Chapter 21

"Where is she?" an irritated House asked to his team, turning from the whiteboard "So?" he repeated

"Well, she is..." Chase started.

"Shut up! You're only able to invent pathetic excuses to cover yourself. I doubt that Cameron has delegated you as her spokesman. Foreman?".

"As you can see by yourself, she's not here" Foreman said annoyed.

House took his cane from the board and went to the exit "You're a bunch of incapable! It would have been better if I had taken three monkeys for you! She's certainly in the dying kid's room! Again! And I'm wasting my time again!" and with that he closed the door loudly.

"Good morning to you too, House" Foreman snorted.

House went to the elevators.

"You're not going to yell at her again, right?" Wilson asked from behind his back.

"She's one of my employees and I do what I want to her" House answered without turning.

He got in the elevator, leaving his friend on the floor.

Two weeks had passed after the diagnosis of Edward but despite this, she continued to visit him. It had left him indifferent for the first two days, irritated for the next four and unnerved at the end of the first week.

Now he was far from dealing with it 'professionally' as Cuddy had suggested last Friday.

'To hell with the professionalism, I'll go there and drag her by the arm If necessary!' he thought.

House stepped out along the familiar corridor and swallowed a rare Vicodin.

Cuddy's theory was that because he was angry with Cameron, he'd not notice that he had less pills than other times.

Indeed, that moment was a new perfect reason to take revenge on his immunologist.

He stopped at the corner of the hallway, staring at her sitting in the room. She spent every free minute in that room, which meant that often she was late.

"Are you plagiarizing me, House?" Cameron asked.

"I'm training you, Cameron" he answered.

'Well done! Really...and you're happy now?' he thought.

House snorted nervously, the little boy was getting worse. He had to keep her away from there for the good of all.

Cameron was sitting next to Edward, who was sleeping. He slept a lot, and when he was awake he was weak, everyday. It was inevitable after all, it was almost surprising that he was still alive at 5 years old.

She fell back against the chair and kept reeding her journal until a voice interrupted her.

"Hi, Mom is gone?" the boy asked sleepily.

"Yeah, but she said that she'll come back tomorrow" Cameron answered smiling.

"Will you read me the book of yesterday?" he asked innocently.

Cameron smiled, sometimes those big blue eyes lit up again...briefly, too briefly, but when it happened it warmed her heart.

'I wonder If House's eyes do it too. Hey, what the hell do you think?' she thought.

"Ally?".

"Sure, give me the book" she smiled.

Edward handed her the book that was on the bedside table and she started reading.

"When I'll go home, Ally?" Edward asked after a while.

Cameron looked up, not knowing what to say. She knew that that question would come up sooner or later but she couldn't answer and she thanked Heaven for that, because in her heart she didn't want to answer.

"I don't know Eddie, they want to try other treatments" she tried to explain.

"But I'm bored here. I want to play with Buch!" he exclaimed.

"And do you want to leave me here all alone for your dog?" she feigned hurt.

Edward smiled, snuggling under the sheets while Cameron was trying to tickle him.

"Ok, I'll stay!".

Cameron stretched on the bed next to him, retrieving the book that had fallen on the floor.

"So where were we with Jim Button?" she asked.

"After they gave him the name!" he answered.

"Ok, then... He became a real young man and with his jokes he angered Mr. Sleeve because he didn't want to wash himself, like all the other kids after all; but he said that because he was black, he couldn't see If his neck was clean or not ".

"No, no you read this yesterday! We were where he gets his surname!" Edward pouted and she tickled him, making him smile.

She liked being with him there, paradoxically those were sad and funny moments at the same time.

"Excuse me! Let's see...It remains to be told how he got his surname, so: Jim always had a hole in his trousers and always at the same point; Mrs. Whaat had already patched it a lot of times, but after a few hours it was there again. Jim tried to be careful, but when he had to climb up a tree or slide down by the peak, ZUFF, the hole was there again. Eventually, Mrs. Whaat found the solution and sewed a hem around the hole and attached a button that he could close the hole and instead of pulling it out, it could be unbuttoned and instead of being mended, it could be buttoned. Since that day, Jim was called by all the people of the island Jim Button ".

"Uhm...excuse me?" Foreman said from the door.

Cameron looked up, turning to him.

"Do you wash your neck?" Edward asked curiously.

Cameron laughed while Foreman looked puzzled.

"What?" he asked.

"Whaat!" Edward answered.

Foreman stared at Cameron who was hardly trying to contain her laughter.

"House is looking for you, we have a case and he wants you there" Foreman informed her after a while.

Cameron put down the book, standing up.

"No! I want more!" Edward pouted.

"I must go now Eddie, but I'll be back" she said smiling.

"Do you want to keep her all for yourself?" Foreman joked.

Edward looked at him, shrugging.

"Bye, see you later" Cameron waved.

"We'll eat together!" Edward smiled.

"Ok" she rolled her eyes playfully.

"Are you sure that you're five years old?" Foreman asked.

Cameron dragged Foreman away by his sleeve, smiling amused.

TBC...