Chapter 7: Stuff
The team was sat around the metal table in their office, all staring at the white board of doom. Beyond the title of "Lump-guy" and the word cancer with a big line through it there wasn't much on the board. Chase tried his best to avoid looking at Cameron who hadn't really spoken to him since last night. Rubbing his temples he tried to understand how one night of her sleeping in his arms could make things more awkward between them then weeks of sex.
House alternated between taping the floor with his cane and the board with the marker. This case was beginning to drive everyone crazy. His team was never at a loss of ideas but here they were sitting in quiet. With the exception of the cancer test the other results hadn't given them anything. They hadn't just been negative, most had been inconclusive. "This guy came in with shooting pain up and down his body and a lump in his neck. Now he is almost being fuelled by morphine because of the pain. Come on team! Don't you have anything to give me beyond cancer?"
"His allergy tests were inconclusive, should we be looking at infections?" suggested Foreman without much enthusiasm.
"The tests were inconclusive? Doesn't think strike any one else as really odd?," House responded sarcastically, "Do them again!!" Dismissing them with his hand he motioned towards the door. "Do a lumbar puncture, see what is going on in his nervous system."
Chase tried to keep up with Cameron as they walked down the hallway but she seemed like she was deliberately ignoring him. Frustrating he grabbed her elbow and pulled her in the stairwell. "Can you stop avoiding me? What is going on?"
Cameron tried to look him straight in the eye, "I am not avoiding you. I am focused on the patient."
Chase leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. Cameron tried to stare him down and then gave in, "Look, can we talk about this later? I am just overwhelmed with Joe and all of this at the moment."
For a moment it didn't look like he was going to buy her explanation but then he uncrossed his arms. "Sure, we will talk about it later. Just stop pretending that I don't exist."
Her conversation with Chase had left Cameron shaken. She had been honest at the moment she couldn't what was emerging between her and Chase. She had to just stay focused on Joe, on her doing her job. On being rational.
"Hey Sol!" called out Joe as she entered the room with Chase and Forman.
Instantly she put on her best face for Joe, the last thing she wanted to do was scare him. "How you doing? Feeling relieved about the test results, I bet."
"It would be even better if you stopped the pain," spoke Joe nervously as Chase and Foreman walked around his bed and looked at his chart. "Are you going to take poke me around some more?"
"Fraid so," Cameron tried to reassure him, "But it might allow us to get a better sense of what is going on." She sat down on the chair beside the bed, such that he faced her as Foreman got ready for the puncture.
Joe sucked in a deep gush of air as Foreman stuck him with another needle, "You know that I have an awesome garage don't you?"
Cameron looked him with an amused look on his face, "I can see where this is going…"
"Because I was just lying here thinking about all of the great things I could do with that space if it wasn't filled your stuff. At the moment I am torn between indoor miniature golf or a massive workshop."
Cameron could tell that Joe was trying to distract himself from the pain of the puncture, and offered her hand for him to squeeze, "I told you, once I get a bigger place that stuff will be gone."
"And we both know that is bullshit," Another pause and breath as he was stuck with another needle, "That stuff is the things from your marriage to Mike. You are not dealing with it."
"I am dealing with it! I've moved on. I've gone to medical school, made friends. I even date."
Joe rolled his eyes, "Don't get me wrong, you've done awesome. But you chose a job that was all consuming. Your friends are your co-workers, you romantic life happens in the hospital. And I still have a garage full of your stuff."
Cameron tried to ignore his remarks, "And what is the point of this conversation, other then to distract you from needles?"
Sighing with relief that Foreman was done, Joe shifted around in the bed and smiled at her with a massive grin. "I am going to help you clean house."
Chase and Forman were quietly eating lunch when Cuddy and Wilson burst into the diagnostic's discussion room. Looking at each other and then the completely surprises Foreman and Chase both of them started to speak. Finally Cuddy was able to get a sentence out, "What is going on here? Who called us here?"
"Don't worry it is nothing scary urgent," piped up a voice from behind her.
Turning around Joe was standing in the hallway holding on to his IV pole. Cuddy started to speak but Joe cut her off. "I got Allison to call you here. We need your help."
"You really shouldn't be walking around Mr. Connell," Cuddy said ignoring his explanation.
"Don't worry, the Australian pumped me full of some awesome painkillers so I should be good for another little while." Looking beyond them through the glass walls of the roon Joe gestured to some men carrying brown cardboard boxes.
