It's quite long, so bear with me. And read my lips. It's. Chee. Sy. Thoughts are in italics. Some words that aren't thoughts are italicized for emphasis. And, oh, I might write a sequel, cos I think I left it hanging. I'm just tired, cos I wrote this all in one day – today. But do know I enjoyed it. So cheers.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. And the show.

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You Don't Know

Thirteen opened her eyes. She wasn't quite sure if she was alive, but the first thing she saw wasn't the ceiling. Or the fluorescent lamp. Or the hospital TV. It was a she. With vision blurred by the lights, she squinted to see the person on her bedside.

Dr. Cameron.

When she saw Cameron, the first thing that came to Thirteen's mind was how thankful she was that it wasn't House. That would've been a very horrible sight. Then it finally dawned on her that it was Cameron. Dr. Allison Cameron. Somehow it wouldn't have surprised her if it was Foreman, Kutner, Taub or even House sitting on her bedside. Or Chase – poking her kidneys with a scalpel. Or Amber – inviting her to the Other World. But Cameron?

"Hi," Thirteen said, relieved that she could still talk. Kidney failure, apparently, doesn't affect your speech. She almost asked Cameron why she was here, but thought better of it as it might sound like she didn't like her presence.

Cameron smiled her signature smile. "Hi. How are you?"

"I'm walking on sunshine," Thirteen said sarcastically as she struggled to sit.

"Don't move," Cameron said, smiling and holding Thirteen's arms to stop her from moving.

"What's gonna happen to me?" Thirteen said, sinking back to her bed. She couldn't sit well.

"Well, you'll be on dialysis for a week. You'll be alright." She held Thirteen's gaze for a few seconds before looking away and helping her lie down comfortably. "So… do you need anything? Water? Food? Do you wanna watch TV? Or –"

"Dr. Cameron!" Thirteen said to catch Cameron's attention. Cameron stopped rambling and looked at her. "I'm okay," Thirteen assured her.

Cameron looked relieved for a while there. Then she frowned, remembering she was supposed to be mad at Thirteen. Well, not supposed to, but she was mad at her anyway.

"What's wrong?" Thirteen asked when she saw the other doctor frowning.

"Why did you do that?" was the first thing that came out of Cameron's mouth, and Thirteen instantly knew what she was talking about.

Thirteen looked away. "Okay, we're not talking about this."

"No. We are talking about this," Cameron insisted. She wasn't someone who would normally force people, but this was a serious matter to her.

"No, we're not. Look, Dr. Cameron, I really don't wanna talk about it right now," Thirteen said, still not looking at the other doctor. House had already scolded her; she didn't need to hear it from Cameron too.

"Oh, sure. Right. You just pretend like nothing happened! Don't you know that you're lying on what could've been your deathbed??" Cameron reprimanded.

Thirteen looked at her as if she were crazy. Why is she scolding me?? The last time she checked, Cameron was just that doctor in the ER who House orders Thirteen and the guys to annoy once in a while. And suddenly she finds Cameron on her bedside scolding her? Is she punishing me for obeying House's orders to annoy her??

"What is wrong with you?" Thirteen asked, clearly weirded out.

"What is wrong with you??" Cameron shot back.

"What? Are you crazy? Did you take meth again?" Thirteen mocked, getting a little frustrated herself. She didn't want to pick a fight with Cameron, but the older doctor obviously started it. If Cameron wanted a fight, then two could play that game. The only problem was Thirteen was not really sure what they were fighting about. Or why they were even fighting at all.

Cameron wasn't even surprised that Thirteen knew about her methamphetamine incident with Chase. That happened light years ago, but everyone in the hospital knew about it, and apparently, that old buzz just didn't die. "Ha! That's funny! If I remember it correctly, weren't you the one taking all the drugs?" Cameron retorted, referring to what happened to Thirteen during the incident earlier today. She didn't mean to sound frustrated, but she was frustrated.

That was the last straw. Thirteen's choice of actions in what happened earlier today was none of Cameron's business. "Okay, that's it. You wanna talk, okay let's talk. What is your problem??" Thirteen said.

"You are my problem!"

"Really? Since when?? Remind me! Cos it seems to me that I've forgotten!"

Silence. Cameron couldn't say anything. What Thirteen said hit a nerve. Cameron bit her lip as she realized that she, in fact, had nothing to do with Thirteen – well, nothing that Thirteen knew of, anyway. Her presence itself in this room was not something Thirteen would've expected first thing as soon as she woke up.

No, Thirteen wasn't supposed to be her problem. And now Cameron wanted to kill herself for weirding her out.

"What? Aren't you going to say something?" Thirteen asked, not really sure if she really wanted Cameron to say something.

