Set in Princeton, New Jersey, the best medical research is studied and performed at the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. And there is one doctor in particular who brings fame to the hospital-Dr. Gregory House.
Recently graduated medical stud...
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A/N: This chapter is 2/4 of what was formerly known as "Charades at the Palace pt. 2". PLUS the fight between House and Madelyn goes down slightly differently, their interactions are different, and House's presentation is even more non-PC lol.
Later that morning, the gang met up to attend House's presentation.
They knew, for better or worse, it would be entertaining at the least. Foreman, Chase, Thirteen, Taub, and Madelyn took their seats towards the back because they wanted the broadest view of the room, so they wouldn't miss a thing.
House and Cuddy stood together on the stage, but the team couldn't help but notice the chokehold Cuddy had on House. Only with enough focus was it laughably noticeable that her hands gripped his forearm tightly, so he couldn't escape.
As the last of the crowd entered, Cuddy introduced House: she used words like "brilliant", "ingenious", and "dedicated" all of which described him well and had Madelyn grinning from ear to ear. She was proud to call him hers.
As soon as House got his footing with the audience, he immediately began playing games that would go on to last for the entire duration of his presentation.
"Hmmmm..." House mumbled, "what to say about the relevance of a diagnostician concentration in medical science." He fumbled with his cane, and began writing lists of numbers in columns on the board, "Well, first off, reserving hospital research and practice to specialized diagnosing work has benefited Princeton-Plainsboro in various ways. The main being the hospital is loaded with funding. Too bad it's wasted on public health resources and patient recovery programs. The second benefit of a teaching hospital is that I am allowed a team of younger, fresh-perspective medical students looking for experience. I make them do most of the work which can take some convincing, but they're pretty much all people-pleasers. While they're in the labs and consults, I take care of the most important things..."
House paused, taking out his Vicodin bottle from the back of his pocket, and tossing a few pills onto his tongue.
Shaking their heads, his team knew that the presentation would only get worse.
"This is so cringey!" Taub could hardly contain in a whisper to the others.
Chase snorted, followed by Foreman.
"It could be worse?" Thirteen offered.
A voice spoke up from somewhere in the audience, "Like what important things?"
House finished swallowing his pills, "Well, for instance, I have my team take care of patient-related stuff. I don't like getting too involved in that–things get messy. In the meantime, I usually catch up on hospital gossip, scout the pharmacy for abandoned prescription refills, and keep the office space spick and span for my little ducklings, of course."
Foreman face-palmed his forehead, "Oh my god..."
"Well, it just got worse..." Taub sighed.
His nonsense went on for another twenty minutes or so, and the complete lack of sufficient, relevant information to the presentation topic had the entire audience speechless.
