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Post by indiansfan01 on Jan 19, 2009 21:26:06 GMT -7
Dr. Wilson slowly made his way down the hall to Dr. Cuddy's office. He just hoped she wasn't busy because he really needed to talk to someone. Wilson was worried about House and didn't know anyone else he could talk to besides Cuddy. He stopped in front of her door and took a deep breath, releasing it gradually. He ran his hand through her hair and knocked three times.
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Post by Dr. Lisa Cuddy on Jan 19, 2009 21:43:51 GMT -7
Three hours......seven hours.....seventeen hours..... Cuddy kept the mental checklist running as she skimmed over the recorded clinic hours from the past week. Not surprisingly, the holder of the lowest record remained unchanged. She supposed she should be grateful for that in at least one respect....it meant less paperwork for her. Oh well. She'd chase him down later and...her mind went blank. Lisa Cuddy had tried everything to get House's clinic hours up, but nothing had worked. Some days, she wondered why she even tried. She was about to go back to the check-in sheet when there was a knock at the door. Thankful for a break, she set aside the clipboard.
"Come in," she said, relaxing back in her chair.
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Post by indiansfan01 on Jan 20, 2009 6:21:29 GMT -7
Wilson opened up her door. He ambled into her office and halted a few feet in front of her desk. He didn't even know where to begin. Wilson had been mentally preparing conversation openers as he walked down the hallway but they had all (conveniently) disappeared from his mind. When House was involved, it was probably better just to dive right in.
"I'm worried about House," he said, looking at her. He hadn't even bothered to sit down because he thought that the first invocation of that name was going to get him kicked out of the office.
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Post by Dr. Lisa Cuddy on Jan 20, 2009 13:49:15 GMT -7
Sitting up in her chair and leaning forward on her desk, she did her best to school her features to appear detached. Gesturing for Wilson to sit down, she sat back slightly. Too many possibilities of what had happened flooded her mind.
"What did he do this time?" Cuddy opened as casually as she could. "If he's doing anything stupid or insane, there's almost nothing I can do," she added as a disclaimer. It seemed like she always had to have a disclaimer whenever House was involved. Of course, it rarely defended against lawsuits, but what exactly was she supposed to do? Slap his wrist and take away cafeteria privileges? Oh, there was an idea! "Not that I won't try..." she amended.
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Post by indiansfan01 on Jan 20, 2009 14:44:13 GMT -7
He put his hands in his lab coat pockets and sat down. He should have known that she was going to assume the worst right away. "He didn't do anything," he quickly replied. "I'm here not as his colleague but as his...friend." That last word was hard to say. He remembered the day he had told House that he wasn't sure they were ever friends but, having had time to think things through, he thought he had been hasty with that proclamation. House was never going to change if he didn't have people who were willing to help him out along the way.
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Post by Dr. Lisa Cuddy on Jan 20, 2009 15:25:41 GMT -7
Allowing a brief look of surprise to cross her face, she relaxed visibly. As long as House wasn't doing anything, there was no reason to worry. At least, she hoped that was the case. Worrying stressed her, stress made her tired, and she could no longer afford to be constantly tired.
"All right," she nodded. "So...What's the problem, then?" She flinched internally at her choice of words. It was a problem she struggled with endlessly; no matter what she tried to say in casual conversation, it sounded like she was permanently stuck in 'administrator mode'. Maybe too many years dealing with insane doctors had finally gotten to her...
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Post by indiansfan01 on Jan 20, 2009 15:45:53 GMT -7
House was House. That was the problem, but obviously Cuddy couldn't do anything to fix that. Wilson had to have something more concrete than that to say. "You need to stop being so hard on House," he replied, not even thinking about what he was saying to, of all people, his boss. "He may do crazy things every once in a while...or all the time," he added, correcting himself. "But nine times out of ten those crazy things save his patients' lives."
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Post by Dr. Lisa Cuddy on Jan 20, 2009 16:06:45 GMT -7
Everything seemed to suddenly stop. Since when had this been about her? Betraying little to no emotion, save shock and mild outrage, she leaned forward slowly. Doing her best to keep the emotions she felt out of her voice, she spoke as civilly as she could.
"I know that, Wilson. And I have to be hard on him so that he actually does his job." Even as she said it, she knew it was transparent logic. So, she did the only thing her position would allow her to do: she clarified. She knew it was probably a stupid move, knew she shouldn't have to justify her behavior, but there was nothing she could do about it. "If I don't force him, he doesn't do his clinic hours. If I don't tell him 'no' every so often, he could end up killing someone. If I don't..." she stopped with a heavy sigh. Justification would get her nowhere. It was obvious to anyone who cared to notice that she cared more about patients walking out alive than she did about how they walked out at all. And she was only reinforcing that view with excuses disguised as reasons.
