A/N: There's a blizzard happening here, which means I'm stuck at home, so I thought it would be a good idea to update! Enjoy!

Chapter 10: almost summoning a thrall

The days after they found the hair seemed to drag on as the group waited for the full moon. Cameron was staying exclusively at House's now. For safety as well as their relationship. She was uncomfortable being in her home, knowing that Sebastian knew where she lived. She went back long enough to pack some belongings, and that was it.

Wilson was anxious to conduct the summoning spell, not only to take action against a vampire, but also to prove House wrong. He really had a feeling that it would work.

For House, the days went slowly because Cuddy was watching the team like a hawk, particularly him, after his statement in the morgue. She wouldn't leave him alone, and made sure he did his clinic hours and generally behaved like a model employee.

Chase was excited about killing an evil being. He was looking forward to being a hero and avenging the poor girls in the morgue. Hopefully, more deaths wouldn't occur in the meantime. He found himself practicing driving stakes into imaginary vampire hearts with just about any pointed object he could get his hands on.

Foreman spent the days catching up on his article writing and generally trying to be as productive as possible. He wasn't sure if the spell would work, in fact, he doubted it would. But he was anxious to do something.

Cameron, too, was having doubts. As the days passed, she grew more and more on edge about the possibility of being pregnant. She could tell herself she wasn't over and over again, but that didn't make it so. She still couldn't work up the courage to have the test done though, so she just lived with the thought in the back of her head.

Unfortunately, two more deaths occurred. They read about them in the newspaper, but were unable to visit the morgue, for fear of Cuddy's wrath.

The day of the full moon, all showed up at work and went about regular activities. House managed to evade Cuddy and slipped into Wilson's office, where he found him going over the spell for that night. Wilson looked up as the door shut.

"I was just brushing up on this spell. I don't think I'm allowed to stop in the middle and look at the book."

House took it from him and looked closer at the words.

"Well, at least it's short. One problem, though."

"What?"

"The last word is Draconis."

"So?"

"Think about it Wilson."

Nothing.

"Draconis means dragon. It's a spell to summon a damn dragon!"

"Well, we don't want that." Wilson grabbed the book back and eyed the word.

"I guess I should just substitute the word dragon with the vampire's name."

"Which we don't know," House reminded him.

"Oh, yea. Well, Prince Raoul says they've been referred to as thralls. Ya know, cause they're under the head vampire's influence. Maybe that would work."

"What's the Latin for 'thrall'?" House asked.

Wilson looked flustered for a minute.

"Go away. You're not helping things."

"Fine, you'll just have to say the Latin with one English word at the end. I'm sure the great powers of the Earth or whatever the hell you wanna call it, won't notice."

"House, I'm working with what I have. And it isn't much. How's Cameron?" He changed the subject.

House sat on the couch and looked at his friend.

"She's been distant."

"She's just scared. Whether she'll admit it or not, she might be pregnant, and the time's coming where she's going to have to admit that possibility. How have you been, with regards to her?"

"Myself."

"So you've been distant right back?"

"Pretty much."

"She needs you right now."

"She doesn't want me right now. She walks around my place like a ghost, and when she's here, she goes through the motions, but she's off in another universe half the time."

"She's got a lot to deal with right now. She'll come to you when she's ready, and you need to be supportive when she does."

House sat in silence for a moment, then got up and left Wilson with the spell.

"See you tonight," Wilson called after him. He turned back to the book. Dragons, huh? This wasn't good, the spell had to be perfectly accurate or it could backfire. It might be safer to find an alternative that would have similar results. He flipped to the index and began searching.

At the end of the workday, House came back from an agonizing afternoon in the clinic to find Cameron in his office, sitting in his chair with a blank stare. She gave a little jump and a gasp as the door opened and shut.

"I need to talk to you," she said simply. She moved to the couch, and he sat beside her.

"Here it comes," he thought.

"I'm late," she said, and looked up at him for a reaction.

He looked confused.

"Late for what?"

"I'm late." She put extra emphasis on the second word.

Recognition dawned on him then.

"Oh," he said, not sure what to say.

Tears formed at the corners of her eyes.

"I need the test done. And not one of those cheap ones. A blood test. Here." Her shoulders began to shake, and he put his arm around her clumsily. He was not good at comforting crying women. She practically knocked him over as her arms went around him and she sobbed into his shoulder.

"What…if…I'm…" she gasped out between sobs.

"Hey, it'll be all right. And if you are, it'll be mine. Don't worry about that. Don't let what that bastard did get to you."

She lifted her head and looked at him, sniffing.

"You really think that it'll be yours?"

"No reason to think it wouldn't be," he told her, sounding more confident than he felt.

