House, M.D. 1. Discontent

**Disclaimer: I don't own House or any of the other characters from the show. The idea for this story came from the movie The Butterfly Effect, whiach i also don't own. What would happen if House could change events from his past to chang the present? What would he change and what would he keep the same? Read to find out. And please send me reviews.**

"So how's the time traveler doing?" asked House as he walked into his office.

Cameron, Chase, and Foreman were all sitting at the table in the conference room pouring over the charts and test results of their most recent patient, an elderly man who believed that he could travel back in time and change different aspects of his past. He had originally been admitted to the pshyc ward, but once he had started having continuous seizures followed by heart attacks he had been transferred over to House and his team, who were still unable to provide a diagnosis even after the symptoms continued to progress, and the patient was now close to death.

"His latest round of tests have given us no conclusive answers," said Cameron, "and now he has new symptoms."

House walked over to the white board and wrote the new symptoms on the board with the black marker, then stared at the board in silence for a few moments. His ducklings continued to discuss their ideas behind him but he wasn't listening to them. After a few moments house left them and went to sit in at his desk and listen to his ipod. This case was particularly challenging and he was beginning to get frustrated with it. He also had to deal with Tritter hanging around the hospital continuously and now Cuddy was regulating how much vicodin he could have. He could really use a few of those pills right now, his leg was killing him and even his usual distractions weren't helping to take the edge off. It was time like these when House began to wonder what his life might have been like if he had never had the infarction, if Stacy had stayed and they had maybe even got married. That thought reminded house of something the old man had said earlier that day, something about changing an event in his past and ending up here, dying. Intrigued now to find out more House got up and headed out of his office towards the patients room, his ducklings didn't even see him leave as they were still engrossed in discussion over his latest symptoms.

Reaching the patients room house slid pen the glass door and let himself in before allowing it to close with a slight bang. The old man jumped slightly at the sound as he was startled into consciousness.

"You know most people consider it a courtesy to knock before disrupting another person's sleep."

"Was never big on that whole courtesy thing, wastes so much time if you ask me." House answered sarcastically. "I need you to clarify something for me. You said something earlier about changing your past and then ending up here, what does that mean?"

The old man looked at House with a look of shock in his eyes, as though House was the first person who had not just dismissed him as a ranting old lunatic, though House probably was the first person to ask for an explanation. The man hesitated for a moment and then spoke. "I probably shouldn't tell you this, but I know I'm dying and someone should know I suppose, so here goes. Quite a few years ago now I was having some hard times and then I ran into this nice woman who told me her secret. She told me that I could change my whole life if I wanted to all I had to do was focus on the event I wanted to change, then try to remember all of the details and if I focused hard enough I would somehow be transported back to that time so I could alter major life events and change my future. I didn't believe her at first, but when you're life is in the gutter you'll try just about anything to get it back on track. So a few months later I found myself giving it a try." The old man paused and looked down at his hands and slowly turned his wedding ring around on his finger. House smirked at him.

"And this is you're idea of a better life? Sorry to rain on you're crazy parade but dying isn't exactly a fairy tale ending."

The man looked up at him again, "Oh no, you don't understand, it worked. I went back changed my life, became wealthy, married the girl of my dreams and had a good life. She died two years ago of natural causes and I'm all alone now, we never had any children. So I devoted my time to trying to figure out how it had worked. I mean how I was able to travel back, and that's when my butler reported me as being crazy. No one has believed me and I've been stuck in a variety of nut houses for the past year before I got sick, and really I just think my time has come. I know I'm only 78 but I feel like I'm ready to go."

House let out an exasperated sigh and then said "Ok, well story hour has been fun today; you should consider a career change. Unfortunately I have places to go, people to mock, and little time to do it. So I'm just gonna leave now. My lackeys should be around later to poke at you some more, in the mean time relax and enjoy the food."

With that House exited the room as quickly as he was able, it was time for his vicodin rationing and his leg was starting to really hurt. He made his way down to Cuddy's office and barged through the doors. "It's pill time," House said as he walked up to her desk, "Hand em over." House stretched out his hand and waited for Cuddy to dump his ration into his hand, but she didn't. Instead she just looked up into those deep blue eyes and said plainly, "No."

"What do you mean no?" House asked slightly shocked, "I need those pills now or you can just forget about those clinic hours I'm supposed to do today."

"And I was pretty sure I said no. Tritter has offered you a deal, go to rehab and you can skip out on the jail time, not to mention the rest of us get our lives back." Cuddy said as she grabbed some files and began to leave her office. "I expect you to take the deal and to encourage you I'm cutting of you're vicodin supply and suspending your treatment privileges until you do. If you want to keep your job you'll take the deal, you have three days to decide." With that she walked out the door and headed out of the clinic towards the elevators. House tried to follow her but she was walking to fast for him to catch up so he yelled after her "I won't do it, you can make me."

"Yes you will if you value your career." Cuddy called over her shoulder as she began walking up the stairs. "Three days House." And then she was gone.

Great thought House, just what I needed now I don't even have my case to distract me. So he headed back up to his office, maybe he could find some creative way to annoy someone. But once he got there he just sat in his chair staring out the window and once again began to wonder what he would be doing now if his life had been different. Then he got an idea, why not give the crazy guy's idea a try. After all what was the worst that could happen, he'd waste a few minutes of his life thinking about the worst parts of his life and fell stupid for trying to time travel. If nothing else it should provide a bit of a distraction. So House settled back in his chair, twirled his cane in his hands, closed his eyes and began to recall the day he had gotten his infarction.

He pictured the golf course, with its perfectly manicured grass and sparkling water traps, the smell of a late summer's breeze and even what he had been wearing. He tried to remember every possible detail about that day, and willed himself to be there again. But nothing happened. _Ok so the old guy really was crazy, well I'll give it one more try and then find more productive uses of my time, like raiding the other departments lounges for food. _So House tried one more time, and part way through he thought he felt a change in surroundings, so he opened his eyes and looked around in complete astonishment.

"This definitely is not my office, well Toto I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."


	2. Rearranging

House slowly looked around at his new surroundings. It didn't take him long to determine that he was on a golf course. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and a light summer's breeze was blowing through the trees. But something felt slightly off to him, and he couldn't quite point out what it was. _Ok I guess the old man wasn't so crazy after all. _House thought, _so now I've determined where I am I suppose the next question is when._ At that moment House heard a familiar voice behind him.

"Ok House, we're good to go. I've rented a cart for us so let's get our bags unloaded and get going."

House slowly pivoted on his left leg and saw Wilson walking towards him from the clubhouse. "Sure." Said house and he began to take a step towards Wilson. But as he went to shift weight from his left to his right side he quickly realized what it was that was missing. "Were the hell is my cane?" House yelled as he toppled over his right side to land on the gravel of the parking lot.

"What are you talking about House? You don't have a cane, get up and stop fooling around." Wilson answered as he opened the trunk and pulled out his golf bag.

Slowly getting up House tested his weight on his right leg, and found to his surprise that it held and there was no pain. He rubbed the thigh muscle absently, it felt strong and whole so he had definitely been transported to a time before the infarction.

"Hey Wilson what's the date today?" House asked, pulling his bag from the car.

"Yeah like that's gonna work on me. House you slipped on some loose gravel, it's not enough to give you amnesia and I'm not letting you out of the tournament this weekend. I've got money on this game and you're gonna be there. Now let's get going."

"Ok fine. But really Wilson what day is it? Just tell me and I'll drop it and we can go and play."

Wilson sighed knowing that he would not be able to get a good game of golf in unless he indulged in House's crazy game. "It's Tuesday House, Tuesday June 14th. Can we go now?"

House nodded and he and Wilson headed over to the cart that Wilson had rented. As they drove towards the first hole Wilson talked about his newest girlfriend and House was lost deep in thought. _Alright so It's Tuesday, that means that I have three days to before the infarction happens. All I have to do is prevent it from happening, or limit the effects of the clot and everything will be great._

At the end of the day House drove Wilson home and then headed back to his own apartment. When he got there Stacy was waiting for him and thinking back House remembered that she had gone to court on that day, so she must have gotten home early. House walked up behind her, hugged her and laid his head on her shoulder. "Hey, I've missed you." He said as he turned her towrds him and kissed her, savoring the moment.

"I've missed you too." She replied breaking away from his grasp. "But I just saw you this morning."

"It seems like years, but I know a way we could make up for lost time."

"Oh really and what would that be."

"Come with me and I'll show you." House replied as he headed towards the bedroom. _I'm going to enjoy this while I can,_ House thought, _incase it is all just a dream._

Two days later House caught up to Wilson in his office at the hospital.

"Hey," said Wilson, "what's up, you're all ready for the game this weekend right? I've got a bet with Mclean from the E.R."

"Yeah all ready." House said distractedly as he sat on Wilson's couch. "Hey Wilson I need a favor? I need you to get me in for a MRI."

Wilson looked at him with disbelief. "You are not getting out of this House. I need a partner and you said you'd be there. And I don't care what lame excuse you come up with, if you pull out on me I'll expect you to pay off my bets."

Wilson paused when he realized that House was serious. He was just sitting there on the couch waiting for Wilson to realize this on his own, and Wilson recognized a look of need etched in House's features.

"You're serious aren't you?" Wilson asked. At House's nod Wilson sighed and asked "Why, what's wrong."

