Disclaimer: I don't own House and/or any of the other characters on the show.

Chapter Two

There was nothing Allison Cameron enjoyed more after a long day of work than to take a hot, bubble bath. Lately, however, this routine she'd practiced for so long had become a tedious task. When she undressed, her light skin was anything but that with deep purple, black and blue spots. Mostly around her rib cage and her lower stomach, the bruises were a reminder of what he wanted her to be. She'd never thought of herself as "overweight" but then again, she'd never seen herself through anyone else's eyes. She lowered herself into the hot water and could feel her body shiver. She rested her head against the back of tub and closed her eyes.

(Flashback)

"He knows you?!" House said almost shouting as he stood up to, "oh please Cameron, if this guy knew anything about you he'd know that you have an eating disorder and wouldn't let you work yourself to death!"

(End Flashback)

Her eyes bolted open. House was right. He was always right for that matter. He should've gotten a degree in pyschology because he could read just about anyone like a book. He did hate reading though. She gently scrubbed her body as she thought about where her life had gone in the last few months. The last time she had stepped on the scale she clenched as she saw she weighed 111 lbs. The last time she could remember weighing that little, she was a pre-teen. She was in her early thirties and this just wasn't right. She knew what would happen if she didn't obey Christopher's rules. He'd beaten her more than once and he was a cop so even if she did leave him, he'd find her.

She heard her front door open and closed her eyes. He was home. She watched as the bathroom door slowly opened and a big guy with visible muscles walked in. He stood around six foot two with brown hair and brown eyes. At first glance, he looked like the perfect gentlemen. For that matter, he had been. However it was first glance. Two weeks into dating she'd notice a possesive behavior in him. At first she passed it off as him being the "House" type, where he'd tear you down for no reason and didn't like to share. He was no House though.

"Hey, baby. Long day at work?" he said gently as he sat besides the tub, holding her hand.

"It wasn't so bad," she said trying to not put her work before his. "You?"

"Catching criminals, as always," he chuckled. "How about I make you some dinner and we can curl up together on the couch and watch a movie?"

"Sounds good," she hesitated.

"Alright," he said as he kissed her on the forehead and made his way back to the kitchen.

One minute he was cooking dinner for her so she could relax the next he was beating her senseless because she wasn't at an "acceptable" weight.

A few moments later, she lifted her body out of the tub, wrapping a towel around her. Looking down at the scale beside her, she didn't want to get on and see how much she weighed. She was a doctor and knew what she was doing was dangerous to her health but she also knew not doing it could be just as dangerous. At least this way, she was in control. Stepping on the electronic scale, bright red numbers glowed reading '108 lbs'. She sighed, hoping maybe that would be enough to please him. She got dressed and walked into the living room where he had already set up dinner for them.

"What did you make?" she asked throwing a blanket over herself as he poured some wine.

"Steak and mashed potatoes, for myself. For you," he looked down at the plate as he handed it to her, "steamed vegetables".

"Oh," she said as she looked down at a few peices of vegetables.

"How do you expect me to hold you at night with all that stomach fat?" he said calmly.

She didn't answer to this and just ate as she was told. When he was done he said he was going to sleep and that since she was "so fat" she needed to sleep on the couch because he wanted room to move around. He took her blanket with him into the bedroom and shut off the heat to the living room as he left. It was a cold, winter night and she was left shivering on the couch. She had no choice but to wake up every hour to stretch out her limbs so she wouldn't be in pain the next morning.

When she woke up the next morning she could hear the bathroom sink running and knew that he wouldn't allow her to use the bathroom to get ready. The morning and night, for that matter, were all about him. He was getting ready, so she couldn't. She went into her bedroom and picked out some clothes and her bag. She left a note for him on the table saying she'd gone to work and with that she left. She walked out to the car rubbing her eyes, realizing she hadn't put any makeup on because it was in the bathroom cabinet. Dark circles shadowed her eyes and she knew she'd be attracting unwanted attention today. She got into her car and looked in the mirror.

"It could be worse," she said to herself. "There are people out there who are worse off. No point in complaining".

This is what she told herself on the mornings after he would hurt her or put her down. Technically speaking, it was true, there were worse people off, but she was going through this and it was pretty bad. She saw no use in complaining about it though, because she didn't have the strength to leave him.

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House stood on his office balcony, leaning heavily against the wall. On the other side of the partition, Wilson walked over to him.

"You gonna talk to her?" Wilson asked casually hoping his friend would come to his senses.

"Oh, I was hoping you could slip fun bags the note I wrote for her. I'm too embarassed and nervous to give it to her myself!" he exclaimed like a little school boy.

"House! Be serious for a minute! This is Cameron, we're talking about. Smart, beautiful, Cameron! You remember her? The woman you secretly want, but won't admit it?"

"I don't want her," he looked away.

"If only you could step outside your rude, miserable self, you could see what everyone else sees when you look at her,"

"She's pathetic," he said simply.

"Well at least she doesn't drown her sorrows in vicodin and scotch and make everyone around them as miserable as they are".

