"HOUSE! Open the door!" They suddenly heard Wilson pounding on the door and Cameron jumped up hitting her knee against the piano and she shrieked.

"Ouch, shit." She let out as she quickly hobbled as far from him as she could. "I... I have to go."

II.

Cameron moved over to the couch and grabbed her coat while Wilson went on knocking.

"I know you're in there, House! Cuddy sent me... you need to go back to the hospital." They both heard Wilson say and Cameron looked at House and opened her mouth to tell him to let him in, but for a cripple House was surprisingly fast. He quickly got up from the bench and limped over to Cameron putting his palm to her mouth to shush her. Her eyes widened as he did that and she gave him a quizzical look.

Seeing that he smiled a little before he shook his head and mouthed 'Be quiet'. Cameron gave out a sigh and rolled her eyes, his hand still on her mouth. She didn't know if she was supposed to stop breathing as well, suddenly she needed to cough and took a tiny step back but House's hand remained on her lips, however he moved it a little leaving only his index finger against her soft lips.

"House, I'm not kidding! Don't make me smash the door!" Wilson yelled with a certain amount of hopelessness in his voice and both House and Cameron chuckled silently still looking into each other's eyes. Cameron finally stepped back and sat down on the couch shrugging.

"Looks I'm not going anywhere for a while." She whispered so softly House could barely hear her. He took a few steps closer and motioned for her to move a little and let him sit as well. When he landed right next to her she folded her arms and frowned funnily, which made House smile softly again when he saw her grimace.

And so they just sat there silently while Wilson went on and on about House being irresponsible... but he was a smart guy and gave up after another two or three minutes.

"Just so you know, Cuddy's gonna kill you! Bye." He concluded and left. At the very moment Cameron wanted to get up from the couch and go home but House quickly hooked his fingers in the waistband of her jeans and pulled her back down shaking his head and leaning closer to her.

"Could be a trap." He whispered in her ear and Cameron gulped closing her eyes. She really wanted to leave, she was tired and hungry and more importantly, all of sudden she felt awkward being there.

"He's gone, House." She whispered again tilting her head and pulling a face.

House sighed and nodded before she got up again and put on her coat.

"Thanks for the lesson." She stated matter-of-factly without showing any emotion at all. "Do you have clinic duty tomorrow? If so, I'll cover one hour."

House looked up at her and nodded. "Ten to eleven. Don't be late."

"I won't." Cameron replied. Suddenly the mood was different and neither of them knew why. They weren't smiling, they both just felt really uncomfortable. "See you tomorrow." She added and left.

The next day House didn't bother to get to work before ten. His thigh hurt like hell and he didn't get much sleep either. When Cuddy found Cameron in the clinic she approached her with a frown which made her look like Ursula the Sea Witch.

"Where's House? He's got clinic duty." She asked angrily.

"I'm here instead of him." Cameron replied sweetly. She needed to play it cool unless she wanted Cuddy to cut House's balls with a rusty razor but the truth was she didn't sleep well at all and even though she didn't hate working in the clinic as much as House did, she definitely wasn't excited about being there.

"Doctor Cameron! This is HIS job! If he's making you work here instead of him..."

"No, no... I want to be here. It's okay... really. You don't need to worry about that." Cameron smiled and shrugged.

"I'll talk to him." Cuddy said and turned to leave, quickly making her way to the elevators. "You're not his slave..." She added before she disappeared through the door.

'Shit.' Cameron thought and reached out to take another patient's file. "Mr. Sanders? Please come with me..."

It didn't take Cuddy more than five minutes to storm into House's office where she found him sitting at the table playing with a tiny skateboard.

"You're supposed to be in the clinic!" She yelled at him.

"Cameron's there…" House shrugged without looking at his boss. He didn't want Cuddy or anyone else to know about the deal he made with Cameron but he had no idea how to camouflage it.

"I don't care! I need a lot of doctors in the ER now, I need her there while I need you to DO YOUR JOB! Besides I was calling you yesterday but you switched off your phone! I wanted you here because of all the paperwork you forgot to fill out!" She was screaming like a hyena and House finally looked up at her with a scowl. "This isn't a joke, House. I want your ass in the clinic in five minutes, then you'll start with all the paperwork." With that she grabbed the skateboard from his table and left his office.

