A/N: Reviews, the cure for the common cliffhanger. Well, that plus time off from work as I take a long weekend. I do wish that reviews could add time into working days, but life rarely works like that. Hope you enjoy this short bite. I think *probably* there are three chapters left after this one, and the next chapter will give you hints towards the ending. No promise of a Sunday chapter, though. It all depends on how everything else Sunday goes.

By the way, just to avoid getting hopes up incorrectly, the initial meeting of House and Jet is not part of this story. This story ends Wednesday night. Their first encounter falls in between this story and the next (Saturday - three days hence in fic time), but it will be recapped in that story with more current Jetness in that story added.

Enjoy this short update!

(H/C)

The three candidates faced him, the tension palpable. Even Taub looked curious, though House could tell that he was also trying to figure out with his inside information on Foreman's departure what exactly his boss was up to.

House spoke sharply, pushing down a reluctant sympathy. "Templeton." Templeton started to smile and automatically looked toward the others for their reactions, but the smugness melted as House went on. "You have a lot of potential as a doctor. Maybe the most out of the three of you. Along with that, you've got passion. That counts for a lot. But that passion is also your biggest obstacle, because it's misdirected for now. The patient and the case aren't what really matter to you most at this point. Proving yourself over others is." The sharpness had faded out of House's tone by now. He spoke with steady sincerity. "Templeton, if you practice medicine primarily as a competition, part of your attention is always on your colleagues, not on your case, and if you are only keeping mental score in dealing with them, you'll miss the value of different perspectives. A right diagnosis is just as right no matter who comes up with it, and sometimes, a lot of times, there are multiple contributions that lead to the epiphany at the end. You need to learn to lose without taking it personally, and you need to learn how to work as part of a team and value input from others. With those two added, you could be brilliant in practice."

House turned to the next eggling, taking them in the order in which they were sitting. "Hollingwood." She gathered herself, realizing by now that a full critique was coming instead of a simple "you're hired" statement to any of them. But she was listening, waiting for it. "You've surprised me most since you've been here. You have shown initiative in a few places, which is promising. You've started to see how things like snooping in cell phones and searching apartments might actually be relevant. And you're good in dealing with people and with families. That can be useful. But you need to take it beyond just sympathy to practicality. You did a very thorough analysis on the FDR case in your paper. With actual patients, you still tend to be too optimistic and naive. They lie to us. Almost all of them are lying about something. Even Kutner was. And the possibility of an STD for SpockFan4Ever this morning never occurred to you, and you still weren't sure I was right on that even by the end. Because you thought her posts sounded nice. You need to learn to consider all possibilities with live patients as much as you do in a paper on somebody dead. But you have learned a few things, and that's good. You need to keep broadening your horizons. Step out of the textbooks into real life. It's not as tidy, but it's more interesting. With more practice, if you're willing to keep learning and challenging your comfort zone, you'll go a long way."

Down to the final candidate. "Ramirez. You've got determination, and you've also shown initiative. You have imagination, too, which is a very useful tool and an uncommon one among doctors. You don't completely trust it yet, but you have it. Thinking of going back to the Star Trek forums when we had time for it was an excellent idea. I only gave you an A-minus instead of an A for that analysis because you missed a few things, but you were doing it when you were already tired out by Kutner's case, and you were rushing. Your biggest fault is that you can't keep your eyes off the rearview mirror. I don't know what it was that happened in your family -" she tensed up visibly - "but whatever it was, now that you are out on your own, that only has as much impact on your life as you allow it. You won. Whatever they told you, whatever you've told yourself that you couldn't do, you've already surpassed those expectations. Claim the damn victory and move on. Right now, it distracts you, just like Templeton's competitiveness distracts him. And a distracted doctor will never see everything that he could fully focused. You're going to be good, but your future is ahead of you. It's never behind you."

Silence filled the room for a moment. House rubbed his aching leg. Damn it, he was tired.

Templeton started to speak, hesitated, then asked it anyway. "So which one of us gets the job?"

"Ramirez," House said. They waited, even Ramirez afraid to believe at first, but he stopped after the name, a pronouncement that time, not a prelude to critique. House watched it soak into her, the head coming up a little, a rare smile dawning on her face.

"Thank you, Dr. House," she said.

"You earned it. It was very close, all three of you, but Star Trek was the tiebreaker." Templeton shook his head in disbelief, and House turned back toward the others. "As for you two, that's it for the opening. But the trial here was scheduled to take up to three weeks. If you want to stick around and keep participating in the differentials for one more week until that time is up, you might learn something else useful."

"But Ramirez gets this job? That's final?" Templeton asked.

"Yes," House replied. "That isn't going to change."

Templeton started getting annoyed now as a shield for disappointment. "No. If I'm not hired for this fellowship, I need to get busy applying for others. Staying here another week after your decision is made would just be a waste of time." He stood up. "Thank you for considering me, Dr. House." He turned and left the conference room.

House fought back the sigh. Damn it. He'd all but handed the kid a formula for future success right here at PPTH. He had for both of them, the two still tied, but he'd really hoped that the second tiebreaker would come in some differential in the next week, not now. He'd wanted both of them to be able to take this needed step. He looked at Hollingwood. "Well?" he asked. "Door's to your left."

She met his eyes. "I've learned more in the last two weeks than I have in a full year of med school. Yes, it's pushed me, but in good ways. I'm going to start applying for other fellowships right away, too, but I can do that in the evenings. If you don't mind, I'd like to stay out the third week and learn whatever else I can here."

House weighed the words and the sincerity behind them. She wasn't just setting herself up as a counter example to Templeton, a move more likely for him than her. She really meant it.

"Hollingwood, you're hired," he said.

She and Ramirez both were startled. "But . . ."

"You're both hired. There were two positions open. At least, there were by the end."

"Dr. Foreman," Ramirez realized. "He isn't coming back."

"Right." House looked at his watch. It was 4:15. A little early, but what the hell. He was going to stay late himself tonight to give another try at a few serious questions for Kutner, but he was too tired to deal with celebrations and explanations in the meantime. They could go out and enjoy it, whatever their respective versions of that were, on their own for tonight. The new diagnostics department would begin tomorrow: Ramirez, Hollingwood, Taub, and as soon as he was up to it, Kutner. Nicely gender balanced. Cuddy would approve. "Go home, all of you. Take off early tonight. Be back in the morning, and we'll go over the new consult emails and the ER logs from tonight and start looking for another patient."

Taub stood first, taking the offer of an early night at face value. He left the conference room. Ramirez was a little slower, still adjusting to letting herself believe it. The trial was over, and she had won. She gathered the Star Trek forum printouts with the red-ink comments and the grade by House added and took them with her as she left.

Hollingwood remained. "Dr. House?" she asked as the door closed behind Ramirez. House arched an eyebrow in silent reply. "Would you have hired Dr. Templeton instead if he agreed to stay out the three weeks?"

"Does it matter?" he challenged. "You've got the job."

"No, I guess it doesn't," she agreed. She picked up her own graded paper. "I'll see you in the morning. Thank you for this chance, Dr. House."

Her lack of argument knocked the edge off his exhausted stubbornness. "I don't know," he said as she reached the door. "You were still in the running, both of you pretty well tied. I don't know what might have happened in the next week."

Hollingwood absorbed the words, then nodded. "Thank you."

After she had left, House sat there for a few minutes, the weariness pinning him to the chair. Templeton's paper caught his eye. It still lay on the conference table, abandoned. House hooked it over with his cane. "You idiot," he said aloud. "You could have been the best of them." Ripping the paper neatly in half, he came to his feet, threw the two parts in the trash, and poured himself a cup of coffee.