Disclaimer: If I owned them, I'd be a much happier and wealthier person. But since I don't ... I'm only moderately happy and so po' I can't afford the other 'o' and the 'r.'

Chapter Seven

Cameron's alarm didn't go off at five the next morning. Not because she hadn't wanted it to, but because she forgot to set it. And who could blame her? House had managed to thoroughly confuse her the night before.

Fortunately for her, the pain in House's leg woke him up around six, and he grumbled and got out of bed, limping slowly toward the coat rack near the door, where he'd left his jacket and, unfortunately, his pills. But on his way down the hallway, he frowned. He didn't hear the dull thumping of feet against a treadmill. The shower wasn't running. The television wasn't even on. Was Cameron even here?

Once in the living room, his eyes moved slowly over the scene before him. On the couch was Cameron, her arm folded beneath her head for a pillow. Apparently, she'd tossed and turned all night, as her pillows were on the floor and her blanket was wrapped around her, every-which-way. Her brows were furrowed even in sleep, and she appeared distressed. This, of course, only made him even more right about her being damaged, if that was possible. Who was upset even in sleep?

He got to his coat and reached in for his pills, dry swallowing two before looking around the room again. There was no way in hell he was making it back to the bedroom. So, with a cringe, he made his way to one of the chairs and sat slowly. There was nothing to put his leg up on, though… The ottoman was at the other chair.

With a soft whimper, he pushed himself out of the chair he was in and slowly made his way to the other chair. He was halfway there when his leg gave out completely, and he fell with a sickening thud right in front of the couch.

Cameron was awake in an instant, sitting up in her tangle of covers and searching the apartment quickly. When her eyes finally settled on House, she frowned in concern. "What happened?" she asked, her voice husky from sleep.

"Nothing," he ground out, trying to push himself off of the floor, but only succeeding in sending shooting pains through his body.

"Your leg," she whispered. She kicked her covers off of her and was at his side in an instant.

"Cameron, don't-"

"Just shut up and let me take care of you," she snapped. "Did it just give out on you? Is that what happened?"

House glared at her for a few moments before finally giving a curt nod. He drew in a sharp, worried breath when she laid her hands on his thigh and slowly began rubbing the tension out of it. It wasn't painful to have someone put pressure on it; it was just thoroughly uncomfortable until all of the tension was worked out. And God, but Cameron was doing one hell of a job. "Where did you learn this?" he asked, his teeth clenched as another wave of pain shot through.

"Relax it," Cameron ordered, continuing on with her task. "My dad's a massage therapist. I used to get pretty bad tension headaches until he told me how to get rid of them myself. I guess it just … stuck. Working out tension in any muscle is the same process; you just have to vary how gentle you are on it." A few more minutes of massaging his leg passed, and she sat back on her heels. "Feel any better?"

He nodded silently, but stayed right where he was. Cameron was one hell of an enigma, he'd give her that. "It's past five," he blurted suddenly, desperate to change the subject off of his leg.

"It is…?" Cameron looked back at her alarm clock and frowned. "I forgot to set the alarm," she muttered, glaring at the clock. "I never forget to set the alarm."

"Liar," House responded with a small smirk. "You've obviously forgotten to set it."

She gave a small laugh and ran her hand over her face. "You're so annoying," she said lightly, and pushed herself up off of the floor to sit on the couch. She gave a yawn and grabbed a blanket, covering up again.

"You're going back to sleep?" House asked incredulously. "Here I was, thinking you just woke up in the morning with a recharged battery…"

"I'm just getting comfortable," she replied, resisting the urge to stick her tongue out at him. "I can't fit in my jog this morning." She glanced at the kitchen. "You want some breakfast?"

"It's six in the morning, Cameron. Who the hell eats this early?"

"I do." She shrugged and snuggled underneath the covers. "Are you going to stay on the floor all morning?"

"Maybe," he responded, setting his arms behind him and leaning back on them. "It's a damned comfortable floor." Was he … flirting with Cameron? What the hell?

She let out a snort of laughter. "Well, then. You have fun on the floor. I'm going to shower in a few minutes, and then make breakfast. So think about something you might want."

"What if I said steak and eggs?"

"I'd tell you that I don't eat red meat. It's bad for you," she sparred.

