This chapter strays from House to answer a question from Birdhearted. "Where is House's team throughout all this?" We'll be back with the big guy next chapter though.

Thanks to Everyone for your lovely comments!

It was Monday morning and Chase was sitting at the conference room table of the diagnostics department. His left hand held an egg bagel with enough strawberry cream cheese to choke a horse. His right hand held a pencil tapping out a discordant rhythm as he contemplated a five letter word for 'condos, e.g.' that started with the letter 'u'.

A shadow fell across the puzzle and a feminine voice spoke directly next to his ear, "units."

He jumped and turned to see Cameron with her coat still on and her purse slung over a shoulder stomping snow from her feet. "Huh?"

She smiled at the confused intensivist. "A five letter word for condos."

"Hm. Oh. Right." He turned back to the crossword just in time to see a pink glob of cream cheese land right on 15 across. Deciding it wasn't meant to be Chase shoved the last bit of bagel into his mouth and turned to his co-worker. "How was your weekend?"

"Fine. Have you seen Foreman or House yet this morning."

Chase scoffed at the idea that House would be in at 8am. "Foreman is up in neurology. There was a big conference in New York over the weekend and they're still a little short handed."

Cameron nodded and walked over to the small desk and slung her coat over the back of it and pushed her purse under the desk after removing a pair of shoes. Chase glanced, confused, as she pulled off her boots and replaced the snow covered footwear with a pair of stylish low heels.

"What?!"

"Nothing." He had learned early not to comment on women's shoes unless he was complimenting them. Women could be so defensive about them.

"It's snowy outside. If I wear these then my feet will get wet before I even get to work."

He threw up his hands in defense. "I didn't say anything. Very practical." Silently he was adding another item on the list of things that made women insane.

She glared at him just to make sure he wasn't patronizing her. Chase's poker face had been perfected by years of dating women and he made sure to keep the right amount of apology, in case he had done something wrong, and cluelessness, in case she thought he had done something wrong but wasn't sure, on his face.

He stood and turned toward the door looking for an escape route. "Page me when House comes in. I'll be down in the NICU." Even working was better than the defensive shoe glare.

Two hours later Cameron was still alone in the diagnostics lounge going through a backlog of mail and referrals when a haggard looking Cuddy came through the door.

Normally the woman was so well put together that Cameron did a double-take when she saw the dean of medicine. Her hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail and only the barest of makeup was applied. Loose black slacks paired with a simple collard shirt and flats completed the outfit. The minimum amount of cover-up couldn't hide the bags under her eyes. Something was wrong.

Cuddy held up a hand to forestall the explosive questions she could see trying to escape Cameron's lips. Taking a deep breath she calmed herself before delivering the information she had come here to impart.

"Dr. House came in last night with a very severe case of pneumonia. He won't be in the office today."

"Is he okay?"

"The pneumonia is pretty bad but Dr. Wilson got him in here fast and the antibiotics should clear it up fairly quickly. He's on the third floor in a private room. However, I will warn you that he is not in the mood for visitors. So I would suggest that you continue with any work that needs to be done here." With that she turned and left a stunned Cameron staring at the closing glass door. Shaking herself out of her shock the brunette doctor reached for the phone and paged Foreman and Chase to the diagnostics lounge.

Five minutes later Chase was seated in a chair and Foreman was leaned against the wall behind him. Both were arguing with Cameron.

"You pulled me out of an MRI for this? House is sick. Fine. E-mail Cuddy and have her notify us when he's back at work until then I'll be in neurology."

"Wait! You don't want to visit him and see if he's okay."

"Sorry Cameron," Chase intoned from where he was seated, "House is a grouch normally. I don't think that being sick is something that will improve his disposition any. Plus, if it were me I'd rather not have my co-workers staring at me while I hacked up a lung."

"But he's sick. You don't think that it would be nice to check in on him and make sure he's doing okay?"

"No." Forman turned and left.

Chase shook his head. "Page me if he gets worse or shows up for work. Until then I'll be helping out downstairs." The Australian left for the NICU.

Cameron was left alone once again to contemplate what to do. Part of her desperately wanted to make sure that her boss would be okay. Logic was on Chase and Foreman's side though. Pneumonia, while not fun to live through, was no longer a truly life threatening illness for a middle aged man. On top of the fact that Wilson was most assuredly monitoring the situation there really was no reason for Cameron to go visit her boss. She glanced down at the paperwork on the table in front of her. Maybe she'd finish up this stack of referrals and stop by to see if he needed anything.

She knew he had some CDs and a portable CD player in his office as a backup for when his Ipod died. It was as good an excuse as any to stop by his room and see how he was doing. If he'd gotten sick over the weekend chances were he'd forgotten to bring anything to amuse himself with to the hospital.

Decision made Cameron turned to her paperwork.