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Sorry that I'm only posting one chapter now. Hopefully I'll have the end soon.

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Enjoy!

Greggory House was smart enough to know when to quit.

Fighting dirty hadn't worked. Cuddy was well and truly on Cameron's side and seemed to be hell-bent on putting him in his place. He would never be able to get Cameron off his case that way, so he switched tactics.

Instead of open battle, House was using a combination of snide comments and civil disobedience.

The team was now using the conference room again with the furniture in exactly the same way as Cameron had placed it a few months ago, but somewhere along the way it had become Allison's responsibility to chase her boss for his paperwork and smooth down ruffled patients and their relatives.

House routinely referred unsatisfied customers to the young immunologist, refusing to deal with them himself. So, on top of her work as his fellow, Cameron had to clean up the messes that her boss made. Cuddy had effectively shifted her responsibility regarding House to the young doctor's shoulders. She now had to make sure that he did his job- and do her own.

If House had conceded on the conference room issue, then that was all he was prepared to concede on.

He and Cameron routinely clashed over a variety of topics: patient care, paperwork, Chase and Foreman's work-load, clinic duty- anything that House could make an issue out of. Which, in truth, was anything. The man had a talent for creating conflict out of thin air. However, Cameron did lend him a hand.

The immunologist was so furious at his insinuation that she hadn't received this promotion on merit alone that she was only to happy to cross swords with House- provided there was a chance that she could win, of course.

The two doctors could be heard fighting all over the hospital; in the conference room, the corridors, the clinic- anywhere they could. The only neutral zone was the canteen. House confined himself to snide remarks there, while Cameron studiously ignored his attempts to provoke her. Still, lunch-time was not without tension. Wilson was a bone of contention between Cameron and her boss. House had shown himself to be unexpectedly possessive- Wilson was his friend. They had lunch together and that was the end of it. But James Wilson was reluctant to relinquish Allison's friendship. In the beginning, he'd asked Cameron to join the two of them for lunch but she never accepted; she was well aware that her friendship with the oncologist made her boss feel threatened, so she graciously allowed him hang out with Wilson whenever he chose- inside the hospital. Outside the hospital was another matter.

Sometimes James and Allison met for drinks after work. Other times they would go to a play or a jazz club that she had discovered. They were just friends but it didn't stop House spreading the rumour of their approaching nuptials around the hospital. After that, Wilson had stopped telling House that he was meeting Cameron. His friend still knew about it, though, and whenever he called Wilson's cell and he didn't pick up he assumed that he and Allison were out somewhere together. It annoyed him to think that the immunologist was trying to steal his friend- as well as his job- so the clashes between them became more frequent.

Chase and Foreman were also a source of conflict.

Allison was adamant that they be allowed time to research and write papers. House was adamant that they were there to do his biding. When she sent them both home early to get some sleep because they were both exhausted- they'd had to pull a double shift doing tests while House went to get some shut-eye- there had been a blazing row.

House had won that one when he finally yelled at her that she, Chase and Foreman had better remember that he was their boss- or he'd find some employees that did.

After that, he'd refused to do any paperwork for a week, forcing Cameron to do it in his place. She'd started gulping down too much coffee again to make up for missing too much sleep and she'd started losing the weight that she'd put back on during her vacation. Wilson started to notice the familiar pinched look in her face that had been present the whole time House had been off work- it was a sure sign that she needed rest. House noticed it too but didn't say anything. He didn't lay off for a second either.

If Cuddy had thought that bringing Cameron back would calm things down at the hospital she was sadly mistaken. Wilson was proved right and House simply picked another target. This may have been good news for the Dean of Medicine who suddenly found herself free from the burden of having to monitor House, but it was hardly good for the young immunologist who had to deal with him in her place. The older doctor soothed her conscience by telling herself that this experience was really going to help Cameron later in her career and when she heard about her two employees fighting, she looked the other way.

So, Allison worked her ass off, fought with House about big and little things and dreamed of the day that she could escape to a hospital that had never heard of him and doctors that would leave her alone for five minutes at a time.

AN: Yeah, I know...summary chapters suck! Sorry!