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Next morning Amber was walking towards House's room before going to work when Chase joined her.

"I thought you weren't supposed to sleep with Wilson again," Chase opened the conversation.

"What makes you think I have?" Amber prevaricated.

"I saw you arrive together," Chase shrugged. "And he was looking way too happy for you to just have met outside."

"So what," Amber replied nonchalantly. "It's really none of your business."

"But you promised not to," Chase insisted.

"I did nothing of the sort!" Amber stated. "You and House persuaded me to go out with him again and you advised me not to sleep with him but I chose to make up my own mind about that."

"It hasn't been a full week since you saw him as just a one night stand," Chase reminded her. "And now he's the love of your life or something?"

"Of course he isn't the love of my life," Amber huffed. "Don't be silly. But he is nice, and fun and intelligent and good company and great in bed. Why not see if this is something that can last a little longer than I originally thought."

"House is not going to like this," Chase muttered.

"Who cares? It's not any of his business either," Amber pointed out. "So, did you come to work early so you could hang around in the lobby and see who is coming to work with whom after the party?"

"No. I spent the night at the hospital," Chase answered. For some reason he was avoiding Amber's eyes. "I didn't see much point in going home after the operation and making sure that House is ok, so I crashed in my office."

"Hmm. Did Cameron stay around, too?" Amber asked. "Not that she needed to, but I sort of suspected that she might have wanted to hold House's hand and sooth his fevered brow once I was out of the way."

"Well, yeah, Cameron did stay," Chase mumbled. "But she didn't stay with House. I mean firstly Cuddy was there all night and secondly she was feeling sort of hurt. House leaning on you; allowing you to take charge sort of unsettled her. She is beginning to see that maybe House won't ever see her quite in the light she'd want him to."

"How do you know that?" Amber asked frowning.

"We talked," Chase shrugged.

"Talked," Amber stopped and made Chase stop, too. She turned him to face her. "You slept with her!"

"What gives you that idea?" Chase tried to glower. But since he blushed his attempt was wasted.

"You did, you really did!" Amber exclaimed. "You idiot! You can't... Look I don't like Cameron, you know I don't, but you can't do this to her. You can't break up with her and then have break up sex with her! Or was it make up sex? It better not have been make up sex! You... What happened to your spine!"

"My spine is just fine, thank you," Chase huffed. "It wasn't anything serious. She was unhappy and needed comforting and I ..."

"Lost you backbone," Amber sighed. "Didn't you and House just tell me a few days ago how James tends to get himself in trouble with women because he is a sucker for damsels in distress?"

"I don't try to comfort every woman I see weeping or moping around," Chase denied.

"No, just Cameron," Amber sniped. "And that is bad enough. You broke up with her because she wasn't giving you what you needed, and you figured that either you had to find a way not to need or she had to find a way to give or you had to find someone else. You moved out so that you could sort yourself out; find out what it is you want and what it is you need to do. Now you are getting suckered into exactly the same situation you had before. And I'm not talking about your engagement; I'm talking about that microwave pizza –stage you two started with."

"I wish I hadn't told you about that," Chase sighed. "Look, it wasn't that bad. We're not going back to that. It was just comfort sex. One night. It didn't change anything."

"Exactly," Amber stated. "It didn't change anything. Hasn't it occurred to you that maybe Cameron too has some issues she should deal with? Only, if she is getting everything she wants without dealing with them, why would she do anything about them? You are no good to her either, until you have learned to be good to yourself!"

"Ok, leave it," Chase ordered. "This is my business."

"Fine," Amber conceded with a sniff. "Just remember that I told you so."

They were still sulking at each other when they entered House's room. They did each paste a smile on their faces for House, but of course it was too much to expect that he didn't sense their mood.

"Ok, what's this Iron Curtain I see before me?" House asked. He seemed remarkably chipper for a guy who had been at death's door the night before.

"You look good," Amber ignored his question as she walked to his bed and took his chart. "I see you don't have a fever anymore and the medication is just normal post-op meds. Good."

"Don't try to deflect," House told her. "You two had a fight. Come on, spill!"

"It's none of your business," Chase insisted taking the chart from Amber to check things. "So what if we had a small difference of opinion."

"Fine, if you want me to just lie here and come up with all sorts of ridiculous scenarios that I may then feel like sharing with the nurses..." House wasn't above blackmailing them.

"He slept with Cameron," Amber blurted out.

"You slept with Wilson!" Chase wasn't slow with his counter-accusation.

"What?" House frowned at Amber. "You weren't supposed to sleep with him again."

"We're both free, consenting adults," Amber pointed out. "And besides, it was you who told me not to treat him like a one-night-stand."

"I didn't mean you should sleep with him," House made a face at her. "Now he will want to marry you."

"After two nights?" Amber laughed. "Surely not."

"You don't know him," House sighed. "He talks himself into the darnest things because he just wants to be nice to everyone."

"Well, I'll just have to talk him out of it," Amber shrugged. "But we are nowhere near a situation like that. My relationship with James is currently quite uncomplicated, unlike Chase's with Cameron! They slept together last night."

"I heard you," House stated. "But that's his look-out. If he wants to be an idiot, who am I to tell him differently."

"I'm not an idiot," Chase insisted. "I still like Cameron, we are still engaged, we just don't live together for now because I need to sort some things out. I just need to get my head straight."

"And of course, the best way for any man to get his head straight, is to screw around," House nodded sagely. "Totally understandable."

