Painless - House M.D

Hell

Tara woke up alone. Well, not completely, House's side of the bed was currently occupied by Steve, and the infamous cat was sleeping besides her and woke up to stretch its body, mimicking his owner's own way of waking up. The furball purred and slid back into the bed, his belly up, as if he wanted Tara to pet him.

" You miss him?" Tara asked the cat before caressing it. She could hear its loud purrs as she caressed his belly " Me too, honey, me too."

Tara was a bad cook and woke up later than usual, this forced her to skip breakfast and just grab a piece of toast to eat while she drove towards the hospital. The minute she got there, the interns were on her toes, trying to please her in exchange for collaborating on grand surgeries.

" You, ER. You, Dr. Carson. You go to whichever pediatric surgeon is present. You, charting patients, don't think I've forgotten how you managed to mess up something as simple as stitches, you're lucky the attending plastic surgeon had time to redo your job and suck up to the patient to avoid getting sued...." She started coordinating everyone." The rest of you, go to the residents, I have no idea why you choose to bother me with your issues, this is far too below my payment." She shot angrily as she entered the hospital, surrounded by interns.

" Looks like you miss him." Cuddy found her on the hallway and handed her a cup of tea.

" Nah, that's just me picking on the interns, they're too easy to scare." With a small laugh, she said.

" He is traveling with his ex." Cuddy commented.

" I reckon you guys slept together in college, and I'm fine with it." Tara said with a small smirk, looking at Cuddy's puzzled expression.

" He was famous and I was stupid, If I was in a room with House, Hitler, and Bin Laden and had a gun with two shots, I'd shoot House twice." Cuddy justified, " I'm Jewish."

" Just joking. I'm a bit nervous, I'll admit. But I'm too hot to feel jealousy." Tara fixed her hair and entered the bathroom inside her office to change into scrubs " I have a day filled with surgeries and zero time to eat, drink, and feel jealousy."

" You are eating and drinking even if you don't want to, I can't have the best surgeon of this place and the most expensive doctor here dying."

" And your best friend." Tara urged as she walked out of the bathroom wearing scrubs and a small, proud smile.

" And my best friend. You're annoying, you're lucky I love you." Cuddy rolled her eyes " House's coming back today, right?"

" Yeah, why?"

" Snow."

" Fuck." Tara knew that this meant that House's flight would be delayed "greater chances of my boyfriend hanging out with his ex."

" Jealous." Cuddy stated.

" Jealousy is for insecure people, I-" Tara noticed the slip in her argument that made Cuddy shoot her a victory smirk "Fuck you."

" I'm your boss." Cuddy joked.

" You can't fire me, no one but me can manage the hellhole they call 'surgical department' here." Tara muttered, and she pinned her hair into a tight bun to avoid contamination. "Call me Hades."

Tara had at least 4 surgeries scheduled for the day. She had to cancel three of them because the patients showed symptoms of a cold which could risk their postoperative recovery. In less than two hours, she left the OR more pissed than she was before and stormed towards the ER to wait for emergencies. Nothing came.

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Tara had nothing to do by the time lunch came. She organized all of the patients' files, scheduled all of the week's selective surgeries, visited post-operative patients, yelled at Stitches the intern, gossiped with the residents and nurses, returned to the empty ER, and had nothing else to do.