Chapter 102:

On Monday morning, House found himself in the conference room on the fourth floor, with his team, discussing their new patient, who had been admitted over the weekend.

"See? This could have waited until today!" House whined, before he took a sip of his coffee.

Cameron rolled her eyes but said nothing.
"No drugs?"

"House, I told you that the tox screen was clean -"

"Tox screens can lie –"

"No, they –" Cameron interrupted.

"I'm talking about before he was admitted," House replied, interrupting Cameron, "And don't bother asking him," he added.

"Why?" Chase mocked, sarcastically, "because everybody lies?"

"Oh, I've trained you so well."

Cameron scoffed.

"Porphyria?" she suggested quickly.

"Any blisters?" House commented, "Cold symptoms?"

"Patient says he's been feeling worn down lately," Cameron said, "Muscles, joint pain –"

"What about cell arteritis?" Foreman chimed in. "What if the dizziness caused the blurred vision? He's said he's had headaches, throat pain…"

"What about the seizure? Doesn't accompany a seizure," House replied, as he stared at the whiteboard, deep in thought. "Get an MRI. Let's look at John Doe's brain."

The three doctors stood, ready to attend to their 'John Doe'.

"And find a family member, wife, girlfriend, anyone who can get us a history or anything on this guy, a name, anything."

There was a knock on the glass door. House turned and saw Brenda Lewis, Cuddy's assistant standing in the entrance. His team waited questionably.

"Hey, sorry to bother you, but do you know if Lisa is coming in today?"

"As far as I know, yes. You haven't heard anything from her?"

Brenda shook her head. "She hasn't been on her email. I figured you talked to her this morning."

House frowned as he pulled out his phone from his jeans pocket. "I thought she was coming in. Maybe she's working from home?"

"Sorry, I just, I didn't mean to worry you. It's just – it's unlike her not to check in, even if she was working from home."

Trying not to let the concern show on his face, House pressed a button on his phone and brought it up to his ear.

With a quick "Hang on", he limped to the adjacent office, and let the door shut behind him.

He waited four rings until the person on the other line picked up.

"Hello?" Lisa Cuddy spoke groggily into the phone, as the sharp ringing jolted her out of a peaceful, restful slumber.

"Hey, it's me," House spoke softly.

"Hey."

"Did you just wake up?"

Cud yawned. "Mhhmm."

"It's past eleven." He paused. "You feeling okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just exhausted. I probably needed to sleep."

"Brenda's looking for you."

"Shit." She glanced at the clock on the beside table. "I haven't checked my phone or email all morning! It's after eleven o'clock."

House chuckled. "That just occurred to you, didn't it?"

"Not funny. I'm pretty sure I had a conference call at nine. Fuck."

"Relax," House started, but was interrupted by Cuddy, who was clearly still flabbergasted.

"I NEVER do this. What was I doing?!"

"Relax," House repeated again, a bit firmer this time. "Take care of you first, and then worry about the hospital." He paused, and then said quieter, "You need to cut back. It's probably a good thing you weren't on your email -"

"How is that a good thing?!" Cuddy exclaimed. "Shit. Why didn't you wake me?!"

House exhaled, "I told you, you needed your rest. Stop worrying. I'll tell Brenda you'll call her in twenty, okay?"

Cuddy didn't answer right away, as she slowly chewed on her lip, thinking.

"…Lisa?"

"Okay," she finally replied, "Thanks."

House paused with his hand on the door handle, ready to head back into the conference room.

"Take care of yourself. I have to go. Got a case."

After saying their good-byes, House disconnected the call, then told Brenda that Cuddy would be in touch shortly, before dismissing his team to go find a history on their patient and to get him an MRI.

~LATER THAT DAY ~

Cameron had found a family member, an uncle who lived near where their patent was last seen, who said 'David' their patient had been suffering from mood swings, and periods of blackouts and confusion.

"They didn't seem very close but he did say David may have had or currently has a drinking problem," she told House. "Lived on the streets for some time, in and out of shelters…"

"Explains a lot. Test his blood."

"What about a B1 deficiency?"

"Test for that too."

While Cameron was assisting Foreman and Chase in running further tests for David their patient, House sat in his office, passing the time for them to come back by playing Super Mario on his Game-Boy.

The patient was indeed found to have a B1 deficiency.

"And nerve palsy, and his eyes are misaligned," Foreman added.

"So," House started, as he stared at the whiteboard, "we have muscle and joint pain, fatigue, confusion, a B1 deficiency, seizure, vomiting…frontal lobe lesion?"

"MRI was clean, no lesions," Foreman told him.