But Cameron didn't look like she wanted to say something either, because now her lips were pursed and trembling, and she looked like she was going to burst into tears any moment from now.

"Oh my God. Dr. Cameron… Cam… Oh God…" was all Thirteen could say. Oh no, she's going to cry. Just great. What did I do to deserve this? I'm a good person. Pushing away all the sarcastic thoughts, she held out her hand to touch Cameron, but Cameron moved away enough for Thirteen to not reach her even if she tried. Oh, the pain of being bedridden.

They just stayed that way for a while – Cameron sitting silently, trying to hold back her tears, and Thirteen just lying on her bed (believe me, she's not capable of doing anything else at the moment), looking guiltily at her. How did I become the villain in this? I'm the one who had kidney failure!

"I have never been so scared for someone in my entire life," Cameron suddenly blurted out, breaking Thirteen's thoughts. Her voice was shaking and almost a whisper. Thirteen wasn't sure if she should respond to that. She tried to think of something to say that won't bring Cameron to Cryville. Well, she wasn't given time to think about that anyway as Cameron continued to talk. "You don't know how scared I was, Dr. Hadley. You don't know how hard it was to just sit there, trying to be calm and acting like everything's gonna be okay when it's not. I… I was doing the best I could to look composed. You don't know how scared I was. You don't know…"

Silence. Surprised, Thirteen just looked at her, waiting to see if she has something more to add, but Cameron just sat there, trembling. Where is all this coming from? She met Cameron's eyes, not knowing that Cameron was wondering the same thing.

"You're right. I don't," Thirteen finally said, looking down at her hands. I don't know…

"I don't think I was even able to function well when you were wheeled to the ER," Cameron said, surprising even herself at her own confession. What was just a harmless hospital visit was slowly turning into the Opening of Pandora's Box – well, Cameron's Box.

Confused at everything Cameron just said, Thirteen wasn't sure if everything she just heard registered to her brain – influx of info courtesy of her most unlikely visitor. Why is this woman in my room to begin with? Because the truth is, Thirteen didn't want Cameron to come here just to scold her and to tell her that she was scared. No. Thirteen was still having trouble dealing with personal issues about death, and having someone visit her after a frightening event just to confess her own fears was not exactly therapeutic. No, Dr. Cameron, I'm not a good psychologist. Heck, even Thirteen needed her own psychologist.

Thirteen looked at Cameron. "Dr. Cameron… why?" she asked, trying to be direct to know where Cameron was coming from.

"What?"

"Why are you saying these things to me?"

Cameron was mortified, because she herself didn't know why she was saying these things to her. She quickly ignored Thirteen's question and went back to the topic she first tried to open up. She wanted to know why Thirteen acted the way she did during the incident, because everything was just not making sense to her right now. Cameron wanted to know why, because, honestly, she was really scared. "Dr. Hadley, why did you do that? What were you thinking?"

"I wasn't."

"I don't want you to die," Cameron said, biting her lower lip, anxious of what Thirteen is going to think about that.

"I don't wanna die."

"Well, you should've realized that before you volunteered to be a guinea pig!" Cameron exclaimed. No, it wasn't okay with her that Thirteen had injected herself willingly about three times with three different drugs.

Exhausted, Thirteen rolled her eyes. Just when the tension was settling down, Cameron just had to explode once more. Okay, here we go again. She wasn't in the mood to have another bout with Cameron. No, she was not going to let Cameron pick a fight with her again.

"Dr. Cameron… shh… It's okay. It's over, and I'm alive. Okay? Let's not talk about it anymore. Look at you… shh… don't cry. It's okay," Thirteen said, looking imploringly at Cameron who had tears welling in her eyes. She wondered how on earth she got into this situation. I'm not supposed to be the one doing the comforting! Just the thought of herself comforting someone – let alone someone like Cameron who she barely knew – made her cringe. She would really dread the day she'd make Cameron cry, and she silently hoped Cameron would just let it go, because all she just wanted to do at the moment was to just lay there in peace – she was just really tired, and reminiscing about today's happenings wasn't going to help her recover. She could only be thankful she wasn't traumatized by that nightmare of an incident.

Cameron, however, was not just going to let it go. "No, Dr. Hadley, it's not okay. It's partly my fault why you're here. I was the one who suggested Cushing's Syndrome. And you got sicker. And your kidneys failed. I will never forgive myself. It would've been my fault if you d—"

"No. Look, whatever drug that was, I was sure to be in pain since I took meds that I wasn't supposed to take," Thirteen said, finally seeing what's bothering Cameron. "I got sick because of all the drugs. Not because of you. Well, not entirely," she chuckled, joking. "You just had a misdiagnosis. Even House made the wrong diagnoses. Doctors can really mess up sometimes. But hey, you got it right. It really was Melioidosis. So… you saved the day. Congratulations," Thirteen finished, trying to make light of the situation after she saw Cameron still looking guilty and ready to crawl up in a hole and die.

