Cameron was leaning against the wall next to the door, watching the nurse prepare Joe for the X-ray.
It had been almost 15 years since she had last seen him. After she had yelled at him to never come back into her life again; that had been at her husband's funeral.
It seemed like a lifetime had passed since.
While they had gone down to radiology he had told her he had just moved to Princeton a week ago. He had quietly said that he came around to visit her two days ago, but just stayed in his car, not sure if she would want to see him.
Now, as she watched him, she knew she had missed him, greatly, maybe she had been wrong to cut him out of her life so long ago. But at that time it had been too painful for him to be near.
Cameron felt she would be cheating on her late husband.
Feeling the tears well up in her eyes she took a deep breath, but it was futile so she closed her eyes and went outside on the hallway.
Slowly sliding down the wall, she put her face into her hands and took a few deep breaths.
It had been a while since she felt so many emotions and she wasn't sure she still knew how to deal with it.
Last time she had felt like this was when she had left … there. Him.
Inhaling deeply and breathing out slowly she pushed away the pain and got up again.
This time it would be different.
While Cameron was standing in the hallway, pretty much staring into the void, she didn't notice House standing only a few yards away, hiding around a corner.
Watching her.
He had been on his way back to his office when he had seen her standing out in the hall, deciding he could probably find out something more so he remained in his hiding spot.
They had been standing there for almost ten minutes now, and House was about to leave when the door opened.
"Ally?"
House saw the nurse coming out, with Joe in the wheelchair.
Cameron quickly turned around, trying to hide her tears, wiping them away swiftly. Just a second later she turned back to them, a smile all over her face, not a slight hint of her tears left.
House was impressed on how easy she seemed to block out her feelings lately.
"Here are the x-rays." The nurse handed her an envelope and Cameron took out the sheets, looking at them.
Cameron narrowed her eyes and looked at the x-ray for a few seconds.
"From what I can see now, you have broken three ribs … uh …" she fiddled out two more sheets and took a quick look at them too, "….and uh … you probably tore a ligament in your left foot."
She put the x-rays back into the envelope and handed them back to the nurse.
"I want to do a CT-scan, blood test for a SED-rate and a CBC."
The nurse nodded, and then went to the nurses-station.
"We're going to have to admit you Joe." Cameron said kneeling down in front of him. House stepped a bit forward to hear better, leaning against the wall to relieve some pressure off of his leg.
"Your temperature is a little up, which could be caused by one of the broken ribs sticking into the lung-tissue."
"Okay." Joe just nodded and looked down.
"Hey, you are going to be okay. " Cameron took his face into her hands and Joe started to smile.
House was surprised on how soft and friendly her voice sounded. He had almost forgotten this about Cameron.
She had grown colder during the last six months; it was like her heart had been shattered and someone had just provisionally glued it back together with ice. He couldn't tell when this had started but he was sure the whole thing with Tritter had done its part.
No, this was the Cameron, she used to be two years ago.
"Thank you, Ally." Joe answered and slightly kissed her thumb.
When she got up and turned half way, she left House almost speechless. Her whole expression was so different, from anything he had seen before. House couldn't quite define what it was but it was definitely new to him.
House forced himself to look back to the guy. He definitely wasn't her brother, and he sure wasn't her boyfriend. How would she have managed to get one, when he had kept her busy the last couple of weeks?
And calling her 'Ally' excluded any recent acquaintance, and her facial expression proofed that fact.
So what was left? Was he another family member? An old friend from her past?
There was something more to it, and he knew where he could get that very information.
Stepping back he turned, limping towards the elevator. Half way his beeper went off and he read the message: 'New case'.
Okay, so this will have to wait, he thought as he entered the elevator.
It was an hour later when she entered Joe's room with the test results. Her beeper had gone off 40 minutes ago, at first she had tried to ignore it, since she knew House had a new case. After twenty minutes she had phoned Chase, telling him she was with a patient and that she would be there when she was done.
She was wondering why House hadn't appeared yet, he normally had a knack for tracking down wayward fellows, she was glad she could stay with Joe for now.