Of course it took House another fifteen minutes to get to the clinic.

At 5 pm sharp House walked in the ER pulling a disgusted face. The place was crowded, people covered in blood, doctors and nurses running around… covered in someone else's blood. Blegh.

He whistled which made almost everyone look at him for a second and three young doctors in scrubs made their way to him.

"House, we're a little busy here." Foreman said and took off his medical gloves before throwing them in the trashcan.

"Yeah, I guess you should be here as well.." Chase added and looked around.

"Meh… All hail Earl House, you're officially off the clock, kids. Go home." House said and looked at Cameron. Her eyes were fixed on a stain on the floor and he saw her lick her lips nervously. House knew them too well, they would object a little (especially Chase) just enough to look professional and dedicated but he knew they wanted to get the hell out of there as soon as possible. He wasn't so sure about Cameron though.

"I want to stay and help." She said still avoiding looking at him. House rolled his eyes.

"Nope… I need you in early tomorrow… Rested. Happy. Cheerful."

Foreman and Chase nodded and turned to leave and so did Cameron but House stopped her with a soft poke of his cane. "Today's lesson starts in an hour." He said and she looked up at him, her face pale and her expression emotionless.

"I'd rather stay here and help or go home. I'm tired." She said in an unpleasant tone but she wasn't sure why she did that. He was trying to help her and she needed the help but after five or six hours of stitching up bleeding people all she wanted was a shower, food and good sleep.

"You better be on time, my time is precious." House said with a wry face and turned to leave.

An hour later Cameron knocked on House's door. After she finished her ER shift, she took a quick shower and drove to his place. He opened the door for her without saying a word and she walked in hesitantly.

"Hi." She said timidly and he motioned for her to sit on the couch, which surprised her. When she sat down she saw him limp to one of the bookcases where he found a thick textbook and threw it at her without a previous warning. Of course Cameron didn't manage to catch it and the book hit her forehead.

"Ow… What are you doing?!" She gave a shriek and House could not help the small smile which tugged on his lips.

"Never played catch with the jocks in high school?"

"They weren't trying to kill me." She growled. "What is it?"

"We started off on the wrong foot… you know nothing about the music theory. Say hello to your new best friend." He said and Cameron sighed. On one hand she was grateful for the lessons but on the other this was probably too much.

"House, I appreciate the concern but I don't need to be the new Ashkenazy. I only want to learn one nice composition, that's it." She uttered and House let out a laugh before there was a knock on the door. "Looks like Wilson can't live without you." She added and he limped to answer the door.

"Only if Wilson delivers pizza…" He shouted and opened the door. When he gave the pimply teenager thirty dollars, he kicked the door shut and limped back to the couch. "I'm starving… You?"

Cameron hadn't eaten anything the whole day besides one expired protein bar she found in her bag so she merely nodded and smiled.

House opened the two boxes and shrugged. "Pizza okay?"

"Yes…" She said softly.

"Really? I always thought you were this 'I'm like totally into the bio raw stuff. Like pizza? Oh my god, I don't think so'…" He said with the funniest impression of a valley girl and Cameron burst out laughing doubling over and unable to stop.

House raised his eyebrow watching her but deep inside he was proud he made her laugh like that. After all, who knew, maybe she would even wet herself. He walked to the kitchen and grabbed two beers from the fridge while listening to her laughter subsiding slowly. When he placed the bottles on the table he finally sat down with a sigh.

"I'll be driving later, House." She said and opened the textbook.

"C'mon… it's one beer. Loosen up." He said mockingly and reached out for one slice of the pizza.

"Okay…" She let out a sigh and grabbed one of the bottles but before she took a sip she stopped and looked at him. House raised his eyebrows and blinked while Cameron opened her mouth to say something but soon she decided against that and closed it quickly.

"What?" He asked.

"Nothing." She shrugged and brought the bottle closer to her pink lips.

"You wanted to ask for a glass, didn't you?" He chortled and rolled his eyes.

