Teamwork
She sits in her office sorting through the mail received over the weekend.
Stopping, she drops the pile, save one ivory coloured envelope remaining in her hand.
She looks at it with surprise; it is addressed to Dr. Gregory House, M.D. and is from the New Jersey State Medical Licensing Board.
She smiles briefly at the efficiency of her hospital; the mail room learned a long time ago to divert all mail addressed to House that looked like it required immediate (read, to be directed to the law department) attention to her.
She uses her letter opener to carefully cut the flap. She pulls the letter out, setting the envelope aside. The words "having met the requirements," and "we are pleased to reinstate" immediately jump off the page.
Foreman, has already been in that morning to pick up the cases she set aside for the department, so she can not send the letter up with him. Besides, she should do this herself; despite what happened at the conference, House is still a valued employee and she is his boss.
She is also exceedingly happy for him.
She refolds the letter, putting it back in the envelope and makes her way up to the fourth floor to deliver the good news
-
She can see that House and Foreman are arguing over the stack of cases she sent up as she approaches the conference room. As she opens the door, she remembers one of the possible patients is a pretty well known porn star and she can't help but grin over the way that argument must be have been going.
"Oh, good. You paged the limpness specialist." House greets as she walks.
She rolls her eyes at him and walks over to hand him the envelope.
"This envelope is oddly medical license-shaped," he observes, directing the comment towards Foreman.
"Congratulations," she says to him, unable to prevent the silent conversation she starts with her eyes or to stop the smile that spreads across her face.
He tilts back in his seat and looks up at her thoughtfully with a slight smile of his own. He is just about to say something sarcastic, when Chase and Cameron enter the room.
"House is back in charge. We get to treat a porn star." Foreman says uncharacteristically gleeful.
"Congratulations," Chase replies mildly.
"Perfect timing for us." Cameron adds.
"We're leaving the team and the hospital, effective immediately." Chase announces stoically; standing there as though he hasn't just dropped a bombshell on the other three people in the room.
-
"I'd hire all four, but a five-person team seems unwieldy. Who would you turn down? " he asks
Wilson, trying to steer the conversation away from last week's events. "I'll have whatever he's buying," he says to the cashier.
"Two cheeseburgers and two large fries," Wilson relays with a smile. "There are a thousand people in the world who want to be on your staff, but you're going after the four who don't," he points out.
House takes an unwrapped toothpick from the dispenser and starts playing with it. "They don't because their lives are irrelevantly and annoyingly complicated, which makes them confused, which makes them make poor decisions."
"And your life is simple? You went all the way up to the medical conference to cozy up to Cuddy. Instead she's dating one of two people in the world you think of as a friend. There's no way that's not devastating".
Not this again, he thinks to himself, wasn't it enough he had to listen to it during the car ride and at home? Just as he had done all weekend, he attempts to deflect. "So I had an attraction of sorts".
"Yeah, the sort in which your imaginary tryst landed you in a mental hospital."
"And I got help. And she got Lucas, who bought me a ginger ale. It's all fine. Which won't be true of my department unless I can figure out which doctor I’m not hiring."
"I suppose throwing yourself into your work isn't the worst thing you could do," Wilson comments, taking his food as he heads for the tables.
"What is the worst thing I could do?"
They both slide into opposite sides of the booth, Wilson digging right into his meal as House stares at him waiting on him to continue.
"What's the worst I could do?" he prompts.
"Huh?" Wilson mumbles through a mouthful of burger.
"You seem to have an opinion," House says with an eye roll. "So let's hear it."
"Oh no," he waves his hand and shakes his head, "I'm staying out of this!" Wilson says after swallowing his food.
"You're the reason I'm in this," he accuses pointing his finger at his friend.
"If I had known she was seeing someone I would not have encouraged you in any way," Wilson begins.
"Sure, 'cause you're the poster boy for the sanctity of relationships," he quips.
Wilson ignores the jibe. "Look, I'm not saying I agree with her choice or how she went about this, but she's our friend. She kept this from you- from us-for a reason. And well, House, things are different now. This isn't just about you and her and your flirty hostility. She has a kid. She says he's the kind of guy that's always there for her - that she can count on. I mean... are you ready for that?"
"I know that. Before I went..." he begins only to be cut off by Wilson's pager.
Wilson shifts to unclip the pager from of his belt. As he looks down at it, his expression falls. "I have to go," he says hurriedly, "Think about what I said," he says as he stands, looking at House pointedly before rushing out of the room.
He has been sitting alone in the cafeteria finishing their meals for half an hour thinking about Cuddy and what Wilson had to say.
He can't decide what's worse: that he didn't figure it out before when it was right in front of his face or that she hid it from him in the first place.
