Chapter Five:
Her phone went off at one o'clock (in the morning) on the dot. She was fast asleep. After her long period in the ER, she had been exhausted, but then when you threw in the emotional rollercoaster that she had just experienced she was at the stage where you're so tired the moment you lay down you fall asleep. Cameron just groaned and rolled over, praying that it would stop. She knew who it was without looking. Chase was too polite to call her at this time, as were all of her friends, and if it was an serious they would have just come to her house to tell her in person (like if someone close to her had died). Plus if it was the ER (which it wasn't because she wasn't on call), they would have paged her. So that just left one person: House (which meant she was right about the Porphyria), and quite frankly she just didn't feel like talking to him about it.
But he was persistent.
"House, I'm going to kill you." She answered after what had must have been the fifteenth call.
House's reply was as expected (sarcastic). "Aw, Cammie, I love you too."
"You do realize that Cameron isn't my first name, right?"
"Yep, which reminds me, what is your actual last name: Willick or Cameron?"
She yawned, but replied even though her thumb itched to press the end button, turn her phone on silent, and just pass back out until twelve in the afternoon (but who was she kidding; like she could actually sleep that late). "What, you didn't find that out when you stole my personnel file?"
"Well, since you asked, the only surname that was posted was Cameron. How, Cammie, am I supposed to know?"
"You're a doctor so, now I'm just guessing here, you're smart, right?" Her voice was sickly sweet, but (as she continued) her voice became flat. "Figure it out yourself. Goodnight, House."
"Aren't you going to ask why I'm calling?"
"I was right about the Porphyria."
"Spot on," he answered. "I'm shocked." House paused a moment before continuing. "Urine test proved Acute Porphyria. It was a lucky guess."
Cameron couldn't help but smile despite her tiredness. "Oh, give it up, House. I was right." At that moment, she hung up, put her phone on the nightstand, and got comfortable to go back to sleep.
"Mom?" a small voice sounded from the doorway. "I heard you talking; I came to see if you were all right."
"Oh, I'm sorry about that, sweetie," Cameron sat up to face her daughter. "It was House. He called to tell me I was right about the diagnosis."
"That's good, then, but did he have to call at..." she looked to the glowing clock on Cameron's bedside table. "…one o'clock?" she finished.
"You once wondered why I called him names." Cameron answered while smiling.
"Right," Calleigh turned to return to her room, but at an afterthought she asked, "When's Bray coming?"
"Tomorrow afternoon with your suitcase and his, but I'm sure that we'll go shopping anyway because you can't survive for two whole months with only a suitcase of clothes."
"Okay, goodnight, Mom."
"'Night, sweetie," she replied. The moment Calleigh left, she laid back down and within minutes she was fast asleep once again.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Cameron walked the familiar way into the emergency room at Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, smiling. But once she got to the desk she saw one of the people whose visits also meant bad news (who, by the way, happened to be flirting with a nurse; she was surprised that it surprised her).
She reached for a file while hoping that he didn't notice, but he looked up and (just had to) glance in her direction. He took a moment to say goodbye (and probably ask out) the nurse before walking in her direction.
"Hello."
"Bugging my nurses, Wilson?" The call from House interrupted her sleep (and though she didn't miss much), she was too tired to put up with his pleasantries. She walked towards the patient whose filed she had picked up. The smell of his cologne told her that he was following her (she didn't dare look back).
"Always," he replied. "So, you're a Mom, Cameron?"
"Ms. Palmer, it says you stepped on a piece of broken glass?" Cameron asked, ignoring his question for a moment.
"Yes," the woman replied taking a moment to hold up her bloody foot. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Wilson grimace, but she ignored him.
"All right," Cameron moved a stool to where the woman's foot was hanging in the air. She sat down after moving a table of tools within an arm's reach.
"Just always so straight to the point, aren't you, Wilson?" She asked finally why picking shards of glass out of the woman's foot, dropping them onto the table sheet. Wilson struggled to ignore the woman's gasps and moan's of pain.
"Nice deflect, by the way."