"No, I didn't." She lied and took a slurp. Then she sat cross-legged on his couch and leaned back while nibbling on the pizza and reading through the first page of the textbook. House swallowed the last bite and leaned closer to her. "What's this?"

"The treble and bass clefs." He answered and shifted even closer to her. "You don't need to worry about the bass clef for now."

"What do they do?" She asked with a confused face and House sighed at her stupid, yet innocently sounding question.

"They indicate the pitch of the notes." He said and reached out for his beer, his elbow brushing her knee softly.

"I thought I do that." She said and furrowed her eyebrows.

"Do what?" He asked and took a sip.

"Indicate the pitch." She shrugged and took another tiny bite of the pizza. She chewed it slowly before she saw in her peripheral vision that House was trembling, like he had a seizure or something. She turned her head to glance at him and noticed his body was actually shaking with laughter. "What?!" She snapped angrily while House put his face in his palms and let out a loud snort. She grunted, closed the textbook and threw it of the table. "It's not funny."

"I beg to… differ…" House let out.

"I meant… if I play I'm the one to indicate…" She started saying, which made House burst into laughter. "Oh, forget it."

"Cameron… for now, what you do cannot be called playing and you definitely don't indicate anything, let alone the pitch. Itsy Bitsy Spider is your Everest." He said after he finally stopped laughing and grabbed another slice of pizza. "Get the book."

She took it from the table and opened it again. "Look," he said and pointed at the notes. "This is the scale you learned yesterday."

"Okay."

"And you need to learn what the notes look like, what they are called and how to play'em."

"Okay." She repeated. "Why are some of them empty?"

Empty… House rolled his eyes again. "Half tones." He said with his mouth full.

"Meaning?"

"Meaning they are shorter than the whole notes." He said.

"And how long are those?" She asked and House rolled his eyes at her.

"Good thing you are pretty, Cameron." He sighed and wiped his hands on his jeans.

When they finished most of the food and drank the beer House told Cameron to sit at the piano. He managed to explain most of the terminology and what the notes looked like but the truth was that she was awfully slow-witted for someone who finished med school.

"Now we need to work on your posture." He told her when she sat down on the bench and twiddled her fingers nervously. He grabbed his cane and limped over to her standing right behind her as he propped the cane against the wall and hesitated a little before grabbing her shoulders gently. "First of all, no slouching." He said in a low voice and Cameron swallowed and bit her bottom lip. When she felt his hands on her she immediately straightened her back and his thumbs moved to the back of her neck. "Good." He said and gulped. He wasn't really sure what he was doing.

When he was satisfied with her posture he slowly moved his hands to her arms and then her elbows and put her hands on the keyboard. "You need to relax." He said and finally let go of her, grabbed his cane and limped away from her.

"Play the scale." He said and walked to the other side of the piano watching her right hand move over the ivory keys. "Good. You made it."

Cameron looked up at him and smiled while his eyes were glued to hers. He leaned against the piano and smiled back at her.

"Now play the scale with your left hand." He said slowly and she took a deep breath. She was nervous. Very nervous.

"Left? I don't think I can do that." She said softly and shook her head.

"Yes, you can. C'mon." He said in something that sounded like an encouraging tone. Cameron nodded and played it. "Very good. And now both hands."

She played the scale several times before withdrawing her hands from the piano and standing up. "I have to go, it's late."

House glanced at the clock on the wall and then back at her. She had been there nearly for three hours and he could see she was exhausted. "Okay…" He nodded and moved over to his couch. "We need a new type of payment, Cuddy was furious today."

"I know… I'm sorry. I tried to tell her it was my idea to do it but she wasn't listening." Cameron said and walked over to where she had put her coat when she came.

"Don't be. There's a lot of paperwork waiting for you in my office." He said and gave her a subtle smirk.

"I'll do it." She nodded and turned to leave but he spoke again when she put her hand on the doorknob.

"There's one more thing I want." He said and leaned against the back of his couch.

She turned and looked at him.

"I want to know why you need the lessons." He said and tilted his head waiting.

Thank you soooo very much for the amazing reviews, I love, love, love them! And I hope this chapter didn't disappoint you. If not, let me know and I'll try to update soon.