Just under an hour later, House was curious to see how things were developing; he made his way to the dean of medicine’s office.

He walked into the room without bothering to knock, he never did, why should he, especially in such a crisis situation

“I didn’t cross any loons dressed as astronauts on the way down her, so I guess the CDC isn’t here yet?” he asked her.

She was sitting behind her desk reading through a medical research book, most probably also trying to find the answer to their patient’s mysterious condition.

“Any minute now,” she replied.

“Mind if I wait with you,” it wasn’t a question, he took a seat, she looked up at him and tossed him a textbook while giving him a –you can stay here as long as your actually doing something useful- look, and she was good at giving those.

She couldn’t stay focused on her reading anymore; a question had been burning her lips ever since he had left earlier.

“What did you mean by ‘I can’t’ earlier on?” she ventured.

He kept on reading or at least pretending to read, he was ignoring her again, she knew she had hit a sensitive spot; this didn’t happen often with House, it was her window to reach out to him, get to him while he was vulnerable. The rest of the time he was unreachable hiding behind a façade of irony and sarcasm that no one could pierce.

Her look soften, she was touched by this man, no matter how much crap he put her through each day, no matter how much he taunted her, insulted her, annoyed her, she knew deep down that he didn’t mean to hurt her. She knew that that was his way of connecting with people, and she knew that the fact that she shared a special bond with Gregory House made her a privileged person.

She didn’t get the answer to her question, because her office door was pushed violently open, and if she hadn’t been starring at House she would have thought it was him.

“You summoned?” said the person who had just entered the office.

House had also been startled by this newcomer, she was rather tall in her late twenties, with a mountain of long shiny dark brown –nearly black- wavy hair, but the thing that shocked him the most was when Lisa Cuddy walked out from behind her desk to hug this stranger. Even though his eyes were popping out of his head, he managed to spit out a snark as he stood up and approached the girl, “So it wasn’t one of your ex-toy boys you called it was one of your ex-lesbian lovers, you should have told me earlier that you swung both ways I may have given in to all that sexual harassment.”

The girl stuck her hand out for him to shake it and said, “You must be Gregory House, I’m Alex Cuddy, I’m part of the CDC’s doctors team.”

Now this was an answer he was not expecting, he only managed to mutter, “You didn’t say that you had any siblings.”

“Actually Alex is my youngest sister, there’s a middle one too,” Lisa Cuddy said proudly.

“I thought there was an epidemic in your hospital,” Alex enquired. “Don’t you think I should get to it before it spreads to Timbuktu while were having small talk?” She didn’t leave either of them time to answer before ordering, “Somebody needs to send the team to patient s’ room so they can collect samples, I’d like you guys to brief me on the details of all this, and then we can start serious business and get this thing away from your hospital.”

“Are you in charge or something?” House asked with a hint of suspicion in his tone, this girl was at least a couple of years younger than Cameron, how could she be in charge of anything.

“Yeah,” she said in a serious tone. “Well until my boss gets here, he was in DC, he missed his flight and I’m co-directing with the rest of the team, so I guess technically I’m not really in charge,” she added.

---

Half an hour later, House and Alex were sitting in the diagnostic room, he had briefed her and the room had gone silent for the past 30 seconds, they were both in deep thoughts.

“Can I see the patient’s labs?” Alex asked.

House slid them across the table to her, she picked them and studied them, “Low lymphocytes, raised lacetate and creatine …” She pulled her cell phone out of her jeans pocket and dialled a number and held the device up to her ear “Terence, are you with the patient right now? Anything new? Can you get me a detailed platelet count and run me full labs, with all the possible counts and things you can find out by analysing blood know to mankind?” She hung up.

“Detailed labs?” House asked. “What more do you need?”

“I’m a believer of the every detail counts theory.”

“I like that theory. What kind of doctor are you anyway? Some soft speciality like paediatrics?”

“Wrong. I have a double speciality in haematology and epidemiology,” she answered.