"It's not funny," Cameron said, fidgeting and staring at the floor. It really wasn't. No matter how much Thirteen was going to assure her it wasn't her fault, Cameron was still going to blame herself anyway. That's how her conscience works.

"I'm… sorry?" Thirteen said – more like asked, not really sure if apologizing was the right thing to do since Cameron wasn't really looking amused. Thirteen's heart went out to her. She could understand why Cameron would feel that way, but still she didn't want Cameron blaming herself, because it really wasn't her fault. "Hey, it's not your fault. Or anyone else's. If anything, it was my fault. I'm responsible for my actions. I was reckless. I was just… stupid, I guess."

"Yeah, what you did was pretty stupid."

"Real stupid." And with that, the two women looked at each other and shared a smile for the first time that day. It was always nice to see Cameron smile. Thirteen didn't know her that much, but she really loved seeing her smile. It could light up a room. Or probably even the entire hospital – especially the hallways that Dr. Gregory "Oh, I'm gloomy; let's fill this world with darkness" House walked by.

"So why did you do that?" Cameron said, bringing it up again.

"You just wouldn't let it go, would you?" Thirteen smiled. Cameron was being so childish, insisting to get what she wants. "Dr. Cameron, we all know I'm dying anyway," Thirteen answered.

"Dr. Hadley, just because you're dying doesn't give you license to kill yourself."

Cameron made sense, but Thirteen was stubborn. "It's Huntington's. Sooner or later, I will have to die," Thirteen said, trying to remember how they got into this conversation in the first place. She surprised even herself why she suddenly opened up to Cameron. She never opened up to anyone – especially about her death.

Furious at Thirteen for conceding to her fate just like that, Cameron stood up and went nearer to her. "Is that really the way you think?? Well then, if you're just going to concede to your death, why don't you just let your terminal illness kill you?? Huh?? Why do you have to kill yourself?? What's the rush?? Is it because you're a control freak, and you wanna control your death, and –"

"I wasn't rushing my death. It was either me or the patients. Sick patients. I couldn't let Jason put their lives in danger than they already are," Thirteen defended herself, although she silently hesitantly agreed with Cameron that she was a control freak. She was aware that her illness was giving her barely 8-10 years left to live, but she wasn't going to believe that. Somehow she always feared that she might die as early as the next day, and that's why her need for control had gotten worse over the past few days – especially since that day she learned she was dying – that even her death itself was something she felt like she needed to control.

"You're sick too," Cameron said, looking as if she was pleading Thirteen to take care of herself.

Thirteen ignored her. She just wanted to get her point across before Cameron explodes again. "Patients come in this hospital to get well. Not to get themselves under hostage."

"And you… you're –"

"Dying," Thirteen finished for her. "Dr. Cameron, when Titanic sank, and there weren't enough life vests and life boats, I don't think anyone wanted to save the person with the terminal illness. And besides, I'm a doctor. When Titanic sank, the captain had to die because –"

"No. The captain had every right to live as much as everyone," Cameron interrupted. She couldn't believe the way Thirteen's mind works. "Had to"? She made it sound like the captain was meant to die. Is that the way she thinks about herself too?

Thirteen wasn't being fair to herself – it's like she didn't even treat herself like a normal person. Cameron didn't want Thirteen to keep that mentality. Just because you're dying doesn't mean you have to die now. But right now, she was just mad at Thirteen for being so stubborn and so blind.

Cameron stuck to the Titanic captain metaphor. "I dunno how he died, but from what I heard, he just opted to die, because he's a big coward," she continued. "No, wait," she said, pretending to ponder over something. "That sounds like you. Trying to be all martyr, but inside, you're just scared, because you're losing control over your life, and you just wanna end it because –"

"You know what, yeah. I am a coward. Happy now?" Thirteen said, putting an end to Cameron's sarcasm.

Cameron ignored her anyway. "Or maybe, maybe you just wanted to be the savior! Oh, look, it's Dr. Hadley – everyone's hero! You like the sound of that?! Huh?!" she said in animated sarcasm.

"I'm really… trying my best… to not hate you right now," Thirteen said, pausing between words for impact and effect. And apparently, it worked, because Cameron finally shut up and sat back down. Hate is a strong word, but Thirteen knew she didn't mean what she said to her even if Cameron was starting to be slightly annoying. She could never hate the ER doctor even if she tried. And what's worse is Cameron knew that as well. Cameron had been nothing but nice to her – well, until now – and Thirteen had nothing but respect for the older doctor, but this very moment, Cameron was being such a child and such a bitch.

