"Okay, team, guess what?" House said, bright and cheery. Taub, Kutner, Foreman, and Thirteen looked up at him, unenthused. It was morning and the first thing they had to see was their obnoxious and rude boss. That was enough to put a scowl on anyone's face.
"Cuddy rejected your offer for meaningless sex again?" Foreman guessed dryly.
"No. Well, yes, but that's not it. Guess again," House replied.
"You found patient zero of the zombie apocalypse," Kutner tried. House glared at him and smacked his cane down on the table right in front of him, causing him and the rest of the team to jump.
"Thirteen, Taub, save this hopeless situation," House pleaded.
"We get the day off," Taub attempted. He figured that if they were going to be guessing, they may as well possibly get something out of it.
"Go back to sleep for that dream, sweetheart," House mocked. "Thirty-one? You're up."
"You've got something for us to do that's completely not medically related but we're going to have to do it anyway because we always do the stupid stuff you assign us because we'll get fired if we don't and you can't get in trouble for it because Cuddy doesn't have the balls to fire you," Thirteen said in her monotone, accurately summarizing half of the doctors' activities at Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital.
House looked impressed. "You've really captured my soul there. And I love the 'Cuddy having balls' comment. Anything that mentions Cuddy and balls in the same sentence makes me feel better," House said in an overly-emotional tone. "But you're also wrong. I do have something for you to do, but it's actually medically relevant."
"We have a case?" Kutner asked in surprise.
"No, you idiot. Then I would have walked in here saying, we have a case," House shot him down. "My favorite ex-duckling needs a babysitter."
"I assume you mean Cameron, because Chase isn't your favorite anything. But… why would Cameron need someone to watch her?" Foreman concluded and asked.
"Cameron is getting some dental surgery and she needs someone to be there when she wakes up, drive her home, and make sure she takes her pain meds. Chase would have been her first choice I'm sure, but apparently Ken and Barbie broke up," House explained. "So who wants to play with Drugged Barbie?"
No one exactly started jumping up and down. "Why are we the ones doing this?" Taub inquired.
"Because I owe Cuddy a favor, and she's calling it in. Cameron asked Cuddy to do it, but she apparently has a hospital to run. She told me to do it or have someone from my team do it, and of course I picked the second option," House answered.
"I have to be home for dinner with my wife tonight. She'll flip if I say I have to drive a woman home," Taub said, effectively excusing himself from the situation.
"Fine. My darker men? Thirteen?" House gestured to the rest of his team.
"I don't think it's a good idea for me to do it. She knows I've been on good terms with Chase recently, even gone out for drinks," Foreman said.
"Aw, how cute," Housed snarked.
Kutner shrugged and Thirteen tapped her pen on the table, both trying to think of why they couldn't do it.
"Don't you think it would be better for it to be another woman there with her?" Kutner suggested after a few moments of silence. Thirteen looked at him blandly, not understanding his logic.
"Makes sense to me. Thirteen, looks like you're up. Here's the address of the dentist's office she's at as well as hers in case she's too loopy to give you that. Though I guess you manage well enough usually with stoned chicks, getting them home in one piece," House decided.
Thirteen took the piece of paper House offered her. "Okay," she replied simply. House gaped at her.
"Okay?" he repeated. "No complaining about sexism? No claiming to have a bar appointment? No flat out refusing?"
"I said I'd do it. Now, it's ten and Doctor Cameron's appointment is at eleven. Can I go now, or should I stay here pretending to try to get out of it?" Thirteen asked sarcastically.
"Daddy's little bisexual is growing up," House cooed. Thirteen rolled her eyes and packed up her stuff, opening the door to leave the diagnostics room. "Don't forget to take embarrassing videos!" he called after her. The brunette woman ignored her boss and kept walking down to the locker room.
After finishing assembling her stuff, Thirteen walked out to her car, checking the addresses House had written on the paper. Thankfully she knew the dentist's office, it was the same one she went to, so she didn't need to put the coordinates into her phone's GPS.