House was ready for this question and had spent time this morning deciding how best to answer Wilson's questions. He was already starting to feel early pains of the infarction and had even cancelled his golf game yesterday to avoid the trip to the E.R. that he would have been forced to take had he played yesterday. If he went to the E.R. Stacy would come and then he'd be forced to lay helplessly in bed in his appartment for two more days before she'd allow him to go back to the hospital. He had hoped that his timing would be just right so that the beginnings of the worst pain would start as he was getting the MRI, and hopefully with any luck they could dissolve the clot before it did too much damage.

House sighed and answered Wilson.

"I think I have a clot in my thigh." He paused letting Wilson absorb the idea

"OK" said Wilson

"I've been getting some bad localized pain there, and this morning I had blood in my urine."

Wilson gazed at House, completely serious now. "Well you're the diagnostician. If that's what you think the problem is then I'll check it out for you. Are you sure though? I ,mean that's pretty uncommon for somone your age."

"No I just thought, I'd put myself through all this for fun." House replied. "Of course that's what I think it is, look I know I don't have any solid reasoning yet but you'll just have to trust me. Ok Jimmy?"

"Ok, well I don't want to be the one responsible for what happens if I'm wrong, so let's go get you set up and I'll see what I can do."

An hour later Wilson returned with House's test results and had informed Dr. Cuddy, House's physician, of the problem.

"Well you were right House, you have the beginnings of an infarction in your right thigh. It's a good thing you caught it this early, we can probably remove it with limited damage to the thigh."

House nodded. "Alright, you should probably tell Stacy for me. She'll want to know."

A ripple of pain went through House's thigh and he gripped it tightly with both hands. The pain was starting to increase and he knew he had limited time left if he was going to change his past.

"You better get me in to surgery quick." House said, "The pains getting worse."

"Alright," Wilson nodded, "I'll go tell Dr. Cuddy."

And with that Wilson left. A nurse came by shortly after and finished admitting House, then he was prepped for surgery. _I Hope this works,_ thought House as he began to drift into unconsciousness from the anesthesia,_ because I don't want to have to go through this all over again. _Then darkness claimed him, and time began to fold and change.

**A/N: the next chapter will show what happens as a result of House changimg this event in his past, so it will be set in the present time but really A/U. But I wont write this chapter until I get some reviews. So if you want to find out what happens next then send me some reviews.**


	3. Life's good or is it?

**A/N: This part of the story takes place in the present but is obviously A/U. Thanks to those of you who have reviewd, I appreciate it. However I would like to get 5 more revirews before I post again, so send me your thoughts good, bad , or otherwise. I would like to hear your opinions. In the mean time, enjoy.**

House woke and slowly opened his eyes; he was slightly disoriented when he realized he was in a strange place. He gave himself a few moments to erase the sleep from his brain but when he still didn't recognize his surroundings panic overcame him and he sat up. _Ok,_ thought House,_ this definitely isn't my apartment. And unless the hospital has done major upgrades, I'm not there either._ It was at that moment that a pager went off next to him. House picked it up and read the message; Get to Work ASAP. House was even more confused now, the last thing he remembered was going under for his surgery to remove the clot in his thigh. At that thought House's hand went to his right thigh; it was there and intact, completely pain free. _I really need to find out what the date is,_ House thought as he got to his feet. At that moment Stacy walked into the bedroom.

"Greg? Are you going to get up some time today, I thought you were supposed to be at work at nine today?"

"Uh Yeah, I must have slept through the alarm. I'm on my way now."

House noticed that she had a wedding ring on her finger, and then he looked down at his own hand, and there on his ring finger was a shiny gold ring. He lightly touched it and turned it around on his finger.

"Will you stop playing with that?" Stacy asked "You're always fiddling with it, if you keep that up you'll wear it right off."

"Sorry I can't help it. It's just so shiny I have to play with it" House said taking a wild guess that it was he and Stacy who were married. She smiled at him, shook her head and left the room. _It must have worked then,_ House mused, watching Stacy retreat down the hallway, _I must have successfully changed my past, so I must back in the present again._

House dressed and went into the kitchen to grab something to eat before he left for work. He noticed a calendar on the wall and noticed that the month was hanging open on December 2006. _So I must be back to the day I left to change my past. _

Stacy had left already for work so House made himself a peanut butter sandwich and left for PPTH.

When he arrived House tried to sneak past the clinic and Cuddy's office without running into her. _She's probably twice as annoying in this reality._ House decided to take the stairs up to his office, enjoying his new found mobility. But when he reached the location where his office should have been there was nothing there but hospital rooms. At first House thought he must have gone to the wrong floor, but after trying to reach his office unsuccessfully twice more House had to admit to himself that he was lost.

"Ok so I travel back in time, fix all of my problems and end up with the perfect life, but I end up loosing my dam office, who comes up with these rules?" House mumbled under his breath. He decided he would try to find Wilson and see if he could give him some hints as to what was going on. Finding Wilson's office right where it was supposed to be, House opened his door and walked right in. As he expected Wilson was seated behind his desk.

"Don't you know how to knock anymore?" asked Wilson slightly annoyed.

"Nope, I'm not sure I actually learned that trick to begin with."

"What are you doing here anyway I thought you had to work today? You St. Michael's boys sure like to slack off don't you?"

House was slightly confused at this; he had just assumed that he would still be working at PPTH. House had never considered that he might have a job elsewhere. Wilson had mentioned St. Michaels, that was the hospital across town. He hoped they didn't care too much if he was late.

"Yeah well I've been a great influence over there, got half the staff playing game boys and watching soaps. Just thought I'd come over here and see if I could spread some good old fashioned laziness. But if you're that intent on working I suppose I should get going."

"Yeah that's probably a good idea. Hey are you and Stacy still coming over for dinner tomorrow night? Julie's really looking forward to it."

"We'll be there, I better get going. See ya."

And with that House left to see what kind of trouble he could stir up at his new job. _Although I don't know how much fun it will be without Cuddy there to torture. Oh well, hopefully I'll have a whole new team to have fun with._

When House arrived at St. Michael's he found out where the diagnostics offices were and headed towards the elevators. While he was waiting for the elevator, House heard someone calling his name.

"House! Where have you been? I paged you but you didn't answer."

"Sorry I slept in. Stacy didn't wake me up." House answered turning to look at the man who had walked up behind him. He was tall with short wavy brown hair and House had no idea who he was. But he seemed to know who House was so he decided to play along.

"We'll I'd sleep in if I had a wife like yours too man. But Colbert's quite mad at you, and you know what happens when you piss him off so I wouldn't waste any time getting up there, I'm on my way now I'll ride up with you."

"Sure, moral support sounds great."

They walked on to the elevator and the younger doctor talked about the patient they were treating at the moment. House cleverly deduced that this man worked with him or for him. The man lead House into a small conference room where there were three other people. Two other men and a blonde woman who turned and gave House an icy stare with her deep blue eyes.

"House, I thought I told you never to be late again? I don't even want to hear your excuse this time. Since our late you can go and log the clinic hours for the department for today, and if you're late again you might as well just go straight there and don't even bother coming up here."

With that she turned back to the others in the room and ignored House. _Doctor Colbert I Presume_ thought House.

"Well I don't know what crawled up your tailpipe and died. Although that is quite a stunning rear end package you've got going on there."

She turned back to House. "You can do clinic duty tomorrow as well for that snide comment."

"Geesh, someone forgot to eat their cheerios this morning."

"Do you want to make that three days of clinic duty?"

"Now you're just being mean. I was only trying to compliment you, but I get the point, see ya later boss."

As he turned to leave, the man that had rode up in the elevator with him gave him a sympathetic smile as he turned his attention back to his boss. So House spent the rest of the day in the clinic and then just as he was about to go home Colbert came down and gave him a stack of paper work to do before he could leave. _Great, even in this reality I get stuck doing clinic duty. Only this time it's with a grumpy boss who genuinely hates me, even Cuddy was better than this._

"How did you know? Paper work is just what I wanted; you must be psychic or something?" House said sarcastically as he took the stack of papers.

"We'll if you like it so much keep coming to work late. And by the way if you keep coming late I'll have to report you to the dean, your reputation is only worth so much. Now I'm going home have fun House."

"Goodnight to you too Dr. Cold butt." House retorted.

She fixed him with another icy stare and then left the room.

It was well past midnight when House finally made it back home. Stacy was already in bed, but she woke when House slipped in beside her.

"Hi honey, how was work today? You got back pretty late."

"Yeah Dr. Cold butt gave me a bunch of paper work to do before I left, and you know how much I hate paper work."

"Ummm… sounds like you had a hard day. I've gotta be up early tomorrow, sorry I'm not so talkative. We're going to Wilson's for dinner tomorrow night, so make sure you're home in time."

