Chapter 34

After having been turned down by Cameron, House decided that he could no longer keep the kiss that they'd shared a secret from Wilson. He needed to tell him, and he needed to know why Cameron would refuse a job that he knew she loved. Of course, he considered the obvious: she was trying to please Chase. That didn't make sense, though. If she were really trying to please Chase, she wouldn't have taken the job in the first place. She wouldn't have even visited him in the hospital. She did all of those things, though, despite Chase's wishes, and now something had suddenly changed. He needed to know what that something was and how he could fix it because he truly did want Cameron back on his team.

House barged through the door to Wilson's office, and on the other side, he found Wilson and Cuddy sharing a laugh while eating lunch. They were sitting together on the couch, and House could see snow falling outside the window behind them. Cuddy looked up to see who had entered so rudely and wasn't surprised to find that it had been House.

"We need to talk," House told Wilson without even considering Cuddy.

"Oh that's unfortunate," replied Wilson, "because we were already talking." He motioned his hand between himself and Cuddy.

Cuddy smiled at this comment. "It's okay," she stated. "I really should be getting back to work."

"Are you sure?" asked Wilson. This comment earned a roll of the eyes from House.

Cuddy nodded and gave Wilson a peck on the cheek before gathering her things to leave. She paused when she reached the door, though, and turned to House. "Play nice, you two," she joked before finally leaving and closing the door behind her.

"You're welcome," House playfully told his friend.

"This may be hard for you to believe, House, but I actually do enjoy her company." Wilson discarded his trash and returned to his desk to begin working again.

"How could you possibly enjoy her company?" asked House. "Boobs and ass, maybe, but company?" He took a seat on Wilson's couch and began to eat from the bag of potato chips that Wilson had probably been saving for later.

"What do you want?" He watched as his friend leaned back in the couch. He suddenly felt like a psychiatrist, and the idea made him laugh.

"What are you laughing about?"

"Nothing," replied Wilson. "What are you doing here?"

"What does it look like I'm doing here?" asked House. He held up the bag of potato chips.

"I see," observed Wilson, "but eating my lunch is usually the third item on your agenda, right after insulting Cuddy and insisting that we need to talk." It was his invitation for House to begin talking about whatever it was he needed to figure out.

"Cameron doesn't want back on my team."

Wilson was confused. "Shouldn't we have had this conversation a month ago when you actually asked her to join your team? Besides, I'm pretty sure it was her idea to fill in for Foreman and Thirteen."

House shook his head. "I asked her if she wanted a permanent spot, and she said no."

Wilson's confusion turned into shock. "Why did you offer her a permanent spot?"

"That's not the question here," deflected House. "The question is why she turned it down."

"Oh, of course it is," replied Wilson, "because I can't imagine a better job than indulging your every whim all day."

"Oh please," retorted House. "That is your job. Besides, this is Cameron we're talking about. To her, there is no better job."

"No," corrected Wilson, "there was no better job. She's married now."

"That didn't seem to stop her from asking for her job back last month," he observed, "and it certainly didn't stop her from kissing me." He needed to get it out quickly before he had any second thoughts, and there was the added bonus of seeing Wilson's reaction.

Wilson dropped the pencil that he was holding. "Whoa," he exclaimed. "Wait, what? Cameron… Cameron kissed you?"

"Wouldn't be the first time," he snarked back. Honestly, he couldn't even remember if he'd kissed her or if she'd kissed him. Either way, they had both kissed each other.

"This is huge," noted Wilson. He was still in disbelief. "When did this happen?"

"A couple of weeks ago," he responded. "It was the first case we had since she'd come back."

"So almost a month ago?" he clarified. Then it hit him. "You kissed Cameron a month ago, and you're just now telling me?!"

"I knew you'd rat me out to Cuddy."

"So what's changed?" asked Wilson. He would still probably rat House out to Cuddy, and they both knew that.

"Cameron doesn't work for me anymore," he answered, "so there's no liability."

Wilson rolled his eyes. "This has nothing to do with you being liable," he said. "Everything you do makes this hospital liable. The only thing that's changed is that, now, Cameron doesn't want back on your team."

"Duh," responded House. "I think that was my opening statement."

Wilson was still trying to grasp the idea that Cameron and House had actually kissed, but then he realized what House had said. "What do you mean… this wouldn't be the first time?"

