peck.

"So… I was thinking that tonight, we could go home and… settle in to the new place?" She waggled her brows as she wrapped her arms around the taller woman's neck.

"Mmm," Remy smiled, "Assuming that nothing comes up with Natalie, for sure."

"Okay." Allison leaned in and took Remy's lips with her own, "Love you."

"I love you too." Remy kissed her right back, "I should go… Gotta see what's going on between the trial…"

"Oh, alright." Allison said, playing annoyed.

House barged into the office at this moment, "Uh oh…" He grinned as he closed and locked the door, "Continue." He gestured between them, "Go on Thirty-One. Show how much you love life now."

Remy glared at him, then leaned in and pecked Allison's cheek before giving House a glare and unlocked the door to leave.

"Oh come on, Thirty-One!" House 'tried' to get her to stay, but shut the door again after she left.

"What was that?" Cameron gestured.

"What was what?"

"Why are you reminding her about it?"

"Because everyone should remember that time that they voluntarily took every medication for each diagnosis for a crazy lunatic which almost made them kill themselves…" He shrugged and sat in one of the chairs across from the desk.

"Stop." She said seriously as she popped up onto her desk and gave him a look telling her just how serious she was.

He raised his hands in defeat, "Wilson and I have a bet going… See if I can get a gift from a patient."

Cameron laughed, "You really think you're gonna do it?"

"Oh yeah." He grinned wickedly, "I've already got the perfect patient."

"Who is?"

"A pregnant virgin."

Cameron gave him a look, "A pregnant virgin?"

"She refuses to admit that another man's penis has invaded her vagina for sperm implantation. Actually asked me if she can get pregnant by a toilet seat."

"And you told her that of course she could as long as a man was between her and the seat."

House put his hand over his heart, "You know me so well."

"And since I do know you, I know that you actually secretly care, and you see this couple and you're not gonna be the one to break them up, so you're…. proving human parthenogenesis." She shook her head and continued, "Which the broken cycler will let you do…"

"Hey!" House stood up, "I'm gonna run the test five times." He started making his way to the door, "You sure you don't want your job back?"

"How many times do I have to tell you 'no'?"

"As many as it takes until you say 'yes'…"

Cameron shook her head and House smirked back at her then went off to run his test.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Things had come up with Natalie that night, and things had come up the next two nights. They were standing at the Christmas party with Chase when Kutner and Taub came from the elevator. Thirteen had just finished up treatment and hadn't known if Natalie was going to get to get a new liver or not, so when Cameron saw them, she had to find out… it was just too sad a story not to know the ending to, no matter how sad the ending was going to turn out: Teenage girl, fat, made fun of, smart, pregnant, delivers prematurely alone in an abandoned house by the soup kitchen she volunteers at, and has eclampsia…

"No transplant?" Cameron asked as they approached.

Kutner shook his head, "We appealed. Too sick."

"How much time does she have left?" Her concern showed through.

"A couple of days at most." Kutner looked down.

"What about the baby?" Chase asked.

"Seems healthy, but it's too early to tell. She's in the hospital for observation for a few days, but after that…" He shrugged.

"Best case, winds up with her teenage father who just got voted captain of the varsity bullying team." Taub added.

Kutner looked at him, "He's just a kid." He started walking away.

"You alright?" Taub asked.

"I gotta go." Was his only response.

Taub turned to everyone else who knit their brows. Thirteen looked around, "Where's Foreman?"

"I think he's still in the trial rooms… He said he had to finish a few things up." Taub answered.

Thirteen nodded and took Cameron's hand, "I need to thank him for not being House…" Cameron smirked, nodded and started to drop her hand, but Remy held tight, "Come with me?"

The blonde woman smiled, "Of course, Babe." They started their way to the trial area.

"They make a cute couple." Taub said standing next to Chase.

"Yeah, adorable." Chase said sarcastically.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Thirteen and Cameron walked into the only closed trial room and found Foreman alone, "Where is everybody?" Thirteen asked.

"Down at the party."

"I heard Janice is back on the trial."

"My Christmas gift to you." He gave her a closed mouth smile.

"I was wrong. You're not House." Thirteen looked up at him.

"Yeah, well, that's my Christmas gift to myself." He made them all laugh, "We should go to the party." He said as he walked passed the both of them and out the door.

"That was a little strange…" Cameron knit her brows at the closed door.

"Yeah… I think…" She shook her head.

"I think he might like… like me or something…"

Cameron's face went blank.

"Hey! It's not like you don't have a male admirer of your own!" Remy tried, but the blonde's face stayed stoic, "Nothing is going to happen. You know that… Don't get all Jell-O."

Allison pursed her lips, "Fine. I won't get all Jell-O if you make love to me finally." She waggled her brows and leaned in for a kiss.

Remy pulled from her after a few minutes, "We should go back to the party."

"Remy Hadley!" Allison crossed her arms and stamped her foot. "Make love to me!"

Remy couldn't help the smile that crossed her features, "All in good time, Babe…"

"You used to sneak in here to fuck me, why are you not now?"

"Because I don't want our second first time to be in the hospital… I want it to be in our bed… I want it to be romantic and perfect…"

Allison melted into her lover more, "Then take me home."

"Okay…" She smirked and kissed her girlfriend once more before they went back to tell everyone 'bye'.