CH 25

Chase had opened his mouth, exactly like House had hoped he wouldn't. He had had to tell Cameron the secret burning within him and for that House could have killed him. He entered the hospital to find a small crowd gathering around Cuddy's outer office doors with muffled yelling coming from within.

"Break it up!" he yelled, moving forward and whacking people out of the way with his cane. Nurses and patients alike scrambled to get out of the way of House and his wooden pole. "I'll take care of this. I don't know why people seem to get into other people's business around here!" he announced loud enough for everyone in the area to hear him. "If all of you don't get away and stay away from this office, I'll make sure Dr. Cuddy knows you were eavesdropping on her conversations."

When the small crowd was properly dispersed and people had once again gone back to their jobs and waiting rooms, House entered the office. The yelling was much louder inside the office than it had been in the lobby. Cuddy was blushing furiously and trying to calm Cameron down from behind her large wooden desk. Chase was dodging Cameron's tiny swinging fists and Wilson watched from the corner of the room.

"How long has this been going on?" he asked Wilson.

The oncologist looked down at his watch then back at House. "About an hour. It was chance that I happened to be here when they came in, screaming and flailing around."

"Well everyone in the lobby was trying to get a feel for what was happening in here," House told him. "They at least have to be quieter or someone's going to call the police and everything will be all over the news."

"Do you want to try to calm Cameron down?" Wilson asked.

House rolled his eyes and opened his mouth. "QUIET!!! If all of you aren't in a chair in the next thirty seconds, not screaming any more, I'll start using the cane!" he threatened. The three looked shocked, but after a moment Cameron rounded on him with more malice in her eyes than House had ever seen.

"You knew about this too and didn't tell me?" she demanded.

"Sit down or I'll make you sit," he told her. Cuddy took her seat behind the desk, Chase moved off to the side, near Wilson, much to the oncologist's dismay, and House waited for Cameron to take the seat in front of Cuddy's desk before dropping his bag and sitting beside her. "We're going to talk this out like rational humans," he told his colleagues. "And if you don't like it, too bad. This crap has to be settled today."

Cuddy apologized to Cameron half a dozen times before House silenced her with a look. "Yes, they've been sleeping together, but if you go on yelling about it, the whole hospital will know and both of them will be out of a job…Cuddy will be out of a career, and Wilson and I will be prematurely deaf," he reasoned. "I know you're pissed, but try to see things from someone else's point of view."

"You're on their side?" Cameron asked House, thoroughly surprised.

"I don't take sides," House replied. "You worked for me for three years and you didn't learn that I play the sides against each other without committing to either?" Cameron looked sullenly at him, but didn't say anything else. "No, I'm not on their side. They've done you wrong. They should pay. But do you want the entire hospital to pay? I didn't think so."

Wilson stood, glad that House had quieted the noise. "Cameron, you deserve better than this cheating pretty boy. Cuddy deserves him if she's willing to take someone else's fiancé," he told the blonde girl.

"Sit down, Dr. Feelgood," House instructed. "He's right though. If they hurt someone else, they don't deserve someone as good as you in their lives. Just walk away and let them have whatever they can scrape together as solace. You need someone who can care about you."

"Fine," Cameron said, a look of determination on her face. "I want you. If you agree to try having a real relationship with me, I'll keep the information about them to myself."

House was more than a little surprised by her stipulations but nodded dumbly after a moment. Chase slipped out and went back to the surgical department, and after a moment of looking House over, Cameron went back to the ER. Wilson and Cuddy both stared at the diagnostician in amazement. "You-you're actually going to give the relationship with Cameron a chance?" Wilson asked after a long, uncomfortable moment.

House nodded. "If it keeps things together."

"Thank you, House," Cuddy said. Her voice was scratchy, as though she hadn't used it in a long while. He simply nodded again.

Wilson walked out with House and didn't speak until they got into the elevator. "She's not that bad, you know."

"Cuddy?" House asked.

"Cameron. You're doing a good thing…you might even get something out of it."

"No clinic for a year…that's a decent trade," he agreed.

"I mean out of dating Cameron."

"I dunno," House said. Wilson escorted him to his office, where his team somehow already knew about his new relationship with Cameron. "How did you find out?" he asked them after receiving their congratulations.

"I just saw Cameron in the hall," Foreman told him. "She looked like she'd seen a ghost and asked me to give you this message." Foreman handed a small white paper over to House. Cameron wanted to meet him after work at a bar called 'The Blue Martini' to discuss things. "How did she manage to convince you after all those years?" the neurologist wanted to know.

"Sometimes perseverance does pay off," House replied. He and Wilson holed up in his office to talk quietly about the upcoming date and when his friend left, House thought about what he had gotten himself into.

Sure, Cameron was pretty and smart. Perhaps he even liked her, but the team and the rest of the hospital was sure to catch on to him dating her…they would wonder about his motives. He wondered about her motives. There were a few things he had to figure out.

House met Cameron at The Blue Martini at 7. She had a booth and was waiting for him. "So would you like to tell me why I'm the solution to your breakup?" he asked after placing an order for scotch.

"I like you," she said simply. She was exactly the same as she always was during their first date as a couple. He had to wonder if she had actually been upset about finding out that Chase was sleeping with Cuddy. Perhaps her plan all along was to find a way to get House. He opened his laptop as soon as he got home and started typing.

'Day Twenty-five:

I have to wonder why Cameron would want to date me. Why would that be the solution to her breaking up with Chase? Kutner would tell me to let it go and date the hot chick, but I have to wonder…she has been in love with me for a while though…'