Chapter 11

House was in the conference room with the team when Cuddy arrived.

"Why did it take you so long?" she asked.

"We had a tattoo in cell and drank a beer on the way home" House said winking.

"You were at Stevens'?" she asked annoyed.

"Yes...but I-" he started.

"You're impossibile! I sent you to take your team out from prison and YOU take the risk to get arrested!" she shouted astonished.

"Metacromatic Leucodistrofy is the right diagnosis. It explains the laziness, the lack of coordination, the blindness, the neuropaty and the brain degeneration" he explained.

Cuddy stared at him.

"It's a death sentence House" she said worried.

"So and so. There's a very little chance but it's better than nothing. And this chance can happen only with a transplant of stem cells from an umbilical cord of another kid" he explained.

"Ok but you don't say anything to his family, you have already run the risk of taking two complaints for tonight" she said annoyed.

Cuddy exited from the conference room and House turned to his team.

"Do a test to confirm it and find the mutations of the gene with an urine culture" he ordered.

The team moved to put on their lab coats but House looked at them annoyed.

"What the hell are you doing? You don't need lab coats to do some simple tests" he said rolling his eyes.

The team exited quickly, leaving him alone. Satisfied, he stared outside his window.

The diagnosis was right this time. Foreman and Cameron had found the mutation of the Chromosome-22 and Chase had informed the family.

House was still in his office and felt very tired. He'd been up for 20 hours and his leg was killing him now. He was at his desk, dozing off on his chair when he saw her entering and he smiled. She went in his office smiling too.

"Mike will be ok. How are you?" Cameron asked.

"I'm ready to return to the rave" he said smiling.

Cameron chuckled. He laced his hands around her hips and stood up, smelling her scent mixed with beer and Rum.

That situation was exciting for him and for an istant he didn't feel the tiredness in his body.

House saw Foreman and Chase and Cuddy coming closer to his office. He moved away from Cameron before they could see them.

"Congratulations except for the part of the prison" Cuddy said smiling.

"Yeah, this is the happy ending" House said with a fake big smile.

"I'm here to inform you that you have the morning free for today".

"Cool! We're free from the clinic too?" House asked hopefully.

Cuddy looked at him smiling.

"Yeah" she agreed.

"Yes! We'd stay up late more often" he said smirking.

"Cameron, I didn't see your car outside. Do you want a ride?" Cuddy asked friendly.

House and Cameron stared at each other.

'And now?' she thought.

'Damn!' he thought.

"Yeah Cameron, it's not good to go around alone at this hour" Foreman agreed.

Cameron was searching House's eyes but he didn't know what to say so that Cuddy and Foreman and Chase could not understand anything.

"Ok, so do you want to come with me?" Cuddy asked again.

"Yes. Thanks a lot Cuddy" Cameron answered not so sure.

She'd have preferred to return at home with House.

House arrived at his apartment. Amy wasn't there but there was a post-it on the piano...next to the Rachmaninov sheets:

'I went to my hotel. Sorry for the piano. XX...Amy P.S: Kiss her, you idiot!'.

House smiled.

He had all the apartment free.

He went to bed and smelled the scent of beer on his shirt. He smiled again.

Cameron arrived at home and felt very tired. The answering machine had a message waiting for her. Cameron ran to the phone, hoping that it was him. But instead it was from Wilson.

"Allison? Are you there? I've waited for you for 10 minutes, I'm still in front of the cinema. Ok, well, see you tomorrow" the voice of Wilson sounded through the house.

Cameron smiled.

Poor Wilson, he had insisted on going to the cinema and she had standed him up.

She went to bed and looked for the taste of Rum on her lips. She smiled again.

TBC...