She had never seen Cameron like this before. Cameron was always nice and… well, "nice" pretty much sums up everything. But today, she was a bitch. As much as Thirteen was awed at finally getting to see the not-necessarily-nice side of Cameron the Compassionate Doctor, she… wasn't really feeling happy to see the not-necessarily-nice side of Cameron the Compassionate Doctor. Can't she even wait for a week for me to get well before she starts bitching at me? Gawd, she's even worse than House. At least House doesn't take advantage of my being bedridden by hanging out in my room to scold me.

"Why are you doing this to me??" Thirteen asked.

"To let you know that putting your life in danger, no matter how martyr you may be, won't be appreciated by some other people. Other people who care for you," Cameron answered immediately as if she had already anticipated the question.

Actually, Dr. Cameron, no one cares for me. Thirteen smirked before looking down at her hands to avoid Cameron's eyes that were trying to read her. The last thing she really needed right now was for Cameron to suddenly confess that she was psychic and could read minds, or Thirteen would be so dead. She thinks I'm that reckless to just put my life in danger like that. But she doesn't know… that I was scared too.

"I was… just as scared as everyone else. But there just seemed to be no other choice," Thirteen said.

"Life is always a choice."

Thirteen looked up at Cameron. "If that wasn't my choice, do you think I'd be here, alive, in this room right now? I would've injected that last drug, but I didn't. I couldn't. Cos I don't wanna die."

Cameron wanted to slap herself. Right. That made sense. And for the first time in that conversation, she had nothing left to say.

"Look, I did what I did because… it was the most sensible thing to do. Let's face it, I'm dying. So if someone's life had to be put at risk, it might as well be mine. And I'm a doctor. Patients' safety first before myself. That's really all there is to it," Thirteen said, ending the argument. Everything she said was true, but she left out the part about her desperate need for control during that situation. She was still in denial about that.

"I know you would've done the same thing if you were me," Thirteen said, looking Cameron straight in the eye, and Cameron's eyes softened – those familiar kind eyes that Thirteen usually gets a glance of when she's walking around the hospital. Thirteen subtly let out a sigh of relief. Cameron the Compassionate was finally in the room. Thirteen was thankful that Cameron was finally sparing her the lecture, because for a while there, she thought Cameron was turning into Nurse Brenda or something.

Silence. Great. Now she's not talking anymore. This is not good.

"So…" Thirteen said, breaking the silence and trying to start a conversation – well, a conversation completely different from the last one. She'd rather go back to sleep, but she didn't really think she'd want to, what with Cameron just sitting beside her. Who knows, Cameron might inject her something while she's asleep to have the last laugh. Smiling to herself, Thirteen brushed off the silly impossible thought and opened a conversation. "If you haven't realized, this is our first moment together. Alone. And we're fighting. Oh, this is definitely the start of a wonderful friendship," she said sarcastically, laughing.

Cameron smiled, feeling guilty for starting the squabble. "I'm sorry."

Thirteen eyed the older doctor silently, her blue cat eyes piercing through Cameron's own blue. "Dr. Cameron, what's wrong? Why are you mad at me? Why are you being so difficult? I don't really understand your behavior right now."

"It's nothing. I'm just… selfish," Cameron said, looking down at the floor.

"What? What are you talking about? How are you selfish? What –"

"I don't want you to die," Cameron explained.

Silence.

"I was so scared," Cameron repeated, avoiding eye contact.

Thirteen studied Cameron carefully, and she looked like she really meant what she said. Otherwise, she wouldn't have scolded her to begin with. But Thirteen was still confused why Cameron would be scared for her. "I'm… sorry," Thirteen said, not sure what to say. "Sorry for making you feel… whatever you're feeling right now."

"No! Dr. Hadley, you don't understand! You don't know anything! You don't know how I felt when I was just… just there, not knowing whether you're going to come out of all this alive! If everything was hard for you, it was harder for me! I haven't had the chance to know you yet, Dr. Hadley! You just can't die! You just can't! The whole time, I was thinking about how I'm gonna regret it my whole life if you died without knowing how –" Cameron stopped as she realized the horror of what she just said. The Opening of Cameron's Box had been way too much. Her heart raced as Thirteen just looked at her with confused eyes, awed at her emotional outburst.

Cameron panicked. "I'm… I'm sorry, I have to go. Just call the nurse if you need anything." And with that, she quickly flew out of the room.

"What? Dr. Cameron!" Thirteen called out to her, but she had already gone. Thirteen suddenly had a feeling she won't see Cameron again for a long while.

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Let me know what you think. I might write a sequel if inspiration hits me again -- like it did today.