Part 8

One month after restarting their romantic relationship Chase and Cameron were still committed to keeping their relationship quiet, even if the 'we'll take it slow' idea hadn't quite worked out. But what could they say? Sex had always been an integral part of their relationship and that definitely hadn't changed. The rest of their relationship had changed, it didn't feel like picking up where they had left off because their lives had changed, and they had grown as individuals. Their relationship couldn't go back to how it had been years ago when they'd been married, or dating, or friends with benefits. So, they moved forward instead.

They kept friendly at work but were careful not to reveal their relationship to any of their co-workers, keeping their sex life away from work this time. They had mentioned on more than one occasion how in some ways that they were lucky House was no longer around to call them out on it.

They typically went on dates when Oliver could be looked after by a babysitter or when Matthew had him for the weekend. Sleepovers were exclusively saved for when Oliver was away, something that Cameron had tried not to read too much into at first but it was starting to bug her. They hadn't talked much about what it meant for them to be in a relationship when she had a son and what Chase's relationship with her son would be. She didn't want to put pressure or expectations on him because Oliver already had a dad, he didn't need someone to fill that role but if Chase was going to be a more permanent presence in her life, then he would need to learn to be okay with Oliver being around.

Cameron was in her office, working through some of the paperwork that had amassed on her desk, she was consciously grateful for the all the times she had done House's paperwork, if she was being more optimistic about the situation, she would have thought that maybe House was preparing her for heading a department. She knew that in reality he was simply uninterested with that aspect of his job and therefore found the one person who would do it for him.

She heard a knock on her door and before she could respond Chase had entered with a cheeky grin on his face.

"What's got you so cheerful?" she asked, almost suspiciously. His eyebrows raised in surprise as he tried to portray innocence that definitely wasn't there.

"What are you talking about?" he said defensively but still couldn't wipe the smile off his face.

"You look far too happy," she commented, getting up from her chair to greet him properly.

She glanced at her office door to ensure it was properly closed and the kissed her boyfriend softly.

As she pulled away, she glanced up at him and grinned at him, his smile was infectious.

"I can't be happy when I solve a case before lunch and I have a sexy girlfriend who works in the same hospital as me?" he asked rhetorically.

"You need tougher cases if you're solving them by lunch," she teased him, ignoring the compliment he had given her.

"But this benefits both of us," he said playfully. "Because now I can spend this afternoon planning a perfect date for tonight."

"Tonight?" she asked, surprised at the short notice.

"It was something that she had noticed since they had restarted their relationship; Chase still had the spontaneous mind of someone who didn't have children. His life was his own, he didn't have the responsibility of being a parent to another human being and this kind of sweet gesture made it glaringly obvious.

"Let me check that Amy can babysit Oliver tonight before you book anything," she said, hoping that this would remind him that her life couldn't be as impulsive as his.

He nodded in response but disappointment at her lack of excitement showed on his face.

"Great," he put a mask of happiness back on his face. "You talk to Amy, let me know and then I'll start planning."

She smiled at him as he left her office and only after he left did she let herself frown.

Amy had agreed to babysit Oliver that night so Chase had planned a night out at a new restaurant in town with drinks to end the night at a bar they used to go to when they had just started dating. He felt so alive now that they were together again, it was like he'd been living in greyscale for years and now life was a rainbow of color again. But even with all of the goodness and light that Cameron had brought him, this relationship wasn't as simple as it had been all those years ago. There was a history behind them that they couldn't ignore and then there was Cameron's son. Dating a woman with a child was complicated and he couldn't have predicted just how much it would restrict their relationship. It wasn't that he didn't care about Oliver or wanted to pretend that he didn't exist, but he didn't know if he was in a place to be forming a relationship with him. Did Cameron even want him to have a relationship with him?

He went to pick up Cameron that evening, flowers in hand because even if everything else had changed, she still deserved a guy who bought her flowers. But when she opened the door he frowned. Even though she was wearing a dress and her makeup was done it was clear from the apologetic expression on her face that Cameron wasn't intending on going anywhere that night.

"I'm sorry," she started. "I tried to call you but I guess you were already driving."

"What happened?" he asked, trying not to let the frustration out in his voice.

