Chaper 15

Author's Note: Well, here is chapter 15. Its coming out fast today! LOL I suppose that is a good thing because I have lots of homework to do on Sunday. Thanks for reading!

When Wilson found House a few minutes later, he was surprised to see the normally unflappable doctor leaning over a trashcan in the courtyard throwing up his toenails. He watched as House finished and wiped his mouth on his sleeve.

"Here," Wilson handed him a bottle of water which he graciously took and sat on the grass. "Feel better?"

"Yes. Thank you." House sat on the perfectly manicured lawn, his thumbs twiddling with the wrapper on the bottle; his thoughts a mile away. "You know, if I had seen the displacement of the rib, I never would have released her. I can't believe I missed it."

"House, do I have to remind you that you didn't even see the second set of x-rays and you didn't release her. It was Cameron's call, Pryhitka warned her that signing out AMA put her in danger of a displacement." Wilson tried to reason with his friend, he had seen this guilt trip before and he didn't want to go down that road again.

"Yeah, but she was staying with me. I should have seen that something was wrong."

"House! She had been sleeping all night! This could have happened anytime during then or last night, these things just happen. Bones slip!" Wilson frowned at him, "You know, I've never seen you get ill over a patient. What is going on?"

House stared at him, "I just had my finger inside a colleagues chest! I think that warrents some type of reaction."

"Yes, of course it does. Just not you, you never react like that. There has to be something more going on."

House sighed, "We've been, how do I say this, getting "closer" in the last few days. I guess it just hit me that I could lose her."

"Oh." Wilson was dumbstruck. "Thats great House, really it is. But you know a woman in her condition can't "hop on the good foot and do the bad thing" until she is healed more."

House looked down at his bad leg and back at Wilson, "Niice." He took a swig from the water bottle. "We didn't do that, honestly. We just went to bed and I did make a wall of pillows between us."

Wilson just rolled his eyes. "Then, there you go. There is no way this is your fault. You just..." he trailed off when Chase came walking across the courtyard and stopped in front of the two doctors.

"Dr. House, she's intubated and resting up in the ICU. The chest x-ray showed a complete pneumo and the chest tube in the perfect position. Her BP is back up to 110/70 and pulse is 94. You saved her life."

House nodded, "Thanks." Chase made a hasty retreat back to the hospital.

Wilson nudged him, "See. She should be fine, go up and sit with her."

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Cameron knew she was awake, even though she couldn't open her eyes. She felt the dull pain in her chest and the tube that was rudely thrust down her throat. Moaning around the tube, she brought her heavy hands up to her face and started to pull at the tape. She nearly had the tape loosened when a pair of gloved hands swatted hers away and tied them to the bed in restraints. A fleeting thought raced through her mind, was she captured by the gunman? Hastily she started to struggle, to get away from the imaginary villian. She cried out but it was muffled by the tube in her throat and she started to panic.

"Give her some Ativan!" She recongnized the gruff voice and struggled to get her eyes open to see if she was dreaming or was she really back in that store? She started pulling at the restraints in earnest, trying to fight off the madman. Pain ripped through her chest as she struggled and gasped in agony. "Stop it Cameron!" a voice yelled through rhe fog of panic. "Stop struggling, you're going to pull out the chest tube! Give her two more of Ativan!" The voice was starting to sound more and more like House, not the gunman. House? How did you get here? Cameron decided she should try and open her eyes and struggled to do so. She felt like there were weights holding them down.

She managed to get them open a slit and realized she wasn't in the store, but rather, in the hospital. She could see a nurse fumbling with the IV line and House standing beside the bed yelling about something. Her eyes suddenly grew impossibly heavy and she slipped back into unconsciousness.

It was hours later when Cameron finally woke up. She could still feel the sedative in her system, her whole body was heavy and relaxed. Opening her eyes in the quiet ICU room she saw House in green scrubs, asleep in the chair at the foot of the bed. His cane was resting up against the glass wall and he was snoring softly.

She flexed her fingers and was distressed to find she was still in the restraints. What the hell had happened? All she could remember was the excruciating pain in her chest, not being able to breathe and darkness. Dimly, Cameron recalled being cold and laying on a table, a sharp pain in her side as Chase and Foreman held her down. She vaugly remembered House talking to her, but she couldn't make out the words.

Moaning softly, Cameron could feel the reason for the chest pain. A chest tube was sticking into her side and she saw the tube running into the cannister beside the bed, its contents a pink-tinged liquid that was slowly dripping from her side.

Suddenly, House was at the bedside. How the hell did he move that fast? "Cameron, hang on. I'm going to take out the tube okay?" He pulled on a pair of latex gloves and pulled an oxygen mask from the wall, resting it beside her head on the pillow. "Okay, on three I want you to take a deep breath and blow." He pulled the tape off, "One... two... three... Blow!" He pulled the long tube from her lungs and out of her mouth, dropping it onto the table beside the bed.

Cameron sputtered and coughed, her throat raw and irritated. As quickly as he had the tube out, he replaced it with the oxygen mask over her face and pulled the nylon straps behind her ears. "There, breathe in that oxygen for bit."

Cameron breathed deeply, her lungs aching for the oxygen that had been removed by the tube. "Give yourself a minute to adjust." House fiddled with dial, turning the oxygen up slightly. He pulled a rolling stool up and sat beside her, frowning thoughtfully at her pale face. "You gave a us a hell of a scare you know."

She shook her head and whispered, "What happened?"

House looked at her, "You don't remember?"

Tears filled her eyes and she shook her head.

"Okay. Its okay. You had a tension pneumo, which was caused by a small puncture from your fourth rib. We got a chest tube in and reinflated it but you are going to be here for at least a week so we can make sure it heals properly. Same thing goes for your ribs, we need to make sure they heal without much movement."

Cameron nodded, "Why does my right side hurt too?" House looked away but Cameron urged him on, "What House? What is it?"

He sighed, "Well, you coded in the ambulance and we had to shock you once. It shouldn't happen again. Your blood pressure was too low and it put you in cardiac arrest, we've fixed that now so you should be fine." He watched her nod, her eyes drooping again. Right before she drifted off again, he leaned close to her face and spoke, "You know what you said right before you passed out in my apartment? Well, me too." He gently kissed her cheek and picked up her hand, stroking the knuckles absently as her eyes widened and she smiled underneath the mask. "Now go to sleep." She readily complied.

T.B.C...