Chapter 1

House woke up and rubbed his temple, the headache caused by the constant pain within his leg, and the Vicodin only dulling the pain slightly, but he coped for the most part. He rolled over and saw that the clock was reading 06:30, he thought, 'I can get up and limp into work on time; go back to sleep or get up and watch TV.' He chose the last option. He limped over to the TV and turned it on; the sound of it tore through his head causing an excruciating, sudden pain, as a result of the headache, which the nightly alcohol didn't help.

House knew he could go days without a patient but little did he know that today would provide him with the most interesting case to date, and more than likely for the rest of his life. Cameron, Chase and Foreman had all arrived before eight to start promptly when the hour struck; but House was never prompt so when they didn't have a case they just sat round sorting out patient files. The only thing that made their promptness and House's tardiness worse was the visitor that Cuddy had visiting the hospital that day.

Chase, Cameron &Foreman had arrived at Princeton-Plainsboro before eight o'clock so that they could all start promptly, but they all knew House wouldn't be in until later; much later. And the only thing that was really bad about that today was that Cuddy had an incredibly important visitor touring the hospital that day, and they knew that he wanted to meet all the senior members of staff, which included House. The three decided to see this mysterious visitor as they knew that they would have nothing to do for a number of hours. They made their way down to the clinic to stand at the nurses' station and watch Cuddy's office for a time. They saw her look directly at them, one at a time, and then look back at the man.

Cuddy noticed them over the shoulder of the man, but they weren't the important object of that moment; the man seemed to draw attention from all the people in the clinic, especially during his entrance. Before he had entered the clinic people had mentioned hearing a strange, scraping sound, of keys against the wire of a piano. But as he had approached the double doors that led in he withdrew an object from the inside left breast pocket of his pinstripe suit, pointed it at the door and they swung open, and the device was hidden as quickly as it had been drawn. But now even when he was just standing there he seemed to command the very air around him, but looked nothing short of ordinary.

"So Mister- I'm sorry I didn't catch your name." What she had actually realised was that he had never given his name, not in his message or now.

"It's Smith, John Smith."

"Mr Smith-"

"Please, call me John"

"John," she smiled as she said his name, as though this unbelievable name was something that provided a feeling of comfort and reassurance, "May I ask why you are visiting, you never mentioned in your message, which I must say was very short notice." Her eyes seemed to flicker a sense of passion towards this John Smith, and she though "My God, am I flirting with him?"

"Yes," had left John's almost in response to Cuddy's thought, and the smile on his face seemed to join that, "I do owe you a bit of an explanation, I guess"

Until that moment it hadn't passed into Cuddy's mind that he spoke with a British accent, but that just seemed to increase his standing in her eyes.

"Doctor Cuddy, I must truthfully tell you that I'm here to meet with some of the greatest doctors in the U.S."

"Please, you ask me to call you John, I ask you to call me Lisa."

"Well Lisa, like I said I want to meet some great doctors, like myself."

"You're a Doctor, John?"

"Well I suppose it is more of an honourable title, as I don't actually practise medicine. It's more a Doctor of everything."

Cuddy was truly intrigued by the man stood in front of her, but her thoughts were soon interrupted.

"So shall we set off? This is a large hospital, and I wish to view it all. But I suppose time is a bit of a luxury for me." This last sentence was almost said to himself.

"Of course, if you want to follow me."

"It would be my utmost pleasure my dear."