Hey there! I am really sorry about the delay, unexpected 2-week business trip. :( Hope you're still with me and you'll forgive me. This is the longest chapter because I want to make it up to you.

Oh, and as for the confusing dream from the previous chapter, I meant to make it confusing (otherwise I would have written it in italics). Ha ha. Glad it worked.

VII.

He was standing just a few inches from her and she trembled heavily gritting her teeth. She took in his scent and closed her eyes slowly... however, the moment her eyes closed her mind wandered back to the dream, his touch on her skin, his lips on hers, kissing her slowly and gently. She let out a sigh and opened them again to see House watching her intently.

"I asked you a question." He growled and she shook her head.

"Nothing's going on... Really." She whispered and looked down unable to hold his gaze anymore. She felt her heart pounding in her chest, her palms started sweating and she couldn't understand why it was actually happening to her. She could feel how red her face was and felt like an idiot for acting like a teenager in front of her boss. What was she supposed to tell him? And how was she supposed to explain why she had left his place without saying a word and why she never replied to his text?

"Doesn't look like everything is okay..." He said as his eyes searched for hers. "I remember yelling only at Chase this morning... is that why you're freaking out? Stickin' up for the cute Aussie lover boy?"

"What? No...no..." She said and gulped. "I'm not f...freaking out." She finished and her hands clenched into fists unintentionally. She wanted to leave. Immediately.

"Oh, so this is just you being you, right?" He hmphed and frowned.

House didn't know what else to say. What was wrong with her? She was standing there blushing, looking at the floor, trembling... nervous. He had never seen her like this. Yes, she was emotional and easy to annoy or insult but this was different... She was acting weird.

Cameron didn't know what else to say either. She couldn't tell him the truth, she couldn't tell him she was ashamed because of a stupid dream she had and she definitely couldn't stay there with him any longer.

"House, I... I have to go." She said after a long silence. He narrowed his eyes at her but took a step back as a sign of his unwillingness to deal with her whims anymore.

"I'll go... you play." He hissed angrily and stormed out of the room pointing at the piano. The moment the door closed behind him, Cameron gasped and leaned against the wall closing her eyes. As she stood there trying to get her breathing under control again, she let out a loud sigh and gulped. There it was... the unfamiliar feeling of butterflies that fluttered around her stomach made her realize how screwed she was... Am I falling for my boss?


On Tuesday House got to work at about noon, pissed off at what had happened the previous day and he didn't feel like dealing with anyone. Walking into the conference room he saw his three ducklings absorbed in reading their new patient's file and he glanced at Cameron using the opportunity to watch her closely.

She was wearing black skinny jeans and a black and white striped T-shirt, her brown hair tied into a high ponytail. House frowned and took a few steps closer to the table clearing his throat. Foreman and Chase looked up at him and gave him a nod while Cameron's eyes stayed fixed on the file.

"Anything interesting?" He growled and sat down on a chair with a loud sigh. He absentmindedly reached for the bottle of Vicodin in his shirt pocket, opened it, palmed two pills, and dry swallowed them looking at Cameron again. No change. She was still ignoring him.

"Well, the guy's had three heart attacks since this morning." Foreman replied.

"Very cool..." House uttered and jerked a little to make himself stop watching her.

"Very cool?" Chase snarled and rolled his eyes.

"Sure... what does it tell us?"

"He's morbidly obese..." Chase stated and finished his coffee.

"What?" House barked. "The heart attacks tell us he's obese? Are you even listening to the bullshit you're saying?"

The annoyed tone in House's voice made Cameron look up at him and widen her eyes. Then she looked at Chase and gave him a soft smile.

Foreman frowned and looked at House as well shaking his head. "Genetics and hypertension."

"Boring..." House hissed angrily and stood up before taking a few steps to the window. With his back turned to them he cleared his throat again. "Doctor Cameron, would you like to contribute? Playing the Sleeping Beauty is soooo not going to make me kiss you. The right diagnosis might though."

Cameron gasped and licked her lips. "Um, I... agree with Chase. He has no other symptoms, could be his diet and lifestyle choices."

"Jeeesus!" House burst out and turned to look at her angrily. "Lifestyle choices? Are you even a doctor or you bought the fancy lab coat on Black Friday at the mall?"

The three young doctors went silent as they watched the unexpected outburst of anger.

"Can you get even more useless?" He yelled some more before calming down a little and sending them to run the tests and take patient's medical history.

