Chapter 9

"Just tell me what's going on with you" House insisted "You can be the other guys Doctor and I'll be yours."

"Sam" Cameron said quite weakly "His name is Sam. All I can tell you about me is what he's seen. I can't see for myself. Liked I said, I'm cold, wet through, dizzy and feel like I could revisit my breakfast at any moment. Sam's confirmed that he can see I'm trapped from the knees down - I can't feel much below there unless I try to move. He thinks my leg is broken." She left out the whole 'oh yeah, and there's a huge piece of metal sticking through my leg' story. There was nothing House could do about it from where he was anyway so why bother him about it but something in her voice must have given it away.

"And?" came House's reply "Full story please. Can't diagnose on half a story Cameron. Come on, tell Daddy, he won't be angry." House was now genuinely annoyed. Why wasn't she telling him what was really wrong?

"And, nothing" she spat over the radio "That's it House. Conditions aren't exactly perfect for a full work up you know. And what's there to diagnose anyway? A whole heap of scaffolding just fell on top of me - there, I'm diagnosed. You know, you must be finding this all very boring. There's no medical mystery for you to figure out, no family to hide from, no need to get Cuddy's permission for your next crazy cure - why are you still here? You should have given up ages ago and gone back to you PSP or whatever you're obsessed with lately." She felt her voice cracking and told herself it was the stress and physical exhaustion of this whole crazy situation. What it actually was, of course, was blind panic. She was hurt, she had no idea how she was going to get out or even if she was going to get out alive and House was still being an ass.

House was strangely worried by Cameron's dismissal of him. He was on the verge of being slightly hurt by her comments. Of course he wasn't just going to leave her there. He was going to stay until she was out of her metal prison one way or another. He caught himself about to shout down the radio exactly that, that he wasn't going anywhere until she was out and that didn't she know that ......... what? Didn't she know what? That he cared about her? He questioned himself, almost having an internal argument with himself. He had just spent the last few years rejecting all of Cameron's many approaches, telling himself that he wasn't interested, she wasn't his type. But then, when this whole thing exploded and he knew Cameron was trapped one of his first thoughts was what he was going to tell Chase. Was this caring again? Did he actually care what Chase was going to think? No, he couldn't. That was so un-House. House was supposed to be cold, a loner, no real friends apart from Cuddy and Wilson, no family to speak of. But here he was slightly upset by Cameron's words and worrying about what he was going to tell Chase. 'Mental note - store this for later analysis, now really isn't the time!'

"Yeah, you'd like that wouldn't you? Me leaving you here to take all the glory and be the only hero. Just think what kudos I'll get when I personally haul your ass out of there - especially with me being a cripple. I know you're a little woman and everything but hey, bum leg here!" House quipped his way out yet again.

"You're an ass House. You always have been and always will be. Get over yourself!" Cameron replied "Look, I haven't got the energy for this. Just tell me that someone up there is actually working to get us out of here and that I haven't got to rely on you. I'm seriously concerned about Sam, he needs to get out of here now. When are they gonna get to us?" Cameron practically pleaded for more information.

"They're working on it Cameron, don't get your panties in a bunch. I'll try and find out how long these jerks are gonna take getting to you. Now, don't you get going anywhere - this is no time to be wandering around taking in the scenery." He started to look round for Chief Jackson. Spotting him at the foot of the mountain of metal House yelled for the Chief to come up and join him but it was no good. There was so much noise House couldn't make himself heard. "Cameron, I'm going to have go down to the bottom of the pile to speak to the Fire Chief. I'll be back - OK?" House hoped he didn't sound too desperate with that last question.

"Yeah - I'll just hang here and wait for you to get back" came the reply from Cameron. No sarcasm, just a straight reply from a slightly weaker sounding voice. This spurred House on and he precariously made his way down the twisted metal and shattered wood. It took him a good 5 minutes to make it to the bottom.

"Hey - I need you to tell me you're gonna be making some progress real soon. I want her out of there ASAP." House stared at the Chief who simply looked back at him.

"I've told you, we're going as fast as we can. There's a lot that could go wrong here - one wrong move and we won't be pulling anyone out of there alive. And anyway, we have two casualties to think of, don't we?" The Chief started to move away but House grabbed him by the arm.

"Look, I have no doubt that you think you are simply marvellous at your job but you need to listen to the real expert on the scene - that's me by the way. We have two casualties at the moment. One is probably gonna die before you eat what is probably going to be your 4th donut of the day" House carried on despite the Chief opening his mouth to protest "The other casualty is a caring type of person who is probably denying to herself, and to me, what is really wrong with her as she has her best Samaritans hat on. Once that other guy jumps off the mortal coil Cameron is going to have to face the facts of her own injuries and I'm guessing that's gonna be a bit of a shock for her. Things are gonna get really bad from there on in - I'm grouchy now, just imagine what I'm gonna be like if that happens."

House left the comment hanging there. Both men stood and stared at each other. House was used to being the top dog, no-one invaded his territory without him allowing them to. But he wasn't on his territory now. This was Chief Jackson's back yard and he was merely a trespasser in it. House still wanted to be the "dominant male" and Chief Jackson knew this.