"But why do you need our help?" asked Wilson, "You don't get to be part of your own diagnosis!"
"I need you to keep me rational," spoke Cameron, sliding into the room after Joe. "I've..I'm…I've never sorted through stuff from my marriage." She took a deep breath and continued, "I've decided that it is going to be like tearing off a bandage – best done quickly and without sentimentality. I have never been able to look at these boxes without sobbing, but if I do it in this room with all of you rational, objective people around I think I can keep myself together."
"If not I guess it will be amusing for the rest of us to watch." House walked into the room from his office.
After a pause, Joe assumed that everyone was on board with his mission. Gesturing towards Chase he asked, "Can you grab one of the boxes from out side?"
Chase slide the box down to the end of the table where Joe was standing, and Cameron took a seat the other end. House remained at the back from the room while Foreman, Chase, Cuddy and Wilson stood around the table, give Joe and Cameron both support and some space. Joe pulled the box toward him, "There are three options here: garbage, keep and goodwill. I'll throw stuff in the appropriate pile. Ready? This box is labelled 'wedding'."
Closing her eyes, Cameron took a deep breath "Go!"
Joe ripped open the box and begin lifting things out and holding them out Cameron like an auctioneer.
"Extra – wedding invitations?"
Her eyes snapped open, "Garbage"
"Dorky wedding bells decorations?"
"Garbage"
"Never used potato ricer that was a gift from your Aunt Sally?"
"Goodwill."
"Photos that didn't turn out?"
"Garbage"
"Caterer's menus?"
"Garbage…no wait... They were good…Keep."
"Mike's suit."
Cameron froze for a moment. There was pause as each of the doctors in the room all glanced at each. Slowly Wilson stepped forward, "It's in good condition, no reason to throw it out." Looking up at him thankfully Cameron smiled, "Goodwill then." She was back in the game.
They were on to the second box, this one labelled 'Mike's stuff'
"His text books"
"Good will"
Foreman interrupted, "They might be out of date. Call first to see if they are even worth donating."
Joe nodded and put them in a separate pile.
"His music?"
"Throw it all out except the mix tapes."
"Posters from his frat house."
"Garbage."
Quickly they worked through two more of the Mike's boxes, going through his clothes, and other personal items. Foreman suggested a good local charity that might need the clothes and Cuddy offered to sort though the boxes of fiction books that Mike loved. Wilson volunteered much useful advice when it came to unused wedding presents, claiming much practical experience as a result of the three marriages. For the most part Cameron was able to keep herself together. Seeing the dorky sweater he always used to wear made her waiver (voted too raggedy even for the goodwill and thrown out), it was painful to deal with his sports equipment (goodwill) and a few tears slide down her cheek when her wedding dress was unpacked (something she decided to keep on Cuddy's encouragement).
Joe glanced at his watch, "We are making impressive time, if you wouldn't mind me holding your attention for a little bit longer we just finish off the last box."
"Because it is not like we have people to heal or anything?" House was still in the back of the room having stayed completely out of the debate.
Joe ignored him and pulled up the last box. Much smaller then the others, in big block letters the word "FUTURE' was written on the front. "This one is going to be tough."
Reaching he pulled out the first item, "Mike's applications for grad school."
"G..garbage." Cameron was beginning to freeze again.
"Two pairs of ballroom dance shoes and registration for classes."
"Goodwill."
"Maps of the areas where you wanted to buy a house."
She hiccupped as if trying to cover a sob, "Garbage."
"Really awesome lingerie"
Cameron blushed slightly, "uh…throw out. I've gained weight since I was 21"
"Baby clothes and book of baby names."
Cameron couldn't speak; she looked like deer in headlights staring at the tiny clothes and book. No one knew what do say. This was no longer dealing with the remnants of life cut cruelly short but getting rid of the dreams of two people who hoped in vain for a life together.
Suddenly a cane came crashing down on the table, knocking Cameron out of her reverie. "The book should go to the goodwill. The clothes should be kept – you are going to start having friends who are having babies and it will save you from having to buy lots of baby shower gifts." House spoke calmly and rationally.
Taking a ragged breath, Cameron looked back up at the objects and nodded.
Joe looked up at her and scanned over the piles of clothes, books, empty boxes and miscellanea around them. "We're done. Mike would be proud. Now if you don't mind, I think I am about to pass out."