“Nice,” he said.

“Whatever …” she smiled. “Maybe we should try and do your job and find out what’s wrong with this guy before he causes mass deaths, diagnosing people is what you get paid for, right ? And you are the best at what you do, right?” she said cheekily.

“What do you think it is?” he questioned. “After all you are an epidemiologist.”

“I was thinking about …” she began.

And with that they started tossing around the symptoms and the possible conditions, House was in rare form.

It was at that moment that it struck him: he needed a team –or at least another human being- someone to bounce his theories off of, someone to make suggestions, because even though he knew he had the answers inside himself, he needed someone to help him push them out of the back of his mind, he would never admit this to anyone though, he had too much pride.

---

An hour later, Lisa Cuddy stepped through the door and asked “How’s it going?”

Before anyone could mutter an answer Alex’s phone started ringing, she flicked it open before the second ring “Yeah …Okay … Be right there,” and she flicked it shut again.

“Got to go,” she said. “Boss is in the building, have to go and brief him.” And she picked up her things and left.

“How come you never told me you had a sister? Afraid I’d like her better than you?” he teased.

“You wish,” she replied. “Believe me if I had know that you would actually have an interest in her, I’d have acquainted both of you earlier, just so I could get a bit of peace from you.”

“Don’t fear Cuddy my dear, you shall always be my favourite,” he said this as he looked at her with those puppy eyes that just got to her, she smiled. “I mean, how many deans of medicine dress like you do, you’re so considerate of the opposite gender’s visual pleasure,” he added. Her smile faded away, leaving a look of disapproval on her face.

She should have know, a nice thing said by Gregory House was only the Horse of Troy of an inappropriate comment that was about to follow.

Her attitude brought an amused grin to his lips. She had fallen for it … again.

“So did you get very far? Diagnostic wise?” Lisa asked again. “Genius lost his talent?”

“As a matter of fact, I was really getting somewhere before you came in to distract me with your cleavage and your rotund ass,” he replied.

She gave him a long stern look; he looked back at her straight into her eyes. This surprised her, she wasn’t used to House seeking and keeping a connection with another being. She didn’t dare sever whatever tie was pulling them together. It felt like they were playing a game, a very primal one, and the first to look elsewhere first was the loser.

This moment of intimacy was interrupted by this pompous looking man who walked into the room uninvited, he was closely followed by Alex: this must be the big boss, House thought.

The man was blond, painfully thin and short, but despite his small size you could tell straight away, by his attitude, that he looked down on everyone, he had an aura of snobbiness surrounding him.

“Dr. Ford, this is Lisa Cuddy, dean of medicine here in Princeton Plainsboro, and this is Dr. House, very …” Alex said.

“I know Dr. House,” Ford cut in. “His reputation precedes him.” The tone he had used implied that he already had a very negative opinion about Gregory House.

“Dr. House, Dr Cuddy, this is Dr Ford head doctor at the CDC,” Alex continued her presentations.

“Alex gave me a summary of the situation,” he added. “I would have thought these sorts of cases would have been pieces of cake for a diagnostician such as Dr. House.”

A mixture of annoyance and anger piled up inside Gregory House, this undersized leprechaun was trying to push him to and beyond his explosion point.

“No need for you to lose any more sleep about it though,” the little man kept on talking. “I’m in charge now, and you’re officially off the case.”

“What?” both the dean and House said simultaneously.

“But he’s the best --” Lisa Cuddy said.

“He’s my patient --” House began.

“Not important,” Ford said calmly. “You both have been exposed to the contagion, you’re going to quarantine. Actually it was quite stupid of Alex not to do it earlier. Don’t worry I’ll save this hospital," he said cockily. "Alex please escort Dr. Cuddy and Dr House to the quarantine room Terence set up on the first floor.”

Lisa Cuddy was not happy; the control of her hospital was being snatched away from her. Gregory House was not happy; his case was being taken away from him.