Originally, this fic is a one-shot. But it has four different scenes that make it really long, so I decided to post this in two chapters instead, since putting it all in one chapter would be kind of... tacky and tiring to the eyes. I have to take care of you readers, you know. LOL. I'll be posting the next part in a few days. Let's all be patient, and we'll all be happy. LOL. You know the drill. Thoughts are in italics. Some words that aren't thoughts are italicized for emphasis. And, oh, please don't crucify me if this is a late Christmas fic. It's not my fault this story wrote itself. Cheers.
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. And the show.
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Because They Don't Play Poker
There she is. Thirteen observed the blonde ER doctor through the transparent door. She had been searching for Cameron all over the hospital since the minute she realized that Cameron was missing in action at the Christmas party in the hospital lobby, only to find her in her office in the ER.
Thirteen knocked on the door and waited to be let in. Cameron had her back turned – she was busy rummaging her file cabinet – and didn't seem to hear the knock.
Cameron heard the door open and felt a little annoyed. She heard the knock, alright, but chose to ignore it, hoping that whoever it was behind the door would take the hint and go away. She really wanted to be alone at the moment. Assuming that it was House – known for trespassing and no manners, she turned around to tell him to leave.
But, oh, it wasn't House. It was her counterpart. Thirteen. Thirteen held Cameron's stare.
The older doctor broke the eye contact and went back to rummaging her cabinet. "What are you doing here?" she deadpanned, her voice slightly quivering. No, that wasn't a euphemism for go away. So, as it seemed, it was not okay when House barged in her office, but it was okay when Thirteen did. That's a little weird, though.
The younger doctor could tell right away that Cameron was not in the mood – her shaky voice indicated that she must have been crying. But Thirteen wasn't just going to let her push her away. "Nothing. I just noticed you weren't at the party," she answered.
Half an hour ago, everyone decided to play poker, led by card shark himself – House. Not fond of card games, Thirteen refused to join and preferred to be in company with Cameron instead who, like her, wasn't a fan of poker. But the blonde was nowhere to be found, and that explained why Thirteen came to look for her.
Silence. Thirteen just kept on observing the older doctor. It took her a while to realize that Cameron wasn't just rummaging her cabinet. She was arranging it. "Why are you arranging your files at a time like this?" Thirteen asked.
"Apparently, your boss thinks it's funny to play with the patients' records."
"House messed with your file cabinet?" Thirteen asked. They sure didn't know that that was one of House's favorite pranks. His favorite victim – Cuddy.
"Yeah, after I refused to arrange his," Cameron answered. The last time she was forced to arrange his files, House accused her of secretly wanting to come back to his team. He even told her to "just say the word, I'll fire Thirteen." No, Cameron didn't want to come back to House's team. Nor did she want to get Thirteen fired – although she got back at House by accusing him of hiring Thirteen to replace her. Cameron and House just really loved accusing each other, didn't they? But it was just not fair that Thirteen got to be the receiving end of the joke.
"But that's my job now," Thirteen said. House designated her to do everything Cameron used to do in the old team – except maybe letting her use his marker and write on his whiteboard. House should really think about giving her a chance. Who knows, Thirteen's letter G might not be as "so girly" as Cameron's and might not look like it was written by a "junior high school girl".
"Looks like you're not the only one who he wants to torture," Cameron said. Oh, Thirteen, you don't know what it was like before you came. In fact, Thirteen's application to work in this hospital was a blessing in disguise, because it gave House confusion as to whom he should harass more – Cameron, Thirteen, or Cuddy. That still didn't seem to work, however, for House still had the ability to harass everyone. "I hate him," Cameron groaned.
"Who doesn't?" Thirteen smirked, trying to make things light.
The two doctors dwelled in comfortable silence until Thirteen heard soft sobs.
To be able to see Cameron's face, Thirteen walked nearer to her, and she saw her crying. Thirteen momentarily closed her own eyes and held her breath. She had never seen Cameron cry before, and she intended to keep it that way, because she knew that once she saw that happen, Cameron's tears could potentially break her heart into pieces. And that was what Thirteen was feeling right now.
She looked at Cameron again. "You're not… crying about your file cabinet, are you?" she asked. She didn't honestly think Cameron would cry over House's pranks. Cameron might be emotional, but she was way stronger than a file cabinet. There must be some other reason for her tears.
Silence. Figuring that the other doctor wasn't going to talk, Thirteen walked over to Cameron's desk and found a folder of one of Cameron's recent patients. She studied the file. Ethan Harrington. 18 years old. Car crash. Dead.