"Alright, goodnight Stacy." House said as he leaned over to kiss her. Then he switched off the bedside lamp and lay there thinking about his day. It hadn't been the best one he had ever had. Although he didn't have to deal with his leg pain, there had been many times today when he could have used a vicodin or two. _Wait, if I can go back and prevent my leg from getting messed up why can't I fix the rest of my life too. I want my team and Cuddy back; I had way too much fun harassing her about those low cut tops. And who wouldn't want to have their very own Aussie to toy with? _House thought as he lay there, unable to sleep. _I should go back to when I wake up from my surgery and harass Cuddy into giving me my job, maybe lay the whole guilt trip on her._

So House closed his eyes and focused his thoughts, he felt the change in his surroundings almost immediately; it had been much easier than the first time, and slowly opened his eyes. _Ok let's see what I can mess up this time._


	4. Creating Paradise

**Sorry it took so long for me to update, was busy over the holidays. Anyways, thanks to those of you who reviewed I hope you enjoy this chapter, things will start to get more interesting after this, so please continue to review. If you have any ideas on how I could improve this story please let me know.**

"You're awake, welcome back to reality."

House recognized Wilson's voice but before he could focus his vision a bright light was being flashed into his eyes.

"Get that dam thing out of my eyes, are you trying to make me blind?" croaked House, his throat was dry and sore from the anesthesia.

"Glad to see that charming personality of yours made it through surgery intact," said Wilson ignoring House's protests and finishing his neuro exam.

House didn't answer as he tried to sit up. His right thigh was aching slightly and he absently rubbed it, cleverly deducing that he was just coming out of surgery to remove the clot.

"How long have I been out?" he asked Wilson

"About a day and a half."

"Where's doctor Cuddy?"

"Busy, why?"

"Because I need to talk to her, and it's really none of your business. Don't you have some poor dying cancer kids to bother? I'm sure they could use your attention more than me, as I'm obviously not dying."

"Wait, you just get out of surgery and your first and only concern is where Dr. Cuddy is?

I mean I know she has great, what do you call them? 'Fun bags', but aren't you kind of involved with Stacy?"

"Yeah, but you always need a backup."

Wilson let out an exasperated sigh and shook his head at House before heading out of the room. As he was about to close door House called after him.

"If you see Dr. Cuddy send her over here, I'm just dying to see the latest low cut top, highlight of my day."

House settled back down into the bed and began searching for the remote to turn on the T.V. However, no sooner had Wilson disappeared down the hall than Stacy walked into the room.

"Greg you're awake." She said coming to his bedside and taking his hand in hers.

"How are you feeling, you had me so worried? When I got Wilson's message you had already gone into surgery and no one was around to tell me what was going on."

"Well the plan was to get in and out before dinner, which would have worked great if these people knew what they were doing," he said sarcastically.

"Well next time you decide to have express surgery you should inform your lawyer so I can come down and apply some legal pressure."

"Sorry I didn't tell you right away, I didn't want to worry you."

"I'm just glad you're gonna be ok."

"Me too, you really have no idea how happy I am, and when I get out of here I'm taking you out to dinner. I have something important I have to talk to you about."

"Oh and what would that be?"

"You'll have to wait and find out" House answered mischievously.

House spent the next half hour talking with Stacy before she decided that she was going to go home and get some rest. She had been at the hospital for almost a whole day and had to go back to work tomorrow, but she promised she would come back to visit House after she was done work. After she had left, House sat alone watching T.V. for another half hour before Cuddy finally showed up.

"Dr. House, it's great to see you awake. How are you feeling?"

"Dam, I thought Wednesday was supposed to be low cut sweater day."

"Sorry I wasn't able to accommodate you. The good news is you'll be able to go home in a couple of days, the surgery went according to plan and…"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, incase you didn't know I just happen to be a doctor too."

"Alright, then to make a long story short you'll be able to go back to tormenting your usual victims soon."

"Or I could stay here and torture you."

"No, I really think you should go back home."

"Nope I like it here I think I'll stay. In fact I think I'll build myself an office, just think of all the fun we could have."

"What are you talking about House? I don't need a crabby sarcastic diagnostician hanging around here. And I definitely don't need you rearranging my hospital."

"Oh come on, just think about it. I don't like to brag but think of how the reputation of this hospital increase when everyone finds out that you have a world renowned diagnostician working for you. Besides I think you kind of owe me."

"What! I don't owe you anything, actually I seem to have a vague recollection of saving your leg. If anything I'd say you owe me."

"Yeah but you didn't diagnose it, I did. Can you honestly say that if I hadn't told you what was wrong, you would have come up with the answer as early as I did?"

"There's no way to know that, I don't owe you anything and you're going home. I don't need another doctor here. End of discussion."

"Yeah, I can just imagine what would have happened if I hadn't diagnosed myself. I'd probably be a cripple right now, I bet I'd have a cane and everything. I'd be in excruciating pain and probably would end up addicted to pain killers. And then you'd definitely feel guilty, you're cheeks would be so red, you'd have offered me a job to try and clear you're conscience. So really all I've done is allowed us to skip the part where I end up in excruciating pain, and of course the part where you feel guilty."

Cuddy paused at this and appeared to be thinking about House's comments. _She's about to cave,_ thought House,_ she doesn't know that I have the advantage, I've been practicing on her future self._

"That may all be true," said Cuddy after a moment, "but I still don't need another doctor. Besides, even if I could find a spot for you what would you do about your current job?"

"I never liked them very much anyways. Here I would have you and Wilson to bug, it would be just like our old college days."

Cuddy sighed. It would be good for the hospitals reputation if he worked here, and she had to admit that she liked his add really big word. _Well I suppose that I could shift some people around,_ thought Cuddy,_ and I could find somewhere to put him, but that would mean he would have to work solely in the clinic while I do so. _She focused her attention back to House, who was staring at her intently.

"Well I suppose that I could find you a spot here, but you'll have to do clinic duty until I can set up an office for you."

"Great, clinic duty. That's my favorite pastime, but I guess if I get my own office I can put up with it for a while. I'm going to want to hire a team though."

"What do you need a team for?"

"Well I need someone to do my dirty work; answer my mail, wash my car, and of course there is all that lab work."

"Well I don't really get why you need a team, but if you insist on hiring one you'll have to wait until your office is finished and the department is running, and you'll have to keep doing clinic hours for me every week. I also think you should deal with the paperwork since this is all your idea."

"Sure, whatever."

"What no snide comment, just sure."

"See one of my many talents is that I'm great at conning in to doing things, look how easily I just talked you into giving me a job."

Cuddy didn't answer she just shook her head at House and then turned to leave. Stopping in the doorway she called out, "Come and see me when you've been discharged and we'll work out the details."

With that Cuddy left and House quickly returned to watching the T.V., pleasantly satisfird with his accomplishment. But it wasn't long before he felt the world start to spin before his eyes and before he could hit the help button everything went black, and the next thing he knew he was standing in his partially finished office a year later.


	5. Paradise found part 1

The office was almost finished, there was debris left on the floor from construction but otherwise it looked as though it was done. House walked through the glass door that adjoined his office space to the conference room, sufficiently satisfied at the way things had gone with construction. After a moment House decided that there was probably better ways to spend his time and turned to leave. As he was exiting the office he ran into Wilson.

"Trying to avoid actually doing any work again I see." Stated Wilson, as he joined House and they proceeded to the elevator together.

"I like to divide my time evenly between tasks, I figured I'd done more than my share of work today. Can't wait till my office is done so I can hang out in there all afternoon."

"Well Cuddy tells me you'll be in there by the end of the week."

The elevator opened and they paused their conversation to get on and headed down to the main floor of the hospital.

"So have you started looking for your team yet, or is Cuddy still making you wait?"

"I haven't started looking yet but what do you honestly think she would do if I hired someone? She wouldn't tell me to fire them."

" No she probably wouldn't, but I'm sure you've had more than enough fun tormenting Chase over the last few months, maybe if you get someone else to bug you could give him a break."

"Nope, don't think so," said House as he and Wilson stepped off the elevator and headed towards the clinic, "its way too easy to make fun of him, why do you think I keep him around? Anyways, I'm going to post the job now from Cuddy's computer, any guesses as to how long it takes her to find out?"

"You really need to find a better pastime than tormenting your co-workers."

"How about tormenting my friends?" House quipped as he began to head into Cuddy's office.

"You already do that quite effectively," called Wilson grabbing a file and heading into one of the exam rooms.

Cuddy was sitting at her desk intently concentrating on some paperwork when House barged in unannounced.

"Moving into my office now." he said making himself at home on the sofa.

"I already told you," Cuddy answered barely looking up from her paperwork, "You can't start moving your things in there until all the leftover building materials are cleaned out, which should be by the end of the week. And repeatedly bugging me is not going to speed up the process; I can still fire you if you're going to be this annoying"

"Ok, when can I start looking for my team? Not that I really care what your answer is gonna be, I intend to post the job this afternoon…" House let his voice trail off to see what her reaction would be. Cuddy raised her head from her files and fixed House with a stare of annoyance.

"Just thought I'd give you the heads up," he said trying to look completely innocent.

"I told you not to post the job until you got the department up and running. Do you think you can just walk all over me? Do whatever you want behind my back and I won't notice?"

Cuddy paused and after the silence had stretched out for a few moments House realized she expected an answer.

"Oh you're expecting an answer, well then in that case yes, for the most part you're pretty much a pushover."

"House you already have Chase, I let you hire him early and I'm not going to let you hire anyone else until your department is functional. There's no point in having four doctors hanging around this hospital with nothing to do all day."

"If you let me I could find them lots of things to do."

"I'm sure you could, and that's exactly why I don't want them here until there's actual work for them to do. It's bad enough just having you to deal with. Speaking of work, shouldn't you be in the clinic right now?"

