Chapter 50: Advice from a Friend

House was somewhere between the realm of sleep and the awareness of being awake. He felt happy and safe; he could feel Cameron's body still pressed next to his. He could smell her lavender shampoo as he breathed in. He could feel her chest rise and fall with each breath she took as his arm was tucked securely around her middle.

As House became fully awake, it dawned on him what it was that felt so different: he felt whole. For the first time in his life, he felt like he was complete and really had a reason to live.

House's thoughts were interrupted by Wilson coming into the room. Upon seeing the couple snuggled together in bed he immediately took his Super Jim pose and chastised, "Ya know House, she's suppose to be getting bed rest,…which contrary to your beliefs does NOT include hanky panky!"

House cracked up and countered, "Jimmy, does it look like we are in the middle of hanky panky as you so delicately put it? No. In fact, she has been sleeping for the last hour and a half."

As Wilson picked up Cameron's chart to review it, she started to wake from her peaceful slumber. She stretched and pressed herself against House, moaning, but never opening her eyes. House nuzzled her neck and whispered, "I'd wake you up the proper way but we have an audience….Wilson is here; so try and behave woman!"

Cameron opened her eyes and smiled and asked, "Hey Jimmy. So are you letting me out of this Hell-Hole tomorrow? Wilson laughed and answered, "I believe we can work something out Allison. Did you get your walker from the Therapy Department yet?"

"No, he said he'd bring it up this afternoon, but we haven't seen him yet."

"That's odd," Wilson said, "I could have sworn I saw him walking this way earlier with a walker under his arm….oh well, maybe it was for someone else."

"I've got to go over some things with House in my office, then I'll come back and talk with you about your home care, and we'll talk about home therapy as well. For right now just try and get some more rest while I borrow House for a little bit!"

Cameron pouted, "That is so unfair! You two are going to leave me here all alone with no one to keep me company!?!"

"Not true my dear, I'll be here. And I can assure you I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU…..that is until your friendsget back."

Cameron, House and Wilson all turned toward the door to see who uttered the bold statement. It was Parker from Physical Therapy. He was holding a walker for Cameron.

Neither of the three had what Parker would call "welcoming faces" on, so he smiled and held up the walker he carried. "See, I brought the walker I promised to fit Dr. Cameron with earlier."

House, liking Parker less and less with each meeting asked, "How long is that going to take? Maybe I should just stay and meet with Dr. Wilson later?"

Parker was seriously getting pissed at this man. Why did he persist in trying to come between him and Allison? He had to play it straight for now though so he just smiled and said, "Nonsense, Dr. House! All I'm going to be doing is teaching her how to stand and walk with the device while putting all her weight on her good leg. I don't need three or four degrees to handle that. Your talents are best used elsewhere."

Cameron and Wilson immediately locked eyes. They could see that House was barely holding back from teaching Parker how to stand and walk with a walker shoved up his ass….or at least a cane! And Wilson didn't feel like explaining to Cuddy why she needed to hire a replacement therapist just yet.

"House," Wilson said, grabbing his buddy's arm, "let's just go to my office and get this over with. Cameron, are you OK with House being gone while you practice with the walker?"

"I'll be fine. The sooner you go have your talk, the sooner you can come back," Cameron said, looking into House's eyes.

"OK. I'll be back soon," answered House. Only he wasn't looking at Cameron when he said it, he was looking straight at Parker.

Just as House and Wilson were almost out the door, Cameron yelled out, "Greg!…..I love you."

House and Wilson both turned around and stopped dead in their tracks. Parker was steaming. House started to limp back toward the bed toward Cameron to give her a mind-blowing kiss right in front of Parker……but just as he approached, Parker pulled open the walker setting it right in the direct path of House, almost causing him to fall.

House gave him a look that would have even the most accomplished surgeon peeing his pants and then simply said, "No problem, I'll just walk around."

And House did just that. He walked around the walker, Parker, Cameron's bed, to the other side…where he took her in his arms and kissed her good and properly. "I love you too, Allison."

After House had thoroughly kissed Allison in front of Parker, he walked away with a smile on his face that Wilson could only compare to the 'Cat that ate the Canary'. Normally he would have been amused at this little demonstration of his friend marking his territory if he hadn't caught the look on Parker's face. Pure rage.

3 3 3 3 3

House sat across from Jimmy in Wilson's office. The walk there had been quiet. House had seemed preoccupied.

Wilson asked, "Well, it looks like things are going well for you and Cameron…."

House still was clearly thinking of something or someone else but answered, "Yea, but I still have a long way to go before she truly trusts me. And I'm cool with that. I'm lucky she loves me at all."

"House, what's the deal with this Parker guy?"

"I don't like him Jimmy. I don't like him and I sure as hell don't trust him. I see the way he looks at her when he thinks I'm not looking. And some of the things he says….he's just not right."

Jimmy confessed, "Well, I'll be honest with you, after what I heard and witnessed this afternoon, I have to agree with you. I think he has fallen for Allison and definitely wishes you were out of the picture. When you kissed her in front of him, I didn't see anger in his face, I saw RAGE."

"Hold on a sec," House said as he left Wilson's office for a few seconds and came back in with Foreman and Wombat in tow.

House took a seat and looked up at the two. "I need you two to do me a favor. Actually, it's for Cameron's well being if that makes a difference."

Foreman immediately snapped to attention and asked, "What's going on?"

"As we speak, her physical therapist, a guy named Parker, is in her room helping her learn how to properly use her walker since she is being discharged tomorrow. The thing is, Parker has the hots for her and I don't trust him. I was hoping I could get you guys to stop in and check on her and stick around for a little bit so he can't do anything to her while I'm not there to protect her."

