Born to be Wild

Foreman checked his watch. It was well past five on a Friday and they didn't have a case. He had been catching up on his dictation and puttering around. House was playing with a paddle-ball. Twacka-twacka-twacka. "Dammit!"

Chase sat across from him at the table; he was on the CDC website researching…something. They were in a power struggle. The team was waiting for House to pack up and go home so that they could leave, but he was obstinately sitting there playing with his toy.

Cameron took out her Blackberry and typed something in. She gave Chase a meaningful look. In about five minutes Wilson poked his head in, "Greg?"

House gave the ball a few more smacks, "yes?"

"Want to grab a cold one before going home?"

House looked at his team. Each apparently working on something different, but in the past couple of weeks they had managed to bond. He couldn't put his finger on what was wrong, but he knew that something was.

The three heads all turned to House to see how he's respond. "Oh you'd like that wouldn't you?"

Wilson shook his head, "pardon me?"

"You'd like me to just get up and leave. Did you know that they were planning something? I don't know what it is, which means that it's something good." He focused his eyes on Cameron, who stared right back with the best blank look that she could muster. She shifted uncomfortably; her new tattoo still hurt and she tried to keep the weight off of it.

"Don't think I didn't notice that maneuver. I'll find out about that too. Foreman, I see that smile." House sounded more than a little crazy.

Foreman stood up, "well, it's time for me to go anyway. I really enjoyed your paranoid rant. I guess we'll see more of that on Monday then?"

House sighed, "Fine, I'll leave." He gave them all a suspicious look.

As he walked out with Wilson he heard peals of laughter from their conference room and it went right through him.

Cameron stood up, "My ass is killing me. That is the LAST time I let you talk me into tequila poppers." She downed a couple of aspirins with the last of her bottled water.

Chase laughed, "Need me to change the bandage for you?"

"No you little perv, you're not coming anywhere near me. You've done enough." She still blamed him for the koala on her right butt cheek.

"It's cute. Remember Eric? She thought it was cute." He advanced towards her, as though he were going to look again.

Foreman laughed, remembering that Chase just wanted to see Cameron's ass and would have said anything to get her to agree to a tattoo on it. "Cute. Okay, so we're meeting at Cameron's, then we're taking a cab to the train station. We've got to boogie if we're making the 7:28."

Chase smiled, "Last one there buys the first round."

They collected their gear and headed out.

On the Metroliner they plotted their weekend. Foreman ran over their itinerary "Okay, so we've got tickets for the show tomorrow night. Tonight is our usual Friday night drink-fest. We're meeting my buddies at the Chevy's in Times Square. We'll check in at the hotel first then book over there. Tomorrow, we'll play it by ear. We'll probably not want to leave the hotel until later in the day. Maybe we'll head over to Canal Street or something."

"So what do you think was up with House?" Cameron had waited as long as she could before she brought him up.

Chase groaned. "We've got this amazing weekend planned and you're worried about House?"

Cameron blushed, "not worried, curious. You have to admit, he was acting pretty psycho. If Wilson hadn't answered my page I don't know what we would have done. He was going to wait us out."

"Who cares? So he's on to us. Good, that's part of the plan. It's not a plan if he doesn't notice. Look, aside from House, we're having fun right?"

Cameron seemed unsure, "Well, yes, but…"

"But nothing, we're having fun. We're young and single. It's natural for us to get together with each other. Frankly, I like you guys."

"But you like jacking with House too." Chase added.

"That's just a bonus. This might have started out as a way to bug House, but now you're my friends and we are out on the town for the weekend. So Cameron, what does your sister have lined up for us this weekend?"

"Well, at the worst, we'll have a deluxe room with a view of the park. At the best, we'll get a suite. We'll know when we get there." She shouldered her bag; early on the rule with them was, 'you pack it, you schlep it.' It was actually Cameron's sister-in-law who worked at the hotel. She got them the employee discount and they were upgraded as much as they could be, depending upon room availability. The last time the three of them shared a king sized bed.

The cab ride was short and when they checked in at The Ritz, they found that they were in one of the suites on the concierge level. "Great! Free breakfast!" Cameron commented as she threw her bag on the bed. "Dibs on an outer edge, I don't like being sandwiched between you guys."

"I'll take the sofa in the other room," Foreman said, "you thrash in your sleep," he pointed at Cameron, and you," he pointed at Chase, "your breath stinks."

Chase laughed, "Well yeah, after beer, tequila and Mexican food anyone's breath would stink. Besides, you're no party, yourself."

"Don't go there," Foreman warned, "at least I don't light mine."

"Boys! Enough. Do I have time to shower?" Cameron held her make-up bag in her hand.

Foreman consulted his watch, "we're meeting them at ten, so be fast. Besides, I'm starving."

"Yeah, wanna split a Toblerone?" Chase was inventorying the mini-bar.

"Hell, no. At four-fifty a pop? Shit, you should have grabbed a Hershey bar at the station when you had the chance." He pulled one out of his duffel and offered it to Chase.

"Thanks." Chase took half and handed it back, "how does she go without eating like that?"

"I think she forgets." He smiled at a long-forgotten joke, "it takes a special kind of stupid to forget to eat."

Chase nodded his agreement. "Yeah."

Cameron emerged from the bathroom in a light cotton dress, a very different look from what she usually wore at the hospital. She sat down on the bed and rubbed lotion into her legs. Foreman dipped into the bathroom while Chase admired the view.