"I figured those runny noses could be left unsupervised for a few minuets, glad we had this talk. I'll make sure to let you know when I've found someone I think is worthy of hiring." Said House and he got up and quickly exited the office before Cuddy could say anything else. House spent the rest of the afternoon in the clinic trying to avoid work ad much as possible. Then just before he clocked out he sent out an employment notice looking for two doctors to become part of the diagnostics department at PPTH. _Now all I have to do is wait for Cameron and foreman to hand in their applications,_ House thought as he headed out of the hospital to his car and then went home.

House knew that he would still be living in his apartment, a year wasn't much time for him to have looked for a larger home. When he arrived Stacy was waiting for him as he knew she would be. Walking in he took immediate notice of the wedding photos put on display around the living room, as well as the fact that his apartment was actually clean. Clear evidence that he was no longer a bachelor. She was perched comfortably on the recliner chair in the corner reading a book and looked up from it immediately when she heard him enter.

"Greg, honey, your home. How was work today?"

"Oh it was fine, nothing too exciting. Just tried to avoid as many sniffling people as possible, how bout you?"

"I did a lot of work on a case we have to take to trial next week, lots of hard work. You didn't forget that we were going out for dinner tonight did you?"

"Nope, not at all, ready to go whenever you are."

Stacy got up and headed straight into his arms where the shared a long kiss. When she pulled away she said softly, "I'll just go change and then we can go."

"Alright," House replied as followed her into the bedroom to help her pick out her clothes.

By the end of the week House was moving his furniture into his new office with the assistance of Chase, and was quite enjoying having the young doctor shuffle furniture around the room while he decided where he would like it all to go. He had already decided that he wanted the office set up the way it was before he had started changing life around, but having Chase move it around for him was both entertaining and a great way to avoid doing any real work.

"No I think you should move the table back over near the window," House called out to Chase.

"I just had it over there, why don't you move it? You're just standing there anyways."

"Because if I'm the one moving the furniture how will I be able to see where it looks good? Besides I'm' the brains of this outfit and you were hired to do what I tell you to, so get that table back over by the window."

Chase shot House an extremely annoyed look and then began shoving the table across the room. At that point Wilson entered the office.

"I see its moving day," Wilson commented.

""Yep sure is, and Chase has so kindly volunteered to arrange my office furniture for me so that I can practice my interior designer skills."

This earned House another glare from Chase who had finished moving the table over to the window.

"Actually on second thought, I think this bookshelf and desk would look best over there," said House in a thoughtful tone, "What do you think Dr. Wilson?"

"Sure, it's your office."

"Well that's not very insightful. Put the table in the middle of the room, Chase, and the recliner in my office."

Chase moved the table back to the middle of the room for the third time then began to leave the room.

"Where are you going?"

"For lunch. If you want that recliner moved now you'll have to do it yourself." And with that Chase was gone.

House turned back to Wilson who was looking mildly amused with the situation that had just played out before him.

"You know he's going to be so happy once you've hired two other people to harass. Speaking of which have you got any applications yet?"

"Yep a whole stack of them, apparently lots of people want to work with me. Can't imagine why, must have something to do with the fact that I'm supposed to be a world renowned diagnostician or something. Anyways, I have conveniently stored in Cuddy's office"

"I'm sure she's sufficiently annoyed with you. Have you started going through them yet?"

"Nope that's this afternoon's entertainment. If you want you can help, you have no idea how much fun it is to make fun of all those people when they don't even know about it."

"Lots of fun I'm sure, but unlike you I actually have work to do. But if I get finished maybe I could come give you a hand. How many do you have exactly?"

"I lost count at 75."

"You already have 75 applications? You just posted that job at the beginning of the week."

"I told you, everybody wants to work with me, learn from my infinite wisdom."

"Yes that's exactly why," said Wilson sarcastically, "well I have to get back to work, see ya later."

House decided that he had had enough office rearranging for one day, so rummaged through one of the many boxes until he found his tennis ball and a few CD's and then headed down to Cuddy's office. She was gone when he arrived so he put a disk into her stereo, grabbed a stack of resumes and made himself comfortable on her sofa, where he stayed for the rest of the afternoon.

About two hours later Cuddy arrived back at her office and immediately fixed House with an icy stare. He pretended not to notice and picked up the next resume in the stack, so she marched over to the stereo and turned it off which quickly got his attention.

"Hey I was listening to that."

"House this isn't your office, how did you even get in here I locked the door when I left? You know what I don't want to know, what are you doing here?"

"Going through the applications I received, you can't tell me you didn't notice them strewn across your office all week. I just thought I'd come in here and clean up my mess."

"Well as thoughtful as that is, you shouldn't even have a mess. I told you not to send out the job posting until you had the department up and running."

"I don't suppose you'd believe me if I told you it was?"

"No I wouldn't," she let out an exasperated sigh, "But since you've already got applications you might as well hire them now, not like it'll make a big difference weather you do it now or later. But you are going to take all of this back up to your office. It's done now and I expect you to use it."

"Sure thing boss," said House as he got up and grabbed two files off the floor and began heading for the door.

"House, what about the rest of this mess?"

"I'll be back for it later, by the way that couch is really comfortable. I'll have to remember that next time I need a nap." He called over his shoulder as he exited the office. Cuddy just shook her head at him and sat down behind her desk.

Back in his office, House sat down in his recliner which no in his office area, and began to go through the rest of the resumes. _Coleman, French, Smith, where's Foreman's application? And Cameron's? I'm almost through all of these and I haven't found them yet,_ thought House,_ they were some of the first one's I got, they should be here. Well I guess I sent out this job posting earlier than I did before, foreman's probably still working for that guy in California. What was his name again? And Cameron's probably still with her husband. Great._ House pondered what he should do for a few minuets and then decided that he had to get Foreman and Cameron back here to work for him. _If they're not going to send me their applications, then I'll just have to go and get them. So I guess first stop is California._

**AN/ sorry it's taking me so long to update, I've been running into writer's block. Anyways i suppose i could be more inspired by some reviews...hope u enjoy.**

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	6. Paradise found part2

**Sorry this chapter took so long, I had a serious case of writers block. I'm not sure that this chapter will be any good, but is my attempt to push my way through this block. So please review, criticism is welcome, as it will help me to determine where to go from here. Thanks so much to those of you who have already done so! Hope you enjoy.**

House poked his head into Cuddy's office; she was absorbed in paper work and didn't glance up at him.

"What do you want house?"

"I'm going to California for a while. I'll send a postcard." He said beginning to leave.

"Get back in here. You are not going anywhere, you have work to do here. Do I even want to know why you think you need to go to California?"

House had already come up with an excuse, and had forged the appropriate paperwork to back up his story.

"I got a request for a emergency consult." He said whipping out a piece of paper from his jacket pocket.

"Since when do you do consults? Let me see that."

House handed her the paper and watched as her eyes scanned it carefully.

"Why accept this consult request? You've gotten many requests over the years and you've turned down every one. What's so special about this one?"

He knew that he had her now, she was intrigued that he would actually feel motivated enough to agree to help another doctor without her having to harass him into doing it.

"It seems like an interesting case, besides I hear the beaches are loaded with really hot girls this time of year. Thought I could go and check it out, on my spare time of course." He added seeing a look of annoyance spread across Cuddy's face.

"Well, even though this probably goes against my better judgment, I'll let you go."

"Great, like I said I'll send you a postcard." House said cheerfully, slipping through her office doors quickly, leaving Cuddy with an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach.

House arrived in L.A. two days later, he had booked his flight before talking to Cuddy about leaving, planning to go no matter what she said. The fact that she had agreed only made things easier for him when he went pack to Princeton with two new employees. He had conveniently forgotten to mention that he was going to make a pit stop on the way back to find Cameron. He checked himself into a hotel near the hospital where Foreman was currently working, and then decided it was still early enough in the day to go and check out the hospital. So he called a cab and headed over to see what damage he could to today.

Walking into the main lobby of the hospital, House took in his surroundings. It was a much larger hospital than PPTH, and the walls were painted in soothing green and blue tones. It kind of made him feel sleepy and calm, which was the point he supposed. House walked right up to the main desk and began drumming his fingers on the counter annoyingly while waiting for a nurse to come and help him. He gained several looks of annoyance from the nurses already working around the area, but eventually one stepped up to help him.

"What can I help you with today sir?" she asked.

"I was looking for Dr. Foreman. Could you tell me where I could find him at this time of day? My guess would be on his lunch break…" House let his voice trail off as the nurse stared at him.

"Do you have an appointment with him?"

"Yep, at one, which is in 5 min so you'd better hurry up and tell me where he is. Wouldn't want to be late now would I?"

"What's your name?" the nurse asked picking up a phone and dialing a number.

_Uh-oh,_ thought House. "Greg Smith." He said quickly.

"Hi, Dr. Foreman? I have a patient down here, a Greg Smith, who says he has an appointment with you at one." There was a pause as Foreman replied. "I see, no I don't think he does but I'll ask."

The nurse turned back to House, "Do you have an appointment slip confirming date and time?"

House dug around in his pockets for a few minuets then looked back at her, "Nope, sorry must have lost it."

