House characters, setting, etc. don't belong to me and Iwill notmake money off them. But I never refuse money, so if there is some non House related reason you want to give me money, just let me know.
Cameron had arrived late for work for the first time since receiving her medical licence. She had always been very particular about punctuality, not wanting to do anything to detract from her image as a professional, so she always left her apartment, only twenty minutes away from the hospital, an hour before her shift began. Life was often complicated for Cameron, who made dozens of tiny, inconvienent adjustments to her schedule every day to make sure there was no upheaval. Giving away parts of herself in exchange for peace was a routine she began before she ever entered medical school. It was her own, private, Hippocratic oath. "First, make no waves."
Being late made her nervous, and if she had realized how guilty she would feel beforehand, she probably would have left on time. She had been ready at the normal time, she had simply sat on the couch staring at the television and thinking of one of the dozens of ways she could have avoided the awkward situation that she was now in. If only she had dropped off her dry cleaning that day. If she had dropped it off before work, as she usually did, she would have left the hospital before she had stood in the harsh florescent light of the corrider and let House know how she felt about him. She wouldn't have had to pretend she wasn't falling apart while he looked at her gravely from his brilliant eyes.
The gravity bothered her. Why couldn't he have let her off the hook? One glib, sarcastic comment could have diffused the situation, and those were his specialty. She realized that when she thought things like this, she was shifting the blame onto him, and it made her angry with herself. She had told him she didn't like being dismissed and he had done her the courtesy of taking her seriously, of being honest with her. For the first time since she had met him he hadn't been using words as a barrier. She should be grateful.
She was still fifteen minutes early to work when she pulled in to the parking garage, but she knew she would be late by the time she got to House's office. She had made this unprecedented adjustment to her schedule to avoid her morning down time with House. She used to love sitting in his office, preparing the day's work while he read his newspaper. Foreman and Chase would come in and the three of them would discuss their weekends or the previous evening while House pretended not to listen. Until two weeks ago the joy of her day had been handing House his coffee. Their fingers would brush casually as she passed it to him and he would make some comment about how he had never used to enjoy coffee as much as when she started preparing it for him. Every morning since the evening when she had put it all on the line she had found a way to avoid preparing it. She noticed that he rarely finished his coffee since she had stopped.
She had climbed out of her car and was headed toward the entrance to the hospital when she saw the Mercedes parked in the rather large handicapped section of the garage. Her steps slowed as she wondered how he had managed to get a handicapped spot right by the door at a hospital. It was then that she saw him sitting in the car, attempting to gather his briefcase, cane, and a box of take out food for lunch. It was then that she remembered that today was Wednesday, his clinic day. House hated the hospital's food, and would rather skip a meal that have to eat there, so on clinic days, when he was much to busy to leave during his lunch break, he brought lunch with him to work.
Under normal circumstances Cameron would have rushed to help him, offering assistance while pretending that he didn't need it. Acting as though it would be a great honor to be allowed to carry his things for him, as a boy in junior high offers to carry a girl's books. She didn't want to act like that today, but she couldn't damage his pride by suggesting he needed help, so she stopped walking, hidden from House's view behind a large van.
She watched as he stood with his briefcase and grabbed his cane, half propped against the side of the car as he reached for his lunch. When he finished adjusting his items, he slammed the door to the car and started toward the door. Cameron felt guilty for being too proud to help him as she watched his awkward progress; the feeling was only increased when he stumbled and his container of spaghetti hit the concrete with an echoeing 'splat'. Cameron let out an audible gasp and had started forward when he regained his balance and let out a particularly creative curse. Shaking his head in disgust, he headed into the hospital.
Cameron waited several minutes before emerging from her hiding place. Stopping beside the Mercedes, she reached into her bag and removed her packet of tissues which she then used to wipe the splatter of pasta sauce off the bottom of the car's door and to scoop the spaghetti off the ground into its shattered container. She then dropped the remains into the trashcan as she hurried to the bathroom to wash her hands. She was going to be much later than she planned.