"I know what you're doing." Cameron said while she was doing her feet.

"So?" Chase said somewhat defensively.

"Nothing. I just know." Cameron flipped her hair over and gave it a good brush while she was upside down. Then she sprayed it while Chase pretended that the fumes were choking him. When she stood up her hair was full and shiny. She walked over to the mirror to put on some make-up.

Chase took the opportunity to change. He was an exhibitionist and tried to embarrass Cameron by parading around in as little as possible. He had stripped down to his skimpy underpants and was in the process of deciding what to wear. Cameron and Foreman had recently had a wardrobe intervention with him, so instead of his usual, terrible outfits, he actually had something decent to pick from. "So which one?" He held up two shirts.

Cameron stopped mascaraing her lashes and glanced over, "the pink one is nice. Wear that with jeans."

He tried to get away with being nearly naked for a few minutes longer, but Foreman emerged and groaned with displeasure, "Aw man, nobody wants to see that! Damn." He averted his eyes as Chase walked past him. "How do you stand him?"

Cameron shrugged, "I think of him as my little brother, stupid, but loveable. You look nice."

Foreman smiled, "you too."

Cameron smiled, "thanks!"

Soon they were off to Chevy's. When they arrived they met Foreman's friends in the bar. They were in town for a fraternity convention so they were already in a party mood. There were quart sized margaritas lined up on the bar, in every color of the rainbow. Cameron grabbed the red one, Chase got the gold and Foreman ordered a beer.

Foreman made sure that everyone had something to eat, because he could deal with hangovers, but he drew the line at alcohol poisoning. "The fellas heard about this club, it's around midnight now, so it should be warming up. You up for it?" He asked Chase who was trying to talk to a woman buying single cigarettes.

"Yeah, this place is dead." Chase struck out so he was anxious to move on to greener pastures. Foreman turned to Cameron who was talking animatedly with his buddy Andre, a city planner in southern California suburb. He assumed that she was in.

The line at the club was daunting, but it turned out that Chase knew the guy on the door. No one wanted to know exactly how. The music throbbed and Foreman and Cameron danced with each other to break the ice. Soon everyone was dancing and making up new moves.

"Check it out, it's 'The Stewardess'," Cameron shouted as she demonstrated a move with her hands, as though directing people's attention to the emergency exits.

Chase laughed and pantomimed putting on an oxygen mask, "even though the oxygen is flowing the bag will not inflate!" He howled with laughter.

Cameron laughed as if it was the funniest thing she had ever seen, yet again, the victim of too much tequila.

After her fourth drink she found herself dancing on one of the giant speakers that ringed the club. She drew a small crowd who clapped and offered encouragement as she danced. "I feel like a movie star!" She did a bit of 'The Batussi' just to show off, oblivious to the fact that everyone could see her underwear.

At around three they were ushered out. Foreman said good-bye to his fraternity buddies as they walked up to the corner to get a cab. "Okay, we must have breakfast before we get back to the hotel. You need at least ten pancakes to soak up that tequila."

Cameron allowed Chase to steady her, "I was drinking tequila? I thought I told you that I wasn't going to do that any more."

Chase, always one to press his luck, "We could get another tattoo. A kangaroo maybe?"

Cameron fixed him with a stare, "Knock yourself out."

"You're just saying that because you want to see my bum." Chase proclaimed, a bit too loudly.

"I've seen your bum, hell, half of Manhattan's seen your bum. It's not all that."

Foreman laughed, "Come on, there's a diner up there. Some coffee, some eggs, then off to beddy-bye."

"Oh, but we get breakfast tomorrow morning. From six to ten." Cameron reminded him.

"I don't know about you, but I'm sleeping till at least noon." He held the glass door open for them as they stumbled in.

Chase stared at his omelet. "I'd say that this thing has at least a dozen eggs in it. You Americans always have to have such enormous portions. No wonder everyone is so fat." He poured ketchup on it and dug in. "This is the best thing I've ever eaten."

Cameron nibbled at her short-stack, having scrapped the butter off onto the side of the plate. "Nice and spongy."

Foreman handed her the syrup pitcher, "I think you might want to get them a bit wet."

She took it from him and added a few more drops, "Not too sweet."

Foreman dipped his toast into his egg yolk, "You know, it wouldn't hurt you to put on a couple of pounds. Fill out that koala a bit."

"I like myself the way I am, thankyouverymuch." She pushed her plate away having eaten exactly one pancake.

"Self-esteem is good. I'm just saying." He forked some hash browns. "Whoa, Chase, are you okay?"

Chase's head had started to bob. "I'm just really, really tired."

"Okay, time to head on back to the hacienda." He grabbed the check and hailed a cab.

The bed was turned down when they got back to the room. Cameron slipped out of her dress and threw a T-shirt on to turn in. Chase had fallen asleep with his clothes on, so Foreman just pulled his shoes off and left him the way he was on top of the covers. "You can get him out of the rest of his gear if you want, I personally don't want to see that banana hammock again."

"I'm used to it, it doesn't bother or impress me. Good night Eric. Are you sure you're going to be okay out there?"

"Better than you are in here. He had those jalapenos again." He turned off the light and closed the door.

Cameron adjusted everything and was about to fall asleep when she realized that Forman was right, "That smell could knock a buzzard off a shit wagon."