"He doesn't." said the nurse into the receiver. This was followed by more 'uh-huh's' and 'yes's' and then she hung up the phone, gave House Foreman's office number and directions on how to get there. _Geese, all that work for one lousy room number. I'll have to remember to bug her exceedingly well over the next few days._ House arrived at Foreman's office a few minuets later, located quite obviously in the neurology department. He found Foreman seated at a small desk and in his usual style barged in without knocking.

"Can I help you?" asked Foreman, in that tone that suggested he was talking to an insane person.

"Well I guess if I'm going to be rude enough to barge in on you like that I at least better introduce myself." Said house making himself comfortable in the only chair in the room. "I'm Dr. House, and I want you to come work for me in New Jersey. I know that's a long ways away from the sunny beaches of California, but I also happen to know that your fellowship here is almost expired. And I have decided that I could use a black neurologist back in Princeton."

Foreman starred at him with a look of disbelief, if he had thought this man was insane before, he knew he was insane now. "That's all very interesting, but I have an appointment coming up in a few minuets and I'm also very busy. I don't have time for this right now. So could you kindly show yourself out of my office, or should I have security show you out?"

"If you're kicking me out because you have an appointment, well I happen to be that appointment. I needed to find out where your office was, seemed like the most efficient way to do it. I wouldn't want to wander around in a boring old hospital all day long you know. I have better things to do with my time."

"I'm calling security." Foreman said as he reached for the receiver.

"No your not," said House as he slammed his hand down on the phone before Foreman could pick it up.

"Who are you and what do you want?" demanded Foreman

"I told you I'm Dr. Greg House. And I want you to come and work for me."

"I highly doubt that. Dr, House is a world renowned diagnostician, and from what I hear, an arrogant SOB. If he wanted to hire anyone he wouldn't be traipsing half way across the country to find them. He'd make them come to him."

"Unless of course he put up a job posting and then decided the applicants weren't good enough, so he did some research and found some doctors he thought he would like better. But unfortunately those doctors are otherwise occupied, so he decided to go and convince them to come back to New Jersey with him. God it's annoying talking about myself in the third person, please don't make me say that again."

Foreman looked at house with shock and disbelief, trying to determine if this man really was telling the truth. He seemed to fit all of the descriptions that Foreman had heard about him, so he decided to play along for the moment.

"Ok, let's say I believe you. Why do you want me, what makes me so special that you'd come all the way out to California to find me?"

"Well don't blow up your ego too much. For starters I was bored and figured a road trip would be a good distraction. Second, I did some checking and I could use a guy like you. You graduated at the top of your class, and you have a juvenile record." House said casually, as if it were perfectly normal for people to have juvenile records. But Foreman caught on.

"How do you know about that, those records are supposed to be sealed? How did you even find them?" Foreman said angrily.

"I'm very resourceful, but I'm not at liberty to discuss exactly how I found out. It may involve some illegal measures. So what do you say, will you come work for me?"

"No your insane!"

"Ok, if you say so. But come on, a chance to work with a world renowned doctor, the pays not that bad, and I can promise you a great parking spot."

"Get out of here now," said Foreman as he again reached for the phone. "Security, I need you to come to my office and escort this man out." He said into the receiver then hung up the phone.

"Ok, fine I can take a hint, think about it though. Here's my number if you change your mind."

Then the security guards came and House allowed them to escort him out. He would be back tomorrow for phase two.


	7. Count Me In

**Sorry this has taken so long to get posted, I know exactly where I want this story to go but I have had difficulty writing it. Anyways hope you enjoy and I'll try to get the other chapters posted faster which should be easier now that mid terms are over.**

The next day House returned to the hospital. He had come up with a typically devious plan to coerce Foreman into coming to work for him, and he planned to carry it out right away. But before House could put his plan into action, he had to convince Foreman's current boss, Marty Hamilton, to let him hang around for a few days until he got Foreman fired. His plan was to inconspicuously humiliate and harass Foreman until he either quit or was fired, it was a plan that would definitely require careful execution if House didn't want to be continually or permanently thrown out. But House felt he was up to the challenge, he hadn't been able to be a full time prankster for quite a while and if nothing else it was sure to provide some entertainment.

House strolled into the hospital reception area and began heading towards the stairs so he could head up to the fourth floor, where he had discovered was where Dr. Hamilton's office was located. He tried to blend in with the other random sick people and their loved ones that were milling about in the entrance, but unfortunately either that nurse that he had fooled yesterday, or Foreman, had alerted hospital security that he might try to come back. House only made it about half way across the lobby before they spotted him and started heading towards him, he saw them but remained calm and pretended not to notice them. They caught up to him just before he began to climb the stairs.

"Excuse me sir, would you mind coming with us?" said one of the guards placing a firm hand on House's shoulder.

"Yes actually I would mind," House replied brushing the hand off his shoulder, "Would _you_ mind telling me why I need to come with you?"

"You're on our security alert sir; we're not supposed to let you enter the hospital. Would you please come with us?"

House had no intention of allowing the guards to escort him anywhere, and he had prepared for this scenario so he fed the guards his rehearsed lines.

"Sure I'll come with you. But then you get to explain to Dr. Hamilton why I wasn't able to give him a consult on his current patient. Who is very sick by the way, could die. I sure wouldn't want to have the death of a patient on my hands…"

The two guards exchanged skeptical looks, and then one of them turned back to House.

"Do you have and ID badge, or proof that you are actually a doctor?"

House reached into his jacket and produced his ID card from PPTH. The guard scrutinized it for a moment, and then handed it back to him.

"I'll let you go, but you'd better not make me regret that decision or there'll be trouble."

"Got it no monkey business," said House, breaking free from the two security officers and bounding up the stairs.

He quiet literally bumped into Dr. Hamilton in the hallway on the fourth floor. House was turning around the corner and ran smack into Hamilton, who was coming from the opposite direction. House apparently had more forward motion going because it was Hamilton that ended up staring up at House from the floor.

"You know you should really be more careful about which corners you decide to walk around, you might hurt someone," said House, not offering to help Hamilton up off the floor.

"Well I'll keep that in mind, so long as you try to regulate the speed at which you come around said corners."

"Not likely to happen. However it just so happens that you're exactly the person I was looking for, good thing I ran into you not someone else. I guess it's my lucky day."

"Is that so? And who exactly would you be?"

This was the moment that House had been waiting for, time to put his diabolical plan into action.

"I'm Dr. House, from Princeton New Jersey. I'm here to looking for a diagnostics team, I received a resume from Eric Foreman. I hear he works for you right now, but you see I only accept the best and the brightest so I thought I would come and see him in action. You just never can trust what these kids put down on paper anymore, so I'm gonna be hanging around for a few days. That's gonna be ok right? So where is he, I just can't wait to meet him."

"Well it's good to meet the infamous Dr. House, I've heard a lot about you," said Hamilton offering his hand to House. House just stared at it but made no move to return the gesture. _He's still a polite twit,_ thought House. Realizing House was not going to return the gesture Hamilton continued "I wasn't aware that Eric was looking for another position, let alone one with you, suffice it to say that I am slightly surprised. I thought he was happy working here. But I suppose that any young doctor who is just starting out would jump at a chance too work with you."

"Well most people don't convince me of their worthiness by jumping, but I suppose if that's the way you people do things out here then good for you. Anyways where is Foreman? I can't wait to see if he's as good as he says he is."

Hamilton looked at House as though he couldn't decide weather he liked him yet or not, but pointed down the hallway behind House.

"He's just down that way, I was just on my way to check how he was coming along with the lab tests. Would you care to join me?"

"Yep, let's go."

The two doctors walked down the hall and entered the lab, where Foreman was busy looking at something under a microscope. He looked up when his boss entered the room, but his face was quickly covered in a scowl when he saw House follow him into the room.

"What's he doing here?" asked Foreman.

Hamilton looked back and forth between the two men, Foreman starred angrily at House, and House starred right back, mischief dancing in his eyes.

"This is Dr. House, from Princeton. Have you met him before Foreman?"

"Yeah, yesterday when he tried to get me to work for him, I had security throw him out though. Apparently he was stupid enough to come back though," Foreman turned towards House, "How did you get up here, I told security to keep a look out for you."

"Well you see that's usually the problem with those big muscular types, they seem to lose IQ points as they get stronger. You don't have to be a genius to get past those morons. Anyways, I'm here to observe your unique talents, so please continue and don't let me get in your way. Just pretend I'm not here."

House grabbed a stool and sat down on it, looking expectantly at Foreman.

"Wait a minuet," said Hamilton, "You told me that you were here to hire him, so how come he had to have you thrown out yesterday?"

"well that would probably have something to do with the fact that I told him I knew about his criminal record after he refused my initial offer of employment, but that's all in the past now. The point is I want him and I'm not leaving here without him."

Foreman and Hamilton stared at House, who was sitting there looking absolutely serious. No one moved for a few moments, and then House's face lit up in a smile farther confounding the other two men.

"Boy you guys are so serious, I was only joking. You see yesterday I was only judging Foreman's response under stress, this position he's applied for is in a very high stress environment. Just wanted to make sure he wouldn't crack under pressure and do something stupid."

"I did not apply for any job with you," Exclaimed Foreman, "And I don't care if you're the best doctor on the whole planet, you're crazy and I don't want to come and work with you."