The statement had been intended as a joke, but House finally realized that it was true. "You're supposed to be telling me why Cameron doesn't want back on the team."

"Here's a crazy idea," replied Wilson, "talk to her."

House rolled his eyes. "If that were any help, I wouldn't be here."

Wilson was surprised. "You were actually adult about this?" he asked incredulously. "You actually talked to her?"

House pretended to think. "I… talked to her about coming back," he replied, "and she told me it wouldn't be a good idea."

Wilson rolled his eyes. "So you two kissed a month ago, and you haven't even talked about it?"

House didn't respond, so Wilson took that as a yes.

"She's probably just scared," concluded Wilson. "She hasn't even been married to Chase for a year, and she's already slipped. Joining your team permanently would only be asking for trouble. She doesn't want anything else to happen because—I know it sounds crazy—but she really does love her husband."

House rolled his eyes. "So married people are allowed to have one kiss with another person, and as long as they don't do it again, everything's okay?" It was a silly notion that Cameron could just absolve herself of any wrongdoing by preventing future mishaps. "It's too bad none of your ex-wives knew that."

Wilson glared at House. "I don't know what to tell you," he replied. "You need to talk to her."

"I wonder if Cuddy knows that rule, too," he ignored Wilson's last comment. "I'm sure you wouldn't want to pass on the opportunity to truly welcome that new nurse in Peds to the hospital."

Wilson sighed. "That's not going to happen."

"How romantic of you," House retorted. "Although, I'm pretty sure you said that all of the other times, too."

"Well, this time I mean it."

"Yeah, you said that, too," replied House. "What's so different now? Cuddy's your boss, so if you cheat on her, you not only hurt your relationship, but also your career?"

"No," shot Wilson, "because I love her."

House was slightly surprised by this statement, but he didn't show it. "I'm pretty sure you said that about all of your ex-wives, too."

Wilson rolled his eyes. There was no way he could win. "Are we done here?"

House was about to leave but something else occurred to him. "Why were you two having lunch in your office instead of the cafeteria?"

"I needed to get some work done while we ate," Wilson lied.

House shook his head. "You were sitting on your couch when I came in," he said, "and there were no papers or files on the table."

Wilson didn't respond.

"But there was a…" House paused for a second, thinking about what his observation meant before finally finishing his sentence, "…key." He looked up at Wilson, who was still silent, only now he was hiding his face in his hands. That could only mean one thing. "You asked her to move in with you?"

"No," Wilson sighed, "she asked me."

"What?" House asked in shock.

"She asked me to move in with her."

House rolled his eyes. He was going to have to put up with yet another one of Wilson's doomed relationships now. He'd been hoping this thing with Cuddy would never get too serious, but evidently, it had. "She's just scouting for a baby daddy," he shot.

Wilson rolled his eyes. "If you even knew her, you'd know that Rachel is a great kid."

"How can you possibly know that?" asked House. "She's a baby."

"She's almost a year old!" Wilson exclaimed. "She's already taken her first steps! Hell, she's even said a few small words."

House was surprised at how quickly Cuddy's daughter had grown. She was still very young, but he couldn't believe that she'd already hit so many developmental milestones. Pretty soon she would be able to combine words and eat with a fork. Those things seemed rather simple at first, but he couldn't believe that the tiny baby he'd held almost a year ago was now so… grown up. Time was flying too quickly, and he hadn't even realized that another year had already passed him by. In that short year, Chase and Cameron had gotten married, Wilson and Cuddy had decided to move in together, baby Rachel had spoken her first words, and Foreman and Hadley had gotten married as well. What had he done? Recovered from a mental illness brought on by trauma, loneliness, and drugs?

Wilson was beginning to worry about House's sudden silence. What had gotten into him? "House," he called his friend back to reality.

Hearing his name, House looked back up at Wilson. "Do me a favor?"

"What?"

"Can you tell Cuddy to get me a ticket for the benefit?"

Wilson was a little surprised by the timing, but not terribly shocked. After all, House had attended benefits before. He gave his friend a nod and made a note to call Cuddy when he got the chance (which would probably be immediately after House left, considering all of the things they now had to discuss).

With the assurance that Cuddy would get him a ticket, House rose from the couch and left Wilson's office.