"How about … a ham and cheese omelet?"

"Omelets I can do." She glanced at the clock and tossed the covers to the side before standing and stretching. "I'll make them after I shower."

House made a noncommittal noise and watched Cameron stretch. The tiny shirt she wore to sleep in rode up just enough for him to catch a glance of her navel, and her pajama pants rode low on her hips. Her hair wasn't messy, but sleep-ravaged. And it made him want to jump in the shower with her. He didn't mind admitting to himself that Cameron was one hell of a sexy woman. But he'd be damned if he'd admit feelings beyond that.

Cameron went into her bedroom to grab clothes before going into the bathroom and shutting the door behind her. Today was Wednesday. Tomorrow was the day. She leaned on the bathroom sink, looking into the mirror with a small sigh. Maybe she'd ask Foreman and Chase if they wanted to go out and get drinks. She'd tried to get a hold of some friends, but everyone was busy. No one had time to drop everything at a moment's notice, and she fully understood that. After all, she was the only one in her group of friends that was unmarried and childless. Wonderful.

She turned on the shower and stripped out of her clothes, tossing them into the corner. As she waited for the shower water to heat up, she laid out her clothes for the day on the towel rack. After that was done, she stepped into the shower and let the warm water run over her with a sigh of relief. She sincerely hoped that House could return to his apartment soon; she didn't know how much more of the couch she could take.

Just as she was putting shampoo into her hair, there was a pounding on the door. She sighed and hung her head. "What, House?" she called tiredly.

"Well, I'm either pounding just to bother the hell out of you or I need to use the bathroom," House's snark came through the door.

Now, Cameron figured she had two choices. The first was to be a bitch and tell him to wait, and then take twenty extra minutes. The second was to stun the hell out of him. She went with the second. "Then come in here and use it," she called back. "I have a shower curtain for a reason."

There were a few seconds of silence before the door slowly opened. "You're bold," House said with a smirk, going to the toilet. "I expected you to tell me to wait. Or that you'd get out of the shower long enough for me to use the bathroom."

"House, I'm not a total bitch." Even though she might have considered being one. "And I'm not so nice that I'd give up my morning shower just so you could pee." She rinsed the shampoo out of her hair and lathered it again.

"Am I allowed to wash my hands, or will you wrap yourself in a towel and scream at me again?"

She snorted and stepped away from the spray, far enough back so that the curtain would cover her. "Stick your hands in and wash them in the shower spray."

"Innovative," he muttered, lathering his hands with soap and then sticking them inside the shower curtain. "Cameron, I can't see to-" He stopped speaking when she took hold of his hands and put them in the spray of the shower. With a smirk, he rubbed his hands together slowly to wash them off before shaking them and drawing them out of the shower. "Thank you."

"No problem," came her soft response. She'd watched his hands. She couldn't help it! They were really nice hands. And she'd had a strange fascination with them ever since Wilson had told her that he played the piano. The door shut and Cameron let out a sigh. This wasn't turning out to be all that good for her.

Once she'd finished with her shower and dried off, she wrapped her hair up in a towel so that she could put her clothes on without getting them wet. She walked into the living room with her hair wrapped, where House quirked an eyebrow at her.

"Nice turban," he remarked. He was lounging on the couch with his leg up, and Cameron was relatively certain that she'd never seen anything so amazingly sexy.

"If I don't wrap my hair in a turban, men might covet me," she replied dryly. "And we just don't want that."

She had on her normal work attire, except for her shoes. She was walking around her apartment bare-footed, which was something House found amusing and intriguing. Here was a woman who was the epitome of professionalism for the most part, walking around her apartment in her cute little professional suit, wearing no shoes or socks. It was … endearing.

"You wanted ham and cheese, right?" she called from the kitchen.

His eyebrows went up and he grinned. "Yeah."

Things were quiet for a while after that as Cameron cooked breakfast and House went into her room to get dressed. Although this was only his second morning in her home, it was feeling routine to grab something out of his bag next to her drawers and dress in her room, then go to the kitchen for breakfast. And he didn't like it one bit that he didn't mind the routine. Wait until Wilson heard about that.

It wasn't long before House heard Cameron setting a plate on the table. "Breakfast's ready," she told him with a small smile before going back into the kitchen to get her own. He was at the table when she returned, and he gave her a look that clearly said he thought she was crazy.

