Tap, tap, scrape``open

[Dr. Ellen Honoday]

e l l e n
let me sign

Tap. Tap. Scrape. Tap. Tap. Scrape. The rhythm of Ellen's pen on the rickety table of the doctor's lounge repeated itself time and time again as Ellen lost herself in her thoughts, the file of Mark Troubador in front of her. Simple case, just an appendectomy and the 7th grade student would be on the mend.

Perhaps that was a simple case, but in truth, Ellen herself was no simple case these days. She wondered what the doctors here whispered, being as she was the newbie on the block. Ellen had no rhyme or reason to be at Princeton-Plainsboro, especially after working at a prestigious hospital back in Phoenix. It made no sense to others, but it made perfect sense in her mind.

Her sister. Damn blood realitive. How could the girl that Ellen lived with and helped raise turn on her like this? How could she run off with Ellen's fiance. Ugh. Ellen didn't even want to think of it, and she wouldn't. Instead, she'd packed her bags and taken the open Pediatrics position at Princeton Plainsboro, letting herself escape the cage of life back in Arizona. But she couldn't, and she never would. That she knew. She had loved Arizona, the cacti, the dry warmth and heat. The hot sun beating down on the dirt desert. The people. The air. She missed it all.

But she couldn't go back there, not now and probably not ever. Ellen had to sever herself from everything remotely related to the couple that had betrayed her so willingly, and the first step was getting out of the town she had once loved. The rhythm with her pen had paused and she sighed softly, noticing the devastating detour her thoughts had assumed. She didn't need to think on this, not now not ever.

This would be a fresh start. She knew no one here, which was a plus. No dark skeletons able to come out. She was Dr. Ellen Honoday, Pediatric Surgeon. And that was it. No footnotes, no sidenotes, nothing. A clean slate.

She returned her gaze to the file below her, finally writing down the release information and other needed information, signing off and closing it, leaning back in the chair that she'd assumed for the half hour she'd been in there. Tap. Tap. Scrape. Tap. Tap. Scrape.

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[Dr. Robert Chase]

Chase was one with the couch. It seemed like he was watching the TV that sat in front of him, but really he couldn't have even told you what was on. He was really in deep thought. Well maybe it wasn't deep thought because he was aware of what was going on around him, but it would have seemed like deep thought. It wasn't really certain what he was thinking about whether it was his job, social life, or what. His mind moved from on thing to the next like a rollarcoaster and he really couldn't even remember what he had started out thinking about or how he had gotten to where he was now.

He had seen Dr. Ellen Honoday walk into the lounge. Now she was the figure of his thought. Normally with a girl that looked like that Chase would have talked to her the moment he saw her. But not now. Not since he started to date Cameron. He was truly in love with her. The hardest thing was he wasn't really sure if she felt the same way about him. It had taken months to get her to even thinking about a serious relationship and now there were little strings holding them back. He knew she had been married once before and that it hadn't ended very well, and that it was hard for some one to move one after something like that, but he would have liked to know that she was madly in love with him as well.

Thus he hadn't talked to Ellen yet, though he say he pretty much everyday. They took there breaks not at the same time, but really close, with in 10 minutes, and she also worked in surgery. True she worked with kids, but still they were in the same department. He didn't want to ruin anything he had with Cameron, though, and even if he wouldn't cheat, or even flirt, he didn't want her to get the wrong idea.

He really didn't know that much about he woman, no one really did. She had just showed up and never talked about her life before coming here. Chase really didn't care, they all had ghosts in their closets, but being who he was he really didn't help the matter. He would talk with the others about ideas and even once made a bet with another surgeon about her, which he won due to his skills of observation. It wasn't personal, though.

All was quiet, but the steady tapping, and it was kind of getting on Chase's nerves. Tap. Tap. Tap. He had gotten sick of it several minutes ago and now he was ready to throw the pen across the room. Deciding that that might be a bad idea he decided instead to do it the nice way. Breaking his statue like stance he stood up and walked the short distance to the table. There he reached across it and put his hand on the pen, stopping it. "Sorry." He said "But can you stop that?" It kind of seemed strange to ask her to stop after he made her stop, but then he was there to be nice.

[Dr. Ellen Honoday]

e l l e n
let me sign

Ellen had continued to pore over the file again, making sure all knots were tied, and seeing they were she'd closed the file, only to be distracted moments later by a rude hand stopping her pen's movements in one fatal swoop. It wasn't necessary by her standards, a simple request would have been enough, but the gentlmen, whom she now recognized, had backed it up with a request so it was excusable. Somewhat.

"Well, Dr. Chase, it seems you've stopped the pen for me so I'm relieved of the task. Anything else to make your break more satisfactory?" Oh, she knew she was slightly rude to the man, and instantly regretted it, but Dr. Chase had a reputation, one that even Ellen had heard wispers of. One the would precede him although he was seemingly 'attached' to this Cameron woman. At times, it was amazing the things you heard when you kept quiet and kept your nose out of trouble, seeing as no one really paid attention to Ellen until Dr. Chase's bout over her pen, and that disruption in her routines did nothing to make her happier.