She tried to calm down and he rubbed her back absent mindedly while she did, thinking about what he'd just told her. They sat there together and then House stood up and pulled her up after him.

"Let's go get it done then. I'll do it myself. What fake name do you want to it to be under?"

"Scarlett O'Hara. Like in Gone with the Wind."

"Not very imaginative. I was thinking something along the lines of Cinnamon Falls, but ok."

"Cinnamon Falls? That sounds like a porn name." She wrinkled her nose up in distaste. It made him grin. She looked cute when she did that.

They left the office and upon returning, found Chase and Foreman waiting for them.

"You guys ready to go?" Chase asked. He then noticed Cameron's puffy eyes and red face.

"Are you ok?" He asked with concern.

"I'm fine." She assured him.

Wilson arrived then, trusty book under his arm.

"Ok, everyone, this is it. I guess I just wanna say that this could get a bit dangerous. I mean, I don't know what's gonna happen, but I think we should…" He trailed off, and instead, motioned them all closer in a group hug. They bunched together, save House.

Wilson sighed.

Come on, House. It won't kill you. This is important. Be a part of the team, please."

He didn't move.

"Greg, please!" Cameron pleaded.

He shuffled forward and felt arms go around him. He stood there a moment before reciprocating. It was that moment, when they were all holding onto each other, that Cuddy walked into the office. She observed the hug for a moment, then said, "Is everything all right in here?"

They broke apart from one another quickly, and looked at her. She looked worried, that much was clear, particularly upon seeing House participating.

"Everything's fine, Lisa," Wilson said. "We were just getting ready to leave for the day."

"Yea, we group hug at the end of every day now. Sort of congratulating each other for getting through another day of being hounded constantly by you," House put in. Wilson turned and gave him a Look.

"I wouldn't have to hound you if you'd just tell me the truth about why you were in the morgue that day. Really, I don't like following 5 of my doctors around, especially you House, but I have to make sure you're doing your jobs and showing up for work. I can't trust you after that."

They all looked ashamed, except for House, who looked resentful.

"Well, if you're all ok, I'm leaving for the night. Have a good evening, all of you."

She left, closing the door behind her, and Wilson turned to the rest.

"We ready?"

They nodded.

"Ok, it's off to my place then. From there, we'll head to the outskirts of town where the body was found."

"Why do we need to stop at your place?" Foreman asked.

"Because I forgot the hair this morning."

"Gee, Wilson, the hair is kinda important, don't you think?" House said snidely.

Wilson flushed slightly, and walked to the door. The others followed. They got off the elevator and went out the front door. Wilson looked up at the sky.

"Oh, no, this isn't gonna work."

"What now?" House asked.

"It's cloudy. It has to be clear. You can't even see the moon. We're gonna have to postpone this."

"No way! We've already waited two weeks!" Chase said. "There'll be even more murders."

"We don't have a choice. It won't work if it's cloudy. Plus, I just realized, we didn't have anything to kill the thrall with tonight. We would've been screwed. How could I have missed something so obvious? I could have gotten us all killed." He hung his head.

"But you didn't," Cameron reminded him. "We all know what it takes to kill a vampire. It wasn't solely your responsibility to take care of everything. We need to delegate. You're doing everything, and that's not right. Chase, you and Greg will be in charge of weapons. We'll get the hair from Wilson's. Foreman, you'll be in charge of that. That'll leave you free to fine tune the spell. Do we need anything else for the ritual?"

"Just water, a chalice, a map, and a scrying crystal."

"Well, I'll take care of those things then. I'm guessing I can find a whatever crystal at a new age shop?"

"Probably. That'd be my best guess."

"Wait a minute. I thought this was a summoning spell. Isn't a scrying crystal used for finding someone's exact location?" Chase asked.

Wilson looked at him, impressed that he'd known that.

"Yea, but Prince Raoul says the spell needs to be exact for summoning, and House pointed out that the last word in the spell is 'dragon', so I'm kind of playing it by ear at the end. It'd be safer to use a location spell instead, which Prince Raoul also includes in the book. It allows more liberty with the wording than the summoning spell for one reason or another."

"That wonderful Prince Raoul; he just thinks of everything, doesn't he?" House said in mock admiration.

"It still needs a full moon though. So I'm afraid this is just going to be a regular night. Foreman, I'll bring the hair in tomorrow, ok?"

Foreman nodded, and they went their separate ways, disappointed that the evening hadn't gone as planned, Cameron filled with anxiety over the vial of her blood in the lab, listed under the name Scarlett O'Hara.

A/N: Please review!! I'm trying to take this fic a bit slow, cause a lot needs to happen, and I don't want it all happening too fast. Thank you!