"Okay, so I got your test results back." She closed the glass door behind her, and stopped in front of the bed, taking his chart. She flipped it open and then went around the bed and sat down.
She took a deep breath and started, "Your SED-rate is elevated, your temperature is up to 102.5 and the CT scan confirmed that one of the ribs has pierced some lung tissue, which causes inflammation."
"Okay. What are we going to do?" Joe smiled slightly.
"We are going to give you some meds for the inflammation and I scheduled you for surgery in … uh… three hours." Cameron said and closed his chart.
He frowned at her.
"Don't worry, Joe. It's a minor procedure. You'll probably be able to leave the hospital by the end of the week." She smiled at him, and took his hand into hers. Now he looked up and nodded slightly.
She got up and turned to leave when she felt his fingers encircle her wrist, holding her back.
Cameron turned around, looking at his hand and then up, to see him smiling,
"I missed you… I missed you so much." He whispered.
The tears immediately started to fill her eyes to the brim. She looked down but when she felt his hand squeezing hers, looked up again. He was still smiling.
How much did she wish all this feelings would go away, leave her for good. She had missed him too, and yet she could not speak it out loud.
"Ally? You okay?"
She closed her eyes for a second. It had been so long since anyone had called her that. Way too long, she thought and almost laughed out loud at how ridiculous she was acting.
'Just open your damn eyes and tell him, you missed him already,' the voice inside her head yelled at her.
She opened her eyes slowly, a slight smile forming on her face she opened her mouth but was interrupted by her beeper. Taking a deep breath she whispered a sorry and Joe let go of her hand.
'Conference Room. NOW.' was all it read. Taking another deep breath and put the beeper back into her pocket, then turned around to Joe, "Sorry, I need to go."
Joe watched her for a second and then nodded.
"I am going to check on you later." She smiled friendly and then left the room.
While she walked down the hallway towards the stairs, she cursed herself for acting like this.
Acting like she was a teenager.
She had been in love with Joe so deeply, and seeing him today made her realize that she still was, and why she had fallen in love with him in the first place.
He had been the one.
They had shared so much during the time her husband had been in the hospital. And that was what was holding her back. Because looking at Joe, talking to him meant seeing all the suffering she had went through again.
The guilt and the shame.
That was why she sent him away after the death of his best friend. She couldn't stand it then, how could she pretend to stand it now?
She was still in thoughts when she entered the conference room. Chase and Foreman gave her a look while she sat down.
"What?"
"Nothing, its just … House is pissed."
"Why? Didn't you tell him I was with a patient?"
"Yeah, of course I did, but he is House … why would he care about it?" Chase said and looked at Foreman.
She was about to reply when the door to House's office flew open and he stepped out.
"Ah, Dr.Cameron. Did you finally manage to honour us with your presence?"
She inhaled sharply.
"So, boys, would you mind to getting her up to speed while I fetch my coffee?" He looked at Chase and limbed over to the sink.
While Chase presented the case they had gotten an hour earlier, he turned around, sipping at his coffee and watched his female duckling. He could tell she did a good job at hiding her true thoughts, if he didn't know what was up with her, he probably wouldn't have noticed at all.
Ten minutes later they had been through every possibility for now,
"Okay, Foreman will do the MRI and the LB. Chase go take a better history, the first one sucked. And Cameron can take over the blood tests. Now go and make daddy proud."
He walked over to his office but before he reached it, he noticed Cameron still standing in the middle of the room so he turned around, eyes locking with hers.
"Uh, didn't you understand? Blood tests. You'll probably need blood to run those … and uh … what is it called? Ah, that's right. A lab? Need one of those too, can't run tests without one." he mocked turning around hoping to have ended the conversation there.
He was wrong.
"I was actually hoping I could talk to you." She said quiet with a steady voice.
"Yeah, well, I was hoping for a threesome with Angelina and Heidi, but sometimes our hopes get crushed," he said making a face.
Ignoring his last sentence she stepped nearer, "I want to take over a patient's treatment."
"Yeah, that is why you should be in the lab doing those tests."