"Oh I see, you just don't want to let the old boss know that you don't like him enough to stay here right. Its ok I understand, we won't tell him. Oops he's standing right over there, sorry about that."

Completely annoyed now Foreman turned back to Hamilton.

"Look, if there is no reason for him to be here could you get rid of him? I have work to do."

"Wow I like that, dedication to the job, excellent quality."

Hamilton walked over to House, "I don't know why you're here Dr. House, but I don't appreciate you harassing my employee. So if you have something you need to do here, I suggest you do it and then leave. We're all very busy and Foreman doesn't have time to deal with this."

"Sure thing, as soon as he agrees to come back to New Jersey with me I'll be gone and you'll never hear from me again. We'll maybe not never, but not for a very long time anyways."

"I can't force him to go with you if he doesn't want to, the decision is his. So if that's the only reason you're here I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

_Well this isn't going as well as I'd hoped,_ thought House, _time to go to plan B I suppose._

"Ok, ok, I know when I've been rejected," said House getting up from his stool and following Hamilton to the door, "But I don't go back until the end of the week, it seems a shame for me to waste a whole week watching girls on the beach, if you could use some extra help maybe I could hang around here for a bit?"

Hamilton hesitated, and Foreman looked at him waiting to hear what his boss had to say. He turned back to Foreman, "Well what do you think Eric? Would you mind if Dr. House worked with us for the rest of the week? Who knows maybe he'll be able to convince you to go back with him."

"He can stay," said Foreman going back to examining the slide under the microscope, "As long as he stays out of my way."

Hamilton looked back towards House, waiting for him to agree to the terms. House pretended to think about it for a moment, then nodded his head.

"Alright, I suppose I could manage to stay out of his way for the week, so what's ya got for patients?"

Hamilton put his arm around House's shoulder and the two of them walked out of the lab while Hamilton told him about the three patients he was currently dealing with. All the while House's mind was working on ways that he could get Foreman to mess up enough that he would have to leave. Either that of House had to prove himself to be exceptionally brilliant, so that he could completely astound foreman and also convince him that his calling was in Princeton.

For the rest of the week House occupied himself by coming up with creative ways to humiliate Foreman in front of his colleagues. Fortunately for him, Hamilton seemed to have acquired cases that could be solved by someone with an IQ of a snail, which didn't leave House much impressed by his mental capabilities. So he would sit silently in the corner and wait for Foreman to present his pathetic and obviously wrong theory, then the minuet he was finished House would shoot it down. This made tactic not only made Foreman look bad and incompetent, but it made House look like the genius he was. By the end of the week Foreman was hesitating to give his opinion at all, which was frustrating Hamilton and causing friction between the two. The second half of his plan took more creative thinking to prevent House from being thrown out. Throughout the week House followed Foreman around while he performed his tests on the patients, then when he could and it was safe to do so he would find a way to mess up the test results. Then later he would bring up the possibility that Foreman had screwed up on the tests and that they should be redone. Of course when they were redone they would show the correct results which would confirm House's theory. By the end of the week Hamilton was becoming seriously skeptical about Foreman's abilities, which was exactly what House wanted. For the last part of his plan, House continually played pranks on Foreman. He placed clear fast drying glue on his chair, which wreaked a perfectly good pair of Foreman's pants and wasted hours of his time while he tried to pick off all the tiny pits of fabric from the chair. House also took the name plaque from Foreman's parking space and moved it to a different spot every day, often at different ends of the parking lot. It was on House's second last day in California that Foreman finally came to talk to House.

"Dr. House, could I talk to you for a minuet?" asked Foreman cautiously as he entered the lounge where House was sprawled across one of the couches watching General Hospital.

"Why if it isn't Dr. Foreman, come to beg me to take him back to Princeton I believe. That is why you're here isn't it?"

Foreman sighed, "Yeah, Hamilton just told me that he hasn't been impressed with my work this week. When I told him that it was you trying to mess me up he told me that I should come and apologize to you, and that he didn't think it was in my best interest to renew my contract with him at this time. So I guess thanks to you that means I'll be out of a job by the end of the year."

"Yeah it sure looks that way, but I wouldn't worry about it too much because you see I happen to know of a job opening back in Princeton. I'm sure they would take you, I mean they're not to picky with who they hire or anything but the parking is way better than here. That is you I've seen out there hunting for your spot every morning right?"

"Look stop messing with me," said Foreman getting angry now, "You obviously want me to come work with you pretty badly; otherwise you seriously need to get a hobby. You've screwed up any chance I have of staying here, so if you want me that bad then yes I will come work for you. Give me three weeks to tie things up here and find a place in New Jersey and I'll be there."

"Great," exclaimed house, "That means my work here is done. Wouldn't this have been much easier if you'd have just agreed with me at the beginning of the week? Oh well first lesson, I'm always right. Now if I'm not back in Princeton when you get there go see Dr. Cuddy, she's the Dean of medicine at Princeton Plainsborough Teaching Hospital, that's where you're going to be working by the way in case I forgot to tell you. Tell her that I hired you and then go find Dr. Chase; he is at the moment the only other member of my team, you can hang around with him until I get back."

"What do you mean until you get back? I won't be there for another three weeks, where are you going?"

"I have another person I have to track down before I go back, but don't worry you wont have to be all alone in the big scary hospital without me for long. Commercials over so run along and go do some work, I'll see you in three weeks."

Foreman shook his head at House in disbelief but walked out of the lounge, wondering what he had gotten himself into. Meanwhile House pulled out his cell phone and booked a flight for the next day, to find Allison Cameron.


	8. Finding Cameron

House had discovered through research gained not quite legally that Cameron lived in an apartment building near the college where she attended medical school. He had also determined that at the moment she would be in morning for her husband. Who should have died not to long ago. So House was going to have to be more delicate in his approach with Cameron than he had been with foreman. But if he fed her some line about helping the human race and saving lives, it shouldn't be too hard to get her to cooperate. The only down side was he was probably going to have to listen to her sad, sad story about how she had watched the love of her life die slowly in front of her. But that also meant he could probably easily convince her that she should do something meaningful with her life and so on. All in all he expected this to be easier than convincing Foreman to work for him, it just might take a little more time. At least that would give him a chance to decide how he was going to deal with Cuddy when he got back. She definitely wasn't going to be happy with him for lying to her and then hiring two other people before she had approved it. But House highly doubted that she would make him fire them, so he would go through the usual routine. Cuddy would yell at him, he would insult her, there would be more yelling and he might end up with a few more clinic hours but he could always pawn them off on Foreman or chase. So the next afternoon, House got off the plane and headed over to a hotel near Cameron's current home. Once he was settled in he got a cab and went to see if she was home. When he arrived at her home there was a large amount of people milling about. Many of them were dressed in black and were coming out of the house and getting into their vehicles and driving away. It took him a few moments to realize that they were probably heading to her dead husbands funeral. House looked down at his clothing, it wasn't exactly funeral attire but it would do. He was wearing a dark blue shirt under a black jacket and his usual blue jeans and sneakers. He could easily cover the shirt but the blue jeans wouldn't be so easy to hide, but he hadn't brought anything that else that would work. Besides that it looked like everyone was leaving right now, if he didn't get a ride and follow them he wouldn't know where they were going. So he did up his jacket and then pulled out his cell phone to call a cab, then he got the driver to follow the last few cars to leave the house. He hadn't seen Cameron leave yet, so he assumed she was still inside. He checked the address on the house as he drove by; it was the one he had gotten from her records at the college so he hoped that he had gotten the right home. If not he was going to end up at some stranger's funeral dressed in blue jeans.

When he arrived there were already quite a few people there, he searched the gathering mourners and looked for Cameron. But he couldn't see her, so he hung around at the back of the crowd and tried not to attract attention to himself. He did attract a few unfriendly stares as people took in his appearance, but otherwise remained unnoticed. Twenty minuets later he saw Cameron arrive. She looked as stunning as ever, covered from head to toe in black. She had obviously been crying a lot, she had tissues tucked into her gloved hand and frequently brought them up to dab at tears that were even now falling freely from her swollen eyes. For a brief moment House felt ashamed about what he had come here to do. But that moment quickly passed, he knew that Cameron would get over this and move on with her life, he was just going to ask her to do it a little more quickly than she had before. So he stood at the back of the crowd as the preacher began to speak and watched Cameron. She cried throughout the whole service, and House soon had to find other ways to amuse himself, he was never able to keep his attention focused for long at funerals. So he started counting all of the flowers placed around the coffin. The service finally ended and hour later and people began to slowly get into their vehicles and drive away. He moved off to the side and casually leaned against a large oak tree and waited until Cameron and a young man that he assumed was her escort were the last ones left. Seeing Cameron begin to rise he headed over to her car and waited for her to reach him. When she finally arrived at the car she looked up at House with a quizzical expression. House stepped forward and offered.

"I'm sorry to hear about your loss Allison," he said softly, trying to put an undertone of sympathy into his voice. He found it a slightly difficult task to accomplish.

"Thank you for your sympathy, were you a friend of Mitch's? I don't recognize you."

"No, I didn't know him, but from what the preacher just said he was a 'kind and caring gentle soul" said House slightly sarcastically as he looked back at Cameron's escort, who was standing beside the drivers door.

Cameron stared at him with a look of shock and anger on her face, then she put her head down and tried to brush past him. House gently grabbed her arm and spun her until she was facing him again.