However, she sighed and completely lay the pen down, lacing her fingers together and trying to look a little more pleasant. "Dammit. Sorry. I'm sure that sounded a little rude." She tried to look a little less intimidating and stand-offish, succeeding somewhat and peering up at her intruder. Her voice had a European air to it, not completely French nor totally English and even slightly American. Silly army brat. That was what you got for traveling the world from base to base. You had no accent to call your own. You were quite literally a culture shocked freak.

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[Dr. Robert Chase]

Chase quickly took his hand off the pen, recoiling like she was going to attack him. Maybe he should have thought his action over a little better. "Sorry..." He kind of muttered not really sure what to say. Everyone now a-days seemed a little on edge and touchy. Maybe she didn't realize she was doing it? It really didn't matter. When she appoligized... well it sounded kind of like an apology it was kid of hard to tell, he lossened up a little.

"It was a little rude. But I'm guessing something bothering you, so I'll forgive you." He said taking the seat across from her. It was kind of annoying to know that she knew him and he didn't know her. Sure he didn't know how well she knew him, but one could assume with his kind of record and working at the hospital fro as long as he had she had heard a lot. He would have loved to ask her about herself, but knew that he wasn't going to get an answer so stayed away from it. In the back of his mind he wondered what she had heard and what she was assuming he was doing there.

((ooc: sorry short post...))

[Dr. Ellen Honoday]

e l l e n
let me sign

Ellen smiled a little crookedly and peered at the door, seeing one of her pediatric nurses passing and motioned for her to come in, and Ellen signed off on the file for the release for tomorrow morning and passed it to the woman, offering a polite smile and gentle thank you. And that was the thing about Ellen. When she wanted to be, her demeanor was kind and considerate, perfect for children. But there was a flipside. Always a flipside.

Ellen was still looking out the door, watching a mother and husband walking to prenatal wing, most likely for ultrasounds or something of the sort, and most likely would be one of Ellen's newest couples to cater to after the birth of their child. Well hopefully not, if everything went perfect and the child was never sick. But come on people, realism.

"You can ask what you want. I can choosse to answer or not, but asking questions never hurt anyone. IT's what we do, is it not?" Ellen spoke, still looking out the doorway as it swung lightly, settling back into place and her hands wrung a napkin between the fingers. She directed her attention back to Dr. Chase, looking at the gentlman across from her. "Let's start with basics. Unless you already know, I'm Dr. Ellen Honoday. Pediatric Surgeon."

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[Dr. Robert Chase]

Chase looked to the door when Ellen motioned. He watched the other walk it and take the file. So he was wrong she had been obsessing over a case. Hum... Maybe there was something else in her life that was casing her stress, after all tapping a pen was obviously a way to get out stress, for most people anyway. He also say the couple out side the door. They were the first people he had seen all day that didn't look like they were ready to die for some reason.

"Yes, I know that.." He said slightly confused. Was it that obvious that he wanted to know about her life? Maybe she just wanted to talk about it. That would make sense. Chase could have easily been a Pediatrician. he loved kids and kids seemed to love him. The only problem was that with adults it was easy to separate yourselves from them and not care to much. But when it was kids him couldn't help but get attached and that was always the wrong thing to do, even when you were only a surgeon. If you cared to much about the person you were tried to save then that could force you into a biased option and in the end you could kill them. And if they do die then it will effect you much more than it normally would.

That went along with one of Chase's philosophies. "If you don't care you wont get hurt." Thats why he hadn't liked his father. He had loved him once but when he left he let him down and it hurt. It hurt to much; thus, he blocked out his love for the man. True it didn't do much good when he died and Chase fell apart and killed a patient that could have easily been saved. he wondered if Ellen knew all this about him, or was it just the simple stuff like he liked to flirt and was going out with Cameron. Would it matter if she knew more about his life? He wasn't quite sure.

[Dr. Ellen Honoday]

e l l e n
let me sign

Ellen paused, looking at Chase with a measuring gaze, as if trying to decipher just what he was made of. It wasn't a necessary thing, nor was it really something she consciously would have done, but everyone subconsciously measured people up upon frist real meetings. This was no different.

"Alright then. Anythign else?" she asked,d not willing by far to go out and say anything. And even if he asked something, she would probably not tell the truth, whole or partial, so the conversation was pointless. However, it seemed to be needed as no one truly knew Ellen and people wouldn't trust and respect soemone they didn't know, even if she had a spotless pediatric and surgical record. No mishaps. No problems. Not really any complications. Even Kellan's near miracle surgery behind her.

But something was askew with her to send her to this hospital, and Ellen wasn't naive. She knew people figured that and would whisper and ask questions until truths came out. And even then they would skew the truth to suit their gossip.