Chase, Foreman and Cameron walked out of the conference room as quickly as they could and as they walked through the corridor Chase growled.

"What the hell is going on with him? He was somewhat bearable the last couple of weeks, I even thought of buying him a Christmas gift this year... damn."

"He's always been cranky, Chase... just ignore him." Foreman answered with a shrug.

"He even yelled at Cameron... that's never happened before." Chase said with a frown and pushed the elevator button.

"Because she agreed with you..." Foreman snorted. "Don't worry, Cameron, you're still his favorite."

Cameron remained silent and looked at the floor not knowing what to say. She definitely wasn't his 'favorite' but she was worried his mood might have changed because of something she had done. He was really angry the day before when they talked in the doctors' lounge and it was possible it was because how rude she was to him. Leaving without a note, not replying to his text, not wanting him to help her with playing. But why would it bother him? He was happy being alone, playing stupid games or watching General Hospital... it didn't make any sense to her.

"I'll talk to the patient and get the medical history... you run the tests..." She said as soon as they walked out of the elevator on the third floor and turned right disappearing through the door.


On Wednesday they were no closer to solving the case when Chase told Cameron to go and have lunch claiming she looked hungry.

She sat down at one of the tables in the cafeteria and ate her Club Sandwich slowly while reading a silly magazine she took from the Clinic.

"Can I join you?" She heard someone ask her and she looked up to see a tall man in his early thirties.

"Um, sure, I guess." She replied with a soft smile.

He sat down across from her and gave her a warm smile. "Hi, I'm Andrew... Andrew Lewis. The new surgeon." He reached out to shake her hand.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Allison." She said and withdrew her hand from his.

"Doctor Cameron, I know." He said and shifted in his seat. "You work for House."

"Yes." She nodded and grabbed her sandwich playing with it in her hands.

"How's that going?" Andrew asked and chuckled lightly. He was very attractive, tall and slim, with mid-length brown hair, and deep brown eyes, clean shaven and anytime she looked at him he gave her a beautiful broad smile.

"House's okay..." She said unconvincingly and nibbled on her sandwich.

Andrew got the hint and nodded. "Sure... I didn't come here to talk about him anyway." He said with a smile and took a sip of his soda.


Wilson saw House enter the hospital and waved at him. "1:30, very impressive..." He said with a smirk and shook his head. "I can't believe Cuddy's still somehow putting up with your irresponsibility."

"What can I say? She's got it bad for me." House snapped and popped two Vicodin in his mouth with an annoyed growl.

"Oh, please... don't flatter yourself." Wilson grinned shaking his head.

"Well, we made a deal... I promised not to tell she's in fact a dude." House shrugged making Wilson roll his eyes. "Are you telling me you haven't noticed? The strong jaws and gruff voice?"

"Whatever... I just thought you had a case. You should be here."

"What for? I got Beavis & Butt-Head on my team... oh yeah, and the girl. Besides, the guy has had multiple heart attacks and is still alive, another one or two won't kill him. Where are you going?" House finished and looked at Wilson.

"Lunch..." Wilson replied and made his way through the corridor.

"Awesome... Sounds like a good start of the day." House said and followed him.


They entered the cafeteria and waiting in the line Wilson looked at House. "Oh, I've heard you were being impossible again. What's going on?"

"Huh? I'm practically a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day..." He growled deciding whether a burger or a Reuben would be a better choice.

"I talked to Foreman yesterday. He said you even yelled at Cameron..."

"She's the easiest to yell at." House replied and faked an indifferent shrug.

Wilson didn't say anything else and a moment later House turned to look at him catching him with a wide smile and a mischievous expression on his face. "Speaking of..." Wilson murmured and motioned for House to look at the other side of the room. House followed his gaze and he froze when he took a glimpse of two young doctors talking and laughing.

"I knew he was after her." Wilson added and laughed.

"Who the hell is that?" House hissed, his eyes never leaving his subordinate and the Prince Charming of PPTH.

"Lewis, the new surgeon. All the nurses are crazy about him ..."

"Oh, how saaaaad... No more fun for Mr. 'I-fuck-nurses-before-my-wives-find-out-and-divorce-me'. On the bright side, looks like you will live happily ever after from now on." House said as he watched the young immunologist, his young immunologist and the new surgeon. Lewis told Cameron something and she burst out laughing. "Get me a cheeseburger." He told Wilson and limped to his employee and her date.