"Amy's sick," she explained. "She called ten minutes ago and it's too short notice to find someone else."

"Oh," he replied, unsure what he should do now.

"Why don't you come in and I can make us some dinner," she suggested, holding her hand out for him to take.

He looked past her shoulder and saw Oliver in his baby swing, staring at him, as though he knew exactly what was going through his head. But then he looked back at Cameron, her eyes full of hope and apology and he couldn't resist. He took her hand and allowed her to lead him into her house.

They were soon cooking spaghetti together and they laughed as they ended getting tomato sauce on their fancy clothes and they opened a bottle of wine, knowing they likely wouldn't finish it with Oliver around. These were the moments when Chase felt truly at peace in the relationship, they were flirty, fun and just purely happy.

"Now I see why we used to get takeout all the time," Chase laughed as he gestured to her tomato covered clothes.

"You might want to look in the mirror," Cameron replied before pressing her body into his and wiping the splash of sauce that had landed on Chase's neck.

She then looked into his eyes and kissed him with more passion than he was expecting. He responded by pulling her in even closer by her waist and she was soon running her hands in his hair, and deepening the kiss.

Just as Chase started playing with the zip of her dress Oliver let out a loud cry from behind them.

Chase pulled away and let out a frustrated sigh.

Cameron frowned at him before going to pick up Oliver.

"Hi Oliver," she talked to him in her maternal voice that made Chase's heart pang. "Are you hungry?"

She got some baby food from the fridge and heated it up in silence. Chase had gone back to stirring the tomato sauce and she felt the frustration emanating from him. She didn't know where to go from here because she knew the moment she brought up Chase's seeming reluctance to accept her son into his life the happy bubble they had been enjoying over the past month would burst. But there was something different about their relationship now, it felt more intense and she felt herself falling for him more and more every day, so if this was going to be a deal breaker, she needed to find out sooner rather than later because the longer she left it the more it was going to hurt when it ended.

Cameron started feeding Oliver and she felt Chase's eyes burning into the back of her head from behind him.

She took a breath before starting to speak, keeping her eyes away from him so that she didn't have to see his reaction.

"I'm not going to apologise for him," she said, here voice shaking as she said it. "He's my son and the biggest part of my life."

Chase thought carefully before replying, knowing that this conversation had the potential to ruin everything they had built.

"I know that," he assured her. "But I'm finding it… I don't know, an adjustment to be in a relationship with you when you have a baby."

"Do you think you can adjust to it?" She asked softly, trying not to let her voice break. "He's not going anywhere so if you can't…"

The way she trailed off at the end of her sentence made Chase feel like there was an intense pressure on his chest.

"I don't want to lose you," Chase replied softly, coming up behind her and putting his hands on her shoulders. "I can't go through that again."

She leaned her head on his hand and squeezed her eyes shut because he hadn't answered her question, he'd avoided it which had effectively put off the uncomfortable decision that they might have to make.

She finished feeding Oliver with Chase never stopping his hand from having contact with her and then she noticed him getting sleepy so she brought him up to his room and put him to bed.

When she went back downstairs Chase was washing the dishes in the kitchen.

"Are you staying over tonight?" she asked, already knowing what his answer would be.

"I was actually going to go home after I'd finished washing the dishes," he said, hating that he was going to disappoint her again. "I'm sorry."

"Of course you are," Cameron muttered bitterly before heading to her bedroom, not wanting to be around him in fear that she might say something she'd regret.

Soon after she heard Chase coming into her bedroom so she turned around to face him.

"Allison, I don't want to hurt you," he started. "But I don't know how to do this, how to be in your life and his life."

"Then how do you expect this to work?" she asked, this time not hiding her anger. "Because you won't even sleep over when Oliver is here, you don't seem to want to bond with him at all and I can't keep the two of you separate in my life."

When he didn't respond Cameron continued, letting herself be truly vulnerable with him because she knew that if she wanted to be with him she couldn't make the same mistakes she had made with him before.

"I'm in love with you, Robert," she confessed. "And I want you to be in my life for the foreseeable future so I need you to make an effort with him because if you can't accept him as part of me then we can't keep doing this."

"I don't know why I'm struggling with this," he tried to explain. "I want to be with you, Allison."

