a/n : Thanks for all your great words of praise over the last couple chapters. They were greatly appreciated. On with the show…..

Chapter 28: Sleeping Beauty

House opened his eyes, confused…and stared into the most beautiful pair of blue green eyes he'd ever seen before!

He jerked to a sitting position and called out her name, "Allison? Allison! Can you hear me? It's House. I'm right here." He was getting no response from her, in fact her eyes weren't even really focusing in on him.

"Hold on just a sec, I need to get some help in here," House explained to her. He paged Wilson, Foreman, and Chase with the mssg: Cameron - 911" That done, House started checking some of her vitals.

Wilson was the first one to run through the door yelling, "What's wrong?"

Out of habit he looked at his friend's face first, expecting a look of fear or panic. He also didn't hear any alarms going off. All of this took place within the first three seconds. His eyes then made contact with Cameron and saw her eyes were open.

He looked up at House and they exchanged smiles.

Wilson asked, "How long?"

House answered, "I paged you guys as soon as it happened."

It was at that moment that the other two ducklings came running in asking what was wrong as well. House looked at them with a smile and said, "Look, she woke up". He said this about the same time they saw her eyes open for themselves.

"Well this is wonderful," said Chase.

"Yes, it's great she woke up, but……" Foreman started to say and exchanged a look with Wilson, "we still don't know what kind of shape she is in or what kind of damage was done."

Foreman and Wilson started examining her while Chase documented her chart with vitals etc.,. House looked backed down at her eyes and they were shut again.

He felt a moment of panic as he asked the two examining her, "Her eyes…did she just fall back into her coma or…"

Wilson shook his head and said, "She's fine House…she's just sleeping. Can't expect a gal to stay awake after all she's been through."

Foreman spoke to the whole team, "Well, until she can stay awake for longer than five minutes we can't be sure about the brain damage. And even though she's out of her coma, I suggest we leave her on the ventilator until her lungs are functioning better on their own."

Wilson added, " The really good sign is she came out of her coma this quickly. I'll be honest with you,…after being down 11 minutes I would have thought we would be talking weeks or even months."

"Okay. Well. Foreman and I have patients waiting for us in the clinic and we should get back to them. Page us if there is any change," requested Chase.

House replied, "Okay. Hey Foreman. Can you stay here a second? I want to talk to you about something."

After Chase left the room, Foreman answered, "Sure, what is it?"

House looked at both Wilson and Foreman and got a very uncomfortable look on his face. He started to lower his head but then looked up at the both of them like a man and said, " I've never really expressed my appreciation for the both of you going to Allison's apartment that night and saving her life. There is nothing I can do to ever repay you for what you did, her life is too precious. I just wanted you to know that I will never forget what you did for Allison that night. I…..I guess what I'm trying to say is….Thank you."

And with those last two words, House tentatively held out his hand to shake their hands. First he held his hand out to Wilson. He knew this had the least chance of rejection.

Wilson and Foreman were both in shock having never heard House SINCERELY thank anyone before.

Wilson recovered quickly and took his friends hand in his and shook it vigorously. He responded, "You're welcome House. But I didn't just do it for her. I did it for you too. I know what she really means to you - at least I thought I did. I'm seeing that she actually means a lot more. IF she forgives you THIS time, don't fuck it up!"

House nodded and extended his hand to Foreman. House was much more nervous about this one.

Foreman at first just stood there. House kept his hand extended. Foreman raised his one eyebrow as he often does when he is weary or unbelieving.

House could see he was debating whether to accept his hand in thanks so he pushed it by saying, "What do ya say, Eric?"

Foreman thought about how he had wanted to kill House at first for hurting Cameron this badly. But then he thought of everything he'd seen since. House having a break down in his office after reading the letter; House "standing" constant vigil at Cameron's bedside; and then he thought back to Cameron's suicide letter and how he realized she was right. House was a brilliant doctor and a good man deep down. Sure, he was an ass a lot of the time, but if she saw enough good in him to fall as deeply in love with him as she had, well….he was willing to trust her.

Foreman took House's hand and shook it. He said to House, "You're Welcome. And just for the record: there were other things that contributed to her attempting suicide. So since I know she loves you, I'm willing to let this one go for now. But rest assured, if she takes you back, and you hurt her one more time, I WILL kick your ass!"

"Fair enough," House replied.

As Foreman started to walk through the door, House yelled, "Hey, Eric!"

Foreman stopped dead in his tracks and looked back at his boss. House had the most mischievous grin on his face as he said to him "I wouldn't get my hopes set on that ass-kickin' if I were you……but you can always practice on the Wombat in the mean time just in case!"

Foreman just started to smile which turned into a chuckle. He left the room shaking his head as he usually does.

After Foreman had closed the door behind him, Jimmy asked, "practice on the wombat?" and started laughing. House joined in.

"Do you realize this is the first time any of us has smiled in days…let alone laughed?" asked Jimmy.

"She woke up, Jimmy," replied House, " It's a good day. It's a good day."

TBC…….