Disclaimer: I do not own House, MD or its characters. If I did… well, Chase would be gone for good just for starters.
Spoilers: Through 4x02 The Right Stuff.
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"Wilson's pants are on fire," House said nonchalantly the next time she found him standing against a wall just outside the ER. He hadn't been able to bring up everything he wanted to when he'd come to talk to her about Greta.
Her mouth quirked in a pale imitation of one his smirks.
"Liar, liar," Cameron agreed in a sing-song tone. She shook her newly blonde head slightly in amusement. "I heard about him telling you that Chase and I were in Arizona to mess with your head after you'd seen us here."
"How did you end up coming back?"
Cameron shrugged, "I never left. As soon as I quit Cuddy offered me the ER position, and I accepted. This place has become home to me in the last few years. I didn't want to leave."
"And Chase?" he managed to ground out.
She gave him a funny look but answered. "He was considering a few other offers, including one that actually was in Arizona, but decided to stay here in the end. I think Cuddy pointed out that the position he'd have on the surgical staff would be higher than he'd be able to get so soon elsewhere."
A moment of silence passed. House wasn't sure how to ask if Wilson had lied about something else as well. Not without sounding like he was whining about it. But he did want to know… needed to know. Acting on impulse, he reached down to snag her left hand.
"Did you leave it at home?" he asked. "Or just take it off for work?"
The disconcerted look that had come over her face when he'd taken her hand was replaced by confusion. "What? What are you talking about, House?"
Instead of answering verbally, he rubbed her slender ring finger… which lacked any sign of a tan line… with his thumb. A delicate tremor went through her and into him at the strangely intimate contact, and it took several seconds for her to catch on. He was glad for the delay since it meant he was concentrating on her answer and not just the feel of her skin.
Cameron's eyes bugged slightly. "You thought I married Chase?"
"Got engaged," he corrected gruffly.
He had to fight to hide a smile at her incredulous tone… she made it sound as if it was the last thing that would ever happen, at least with the foppish intensivist-turned-surgeon.
"Chase and I are together… and only on a trial basis… because he wants a relationship with me, and I'm tired of being alone and waiting for…" She flushed lightly and changed directions. "Even if I did love him, I wouldn't get engaged so soon after trying to get him to stop asking me out every week. You couldn't really think I would."
"I never thought you'd quit either," he pointed out. "At least not without another Vogler-esque situation forcing you to be all noble and self-sacrificing again." He paused only a moment before adding, "Besides, you did end up back with him, and I think we both know what Chase sees as your future with him."
"Even I'm not that nice, House." Cameron shook her head. "Or that mean. I might be willing to be his girlfriend for now, but I won't agree to marry someone I don't love, let alone follow through. I wouldn't even have married my dying husband if I hadn't loved him, no matter how much you think I need to fix people."
They both turned their heads when several nurses rushed past in the direction of the ER's admitting area.
"I have to get back to work," she said.
House nodded and bounced his cane a few times, "We'll continue this discussion later."
She opened her mouth, probably to tell him that the discussion was already over, but she stopped when her eyes were caught in his electric blue gaze. As they stared into each other's eyes… windows to the soul, he thought, mostly derisively… he willed her to see what it had done to him to think she was going to live happily ever after with the wombat, to see how he felt knowing that she was with the insipid Aussie because she thought she couldn't have him. To see how much he'd missed her. And she must have seen at least some of it, because her tense expression softened and a shy smile curved her mouth.
"Later," Cameron agreed, something close to a promise in her eyes.
If she had given him that look a year ago, or even right before she'd resigned, he would have been hobbling the other way as quickly as his leg allowed. But because he knew for a fact what it was like without seeing her almost every day now… well, now he was able to bask in the warmth of her regard. Now he was looking forward to more discussions with her, to maybe even spending time with her away from Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital once she shook off the wombat-leech hybrid, and he knew she would.
And he planned to keep it from Wilson as long as possible… it's what the man deserved for being such a low-down, dirty deceiver.
With another small smile, Cameron turned to go back to her duties, knowing him well enough to know that even the smallest of waves in front of witnesses would make him uncomfortable. House turned to make his way to Coma Guy's room to hide from Cuddy and the ridiculous horde of people trying to become his next set of ducklings… and to plot how to pay Wilson back for his underhanded scheming. Beneath his breath, he mumbled a children's rhyme.
Liar, liar, pants on fire, hanging from a telephone wire…
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Author's Note: In case you didn't get it, this was in response to Wilson's assertion that Cameron and Chase were living in Arizona and were engaged (which made me want to kill the writers), as well as the fact that when we knew that Cameron was indeed still at PPTH, she was not wearing any kind of ring.
And yes, I know there are many different versions of the "Liar, liar" chant, this just happens to be the one that was popular in my area when I was a child.