A/N: This is all going somewhere, I promise! Thanks for reading, and reviews would be lovely :)
"Are you looking for Mason?"
The young woman coming out of the operating theatre asks the blonde waiting outside, and Cameron shakes her head but is interrupted before she can reply as a tall man with a large mole on the side of his nose nods at her in acknowledgement before turning to his colleague.
"Not me, she'll be wanting Robert."
Oliver Mason advises, not bothering to ask the blonde why as he makes his way down the hall with his protege in his wake. His lack of curiosity suits Cameron just fine; not Mason's greatest fan due to his known dislike for House- a factor Chase sees as a point in his new boss's favour- and not in the mood to explain herself. Watching the doors close behind the head surgeon and his aide, she simply waits with her back pressed against the wall and her hands shoved into the pockets of her jeans. She's removed the pink scrubs she'd donned over dark denim in the clean room, but still wears the matching, papery top over the thin scrap of her camisole, lending her a rather odd ensemble.
"Hey."
Chase greets with a surprised smile as he exits the room smelling strongly of disinfectant, and she offers him a tight spread of her lips in response.
"Everything go okay?"
She asks, and the blond nods agreeably, although he doubts Cameron's interest is genuine as she seems distracted, and appears simply to be making small talk.
"Gall bladder removal in an otherwise healthy forty-six-year-old; doesn't get much more by the book than that."
He informs her, and she nods while her gaze drops to the spotless linoleum between them.
"Are you okay?"
He asks uncertainly, and she looks back up- eyes tired- and replies quietly
"I've been assessing our patient. I motioned to have her moved to the clean room, so I've been looking over her condition in there."
She gives a small tweak to the scrubs engulfing her slight frame as though her words act as an explanation for her outfit, rather than her state of mind, but Chase sees through this facade easily as she had hoped he might, and he holds out his arms to offer her a tight embrace, before continuing down the hall at her side.
"Do you have time for a coffee?"
He asks, and she nods as she's waiting to hear back from the tests sent off earlier in the day.
"Was it just you in there?"
Chase asks, leading the way to the cafeteria where he buys them each a coffee before following the blonde over to a table in the corner.
"Yeah. I had Connor and Rylan help me move her up, but I figured it would be easier to examine her myself."
"Oh."
Chase nods, unable to put names to faces, but knowing they must be some of the blonde's new colleagues from the ER. It still feels strange to him all these months later that they each have their own new circle of acquaintances, but it is something he rarely discusses with either Cameron or Foreman, as he knows the reality sits oddly with all three of them, and there remain a few matters of buried contention from all sides about how things eventually worked out.
"How's Foreman treating you now that you're his maid?"
He asks instead to relieve some of the tension, and Cameron rolls her eyes as she contemplates her coffee and replies honestly
"Actually, he's been pretty tolerable. Nowhere near as affected by delusions of grandeur as I expected... He's been pretty decent to me, really, what with House being... Not quite so decent."
"That's good... I'll bet you'd still rather I was in charge, though."
"I don't know about that, I'd have to weigh up my preferences. Would I rather be bossed around by an arrogant yet competent jerk, or lead astray by a sometimes brilliant idiot?"
"Are you saying I'm incompetent?"
Chase frowns, and she offers him a wry smirk over her cup as she assures innocently
"I called you brilliant."
"Yeah, though I don't like the way you said it."
"No?"
"No. I know that tone."
He grumbles, but not without a hint of affection, and he regards the blonde pensively as he muses
"And I suppose I did lead you astray..."
"Mmm."
She agrees, lowering her eyes but allowing a small smile and shake of her head. As always, Cameron's easy disregard of their brief fling as nothing more than a curious escapade- a blip- during the course of their friendship stings just a little, but Chase has come to accept the bitter taste her sometimes flippant references to that confusing time leave in his mouth without allowing resentment to get the better of him.
"So what now?"
He asks, pushing aside any further thoughts of the past.
"What happens next with your patient? Do you have any better idea of what's going on? Taking her to the clean room is a new step... Is it a good one?"
"When has putting someone in the clean room ever been a good thing?"
Cameron frowns, and Chase shrugs as he reminds lightly
"You tell me; remember, you're dealing with an idiot."
"I didn't mean it like that."
"No? Was I supposed to take it as a compliment?"
"Oh, for fuc-... Just... I didn't mean it. And I don't know what happens next. I suggested the clean room because I was working off the slight chance that she might be suffering from ricin poisoning, but I don't know."
"Ricin? Really?"
"It was a theory... After examining her, I'm not so sure it has any traction. I still want to stick with it for a little while longer, but I think that's just me being wistful."
"Wistful that the girl has ricin poisoning? You bitch."
Chase sermons with mock disapproval, and the blonde rolls her eyes as she elaborates
"I just want to believe we're on the right track. If it's not ricin, then I don't really have a long list of back up diagnoses to go off right now."
"You're worried you'll lose her."
Chase assesses solemnly, and Cameron rubs at her temples as though suffering a migraine and answers a little snappily
"Of course I'm worried!"
