Chapter 4: Day 2, morning

"Morning, Cameron."

Chase greeted the doctor filling up the kettle as he bounced into the Diagnostics Office the next morning.

"Good morning, Dr Chase," Foreman said deliberately. Chase ignored him.

"Sleep well?" he asked Cameron. She turned around, and her red eyes gave an obvious answer.

Chase felt a little bad, as she gulped down a mug of lukewarm coffee, for being in such a good mood, while Cameron was a bit down.

Looking anxiously, but surreptitiously at Cameron, Chase sat down.

He took out the Rubik's Cube he'd been working on for little under a week.

House entered the room.

"Haven't you solved that yet?"

Chase ignored him, and gave the block a twist.

"You've had enough time. Rubik invented those in 1974."

"Really," Chase replied, uninterested.

"Yep, and I finished it about an hour after they started selling them."

He half-limped, half-hopped over to the sink. He opened the drawer, and rummaged through it.

Finally, he turned to face his team.

"Right. Who finished the coffee?"

Foreman didn't answer. He flipped a page of his medical journal, his eyes scanning the pages quickly.

Chase didn't look up from his puzzle.

"I did," Cameron said, the lack of sleep showing in her voice. "I needed- House!"

Her sharp ejaculation brought Chase and Foreman's heads up quickly.

Cameron was staring in complete astonishment at House.

Chase followed her gaze, and saw only House, turning at his name, and looking unnerved at his colleagues' eyes on him.

"What?" he asked roughly.

"Where's…where's your…where's your…" she stuttered, pointing a quavering finger at him.

"It's in my…in my…in my…" House mimicked her.

Chase cleared his throat quietly, and brought a hand up to his mouth to hide his grin. He didn't want Cameron to think he was laughing at her.

But his amusement faded into amazement as he noticed what Cameron had so much quicker than the boy's.

Chase's mouth fell open, but he gave a breath of laughter.

"Where's your cane?"

He said it much more casually than he thought Cameron would have.

"Oh," House said, grimacing slightly. "You noticed."

"To hell, we noticed," Cameron said hollowly. "Oh, my God, House, are you ok? How's your leg? Doesn't it hurt? When could you walk on it? Is it healed? Can you-"

"Whoa," House interrupted, making a 'time-out' sign with his hands. "I played 20 Questions yesterday, and if I knew you were so into it, I would've invited you along. Never mind, next ti-"

"House!" Cameron cried. "What's going on?"

Chase looked on, leaning back n his chair, fascinated at the scene that was unfolding in front of him.

Foreman, too, had wisely decided to keep out of it.

"Nothing's going on," House insisted, but Chase knew that Cameron wouldn't let it stop there.

However, to his surprise, she did. Chase was disappointed because, although he didn't want to ask outright, he wanted to know, just as much as Cameron or Foreman, why House had gotten rid of his cane.

It seemed that the matter had been dropped.