"Take a seat, you two."
Cuddy instructs as she slips behind her desk and sorts through the papers littering its surface distractedly. Cameron and Foreman do as she says, taking up a perch on the sofa at the back of the room, leaving the chair opposite the Dean's own vacant for House. Foreman casts his attention back down at the files in his hands and Cameron supposes she would ordinarily have scooched up next to him by now to read over his shoulder, but she's having trouble finding the will to commit herself to the looming prospect of collaborative work with House and his team.
One glance at Cuddy lets her know that the decision isn't going to be hers to make. This meeting is merely a formality.
And so, she clasps her hands together in her lap and waits; curiously reminded of when she'd come in for her first interview with the Dean. That, too, had merely been a formality. It had been House that had hired her, and House that had laced his first meeting with her with a circus of hoops to jump through and traps to fall into. She'd been determined back then, and his blatant attempt to antagonise her had lit a fire he would spend the next three years working slowly to stamp out; always leaving at least one last ember smouldering so that it wouldn't die out completely. For a long time, she'd seen this as an act of carefully veiled kindness.
She wonders now if it hadn't in fact been a method of sadistic torture.
House's last move after telling her the job was hers if she wanted it had been to tell her she was to go and see Cuddy to finalise her offer. He had made a point of mentioning something she had already picked up on in medical school; women in power do not always look too fondly upon other women with ambition for power. She is sure now that he'd done so to psyche her out - to see if she'd falter - but she'd been more defiant back then. Less exhausted. As it turned out, there was no final interview, and Cuddy had looked up at her when she'd knocked on the door with a frown of incomprehension. Still, the Dean had asked her to take a seat and had asked her a few questions about her previous experience and what she was looking to gain from accepting the position. She had done so curtly - formally - but pleasantly.
What she hadn't done was warn her about House.
You wouldn't have listened...
No, she supposes she wouldn't have. At the time due to simple ambition, but as things progressed and the warning signs had made themselves known, she'd already been in too deep.
"How are you feeling, Allison?"
Cuddy shakes the blonde from her thoughts, and Cameron glances over at the darker woman who remains engrossed in her paperwork. She still finds it odd to hear her first name used by most of her colleagues, but after several discussions concerning her relocation to the ER and taking up the position of head attending, she'd at some point stopped being Cameron to Cuddy and become Allison. In turn, she has called the brunette Lisa just once, but it had felt wrong to her and she'd gone back to Dr Cuddy immediately.
"Okay..."
Cameron replies hesitantly, the Dean's enquiry putting her mind into overdrive before it occurs to her that she hasn't spoken directly with Cuddy since everything went down with her scalpel-wielding friend.
"I'm fine. It's only really sore now if I stretch, and with the student nurses around, I don't have to do much of that."
She elaborates more freely, until the memory of pulling her sweater up over her head last night while straddling House's lap comes to mind and she swiftly shuts up.
As if on cue, the door gets pushed open with no warning knock and House limps into the office with a frown.
"You summoned me?"
He greets the Dean accusingly, and Cuddy looks up and gestures towards the empty chair.
"Take a seat and we'll get started now that you're all here."
She requests as she moves the papers on her desk into a neat stack. House turns around to spy who else might be part of the meeting, and when his eyes meet Cameron's they flash first with discomfort and then with ice.
"What's she doing here?"
He turns to demand of the Dean, and Cuddy raises a brow but isn't wholly surprised at the greying doctor's lack of tact. Addressing each of the others rather than just House's irritable question, she sits back in her chair with a sigh.
"I asked Dr Foreman to bring Dr Cameron along to this meeting as I have a temporary request to make of her. Ordinarily, I wouldn't do this, Allison, but this is a rather unique situation. We have now lost two patients in quick succession, without gaining an understanding of what might be the cause of their symptoms. The police have been notified, and I think the general consensus from all accounts is that foul play is involved, but the who and the why is their jurisdiction. What we need to provide them with is the how. There's something going on, and something that's stopping these girls' bodies from fighting off whatever's been done or given to them. We received a third victim - another anonymous drop-off - about an hour ago, and from Dr Foreman's preliminary examination, it looks like the same series of events is about to be set in motion. I don't want another body to present to the police. I want answers. Cameron, I appreciate you made the decision to leave diagnostics, but that doesn't change the fact that you have several years of rather niche experience. Until this whole mess has been cleared up, you're back on the team. I will talk to Mathilde about covering your absence in the ER, but this case gets your full attention until it's been solved. Any objections?"
The brunette asks, although her expression doesn't allow for any answer apart from affirmative, and so Cameron simply nods, feeling a little sick. She is unsurprised when House speaks up.
"I already have a team, I don't need another idiot to babysit. I have a perfectly cohesive group of specialists upstairs, all of whom have chosen to be there and have a lot more to offer than any head attending could. I have committed and dedicated doctors working on this case who don't need the distraction of someone coming in and sticking their nose in where it isn't needed."
Cameron swallows, looking from House to Cuddy nervously as Foreman clears his throat beside her uncomfortably. The Dean appears unmoved by House's words, and she replies with an air of finality
"Don't call your colleagues 'idiots', House, I don't have room in this month's budget should Dr Cameron decide to file a complaint against you."
"As if she'd ever have the guts to-"
"-Enough. As much as I am thrilled that you seem suddenly so in favour and commending of your team, you know as well as I do that Cameron will be an asset to you in this case. Please try to refrain from informing her otherwise. You will allow her to assist you, and you will do so gratefully, or at least, within earshot of myself that will be the case... Cameron, I appreciate this turn of events may not be to your liking, but I'm afraid, for the time being, I'm unable to put your needs before getting to the bottom of what's going on here. I hope you, at least, will respect this fact with grace."
"... I'll talk Mathilde through the changes we made to the procedure for triage and she should be able to take over from there."
Cameron sighs, accepting her fate.
House glowers at the Dean from his seat, warning irritably
"Do you really think we're going to find the answer to the puzzle when my team is preoccupied with the fact that they don't want her there?"
"Foreman, do you object to Cameron's help?"
Cuddy sighs wearily, glancing over at her computer and opening up a new email that has just come in; no longer invested in trying to make peace when she knows that it will do her no good.
"Of course not."
Foreman replies immediately, looking away as he can feel House's gaze piercing into him accusingly.
"Well then-"
"-It's not Foreman's decision. It's not his team."
"No, you're right, it's my decision."
Cuddy snaps irritably, before looking up and assessing all three of them. Turning her attention back to House, she finishes firmly
"And for the duration of this case, it will now be Foreman's team. I trust that you will behave accordingly."
Silence meets this revelation as each of them knows full well that there's no chance in hell of this happening.