Chase rolled his eyes and said, "Wait a minute. Is this just because you're jealous of her therapist and you're afraid she might like him better than you? Get someone else to do your dirty work. I'm not spying on her!"

Wilson interrupted, "House is telling the truth! I've seen it myself. Normally I would have jumped to the same conclusion you did…but that isn't the case here. This guy is infatuated with Cameron and I don't think he's playing with a full deck of cards."

"Well then," said Foreman, "looks like we're going to be paying an unexpected visit to Cameron."

"Good," House replied, "report back to me when you're done!"

Foreman and Chase left, leaving the two friends to talk about Cameron being discharged.

"House," Wilson started, "You realize this is a huge task your undertaking? I mean I'm glad that she agreed to move in and let you take care of her, but I have to say I'm a little concerned about one cripple taking care of another- and I mean no disrespect when I say that. I'm just trying to look out for what's best for both of you."

"What's best for both of us is to be together. She needs to see that even if her leg doesn't come back at all, we can still manage this….together. Don't you think I'm scared too? Hell, all I can think about is dropping her or letting her fall. But I promised her she could trust me, and that includes everything. If it takes me an hour to get her into the shower, then it takes me an hour. Look Jimmy, I'm still a man. I have my pride. I want to be able to take care of the woman I love. Is that so wrong?"

"No. It's perfectly normal. Just promise me if it DOES get to be too much for you physically you'll let me know. We can always get a nursing assistant in there a couple times a week to do the things you can't. I don't want either one of you getting hurt. Which brings me to my next question. How much vicodin do you have stored up at your apartment?"

"Well, Tritter took my main back up stash but I've been slowly accumulating since then. It's odd, since all this happened with Cameron, I haven't been taking as much Vicodin on a daily basis."

"Yes, I noticed that. The reason I'm asking is I think you should go thru your apartment and bring all your vicodin in to me. I'll hold on to it for a while. You can keep one small stash as long as you promise to hide it very very well. And the stash can't be enough to OD on…you'll have to replenish it often."

House looked at him for a few moments trying to let in all sink in. Finally with brows furrowed, he accused, "You think she's going to try it again?"

"I don't know House. There is always that chance. Things can be going fine with a failed suicide attemptee, and then one bad thing happens, and it's like their whole world collapses again. And between the alcohol and the drugs in your apartment, it would be like Disneyland for someone who was suicidal."

"Gee Jimmy, I had no idea,…maybe I should start charging admission and giving out hats!"

"House, I'm serious. Let's put the fact that she is going to be living with YOU and there are bound to be fights aside for now. Cameron has a hard path ahead of her. She needs to go to counseling; the sooner the better. She has a lot of demons she needs to confront. That won't be easy for her. She was ready to kill herself rather than face them once already. And your relationship is one of those demons…but she has others as she stated in her letter. And secondly, her leg may or may not come back. She may have to deal with the realization that she will be permanently crippled. And if that happens, watch out….because the same bullshyt you've said to her for the past three years is going to come right back to bite you in the ass! She's going to tell you that you deserve better. You're not as crippled as her - she'd only be tying you down."

"That's ridiculous. I love her," answered House.

"Is it? She tried telling you it was ridiculous for three years and you kept pushing her away."

"Fine! I see your point," submitted House.

"If her leg DOES start to come back, more than likely you're going to have another kind of problem on your hands……pain. Unbearable pain."

House whispered, "Her nerve endings…"

"Yep. If and when her paralysis starts to wear off, those nerve endings are going to slowly start to wake up. And they are going to be shooting agonizing darts of pain throughout her leg and foot. She's going to wish she was paralyzed all over again. She's going to want pain drugs. A lot of them. And then she'll want more."

"Jimmy, what am I going to do? I just got her back after almost losing her for good. I honestly think we have a chance at this. I love her. And for some reason I don't understand, she says she loves me. But there are so many obstacles standing in our way I hadn't even thought of. I guess I was too busy being….happy."

"House, you deserve to be happy, and so does Cameron. I just wanted you to be aware of some things to look for in her behavior patterns that should concern you. I'm going to be stopping in from time to time and of course I'm just a phone call away if you need me FOR ANYTHING! I'm sure Cuddy would come running too if you called."

House chuckled and said, "I don't know if that would be such a good idea yet. I don't think Cameron has really forgiven Cuddy entirely."

"But the last time I saw them together they were laughing together and sent me out of the room!"

"Well, apparently Cuddy was telling Cameron how she now owned my ass since she perjured herself in court. Apparently Cameron's response was something to the effect of 'you can own his ass at the hospital, but I better never catch your hands on it!'"

"Damn, House! I never realized Cameron had claws before. Nothin' sexier than a good ole cat fight!"

"Sure, easy for you to say. I can't even talk to my boss without Cameron being worried I'm going to her office to make out with her."

"Put yourself in her shoes House. Her and Cuddy use to be friends. What if you walked in to my office and caught me and Cam half naked, making out? You wouldn't be able to get it out of your mind would you? You might trust Cam again at some point, but you would NEVER trust me again…ever. Plus factor in that you and Cuddy had a past…no wonder Cameron can't handle it. Let me ask you something. Has she asked you if all these feelings you are having are just a 'reaction' to her suicide attempt?"

"Yea, how did you know?"

"Knowing Cameron as much as I do, and knowing the circumstances everything happened under….I can see how she would think that. She'll never be able to compete with Cuddy in her mind. You went to Cuddy after Cameron had been practically begging you for three years. Reasons be damned….that's all she sees. She's second choice. She's your guilty choice."

House slammed his cane on Wilson's desk and shouted, "It's NOT like that dammitt!"

"House, I know you and Cuddy are nothing more than friends. But I'm not the one you have to convince."

Tbc…

A/N: For those of you who are reading my rpf, chapter 6 has been posted on lj, GE still waiting for chapter 5.