-1Disclaimer - I don't own House. I'm just letting everyone at PPTH celebrate Christmas.

Author's Note - A festive one shot. Completely unrelated to "There's No Dignity in Death". It's just something to occupy me these cold winter nights. Might be a little cheesy but that's just the way it is (restrains self from breaking into song). Please R&R as you please.

It was Christmas Eve once more at Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. Throughout the wards cheap sparkly decorations hung for the ceiling and the same tired Christmas CD played over and over in the clinic waiting room. The staff and patients were finally allowing themselves to get into the festive mood. All apart from two people who both happened to work in the Diagnostics Department.

As usual Dr House was not going to allow the celebrations get to him. He had no reason to celebrate Christmas. He had no one to spend it with, apart from his parents who every so often would come down and force him to join in. They'd stick a ridiculous paper hat on his head and stuff him full of dry turkey and rock hard sprouts and generally treat him as though he was still six. When they didn't visit he'd be alone, eating TV dinners and avoiding turning on the radio for fear of hearing yet more of the dreadful Christmas songs that would creep into the play lists from late November and adamantly refuse to budge until mid January. "Thinking of which," he thought as he rounded the corner into the clinic and was pounced upon by the cheery yuletide songs.

Dr Cuddy had made him do clinic duty. It was her little Christmas gift to him. He pretended to hate the idea as usual, but this one time he actually savoured the idea. Sick patients were generally depressed and so less likely to be joining in with the festivities. They were also more interesting than diagnosing an empty bed even if they did just have a cold, as the last of his patients was just being discharged by Dr Cameron. "May as will become Jewish like Wilson," he thought, "then at least I wouldn't be obliged to take tomorrow off. I'd get extra pay too."

Two floors above in the Diagnostics Department Dr Cameron sat at her desk, staring blankly at her computer screen. She had just discharged the final patient from the ward. Normally she would have taken great joy in sending a patient home in time for Christmas. Today however the smiling faces of both patient and family was not enough to improve her mood.

Drs Chase and Foreman intended spending the rest of the day holding a mini party in celebration, seeing as they had no work to do. She wasn't looking forward to it. All she wanted right now was to go home. Only her apartment was a tip - she would be moving next week of all times. There was no one at home to greet her and wish her a Merry Christmas. "There should be," she thought. "There always was." Her husband had been snatched away from her just over seven years ago but now she missed him more than ever. It was the first year that she would have no family with her since his death and her loneliness was hitting her hard.

It was almost time to go home. Foreman and Chase's little Christmas party was in full swing and House Wilson and even Cuddy had turned up for the free food. Wilson had turned up saying that Christmas was becoming an international festival rather than a single religion birthday party. Cuddy had joined Wilson after he told her about it at the end of a board meeting. Her excuse was that she should be regulating the amount of work taking place in her hospital. Meanwhile House didn't even pretend to have an excuse, he just wanted some free beer. Cuddy had been appalled that he'd drink while at work until he'd pointed out he was unlikely to be performing any surgery that day and that she was perfectly happy to let him work while he was high on Vicodin. Once she'd agree to him having just one he'd settled into a chair and began to slowly drink the rest of the day away.

On the opposite side of the room sat Cameron. She watched the four doctors enjoy themselves from her seat in the corner. Nobody noticed that she wasn't joining in; in fact barely anyone had noticed her bad mood all day. Only House had spotted that there were no candy canes in the hall this year. He wondered whether this was because of last year's comment he had made about them or whether something had happened to Cameron's usual kind and giving nature recently. He would have said something if he cared. What he needed more than anything right now was to be alone. What she needed more than anything right now was to be with somebody she loved.

At 8pm Allison Cameron was sitting alone in her empty apartment. She didn't know if it was the lack of people or belongings but the whole place felt soulless. Every sound seemed to echo a thousand times through the shell of a home, heard only by a shell of a woman. She took a sip from her glass of red wine before deciding to utilise her time off. She would do some packing. She walked over to a large cupboard filled with photo albums. She could spend her Christmas Eve with her family in spirit if not in body.

As Cameron leafed silently through the pages she smiled at all the memories. Pictures of a family Christmas when she was twelve, playing in the snow with her younger brother aged fourteen and celebrating her first Christmas in med school with her fellow flat mates.

Eventually Allison reached her first Christmas as a wife. She had insisted on preparing a full Christmas dinner for her husband even though she had no idea how to make it. She's messed up most of the food - only her carrots survived - and so they'd dined on the biscuits and chocolates they had received as gifts as no stores nearby were open. It had been the most unusual Christmas dinner she'd ever had, but they'd had the time of their lives. She laughed at the photo of her digging into a tin of shortbread, which sat alongside a photo of her husband removing the candy canes from the tree.

Allison turned the page to find an envelope. She picked it up and noticed that it was addressed to her. Behind it was a photograph of her with her arms wrapped around her husband in front of the Christmas tree. She smiled at it weakly. They looked so happy. She fingered the envelope carefully and wondered what it was. "It could be some old photos," she thought. She opened it to find a card inside. It showed a picture of two robins cuddled up next to each other on a snowy branch. She looked inside.

To my wonderful wife Allison,

Christmas Wishes Now and Always

I love you more than I thought possible.

I can only hope this Christmas makes you as happy as you've made me.

All my love,

Stephen

Xxx

Tears began to stream from her eyes. The card must have been written just before he died and so she had never received it. She smiled happily to herself. "He's come back to cheer me up."

Across town House was settling down in front of the TV with a glass of whisky. He smiled to himself. "No more clinic duty, no more patients, no more Cuddy for two whole days," he thought as his favourite old movie started. He settled back and relaxed, happy in the knowledge that he was saved from the horrors of work thanks to the Christmas holiday.

Although very different, and perhaps not how God would intend, both House and Cameron had found their own definitions of Happy Christmas.