About Last Night - HouseMD FanFiction - James Wilson x Original Character

1: New Job, New City, New Jersey

I woke up in my mostly empty new apartment two days after my flight. I was still a little jet-lagged from the five hour time difference. In my head it was still the middle of the night. This was the furthest away from home I'd ever been on my own. I had lived in Ireland my entire life until Saturday, two days ago. I suddenly had this brand new life and a brand new job. After flying in and out of New Jersey for interviews and trying to move into my new apartment at the same time, I was fairly relieved to have finally gotten the job. Ophthalmologist in a Teaching Hospital. For the first time in about six weeks, I didn't have to fly home in three days. I didn't have to book another flight out here for next weekend while in the airport waiting for my flight home. For the first time, I was officially home. I was officially a Person-With-A-Job.

I got out of bed, still half asleep, and got ready for my first day on the job. I put on a neat, purple blouse with a denim skirt, some black tights and black boots. I put a pen and notepad in the breast pocket of my blouse. I then made some coffee, put it in a travel mug and left the apartment.

Fifteen minutes later, I got off the bus at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. I walked through the doors and went straight to the reception desk.

"Hi, I'm Claire Byrne, new Ophthalmologist?" I asked the lady.

"Second floor, room 22B," the lady responded with a polite smile.

I grinned back at her and walked across the floor to the elevator. Three people walked in with me, two of which were wearing white lab coats. A pretty woman with brown hair and a polite manner, a handsome man with long-ish blonde hair and an older, stern looking man with a cane. This guy looked ROUGH. He clearly hadn't shaved his face in months, he was dressed in an old t-shirt and a blazer with sneakers, his hair was grey, his face was a little sunken. He leaned on his cane and glanced over at me, eyeing my blouse tucked neatly into my skirt.

"Y'know, it's funny," he said, "You can always tell who the new student doctors are."

I opened my mouth, then closed it, unsure of how to answer.

"House, don't," said the woman. She turned towards me and smiled. "Is this your first day?"

"Yeah, it is," I nodded awkwardly.

"Called it," said the man named 'House'.

"I'm Dr Cameron, this is Dr Chase and that is Dr House. Don't mind him, he's not good with communication," she said the last bit with a little sarcasm in her voice.

"Well it's a good thing he's a doctor in a public hospital then," I responded with a similar tone of sarcasm.

Dr House looked at me, almost impressed. The elevator came to a halt on the second floor.

"This is me," I said, walking out of the lift, "Nice meeting you."

"Bye!" said Dr Cameron.

I walked down the hallway, looking for room 22B. 21, 21C, 22A, 21D...

I looked around for the room, feeling a little flustered. It wasn't a huge issue, as I was fifteen minutes early but unfortunately I'm a huge overthinker.

"Oh God, I'm lost on the first day, I won't find the room, what if they fire me on my first day?, they can't, would they?, where is the damn room?, help help help..." my thoughts were screaming in my brain until someone tapped me on the shoulder and said: "Hey!"

I jumped and spun around. He was taller than me, with a pretty face and neat, brown hair, His eyes were a similar colour.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to make you jump," he chuckled, "I was just wondering if you're alright, you seem a little flushed."

"Yeah, yeah," I stammered, "Sorry, I'm a little lost. It's my first day."

"Where do you need to go?"

"Room 22B."

"Oh, you're the new ophthalmologist?" The man smiled at me.

"Yeah, I'm Dr Byrne," I smiled back, awkwardly.

"Dr Wilson," he said, "Room 22B is the one next to 21C without a room number on it. It fell off last week, we need to fix it."

I sighed, relieved. "Thanks, Dr Wilson." I nodded and smiled.

"No problem, let me know if there's any issues, okay?"

"Sure, thanks!"

I walked away and found the room I was looking for. There was a lady with curly, brown hair waiting for me there.

"Dr Byrne, you're early," she smiled, "I'm Dr Cuddy."

"Nice to meet you," I said, shaking her hand.

"This is the office of the Head of Ophthalmology, who isn't here until 10 today, but this is like your base room. You come here, grab your doctor's lab coat, and go down to your clinic office which I will show you in a moment. There's also a coffee machine here, but I see you've taken care of that." Dr Cuddy motioned towards my travel flask, "If there's any issues you report to me, Dr Wilson or Dr McCarthy, who this office belongs to."

"Right," I nodded, "Gotcha."

"So, I'll bring you down to your clinic office now. Here's your coat."

She handed me a long, white jacket with a name-tag on it that said "Dr Claire Byrne."

Dr Cuddy brought me back down the stairs to the clinic ward. There was a small room halfway down the corridor which belonged to me. It had a bed, a desk with a computer and a drawer of equipment and medicine. There was also some optician's equipment in the room.

"We also do eye tests for people who may need glasses," Cuddy explained, "I assume you know how to do that." She smiled at me and I nodded and smiled back.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" Cuddy handed me a pager, "Use this to let me know if there's an issue, or I'll use it if I need you somewhere."

I took it and thanked her. She left the room and went back to her own office.

I sat down in the chair beside the computer desk and took a deep breath to settle my nerves, opened up my coffee flask and took a big gulp.

Moments later, I heard someone walk down the hall towards my door. First patient. I stood up and brushed off my skirt, carefully putting on the white lab coat. The door opened. In came Dr Wilson.

"Hey, Dr Byrne, just checking to see you've found where you need to be," his face broke into a small smile.

I laughed a little, still slightly embarrassed. "Thanks, Dr Wilson, I'm alright now."

"I see Cuddy gave you your new lab coat," Wilson motioned towards my jacket, "those things stain so easily, be careful."

I let out another uneasy laugh, "Yeah, I'll try."

"Looks good on you," he smiled and nodded awkwardly, "Welcome to Princeton-Plainsboro, Byrne."