Part Two- Chapter 18

Tuesday went by uneventful and Wednesday morning rolled around the same way. When Cameron got in, Chase and Foreman were already there and discussing going out to dinner that night.

"Hey Cameron. If you're free tonight, want to go out for dinner with the rest of us?" Chase asked.

"Is it going to the regular suspects attending?"

"Pretty much. Wilson has plans but everyone else should be there."

"Okay. When and where?"

"I was thinking that Triumph Brewery would be good. The foods not that bad and they have live music."

"Oh ok." Just then House came in and threw his bag on a chair and went to pour himself some coffee. He sat down and put his feet up on the table and took a few gulps of the liquid energy.

"Okay my ducklings. New case…." House continued filling them in on the case and they went to work.

They did a lot of tests after arguing over what the 24 year old male could have. It was 4:30 in the afternoon before they were able to get the tests back and start some treatments to narrow down causes. The ducklings came back to the office to find House at his desk, feet up, leaning back in the chair and using his cane to throw his oversized tennis ball around.

"We got the treatments started." Foreman informed House.

"Good. I want Cameron and you to go to the patients place and look for clues and then report back to me via cell. Chase can stay and work on test results. Then you all will stay here to monitor the patient tonight."

"What?" Chase said.

"You heard me now get to it. I have somewhere I have to be."

The team looked at each other with matching looks of annoyance. As they were walking down the corridor, Cameron said, "Well I guess there goes dinner out with everyone."

"Not necessarily." Chase said. Foreman looked at him curiously and asked, "What do you have in mind?"

"There's nothing against bringing people here to eat. I can call everyone up and tell them to meet us here and to bring some food. Then we can all eat together here."

"What about the patient." Cameron asked concerned.

"We can take turns checking on him during dinner. Anyway, we wouldn't just sit in his room with him. If there was a problem one of the nurses would let us know."

"Sounds okay to me. No need to give up our plans for tonight just because House wants us here." Foreman said.

"Okay I'm in" replied Cameron. They then all said good bye with Chase heading to the patients room and Cameron and Foreman headed out to the parking lot and to Cameron's car.

Soon Cameron and Foreman were done with their task and back at the hospital. Cameron had called House with their findings and he told her that he'd get back to her on his ideas. He then had hung up abruptly. She wasn't that surprised. She turned to the others and told them that he'd be calling back at some point.

"So what do you think that he has going on?" Chase asked.

"Probably something to do with alcohol and hookers." Foreman said snidely.

"I think it has something to do with Wilson. I saw them earlier today talking and Wilson seemed to be avoiding House's questions." Cameron told her co-workers.

"Hmm. Wonder what Wilson has kept from House now?" Foreman said.

Cameron smiled to herself. As much as she wanted to tell them what she had seen in the parking lot between Wilson and Cuddy, she felt that she didn't have enough to go on to speculate over it and she had a lot of respect for Cuddy and Wilson to really gossip about it. Just then their pagers went off and they had to rush off to the patient's room.

The patient had flat lined and they had to work on bringing him back. After he was stable again, Foreman called House. When House came half an hour later, he wasn't happy.

"What did you do?"

"Nothing."

"Then why'd the patient almost die?"

They all started to argue for a moment until Cuddy cut them off. She had walked into the room as they had started to fight.

"Alright. You all need to stop. House, you need to get to work with your team. I do not want to have to explain to the mayor why his son died under the care of our hospital. Now get to work." With that Cuddy stormed out of the room. House watched her go with his eyes glaring after her. He then turned to the team and started telling them what to do. They got to work and by 7:48 the patient was doing well. House had left the hospital again and the team and their friends were gathered around the conference table passing around food and catching us with each other. Rachel, Yvonne, Justin and Foreman's new girlfriend, Shalanna was there. Brian and Veronica had been invited but ended up not being able to make it after all. Yvonne and Justin were acting friendly to each other but Cameron noticed that they didn't have the same glow about them as they used. So when it was Cameron's turn to check on the patient she accepted her friends offer to go with her. As they walked down the hall, Cameron turned to her friend.

"So I couldn't help but notice that you and Justin seem not as close. What happened?"

"Oh we broke up last week."

"What! Why didn't you tell me?"

"I was going to but you were sick and everything. I didn't want to bring you down. But it's really not that big of a deal."

"What happened?"

"We just kind of felt that we were dragging on a romance that wasn't really there. We felt more like regular friends then lovers. And there was someone else who he feel's attracted to and there is someone else I feel attracted to. We just decided that we should be friends. And it's been working fine so far. We still get along and hang out. It's really not that big of a deal."

"So who is this new guy?"

"Oh. Just someone I met a while ago. Listen I really don't want to talk about it right now. Is that okay?"

"Oh sure. Whenever you do want to talk, I'm here."

"I know. Thanks." They reached the patients room and found him to be doing well still and asleep. They went back to the conference room and continued the meal with everyone. Soon they all decided to call it a night and Rachel, Shalanna, Justin and Yvonne said good bye and left. As the team finished cleaning up the conference room they discussed the patient.

"He seems to be doing fine now. I don't see why we all have to be here. You two go home." Wilson address the other two.

"No I'll stay." Chase said.

"Listen, it's my turn to stay." Cameron told them.

"How do you figure?"

"Well, Chase I was out those days the other week. So I might as well make it up to the both of you and let you go home. And I won't take no for an answer."

"Ok. Fine. Good point."

"See you two tomorrow."

Chase and Foreman grabbed their things and bid Cameron good night before leaving. She settled into House's chair and went through some of the mail that still needed to be taken care of. She started to feel drowsy an hour later and decided to make a fresh pot of coffee. As she was taking it back to the desk, House limped in. She looked at him in surprise.

"What are you doing here?"

"Checking in as a good doctor would do."

"Yeah really, why are you here?"

"I did want to check on the patient. And I was bored. Want to play some cards?"

"Umm.."

"Oh come on. A rousing game of Bullshit would help pass the time."

"Sure why not." House got the deck of cards out of his desk and they settled in at the conference table to play. After half an hour, Cameron said that she was going to go and check on the patient. House didn't get up to join her. When Cameron got back she found that he had visited the vending machines and gotten a bunch of snacks. He was munching on a bag of ruffles when she walked in. As she got to the table he threw a bag of chips at her and told her to dig in.

"Oh thanks." She ate a few chips and then put the bag down.

"Want to play more cards?" She asked House.

"Nah. Want to watch TV?"

"Okay." They grabbed the snacks and went into House's office. He had gotten a small couch put in a few months back. House got the TV on and sat down on the couch next to Cameron. She told him that he can put on whatever he wanted to. After an hour of watching some action movie, Cameron fell asleep and tilted to the side so that her head rested on House's shoulder. He let it rest there and a couple hours later, he too was asleep.