Chapter 18

After shaking my hand with a friendly smile, Director Cuddy lost all her kindness when addressing House. "You can't order a three-thousand-two-hundred-dollar DNA test to win a bet," she told the doctor with a furrowed brow.

"It's not an actual cost," House said sarcastically. "I don't know if you know this, but the hospital actually owns the sequencing machine," he continued ironically while leaning in towards Director Cuddy.

"We have our own Thermocycler," House told me strangely proud about that fact.

"Yes, we do," Cuddy said with a smile directed at me. "But I'm serious," the director said, clearly irritated with House.

"Well, tell the parents to submit the bill to insurance," House offered easily, joking.

"Insurance is not going to pay for a bet," Director Cuddy immediately denied, unamused by the situation.

"It should," House said, completely confident in his assertion. "If we don't make that bet, the kid dies," he continued cryptically. "If not for the paternity bet, I never would have taken their DNA. Without their DNA, we never would have trusted the child's diagnosis," House went on, tilting his head towards me. "You just don't want to pay your end," House said as he stood up. "Big mistake," he smiled triumphantly. "My guy knows a guy," he whispered as if sharing a secret.

Seeing that Director Cuddy didn't say anything after his last monologue, House, with a triumphal smile on his face, turned to leave the room, silently signaling me to follow him. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a patient to treat," House said when we reached the office door.

"Fine," Director Cuddy said abruptly, causing House to stop under the doorframe. "I will let you out of clinic duty for one week after you pay the three-thousand-two-hundred dollars for the PCR test," Director Cuddy continued, smiling, having successfully wiped the triumphant smile off House's face.

Turning slowly with me, House said with an annoyed smile, "Now, kid, if I hadn't given you my word, I'd have the hundred dollars Cuddy owes me, the hundred I won from Cameron, the three hundred I snatched from Foreman, and the six hundred I got from Wilson." After thinking for a moment, he added, "That's what you get in this hospital: you learn medicine through practice and earn money you don't have to declare. Here you only win," he finished, winking strangely.

"I hope you're not involving minors in bets with patients," Cuddy said, pretending not to have heard what House had just said.

"Bets?" House asked, surprised, while shaking his head with a false look of innocence. "Speaking of teenagers, that reminds me, my patient is one," he continued, pretending to connect the dots as he calmly left the office.

Feeling uncomfortable with my sudden solitude with the hospital director, I could only smile and nod in farewell, preparing to walk behind House.

"Wait, Mr. Duncan," the woman suddenly said, making me stop. "I think this belongs to you," she continued, pretending to pick something up from her desk and walking briskly over to me. "It must have fallen on my desk," she said with a casual smile while extending her hand with a closed fist, expecting me to offer my palm, which I quickly did. "I don't know what House would do if we let him collect this later," she whispered while placing something in my hand and gently pushing me out of her office.

"Again, allow me to welcome you to the hospital, Mr. Duncan," Director Cuddy said with a warm smile as she closed the door to her office in my face.

"Thank you," I said, puzzled at the solid wooden door.

"Duncan, the elevator is here," House suddenly yelled, snapping me out of my thoughts.

Reaching House in the elevator, I couldn't help but think about what had just happened in the director's office.

"What do you have in your hand?" House asked, staring fixedly at the closed elevator door.

Opening my hand, which I hadn't realized was tightly closed until then, I found a now very crumpled hundred-dollar bill.

"Ah," House sighed in disappointment. "She's really good at her job," he continued with a smug smile as he shook his head.

"Wait," I said, annoyed, remembering an important part of what had happened in that office. "What does the letter say?" I asked, offended. "No, forget that; give me the letter," I said, extending my hand, silently urging the doctor with a furrowed brow.

Staring at me for a few seconds, House began searching his coat until the elevator doors opened.

On the other side of the elevator door were Doctors Foreman, Chase, and Cameron.

"Hey, what a surprise to find you guys here," House said with excessive surprise, spreading his arms to the other three doctors but not taking the letter from his coat.

"You asked us to come here," Cameron quickly responded, puzzled.

"Who said what doesn't matter now," House said, dismissing the comment as he walked quickly, prompting Dr. Cameron, and therefore the other two doctors, to follow. "actually," he stopped for a moment, smiling broadly at Dr. Foreman, "I think there are a few outstanding bets."

Rolling his eyes resignedly, Foreman took out his wallet. "Three hundred dollars," he said, handing three bills to Dr. House, who slowly examined each bill separately.

Dr. Cameron, also taking out her wallet, handed a single hundred-dollar bill to the doctor.

Accepting the bill, House smiled petulantly as he reached for his wallet.

Clearing my throat loudly, I stopped House from taking out his wallet.

Still in place, House, who apparently had decided to ignore my presence there, slowly turned his entire body with a furrowed brow, gripping the small stack of bills tightly in his hand.

"I'm telling you, kid, in this hospital, all you do is win," House said as he reluctantly handed me the money.

"Thank you," I said with a big smile.

Losing my smile and now staring intently at Dr. Foreman, who had an even worse expression on his face, Dr. Foreman, who had stashed his wallet at some point during the conversation, begrudgingly retrieved two more hundred-dollar bills from it, much more laboriously than it had taken House to hand me his winnings. Dr. Foreman forcefully dropped the two hundred dollars into my hand.

"As I recall, it was twelve hundred dollars, Doctor," I said, emphasizing his profession.

My comment seemed to take everyone by surprise, as aside from House, who only had a falsely proud smile, there was an expression of disbelief shared by the doctors present.

A few seconds later, forgetting his disbelief, Dr. Foreman began to get angry. "What did you say?" he asked, half-shouting as he took a step forward, dangerously closing in on me.

"Do I have to remind you?" I asked, also approaching the enraged doctor, even though I had never fought before and wasn't really sure if I could win one-on-one against the larger man. I tried to keep the doubt from showing on my face.

"Come on, kids, separate," House said after a few moments, slightly pulling Dr. Foreman away with his cane.

"I told you not to get involved in the—" Dr. Foreman was saying again.

"You lost," House interrupted him seriously.

"What?" Dr. Foreman asked, surprised. "We know they're not the biological parents, but that doesn't mean—"

"The biological mother wasn't vaccinated, Foreman. You lost," House said, slowly losing his seriousness and replacing it with an ironic smile.

Closing his eyes for a moment and taking a deep breath, Dr. Foreman nodded.

"Not bad for a mere kid who's read a lot of books, huh?" I said to the defeated doctor.

---

Author Thoughts:

As always, I am not American, and certainly not a doctor.

Boom surprise chapter!!!

In the previous chapter, I was recommended to upload shorter chapters more regularly. This chapter will be a test for that. Right now, there are 300 Power Stones in the story. I'd like to see how many Power Stones or what ranking can be achieved if I upload another chapter in the same week. If I like the results, I might divide the chapters I write to upload them on three different dates each week.

Tomorrow, there will be another chapter.

I think that's all for now. As always, if you find any errors, please let me know, and I'll correct them immediately.

Thanks for reading! :D