Disclaimer - I do not own House M.D. or its characters, yada yada yada.

Chapter 1.

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All you can hear is the constant clicking of heels on the floor. Empty hallways reverberated the sounds. Even on the saddest of days she always radiated with beauty. Her white coat swiftly floating, following behind like it always had, seeming as if it always gave her the two feet of protective room she needed around her. It was six thirty in the morning and a flushed Doctor Allison Cameron was coming into work quite early today.

She got to her office, sat down, sighed in exhaustion, and looked around her empty desk for work to get started on. No cases. Not surprising. Monday's were usually slow. No mail to be found? There was always mail to sort out. She looked more, lifting papers and books while checking underneath them. Nothing but air. Another sigh.

She tipped off her heels leaving them under her desk (no need to look professional if there was no one around to impress), when she noticed she had spilled some of her coffee on her blouse, probably from the car ride there. "Damn." She got up and went to grab the handle of the door which separated the conference room from the office of Doctor Gregory House. Locked. She pulled at it again. "Goddamn. This door is never locked." Could there be one day in her life when something goes her way? She walked out of the conference room and into the hallway to try the other entrance. This one was open. She tilted her head.

She entered the office. It smelt of scotch and cigars. She actually loved that smell, but frowned when she had realized that she would never admit that to the man who was the source of the wonderful odor. So many thoughts ran through her head at that moment. Why had he been drinking? He only drinks when he's depressed or when he's celebrating. There was nothing to celebrate. Was he depressed? What was he depressed about?

She shook her trying to free herself from her thoughts. She looked on House's desk for mail. There was a bunch of messy papers there thrown on top of more messy papers. The mail was there, hidden under the garbage on his desk, but they were already opened. "What the-"

"Good morning," House nearly shouted as he limped into the office. A shocked Cameron jumped up and immediately turned in his direction. "What the hell are you doing?," House asked.

The flushed Cameron blinked a couple of times, still in shock from the slight fright she was given. She didn't even notice that he was in early too. "I- th- there was no mail. On my desk. And I- I-."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. What the hell are you doing here?," House asked as he sat down in his chair and looked at the mess on his desk.

"I wasn't looking through your stuff!," she yelled.

House looked at Cameron oddly. "O-kay, well I could care less about my stuff. It's not so interesting. The thing that is interesting though is why you're here so early, and why you look like crap."

"Oh. Yeah. Well I just couldn't get some sleep so I guess I decided I'd come in early."

"And the crap part?," House asked nosily.

"U-uh, that might have something to do with the fact that I had no sleep last night," Cameron said in her struggle for an attempt to sound somewhat confident.

"Hmm." House rubbed his beard.

"Hmm, what?," Cameron asked in slight confusion.

"You've shown up to work early several times before probably for the same reason, but your hair was always perfectly done along with makeup and clothes, and I'm pretty sure your outfits were complete with shoes." House knew he was on to something.

They both looked at her feet. "Oh!," Cameron reddened, "I just thought that I was the only one here so I kinda made myself comfortable."

"So what you're saying is that you need comfort right now?"

"Well-"

House continued, "That must mean that something terribly, terribly wrong must have happened over the weekend."

"I-"

House unnecessarily interrupted, "Did your cat run away? Did you forget to get Mommy a birthday present? Did Daddy die? Am I getting warm, Dr. Cameron?"

Cameron took a long breath and glared at him. At that moment House felt the heat under her leer, but continued to keep his posture. He knew he hit something.

"You can be a real jerk, House." House decided not to say anything as he watched Cameron march out of his office.

House slowly leaned back into his chair. He blasted his music, put his feet up on his desk, and closed his eyes.