A/N: So this is the first time I'll be uploading as I write, (I've got a small buffer at the moment) but as of the moment I plan on updating every other week. If I write quicker, however, it may become weekly (or quicker!) Hopefully you guys are willing to stick around. And of course, any thoughts are always appreciated, and thank you so much to those who already have left kind thoughts!

Allison Cameron shuffled through the pile of files as quickly as she could, trying to locate the next patient. This had been one of the busier days in the ER, and she could hardly keep up with the masses of patients coming in and out. She pulled a thin one out of the stack, opening it quickly for confirmation. Here. This was the one. She grabbed it and walked over to the exam bed where a young boy of about eight sat, amber eyes opened wide. His mother was perched over the side, fussing over her son who seemed eerily calm despite the situation.

"Hi," she said, looking down at him with a smile, "Michael, right? I'm Dr. Cameron. What seems to be the problem?"

"He sliced his knee open-" the mother started, shaking her head, "I tried to cover it with gauze but it's pretty bad and-"

Cameron looked down at the crudely wrapped joint. It was darkened slightly with blood, but the bleeding seemed to have mostly stopped on his own. "He'll need stitches, but I doubt it's much to worry about. He should be up and running again soon enough."

The boy's eyes followed her as she stitched up the wound, and he constantly fidgeted as if he had something to say, eyes darting nervously back and forth. After she had finished, he leaned forward.

"You're a doctor, right?" he whispered.

Cameron nodded.

"So you save people?"

She nodded again, and he stuck out his arm, a grubby piece of paper clenched tightly within a fist.

"You've got to save them. They're in danger, and I'm the only one who knows."

Cameron blinked a few times before defaulting to a smile again. He was young, kids thought of weird things all the time. Taking the wrinkled sheet, she slipped it into a pocket of her lab coat. "Okay, you're all done."

The child nodded solemnly as if he had imparted her with an important mission, giving a salute before scampering off behind his mother.

At lunch, suddenly thinking of it, she pulled out the piece of paper, smoothing it out with two fingers. A list of names, about ten or so. And the kid said they were in danger? Waving it off as impossible, she put it away and didn't think more of it.

That night, cuddled up in front of the television, a particular story caught her eye. A man had been killed in a fishing accident when his small canoe had overturned in the middle of a lake. Something about his name... She pulled out the list, unfolding it quickly. The first name on the list. She held it up to the television, doing a quick check. The names were a match.

She got off the couch in a daze, the hand that held the list trembling. This had to be impossible. How could a list predict someone's death? If it was true, then she had to do something about it. She couldn't just wait around.

"Allison?" Her boyfriend switched the TV off, coming to her side.

"I... I gotta go." She looked at the second name on the list, trying to ingrain it into her memory. "There are people who need me."

She rushed out into the night, heart thumping away, unsure of what she was even trying to do. Standing under the nearest street lamp, she opened up the paper again, going down the list again. And that's when she saw it.

At the very end of the list, barely on the sheet of paper, the bottom of the letters partially cut off. His name. She covered it up quickly as if she was afraid someone would see. It'd been months, nearly a year now since she'd last seen him. But it's not like she'd forgotten.

You don't exactly forget someone you were married to.

She leaned against the lamp with a sigh, staring up at the night sky. There was no way this crumpled piece of paper was some sort of cosmic hit list, right? Those kinds of things didn't exist. Then why was her heart beating faster?

Calm down, Allison, she thought to herself, looking down at the paper again. Find the next person on the list first. Confirm this whole nonsense before you have a panic attack because your ex-husband is going to die. No, she reminded herself, he's not going to die. Because this list isn't real.

"Hey. You doing okay?"

She looked back to see Sean, his hands buried deep in a hoodie pocket.

"You kinda just ran out without an explanation."

"Yeah, I... I needed the air." They'd been dating for almost five months, now. Maybe she'd been moving things too quickly, moved in with him too soon, but... she hadn't anticipated how lonely living alone would've been.

He came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her casually, pulling her closer to him. The embrace alone was enough to break her resolve, and she sighed, looking down.

"I'm not okay."

He nestled his nose in her hair. "Do you wanna talk about it?" he murmured.

She stuffed the paper back into a pocket, turning to face him. "It's nothing," she said, smiling. "Thanks for checking up on me."

