Much happinesss! I'm getting loads of reviews! Thank you all so much!

House was unusually happy a few days later. He was hiding it well, but the ducklings had still noticed, leading to more speculation around the table as to what was going on between him and Wilson. Cuddy had noticed it too, because House hadn't complained as much as he usually did about clinic duty.

Eventually, driven by a desire to prove Chase wrong and to see if she had any hope of getting House to go out with her some time in the near future, Cameron decided to ask him about it.

She cornered him in the elevator, so he couldn't run away.

"I…well…we've noticed that you've been a little…happier recently…" she ventured.

"Well so what? I don't have any cases at the moment."

That wasn't entirely true if you counted clinic duty, but Cameron didn't press the point.

"So… you're happy that Mrs Murdoch recovered?"

""No, I'm happy she didn't die. That'd mean extra paperwork for me." He gestured with his cane. "And I get to play my Game Boy as much as I want."

"Are you sure you're not happy because of someone else?" Cameron asked boldly.

"What's Wilson got to do with my Game Boy?" House replied.

"And who said anything about Wilson?" she challenged him.

For a second, House seemed to freeze, but then he said, half cautiously, "I've heard the rumours too you know. You wouldn't be asking about anyone else."

"Are they true?"

House looked at the ceiling as though it held all the answers to his present dilemma. "And what am I supposed to say to that?"

"The truth."

He glanced at her. "Haven't I told you that everyone lies? I could lie about telling the truth."

"Didn't you once say that you never lie?"

"I might have been lying about that too."

At that moment, the elevator slid to a stop, the doors opening smoothly.

"My stop," House said brightly, and disappeared as quickly as possible for a guy with a limp. Cameron sighed, feeling suddenly too tired to bother following him.

"Why are you in my office Chase?" Wilson asked mildly, catching sight of the Australian as he entered the room.

"Huh?" Chase turned quickly from where he was standing by the bookcase fiddling with a heavy hardback. "Oh, oh nothing. Nothing really. I was…uh…looking for…you, actually."

"Yes?"

"House says that he wants to talk to you later. Something about a plan to get rid of Vogler by putting arsenic in his coffee."

Wilson chuckled. "That sounds like something he'd say. But why send you? He could have just paged me."

"Uhh…I don't know. Ask him when he gets here." With this, Chase made a quick retreat out the door. Wilson gave him an appraising look as he left, then sighed and sat down at his desk.

House leaned back in his chair as he gazed at the computer monitor. He was playing the Sims, trying to kill Vogler by getting him to jump off a diving board, pausing the game and removing the swimming pool from underneath his nemesis. Suddenly his pager went off, distracting him for long enough that he missed the vital moment.

"Dammit!" he hissed, and glanced at the offending object. It was Wilson. "Hmmm," House murmured to himself, "now what could he want?"

He got to his feet, pausing only to save his game, and made for Wilson's office.

:D :D :D