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Chapter Five - Who says no to mentos? OR A close brush with an assault charge.

(Aka lawyers and administrators ruin all the fun)

Arin was beginning to feel like she should have stayed in bed today, it felt so long ago that she had been rudely awoken by Zen and Robyn. She watched the tree outside the window of the large office she now sat in. Orange coloured walls made the place seem airy, bright even. The sun streaming through the window added to the cozy feeling. She watched the small motes of dust rise through the air. Suspended in a sunbeam.

Across from her on the second sofa sat a bald man in a grey suit. He had been introduced to her as Bryant Kelland, one of the hospitals lawyers. The man sat with the remote for the vcr unit in his hand but instead of watching the cctv capture he was watching her.

Arin sighed deeply. The clock on the wall ticked loudly, each passing second caused another beat of anxiety in her. She only wanted to go back to Robyn and Zen, was that too much to ask? The later must have thought she had gotten lost... or worse chickened out and gone home. But that didn't seem likely anytime soon. Doctor Cuddy had listened to the security guard, found her a towel and an ice pack for her head while she watched the CCTV footage. She had to admit, the whole thing looked worse than it actually had been. There was no sound just a black and white image, half cut off by the top of the vending machine. She watched silently alongside Doctor Cuddy, while Doctor House seemed to repeatedly grab her, first by the arm, followed soon after by her face and wrist. When he tripped her, Doctor Cuddy visibly gulped, but could do nothing to stop the image showing Doctor House grab her arms again, while she repeatedly tried to fend him off. The whole thing had a bad sort of film noir vibe to it, the helpless damsel and the evil doctor.

The part where she tossed his phone actually even managed to come across as an accident, which resulted in House stomping on her with his cane. The camera feed then changed to the one that had apparently alerted the guards. A scared looking Arin entered the elevator shoulder first and jabbed the button. A maniacal looking House approached, bottle in hand. A second later and he launched it at her. It splashed all over her and she shrank back, only just in the camera's view as soda spurted all over the image.

Doctor Cuddy paused it there. She looked astounded, long suffering and sat in silence for maybe a second or so before starting to apologise over and over. Before Arin knew what was happening, Doctor Cuddy was calling damage control, which appeared to be the big guns of the hospital's lawyers. They talked, a lot... About her pressing assault charges, how Doctor House was one of the best in his field and was something of a maverick. How the hospital would, of course, ensure Doctor House apologised profusely to her in person and would pay for her dry cleaning. Which is why she found herself waiting for the Dean to go and get the man himself.

Switching her ice pack from the small towel Doctor Cuddy had given her she rubbed it along her hair again and considered the lawyer. He cleared his throat the second their eyes made contact even though she looked away again. "I must say Miss Rae it is an honour to make your acquaintance even in such circumstances. Your Grandfather is something of a Well..I suppose hero is too strong a word but I enjoy following his work."

She didn't reply.

Awkwardly he shuffled the papers on the glass coffee table and cleared his throat, "will Uh...will He be joining us today at some point?"

"No," she stated flatly. "He's in Europe on a business trip he won't be back until the start of July." This time. She added in her mind. Kelland looked...almost disappointed. She let out a mirthless sort of half chuckle.

The door to the office opened and with a dull thud on each second step, Doctor House walked in, followed by Doctor Cuddy. The expression on House's face told her two things. One that he was only half expecting to see her and two that man and woman hadn't spoken on the trek back to Doctor Cuddy's office. The Dean shut the door and strangely Arin found herself watching the two and wondering, as they stood side by side staring at each other in a silent standoff, if Cuddy had ever told House that when it came to who wore the metaphorical trousers they certainly wouldn't be called diagnosticians or something like that.