Sestina!fic #2: "A Typical Day in Diagnostics"

[bironic]

Sestina the second, also known as Fun with Alliteration. Slightly different tone from the last one.

Title: A Typical Day in Diagnostics
Characters: Main Cast of House; ~Chase POV
Rating: PG
Word Count: 330
Prompts: Chase, House, Foreman, Cameron, Cuddy, Wilson
A/N: This is the proper/standard format for the end words, if anyone's curious. Thanks to synn for feedback and firestorm717 for the synonym.


Eight o'clock Monday morning finds Chase
Brewing coffee in Diagnostics while House
Scribbles symptoms and spouts sarcasm. Foreman
Sits with folded arms beside Cameron,
Glancing at the folder they got from Cuddy
And tossing out ideas. In wanders Wilson

With his empty coffee mug (Doesn't Wilson
Ever have any work to do? wonders Chase).
Today's pretense: a warning that Count Cuddy
Is on the prowl for victims and House
Had better watch his neck. Differential done, Chase and Cameron
Are assigned the first round of tests while Foreman

(Long-suffering rehabilitated-carjack Foreman)
Heads out to commit the weekly B&E. Chase watches Wilson
Watch House over the rim of his mug as Cameron
Lingers to ask about his leg. House glares. Chase
(Who knows better) steers her out the door so House
Can refocus his death rays on the approaching Cuddy.

Lunchtime brings the usual mayhem: Cuddy
Refuses to authorize radical treatment, Foreman
Returns with two bruises and no evidence, House
Retreats to one of his hiding places with Wilson,
The seizing patient throws up on Chase,
And down in the labs steadfast Cameron

Clears all suspects. Patient's dying again. Cameron,
Having found House playing his PSP in the morgue (Cuddy
Would have his handicapped hide), says allergy. Scrubs-clad Chase
Disagrees: Parasite fits better. Neurological, insists Foreman.
House posits paraneoplastic. Not cancer, reminds ever-helpful Wilson.
Patient's still dying. Could it be that the Great Gregory House—?

But no. Something sparks those sensational synapses and House
Produces the eleventh-hour diagnosis. Patient will live. Cameron
Rushes to administer the treatment. Sideshow over, Wilson
Saunters off. House flees the premises before Cuddy
Can make him do anything else. That leaves Foreman
And Chase, but Foreman shrugs and goes home too. Chase

Erases the whiteboard, then tattles on his boss when a House-hunting Cuddy
Pokes her head in. Positive prognosis procured, Cameron follows Foreman's
Lead and heads home. At eight, Wilson's office darkens. The only one left is Chase.


* * *

Feedback of all sorts welcome, as always.

Comments

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Praise and amusement from the queen of meta-fic! I bow down humbly before thee. Heh. Glad you liked all the little asides.

H/W will work its way into just about everything, won't it. Even gen.

The way a sestina works is you assign each of your six end-words a letter or number in the first stanza and then rearrange them in a set pattern for the remaining stanzas. So in this case Chase would be A, House B, and so forth down to E for Wilson. In a standard sestina you have the option of concluding with the end words A-C-E (Chase, Foreman, Cuddy) or E-C-A. Since this turned into a day-in-the-life and I'd started with Chase, I thought it would be appropriate to go with E-C-A and end with him as well. After all, from his perspective, he's there before each crazy day starts and he's there after it ends.