Anger has been bubbling up within him since that awkward excuse for God Knows What between the four of them the morning after. He had been crushed and embarrassed when he discovered Lucas in her hotel room, but he had felt a sense of violation to his private life to hear that little bastard talking about things he had only shared with her and Wilson.
For the first time he could remember, it cracked the implicit trust he always felt was between them.
Now, he felt hurt and betrayed and angry at her for making him feel this way.
When she slides into the empty seat on the other side of the booth, it all bubbles to the surface and he wants to get up and walk away - to avoid saying things that he can't take back later.
"Did you know about this?" she asks leaning forward earnestly.
"No," he replies.
"Really? You had no clue that Chase and Cameron might be leaving?" she asks disbelievingly.
"No," he replies again, dipping the end of a fry into a glob of ketchup.
She persists, "You didn't have any inkling that two of your team mem-"
"Is it really so hard for you to believe anything I say?" he cuts her off his voice full of frustration and barely controlled anger as he throws the fry onto his plate.
Startled by his tone, she splutters a bit, "No. No, it's just that it's not like you not to know. I can't believe you didn't suspect something..."
"I didn't suspect that you were fucking Lucas and telling him all my secrets," he says coldly, his hand balling into a fist beside his plate.
Taken aback, she recovers quickly. "Leave my private life out of this," she hisses, voice lowered in anger.
"Like you left my private life out of it?" he accuses.
"Everyone knows you were at Mayfield; everyone knows what you screamed off of the lobby balcony," she reminds him in an attempt to redirect the blame.
"Touche. But only you and Wilson knew the details, Cuddy. Your boy toy may be a good P.I. but unless he broke into my shrink's office and read my private records, he got that private information from you."
She sat silent, staring at him because she didn't really have a defense. "I'm sorry." She offers sincerely, her hand reaching out and covering his
He looks down at their hands with a sense of deja vu, "Don't be. You had to reach this point eventually." He says cryptically, removing his hand from under hers and leaving her staring after him as he stands and limps out of the cafeteria.
-
She pages him to her office five times before she he shows up.
In the past, she would have sought him out, but given the topic for the conversation she intends to have, she has to hold herself back from doing so.
"Patient was dying. Now, he's not," he says as he lumbers in, leaving the door open and stopping a few feet inside her office.
"We need to reiterate some rules," she begins, straightening in her seat and looking directly at him.
"Is this about you and Lucas?" he asks mockingly.
"Yes, it is." She doesn't miss his reference. "Lucas is a great guy. I am in a relationship with him and that is my own private business. You are my employee and I am your employer. That is the extent of our relationship and you will treat me with respect. It is not okay for you to walk away from me or your case because you are angry at me because of what I am doing in my personal life. Which is of no concern to you." She pauses continuing to hold his gaze as as he stands there glaring at her.
"If you can't separate the two or you have a problem with anything I've said, then you need to say so now." She stops as though expecting him to answer. "I'm telling you as your employer and as your friend, I won't tolerate you bringing my personal life into this hospital. If this behavior continues to affect your ability to do your job at my hospital, there will be severe repercussions."
"Let me remind you that I took care of the only thing that affected my ability to do my job," he says, his voice tinged with bitterness. "As your employee, I will continue to treat you with the same respect I always have. As..." he trails off, his hand flicking in a wave, "as not your employee, I'm angry with you. I have the right to be angry with you, Cuddy. This isn't just about you picking someone else over me and you know it!"
"You're acting as though we have a relationship and I betrayed you. We don't. We never did!" she argues.
"But we had a friendship, didn't we? You betrayed that," he tells her, his tone leaving no doubt that this isn't about wounded male pride.
The room is silent for several beats as they stare at each other, his expression woeful and hers a look of forlorn guilt.
"House... I don't know what to say. It didn't happen like... I didn't maliciously tell him about your hallucination," she admits. "It just came out one night and if I could take it back I would. I'm sorry," she offers again.
A knock on her open door has him turning around to look over his shoulder and her shifting her attention to the person entering her office.
"Hey, House," Lucas greets him. "Hear you're treating a porn star! That's kind of cool huh?" he says walking into Cuddy's office and playfully punching House in the arm before continuing towards Cuddy's desk.
"Hey, hon," he says directing his attention to Lisa, " I thought I'd stop in and take you to lunch since I'm not your dirty little secret anymore," he jokes. "Hope that's okay." He looks between her and House questioningly and smiles before he leans down and kisses her cheek.
"No, umm...it's fine," she smiles up at him, her face flushing with embarrassment as he kisses her. "Actually, If you could wait out in the lobby. I'm not finished with this-"
"No. We're done," House interjects. "We were just talking about keeping our private lives out of the hospital." He says, pointedly looking between her and Lucas. "I think this settles that, no?" He nods at them before leaving the office, shutting the door behind him.