"Yeah." She could tell by the slight crinkling of his eyebrows that he wasn't convinced, but there wasn't anything else she could say. After all, she wasn't even entirely sure there was something to worry about. She couldn't just... spring a list of doom upon him.

"Look, uh..." she started, unsure of what to say. She had to find the second person on the list, had to confirm this madness. Confusion swirled in the deep brown of his eyes, silently pressing her to say more, but... she had to do this alone.

Realizing this, he sighed, stepping back. "You want to be alone."

She nodded, somewhat sheepishly. "Thanks for understanding."

She watched him go back inside before getting into her car, quickly pulling out her phone to Google the second name on the list. Her Facebook page was one of the first few things that showed up, and she pulled it up, finding herself staring at a random teenager's smiling face.

Cool. Cyberstalking a child. Definitely the right way to spend a night. She even lived in the same city. She leaned back in the seat, sighing. Quit freaking yourself out about this, she thought. It's just a coincidence.

And so she went back inside, forgetting about the list again.


The next day went on as usual, as she made her rounds around the ER. Until...

"Coming through!" The doors burst open, multiple gurneys getting dragged in, patients in various injured states. One of the paramedics walked up to her.

"Hey, Dr. Cameron." He wiped the sweat from his brow, shaking his head. "Crazy crash on the interstate... it was like five cars piled on top of each other."

She frowned, brow furrowing in concern as she took a patient file from him. "Yeah." She'd seen plenty of horrors working in hospitals so long, but she had to admit, the scene in front of her was pretty gruesome. She walked over to the nearest patient, blood running down her face from a gash on her forehead. She was hyperventilating, shaking uncontrollably.

"Oh my God, Oh my God..." the girl kept repeating, hugging her knees.

Cameron flipped the file open briefly, just to look at the patient's name. Caroline Walters. "Caroline, can you hear me?"

The teenager didn't seem to register her presence, eyes staring straight ahead.

She took a damp towel, gently dabbing the blood away. The patient flinched at the contact, seemingly suddenly coming to. "You're at the hospital. Can you tell me what happened?"

"Elise... she..." The girl looked at Cameron, panic shining brightly in her eyes. "She's dead, isn't she? Oh my God, I think she's dead."
Cameron peered in at the gash, trying to asses the severity. It wasn't as deep as she'd initially feared. Holding on to the girl's shoulders, she looked into her eyes, hoping that the contact would bring her some comfort. "Caroline, I'm Dr. Cameron. Can you tell me what you remember?"

A few tears dripped down the teen's face as she shut her eyes. "We were... we were going to the mall. Elise was driving."

Cameron nodded, continuing to fix up the wound. Elise. That name sounded familiar.

"And then, like... I wasn't looking, but..." She opened her eyes again, on the verge of breaking down. "It just happened so fast."


After most everyone was stabilized, Cameron plopped herself down on the couch in the break room, leaning back. What a day.

"Hey there, beautiful." Sean walked in with a wink, sitting on the arm of the couch opposite her, crossing his legs. He looked completely relaxed, and she rolled her eyes, sighing.

"Not too exciting in your department, I'm guessing?"

"Nah. I think I saw a total of three patients today." He smiled at her, raising an eyebrow. "How are you doing? Feeling any better?"

Oh, right. Yesterday. "Yeah, I'm better, thanks." She pulled out the list again, unfolding it. "It's just some stupid little..." She trailed off as she saw the second name on the list again. Elise Douglas. Wasn't that... The interaction with the patient flashed through her head again. That's impossible. She couldn't keep this to herself. She had to tell someone. "Sean..."

"Hm?" he said, leaning over. But before she could get any more words out, a nurse interrupted them, walking in.

"Dr. Cho! There's someone here to see you. Said she had an appointment."

"Ah, yeah, I totally forgot." Sean smiled back at Cameron, running a hand through his dark hair. "Guess that makes it four patients. I'll talk to you later, Allison." He leaned further to kiss her, before leaving the room, lab coat slung over a shoulder. Now alone, she looked down at the paper again, eyes wandering to the third name. Doug Ramos. Silently, she made herself a promise that she'd find him before anything happened.


After she went home that night, she pulled out her laptop, finding the person relatively easily. A senior at a nearby high school. Played football. Going through his friends list, she identified his parents through the cheery family photos, smiling in front of a waterfall.