"Vision problems and seizure points toward brain involvement," House spoke. "Mood swings, black outs, I would have attributed that to the alcohol, but something else is going on…"

"Meningitis?" Cameron suggested.

"No stuff neck," Chase commented.

"And if it were meningitis, this guy probably had to go untreated for a while, plus we'd have to quarantine the entre hospital, and it doesn't explain the B1 deficiency, nor the vision problems, so thanks for playing, but guess again."

"Let me see the MRI."

"House, I told you it's clean -"

"Maybe you were looking for the wrong thing. Get me the MRI, Foreman. His poor diet on the streets could be a factor, with the deficiency...You said he's developed ataxia? They could all be related…"

"House, maybe he's just another homeless guy with DTs…"

"So, what? We should treat every person who comes in here with an alcohol problem as homeless? That's some hardcore judging."

Foreman exhaled. "That's NOT what I'm saying, House."

"You're boring me. Go get me the MRI." He turned to Cameron and Chase.

"You two, go do whatever. Go treat the B1… See if he can tell you what he's been eating for the past two months…."

"You think diet is affected?" Cameron asked, surprisingly.

House shrugged. "Could be. Won't know until we check. Now, stop questioning me, and go. Do."

~THE NEXT MORNING, PPTH PARKING GARAGE~

"What time is your meeting?" House asked, as he pulled Cuddy's car into the entrance to the parking garage on Tuesday morning.

"With the Board? 10:45, but I have a ten o'clock call before."

House consulted his watch. "And you thought we were going to be late! It's only 9:15."

"Yeah, well, I would have been here sooner, except 'somebody' wanted a 'quickie'," Cuddy emphasized, as a grin started to grow across her lips.

House smirked. "Are you telling me that you'd rather NOT have had sex this morning? Because that, Doctor Cuddy, is a complete bullshit lie!"

Unbuckling her seatbelt, Cuddy turned away but not before House grabbed her hand, and she turned to face him.

'Oh, were you expecting an answer?" she asked smugly.

"It was rhetorical."

Not wanting to give him the satisfaction, Cuddy smirked and turned away, climbing out of the passenger seat. Grimacing, she laid a hand on her pelvis, feeling a brief moment of discomfort, resting a few second before grabbing her laptop bag from the backseat.

"Everything okay?"

House shut the door before limping over to meet her, a look of concern on his face when he heard a sharp intake of breath.

Cuddy nodded. "Yeah, my pelvis and back are just sore…" She paused when she saw the look of apprehension on his face.

"It's not a big deal….and he keep jabbing me in the ribs!"

"Yeah, well our kid is going to be a stellar athlete, maybe a boxer with all those jabs, who knows?" House replied, grinning, as he slid his hand inside of Cuddy's open jacket to rest his hand on her growing stomach.

"Not funny!"

House chuckled, as he gently stroked the soft material of the magenta maternity top she was wearing, getting as close as he could to the child in his mother's womb, letting his fingers dance along the underside of her belly.

Cuddy's eyes fluttered closed, as she felt his warm breath on her face and felt his gently feather-like caress of his hand on her stomach.

Peering closely at her, House noticed the gentle, relaxed look that fell upon her facial features when he touched her; her brow unfurled, her breathing slowed, the lines in her face relaxed. Leaning his cane against the car, his other hand came up and cupped her cheek.

Cuddy slowly opened her eyes, leaning into his palm that was resting on her cheek.

"I think that was the most relaxed I've seen you in weeks," he told her softly, "Even if it was just for a couple of seconds."

"It's been a crazy couple of weeks," she replied quietly, as her green-gray eyes locked onto his.

"I know," he whispered. "It's been a crazy couple of months." He paused, bringing his other hand from her stomach to cup her other cheek, stroking the warm skin.

"And it'll be a crazy next couple of months, but I have a sneaking suspicion that we can handle it."

Cuddy grinned at him. "Definitely," she agreed.

Ten minutes after eleven, Cuddy found herself making her way upstairs to the third floor of the hospital.

"Sorry I'm late. My ten o'clock ran over," she began apologetically, as she walked hurriedly into one of the boardrooms, where Edward Brooks, the hospital's chairman, sat at the long rectangular oak table.

The sharply dressed Chairman sat in the center of the table, with fellow board members flanked on either side of him, including Karen Simmonds, who sat on the opposite side of Brooks.

"Well, you should have spaced them out better!" Brooks replied, harshly, with an air of complacency as he smoothed the red striped tie he was wearing. "This has been on the schedule for weeks, which you knew about. Sit."

Opening her mouth to argue, Cuddy saw Karen shoot her a silent warning look out of her peripheral line of vision, and she was closed her mouth, without saying a word. Exhaling, she sat down across from him.