Cameron plucked the final piece of glass from Ms. Palmer's foot. Placing it on the table, she spared a glance at Wilson. He was watching her, studying her. She shivered under his intense gaze. "I learned from the best." He was like a psychiatrist.
He sighed, frowning (well, maybe not so much like a psychiatrist; they concealed their facial expressions and emotions better). "You need to stay away from House." He murmured.
"What?" she looked up at him shocked. "Why?"
"He's just about to start a relationship with Cuddy. He has a chance to be happy; he doesn't need you to start getting involved in his life again. It will confuse him."
"Wilson, I'm not involved in his life. It was one case."
"And he's also old enough to make his own decisions." A voice sounded from behind Wilson. Cameron recognized the voice immediately. She hid her frown quickly while looking back to her patient. "Why wasn't I invited to this shindig? Am I not cool enough for you two?" he asked sarcastically.
"Sorry if I disappoint, but you're not needy enough for him, Cameron." House continued.
"This is going to sting a little," Cameron murmured to the patient before she patted her foot with alcohol to destroy any germs she may have picked up from the glass. She then applied an antibiotic cream to her foot before covering the injured area gently with a patch of gauze.
After securing the gauze to her foot with tape, she spoke, "Okay, your foot will be sore for a few week and," Cameron handed the woman a bag with gauze, the tape, and the antibiotic cream in it, "you should clean it with alcohol daily, rub the cream on it, and place fresh gauze on it. If it becomes red or swollen, you need to make an appointment with your doctor or come back here. It could be infected, but for now you can go and be more careful next time, please."
Once the woman left, Cameron turned to the two men who were participating in a glaring match. "Don't you have jobs to do?"
"I'm trying to find a patient before Mommy comes to punish me," House answered childishly, "and not the good kind of punishment either. The clinic duty punishment," he wrinkled his nose in faux distress.
"Sorry, House, no luck here; just many people with nails sticking out of their feet and other boring stuff like that." She watched as House sat on the bench that the patient had occupied.
"Well, then I guess I can still hide out here. I'm actually surprised you're still here. What do the kiddies think of Mommy's job?"
"I'm getting off early." She glanced at her watch. Just not early enough, she couldn't help but thinking.
"Kiddies?" the oncologist asked.
"Twins," House answered for her. "Cameron's the mom of Mary Kate and Ashley."
"My son's arriving later." Cameron spoke, ignoring House's remark about the Olsens. In the middle of an awkward silence, Wilson's pager buzzed and he excused himself quickly. Cameron and House both sighed in relief and then glanced at each other warily.
"God," House spoke. "The clinic is most interesting than this."
"I didn't think that you believed in God," Cameron replied.
"I don't."
Cameron opened her mouth to reply when Cuddy walked through the doors of the ER. House jumped off the table quickly and closed the opened curtains so she couldn't see that he was inside. "So," he replied normally. "Wanna make out?"
The immunologist rolled her eyes at the comment. She then smirked. "Well, since you're asking." His eyes grew wide at the remark before he froze completely. Seconds later, he unfroze and opened his mouth to reply with some witty remark when the curtains were jerked opened to reveal Cuddy.
"Cameron? House?" her eyes widened in shock. "What were you two doing in here…" she looked around the room for a patient before continuing, "...alone."
"I plead sexual harassment." House spoke quickly.
Cameron (once again) rolled her eyes at his antics. "Thank goodness, you finally plead guilty for once."
"I never even…" he began, but Cuddy cut him off.
"Clinic, House."
Without bothering to argue (which surprised both the women in the room even though he did frown and make a face), he walked out the room and (surprisingly) in the direction of the clinic. Cuddy looked at Cameron warily (and somewhat jealously) before also leaving.
Thanks to all the readers! I hope this chapter is okay. I'm only sixteen so I'm not so sure about all the medical parts of this so if any is incorrect please forgive me (I do love the medical parts though, so there will probably be more cases in this story). I wasn't even planning on Wilson showing up at the ER, but the muse lead its way. I hope he isn't too OOC. If he is, I apologize.
Next up: Brayden arrives.