NB: Ok, this is the sequel to my first story "A Rush Of Blood To The Head", so I suggest if you haven't read it, read it first, otherwise you are going to have absolutely no idea what the hell is going on. Thanks.

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A Call To Apathy – Chapter I

"He shot you?"

Wilson was crouching down on the floor of Joe's, next to the collapsed man, staring up at House who was still sitting calmly on a stool.

"Yes he shot me, in the neck and the abdomen. Hallucination? Ketamine drip? Remember? Was a while ago, so I guess you may have forgotten." Wilson looked down at the face of the man in his arms. House continued. "But what are you doing in Seattle?"

"What is he doing in Seattle?" Said Wilson, referring to the man on the floor.

"Hmm, same question but far less interesting. What makes the head of Oncology travel across America?"

"House! I'm holding the guy who shot you. He just had an anaphylactic shock! Aren't you going to call the cops?"

House turned around and put his glass on the counter. "Ah, no. Like you said, the guy had an anaphylactic shock. What are you doing lying on the floor with him? Call him a gurney will you?"

Wilson couldn't believe what he was saying. "Seriously? The guy shot you."

House picked up his cane and got up from the stool. "Yeah, but I can be merciful can't I?"

Wilson got up and looked at House suspiciously. "No, you're House."

The bar doors opened and a medical team ran in, quickly picking up the collapsed man and putting him on the gurney.

"Well, it looks like someone else has called them, though your conscience shouldn't be that much clearer." House said, smiling slyly as he watched the man be wheeled away by the medical procession. "Send him to Dr Burke!"

Wilson looked at House in disbelief. "House, what are you doing?"

"Why are you in Seattle?"

"Why are you in Seattle?"

"You know why. I told you before I left. I had a consult."

"Well so did I."

House followed Wilson out of the bar. "You're the head of oncology. You don't get consults. Think of all those sick little cancer kids, how are they benefiting from you being here?" House came up from the stairs and headed towards Seattle Grace, both following the gurney. "Probably pinning for you with their small little bald heads."

Wilson looked back. "House, shut up."

"No, you tell me why you're in Seattle."

Wilson stopped. "You tell me why you want to help the guy who shot you."

"He shot me. Unless my theory of the universe is completely wrong, the reason I was given in my hallucination was not correct, thus I want to know why he shot me. Wouldn't you?"

Wilson sighed. "That's it?"

"Also there's nothing wrong with a few painful and invasive tests."

Wilson turned around and headed for the hospital. "You're cruel House."

"Hey! He's the guy who shot me!"

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Christina woke up with a start. Nearing the end of her internship, she had finely tuned her internal clock so she now did not need an alarm to wake her up at 5:00 in the morning on a Wednesday to get to re-rounds early.

Outside the morning rays were just starting to appear on the horizon. Rolling over she saw the outline of Burke on the other side of the bed, back to her. Though they had made up after they fought, there was still an undiscussed tension between them. Christina looked back at Burke and sighed. All this, everything that had happened to them, all ran back to Izzie and Denny. Rolling down onto her back she stared at the ceiling and tried to remember how it had been before the incident. Before Burke got shot, before she accompanied all his surgeries, before he ignored her. She had loved him before, yes, but though she wished Burke had never been shot, she realised that it made her realised how much she did love him, how much she was willing to put on the line for him.

Slowly Christina rolled out of bed. She must not wake Burke up. She didn't particularly want to talk to him, but also she liked it when he was sleeping peacefully, unaware of the troubles that will eventually drown them both. Shaking off the thought, she stood up and made for the kitchen, tiptoeing to the door. Quietly she put her hand to the bedroom door and turned it, making sure not to create a sound.

Suddenly her pager went off.

The room filled with the incessant screeching of the pager as she leapt to her bag and quickly tried to stop the noise. Suddenly it stopped. Christina lay still on the ground, hoping that Burke had not been woken. After a moment of quiet she heard the groaning of Burke as he rolled over in the bed.

"Who could be paging you in this hour?"