As she drove, Thirteen turned up the radio and hummed along with the music. House had expected her to complain, but she didn't know why. She was getting a couple hours off of work and all she had to do was take a fellow doctor home and take care of her for a little bit until she was sober enough to take care of herself. She got to get away from House, and it wasn't something hard to do. In fact, Thirteen saw very few downsides to the situation.
Thirteen pulled into the dentist's parking lot and turned off the car, walking into the office. A secretary looked up as she walked in the door.
"Hello Doctor Hadley, I didn't think that we had you scheduled for anything today," the ginger secretary greeted with a smile. Thirteen took a moment to check her out, like she always did when she came to the dentist. She had been trying to tell if the woman was really on her gaydar or if her signals were getting crossed just because she was a hot secretary that smiled a lot and she only ever got to spend thirty seconds talking to her.
"Hello, I'm here for Doctor Cameron," Thirteen replied. She waited for any obvious signs but received none. The redhead was destined to remain ambiguous in her sexuality it seemed.
"Oh, right, I thought she mentioned a friend from the hospital picking her up. They're almost done, but you're welcome to go on in if you'd like. She's in the first room on the left down the hall," the secretary replied. Thirteen nodded and walked down the hall, seeing that the door to the first room on the left was ajar slightly. She pushed it open to see a dentist in a face mask hovering over a sleeping Cameron.
The dentist gave Thirteen a quick nod toward a chair off to the side of the room, indicating that she could sit down. Thirteen obliged, sitting and watching the last of the operation. She was used to surgical procedures, but she hadn't witnessed too many dental ones, choosing early on to steer away from becoming a dentist. Thirteen had never found teeth to be all that fascinating, especially not when there was the entire rest of the body to deal with.
The dentist finished up, cleaning up his tools, and took off his mask. "She should be waking up any minute now. We already briefed her on care, but you should know too, considering the medication she'll be on. We want her taking Vicodin every four hours for the first day and as needed for the next three. She also needs to replace the cotton after an hour. If the cotton is soaked through an hour after that, call us, because her stitches might be impaired. If she vomits in response to the pain medication, well, I think you know what to do," the dentist explained, ending with a small smile. He handed Thirteen a list of the procedures.
"I did get my medical degree for something," Thirteen replied.
"I know you're a doctor, but it's protocol to go over everything, no matter what degree the caretaker has. I can, however, trust you enough to go take a bathroom break and check up on the rest of the staff," the dentist said before exiting the room.
Thirteen walked over to where Cameron was lying back on the dental chair, pulling the chair she'd been sitting on with her. She sat next to the sleeping blonde, taking in the sight of her. Cameron's blonde hair was splayed out across the headrest, but it wasn't messy. Rather, it looked perfectly done, which was interesting considering the circumstances- she had broken up with her boyfriend and she was at the dentist office where she wasn't even going to be conscious. Why would she have bothered spending time on her hair? Thirteen sighed, chalking it up to the way Cameron always seemed to pay attention to detail well and put effort into her appearance.
As the brunette doctor watched, she noticed Cameron squirm a little in her sleep, her hand twitching. The caretaking instincts in Thirteen kicked in and she took hold of the older doctor's hand, stroking it with her thumb. Cameron seemed to instantly relax at the comforting touch. Thirteen almost smiled at the newly relaxed face Cameron took on, almost smiling in her sleep.
For the next minute she sat there, just holding Cameron's hand and running her thumb over it, before the blonde started to stir. She opened her eyes and looked up at Thirteen.
"Oh, hi," she greeted, her voice sleepy.
"Hey," Thirteen greeted in return. Cameron squinted at her.
"You're not Cuddy," Cameron stated.
"That's true. I'm not anyone's boss and I don't have as great of boobs," Thirteen replied with a shrug. Cameron giggled, which was so different than how the brunette had ever seen the older woman act that it made her smile down at her. Cameron moved her hand a little only to realize that Thirteen was holding it. Thirteen, also noticing this, went to release her hand, but Cameron stopped her.