"Look, I'm sorry I didn't mean that. I'm sure he was a really good person. I would like to talk to you in a more private setting. I realize that this isn't the best time so how about I give you my cell number and when you have a free moment you can let me know and we can arrange a time to meet. I have a proposition for you that I think you will like."

Cameron stared blankly at him and House could tell that this wasn't really making sense to her right now. So he tried a simpler approach.

"How about you call that number I just gave you tomorrow when things have settled down a bit and I can explain then, ok?"

At this she just nodded, she was obviously more upset now than she had been earlier. Her young escort came over and glared at House with mild hostility, then gently steered Cameron over to the car and helped her in. as they drove off House was left standing there and wondering if Cameron would actually call him tomorrow or not. He sighed then looked back to where a crew of workers was finishing up packing the dirt on top of the coffin and clearing up the area. Only tomorrow would tell if his attempt had been successful, so he called for a cab once again and headed back to his hotel room.

**I know this was a short chapter but this seemed like a good place to end off, but there will be more coming soon. I am not sure if the writers have told us what Cameron's husbands name was, so I made one up. But if they did and someone knows what it is please let me know and I will change it, otherwise I hope you enjoyed it, don't forget to let me know what you think!**


	9. Goal accomplished

**well here is another chapter, after this the interesting stuff happens. the next few chapters may take a while though because i have two term papers due so my muse is needed elsewhere, but there will be more. but in the meantime i hope you enjoy**

House waited next to his phone impatiently for most of the next day. It rang frequently but his caller id showed him that it was Cuddy, not Cameron, who was attempting to reach him. He deduced that Foreman must have made his way to PPTH, and Cuddy was obviously pissed. She had left a few messages for him but he wasn't in the mood to deal with her right now, mostly because he knew that she would demand that he return immediately. And he of course had no intentions of doing that until he had convinced Cameron to come work for him, so it was just best to ignore Cuddy for the moment. That task was proving slightly difficult though, every time the phone rang he sprang on it hoping that it was Cameron, but every time he was disappointed. It was times like these that he wished he still had some Vicodin. By late afternoon he had determined that Cameron wasn't going to call him back, so he decided to take a walk back over to her home. House grabbed his jacket on his way out of the hotel room and began walking over to Cameron's house.

Her street was quiet when he arrived, the large amounts of people that had been present yesterday had returned to their lives now, leaving Cameron to mourn by her self. He walked up the short walkway to her front door and rang the door bell. For a few moments he heard no signs off life behind the door and wondered if Cameron had gone out for the afternoon. He was just about to turn around and try peeking through her windows to see if she was there when the door opened slightly. House saw the outline of Cameron's face peeking at him from behind the door.

"What are you doing here?" asked Cameron quietly

"Thought I'd come by to see how you were doing," replied House, "You didn't call me back like we talked about so I wanted to see if you were alright."

He hoped that she would buy his explanation; he knew that she would eventually be alright so he couldn't really bring himself to care too much right now about how much grief she was going through. To be quite honest he had never really been good at dealing with stuff like this anyways. House had always believed that it was best to continue on with his life weather than dwell on a past that he could do nothing about anyways. Wilson told him it was just his coping mechanism, but many others had told him that it was because he just didn't care. House didn't really know why he acted like he didn't care but it worked for him, and at the end of the day that was all that mattered. At the moment, however, Cameron didn't seem to be completely buying his story.

"That's nice of you I guess. But who exactly are you? I don't remember ever having met you before yesterday and I'm pretty sure you weren't one of Dave's friends so what do you want?"

She definitely wasn't stupid; apparently she could read him just as good now as she could in his other life.

"Alright, look I'll be honest with you; I didn't know you're husband at all. I came here because I'm starting up a new diagnostics department Princeton and I was looking for a team to help me. I heard about you and decided that you were the perfect candidate for this job so I thought I'd come and see if you were interested."

House paused for a moment to judge her reaction to his story. She made no sign to show what she thought about this, she just stood there watching him.

"Look, Allison, I know this wasn't the best time for me to decide to do this. I know this is a hard time for you, but do you really think that he would have wanted you to sit here cooped up in this house mourning for him for the rest of your life?"

"Who do you think you are to come over her and tell me what my husband would or wouldn't want me to do? You didn't even know him." exclaimed Cameron, getting slightly agitated.

House paused, staring at her, apparently that was a little bit to forward an approach for the time being.

"I'm sorry," He tried, "of course I don't know what he would have wanted. But from what I heard yesterdays he was a nice loving person, I can't imagine him wanting you to sit here in this house all alone for the rest of your life. I'm sure he would have wanted you to go out and have a successful career, have lots of friends, and in general be happy. Am I wrong?"

She gazed at him, her eyes filling with fresh tears. "No," she said so softly that it was barely audible.

House made one last attempt to win her over.

"I know that right now it feels like your world will never be right again, but it will, trust me. And as stupid as it sounds the best way to get your life back on track is to get out there and do something. Some people bake, others become motivational speakers; I'm offering you the chance to help save lives. Is there really a better way to honor his memory than to save lives?"

Cameron opened the door the rest of the way, she had finally allowed her tears to begin to fall anew half way through his small speech and now they were freely falling down her face. House stood there watching, knowing that he should probably say something to comfort her but unable to find any appropriate words. Then before he knew it, Cameron had flung her self towards him and wrapped her arms around him in a near bone crushing hug. He stood there stiff and stunned for a moment, he could feel her tears soaking through his shirt, then he tentatively raised his arms and hugged her back. The two of them stood there on Cameron's doorstep for several long minutes before she pulled away from him. Cameron looked up into his eyes.

"Alright," she whispered, "I'll come and help you. I can't bear to stay here anymore anyways, there are too many memories. I'd be looking for a job shortly anyways and at least now I know I'll have a job that will be meaningful."

House nodded, pleased that he had finally managed to achieve his goal.

"Will you help me pack my things," asked Cameron as she turned and entered her home again.

House was going to refuse but then changed his mind. Cuddy was already pissed at him; what was a few more days away going to hurt? So he nodded towards Cameron and followed her inside, where he spent the next week helping her pack her things in preparation for moving to New Jersey.


	10. confrontation

**Alright I finally got another chapter posted, sorry about the wait, apparently essays are very draining on creativeness. Well hope you enjoy, still don't own any of these characters.**

House walked slowly up to the hospital entrance. When he got there he opened the door slightly and poked his head in to make sure the coast was clear. He knew Cuddy was going to be on the look out for him and he hoped that he could make it to his office before she spotted him. It was of course inevitable that he would have to face her, but he was in a particularly good mood this morning after having spent the night with Stacy and he wanted to remain in said good mood for as long as possible. Contrary to what some people said about him, he did actually like to be in good moods from time to time. He didn't see Cuddy anywhere in the immediate vicinity, so he tentatively stepped inside the hospital. No alarms or buzzers went off, and he didn't hear anyone shouting his name, so after a brief pause he set off at a brisk pace towards the elevators at the other end of the lobby. He made it without being noticed, and then began to hastily push the buttons on the wall while looking nervously over his shoulder. If nothing else, Cuddy was likely to cool down slightly by the afternoon and with any luck he could find a way to make her a little less angry with him by then. House heard the elevator sliding down into place behind the closed doors and was just beginning to think that perhaps today luck was on his side, he eased his tense posture slightly. Once he made it into the elevator his chances of avoiding Cuddy for the day would be enormously increased. The elevator door opened and House began to take a step to enter it when he stopped abruptly as he nearly ran straight into the glowering face of one Dr. Lisa Cuddy. _The words 'oh' and 'bugger' come to mind,_ thought House, as he took a scrambling step back from the elevator.

"House, my office now!" demanded Cuddy, pointing towards her office and starting off at a march towards the other side of the lobby.

"So close, and yet so far away," mumbled House as he looked longingly back at the elevator before following her like a beaten puppy.

Cuddy continued her march through the clinic with House trailing behind. Brenda gave him a smug and satisfied smile as he passed by her, and House just glowered back at her before entering the door Cuddy was holding open for him. As soon as the door to her office closed behind them she started in on her rant.

"What the hell were you thinking House? Do you even listen to me at all, because I thought I recalled telling you not to hire anyone until the department was actually running? Now I have three doctors milling around my hospital with nothing to do." She yelled as she stormed over to her desk and threw herself down into her chair.

"If that's why you have a problem with this I'm sure I could find them all something to do. I could get Cameron to answer my mail, Chase can do my clinic hours, and Foreman could practice breaking into…"

Cuddy put up her hand to stop him before he could finish the last part of the sentence.

"House that is by no means an effective use of time. You can not have your employees doing your work for you, I won't allow it."

"I don't suppose a simple apology would suffice this time would it?" asked House as he picked up a pen from her desk and began to twirl it between his fingers. This seemed to infuriate Cuddy even more and she reached over and snatched the pen out of his hands and slammed it back onto her desk.

"No, it won't, a simple apology from you means nothing, and you should know better than to even try it."

She was fuming now, and House knew he had to get out of there quickly before she gave him a ridiculously harsh punishment.

"Ok then, I apologize for trying to apologize. So how many clinic hours is it gonna be this time boss?"