"You're eating fruit?" he asked, glancing at her bowl of fruit and then looking at his own breakfast. "Why not make an omelet for yourself, too?"

"I didn't want one," she answered simply, then shrugged before dipping a piece of fruit into yogurt and eating it.

"But you made me one anyway," he stated suspiciously.

"I told you. I cook when I feel upset. I don't care who it's for; what matters is that I'm cooking." She licked her lips to nab some yogurt off of them before continuing on with her breakfast.

House stared at her lips intensely before sneering and eating his own breakfast. Those exterminators better call him damned soon so that he could get away from her.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The first half of the workday progressed in a boring manner, with their patient not backtracking, but not making any progress, either. And House had a sneaking suspicion that C-girl's stomach ache wasn't from the medication at all, but was another symptom.

He made his way to the clinic with a scowl on his face. Forget clinic duty. He had so many more important things to do. Like figure out what the hell C-girl had. Or harassing Wilson. Or Chase. Maybe even Cameron just to piss her off again. He refused to harass Foreman, though. He was just no fun. Maybe he could find Cuddy on his way down to the clinic…

"Dr. House!"

There she was! House turned and smirked at the sight of Cuddy. "Why, Dr. Cuddy! I haven't heard you scream my name like that for weeks. Missing me?"

Cuddy rolled her eyes and handed House a file folder. "Wilson wants you to take a look at this. And I'd like to see you in my office when you've finished."

"But, Dr. Cuddy! I have clinic duty! Are you telling me to skip?" he asked dramatically. "I simply couldn't!"

"House, look at the file and then meet me in my office. I'll even give you an hour off of clinic."

"A whole hour! You're my savior!" He leaned against the nurse's station and opened the file, skimming through it. His brow furrowed as he read the information presented to him. Fifty year old patient, in complete remission of testicular cancer. No more cancerous symptoms had presented themselves, but there were a slew of others that the patient was complaining about. He'd be showing this to his team, no questions asked.

He slapped the file shut and went to Cuddy's office. He stuck his head in. "You asked to see me, Mas'sa?" he asked after being sure Foreman was nowhere in the hearing vicinity.

"Cute, House. Get in here." Cuddy finished shifting a few files on her desk and then crossed her hands, setting them on her desk and waiting for House to sit. Once he was sitting across from her, she smiled. "Wilson caught you doing something last night that you probably shouldn't have been doing."

House's stomach dropped. Wilson had seen him kissing Cameron and gone running to Cuddy? That was something Chase would do, not Wilson. But he put on his poker face and looked around the office conspiratorially. "If this is about that odd moving motion my arm was doing under my desk, it really isn't what you think."

Cuddy rolled her eyes and let out a small sigh. "You were annoying the psych patients again," she said with a frown. "What have I told you about fighting with the paranoid schizophrenics?"

House snorted. "C'mon. It's fun. We hang out. We're all buds like that."

"House, I'm serious. Dr. Corvin was extremely upset when one of his patients asked him if it was really okay to drink dish soap and if it really DID taste like blueberries. You're worse than a child."

"You know, you're the second person in two days who's told me that. Will I set a record if I get Wilson to say it, too?"

"No… You'd need Foreman and Chase to say it to set a record. I'm pretty sure yours stands at four people in two days." Cuddy sat back in her chair and let her arms rest on the sides of it. "Besides bothering the psych patients, have you been doing anything else you shouldn't?" she asked flatly. "I'd like to know because that way, I can just yell at you for it now and be done with it."

"Oh, ye of little faith," House sighed, tapping his cane impatiently on the ground. "I haven't done anything else I'm not supposed to, Mommy. I promise. But if I had … would you get me a priest so I could confess before running to you with it?"

"House, if I got you a priest, you wouldn't be confessing to him. And if you were, it would be on your knees."

"Ooh, that was nice," he said, applauding. "You're just so damn good to me, Cuddy. Makes me want to … spank you or something."

Cuddy finally laughed and threw a pencil at him. "Get back to work," she told him lightly. "Go play nicely with the people in the clinic."

House sighed and stood, tapping his new patient file against his leg. "If I had wild sex with you, would I still have to do clinic duty?"