This was some second-tier stalking now. To say she was uncomfortable with what she was doing would be an understatement. Everything inside her screamed that this was morally reprehensible, that she was breaking all the unspoken rules she'd set for herself over these years, and her eyes instinctively wandered away from the open webpage, switching tabs.

House would think she was an idiot. She blinked in surprise at her own thought. Why was she thinking about him? She'd left for a reason.

Because she knew exactly what he'd say. She could already imagine his voice berating her, yelling 'would you stalk someone to save them?' or something along those lines. With a sigh, she managed to find their address, and, writing it down on a sticky note, got up from the desk.

"Hey, I'm heading out," she called, Sean looking up from his book.

He closed it and put it to the side, starting to get up. "Do you want me to-"

"Not this time, sorry."

She could tell he was hurt by her response by the millimeter his eyebrows lowered, and he nodded, sitting back down.

Why hadn't she told him? She had been about to this afternoon. She could just tell him now. But when she looked back, he'd already gone back to reading, and she couldn't muster up the courage to interrupt. She'd tell him later. For now, she was on her own.

It wasn't until she was halfway to her destination that it dawned on her. There was a reason she hadn't told him. A reason she'd known the whole time. It was Chase. She didn't want to tell Sean about him.

To be honest, she really hadn't told him much about herself at all. She'd told him a lot of what she had told Chase about her first husband, but the details on the second marriage had been skimmed over. She had said that they'd split because it just didn't work out, which was true, to a degree, but...

She'd been so angry with him when she'd left. No, angry wasn't the right word. She had felt bitter. Betrayed. Hurt. But after the lockdown, after seeing him again, she only blamed herself. He'd always waited for her. Waited for her to be ready to love, to be loved. But she never really had been. She'd blown him off time and time again. And now she was making all the same mistakes all over again.

She parked the car with a sigh, waiting a bit before removing the key from the ignition. She needed to tell Sean about the list. But she had to do what she came to do first.

Standing on a stranger's front porch was unnerving, more so than breaking in. Because this time, she was actively seeking the inhabitants. What would she even say? 'Hi. I'm a doctor. Your son's about to die. A piece of paper told me so'? It already sounded idiotic in hypothetical. Was she meant to say it out loud? She took a deep breath, raising her hand to the doorbell.

Which is when the gunshot rang out. It was deafening, and she found herself holding her hands to her ears, waiting for the ringing inside them to stop. But even covering them couldn't deafen the anguished cries of a mother who had just found the body of her son who had killed himself.

She'd failed before she even got to him. In a daze, she stumbled back down the steps, driving away before anyone could see her.

She was still petrified when she returned back to the apartment, hands shaking by her sides. She'd let someone die. She hadn't stopped it. Sean noticed immediately, dropping everything as he rushed over to her, eyes wide.

"What happened?"

She looked at his face through blurred vision, lip quivering. "I..." Unable to get another word out, she threw herself into his arms, sobbing into his shoulder. He held her as she cried, leading her back to the couch, waiting patiently for the sobs to slow, her breath to steady. And then, when she finally caught her breath, she told him everything.

He leaned back, blinking, and she could already see the doubt growing in his eyes as he looked back at her. "Are you sure that... that this is real?"

She could do nothing more than nod silently, wiping away some of the residual tears.

He nodded back, looking away in thought. "And you said it was once a day, approximately. It means you have some time to figure out this nonsense."

He seemed... oddly calm. Had he glossed over the entire Chase bit or..?

"And... about your ex-husband..." Ah. So he hadn't. He looked conflicted even bringing the topic up, putting a hand behind his head. "At the very least, we're going to Princeton soon anyway for the conference you're speaking at. We could probably track him down while we're there."

Conference? What confer- The speech she had left sitting on her desk suddenly came to mind, printed out but yet to be rehearsed. Right. That conference. She'd practically forgotten about it with all of this list nonsense. She covered her face with her hands, letting out an exasperated sigh. "Oh my God, I totally forgot. I have to speak and there's gonna be tons of people and-"

He shushed her gently, pulling her closer. "Hey. Come on, now. It's okay. I'm right here. We'll get through this together."

Together. She wouldn't have to do it alone. "Okay." She leaned back into the embrace, closing her eyes.