"No, no, no, you're not getting of that easy this time. This is way beyond just giving you more clinic hours, which you won't do anyways. You hired two people when I expressly told you not to, and on top of that you lied to me. You left to go traipsing around the country to on a manhunt for two people who hadn't even applied for the job. You disappear completely and I can't even get a hold of you, and then you take three weeks leave when I only authorized one. If this is going to be how you normally act then how am I supposed to feel confident that you will do your job when asked? How can I trust you?"

House shrugged his shoulders, "I got nothing, but of course if you can't trust me can you trust my statement that I have no idea how your supposed to trust me? Wait I'm getting confused now."

Her face filled with new rage and she started shouting again.

"Do you think this is funny House?"

He put on his most serious face and looked Cuddy right in the eye.

"Absolutely not, this is the least funny thing since the time I tried to make liquor filled doughnuts. I ended up spewing from both ends."

This was apparently the wrong answer; because Cuddy's faced became infused with even more anger if that was possible.

"House, don't push me, I could make your life a living hell."

"No thanks, I'm already in a serious relationship, not quite ready for another one."

Cuddy stood up to her full height, squared her shoulders and stared with open hostility at House. He knew he was really in for it now, but if you were going down it was best to go out kicking and screaming.

"Alright that's it, as of tomorrow, you will report to the ER and you will spend the rest of your time doing EMT duty until I decide otherwise, is that clear?"

"Yeah except I don't do that kind of thing, you see I actually finished medical school."

"I don't care, you need to learn to have a respect for authority and do what you're told. You will be there by nine tomorrow or you will no longer be employed here, end of discussion, now get out of my office."

House clicked his heels together and gave Cuddy a sloppy salute.

"Yes sure, would you like me to wash your car for you too? I noticed it had a spot on it, not acceptable for a dictator you know."

"House unless you want to spend the rest of your career doing EMT duty you will exit this office immediately."

With that she sat back down at her desk and went to work ignoring him, so House had no choice but to turn and walk out of the office grumbling about his punishment. Foreman was so not worth this, Cameron maybe but he wasn't even sure about that. The one thing that he was sure of was that Cuddy wouldn't let him get of with just a week of EMT duty, and it was going to be hell. But oh well, he'd get to make fun of all the med school slackers. Maybe he could find a way to entertain himself and make Cuddy sorry that she had thought up this cunningly evil plot.


	11. Tradgedy strikes

It was Friday morning and House trudged through the front doors to PPTH, it was the end to a very long week. He had managed to make it through the whole week without killing any of his co-workers or getting any duty extensions from Cuddy. And somehow he had also managed to completely annoy all of the EMT staff without getting on Cuddy's last nerves. He had continually insulted the intelligence levels of the entire staff as well as causing other general forms of mayhem. But on the whole, his attempts to alienate and annoy every living human being near him were less ambitious than usual. For the first time in as long as he could remember, House was satisfied with his life. He had his job here at the hospital where he could continually harass Cuddy and he had finally succeeded in getting his team back together. He was pain and cane free and enjoying a completely fabulous relationship with Stacy. He couldn't think of anything that could make his life better at the moment.

Cuddy and Wilson stood at the far end of the lobby and watched as House slowly made his way to the elevators and headed down to the emergency section of the hospital. Wilson especially was surprised at the lack of sarcasm that House portrayed towards this particular form of punishment and Cuddy was actually beginning to think that he was enjoying this. If nothing else Cuddy had determined that she could always use House down in emergency if she was short staffed.

"He seems to be strangely pleased with life in general this week," commented Cuddy

"Yeah he does, it's a little bit odd I suppose, I've never known House to actually enjoy doing EMT work, but if he's in a good mood I'm not going to do anything to try and change that," replied Wilson.

Cuddy nodded, agreeing with him completely. House hadn't been in her office to bug her all week and she was actually enjoying the peace and quiet. So the two of them went back to work and all thoughts of House left their minds.

Late afternoon found House getting ready to head home for the evening. The day had been rather uneventful and House was hurriedly putting his equipment away so that he could leave for the evening. He and Stacy were supposed to be going out for dinner with one of her most recent clients and House was supposed to meet her at one of the fancy uptown restaurants in half an hour. If he left now he would just have enough time to rush home and change into something presentable before he had to meet her. Just as he was about to head up to the parking lot, Jason, one of the older EMT's poked his head into the equipment room.

"House lets go, we got a 911 call. Car accident we need you."

"Don't think so, I'm off for the week and I got a hot date, which I'm very close to being late for. See ya," he said as he began to brush past Jason.

"Sorry House, we need everyone we can get. You can call Stacy and let her know once we get on the road. Come on man lets go."

Grumbling, House allowed Jason to grab his arm and lead him towards the direction of the awaiting ambulance.

As he climbed in, House pulled out his cell phone and hastily dialed Stacy's number hoping that she wasn't already there waiting for him. It rang one before he got the annoying female voice telling him that the cellular customer he was trying to reach was not available. _That's odd,_ thought House, _Stacy always has her phone with her, and it's always on._ He tried again a few more times but got the same results every time, so he gave up and resigned himself to getting yelled at later when he showed up late. The ambulance sped along, the radio blaring the initial reports of casualties from the accident. But House wasn't listening, he was wondering why Stacy's phone was turned off, it was the first time he ever remembered her not answering it. The ambulance came to an abrupt stop and House was jerked back to reality as the other medics began to climb out of the vehicle and rush towards the mess of flashing lights just up ahead.

"House come on get moving, we need your help over here," called Jason as he threw House a bag of supplies before grabbing his own and heading towards the accident site. House followed him, breaking in to a jog more because of the fact that he could than the fact that he should actually be in a hurry to get to the site. When he finally turned his attention to the crash site, he was taken aback by the mess of metal and debris lying haphazardly around. It looked as though a semi had crossed over the median and collided with several vehicles traveling in the opposite direction. People were being led away from the wreak with various degrees of cuts and bruises, and some were being carefully pulled out of their damaged vehicles by firemen and paramedics. Flames were coming out of the engine of the demolished semi and the largest area of activity seemed to be focused around getting the people cleared away from that area. No one was too concerned with fighting the flames, and House noticed for the first time that it was poring rain. That was when his eyes settled on the black explorer that was crumpled up against the front corner of the semi. It looked exactly like Stacy's, and house changed his direction slightly and began sprinting towards the vehicle praying that he was wrong. He dodged several people on his way and leapt over the hoods of a few vehicles to get to the remains of the explorer.

Reaching the drivers side, House noticed that there was still someone inside. He grasped the handle of the door and tried to pull it open, but it was stuck and he couldn't get it to budge. So he pressed his face up to the cracked glass and tried to see if he could identify who the person trapped inside was. It took him only a few moments to realize that it was Stacy, he couldn't really see her face, but he could clearly see the gold glint of her cross as it caught the light of the flames outside. Panicked now, House tried desperately to open the door once more. This time he was fueled by desperation and the door seemed to open with ease.

He was able to get a good look at Stacy now. And nothing that he saw helped to calm him or slow the rush of adrenaline that was coursing through his body. She had several gashes on her face and there was blood everywhere. The steering wheel was pressed deep into her abdomen and her legs weren't even visible through the crumpled metal. House nearly crumpled to the ground right there as he realized how bad the situation was, but then his instincts kicked in and he began to call out for help. No one answered and he was about to go and get some people to come help him when he heard a barely audible sound.

"Greg?" said the soft voice in a weak whisper.

House turned back to the car quickly

"Stacy," he called out, reaching for her bloodied hand that was dangling at her side.

"Greg, I'm glad you're here. How bad does it look?"

She was speaking in a tires whisper, as though she couldn't draw in enough air to talk any louder.

"It's not that bad," House lied, "We'll have you out of here in no time, just hang in there."

"You know that you're a crappy liar don't you? I'm so tired Greg."

"I know you're tired, but you have to stay awake for me until I get someone else over here to help ok?"

She tried to nod, but was only able to move her head slightly as she let out a sharp his of pain.

"Don't try to move, Stacy, I'll be back. I need to go get some help, just stay awake until I get back."

"Ok," came the weak reply

House quickly rushed out back towards the ambulances; he ran into Jason and quickly commandeered him into assisting him. Within minutes they had a small team together and were headed back towards the explorer and Stacy. Once they arrived back at the car, House tried to reassure Stacy and keep her calm while the others began to decide the best way to extract her from the vehicle. He was becoming increasingly concerned by how lethargic she was becoming and had to try very hard to keep the worry out of his voice. After a short while, Jason came over to House's shoulder and gently took him off to the side.

"House, I need to talk to you for a minute. We've come up with a plan to get her out, but you need to know that because of the way that she is trapped in the vehicle, if we do succeed in removing her there is a good chance that she will bleed out internally. We're going to do everything we can, but I think it would be best if you stood back and let us handle this."

House just starred at him in shock, he couldn't handle the idea that Stacy could die tonight. He tried to say that he wanted to help, to do everything he could to assure that Stacy had the best chance for survival possible, but the words stuck in his throat and all he could manage was a reluctant nod. Jason reached over and gave him a reasuring pat on the shoulder before turning back to the task ahead of him, leaving House to watch helplessly as strangers worked to save Stacy's life.

**Another chapter done, yay for me. Well that's all for now, sorry about the cliffhanger, I will try to post again soon. Hope you enjoyed and reviews are greatly appreciated.**


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