Hello, little boy
xx
Dr. James Wilson only found out about Cameron's pregnancy about two weeks before she gave birth.
It was kind of ironic---Wilson's old college buddy had asked him to stand as godfather to one of his twin daughters, even though Wilson wasn't Catholic. That same college buddy mentioned that he knew of someone who used to work at PPTH.
"I invited her as well--Mona became chummy with her on her first day here at the hospital," Matt had said. "I just recalled after Mona told me over dinner last night, you know, about where she used to work at until you called me up."
Wilson's spidey senses were tingling--or rather the small hairs on the back of his neck were tingling--when he recalled something. "Is she working with Mona over at the Immunology Department as well?" he asked, crossing his fingers.
"Whoa, how'd you guess?" Matt yelled, causing Wilson to wince. "Yeah, Dr. Cameron joined us several months ago..."
---
Wilson never told House. His friend went on a downward spiral three months after he woke up from his coma.
As he'd mentioned to John and Blythe House, the pain returned. It was hard to tell if it was as bad as it was before he got shot, less, or more; House's reaction to this development was to immerse himself in innumerable bottles of scotch, Vicodin, and traumatizing the applicants for the vacant position in the Department of Diagnostics.
The little bombshell Wilson received from Matt was something he was going to keep mum on until he meets Cameron personally in New York.
---
Wilson almost didn't recognize Cameron, who was standing next to Mona, holding one of the screaming twins.
He'd never thought he'd see the day Allison Cameron would be so--round. Last time he saw her, she was a slim, lithe woman, hardly an ounce of fat on her--always on the move. THIS Allison Cameron was a little plumper in the limbs, her cheeks were rounder and rosy like apples--actually, with the exception of the enormous belly, Cameron looked like all she gained were 10 pounds.
As he thought of a way to re-introduce himself to Cameron, a large hand whacked him on the back, causing him to nose-dive into his cup of coffee.
"Jamie, m'man!" Matt roared into his left ear as he wrapped a beefy arm around his shoulders into a half-bear hug. "You made it! Come on over and meet your goddaughter, Brenda! Hey--" Matt's voice became a whisper at this point "--hope you don't take this the wrong way, but my late mother-in-law's name was Julie, and, well--"
Matt gestured awkwardly; Wilson and Julie had finalized the divorce three months ago. Through mutual friends, Wilson had also heard that Julie was currently living in with their neighbor from when they were still married, the same man Julie had confessed to him was her lover. After hearing her confession, he packed up his things and headed for House's flat that same night.
"Its okay, Matthew," Wilson said reassuringly as he wiped some of the coffee off his face before looking back out to where he spotted Cameron earlier. As he'd suspected, Matt's big mouth had garnered Cameron's attention. Her aquamarine eyes had widened when she saw him, and he could see her turn a little pale, then bright pink, with surprise.
"C'mon, Jamie," Matt said, as though he wasn't troubled by the awkward pause. "Got an old friend of yours I want you to meet!"
---
The introductions were warm, but the smiles coming from the "old friends" were a bit strained.
He could tell Cameron was flustered, so he decided to take his cue from her and didn't mention how right Matt was about their being friends. Unlike House, Wilson knew when to do the interrogating, though he can be just as impatiently curious as his friend.
---
The time came after the christening of the twins. Wilson was thinking about how to invite Cameron out for a light snack somewhere when the lady in question beat him to it. He wondered if it was becoming a trend as the years go by---first Julie cheated on him first, now Cameron thought to invite him ahead of time for some sandwiches at Peanut Butter & Co. in Greenwich Village.
After munching some Elvis PB&J sandwiches ("This can't be healthy, but I can't seem to order any other sandwich here since I started getting cravings!") and some bit of small talk, Wilson finally broached the subject, albeit rather abruptly.
"Does House know about the baby, Cameron?" he asked softly, his brown eyes unwavering as he stared into her aquamarine ones.
She sighed and looked away for a moment before staring back at him, her gaze never wavering, "He doesn't."
"Why?" Wilson moved closer. "He may be an asinine, cynical boob, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have a right not to know."
"It's complicated, Wilson," Cameron butted in. "It's complicated!"
