Disclaimer: I still don't own House. $13.81 does not cover it. Until then, please don't sue. Also, I don't own any song lyrics, but I forgot the name of the one I used. Nonetheless, it's not mine.

Author's Note: Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed and read and gotten themselves through it, I know the first chapter was rocky but I promise I know how to do this one, it won't be perfect but it will be better!

Cameron lifted up her heavy eyelids and did not know where she was. It appeared as though she was outside, as she was gazing into two separate round skies. Or maybe it was two identical crystal lakes and she was looking down onto it.

The heck? Am I on a plane? Where am I? What's going…oh wait. I remember something about a surgery. OK, I had a surgery, I'm not sure what kind, and now I'm looking down onto two crystal lakes. Oh no, what if I didn't survive the surgery and now I'm in heaven and oh sugar, who's gonna feed the dog? What's up with these lakes? They flickered.

"The dog, feed the dog," Cameron mumbled.

House jumped in his seat. "The dog? What dog? You're awake? Do you need anything? Cameron, Cameron, can you hear me?"

"The lake. Don't let the dog get into the lake. He'll, he'll…drown." Cameron continued to murmur.

House realized that she was talking in her sleep. Gently, he placed one hand on each arm and tried to shake her awake. It worked; she popped right up, Linda Blair style, and did it so quickly that she banged her head into House's. She moaned, and laid her head back down again.

"Oh, thank G/d Cameron, you're awake!"

"Good observation, and?"

"I was just…happy you're awake."

Cameron perked up at this. "What was that?"

"What?"

"What were you going to say?"

"Nothing, I said what I have to say."

"No you didn't, you trailed off and substituted what you were going to say with that you were happy I'm awake."

"Redundant much?"

"Cut the crap, what were you going to say?"

"Really, Dr. Cameron, our conversations have gone to the dogs."

"House."

"Yes?"

"What were you going to say?"

House was just about to begin when Cameron launched into a violent coughing fit. He held her as she shook (don't shake I hate to see you tremble), and tried to calm her tremors. Finally, she lay back in bed.

"Yeah, you might want to get a vaporizer or something before you cough up your one remaining lung,"

"That's not what I want to hear."

"Really!"

"You know exactly what I want to hear. And you're the only person who says it right."

"Cameron, I…"

She looked at him expectantly.

"You…"

"I wanted you to wake up."

"House, I don't want to have to pull anymore teeth here, but I will. I know you've got it in you."

"I wanted you to wake up because…because…Cameron you know me. I can't do this."

"OK."

"OK, what?"

"I'm OK with that."

"But Cameron…I do want to be with you."

"I know."

"So will you? Be with me?"

"Yes."

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As Wilson predicted, the surgery was so successful that there was no real need for chemo, as the video of the procedure indicated that the only cancer cells were on the lung that was removed. Nonetheless, it was a major surgery, and Cameron was in the hospital for two weeks.

The Ducklings (minus one) had decided to hold a surprise farewell party from the hospital for Cameron. Cuddy, House, Wilson, Foreman, Chase, Stacey, at least 15 nurses that Cameron was friends with, and eight other doctors from various fields had come. Cuddy and Wilson had nervously assigned House the task of detouring Cameron from her route from her room to the parking lot up to the Diagnostics level. They had no choice, since Cameron had woken up from the surgery, they were inseparable. Well, it wasn't so much that Cameron wanted his presence (although she certainly didn't mind it) but as Wilson put it so poetically to Cuddy "House just found out he's no exception to his mantra, everybody lies. He's not about to waste any time away from her." Cuddy just nervously smiled and made a mental note to get House a case.

Finally, the day of the party arrived. It was easy for House to keep a secret, but now that he realized that Cameron accepted the whole package, he just…didn't want to give her anything but the whole package. It was hard for him, but over the two weeks, he had slowly and carefully taken down his walls. Of course, there were some things he could never tell anyone.

House was having a rough time getting Cameron up to the Diagnostics floor. She point blank did not want to go. She did not want to see it for old times sakes because "she would see it again in a week" and would not go up to see Foreman and Chase because "they could come down and see her anytime" and while she was grateful for all their caring and sensitivity, after spending so much time with them and not being able to leave (and not being gutsy enough to ask them to leave) she was very sensitive to their not-so-great traits. House had finally gotten her to the elevator by saying that he wanted to show her the new whiteboard even though Cameron was well aware that nothing had been ordered for their office. Luckily, she was perceptive enough to understand that sometimes it was best to go with the flow.

House was telling Cameron about what a dud his newest case was, but it had been especially assigned by Cuddy so he had to take it. Cameron laughed along with him but her interest was caught by the number which specified which floor number they were on. It had been blinking "6" for the past 45 seconds.

"Ummm, House?"

"Yeah?

"I don't mean to interrupt you, but I think we're stuck."

House looked at the digital sign too. He had only been paying attention to one surrounding, and that was the woman next to him.

"Well, the elevator was bound to break someday."

Cameron laughed and pressed the red "emergency" button. It merely continued showing off its dull red color and made no noise. Cameron pressed it a couple more times, but it didn't work. House chuckled at the look on her face.

"Cameron, I think it might be trying to tell you something."

"Oh?"

"I don't think it likes you."

"But…but everyone likes me" Cameron joked. House gave her a small smile and paged Wilson. He paged back that they would get out of there in about half an hour. Loosening his tie, House sarcastically asked Cameron what they could do in a small room for thirty minutes by themselves.

Cameron laughed. "I can think of a few things," she said in the same tone.

"And what are those things?"

"Well…"

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Unfortunately for Adam, a janitor, it was "Take Your Kids to Work Day." More unfortunately, he had three kids, an immature 14 year old boy, an innocent seven year old girl, and a four year old boy who had the tendency to repeat everything he saw and heard.

But perhaps what was most unfortunate was Adam's very big mouth.

By the end of the day, the entire hospital knew that House would probably be in a very good mood tomorrow.

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Later that week, House and Cameron enjoyed their first "Date-That-We-Both-Want-Date." The next day, they decided to relive their Non-Date-Date, except they didn't get good seats. The day after that, they saw a movie, and proceeded to make fun of the entire thing. This pattern continued for the whole week, until House threw Cameron for a loop and gave her his key. Cameron just took it in her hand and stared at it. Finally, she looked gray eye into blue eye.

"Greg, I'm not Stacey."

"Really! Well, then we just can't continue seeing each other like this! You should have told me!"

"Greg."

"I…I can't look at you right now."

"Fine. I'll do this my own way. I'm not going to leave just because things aren't moving at a fast enough pace for me. I want our relationship to move at a steady pace, because when we run into some hard times, because we most definitely will, I want something solid for our relationship to fall back on. Greg?"

"I can't believe you lied to me!"

"House?"

"Why can't you see that I need some chocolate, a Lifetime movie, and some time to myself?"

"Grow up." And with that, Cameron turned abruptly and got ready for bed. Tomorrow would be her first day back at work for three weeks, and it was going to be a heckofaride.