A/N: Still stuck on my other fic and still busy as all hell. But had a burst of energy with this fic and wanted to post what I'd had so far. Let me know what you think! (Anybody out there?) Their interactions are going to start being more heavily involved in the next chapter, so bear with me and my glacial pace!
"You handle House's antics pretty well." Cameron broke the silence, previously occupied only by the soft rustling of their clothes as they walked to the patient's room. The hallway was almost empty except for the nighttime crew of doctors, administrators, and nurses who would pass with a smile or a yawn on their way to fulfill their duties. It was a distinct difference from the ER, Cameron noticed, which was almost always well-staffed and bustling. The lack of windows hid the passage of time, the fluorescent lighting a constant in the chaos. Not here, where the gaping windows revealed the nighttime sky full of stars.
"Yeah." Thirteen replied simply, her sturdy work shoes scuffing the floor, sending a squeak echoing through the hall. She had her hands shoved in her pockets, pushing her white lab coat back behind her hips.
"Did you grow up with brothers?" She pressed, watching Thirteen for any sort of reaction, but instead getting the same blank stare she'd gotten any time she'd tried to ask her a question.
"What makes you think that?" They stopped outside of the patient's room, standing on either side of the glass door.
"Nothing, I guess. I grew up with a brother, and it felt a lot like working for House." Cameron offered a warm smile, a truce for the duration of the procedure.
Thirteen tugged open the door without responding, walking into the patient's room with Cameron on her heels.
"Hey, Taylor. How're you feeling?" Thirteen asked, stopping at a monitor to write down his vitals.
"As good as I can be, I guess." The patient, a teenage boy with a reddish brown mop of hair, replied, attempting a weak smile at Thirteen.
"Good." Thirteen turned to the other two occupiers of the room. "Mr. and Mrs. Madigan. Could I speak with you for a moment?"
They looked at each other, standing and smiling at Taylor before following Thirteen into the hallway. Cameron took the opportunity to pull up a chair next to the patient's bed.
"Hi. I'm Dr. Cameron." She had practiced this a million times: A warm smile—not too big, closed-mouth—a firm handshake, and soft, steady eye contact.
"Taylor." The boy grabbed her hand, falling easily into the comforting eyes of the immunologist. "So, what are they talking about?" He nodded his head toward the figures of Dr. Hadley and his parents, watching from under furrowed brows.
"Dr. Hadley's getting your parents' consent to perform a lumbar puncture." Cameron was keeping close tabs on Taylor's facial expression, though he was still much more interested in the trio outside the door. "Don't worry, she's an amazing doctor."
"I know." He finally turned his attention back to Cameron. "I asked them to let her be my doctor instead of that old guy."
"Dr. Taub?" Cameron suppressed the smirk that threatened to make itself known to the patient, covering for herself by pressing for more information. "Why did you want to switch?"
"I don't know." He shrugged. "He was more interested in explaining things to my parents. But she explains it to me as she's doing it. I like that."
Cameron nodded. Though informed consent was a basic in medical school, it almost surprised her that Thirteen practiced it with her patients. It had been hard enough trying to get House not to blatantly lie to his patients when she'd worked for him.
The scraping of the glass door sliding open broke the two from their thoughts.
"All right, Taylor." Thirteen came to stand next to Cameron, placing a hand casually on the back of her chair. "Let's get you prepped for a Lumbar Puncture."
Twenty minutes later, they were in a separate exam room, Taylor laid on his side on a flat table, Thirteen and Cameron standing side by side in front of him.
"This is iodine, all right?" Thirteen held up the gel so he could see what she was talking about, continuing only when he nodded. "Dr. Cameron's going to apply this first so that you don't get an infection. It's just an anti-septic." She picked up one of the needles. "This is going to numb the area so you won't feel anything." She picked up the final, largest needle. "And this is what we're going to be inserting into your spine. It can be dangerous, but Dr. Cameron has done a million of these, okay? So you don't have anything to worry about."
Taylor nodded again, shutting his eyes tightly. "What do I need to do?"
"Turn over and try to curl yourself as tightly into the fetal position as possible without straining yourself." It was Cameron's turn to play doctor, standing and prepping the iodine gel as Thirteen opened the back of the boy's gown. She spread the gel in large circles on Taylor's back, sighing when he tensed. "Hey, Taylor. I know it's hard, but this is going to be a lot easier for all of us if you try to relax." He glanced over his shoulder to meet her soft blue eyes. "Can you try to do that for me?"
He nodded, dropping his head back down. "Dr. Hadley?" He questioned tentatively.
"Yeah?" She walked around so he could see her while they talked, and so he wouldn't notice the syringe Cameron was preparing behind him.
"I know this is stupid, but…." He let out a long breath as Cameron slowly pushed the first needle into his skin. "Would you hold my hand? I'm scared."
Thirteen glanced up at Cameron over the boy's body, receiving a shrug in return.
"Uh, sure." She pulled a chair up and reached over to grab his hand. "But you have nothing to be scared of. The risks sound scary, but they're extremely unlikely when the-"
The monitor above the bed started beeping erratically and Thirteen practically knocked the chair over she stood so fast.
"Oh, shit. Dr. Hadley, it-it hurts!" Taylor moaned, writhing on the bed.
"BP keeps rising." She mumbled, half to herself, and half for the benefit of Dr. Cameron. "Cameron, what are you doing to him?" She looked over Taylor's body, to steal a glance at the blonde, who was sitting with her mouth agape.
"Nothing." She looked up and down his body for signs of an allergic reaction, but the skin was fine. "I didn't even start the procedure." She shook her head in disbelief.
Thirteen squatted down to look him in the eye. "Taylor, what hurts?"