"HOW complicated?" he whispered harshly, his voice laced with frustration and surprise. "Try me--I've been his friend this long; why doesn't he know?"
She stares back at him, her eyes wide and shimmering with unshed tears; she opened her mouth and waved her hands in little circles, trying to form the reason into words. After about a minute, she waved both her hands in the air and dropped them on the table before letting them rest on her distended stomach, her head following suit as her chin hit her chest. Taking a deep breath, without raising her head, she simply said, in a tiny voice, "He's not over her."
"Oh shit---House!" Wilson thought, his jaw dropping.
"I don't want to be in a one-sided relationship, Wilson," she whispered as she looked back up to his face. "I thought—but when it--when it--HAPPENED, he said HER name. I later had a pregnancy test and then---" she waved her hand dismally around the cheerfully decorated restaurant "--I decided to come here before I started showing signs--before he came back to work."
She broke down and sobbed. Wilson moved from the seat across her, knelt beside her, and placed the complementary tissue holder near her before putting an arm around her. After letting her emotions run its short course, he started to ask the same time she was about to tell him something:
"When are you due? I'd--like to know so that I can make space on my calendar of events..."
"There's something else..."
---
"Congratulations, Dr. Cameron---you have a beautiful baby boy!"
An exhausted Allison Cameron wept, smiling and hiccupping in relief. After pushing and cursing a certain someone to all the levels of Hell for putting her through this, her OB-GYNE took pity on her and, after obtaining her permission, performed a C-section to help her son make his entrance into the world.
Wilson had been by her side during the delivery, shaking his right hand, feeling that Cameron had permanently changed the shape of his metacarpus. His brown eyes widened when he heard Cameron tell one of the attendants that her son would be named Christopher James Cameron.
Cool---but he raised an eyebrow and kept silent on a certain omission to the baby's name.
"Dr. Larson," she said softly to the pediatrician, who was checking her baby's vitals. "How---?"
"It's not that bad, Allison," Dr. Larson said, green eyes crinkling behind very thick glasses. "With minor corrective surgery and physical therapy by the time he's two, he'll be tossing footballs across the fields by the time he's ten." He followed his little joke with a wink in her direction as he placed a bundle wrapped in a blue blanket and white cap into her arms.
Wilson and Cameron looked down at the little bit of wrinkled life, who was peering back at his mother with astonishing, familiar blue eyes.
"Proof that House had sex." Wilson muttered under his breath.
"I hate sports metaphors," Cameron muttered softly at the same time. "Hello, little boy," she cooed.
Christopher simply blinked.
---
Present day
Wilson was standing a few feet behind Cameron as she entered the conference room of the Department of Diagnostics. He stood back unnoticed as the reunion unfolded before him, wondering if he should take his godson and remove him from Ground Zero.
"You--didn't tell me."
Cameron instinctively held Chrisopher closer to her as House delivered that line in a soft tone, knowing that he was in her arms giving her comfort and strength. The baby had stopped sucking on the plastic donut, his blue eyes now fastened on the tall, forbidding stranger with similar, deep-set blue eyes, his little body tensing as he sensed something was going on.
"I had my reasons," Cameron said softly, rubbing her hand on Christopher's back when he began to squirm in her arms. "I had my reasons then; I have new reasons now."
"What? Need alimony for the baby? Want someone else to change his diapers?" he snapped; his voice got louder with every syllable he uttered. Christopher began to fuss; he had never seen an adult so angry and scary in his short little life before. He took comfort by turning and placing his face in his mother's shoulder, hanging on to her neck for dear life.
Cameron whispered something to her son before glaring at House.
"I asked for a referral from Pediatrics here at Princeton Plainsboro," she said softly with a hint of steel, "and Dr. Cuddy assured me of a position in the Immunology Department while Christopher undergoes treatment with Landers."
"Treatment?" House looked confounded. "Treatment for what?" He focused his stare at the baby, who felt it was safe to peek at his father, his eyes round and scared-looking.
Christopher held on to his mother tightly as Cameron stepped forward, pulling up the right leg of her son's stretchy pants and stretched out a chubby little leg for House's inspection.
"For this."
xx
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