"Oh, you're talking about me!" he winked an eye and smiled walking away.

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As had been his custom for the past couple of week he stood behind the nurse's desk, out of the way but not out of sight. What was out of sight was Cameron. At first he thought maybe it was because she was standing sideways and was so skinny she was nearly invisible for a minute, but she really wasn't there. He walked over to the nurse who was sitting behind the counter.

"Where's Dr. Cameron?" he gruffed.

"Haven't seen her all day. Check the clinic," the nurse directed him without ever making eye contact.

"Oh great," he rolled his eyes.

He hated the clinic more than anything and knew there were people, namely Cuddy, he wanted to avoid seeing there. She would yell at him and force him to see patients, which he was never in the mood for. He took a deep breath before opening the clinic doors and quickly walked to the counter.

"Signing in?" the nurse asked.

"Ha, that will be the day. Where's Dr. Cameron?" he felt like a broken record.

"Exam room three," the nurse signed.

The nurses in the clinic had a pool going to see who could get House to voluntarily sign in for clinic duty on time. As of yet, no one had succeeded and the pool was up $600. Limping over to the exam room he wasn't going to bother knocking and having her reject him coming in. He threw open the door dramatically and Cameron jumped and her eyes went wide. She hoped House hadn't noticed, but nothing got past him.

"Busy!" she said attending to her patient's symptoms.

"My head hurts, all over!" the older woman said to Cameron.

"Show me where," she said gently.

The lady pointed to the top of her head and before she could take her hands down House walked over and stood beside Cameron, in front of the patient.

"Oh so it hurts here?" he asked before pressing on her sinuses.

"House!" Cameron objected.

"What the hell?" the woman asked.

"Your sinuses are blocked. Take this and you'll be fine. Get out!" he said writing down a name of some medicine on Cameron's scrip and handing it to the woman who gave him a dirty look and walked out.

Cameron tried to follow her patient but House blocked the doorway. She momentarily had a flashback to when Christopher had done the same thing before punching her. She flinched, then she opened her eyes and clenched.

"Unclench, Cameron. When you clench, I clench and it's this whole thing-"

"What do you want from me!" she screamed.

Right to the point, House thought. Wow, he had changed her in the time she worked for him.

"Wilson wanted me to apologize for what I said last night-"

"But?"

"I'm not going to. I wasn't wrong. You smelled like vomit in the elevator last night".

"I don't have to explain myself to you".

"You do if you ever want to leave this room," he said sternly, his blue eyes burning a hole in her skin. "Or, if you don't want to tell me what's been going on, there's a scale in that corner, let me weigh you".

"Screw you," she squinted her eyes and sat in her chair. "If you're trying to play a game, House, then fine. I'm sure it won't be long before Cuddy gets word you stepped in the clinic and she'll be checking up on you".

He looked down for a moment, almost defeated. "I guess i've never mentioned what a great ass you have".

She looked at genuinely disgusted, "Don't try and pyschoanalyze me, House!"

"It'd be a shame for you to lose that because you don't eat," he pulled a chair in front of the door and he sat down in front of her. "My guess is you're not eating but you do soley for the purpose of having something to throw up. You stand around five foot six-ish and your healthy weight would be 118 and i'm guessing you're really at hmm, i'll go with 105". He studied her.

"108!" she yelled, "I weigh 108, it's disgusting. I'm disgusting". She had tears in her eyes as she got all worked up. "My own boyfriend doesn't want to touch me because i'm so fat!"

She stood up fastly and nearly lost balance because she was so dizzy. With her busy schedule she didn't really have a chance to stay properly hydrated which caused alot of her dizziness. She rested one arm supporting her body on the table and tried deep breaths.

House got off his chair and limped towards her, "gee, House, you were right! My boyfriend doesn't know me at all!" he mimicked her in a high pitched voice.

"I never said that," she said out of breath.

"Look at me," he paused, waiting for her to comply when her soft brown eyes met his hypnotizing blue eyes. "If he knew you, he'd know that you're sensitive. You take criticisim personally. Or maybe he does know this and he just doesn't care".

"You do the same thing," she said heartlessly.

"But I do care-"

"House!" yelled an angry Cuddy from the other side of the locked door. "Are you in there scaring off patients?!"

House stared at Cameron for a moment longer and she straightened herself out, wiping away her tears. He walked over to the door and unlocked it letting Cuddy rush in.

"House? What have you been- Cameron?" she looked confused. "What's going on here?" she asked suspiciously.
"Jealous I didn't call you to come play doctor with us?" he smirked and walked away.

Cuddy stood there for a moment in amazement that she lets him get away with so much before walking back to her office. Cameron went and grabbed another file from the nurse's station and went back to work. She was moving slowly, because of the pain of her bruises. In a moment of weakness she may have admitted she had an eating disorder but she'd be damned if she admitted it was because she was getting beaten into it.

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a/n: Thanks for the reviews, I see alot of you added this story to your alerts, which I take to be good news. Next chapter will be mainly Hameron, so look for that in the next few days =)