"Now, as I was saying before you interrupted, Lisa," Brooks resumed speaking, "I think we've narrowed down candidates for the Chief Financial Officer vacancy - "

"Woah, hang on," Cuddy interrupted, swiftly, "I was never informed of any candidates, nor received any resumes. I've been waiting."

"I could have sworn I let your assistant know…what's her name again?" Brooks replied, with a gleam in his eye, his lips curling upwards into a grin.

"You obviously didn't," Cuddy shot at him through gritted teeth. She stared incredulously at Brooks from across the table.

"I thought I was pretty clear that I was to be CC'd on everything, and kept in the loop, and you deliberately kept me in the dark on this Ed, avoiding my calls." Cuddy could feel her blood pressure rising steadily, the blood pounding in her ears, as she continued to stare at him.

"This all moved super quick, as I am sure you were aware," the recently appointed Chairman started, but he was interrupted.

" - Oh don't give me that, Ed!"

"And you had other things on your mind – the merger, I'm sure is not an easy thing to keep track of, and of course, your personal lif-"

Cuddy narrowed her eyes. "Do NOT go there," she spat out, in a dangerously low voice. "Who was the one to go over the finances with Mark's number two? Me! More than you would think, I might add," she continued, staring at the Chairman, who remained stone-faced, as he stared right back at her.

"I have been heavily invested in everything that has been going on at this hospital, so don't you dare tell me that I had 'other' things on my mind; you just decided to go behind my back and vet candidates for the CFO position without my consultation or input -"

Edward Brooks raised his hands in mock surrender. "Okay, okay. I'll send you the resumes. We're meeting with candidates starting tomorrow morning."

"Tomorrow?!" Cuddy exclaimed, "Jesus, Ed, you REALLY wanted to make sure I wasn't a part of this. What the fuck else do you have up your sleeve?!"

The Chairman glanced swiftly around the table before choosing his words extremely carefully.

"Not all of the board trustees could be here today, but most of them -," Ed paused, his eyes sweeping the room, his gaze lingering at Karen Simmonds a mere half-second longer than anyone else, before continuing again, " – feel that you should take a step back in the next month or two, and that your responsibilities should be delegated elsewhere -"

"Hang on!" Cuddy interrupted, firmly, "that is NOT your call to make.

"At all," she added, her eyes flashing dangerously. "Do you realize what I've done for this hospital?! The fundraising, the donors, the money I have secured for this hos -"

"No one is denying what you've done. I'm simply saying -"

Cuddy glared at him. "Oh I know what you're saying," she spat out, trying not to lose her patience, which was running extremely thin.

"Ed, don't deny you've had it out for me ever since you secured your spot on the Board seven years ago. And now you're going to try to get your foot in the door when I go out on leave. But let me tell you something – as long as I'm still calling the shots here at this hospital, that is NEVER going to happen!"

The entire Board room was slant, no one moved a muscle. Everyone was either staring at Brooks or gazing at the Dean of Medicine with a mixture of admiration and fear.

Edward Brooks narrowed his eyes. "…I would tread very carefully here, Lisa."

"Jesus, look at the numbers, Ed! Numbers don't lie. Over the past ten, fifteen years, this hospital has had enormous growth, and also great staff consistency. We are constantly exceeding expectations in patient care. Staff enjoy working here. Our numerous donors are happy…the upcoming merger with us and the University Medical Center will be extremely beneficial to us now and for years to come! – And no, it's not just because of me – it's a product of our Board, our employees, Mark Leonard, and everyone else who helps run this machine of a hospital."

Cuddy paused briefly before continuing. She made sure she had Brooks' full attention, staring him directly un the eyes. She could feel everyone else's eyes on her.

"If you push me out, every single donor will leave with me, that is IF you get the majority vote you need for removal, and let me tell you, that is NOT gonna happen…I had to bust my ass to get this merger finally pulled through.

"So," she continued, "I would start by letting me have a say in the candidates for the CFO vacancy…and also, stop thinking that because you are a man, that would be better at my job than I am."

Rising from her chair, she grabbed her phone that lay on the table.

"And where are you going?" Ed asked.

Consulting her watch, she said, "I have a donor meeting in fifteen minutes." She looked across the table at him. "And, I think you and I are done here for the moment, don't you?"

The Chairman's mouth twitched as he stared at Cuddy, as his patience continued to run extremely thin.

"You'll be hearing from me shortly," he spat out coldly.

"I can't wait," Cuddy replied, her tone light and conversational. Without as so much as a momentarily glance around the room, she turned and walked out of the conference room, with seven pairs of eyes following in her wake.

To be continued...