"No. I like holding hands," Cameron said firmly. She squeezed tighter onto the other doctor's fingers and looked up at her with a grin on her face. "I know why House hired you," Cameron announced suddenly.
Thirteen wondered where this was coming from, she assumed the drugs in her system, but she wasn't going to stop it. So, she decided to humor her. "Why is that?" she asked.
"Well he hired me because I was pretty, so that must be why he hired you," Cameron said sagely, which was ruined by the fact that she was still grinning like an idiot and bit her lip like a nervous child.
"That's House for you. I think your dentist should be back any minute now," Thirteen responded.
"You are reeeealllly pretty," Cameron giggled again. Thirteen couldn't help but smile back at the blonde. She was acting like an innocent child, just stating anything that came to mind in a simple way. Then her giggles stopped without warning and her grin turned to a frown. "Chase was pretty too," she added, looking slightly distressed.
"That's… nice," Thirteen said helplessly. It seemed like Cameron had thoughts on her mind that she couldn't quite express, but she had no idea how to deal with that sort of thing. She wasn't a psychiatrist, she was an internist.
At that moment, the dentist entered the room again. "Sorry, I got held up helping with a root canal. How is she?" he asked.
"I'm all good, especially since Thirteen is here. Her name is a number. Isn't that weird?" Cameron addressed the dentist.
"Yes, it is," he replied to Cameron kindly, which put the smile back on her face. He then turned to Thirteen. "Thank you for coming to help her," he said seriously.
"Sure, it's no problem," Thirteen responded.
"Can you get her to the car?" he asked. Thirteen nodded and assured him she was fine, and the dentist left. Thirteen turned her attentions back to Cameron, who was staring at her feet as she made them make odd dancing motions.
"Thirteen? What's your real name? I don't like you as a number," Cameron inquired.
"Remy Hadley," she informed her. The brunette helped Cameron up into a sitting position, checking to see if she displayed any signs of dizziness before letting her stand.
"That's nice. Oh, are we going somewhere?" Cameron asked eagerly as she stood, partially leaning on Thirteen for support.
"Yes, I'm going to take you home," Thirteen told her. Cameron laughed at that. "What?" Thirteen asked, confused as to what she'd said that had been funny.
"Some… some of the nurses say you take girls home a lot," Cameron whispered loudly in her ear. Thirteen rolled her eyes and started maneuvering the two of them out of the private room and toward the lobby where the exit to the parking lot was.
It took a lot more work than Thirteen expected just to get Cameron in the car. First she had to make it to the lobby, which went along without a hitch, until she had to go up to the front desk to pick up the medications. She'd told Cameron to stay sitting on one of the waiting room chairs, but as soon as Thirteen looked over her shoulder to check on her, Cameron had already gotten up and started wandering around the room. She had to excuse herself from the hot secretary and go make sure Cameron was seated again, which made Cameron complain. Finally she reasoned enough with the insufferable blonde that she would stand next to Thirteen, not wander off, and stay quiet if the brunette would hold Cameron's hand. Thirteen didn't really know why Cameron wanted to hold her hand so bad, she assumed it was a childish need for touch reemerging, but it ruined her brilliant plan to hit on the redheaded secretary before leaving.
"Thank you for your help today," Thirteen settled for saying before leaving with the medication and Cameron in tow.
"Sure, no problem, good luck with your girlfriend," the ginger said with a wink. As Thirteen dragged Cameron out of the front door and to the parking lot, she groaned in frustration.
Thirteen opened the door for Cameron and made sure she was situated okay before getting in the other side and putting her key in the ignition. She backed out of her parking space and started driving.
"Remmmy," Cameron sung, drawing out the "M" sound for a couple seconds. Thirteen wasn't used to colleagues calling her by her first name, but she guessed that Cameron wasn't really even a colleague anyway. She didn't work for House anymore and the two rarely crossed paths these days.
