Cameron knew false hope

TITLE: False Hope
AUTHOR: Danielle
PAIRING: Chase/Foreman, House/Wilson, Cameron/… most of the male cast, none returned
RATING: PG
WARNINGS: Slash, angst
SUMMARY: Cameron knew false hope. Knew it, understood it, saw it everywhere. It was impossible to miss, impossible to avoid.
DISCLAIMER: Not mine, honest! If they were… well, suffice to say there would be lots more kissing.

NOTES: This is vaguely based off the line in the pilot episode about giving the patient false hope.

False hope was cradling a cat in a child's lap and promising it would be fine. It was whispers on kitty heaven and a place with clean smelling litter boxes everywhere. It was the scent of flowers on a grave in a backyard and her parents smiling down at her. The sounds of a kitten mewling from an outstretched box, the new hope that something good could come when something old was lost.

False hope was holding his hand and watching him die. Standing in the church and marrying him to funeral bells in her head, listening to the drone of words like a death knell from a priest on high. It was sitting on the foot of his hospital bed and trying to see the love in his eyes. Promising a better tomorrow when he'll be dead by sundown and begging him to be happy. Those whispers of heaven in his ear as he struggles for breath are nothing more than words to others. But like the cat who died and went to heaven, it's comfort best sought alone.

False hope was following him like a puppy, smiling up from papers and mail at the tap of his cane. It was ignoring when he stalked away and rolled his eyes, knuckles white. It was never looking in ithat/i broom closet because she'd seen them there. Never stepping down ithat/i hall because Wilson had been kissing him and she couldn't believe that, not really. It was staying the lab with tears on her cheeks because they'd left together in House's car. And sometimes it was locking the door to his office so he had to find the other doctor because they'd fought and neither one was thinking straight.

False hope was accepting a date with no future, with a man that had to be bribed to go out. It was sitting and listening as he pointed out the faults and never smiled. Then watching as he went back to his car, back to his ilover/i, and smiled. It was sitting with cold soup in a hot room, wondering what they did together when no one was looking and knowing. Knowing because she's looked and she's seen and he laughs and it only makes her love him more.

False hope is taking the two others out to beer and flirting with both of them. It's sitting between Chase and Foreman and smiling drunkenly as they watch each other. There're the tears then, they can't turn away but can't hug her either. All that matters is the way they talk, quiet and calmly and she has to wonder if he'll ever do that for her. But then she sees their eyes meet and it's the same thing all over again. Her laugh catches in her throat.

False hope was treating a dying patient with a smile and a few reassuring words. It was Chase sitting in front of her, holding hands with Foreman and saying she'd find love. It was House lecturing her on her own needs and then clinging to Wilson in the parking lot on their only date. It was the rattle of Vicodin, the clink of the cane on her window, the scuff of Foreman's sneakers, the scent of Chase's cologne, the color of Wilson's new tie, the sound of a respirator, the drip of an IV.