Christina dropped her pager in the bag. "Must be your patient, Mr Dunn. Something's probably wrong with him. I better go."

"I should probably go to." Burke groaned as he tried to open his eyes and prop himself up. "Actually, I'll go in a second."

Christina stood up. "Don't, I probably got paged cause I'd be the only one who would come in at this time in the morning. I'll see you at work ok?"

Burke rolled back onto his side and wrapped himself in the covers, closing his eyes.

"Ok.'

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Chase woke up in a start. The room was filled with an annoying, and very load, beeping noise. Unaware of where he has for a second, Chase groaned as he opened his eyes and reached helplessly over to the bedside table to turn off his pager. Or to throw it out the window. As long as it stopped the beeping. Chase felt a small hard thing with his fingers. Suddenly the beeping stopped. Chase sighed with relief in the silence. Slowly he picked up the small hard thing and lifted it so he could read the small fluorescent screen.

"Wake up now. 911 Seattle Grace. Need ducklings stat."

Chase groaned at the realisation that it was sometime before six in the morning. Contemplating going back to sleep he was woken again by a knock on the door.

"Chase." A low voice came from outside. "Come on Chase, don't go back to sleep, we got paged a 911 from House."

Chase rolled onto his side, face away from the door and brought his covers up to his chin.

"Come on Foreman. The guy has Lupus. I need sleep."

"Hey, it's not my problem you've been playing the dating game. Now get up, we're leaving in five.

Chase groaned once more and wiped his face with his hand to wake up. This was going to be a long day.

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Meredith opened her eyes. Outside it was still dark, but the light was slowly creeping up as it hit the morning fog.

Fog? Slowly Meredith turned her head and saw Derek sleeping peacefully, still with his arms around her. Meredith smiled. In that one second of mental blank she had forgotten she was in Derek's trailer. Happy after that moment of realisation, she tried to close her eyes and go to sleep once more. But she couldn't. Opening her eyes, she looked back again to Derek, still in a peaceful slumber. Slowly she picked up his right arm and slid out of bed, trying hard not to wake him. Standing up she walked to the kitchen area and looked out one of the windows into the clearing below. She had missed this place, waking up in the mornings to the sunrise and the mist. Though when she though about it, she had not seen it many times. Addison came only a few weeks after Derek had shown her his trailer. They had not been together for more than two months but here they were, creating dirty mistresses and breaking up marriages. Meredith sighed and closed the curtain.

"Why do you always have to run away the morning after?" A voice came from the bedroom.

Meredith smiled and turned around to see Derek propped up in his bed. "What, I'm going to take a shower and when I come back, you're not going to be here?"

"That, I have to say, is when I fell in love with you."

Meredith walked back to the bedroom area. "What? When I totally rejected you?"

"Very bossy. Kept me in my place."

Meredith sat on the bed. "I don't know if that's a complement or an insult."

Derek smiled. "Both I guess."

Meredith gave a quick smile then looked away. Derek tried to coax her gaze.

"You want to talk about what happened last night?"

Meredith turned back to Derek. "Not yet."

"Ok" Derek smiled.

"Ok", Meredith failed to contain a smile.

Derek lay back down on the bed. "So we're sleeping together but we're not dating?"

"We did not have sex."

"I never said we did, but we have slept together." Derek said cheekily.

Meredith gave him glare. "You said you wanted space."

"Well, I think 34 hours is far too much space from you." Derek said, propping himself up from the bed again.

"So we're dating?"

Derek moved close to Meredith now, only inches away.

"We're dating." He murmured.

Suddenly Meredith's pager went off. Rushing to her coat, Derek sighed in annoyance. "Is it Dunn again?"

Meredith felt the sting of last night once more. The dread and sorrow came flooding back to her.

"No, " she said softly "it cannot be him."

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NB: Ok, that was just a bit to get into the story, not much substance. But hey! Nothing like a bit of filler now and then! Will get better though. And for those wanting some more House/Cam: patience, my young padowan, patience. These things will come in time. And my god will they come in time!

Shameless self promotion: check.