By the time he got there he saw the new surgeon offering Cameron his onion rings and House cleared his throat to get her attention.

"Doctor Cameron... May I ask you what the hell you are doing here when our patient is upstairs dying?" He said in an unpleasant tone and adjusted his grip on his cane, fist clenching so hard his knuckles turned white.

"Oh, House... Hi." She said with a surprised expression on her face. She took a deep breath and was sure she started blushing immediately.

"I asked you a question." He said before Lewis stood up and turned to shake House's hand.

"Doctor House, I'm Doctor Lewis." He said in a confident tone as his eyes narrowed at Cameron's boss.

House never returned his handshake, in fact he didn't even look at him... his eyes stayed on Cameron who was looking up at House not knowing what to say. He was grouchy and unhinged but being mad at her for eating wasn't really like him.

"Chase is with the patient. And he is stable. I... I mean the patient." She said and forced a smile as she saw from the corner of her eye that Andrew sat down slowly still watching House with a certain disdain.

"Chase is an idiot. He can't be trusted around patients." House answered back.

Cameron wanted to object it was the same thing he had told her the previous day but her sense of decency stopped her. Instead, she gulped and stood up. "Okay." She nodded and sneaked past him, anger bubbling inside her. She felt like a four-year old caught stealing toys in kindergarden and being told off.

"Allison, you didn't finish your sandwich." Lewis called at her and she turned with a soft smile.

"I'm not hungry anymore. Also, our boss takes a great pleasure in finishing our meals anyway." She said and her eyes wandered to House as her smile slowly disappeared.

She said goodbye to the surgeon and left quickly.


The day went on with House trying to avoid his team, this time he even voluntarily showed up for his clinic hours and then spent the rest of the day at Wilson's office playing on his Gameboy and paging merely Foreman to keep him posted as he seemed like the only duckling he was able to deal with at the moment.

At about 8 PM he grabbed his backpack and left the hospital and limping to his car he made out a couple standing on the other side of the parking lot. House stopped and watched as Lewis opened the door for Cameron and she got in his silver Lexus.


The next morning House jerked as he heard Celine Dion shrieking 'My Heart Will Go On', the horrifying noise coming from under his bed where he had left his cell. The ringtone for his team. He liked changing the ringtones according to the patient's symptoms and he sat up on the bed with a growl before answering the phone.

Their patient was now in a coma. House took a quick shower and drove to the hospital to find Chase and Foreman sitting in the conference room with concerned expressions on their faces.

"He had a stroke." Chase said when House walked into the room and took off his jacket.

"Now what, House?" Foreman asked with a frown while House walked to the whiteboard and erased everything.

"Differential diagnosis... we have to start over." He said taking the marker. "Did you call Cameron?" He asked while writing the symptoms down trying to sound indifferent but the truth was ever since he saw her getting in his car he couldn't stop thinking about it. He was angry. But why? Could have been he hated young pretentious jerks in sport cars who get a kick out of taking advantage of women. Yeah... that was it. He was sure that a heartbroken Cameron had to be a million times more unbearable than the day-to-day Cameron he was already familiar with.

"She's not coming in today." Chase said and pointed at the whiteboard. "It's got to be a blood disorder."

House turned slowly and narrowed his eyes at the young Australian. "Blood disorder? Really? And what do you mean by she's not coming in? We've got a dying patient."

"She said she wasn't feeling well..." Foreman jumped in. "It's really the high blood pressure... But his liver is shutting down as well."

"Is she sick or what?" House asked ignoring the dumb ideas about their patient. Cameron was never sick... and even when she was, she always came to work. His mind wandered back to the scene he had witnessed in the parking lot the night before and he felt a pang in his stomach wondering what it meant.

"She didn't sound very well... we don't need her here, House. What we need to do is to retrace our steps... maybe we triggered it by giving him the Beta blockers."

"Did she call from home?" House asked absentmindedly rubbing his face.

"What? I don't know..." Foreman snapped. "And the Beta blockers wouldn't cause the stroke."

House shook his head and took a deep breath. He had to stop thinking about her and focus on the patient instead.


House raised his hand and knocked on the door with the handle of his cane. Three soft taps... nothing... three louder taps... still nothing. He sighed and went on pounding on Cameron's door until she opened it slowly and bit her lower lip. She was wearing a cream-colored pajama pants with a ridiculous 'horses wearing boots' graphic and a long-sleeved black plain T-shirt, her hair tied in a French braid. He looked at her and frowned imperceptibly.