"I didn't screw around," Chase huffed.

"No, you screwed Cameron, which is worse," Amber inserted. "You can't lead her on like that. Either be with her or don't. Stop waffling."

"I'm not waffling," Chase persisted. "We are still engaged. And we still care. We just can't live together for the moment. Just let me mind my own business, ok?"

"Fine, I already agreed to that," Amber rolled her eyes. "But don't say I didn't warn you."

"As long as you don't say that we didn't warn you about Wilson," House said pointedly from his bed.

"He will not ask me to marry him," Amber repeated slowly and almost menacingly. "This is not that kind of relationship. Not by a long shot."

"But it could be," Chase was happy to have the focus back on Amber.

"If, after a very long time, things develop to a point where the subject comes up," Amber held to her temper with both hands. "Then we will discuss it like two adults and we will make up our minds on how to proceed. But I would think that after three marriages James surely has realised that marriage might not be for him. Now, can we stop talking about my love-life and start talking about House. He is the patient here, after all."

"Oh, I'm not half as interesting a subject as your love-life," House dismissed.

"Maybe not," Chase conceded. "But Amber is right; we really should talk about you."

"Fine, if you insist," House sighed. "Not that there is anything interesting going on with me now. I feel just fine."

"That's good," Amber said. "Anything you want to know or did Cuddy answer all your questions already?"

"No, when I woke up, I just told her to get out and get some rest," House shrugged. "She looked dead on her feet."

"She probably was," Chase agreed. "So, any questions?"

"Yeah," House paused for a moment. "I'd like to know what happened last night."

"During the operation or?" Amber wanted a bit more specific questions.

"That, too, but basically I'd like to know what happened last night," House sighed. "I'm not sure how much of what I remember really happened and how much was dreams or hallucinations."

"Oh," Amber hadn't expected that. "So ahm, what is the last thing you remember? I mean the last thing you're sure of?"

"You taking over and admitting me," House made a face. "And I think the part where Wilson and Chase were putting me to bed was real, too."

"Yeah, it was," Chase confirmed. "Amber went to tell Cuddy what was happening and also to get the team. We were afraid that it was something contagious."

"We did tests and gave you medicine to fight the fever," Amber took over. "Kutner suggested gallstones and you agreed with him. I couldn't get a good image with just ultrasound but you decided that unless the fever started to go down soon, an operation was in order."

"I decided?" House asked. "So you thought I sounded lucid?"

"Yes," Chase shrugged. "Nothing suggested to us that you were hallucinating. It's true that you dosed off several times, but when you spoke, you were totally on the ball. You directed your own treatment the whole time. You even made jokes. The only thing that was off was that you didn't curse more."

"How did you get the fever down for the operation?" House queried.

"You suggested that we give you an ice-bath," Amber replied quietly.

"The nurses didn't report anything unusual about that?" House wanted to know.

"You asked me that I and Wilson would do it," Amber reminded him. "So we did."

"Good," House nodded. "Did I ... Was there... did I say anything during the bath?"

"No," Amber stated. "James thought you took to it very stoically. You didn't say anything. We did assume that you did a lot of cursing in your mind, but you didn't say anything out loud."

"Ok," House seemed relieved.

"That was quite interesting, actually," Amber decided to pursue the subject. "I have given a few ice-baths before. Not often, most people do just fine with medication, but I have given a few. Everyone has a reaction. No matter how braced they are for the experience, everyone reacts when they are lowered into icy water. You are the only one I have seen who didn't react."

"At all?" Chase was surprised. "You're saying he had no reaction at all?"

"I'm saying he didn't show any reaction at all," Amber clarified. "And that is somewhat surprising considering that he once told me that he hates ice."

"It must have somehow fitted my hallucination," House mumbled.

"No hallucination explains your non-reaction," Amber wasn't letting go of the subject. "You once told me that the one time you hit Chase, he didn't react to it. And that told you more than any reaction from him would have told you."

"You mean..." Chase didn't quite know how to say it without actually saying it. "Are you saying that the reason he didn't react to the bath was the same as my reason for not reacting to the blow?"

"Don't go reading all sorts of things into this," House glared at them. "I was suffering from high fever. My reactions were not normal anyway."

"True, but this was different," Amber insisted. "Don't worry I'm not going to drag your hippo out of you. Whatever it is that the ice-baths mean to you, it really is none of my business. I'm not going to pry into it and I certainly will not talk about it outside this room. But at least now I understand why you protected our secrets, Chase's and mine, as long as you could. You really do understand what we were dealing with. It wasn't just because you've been a doctor for so long and seen things, you really do understand."

"Don't make such a song and dance about it," House muttered grumpily. "Now, don't you two have anything better to do than hang around here?"

"Yeah, we do," Chase agreed hastily. "I'll be back with the results from the gallbladder when I get them. It should be soon. But until then, yeah, we better get back to work Amber."

"True," Amber agreed. "My desk is covered with consultation requests. Better get to them now that I can be sure for a few days that House won't get a patient."

"What do you mean I won't get a patient?" House frowned.

"You are on sick-leave," Chase told him. "Until I clear you, you won't be having any patients. Nor are you expected to do any clinic duty, so enjoy."

"Well, that does sound ok," House calmed down.

As Amber and Chase turned to leave House he muttered – almost under his breath: "Thank you."

Both Amber and Chase decided that the best course of action was to behave as if they hadn't heard it.