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Post by indiansfan01 on Jan 20, 2009 17:27:09 GMT -7
Wilson leaned forward slightly in his chair and intertwined his fingers, letting his hands fall down between his knees. He kept his eyes fixed firmly on the ground as he listened to Cuddy talk. He brought is eyes up to meet Cuddy's once she was done speaking. "You know you have plenty of other doctors that can do clinic hours. Why force House to do something that anyone else in this hospital could do?" Wilson asked. "And if you do tell him 'no' he could end up killing someone," he said, stating the converse of her second 'if' statement.
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Post by Dr. Lisa Cuddy on Jan 20, 2009 18:33:08 GMT -7
Cuddy was silent for a few moments after Wilson spoke. Finally, she gave a tired sigh. There were dozens of reasons she forced House into the clinic, the main one being that he owed her more hours than any other doctor in the entire building. She knew Wilson wouldn't take that answer seriously, though. Each of the other reasons she could think of seemed more unbelievable than the last. After running through everything she could think of to say, she settled lamely on, "He needs to work on his people-skills. He's the only doctor that avoids his patients until it becomes unavoidable." State the obvious....good job, Lisa, she chided herself. "And it's part of his job. Actually seeing the people he's supposed to be treating..." There she went with excuses again.
The second point didn't even seem worth arguing. It seemed like every time Cuddy said 'no' to something House wanted to do, she always seemed to end up caving and washing her hands of the incident. So, she didn't say anything about it and skipped right to the point. "He asked you to talk to me about this, didn't he?" She knew it wasn't likely, but she felt pressed to get back to the original subject.
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Post by indiansfan01 on Jan 20, 2009 19:53:51 GMT -7
Wilson had to try his hardest to keep a smile from spreading across his face as he listened to Cuddy try to justify House working clinic hours. He sat up straight in the chair and let out a small chuckle. "People-skills," he repeated after her. "Did you ever once stop to think that it may be better that he doesn't have contact with his patients? He makes people grumpy."
He emitted a short burst of laughter when Cuddy asked him that question. "Right," he said, sarcastically. "I'm House's loyal lap dog because, God knows, he'd be too afraid to bring this to your attention himself."
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Post by Dr. Lisa Cuddy on Jan 20, 2009 20:47:14 GMT -7
Cuddy just sat back, a cynical smile crossing her lips at Wilson's words. "So, it's perfectly all right for him to send his team out to do every test, every interview with the families, and bring every diagnosis and treatment to the patient as long as it keeps everyone around him happy?" Of course, she had absolutely no doubt it was true. But that didn't mean she had to agree with it.
At his next comment, she turned serious again. "He doesn't know you're here, then," she guessed. Finally, back on track. At least, she hoped they were...unless the fact that she was an untamable hardass was the real reason for Wilson's visit. In which case, this was going to take a while.
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Post by indiansfan01 on Jan 20, 2009 21:05:21 GMT -7
"I'm not saying it's right, Cuddy. No doctor should be like that...But he's good at his job, even if he does go about it in an odd manner." And that was the truth. As horrible as House's people-skills were he was one of the best doctors at Princeton-Plainsboro.
Wilson shook his head. "No, he doesn't know that I'm here. I couldn't tell him because I know he would've talked me out of coming to you in the first place." He let out a small sigh. "He hasn't been himself lately...not that that's always a bad thing, but I think it's a cause to be concerned about."
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Post by Dr. Lisa Cuddy on Jan 21, 2009 12:09:44 GMT -7
Though 'odd' was an understatement, it was certainly true. So, Cuddy just nodded in agreement and let it drop. There was really no more to say on the subject, except in the highly unlikely case that she wanted to keep the discussion going for another few hours. Which she didn't. And even if she did, no soul alive would ever hear of it.
"Hm..." she hummed. "That all depends on how much he's not like himself." Okay. That didn't even make much sense to her. "Let me re-phrase that. How much of a change is there?" That made a bit more sense, except for the small fact that House hadn't 'changed' a bit since he'd started working at the hospital. To tell the truth, she hadn't really noticed much of anything outside of her usual duties lately, and she certainly hadn't had much contact with the doctor in question. Which in itself was odd if she thought about it long enough.
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Post by indiansfan01 on Jan 21, 2009 12:32:01 GMT -7
"Too much," Wilson said, keeping his answer simple. It was true that his and House's relationship had changed dramatically since Amber's death and their reconcile hadn't meant that they were best buddies again, but Wilson still cared deeply enough about House to notice that something wasn't right. "I'd talk to him about it but I can't. He wouldn't listen to me."
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[My5:]