"He was so young," Cameron said in between muffled sobs, still arranging her cabinet, when she sensed Thirteen was checking the file.
The brunette doctor looked at her and checked the file again. Date and time of death: December 25, 2008. 4:41 pm. So this is what she's crying about. "It was inevitable," she told Cameron.
Two hours ago, at the Christmas party, Cameron was just too upset about Ethan's death she couldn't even drink a glass of water without choking up. Ethan was her last patient of the day. And he died. Was that comforting news? No. Cameron then went to her office to be alone. She hadn't stored Ethan's file yet, and just when she was about to do that, she found out her file cabinet was in disarray. House couldn't have done a better job at ruining her Christmas even more.
"No, Thirteen. He died because I didn't do enough to help him," Cameron said.
"Are you kidding? You work your ass off everyday in the ER, doing the best you could to help people. I don't think anyone else in this hospital works harder than you do."
Silence.
"He could have lived," Cameron said, still not dropping the issue.
"Death is something we can't stop."
"No. Death happens when something or someone screws up. This time, I screwed up." Cameron just couldn't let go of what happened. She felt responsible for the guy's death, especially when she knew he could've lived. That's just really how she was. Although she had become emotionally stronger through years of working for House, she still cried over dead patients. And Ethan Harrington's case wasn't just any other ordinary case, because he didn't die on just any other ordinary day. And that was what hurt the most. No one is supposed to die on Christmas.
Thirteen just stared at Cameron. She wondered how on earth someone could be so guilt-ridden over something that no one has control of. But then again, this was Cameron – she felt guilty over everything. Thirteen wanted to let her know that even though Ethan died under her care, that didn't mean she killed him. There just really was a big difference to that.
"You're giving yourself way too much credit," Thirteen joked sarcastically, trying to make Cameron feel better. "It's not your fault. Look, death is simply the end of biological function. That's it. It's never someone's fault."
Silence. Cameron wasn't listening. She refused to listen and just went on filing her cabinet to distract herself while silently crying and wallowing in guilt.
"Please stop that," Thirteen said, moving closer to Cameron. "Dr. Cameron, it's okay. Don't cry. Please stop." She tried to reach for Cameron's hands to make her stop arranging her cabinet, but Cameron just flailed her hands away.
"Hey!" Thirteen suddenly exclaimed to get the other doctor's undivided attention. The blonde froze and looked at her with teary eyes. "It's okay," Thirteen told her gently. "Put the folders down," she said as if the folders were some kind of deadly weapons. She slowly reached out to take the files away from Cameron's hands. Surprisingly, the other doctor didn't resist.
Unsure of what else to do, Thirteen took Cameron into her arms almost reluctantly. She was never one who would normally offer emotional comfort or would initiate hugs – those were actually Cameron's specialties – but right now, she knew Cameron needed someone to cry on. As strange as it seemed, Thirteen was willing to switch roles with her for the time being.
Crying as silently as humanly possible, Cameron just clung to Thirteen steadfastly and shut her eyes as she couldn't erase from her mind the image of Ethan's parents glaring at her grievingly and angrily at the same time when she told them that their son was gone. Thirteen just held on to Cameron tightly, with her hands around Cameron's waist, standing as firmly as ever to prevent herself from falling backwards since Cameron seemed to be putting all her weight against her. Never had Thirteen seen the ER doctor like this before. She's so… vulnerable.
They were truly a touching sight to behold. But what was more amazing was how everything seemed so natural and comfortable between them. They seemed to fit perfectly well in each other's arms. They almost didn't want to let go.
But all good things must come to an end, and they did let go. But good things just don't end without… well, creating another chain of good things, and half an hour later, they halted their little drama in Cameron's office, went back to the Christmas party still transpiring in the lobby, and decided to be inseparable – probably because everyone was still playing poker and they were left out of the group. Misery doth love company.
However, there was not the slightest bit of evidence that the two ladies were miserable, because they soon found themselves chatting and narrating hospital experiences – well, Cameron's experiences, at least, since Thirteen didn't want to talk about her life whilst residing in the country called Mystery – as if they were friends, which they were not. How that was even possible would forever be punctuated with a question mark.
They didn't necessarily disclose their life stories to each other. Thirteen wasn't the talkative type, but she was trying her best to distract Cameron from thinking about Ethan – which was, in fact, not a difficult thing to do as something about the blonde doctor just really made her comfortable enough to talk. Although Cameron did most of the talking, it was a relief to finally get to converse with someone who wouldn't constantly pop Vicodin in the middle of a conversation and who wouldn't call you names like lesbian or thirty-one.