He hugged her from behind and started kissing her neck softly.

"Stay here tonight?" she asked, almost begging him to at least try.

She turned to face him and saw the reluctance in his eyes but felt hope when he nodded in agreement.

They went to bed in relative silence but she smiled when he gestured that he wanted to cuddle with her. Obstacles in relationships were natural, and when he held her close like that with his hand on her hip and his warm breath tickling her neck it felt like no obstacle would be big enough to break their relationship now. But when that obstacle was her son? There was no contest.

Oliver had woken up once overnight and when his cries could be heard over the baby monitor she saw Chase had also woken up but she left the room without much thought to him and went to see her son.

She fed him but noticed he was quieter than usual so she held him in her arms until he fell asleep again. When she returned to bed Chase was sleeping again so she tried to put her worries to the back of her mind and went back to sleep herself.

The next morning Cameron woke before Chase, she felt her heart constrict when she realised that Oliver hadn't been crying over the baby monitor to wake her. She quickly made her way to his room and let out a breath of relief when she saw that he was okay, just sleeping. She went to wake him and felt that his forehead was hot and his nose was running.

Oliver had never been sick before and it was a moment that Cameron had been dreading, because for all of the experience she had looking after sick people, including babies, she knew that it was different when it was her own son.

Just as she was picking him up from his crib, she heard Chase come in the room behind her.

"Everything okay?" he asked, his brows furrowed. "I didn't hear you get up."

"Oliver's sick," she explained. "He's got a fever and I think he's got a cold."

Cameron was surprised when she saw Chase's expression turn into one of concern and worry.

"How bad?" he asked immediately. "Does he need to see his paediatrician?"

She didn't know what to make of Chase's sudden care and concern for her child, was it because he was sick or because of their conversation the night before? Whatever it was she was grateful for it.

"I don't think so," she said. "But he definitely can't go to daycare today."

Chase looked thoughtful for a second before stepping closer to the two of them, Cameron was holding Oliver close to her chest and stroking his back gently.

"You have that meeting with the board today," he commented. "The one you've been working on for a week, you can't miss it."

"I have to miss it," she said, trying not to let disappointment leak into her voice. It was true that this was an important meeting, it was to secure extra funding for the emergency department which was desperately needed. But her son came first, always.

"I don't have to work today," he commented and she was almost afraid to ask him to expand because he surely couldn't be offering what it sounded like, could he?

When she didn't say anything, Chase continued.

"I'll watch him today," he offered, slight nervousness shadowing his voice but he was trying to look confident, that much she could tell.

"I don't know Robert," she said, almost apologetically. "He's never been sick before and I really think I should be here."

"I've looked after sick kids before Allison," he reminded her. "And if it's not working out, you're just a phone call away."

She still seemed hesitant and it broke his heart a little bit. It was as though she couldn't trust him with her son, and he couldn't blame her given their conversation yesterday, but she'd told him that she loved him and he wanted to prove that he was worthy of that love.

"Are you sure?" she asked tentatively, still holding Oliver close to her.

"Please give me the chance to do this," he asked gently. "I want to do this for you, and for him."

"Thank you," she said, giving him a grateful smile before taking Oliver downstairs to try and feed him with Chase following close behind.

Now that she had agreed he felt his heart pumping faster, this was going to be the biggest test of their relationship this time around that they'd had so far. When Cameron left the house Chase was left with Oliver staring at him straight in the eye, making Chase feel that this was going to be even more of a challenge than he was expecting.

Chase was good with kids; he managed to connect with them somehow, maybe because he'd spent so much time looking after his little sister. But there was more pressure this time, Oliver meant everything to Cameron and he couldn't mess this up. He'd spent time with Oliver before but they hadn't been alone together and it was always Cameron looking after him, feeding him and changing his diapers, so he certainly hadn't bonded with him.

"Do you want to play?" Chase asked Oliver.

Oliver didn't react to his questioning, instead continuing to frown at him. Chase didn't know if he was unhappy because he was sick or because he wasn't impressed with Chase.

"Your mum just fed you so you can't be hungry," Chase reasoned. "And you don't stink so you don't need a diaper change."

Chase saw the bookcase from the corner of his eye, the one that he had built with Cameron just a couple of months ago and had an idea.