Stopping, she drops the pile, save one ivory coloured envelope remaining in her hand.
She looks at it with surprise; it is addressed to Dr. Gregory House, M.D. and is from the New Jersey State Medical Licensing Board.
She smiles briefly at the efficiency of her hospital; the mail room learned a long time ago to divert all mail addressed to House that looked like it required immediate (read, to be directed to the law department) attention to her.
She uses her letter opener to carefully cut the flap. She pulls the letter out, setting the envelope aside. The words "having met the requirements," and "we are pleased to reinstate" immediately jump off the page.
Foreman, has already been in that morning to pick up the cases she set aside for the department, so she can not send the letter up with him. Besides, she should do this herself; despite what happened at the conference, House is still a valued employee and she is his boss.
She is also exceedingly happy for him.
She refolds the letter, putting it back in the envelope and makes her way up to the fourth floor to deliver the good news
-
She can see that House and Foreman are arguing over the stack of cases she sent up as she approaches the conference room. As she opens the door, she remembers one of the possible patients is a pretty well known porn star and she can't help but grin over the way that argument must be have been going.
"Oh, good. You paged the limpness specialist." House greets as she walks.
She rolls her eyes at him and walks over to hand him the envelope.
"This envelope is oddly medical license-shaped," he observes, directing the comment towards Foreman.
"Congratulations," she says to him, unable to prevent the silent conversation she starts with her eyes or to stop the smile that spreads across her face.
He tilts back in his seat and looks up at her thoughtfully with a slight smile of his own. He is just about to say something sarcastic, when Chase and Cameron enter the room.
"House is back in charge. We get to treat a porn star." Foreman says uncharacteristically gleeful.
"Congratulations," Chase replies mildly.
"Perfect timing for us." Cameron adds.
"We're leaving the team and the hospital, effective immediately." Chase announces stoically; standing there as though he hasn't just dropped a bombshell on the other three people in the room.
-
"I'd hire all four, but a five-person team seems unwieldy. Who would you turn down? " he asks
Wilson, trying to steer the conversation away from last week's events. "I'll have whatever he's buying," he says to the cashier.
"Two cheeseburgers and two large fries," Wilson relays with a smile. "There are a thousand people in the world who want to be on your staff, but you're going after the four who don't," he points out.
House takes an unwrapped toothpick from the dispenser and starts playing with it. "They don't because their lives are irrelevantly and annoyingly complicated, which makes them confused, which makes them make poor decisions."
"And your life is simple? You went all the way up to the medical conference to cozy up to Cuddy. Instead she's dating one of two people in the world you think of as a friend. There's no way that's not devastating".
Not this again, he thinks to himself, wasn't it enough he had to listen to it during the car ride and at home? Just as he had done all weekend, he attempts to deflect. "So I had an attraction of sorts".
"Yeah, the sort in which your imaginary tryst landed you in a mental hospital."
"And I got help. And she got Lucas, who bought me a ginger ale. It's all fine. Which won't be true of my department unless I can figure out which doctor I’m not hiring."
"I suppose throwing yourself into your work isn't the worst thing you could do," Wilson comments, taking his food as he heads for the tables.
"What is the worst thing I could do?"
They both slide into opposite sides of the booth, Wilson digging right into his meal as House stares at him waiting on him to continue.
"What's the worst I could do?" he prompts.
"Huh?" Wilson mumbles through a mouthful of burger.
"You seem to have an opinion," House says with an eye roll. "So let's hear it."
"Oh no," he waves his hand and shakes his head, "I'm staying out of this!" Wilson says after swallowing his food.
"You're the reason I'm in this," he accuses pointing his finger at his friend.
"If I had known she was seeing someone I would not have encouraged you in any way," Wilson begins.
"Sure, 'cause you're the poster boy for the sanctity of relationships," he quips.
Wilson ignores the jibe. "Look, I'm not saying I agree with her choice or how she went about this, but she's our friend. She kept this from you- from us-for a reason. And well, House, things are different now. This isn't just about you and her and your flirty hostility. She has a kid. She says he's the kind of guy that's always there for her - that she can count on. I mean... are you ready for that?"
"I know that. Before I went..." he begins only to be cut off by Wilson's pager.
Wilson shifts to unclip the pager from of his belt. As he looks down at it, his expression falls. "I have to go," he says hurriedly, "Think about what I said," he says as he stands, looking at House pointedly before rushing out of the room.
He has been sitting alone in the cafeteria finishing their meals for half an hour thinking about Cuddy and what Wilson had to say.
He can't decide what's worse: that he didn't figure it out before when it was right in front of his face or that she hid it from him in the first place.
