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Gregory House was having a bad day. It was only ten in the morning and he felt as though the universe was out to get him. He was never one to take his eye off the ball, but he did for a matter of moments and suddenly his cane had disappeared. He vowed to himself never to visit the cardiology department ever again.
It took him a good while to return to Diagnostics, hobbling down the corridor and into the elevator using a crutch he found leaning against the wall.
Two can play at stealing walking aids, he thought.
He found Wilson and Cameron stood in his office chatting to one another and they fell silent when he limped in, gazing down at the crutch that House was eager to discard.
"Some sick bastard has stolen my cane," he grumbled at the pair. "Do you know anything about it?"
"Don't look at me," Wilson said insistently. "I just came to tell you that your patient's scan shows a mass on his liver. It's malignant."
House nodded as he took the scans from Wilson, who then turned on his heels and left the room.
"And what do you want?" He asked Cameron.
"Nothing," she replied. "We were just waiting for you."
"We?"
"Yeah. You do know you have two other members on your team?"
House turned to the outer office and saw Chase and Foreman sat at the table looking bored out of their minds. Yes, House has taken longer to get back to them, but that wasn't his fault.
He ignored Cameron and held the scans up to the light coming in through the window. Wilson was right. His patient did have a malignant tumour and it was only a matter of time before it grew some more and surgery would no longer be an option. This particular patient was supposed to be getting married in a matter of weeks and when she found out that he had a tumour and was going to need to have her body sliced open she wasn't going to be very pleased.
With a huff, House reluctantly picked up the crutch and headed into the outer office. Chase and Foreman both have him the same look Cameron and Wilson.
"It's temporary," he snapped, once again carelessly discarding the crutch when he sat down at the table. "But according to these scans, it looks like there's either gonna be a spring wedding or no wedding at all."
"Bit harsh," Chase commented, seeing that his colleagues were as equally horrified by House's words.
"I'll give you harsh if I find that you're the one who's taken my cane."
"I haven't touched your damn cane."
Despite his deep annoyance, House thought he could use his lack of mobility as a (rather poor) excuse not to do his clinic hours. There was no way he'd succumb to the idea of using a hospital-issued cane- that damned crutch was bad enough; he wasn't prepared to humiliate himself and look like an old man. Not that he somehow already did.
"Looking for something, Greg?"
At the utterance of his name, spoken in a Scottish accent, House turned to see a very familiar woman was casually leaning against the doorway. Her short dark-brown hair was tied back into a ponytail and underneath her lab coat was a set of mahogany scrubs. She was also twirling a cane- House's cane- like some sort of performer, smirking and looking proud of herself.
"I'm upset you haven't come to visit me," she added. "Have you been that busy for four solid months? Don't tell me you've lost your observation skills."
"What are you doing here?" He questioned.
"Haven't you heard? I work here now."
House's team exchanged puzzled glances with one another, clearly feeling as though they were no longer in the room.
"Care to introduce us, House?" Foreman piped up.
"This is Stevenson," he began, then pointing to each of his team in turn. "Stevenson, these are Foreman, Chase, and Cameron- my lackeys."
She stepped into the room and heading to the table, taking the time to shake their hands as she spoke.
"Cal Stevenson: intensivist and cardiologist. It's a pleasure."
Her smirk was unwavering as House then got up to hobble over to her and snatched his cane away. She then looked to his team, saying, "charming, isn't he? And you've all done well for yourselves, working for the best diagnostician in the country... And Greg has done well to keep a department for longer than a day."
"Are you sure you work here?" House asked her, ignoring the snigger that Chase gave Cal's comment. "Because you're being more of a nuisance than a doctor."
"Well, it's good to see you again, too. And I'll be seeing you all around."
With that, Cal twirled around and left the room, leaving House's team fairly bamboozled.
However, Foreman couldn't help but laugh. "Who was that exactly?"
"A sexy pain in my ass," House replied sarcastically. "I don't know her."
"But you know everything about everyone and you clearly know her," Chase interjected. "You might as well tell us; we'll found out sooner or later."
House's gaze darkened. "Get Wilson to talk to our patient about treatment and if the patient refuses, I want you to be doctors and ram it down her throat."
He, too, then got up and left in the opposite direction.
"He got snappy," Chase pointed out, leaning over the table to pick up the scans House had left behind. "Did you notice that?"
"He's always snappy," Cameron remarked.
"Yeah, but more than usual."
"This is going to turn into a repeat performance of Wilson and Keller," Foreman added, shaking his head.
"But this one isn't going to work out."
"What makes you so sure?"
Chase scoffed. "This is House we're talking about. At least Wilson is capable of expressing his emotions and isn't addicted to misery."
"Well," Foreman sighed, folding his arms over his chest. "We'll just have to see how long it is before things get complicated..."
