Chase woke to the sound of the bathroom fan turning on. He heard the shower start up a minute later.
He rolled onto his back and watched the pattern the morning light made as it seeped between the blinds. He wondered if he should make coffee. Usually he'd just pick up some on the way in, but usually he woke alone. This morning was different.
It was all different.
There was no job to rush out to, no need to worry about what scheme House was about to launch, no patients calling for his help.
And there was this ... the steady sound of the water running in the other room, Cameron's shoes on the floor near the bedroom door, her blouse hanging on the back of the chair.
Everything had changed. This wasn't what they'd had before -- sex without emotions, she'd said. She'd made it clear back then that she didn't want to pretend it meant anything else. No pillow talk. No need to talk at all. No need to linger in bed in the morning. No need to spend the night together at all.
"Don't do that," Cameron had said one of the first times they'd come together.
"Do what?"
"Ask how I'm doing. You saw me all day. You know how I'm doing."
"I was being polite," he'd said.
"You don't have to do that either."
He'd agreed to her terms. Maybe because she'd made it sound simple, easy. So they hadn't spoken. Not at first. But as the weeks passed, she let things slip, let him see more of her, gave him glimpses of who she really was, enough so that he wanted more.
And now there was this ... this new thing, this thing she'd said she didn't want before. But she'd changed her mind, and here she was, with him.
Chase got up, pulled on a t-shirt and pajama bottoms and padded into the kitchen in his bare feet. He should make coffee. Cameron would like that. He poured water into the coffee maker, added the coffee, flipped on the switch.
He heard the water stop and hesitated for a moment, not sure if she'd expected him to join her. Maybe she would. He thought maybe he should know that by now. If this was a normal relationship -- if they had normal lives -- he would. This wasn't normal. This was different. This was new.
Breakfast, he thought, that would be normal. He should make her breakfast. He opened the refrigerator. There were eggs a week past their "sell by" date, a block of cheddar cheese, half of a loaf of bread.
"Good morning." Cameron's voice came from somewhere behind him. He turned and saw her standing in the doorway, her hair wrapped in a towel. She wore a pair of scrubs, and he guessed she must have grabbed them on her way out of the hospital yesterday. She'd planned to stay.
"Morning." He nodded at her. "I should have told you where to find the clean towels."
"I found them."
"Good."
They were both quiet for a moment, the coffee pot gurgling and hissing as it neared the end of the cycle. Chase wondered if Cameron was thinking she'd made a mistake.
"I could make you an omelet," he offered, thinking it wasn't too late to win her over, just in case.
"That's OK," she said. "I'll get something at the hospital."
Chase closed the refrigerator door. "I thought you quit. Change your mind?"
Cameron sighed. "No. I'm still leaving, but two weeks is customary."
"Since when does House care about what's customary?"
She shrugged. "Even if he doesn't, I do."
Chase nodded. Cameron would care. He opened the cupboard and took out two mugs. "Coffee then," he said, "and how about toast?"
Cameron looked like she was about to refuse, but then nodded and took a step forward. She took the mug from his hand. She sat at the table while he took out the bread, put it in the toaster.
Back to the silence. Chase wondered if House already had a plot to keep her at Princeton-Plainsboro, to keep her with him. He wondered if she'd fall for it.
"I meant it," Cameron said, and Chase turned to her. She'd removed the towel and her wet hair fell in damp strands across her shoulders. "The resignation. I'm not changing my mind." Maybe she'd read his mind, Chase thought, or maybe she was just reminding herself.
Chase smiled. "I believe you," he said.
He opened the refrigerator again, took out a jar of marmalade. "Not many choices, I'm afraid," he said.
"That's all right." She was staring down into her coffee cup, and he wondered what she was looking for beneath the surface.
The toast popped up and he put it on a plate, took it to the table and sat across from her. She spread the marmalade and took a bite before she said anything else.
"So what happens now?"
Chase shrugged. "Now? You'll go to work, where House will mock you for coming in, and maybe I'll go to the store."
"No, I mean, where do we go from here? How many CVs have you sent out? Have you got any interviews set up yet?"
Chase shook his head. "It's only been a couple of days."
"But you've updated your CV, right?"
"Not yet."
"Why..."
"I just haven't. I've never been fired before. Excuse me if I didn't follow the customary rules."
Cameron stopped, put down her toast. She leaned closer and reached across the table to put one hand on Chase's arm. "I'm sorry," she said. "I shouldn't have ..."
"No, that's all right." Chase put his hand on hers. "You were being you, worrying about every detail. Don't worry. I'm used to it."
Cameron gave him a slight smile, the one he usually saw her put on whenever she had to tell patients they needed another test, or that she needed another blood sample. He thought she was going to say something, but she didn't. She took a sip of her coffee.
"I'll take care of it today," Chase said.
"Don't do it just for me."
"I'm not. It's time I started thinking about what comes next."
Cameron looked up at him again. "So what does come next? Should we look for someplace together? Something in diagnostics? What if we end up on different sides of the country? What if ..."
She started to pull her hand away, and Chase slid his fingers beneath hers and squeezed them lightly. "I don't know what's going to happen, but I know it's going to be all right."
Cameron shook her head. "You can't know that. No one can." She looked down at the table, at their hands, at his fingers circling hers. "This is crazy, you know."
"I know."
She looked back up at him. "So why do you say it's going to be all right?"
Chase smiled. Maybe it didn't make sense. Maybe it wasn't normal. But this wasn't about what had been normal. This was something different. Something new. "I know," he said, "because it's Tuesday. And because I like you. And because you're here."