Notes: So, I hope everyone likes the new chapter! I'm not really a person who writes really long chapters, I guess. Thanks to "Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved." for the definition of perusal. lol. Thanks for all the support so far!
perusal . to read or examine something in a leisurely or careful way
"Cameron? Are you all right?" asked a familiar voice. As Cameron slid back into consciousness, she felt like a camera zooming in on a picture that belonged to someone else. She focused in on the heads of Chase, Cuddy, and two concerned nurses. Her thoughts remained in the dark as she wondered where everyone else was. The quiet hospital became intrusive to her peace.
"I...I'm..." she stopped as the darkness of her mind lightened. House...a potentially fatal accident...his motorcycle. "I need to see him. Where is he?"
"Cameron, he's in ICU. We think we may lose him..." Chase spoke softly. He reached his hand out to touch her hair; she smacked him away.
"Leave me alone!" she cried as she got out of the hospital bed and ran out of the room.
"He's in room 150..." called Cuddy's fading voice. Down the hall, to the elevator. A wait to get in, a wait to get off. Every moment she lost felt like a piece of her soul was being ripped off. The run to his room was acid on her wounds. Tears streaked down her face; when she thrust open the door to his room, she saw him.
Bruised, with sutures on a variety of wounds on his face and arms. He was on life support, with tubes sticking out of his throat. His eyes were closed peacefully. Is this the way someone looks when they're dead? Like they're just having a nap?
"House..."
No response.
"Greg...?"
House's eyes fluttered, and when they opened completely, Cameron saw fear in them for the first time. Pure, raw fear. He looked around, lost like a child on his first trip to the grocery store when he first loses sight of his mom. Lost like a kitten running in the rain, desperately trying to find her way back to her home.
"House, it's me..."
His eyes met hers, his gaze was calculating, trying to infer from her actions why he was in a bed at his own hospital. Hot tears continued to run down her cheeks.
"House, your motorcycle...you were in an accident...they had to put you on life support..." she stopped to swallow, to try to breathe evenly. "...They don't expect you to - to live much longer..."
His eyes, that had always reminded her of a deep ocean, seemed to ask her a fearsome question. How long? It was one she would never want to answer, not for House.
"I don't know...they never said..." As she said these words, she moved towards him. She pulled a chair closer to his bed and sat down. Their gazes locked for many minutes, until at last his eyelids closed together, and he was asleep. She bent over his head, kissed his lips, and whispered 'I love you' into his ear. She laid her head on his chest that weakly rose and fell, until she, too, fell asleep.
Cameron awoke to the sounds of Wilson entering the room. He looked at her in sadness, but said nothing as he came to be by House's side.
"Has anyone else been in?" she asked slowly.
"Nurses, Foreman, Chase, Stacey, Cuddy, his parents...everyone, I guess. He's not doing well...I think this is our last chance..."
Cameron soul seemed to sink from her heart to the floor. House...almost gone. It seemed impossible, yet so terribly real. Nothing like what she'd imagined House's death to feel like. Similar to, but more painful than the way she felt when her last husband died. Like she could never possibly be whole again. Like she could never love again, herself, or anyone else.
A single tear rolled of the side of Greg House's face. His eyes were closed, and his breathing slowed. Cameron's sobs took over the silence of the room.
"I love you, House!"
He raised his right hand, the slightest bit. It was enough of response for her. She grasped it as his pulse thickened, decreasing in frequency. His heart gave one last beat; and she cried for him, for the children they could have had, and for herself. Every time she had truly loved someone, she lost them.