"How about I read you a story?" he suggested.

Oliver's facial expression didn't change but he did reach out with his hand so Chase took that as agreement to his idea.

He went to the bookcase to find a baby appropriate book but couldn't find any, he then remembered that Oliver's books lived in his bedroom. Not wanting to go back upstairs to get one of his books Chase found an immunology textbook that Cameron had obviously been reading recently. If nothing else at least this textbook might put him to sleep and might put Chase to sleep at the same time. Immunology was not his thing.

He sat on the couch and brought Oliver with him to sit on his lap and started reading to him about lupus. Oliver didn't fall asleep immediately like Chase had expected, instead he watched Chase reading aloud, resting against his chest as he learned about the autoimmune disease. It was comforting in a way, Chase realised, to have a tiny human being feel relaxed in his presence and seemed to be happy listening to Chase's voice.

Cameron had tried to focus on her meeting that morning but in the back of her mind she kept thinking about her sick baby boy and feeling guilty that she wasn't there for him. Then there was the Chase issue. She was doubting her decision to let him look after Oliver when for the past month he had hardly wanted anything to do with him, there was a part of her that was expecting to come back to her house to find a disaster and that it would break her relationship with Chase. She still somehow put in a good enough performance at the meeting and she had convinced the board to divert more funds to the emergency department to help modernize it.

She sent a text to Chase after her meeting to ask how he was getting on but was disappointed when he just replied with a simple 'everything's fine'. She didn't love that message, she wanted to hear about how her baby was and how he was coping with looking after him by himself. She decided to go home after her meeting, not having anything else to do that day that couldn't wait until tomorrow and she needed to be with her baby.

When she entered her house she was greeted with silence which made her nervous again, but she supposed at least it wasn't Oliver crying. She walked into her living room and found Chase napping on the couch with the baby monitor next to his head, there was an array of toys on the floor and a thermometer on the coffee table. She smiled to herself with the realisation that he really had tried, she wasn't expecting him to be Oliver's dad or even a father figure in his life at this point, but knowing that he was making an effort to care for her son and be a part of his life meant the world to her.

She left Chase where he was for a moment, although she was tempted to run her hands through his hair and wake him up with a kiss to thank him for his effort. But she wanted to see her baby so she walked up the stairs to his room and found him napping as well, he looked better than he had that morning and when she touched his forehead, she noticed that he no longer had a fever.

Oliver woke up at that point so Cameron picked him up and cuddled him for a moment before bringing him downstairs to be with Chase again. She sat on the floor and quietly played with the toys that Chase had got out earlier, happiness overflowing her when she saw how much more energy Oliver had now compared to that morning.

"You're home."

She heard his voice before she'd seen him wake up.

"Yeah," she whispered. "Oliver seems to be feeling better, did he tire you out?"

"No, he was great," Chase countered. "He hasn't eaten much but I've managed to get him to eat some mushed up banana."

He sat up on the couch and watched them play, leaning forward and feeling a sense of peace for the first time in a long time. He saw his girlfriend smile softly and her son look at her in amazement, she was everything to that little boy and it was something that had bonded Chase to him today; the realisation that they shared the most important person in their lives with each other. Then Oliver looked up at Chase and waved his hands out towards him, gesturing for him to join them, so he did. He sat with them on the floor and understood that this was it; this family was what he had been searching for and he had been reluctant to truly bond with Oliver because he was scared that he would lose both of them like he had lost her before.

But now he realised that fear couldn't rule his life and if he wanted this to work with Cameron then he couldn't push her away like he had been for the past month.

"I love you," he said suddenly.

Cameron looked at him in surprise, but with a smile on her face all the same.

"What?" she asked.

"I'm sorry for the way I've been with Oliver," he apologised. "But I'm all in now, I love you and I want us to have a future together."

"I'm so happy to hear you say that," she sighed with relief. "I want that too and I love you, in this moment more than I ever have before."

She kissed him happily as Oliver clapped his hands and she giggled as her lips pulled away from him slightly.

This felt like the last big hurdle they needed to get over and she knew there would still be ups and downs but their commitment to each other now, committing to be a family, that bonded them in a new way that she was sure wouldn't be broken.