"Yes?" Thirteen acknowledged her own name being called.
"Why did you come to pick me up?" Cameron asked.
"House told me to," Thirteen replied easily. Cameron fell silent for the next couple of minutes. Thirteen stole a glance at her at a red light to see that the blonde had her arms folded over her chest and an upset expression on her face. "What's wrong?" Thirteen finally asked.
"Why don't you like me?" Cameron asked in return. Thirteen wanted to shoot her a bewildered look, but the light turned green and she had to make a turn. "You seem like you just wanna get rid of me, and you didn't want to hold my hand, even though you're the one who started the hand holding thing, and you said you only came because House told you too. Plus, at the hospital, we never talk," Cameron explained.
"I'm sorry. It's not that I don't like you," Thirteen answered.
Honestly, she was feeling conflicted. How was she supposed to explain that the reason she didn't talk to the ER head much at work was because she was honestly a little intimidated by her? Cameron was one of the most respected doctors at the hospital, and Thirteen was just her replacement for House. How was she supposed to start that conversation? Oh, hey, I'm Remy Hadley, the one who took your old job and you've heard all the bad rumors about? Yeah, I would deny them, but most of them are true.
Thirteen pulled into the parking lot to Cameron's apartment. She got out and went to open the door for Cameron to get out, offering her a hand to help. Cue more giggling.
"You have better manners than Chase did. He always forgot to open the door for me," Cameron said. Thirteen allowed Cameron to cling to her hand as she walked her into the apartment. After getting up a flight of steps and across a few hallways, she finally managed to get the blonde doctor into her apartment.
Once inside, Thirteen sat Cameron down on the couch. She then looked around to find the sink and get a glass of water so Cameron would be able to take her pills later. When she got back out to the living room where the older doctor was propped up with pillows on the couch, she found her trying to turn on the television with her cell phone instead of the remote.
"Alright, I think you want this," Thirteen said gently, as if she was talking to a child, removing Cameron's phone from her hand and replacing it with the remote.
"Oh," Cameron stated dumbly, pressing the "on" button on the remote. She scrolled through channels before settling on the Discovery channel.
Remy sat down next to the blonde woman, keeping one eye on the TV and one on the other doctor. She wondered absently to herself how long Cameron was going to be doped up. Really, she should be videoing this experience, because it was quite comical so far. It could come in handy as blackmail.
Speaking of comical, Cameron was squirming around on the couch, trying to find the most comfortable position. She finally settled for laying completely horizontal, taking up the entire damn couch and resting her head in the brunette's lap.
Remy cleared her throat and tried to find the best place to put her hands. She settled for putting one next to Cameron's head and the other delicately in her hair, unmoving. She tried to focus on the show, but Cameron kept wiggling, which in turn caused Remy to shift uncomfortably.
"If you were always my pillow, I don't know if I'd get any sleep," Cameron giggled.
Remy shut her eyes. "That goes for both of us."
Cameron grabbed Remy's hand, and the brunette knew that it was going to be a long night. Damn Allison Cameron and her adorable high.
A/N: Just a little Cadley oneshot of adorableness as well as a chance for me to explain myself. Okay, I'm officially, like, 2 weeks behind on "Don't Look Back". I also should have posted another chapter of "Fireworks". I also should have put up the first chapter of my Lost Girl fic. I am a procrastinator, I confess. I'm so sorry for this, and I promise I haven't abandoned either of those.
I have gotten... distracted. By things like "Iced Mirror" and my original work, "After Crashing" which is currently at 60,000 words (if you'd like to read that, perchance, drop me a private message).
I also have a bad habit of starting too many things at once... For instance, I am currently working on four fanfictions for four different fandoms, an original work, and an anthology of poetry (much of which is used in "Don't Look Back").
So there's what's going on in my writing life, disregarding the other stresses in my life like getting rear-ended today and preparing for college and quitting my job recently. Argh, this was a ridiculously long author's note. Sorry for that.
Besides all the drama, I'd love to get some feedback, as always!