An hour and a trillion light years ago, Thirteen and Cameron barely knew each other and only talked about lupus or something, but now, they actually expanded their range of topics to astronomy – yes, still a branch of science, but definitely an improvement to lupus.
Or maybe they were just drunk. Or maybe not.
Cameron was just taking a sip of her drink when Thirteen, observing the people in the room, strayed from the wonderful subject of astronomy and told her that House was staring at Cuddy's cleavage. Letting out a sudden snort, Cameron choked on her drink, and some of it actually squirted out of her nose. No, not exactly the event you'd love to write in your autobiography.
"Oh God, I am so sorry!" Thirteen exclaimed, immediately grabbing a napkin and scooting over to Cameron on the sofa to help her wipe her face.
"You could have at least waited 'til I finished my drink before you threw in that punch line!" Cameron said, embarrassed.
"I didn't know you would choke!"
"Well, now you do!"
"I'm sorry! Who would've known you'd react like that to House staring at Cuddy's cleavage?"
"I was off-guard! We were talking about Pluto!" Cameron countered.
The two women looked at each other before Cameron burst out laughing at the silliness of it all, and Thirteen just smiled at her amusingly. No, there was nothing funny; arguing about nonsense was not funny. They must be really drunk.
No, actually, they were only drinking water. They couldn't be drunk.
Thirteen gently dabbed Cameron's nose and chin with a napkin. "Really, I'm sorry. Are you alright?" She smiled to herself at how cute Cameron was when she's all messy like a little child.
Cameron decided to suck it up. Thirteen had already seen her cry earlier – with a runny nose and all; what difference would a humiliating water-squirting-out-of-the-nose incident make? Besides, it wasn't like Thirteen was going to preach this blunder to everyone like it's Gospel. She wouldn't, would she? But still, the big difference was that no one else had seen Cameron squirt water out of her nose, so… that was still something you wouldn't want anyone to read in your autobiography.
"It's okay," Cameron said, holding Thirteen's hand that was clutching the napkin and guiding it to wipe her face.
But with all fortune totally against them, House – who allegedly has the ability to see anything within any range – saw them and instantly accused them of girl-on-girl action.
"Aww, that's so sweet. But you girls should get a room before you start playing tonsil hockey thirty seconds from now," House called out from the poker table. And thanks to that, everyone from Cuddy down to Taub glanced at the two women sitting together and caught them red-handed with Thirteen wiping Cameron's face. They all froze, and Thirteen, flushing, quickly pulled her hand away.
With one unanimous thought, everyone just stared at Cameron and Thirteen. When did they become friends?? Of course, there was no answer to that question since Cameron and Thirteen weren't friends. Yet.
"But if you would like to make out right then and there, I'd be very pleased to have the privilege of watching the free lesbian erotica Christmas show. Won't we all love that, boys?" House added, fanning his cards and looking at the guys around the poker table.
Wilson coughed. Kutner and Taub diverted their eyes to the ground. Foreman looked bored – which, by the way, was always. Chase snorted. No, they didn't look thrilled. But they secretly were.
"Hmm… no reaction from the male species? They don't seem delighted. But, trust me, they are, because silence means yes, and yes means permission to make out. So start the show, ladies!" House told Thirteen and Cameron from across the room. Cameron glared at him, and House smirked, "Seriously, Cameron, you even have your boyfriend's approval."
"Shut up, House. Let's get back to the game," Cuddy scoffed.
"Why, don't you wanna see Cameron and Thirteen kissing? I do, cos I'm getting tired of looking at your cleavage I can almost see Moses from here," House retorted calmly. Well, there went the subject that started the water-squirting-out-of-the-nose incident. Cuddy and House then continued to have a lovely banter that bestowed upon them the mental age of six.
While everyone else was snickering, Cameron let out a sigh of relief. She was glad that Cuddy and House stole the spotlight from her and Thirteen, and she couldn't be more thankful that their colleagues had the attention span of a table. Tables, apparently, don't have an attention span – which just proved Cameron's point all the more.
Cameron rolled her eyes, stood up, and took Thirteen's hand. The brunette just looked at her quizzically. "Let's go somewhere else," Cameron suggested. And with that, they grabbed their coats and went out of the hospital. Right then and there, the fact that Thirteen willingly went along with Cameron gave the two women the realization that they were finally in each other's friends list.
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