Anger has been bubbling up within him since that awkward excuse for God Knows What between the four of them the morning after. He had been crushed and embarrassed when he discovered Lucas in her hotel room, but he had felt a sense of violation to his private life to hear that little bastard talking about things he had only shared with her and Wilson.
For the first time he could remember, it cracked the implicit trust he always felt was between them.
Now, he felt hurt and betrayed and angry at her for making him feel this way.
When she slides into the empty seat on the other side of the booth, it all bubbles to the surface and he wants to get up and walk away - to avoid saying things that he can't take back later.
"Did you know about this?" she asks leaning forward earnestly.
"No," he replies.
"Really? You had no clue that Chase and Cameron might be leaving?" she asks disbelievingly.
"No," he replies again, dipping the end of a fry into a glob of ketchup.
She persists, "You didn't have any inkling that two of your team mem-"
"Is it really so hard for you to believe anything I say?" he cuts her off his voice full of frustration and barely controlled anger as he throws the fry onto his plate.
Startled by his tone, she splutters a bit, "No. No, it's just that it's not like you not to know. I can't believe you didn't suspect something..."
"I didn't suspect that you were fucking Lucas and telling him all my secrets," he says coldly, his hand balling into a fist beside his plate.
Taken aback, she recovers quickly. "Leave my private life out of this," she hisses, voice lowered in anger.
"Like you left my private life out of it?" he accuses.
"Everyone knows you were at Mayfield; everyone knows what you screamed off of the lobby balcony," she reminds him in an attempt to redirect the blame.
"Touche. But only you and Wilson knew the details, Cuddy. Your boy toy may be a good P.I. but unless he broke into my shrink's office and read my private records, he got that private information from you."
She sat silent, staring at him because she didn't really have a defense. "I'm sorry." She offers sincerely, her hand reaching out and covering his
He looks down at their hands with a sense of deja vu, "Don't be. You had to reach this point eventually." He says cryptically, removing his hand from under hers and leaving her staring after him as he stands and limps out of the cafeteria.
-
She pages him to her office five times before she he shows up.
In the past, she would have sought him out, but given the topic for the conversation she intends to have, she has to hold herself back from doing so.
"Patient was dying. Now, he's not," he says as he lumbers in, leaving the door open and stopping a few feet inside her office.
"We need to reiterate some rules," she begins, straightening in her seat and looking directly at him.
"Is this about you and Lucas?" he asks mockingly.
"Yes, it is." She doesn't miss his reference. "Lucas is a great guy. I am in a relationship with him and that is my own private business. You are my employee and I am your employer. That is the extent of our relationship and you will treat me with respect. It is not okay for you to walk away from me or your case because you are angry at me because of what I am doing in my personal life. Which is of no concern to you." She pauses continuing to hold his gaze as as he stands there glaring at her.
"If you can't separate the two or you have a problem with anything I've said, then you need to say so now." She stops as though expecting him to answer. "I'm telling you as your employer and as your friend, I won't tolerate you bringing my personal life into this hospital. If this behavior continues to affect your ability to do your job at my hospital, there will be severe repercussions."
"Let me remind you that I took care of the only thing that affected my ability to do my job," he says, his voice tinged with bitterness. "As your employee, I will continue to treat you with the same respect I always have. As..." he trails off, his hand flicking in a wave, "as not your employee, I'm angry with you. I have the right to be angry with you, Cuddy. This isn't just about you picking someone else over me and you know it!"
"You're acting as though we have a relationship and I betrayed you. We don't. We never did!" she argues.
"But we had a friendship, didn't we? You betrayed that," he tells her, his tone leaving no doubt that this isn't about wounded male pride.
The room is silent for several beats as they stare at each other, his expression woeful and hers a look of forlorn guilt.
"House... I don't know what to say. It didn't happen like... I didn't maliciously tell him about your hallucination," she admits. "It just came out one night and if I could take it back I would. I'm sorry," she offers again.
A knock on her open door has him turning around to look over his shoulder and her shifting her attention to the person entering her office.
"Hey, House," Lucas greets him. "Hear you're treating a porn star! That's kind of cool huh?" he says walking into Cuddy's office and playfully punching House in the arm before continuing towards Cuddy's desk.
"Hey, hon," he says directing his attention to Lisa, " I thought I'd stop in and take you to lunch since I'm not your dirty little secret anymore," he jokes. "Hope that's okay." He looks between her and House questioningly and smiles before he leans down and kisses her cheek.
"No, umm...it's fine," she smiles up at him, her face flushing with embarrassment as he kisses her. "Actually, If you could wait out in the lobby. I'm not finished with this-"
"No. We're done," House interjects. "We were just talking about keeping our private lives out of the hospital." He says, pointedly looking between her and Lucas. "I think this settles that, no?" He nods at them before leaving the office, shutting the door behind him.