"Looks like a bad cold." He said dispassionately commenting on her red nose and puffed eyes.

"I'm sorry I didn't make it to work." She whispered and gulped. "I can't come t...tomorrow either." She added and looked at her bare feet.

House's gaze followed hers and he sighed. "We cured the patient." House said waiting for her reaction. He saw her lips forming a restrained smile as she looked at him again with a soft nod.

"Congratulations." She said and grabbed the door closing it slowly, which surprised House. No questions about the disease their patient had? No questions about who figured it out? No more apologies for ditching work? Something was not right. He took a step forward making sure Cameron wouldn't have time to close it before he got into her apartment.

He walked in without her asking him to and looked around. Her living room was light and clean... there was a big black sofa with a lot of colorful cushions, a small wooden table, a big bookcase and a lot of plants and photos. He took a few more steps before turning to her and watching her.

Cameron just stood there not knowing what else he wanted from her. She didn't want to talk to him... she didn't want to talk to anyone.

"Are you okay?" He asked breaking the awkward silence and she nodded turning away from him quickly. "You sure?"

"House... I am not feeling very well. I'd like to...to offer you a drink but I think... I am coming down with a flu and..." She never finished the sentence and walked slowly over to her bookcase just to do something.

House rolled his eyes and limped to her couch glancing at the screen of her laptop on the table. He wanted to comment on an inappropriate video she might have been watching but the words died in his throat as soon as he read the first line on the word processor.

"Cameron, what the hell is that?" He let out and grabbed the laptop turning it and she looked at him again. It wasn't a cold. She had been crying.

She gave him a sad smile and blinked away the tears.

"I quit." She said softly with a sigh.

House couldn't believe it. He had no idea what was going on with her, she had been acting weird the whole week but this was something he was not expecting.

"Why?" He raised his voice slightly.

"I... I'm moving back to Chicago." She said and walked over to her round leather armchair leaning against it. "I meant to...to tell you."

"Why?" House repeated unable to hide his shock.

She tried to smile but released a quiet gasp instead as a tear rolled down her cheek and she wasn't sure she was able to talk about it.

He noticed the desperate expression on her face and limped closer to her stopping at a safe distance waiting for her to say something.

"Remember I told you about my Grandma?" She whispered and House nodded. "My Mom called last night... My Grandma had a st...stroke which triggered the Alzheimer's disease and she now lost almost e...everything of what she still had." Cameron finished the sentence and wiped the tears with the back of her hand.

House knew he should say he was sorry, he should say something nice but he couldn't because it didn't make any sense. She wasn't being rational - quitting her job to be with someone who doesn't remember her? Cancer, severe injury - that he could understand. But an untreatable illness like Alzheimer's?

"But that's not treatable... there's no point for you to be there." He said knowing it probably wasn't the best thing to say.

She blinked and widened her eyes before letting out a snort. "Why?!" She exclaimed. There it was, it definitely wasn't the best thing to say.

"Yeah, I mean... there's nothing you can do for her now and there are no departments of diagnostics in Chicago." He said in what he thought was a conciliatory voice but like many times before in his life, this time it didn't seem to do the trick either.

"It's my Grandmother! The job is not important, dammit." He had never seen her that upset, she was a trembling and sobbing mess and he wished he knew what to do. But he didn't.

"You can't quit."

"What?! Of course I c...can." She stammered angry and desperate at the same time.

"I don't like change." He said watching her.

She let out a growl and walked quickly to the door opening it. "Leave, please." Her hand trembled on the door knob and House sighed and limped slowly to her grasping the door and closing it again gently before taking one more step forward and looking into her eyes. He wasn't thinking straight... on one hand he was glad her absence at work wasn't because of a hot night with the new doctor but on the other that wasn't what he was hoping for either.

"I don't want you to leave." He said softly and leaned closer to brush his lips against hers without giving it much thought. It wasn't really a kiss, rather mere brushes of his lips against hers and he felt her lips tremble but to his surprise she didn't pull back. He propped his cane against the wall and while he wrapped his arms around her waist he deepened the kiss a little. She tasted sweet, just like all the forbidden fruit always did.

She started kissing him back tentatively, slowly and gently as her hands pressed against his chest.

Then, out of nowhere, she pulled back and looked at her feet.


Thanks again for the reviews... I'm sooo grateful for the feedback. If you happen to have a few extra seconds, please leave me another! Thanks.