Cameron doesn't like watching House talk to Cuddy.
Name: Stephen Michael Andrews, Age: 29
She focuses her attention instead on the chart in front of her. The patient needs their attention now.
Complaint: Dizziness, stomach pain, difficulty breathing
MRI and chest X-ray were clear
It has nothing to do with liking House or being intimidated by Cuddy. She doesn't like House anymore, and ok, Cuddy is still intimidating but she's not prohibitively terrifying. It's the two of them together.
Starting a few months ago the relationship between them had changed; the frequent teasing had grown a sharper edge and the jokes were meant to wound and not to amuse. She started averting her eyes whenever Cuddy entered the room because the guilt and anger that were buried not so far beneath the surface tended to come up for air on most days, during most confrontations.
So Cameron got in the habit of studiously looking the other way and attempting not to hear.
Blood pressure: 90/50 hypertensive
Now though her habit is serving her well but not well enough, because it's plain to see, even if it's only out of the corner of her eye, that things have shifted again. There is tension still, but not the tension of hurt and blame and rage.
No, this tension has sparks and means that sometimes she sees House smile twice in one day. It means that there are these stupid bets now, and House pulls even more ridiculous stunts than usual to win them. Cuddy doesn't seem to realize that she's encouraging his insanity. Or maybe she doesn't care.
It also means they all spend a lot more time in the lobby, or the clinic, or anywhere that Cuddy might just happen to turn up.
Overnight O2 sats: 92
Dropped to 89 at 2:37 am, intubated at 2:39
They are loitering by the nurses' station now, for no apparent reason, and when she asks why House only rolls his eyes and tells her to think out of the box. He says it while sitting on the desk, trying unsuccessfully to balance his cane on the back of his hand. It has already hit nurse Brenda twice.
Cameron would have responded except Cuddy has just stormed out of her office and dragged House to the opposite corner, and she guesses that that was the reason.
When Cuddy stops chastising to draw breath House interrupts with a leer and a gesture towards Cuddy's top. Cameron can tell he's being rude, even though she's not really watching, she's trying to find the latest O2 sats on their patient's chart.
She thought that even House, who lives to create shock and dismay, had a saturation point for sexual innuendo. But the more he sees Cuddy the more he talks about her, and the more he talks about her the more lewd and inappropriate his jokes become. Cameron's eyes are getting sore from all the rolling they've been doing lately.
She glances at Chase and Foreman, who are pretending to be engaged in the files open in front of them. Chase is chewing on his pencil. Foreman scribbles a note in the margin. She wonders why they all always assumed House was joking about Cuddy.
Tox Screen: clear
Marijuana and amphetamines found in the home
She used to lump the comments in with everything else House said that was completely uncalled for and designed to provoke, like taunts about Chase's hair and her husband and Foreman's police record. So basically, everything that came out of his mouth. The idea that maybe he's not joking, has never been joking, well it trips her up a little.
Not because she still likes him, she's over House, completely over him. That's what she tells herself when her breath catches at little when he looks at her sometimes, blue eyes bright and focused. Also, their patient's tox screen was negative. She is over him.
She just doesn't like watching him talk to Cuddy.
Diagnosis?