"I meant a patient from Pulmonology."
"No." House simply stated and opened his office door.
But Cameron refused to give up and went after him
"You got Chase and Foreman, I am expandable. It is likely that this case doesn't even have anything to do with Immunology."
"I am not going to change my mind. I am your attendant." He turned around again and hoped the conversation would be over. And just a second later he heard that door closing again.
House sat down on his chair, angry.
Cameron was his duckling, she belonged to his team, a team that took only the most bizarre cases, so why would she take over a patient with something as boring as some broken ribs, even if she knew him?
He really should go find out more about that, so getting up he went out on the balcony, limped over to Wilson's office and unlocked it with the key, he had made three months previously, unbeknownst to Wilson.
So when Wilson entered his locked office a couple of minutes later, he was confused for a second, but then realized that House probably had a key for every room in the hospital by now.
"You should really hire someone to clean out this desk. There is so much junk in there. And I am not even talking about this … thing you are hiding in the closed drawer." House wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.
"What do you want House?" Wilson asked and slumped into one of the chairs, since House had occupied his.
"You are annoyed. Damn, if I had known that it is already this time of month I would have waited a couple more days." House mocked and closed the drawer he had just inspected.
"Sorry, I just had a rough day." Wilson wiped over his face and sighed.
"Do you want to lay down and have me read you a story?"
"I … I don't think you've left any of your playboys here." Wilson joked.
House made a face and leaned back, grinning at him.
"What?"
"Nothing. I just want to hang out with my pal."
"Yeah, of course." Wilson said sarcastic and got up, putting on his coat.
"Going home?"
"Nope, got a house call." He replied.
On that House gave him a smug look and winced exaggerated.
Wilson just sighed and turned to go.
"Okay, okay. Do you know anything about Cameron's patient?"
The oncologist turned around; obviously House had gotten his attention.
"Uh … no." Wilson answered carefully.
House sighed and explained,
"She asked to be excused from our current case to take over treatment of another patient with some broken ribs."
"Huh. She'd rather treat a patient with boring symptoms then to follow orders from her bastard of a boss? That is hard to understand." Wilson's voice was dripping with sarcasm.
House did not respond to that so Wilson added,
"Maybe she just needs a time out from you."
"She knows the guy." House suddenly said.
"Who is it?"
"That I do not know yet. All I know is that his name is Joe Martin."
"And you are coming to me, because … ?"
"You two are the most caring people on earth hence you must be in some sort of a club. And … I think you two are talking a lot lately."
"What does that have to do with …?" he shook his head and continued, "Personally I think you shouldn't put your nose into this, but that is just me and my stupid common sense."
"Yah, yah. Whatever. Do you know anything?"
Wilson looked at him, about to tell him he would leave when he got a thought, "Joe? His name is Joe?"
"Yeah."
"Well, Cameron mentioned that name once."
"Hah, I knew it. You are the bestest friend Jimmy." House said smiling brightly, with a girly voice.
"She told me that he was the best friend of her husband." Wilson said and then frowned.
"What? There is more to it, isn't it?"
"I am not feeling good about this House."
"Oh come on, what is it?" House literally stared at him now.
"Okay, I know this will be hard for you, but please try to keep that to yourself or at least do not mention that to her."
"Good lord, what do you think of me?"
Wilson looked at him, with raised eyebrows. But when House's smile vanished and he nodded serious he continued, "She and Joe had fallen in love while her husband was dying."
House turned his glance around and looked outside. So that was it.
And knowing Cameron she probably felt guilty about this and shut out love for the sake of her dying husband. And afterwards she couldn't bear to see him, because the only thing she would feel was guilt, House concluded without knowing how close he was with his interpretation.
"House. I am serious. Do not get involved, please do not do that to her. She's been through enough, with and without your help." Wilson said and tried to read House's expression.
House just looked at him, but did not say anything. Instead he turned and left the office.
Again, Wilson sighed, hoping he hadn't just opened Pandora's Box.
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A/N: Thank you all for your lovely comments so far. I hope you enjoy reading and please review.