Before dropping her hands into her lap with a sigh and regarding her ex-colleague morosely.
"That's part of it... The rest is a little selfish."
"Selfish? You?"
"Everyone's selfish to some extent."
The blonde shuts down Chase's small jest at her expense, and she confides uncomfortably
"I don't want to go back up to the DDX room without an answer. It's awkward; me being part of House's team without them really wanting me there. Foreman and I are old hands at this game, and we have a lot to prove. He's kind of done the whole hazing and initiation bit already though, and I haven't... I'm supposed to have the answers because I have the experience. I'm supposed to know what to do."
"...Do you really think that? Do you think they're that closed minded?"
"... I don't know. No. Perhaps not Kutner... Maybe not even Thirteen. I don't really know about her yet."
"You're not sure on Thirteen?"
Chase grins, and she frowns at him irritably as she argues
"I wish you would all stop looking at me like that whenever she's brought up. You know, if she wasn't a woman, none of this comparison crap would even occur to anyone. I don't do it to Foreman about the new guys."
"True... But if she wasn't a woman, it wouldn't be half as interesting. If she wasn't a woman, House wouldn't look at her the way he does."
"... How does he look at her?"
Cameron asks quietly, and she stiffens when Chase raises a brow and laughs at her. Finally, the blond quells his teasing mirth as he comes to the slow realisation that the guardedness in green eyes speaks more of caution than of annoyance, and he knocks back the cooling dregs of his coffee before sitting back in his chair and studying Cameron shrewdly.
"... Are you still into House?"
He asks seriously, and his brow furrows when she doesn't bite back at him immediately with how wrong he is, but simply sighs.
"Allison?"
"...It doesn't matter."
She replies eventually, and he regards her with a troubled expression, fully aware of just how loudly her lack of denial rings out between them.
"How so?"
He asks, thrown by her cloaked agreement to his accusation, but not liking the prospect it denotes. He has his own reasons for being less than thrilled that the blonde should once again be under the inexplicable spell House seems to hold over her, but it's more than that. He cares for her first and foremost, and hearing the way things have been getting ugly between his former boss and colleague- both from Foreman, and from Cameron herself- leaves him uneasy to say the least.
"You guys have all told a hundred times, and you're right... House, me... It doesn't work."
"Cam, you-"
"-Please. I've told you you're right. You don't need to rub it in... Maybe you're not the idiot out of us original lot after all."
"What are you doing here?"
Wilson frowns as he lets himself into his office to find House sat at his desk, browsing over his patient files as he chomps on an apple.
"Hiding."
House informs him with his mouth full, and Wilson raises a brow as he takes a seat on the sofa and glances up at the clock to check he has time to deal with whatever is about to unfold before his next patient is due.
"From who?"
"The dragon, who else?"
"Cuddy? I didn't think your team was expected for clinic duty with your current case ongoing."
"We're not."
"Then...?"
"For once I'm not concerned she's going to put me to work! I'm just filled with horror at the inkling she wishes to discuss gushy stuff like feelings."
House shudders dramatically before pitching his apple core into the trash.
"I highly doubt Cuddy has any desire to have a heart to heart with you..."
Wilson muses, frowning irritably as House picks up a pen and makes a small alteration to the file open on the desk.
"That's what I believed until recently, too. And she has no heart, only stone."
"Mmm... So what's changed?"
"She put Cameron on my case."
"I know. You've made your thoughts on the matter quite clear."
Wilson sighs, and House glowers up at his friend as he grunts
"She wants to make sure I'm playing nice."
"How dreadful... Why? Has Allison said something to her?"
"Cameron?! No. Of course not."
"Then why the avoidance?"
"Because... I haven't been playing nice. She'll sniff that out as soon as she sees me, you know how she is."
House grumbles, and Wilson pushes himself up in order to sort through the filing cabinet in the corner to get things ready for his next patient. Speaking over his shoulder, he remarks
"It's unlike you to admit that... Much less care."
"I never said I cared."
House retorts automatically, but when Wilson turns around to offer him a knowing look, he diverts his attention out of the window with a slump of his shoulders.
"... She says I've damaged her."
"Cuddy said that?"
"No. Cameron did."
"That's... I wouldn't have thought she'd have it in her."
"...Do you think it's true? Do you think I do?"
"I wouldn't know; I have thankfully managed to keep more or less out of the often confusing relationship you two share... Going off what I know about you, though? Yes. I can see her accusation ringing true... Does it bother you? That she told you that?"
"It bothers me knowing that if Cuddy gets wind of it, I'm going to have to sit through another pointless lecture on how to interact with my staff."
"Soon you'll know the whole spiel by heart... Seriously, though. Cameron telling you that; that actually matters to you? You'll admit that?"
Wilson asks again, and though he sighs irritably, he isn't wholly surprised when House pushes himself up and limps for the door with his lips forming a hard line.
What does surprise him, is that his friend offers an answer- gruff, but sincere- before disappearing from view.
"It matters. Of course it does. It's Cameron."