Turn Around
By: JacobedRose and Lijep
Author's Notes: We're back for Chapter 2! I had to keep reformatting Chapter 1, which was frankly annoying, but you do what you have to, I guess. I wasn't particularly happy…anyway…thanks for reading and reviewing everyone! You rock!
Lijep
Thank you so much to those who read and reviewed our last chapter. We hope you like this chapter just as much.
JacobedRose
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Chapter 2
Jealousy and GameBoys
Cameron walked into the diagnostics room the next morning, coffee in hand. She had carefully avoided talking to anyone on the way in. She didn't want to discuss what was wrong or whether or not she was "fine", she just wanted to get to work. Of all the things work wasn't, it was her safe haven, it kept her sane and allowed herself to lose her emotions into the mysteries of every new patient.
Knowing she was early for a meeting that wasn't going to start for another half an hour, Cameron pulled a file off the shelf and started to read. She was so involved in her reading that she didn't notice Foreman entering and nearly jumped out of her chair when he spoke, knocking over her coffee in the process. Both doctors rushed to safe the file, but the coffee was long gone and causing a steaming stain on the table.
"Sorry Cameron. I didn't mean to scare you. Are you alright?" Foreman asked placing the rescued file on a different table while Cameron found a towel to mop up the hot liquid. She sighed inwardly at the question, wondering how many times she had heard it in the past three days.
"I'm fine," Cameron answered trying to keep the edge out of her voice, "Why does everyone keep asking me that?"
"You just seem anxious recently," Forman answered moving to help her as Chase entered.
"Are you guys OK, do you need help?" he asked.
Cameron managed to disguise the cringe which came with even more people noticing her clumsiness. She was about to answer, but Foreman seemed to sense her discomfort and covered for her, "I think we've got it. What did you find out from our patient?"
Chase was about to answer when House joined them. Cameron's stomach dropped hating the fact that out of all people, House would notice her bout of clumsiness. Looking between his ducklings with a curious expression, House spoke.
"Well it certainly looks like you started without me again. Anything interesting?" He paused but then continued when all three doctors began to respond at once.
"No really, I've been reading one of those self-help books Cuddy gave me, I know shocking, but she mad me do it. Anyway, it said I should take an active interest in the lives of those around me. It's step two in the process of rehabilitation. Of course I skipped step one, so maybe this will make up for it. So go ahead," he finished leaning against the wall."
Cameron rolled her eyes and tried to hide her face long enough to regain her composure as she threw away the paper towel. Taking a deep breath, she let Chase answer first as she refilled her coffee and took a seat on one of the couches.
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It was twenty minutes later and the meeting had broken up, each of the doctors going in their separate directions, while House quietly looked on. Stacy's revelation from the night before had him thinking. Did Cameron really love him? And if she did in fact love him, how was he supposed to know?
His pager beeped indicating the call of clinic duty. He groaned inwardly, wishing he had assigned one of the ducklings to do it for him. He shut off his pager and sat down in his office, popping his feet onto his desk. He pulled out his GameBoy, quickly making the decision that defeating evil space monkeys was far more important than treating ear infections.
After beating two levels and two separate sets of space monkeys, his pager beeped again with Cuddy's office number flashing back at him angrily. He looked at the GameBoy, then back down at the pager and turned the pager off, picking up his GameBoy again. However, he was unable to get through another level, because just as the monkeys began to attack, another sort of attack came.
"Why weren't you at clinic duty?" Cuddy asked angrily, leaning over his desk and snatching the GameBoy from his hands.
"Did you miss sharing in preschool? You should always ask before you steal another kid's toys," he said, pretending to pout.
"House…"
"What?"
"Nothing, you're hopeless. Oh, and by the way, I'd like to see you in my office before you leave today. I have to talk to you about a complaint," Cuddy said, turning to leave, dropping the Gameboy in her lab coat pocket.
"Patient?"
"Don't you wish," she said, striding out of his office.
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When four-o-clock rolled around, Stacy and Cuddy were sitting in her office waiting for House, and House himself was nowhere to be found. Suddenly, he came limping into the office and sat in a chair next to Stacy.
"Ooh, looks like we're in trouble," he said to Stacy when he saw the look on Cuddy's face. Stacy just sighed and looked in the other direction.
"Shut it, House," Cuddy warned. "I'm going to keep this short. I understand you two have personal issues, but during working hours, you need to act like the professionals that you are and not let your personal problems get in the way. That's what I have to say for now," she said, getting up from her chair. "Now, I have a more important meeting to get to, so you two can go."
"What about my Gameboy?"
"I only said I might give it back to you, House. No promises," Cuddy said, leaving the office.
House looked out the door and waited until Cuddy was out of sight before retreating back into her office. Stacy was still standing around as well.
"What are you doing?" she asked, when she noticed House rummaging around in Cuddy's desk.
"She stole my Gameboy," he said. "Can you help me find it?"
Stacy gave him a hard look for a few seconds, but then joined in.
"Is this it?" she said, a few seconds later, holding up his small Gameboy.
"Aha!" he said. "Thanks for the help, Stacy," he said, suddenly seeming in a rush to get out of there.
She looked out the door after him to see what had caused the rush. And she found him walking rather quickly and then stopping once he caught up with Cameron. She saw them walk down the hall to the diagnostics room together and disappear inside, a smile on Cameron's face and a sparkle in his blue eyes.