"Look, pal" Jackson replied in a very low voice, coming close to House's face "you're in my world now. Don't come in here like you own the place. Until the casualties are secured, they are my responsibility. You're here because I've allowed you to be. There are plenty of cops over there who I'm sure would just love to help your crippled ass out of here. Back off and let me do my job or, you're right, they're probably both gonna die before we get to them. Are you going to be able to live with that on your conscious? I see it every day and I'm sure you do to. But this is just another day at the office for me. I'll go home tonight, have dinner with my wife and kids. We'll talk about the days we just had, I'll say mine was tough and we lost a few people. But that will be it. I won't linger over the passing of two strangers. But for you, this is different. For you, this is personal. OK, one of the people under there is a complete stranger to you as well as to me but the other one isn't. If she doesn't make it, are you gonna sleep soundly in your bed tonight? Or are you going to lie there and listen to this little conversation over and over again? How you stopped me from doing my job and that, in the end, all my guys had to do was to retrieve two corpses?"

Jackson pulled even closer to House. House stood a head taller than the Chief. House had long let go of Jackson's arm and simply looked down at him. Jackson continued "I don't know who you are or how you operate when you're in your office and quite frankly, I don't care. I've been a patient man up until now but that patience is starting to wear a little thin. Why don't you just stay out of my way and let me do my job? You know as well as I do that every second counts in these types of situations and by my reckoning I've just wasted 5 minutes of my time pissing you off. For your information, my men now know exactly where the two casualties are and are just about to start moving debris. You're not going back up there" Jackson held up both of his hands and raised his voice to cut House's protests off before they started "it's not safe for you to be up there when stuff is being moved. If all goes to plan my men should be in contact with the casualties within 30 minutes."

"30 minutes may be too long" was all House could come back and reply with.

"Well that's how long it's going to take. Now, stay out of my way and stay out of the way of my men or you might find you don't sleep too well tonight." With that Jackson turned on his heel and strode away. House was left watching his back. Jackson's words echoed in his mind. He should really stay out of the way as he had been asked to do and let the Fire guys do their jobs. This was their speciality, his would be needed (hopefully) once Cameron was on a gurney heading for the ambulance. But he was House - he didn't give a damn what other people told him to do - Cuddy could bear witness to that.

House turned in the opposite direction to the Chief and started to climb back to the top of the pile again.

Meanwhile, somewhere beneath the power struggle.

Cameron listened to the static on the radio after House had left to find out what was going on. She needed to focus on something. Her mind was threatening to close in on her. Allison was starting to think that falling asleep and waiting until this was all over was a great idea. But then Doctorr Cameron reminded her that if she fell asleep now it was likely to be permanent and non-reversible.

Cameron's fear of dying in this metal cage was in danger of turning into a certainty. She had been down there now for what seemed like an eternity. House had said that the Fire Department were working to get Sam and her out but apart from a few muffled bangs and shouts, she had heard nothing. Surely she should be hearing metal clanging against metal, shouts from her would be rescuers of "over here!" or "I've got them!", clouds of dust falling down as debris was shifted out of the way but - nothing. She had heard nothing.

Strange thoughts started to run through her mind "I bet they know it's a lost cause and they've left us here to die" she thought to herself. The rational Cameron, the Cameron that had survived working with House for 3 years, Doctor Cameron, knew this was rubbish. The rescuers would never give up until she was safe - until both of them were safe. After all, most of the people who were working to get her out of there were people Cameron saw nearly everyday - nurses and other medical staff, firemen she'd see on an almost daily basis bringing in the latest car smash victim or the family from the burning building. They wouldn't give up on her - would they?

That was Allison talking - questioning the sensible, practical Doctor Cameron. She tried to push these thoughts away. She has more or less ignored her patient whilst she had been bantering with House over the radio.

"Hey Sam" she called over her shoulder "you still with me?"

"Yes" came the weak and raspy reply "Got nowhere else to go now have I?"

"True - we're both kinda stuck here for the moment. They'll be with us soon though I'm sure" Cameron hoped she sounded confident.

"You don't think that at all" evidently she hadn't sounded confident at all Cameron though to herself as Sam wheezed his reply back "you're not even sure they're coming at all. You've gone into "Doctor mode" - practising your bedside manner on me."

It was almost as if Sam had read her mind. She thought she'd lapsed into professional mode but evidently she hadn't done it as well as she thought. "No, honestly, they'll be with us soon I'm sure" Cameron tried again to be the confident sounding Doctor she usually was. Without giving Sam a chance to reply she moved on "Anyway, as a game of "I SPY" isn't going to be very interesting, why don't you tell me a bit about yourself? Got any family?"

Cameron hoped that Sam obliged and joined in with the conversation. It served two purposes - one, by keeping Sam talking Cameron could monitor how he sounded and, two, she hoped having a normal conversation in the most abnormal situation would help quell some of the fear Cameron was currently experiencing.

"OK" Sam replied wearily "Keep the patient alert and occupied. I can play that game too. Well, what can I tell you? I'm 29 years old, I'm married to Abby and we've got a little girl called Jess who's 10. I am, or I suppose, I used to be the site foreman of this twisted heap of crap. I also used to have my whole life ahead of me but now I'm not so sure." Sam's sentences came in short, breathless sentences. It was obviously getting more and more difficult for Sam to breathe and to Cameron's medically trained ears it was equally as obvious that he had a lung issue going on - probably punctured as a result of a broken rib or two.

"Hey!" Cameron snapped "You - we - are going to be just fine. Stop saying those things. My ex-"pain in the ass" boss is up there sorting it out - trust me, people will be down here as quickly as they can just to get rid of that guy."

Cameron rolled her eyes to where the sky should have been and looked desperately for a tiny chink of daylight coming through the rubble or the sound of someone working over head. But nothing. "Come on House - don't prove me wrong."