Story:Someone from her past comes back, haunting Allison Cameron… and House learns that he doesn't want to open bodybags to identify one of his ducklings.
Author's note:Finally a Hameron story.
Disclaimer:Neither House nor Mr. & Mrs. Smith belong to me.
Date:28.10.2007 – .2008
The CIA was on the phone
Chapter 1: Sister Darkness
Allison Cameron lifted her head from her notebook, silently moaning when she saw Lisa Cuddy walk by the glass walls, briefly looking inside but then continuing to the office, where House was getting ready to leave. She could not see him inside there but it didn't need a genius to know that he had seen her, too. Two seconds later he was flattering her to keep her from giving him a file… words she didn't think he was capable of. The dean of medicine definitely would be smiling even though he didn't mean it, and he also knew that his compliments wouldn't help him to get off the case.
Actually she knew that they wouldn't get off the case, spending the night with tests while he was at home, sleeping tight. And if she thought about it, today she'd rather be in here, doing every test that was necessary to save whoever Cuddy was dragging along right now.
By now he had opened the door and thrown a file on the table in the conference room.
"Round up the usual suspects. Amyloidosis, sarcoidosis, hemochromatosis... Heck, go wild, do all the osis's."
She carefully looked at her male colleagues, seeing them not too pleased with the thought to stay late.
House just turned to his boss.
"All taken care of, sleep tight."
With that he left the room, leaving them without another word.
Sleep tight.
Hah.
She didn't sleep tight for the two and a half years she had been working for him now. She sure as hell didn't sleep tight after Chase had expressed his undying love for her and she had to kick him out of her bedroom.
She had seen what love could do to you and tried to get her stress relief somehow else.
Trust a man to fuck it up.
Didn't they always?
Watching the girl's OR from the observation desk didn't give them any clues.
"This thing is already around her heart, if it gets into the muscle she's dead", Foreman stated and she had to fight the urge to scoff. Sometimes she was annoyed with the need of everybody around here to state the obvious. She wouldn't be in surgery if something wasn't wrong.
All the wrongs they ever got meant that somebody could be dying.
"Best bet's Coxsackie virus, Parvovirus B19, CMV...", Chase said and she couldn't fight down the need to make her answer sharper than intended.
"Bacterial infection is more likely to turn constrictive. It could be TB."
Of course he had to snap back. That was what you did when you ended a relationship… a relationship that never was one.
Because she knew better.
"Right. Forgot about the part where she did time in Russian goulo. Her hematocrit's elevated", he said, making her grit her teeth.
"Few extra blood cells means nothing. She's probably just dehydrated."
"Yes and I could assume 3 or 4 things to fit my theory too."
"She's sick, she obviously hasn't been drinking enough..."
Maybe it was good that Foreman had enough of it by now. Or she would have scratched Chase's eyes out.
"Enough! I take it you're not sleeping together anymore. We do what House said. We test for everything."
Well. It definitely didn't take a genius to find that out.
What confused her was Chase handing her the file with a smug grin.
"Good. Then I can leave."
While he was starting to leave Cameron frowned at him.
"Since when does we not include you?"
"Well. House is going to call us idiots anyway. Might as well be a well-rested idiot."
With that the Aussie left the room and she couldn't help but think that he was right. Nevertheless it was better here than at home, in her bed where…
Maybe she should burn the thing.
She was tired. Foreman was tired.
And of course Chase had to be right.
"You guys are idiots", House stated while never realizing that she was falling asleep on her feet right now, but still needed to defend herself.
"Why? Because we stayed up all night doing exactly what you told us to do?"
He looked at her, those blue eyes making her forget his last sentence so she needed a moment to make sense of his next one.
"No. Because you stayed up all night doing exactly what I told you to do and have nothing to show for it."
"We eliminated dozens of wrong answers", Foreman this time piped up, making House face him instead of her.
"I asked you what 2 + 2 equals and a day later you tell me not 25", the diagnostician growled at his colored duckling, and of course Chase had to take this moment to make his appearance, looking well rested, handing his boss a report.
"The pathology report just got filed. Found granulomas in Lucy's pericardium. Could be a case of fungal infection."
He got a "Nice work", as answer, making her growl.
"He went home!"
"Work smart, not hard", was House's answer to that, with Chase grinning at her presumptuosly, making her really wanna punch him.
"Find out which fungus, biopsy a lymph node. Take employee of the month with you", the diagnostician continued and waited for a protest that never came. She just turned to the door of his office, suddenly freezing.
He had expected his female duckling to rather want Foreman go with her, but what he got was a blank stare that was directed to somewhere out there. When he stood up to get a better look he just saw a woman in a business costume walk down the hallway.
Looking at Cameron again he could see that she had turned white, with her mouth slightly agape.
"Foreman, Chase, go, test the kid."
When the two male doctors hestitated he barked a "Now!" to stress his order and watched them rush out while Cameron still was frozen to her spot on the floor. The woman had stopped outside, looking at the doctor who openly was staring at her.
"Cameron?"
She jerked when she heard his voice.
"You look like you've seen a ghost", he stated, not knowing how close to the truth he was with that statement. When she still didn't move he sighed.
"You're not going to faint in here, are you?"
She was not. She was leaving his office, approaching the woman who smiled at her.
"It was really hard to find you. I taught you well", the woman stated when Cameron had finally reached her, painfully aware of the ocean blue eyes of her boss in her back, curiously watching them out there.
"I thought you were dead. Or had left the country to never be seen again", was her silent answer. Three years of nothing. Three years in which she had tried to forget everything.
"What are you doing here, Jane?"
Jane Smith let the smile in her face fade to a stern expression.
"I need your help, Jade."