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[Dr. Robert Chase]

Chase didn't want to be nosy. He wasn't the kind of person to try and get into every part of others lives. Of course he was curious and would like to know, and had a reputation of it, but he truly wasn't like that. He just had a way of getting people to open up to him. Maybe it was his looks. Maybe it had to do with being an Aussie. He wasn't really sure. Thus when Ellen asked if there was anything else he wasn't sure if he was going to ask something or not. It would be prying if he did, but he was being given an open invitation. He knew that there was a good chance that anything told was a lie, but something House had forgotten to add in his saying "Everyone lies" was that "every lie has to come from some truth."

Deciding that it would be almost rude to not ask something he figured he might as well just ask her something. The question, though, had to be good. He couldn't ask something that wouldn't get him a good answer. He could ask about being Married, or dating, or her family, what she did in Arizona. But all those were small question that could easy be on worded answers and even easier to lie about. Not that it really mattered but if Chase was getting information on this woman he would rather it be true, other wise what was the point. He quickly came to a question, that answered at its fullest, would most likely include most of what he wanted to know.

"Why did you move here?" He asked. Another thing House's philosophy on human existence was lacking was that Truth came from experience, and lieing was mostly done when you didn't know the person. That was another reason Chase doubted Ellen would give him a truthful answer, they just meet officially a few minutes before.

[Dr. Ellen Honoday]

e l l e n
let me sign

Notrary to popular belief, Ellen didn't lie. Or at least she didn't aim to. She tried her best, most often, to spit out the truth even if it wasn't what the questioner wanted to hear. But sometimes she would avoid the truth by offering half answers or half truths, just enough to satisfy the questioner without revealing much about herself and making her feel uncomfortable.

So that was her tactic now. A half truth. Or half lie she deduced, but good enough for now. "A change of scenery was needed." She spoke the words with a strong reverence in them, which was the first tip for pulling off a lie or half lie: never back down from it. When you wavered, people got froggier and asked more questions.

And she really was telling the truth. She wanted a change of scenery and it just so happened that that had been an effect of something else that had happened in Arizona on a deeper level. But she wasn't about to delve further into that issue and her eyes showed that deeply as she looked at Chase, the dark pigment of her eyes deep and near swallowing.

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[Dr. Robert Chase]

The answer that Chase got wasn't much of a surprise. He did learned one thing from it though: she didn't want to talk about her past. That meant that something had happen to make her run from it. After all if you just moved away from you home then you would say that, not "A change of scenery was needed." You say something Ike that when you are avoid the question. Chase wasn't going to push it though. She didn't want to talk about it then she didn't have to, it was fine with Chase.

Deciding that he might as well just keep probing, even if it would give him a bad reputation with the girl. He had to make sure his questions were something that would most likely get an answer though, what was the point asking things if you were only going to get bs answers. "What city did you used to live in?" He decided to ask. It wasn't that personal but it was something. It would make it seem like he was taking interest in her life, not just pushing to know why she was here. In truth, he was interested in her life. He wasn't really the person to gossip. Not that he knew much cities in Arizona other then the really big ones. That didn't matter though. He could act like he knew where it was, or he could just ask. She could already tell he wasn't from America and most Americans couldn't tell you the capitals of the states.

[Dr. Ellen Honoday]

e l l e n
let me sign

Ellen began fiddling with the pen slightly again, not in an obvious fashion, but just running the pen through her fingers ever so often. She could tell that Chase wouldn't back down too soon, which was a bad thing for her. Oh well. However painful the conversation, she'd most likely get through it. However, her reputation may not.

"Phoenix," she spoke with a slightly melancholic smile. And the smiel fit her mood. She was sad about Arizona nad leaving the big city of Phoenix. She absolutely loved it there, the dry desert, the warm brown sand. The warm tint that the sun gave to everything. Even the hospital she'd worked at had had a warm heir to it, despite the cold reverence of the hospital's appearance. Everything was just so....different here.

"I can tell you it's much different than here," she spoke again, hoping to keep this conversation rolling instead of anything abotu her personal life. "Everything here is so...green. Keep in mind I'm used to sand, dirt and cacti though." She chuckled once, the sound not forced but not entirely humorous either. One of those, 'I'm talking but I'm not happy about it and I'd rather die than be right here right now' chuckles.

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[Dr. Robert Chase]

Phoenix. Well at least he knew where it was. It was one of the biggest cities in Arizona. he nodded understanding. He hadn't been there, but he knew it was a desert. Kind of like his home. "Yeah, I know what you mean. In Australia, its a lot different. Sand and all. At least in some parts its green." he hadn't been back "home" in years, though. He had been in New Jersey for over five years with only a few visits to the out back. He did miss it some times, but then he liked the green.

"I think green is better, though. More color. I could do with out the cold." That was one thing he hated about being up north. It was almost always cold, well at least it seemed like it. You had have thought he would be used to it by now, but he wasn't. With the thought of home he had a great idea. He was going to have to take Cameron there one day. He was sure she would love to see where he came from, and it was full of cool things. new animals, water, fish, reefs. She would love it there. And it was about time he went and saw what had become of his old life. Shaking that thought out of his head he turned his attention back to the conversation.