2007

Reilly hired an enthusiastic young doctor named Lawrence Kutner. His specialty was sports medicine but both House and Reilly thought he would be a good addition to the team. He reminded House of an overly energetic puppy but he liked him. He didn't let Kutner know that, however. Reilly liked Kutner because he was smart and knew medicine. He also worked very well with all of them. Reilly suspected he had a crush on Cameron. She suspected Cameron knew that, too. She didn't encourage him and he didn't push things with her. He also liked breaking into patient's homes and businesses. He had a knack for picking locks. Reilly wasn't sure how she felt about the whole breaking and entering thing but it was House's department even though she was temporarily in charge. She did everything she could to keep things as normal as possible until House's probation period ended. He, on the other hand, seemed perfectly happy with her in charge.

One morning, Reilly went looking for House. He wasn't sleeping in the clinic, he wasn't with Wilson, he wasn't in the morgue, and he wasn't on the roof. She headed for the room of a patient House referred to as Coma Guy. She knew he liked to hide in there and watch television while he ate lunch. The door was partially open and she heard Cuddy.

"-has a migraine?" Cuddy asked incredulously.

"Oh no, no, no, no, no I gave him medication to prevent a migraine," House replied with touch of glee in his voice.

Reilly walked in. "Why is Von Lieberman here?" she asked him.

He smiled at her with wide, mischievous eyes.

Cuddy looked at her in consternation. "Who's Von Lieberman?"

"Phillip Weber," Reilly told her without taking her eyes off House.

Cuddy turned to House. "So you did write this memo!"

He waggled his eyebrows at her. "We can discuss the proper punishment later," he growled seductively. He slipped past her and grabbed Reilly pulling her out into the hallway.

"Von Lieberman is here to give a speech about his new wonder drug that prevents migraines," House told her as she pulled free of his grasp.

"So? We have a sixteen year-old patient covered in burns with a low potassium level that we can't explain who just had a seizure," she told him.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I gave Coma Guy nitro and he still ended up with a migraine. And that was after I gave him Von Lieberman's new drug."

She closed her eyes and sighed. "Okay. Go torture that nasty little weasel. We'll deal with the patient." She opened her eyes and looked at him. "Do not do anything stupid."

He smiled innocently. "Who, me?"

She shook her head and walked off. House went looking for Wilson.

Reilly later found out that House humiliated Weber and got the authorization for his new drug pulled. He also gave himself a migraine and figured out what was wrong with their patient.

"How'd you get over that migraine so quickly?" she asked him late the next night.

He leaned back in his desk chair and folded his hands behind his head. "Oh, a little of this and a little of that."

"Sure it wasn't a lot of antidepressants and a little LSD?" she asked.

He just smiled.

"I will be so glad when you're back in charge of this department again. Keeping up with you is hard enough. I'm exhausted."

"What do you think about us running the department together?" he asked.

"Why? So I can keep doing all the paperwork?" she shot back.

"No. I went up to see the number crunchers. I can promote you and get another doctor," he told her.

She leaned forward and rested her arms on his desk. "Does Doctor Cuddy know about that?"

"Yes she does."

"But she doesn't want you to have what the other doctors have," she said bitterly.

"We can go to the board and ask them to okay it," he told her. "I already talked to Cameron and Kutner and they like the idea of you being their boss and having another doc to help out around here."

"Or we could hire two nurses," she began.

"No. Nurses bad. Doctors good."

She shook her head. "Doctor Cuddy is going to be royally pissed off when we go over her head to the board."

He shrugged and pulled his left arm down to look at his watch. "Aren't we supposed to be at Sarah's piano recital in fifteen minutes?" he asked.

Cameron appeared in the doorway with her bag. "Are we still going to see Sarah play?" she asked.

"Yes!" Reilly assured her.

Kutner peeked in from the conference room. "Can I go?" he asked.

"Yes, but we have to hurry. We'll all go in my SUV then have dinner together with the girls," she told him.

"Shotgun!" House shouted.

The following week, they went to the board with their proposal. Reilly and Cameron put together a presentation and House explained what they wanted. Once they were done, the board members sent them out into the hall so they could discuss the team's proposal. While they waited, Cuddy came up to them and pulled House aside.

"Just what the hell do you think you're doing?" she hissed.

"Expanding the department that brings in the most donations," he responded calmly. "You?"

"You had no right to go behind my back like this!"

"Well, you weren't getting the job done so I had to do it myself."

"They'll never agree to it," she told him.

"You don't even know what we're asking for," he smirked.

"I know the accountants think there's money in the budget for you to promote McGrath and hire a new doctor but that money is earmarked for something else," she informed him stonily.

"Hmm," he hummed as he stroked his chin. "The board didn't mention anything about that. So, that leads me to think you're lying and just want to keep punishing me because I never called you back all those years ago." He leaned close to her until their noses nearly touched. "Do you still have the hots for me?"

She narrowed her eyes. "Oh, you'd like that wouldn't you?"

He leaned back against the wall again. "Not really."

"Now who's lying?" she smirked.

Before he could respond, the door to the conference room opened and the head of the board asked them to come back in. They all trooped back in with Cuddy close on House's heels.

The head of the board took his seat and smiled at them all. "We are happy to grant your request, Doctor House. Your department brings in so much money to the hospital and to be honest, we feel better knowing Doctor McGrath will be helping you run the department. We would also be happy to provide you with an assistant."

"You can't do this," Cuddy told him. "I have that money earmarked to hire more nurses."

"We are currently at capacity with the nursing staff," he told her. "Is there something happening we should know about?"

Cuddy breathed out and shook her head. She turned on her heel and left the room.

The team thanked the board members and then went back down to the Diagnostics department.

"I know just who we should hire," Reilly said once they were all seated around the conference room table.

"No!" House protested. "She's a cutthroat pixie!"

"She will balance out this team."

"She's pure evil!"

"You just don't like her because she called you on your shit," Reilly told him.

"I'm still the head of this department-" he began and then looked at Reilly. "Shit."

By the end of the week, Doctor Amber Volakis joined the team, a nurse named Emily joined them as Reilly's assistant and Reilly's name was added to the door of House's office.