"Everything." He groaned out between gritted teeth. "God, make it stop!" He looked up at Thirteen with increasingly wild eyes.
"Cameron." Thirteen didn't take her eyes off the young man still holding her hand in front of her. "Haldol. Now."
Cameron sighed, pulling her phone from her pocket and smiling at what she found.
Got tired of waiting, so I'm bringing our dinner date to you. Soup or sandwich?
Robert Chase could definitely be a pain in the ass sometimes, but every now and then he managed to come through in a big way. She didn't deserve all the affection he lavished on her. Yet in a way, it was unwanted. Their entire relationship had been the product of a hundred no's and one exhausted, broken-down yes. And now here she was, years later and practically living with the man and yet she couldn't shake the need for something… unstable. Something so opposite of herself it kept her in touch with being alive, kept her out of the monotone of work and home. She'd had this argument with herself a million times, and she went through the motions of reminding her subconscious she could have both. She made a mental note to call some of her friends from college she'd lost touch with and went out to hunt down her boyfriend and his bag of food.
She figured diagnostics would be a good bet, considering that's where she said she'd been called to, but the room was empty save for House bouncing his ball against the whiteboard, waiting impatiently for the team to assemble. House. He had been exactly what she wanted. Crass, crude, careless. She knew deep down behind his tortured genius façade, he was sweet and caring. She hated that she'd rarely been able to pull that part of him out, and eventually she had begun wondering if it had ever existed or if she'd just made it up for her fantasies. After a minute of watching him think, she turned around, not wanting to give him the opportunity to notice her, and headed for the ER. That was the only other place she could think of Chase being. After asking around the reception desk a little, she was pointed to exam "room" three.
"I'm sorry." Robert's muffled voice came through the curtain that acted as a wall, causing Cameron to pause with a hand on the thick vinyl. "It's just… you have the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen."
Her hand grasped the curtain tighter and she pushed it open as slowly and calmly as she could. The curtain barely made a whisper as it slid apart, unveiling the scene inside.
"No, Dr. Cameron's eyes are much more beautiful than mine." Thirteen glanced up at Allison, who had quietly made herself known with her entrance. "You just get to look at them all the time so they're not exotic anymore." She pushed off the bed, forcing Chase back a few steps from where he'd been hunched over her arm. "Thanks for gluing me up." She nodded at Cameron on her way out, ducking her head down to avoid the older woman's wrath.
"What the hell, Robert?" Cameron snapped, trying her best to keep the volume of her voice down in her workplace.
"It wasn't what it looked like." He promised, holding his hands up defensively. "I was helping her fix up her arm. I just had never noticed her eyes before, that's all. They're incredible."
Cameron scoffed and looked away, fighting tears that threatened to fall. Would Chase throw away everything they'd built for a night with a woman who would probably not remember his name in the morning?
"Look, Allison." He took a step forward, placing his hands on her shoulders, "you have nothing to worry about, okay? I'm not going anywhere." He nudged her chin upward with his fingers, and looked deeply into her eyes. "And she was right, anyway. Your eyes are way more beautiful than hers." He leaned down and kissed her gently, pulling away after a couple of seconds, and gathering her body closer to his chest.
"I'm being ridiculous, aren't I?" She murmured, finding comfort in his steady heartbeat.
"No, what you saw was…" He became quiet, grasping silently for the right word. "Unsettling." Her forehead ground against his chest as she nodded her agreement. "But you can trust me, okay?" A moment passed, and he hesitantly added, "can I ask you something?"
"Mm-hmm." Her voice was muffled against his chest and she pressed her face harder into the material of his shirt, taking in the soothing smell of his cologne.
"Why didn't you help Thirteen?" Cameron stiffened in his arms at the question, her entire body tensing in resistance. "I just mean, it's not like you to not even offer to help. Do you really hate her that much?"
Cameron let out a deep sigh, pulling away from his body slightly to look into his eyes. "No, I just had more important things to do. She's a doctor, it's just a cut."
He pulled back and crossed his arms over his chest. "A cut I thought needed stitches on her dominant forearm. She was going to apply a butterfly bandage to it."
"That would have been fine."Cameron shot back, mirroring his body language, quirking an eyebrow in defiance.
"It would've been one hell of a nasty scar. It's already going to be bad with just the surgical glue we compromised on."
"Why the hell do you care so much about this, Chase? We're in a hospital; she's surrounded by doctors who could help her. This is about her stubbornness, okay? Not mine." She turned and walked away, deciding her grumbling stomach could wait until she got home.
"What did you do?" House snapped the second she pushed open the door to diagnostics. She had seen it building as she made her way down the hall, House watched her through the glass wall the entire walk, tapping his cane on the floor over and over again.
"I didn't do anything." She dropped into an open chair next to Foreman, resting her elbows on the table. "It wasn't an allergic reaction. He's not paralyzed. It wasn't my fault." She emphasized the last point, returning House's glare without a second's hesitation.
"He was fine before you administered the anesthetic!" House was frustrated; exasperated. She knew this was his way of pushing her harder, and of blowing off steam, but it wasn't her job to be his punching bag anymore.
"Look, House. He had a psychotic break. Psychotic breaks are brought on by stress. Lumbar punctures are stressful. It's unrelated." She pushed back, and he seemed to consider what she said for a second. He looked over to Thirteen, who had been watching uninterestedly.
"I think she's right. Taylor seemed stressed out before the procedure began. He asked me to hold his hand before she administered the anesthetic." Thirteen jumped in warily.
House turned to look at the whiteboard again, the words "PSYCHOTIC BREAK" written in at the bottom and circled four times. "But what if it is related?" He glanced up at the team who looked at one another. "Differential diagnosis for chronic fatigue, rash, compromised immune system, and psychotic breaks. Go!"