A House Fan-Fic
entercreativename
author's note: I am not the creator or owner of the characters mentioned in this story. I am instead a poor college student with no money or no hope of money. I wrote this story as a means of exploring the characters in the show, not for profit, notoriety, or other self-assuring means.Chapter 8 - Innuendo
"Okay, what is this?" Cameron asked in disgust as Cuddy looked up from a smelly desk drawer in the Diagnostics conference room.
"I don't know, and I really don't think I want to know!" Cuddy replied as she herself almost gagged on the mess that House had left in his desk.
Cameron had known Cuddy for about two years, and she often saw the older woman as her boss and her teacher. Other than in the clinic, it was on rare occasions that the two women ever spent time near each other. Unfortunately, it was an event such as this that had to bring them together as a team.
"That's it. I'm finished. There isn't possibly something within this office suite that could give us a clue as to what could be causing this." Cameron exclaimed as she sunk into House's chair.
"You're actually sitting in his chair?" Cuddy looked stupefied.
"Not much else we can do right now anyway. Chase is stable, BP's improving. House and Wilson are still gone, and probably will be for at least another hour, knowing them. Foreman is running labs," Cameron replied, externally devoid of all emotion.
"Allison," Cuddy came over to Cameron like a mother to a wounded daughter, "Don't you want to at least visit Chase? The two of you were involved last year, right?"
Sympathy. For the entire time that Allison Cameron had worked at PPTH, and ever since her husband's tragic death, she had been missing sympathy. Here, she had been a woman, one of the top women in her class for that matter, and she had to hide all of her emotions. Unfortunately, she could not do it. She had been weak, vulnerable, and she was tired of not being able to cry. Cameron closed her eyes, suppressing tears, and said, "He befriended me when I was first hired. Showed me around the hospital and campus. Showed me the best spots to unwind after work," Cuddy smirked at that, "And was just a friend when I couldn't tolerate House. Why did you think we were involved?"
Cuddy sat down on a chair she pulled over from House's desk, "I guess I just assumed the two of you were involved based solely on the friendship you developed with him."
Cameron broke down. Cuddy ran to House's desk and found the closest thing to tissue - toilet paper stolen from the men's room as a gag gift to Wilson that had been scribbled on - and handed her some. Cuddy at that point also realized that Cameron had hoped it would work out. Since her husband's death, she had been pining and concentrating on her career. When she got the job at PPTH, she knew she had to move on, and she ultimately saw Chase as that next step.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't cry Dr. Cuddy. But…"
"Listen, no apologies. It's rough. House and I were both department chairs for the last eight years until the promotion; surviving meetings with him… What am I saying? Surviving him is tough enough. Everyone made the same assumption about us when he started."
"Dr. Cuddy, what do you mean?"
"I was the one who had the final input in hiring House. I had heard good recommendations about him, especially from Chase's father and from Wilson. House happened to be in a bind at the time and had been out of work. I had read some journal articles that he contributed to and had wanted the hospital to hire him. Then one day, I received a phone call from Rowan Chase telling me that if he had any power in the decision that House would be hired. That sealed the deal. He spoke to the board of directors, and later that year House was hired. Unfortunately, the rumor spread, with the help of House of course, that I made sure he was hired for other reasons."
By this point, Cameron had stopped crying. Cuddy and House hadn't been together?
"Truth is, House had been in love with Stacy all along. He fled New Jersey for California because he couldn't stand to be near her without being with her. He then fled California for Australia because it was the furthest point away from Stacy. He fled Australia because he was too far away from Stacy; and some ethics thing with Rowan Chase, which Rowan later cleared House of. Then, when he was hired here, she was working for the hospital. She gave me the idea to hire him. He cost us some money in the legal department, she got after him about it, and the rest is history. One infarction later and he's an embittered, lonely man suffering from one second to the next of a broken heart."
Cameron just looked at Cuddy who was staring at a spot near the ceiling. Finally, Cameron broke Cuddy's trance by asking a simple question, "You loved him?"
"I just told myself that it was just a strong professional admiration. I told myself that he was just everything that I wanted to be but couldn't. In the process, I became more like him."
Cameron stared at Cuddy with shock and disbelief.
"You know, you'd feel better if you told me about you and Chase."
Cameron sighed and closed her eyes hard. She didn't really want to talk about it, but she also knew that she couldn't hide it in her anymore. It was good to finally be talking to someone who was like her, but that had survived. Even though Cameron had first gone into medicine to save her husband, and then to save others, she knew that she had to make professional goals for herself to survive the "Boy's Club" mentality that still existed with many of the doctors she would have to work with.
"The first couple of days that I worked for Dr. House, I would pretty much show up for work and end up sitting in that corner over there reading medical journals all day. House wouldn't speak a word to me or acknowledge me other than a few primitive glances. Well, I suspected what those glances meant, and later found out that I was right. However, Chase often sat over there at the table doing crossword puzzles and just being completely ignored by House. Then one day, Chase came over to me and asked me a question on his crossword puzzle. We started talking, and next thing you know we were at the Student Union having coffee." Cameron's eyes were no longer puffy from crying.
"He took me around town, campus, the hospital, and everywhere else. He told me how lonely it had been being the only fellow under House, and he was glad that someone else was finally hired, and that it wasn't another person like our boss. We spent a lot of time together, and then one night he was over at my place helping me rearrange furniture when I tripped on the rug and twisted my ankle. He picked up and carried me to the couch where he checked my ankle. He wanted to take me to the ER, but I wouldn't let him. I gave in to having him wrap my ankle and get some ice for me from my kitchen. When he came back, he had the ice all right." Cameron was now smiling and blushing for the first time in a long time. Her body language and gestures also told Cuddy that Chase had more than just ice.
Cuddy, relieved that her coworker was doing somewhat better finally asked, "What else did he have?"
"He found the chocolate cake my mom baked as an apartment-warming gift when she visited. And he was carrying the bag of ice in one hand, and this big chocolate cake with two forks stuck into it half-hazardly in the other. He, he was just grinning and said, 'Look, I found our dinner! Dinner for two at Cameron's!' Together we finished the cake and both fell asleep on the couch watching TV.
"The next night, Chase came back and brought Chinese as we finished unpacking. We sat down on the couch, and we started talking, and one thing led to another and…"
Cameron stopped abruptly at that point and smiled a knowing smile at a random spot on the floor. It was obvious to Cuddy that Cameron had just gotten lost in a very intimate memory that should not be shared between coworkers. Cuddy got up from her chair, walked over to Cameron and rested a hand on her shoulder as she leaned down to the younger doctor and said, "Don't say anything. I'll leave you with your memory," and walked out, leaving the young doctor alone to ponder her thoughts.