"Since you can't pin me against the wall, yes."

"Low."

"Usually. Now out!" she shooed him away. "Go put in three hours at the clinic."

House hung his head and dragged his … well … foot as he walked out of her office. He went to the clinic and saw the waiting room filled with patients. Instantly, he popped two Vicodin and set the new patient file on the nurse's station, telling them to take it to his office before picking up a clinic file. A nosebleed? He groaned and called the patient forward.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cameron sat by Caitlin's bedside and asked more questions concerning the woman's father. She wasn't getting very far and had the sneaking suspicion that the woman and her mother were lying through their teeth when they answered her questions.

"I know this isn't the greatest time to answer these questions, but we need to know to be able to diagnose you," Cameron said gently.

"So you still don't know what it is?" Caitlin asked, looking and feeling quite distressed.

"I'm afraid not. Without further information, we can't really do much other than put you on medication to stop the seizures." She tapped her pen lightly on her paper. "Now … we need to know if your father had any sort of diseases or problems similar to yours."

"We already told you that he didn't," Caitlin's mother snapped irritably. "I don't know why you keep asking."

Cameron set her pad of paper and pen down on the serving tray and leaned on it lightly. "Without further information, there is nothing we can do for your daughter. We can't diagnose her. None of the symptoms fit a particular diagnosis. We don't even know if she's dying or not. What we need from you is concrete information on the father so that we can see if there's a genetic link. I know it's distressing and I understand that it's upsetting to hear these questions constantly, but until we get a better answer, we have to continue asking."

Caitlin's mother frowned and tapped her foot angrily on the floor. "He would get really bad stomach aches after eating pasta, usually. But he had an ulcer."

Cameron's brow furrowed. Eating pasta shouldn't cause an ulcer upset… Hmm… "Well … we'll see what we can find. In the meantime, I'd sug-."

"I feel sick," Caitlin announced suddenly. "My stomach's all … it feel's like it's grinding or something," she moaned.

Cameron frowned. "We'll schedule you for an endoscopy to check for an ulcer right away," she said, writing the information on the chart. "If you need anything, don't forget to press that call button." She pointed to the button before leaving the room and going back to the diagnostics room.

The stomach pain was a symptom. It wasn't just a side effect of the medications. Once in the room, she went to the board and wrote stomach pain and looked over all of the symptoms once more. It didn't make any sense! None of it made any sense. But what if…?

She went quickly to House's office and frowned at not seeing him there. Was he actually doing his clinic duty? With a small shrug, she left him a note saying that they should alter and supervise Caitlin's diet before going back into the diagnostics room and being met with Foreman and Chase, who were back from lunch.

"Hey, guys."

"Hey, Cameron," Foreman replied, nodding to the dry-erase board. "I thought the stomach pain was a side effect of the meds."

"I don't think so," she responded with a shake of her head. "She said it was a grinding pain, like an ulcer. And apparently, her father had one. I don't think it is one, but I'm scheduling her for an endoscopy just to be sure."

"Good idea," Chase put in, looking over the symptoms and chewing on the tip of his straw. "You know, I remember seeing a case similar to this in med school. I just can't remember what it was. I've been trying to remember since she started complaining of the stomach pain."

Cameron frowned and plopped into a chair. "There isn't much we can do until she shows more symptoms and we can put it together. I left House a note. I think we need to monitor her diet for a while and see if it's diet-related."

Foreman nodded and sat down next to her. "It's all we can do for now." He settled a brotherly hand on her back and looked at her, concerned. "You holding up okay?"

"Yeah," she said with a small smile. "But I was thinking… Do you guys want to go out for drinks tomorrow night? I don't want to spend it back at my apartment with House."

Chase smiled and nodded. "Sounds good to me. You up for it, Foreman?"

"Wouldn't miss it for anything. You guys don't mind if I bring my girlfriend, I take it?"

"Oh, bring her right along," Cameron answered with a shrug. "The more the merrier, anyway."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wilson was meeting with Cuddy in her office. It had become a normal thing lately for the two of them to meet, if only to talk for a little while and take a break. They'd laugh, converse, and connect. Especially when it came to plotting.

"How do you think the two of them are getting along?" Cuddy asked, playing absently with a paperweight.

"Well, they haven't killed each other yet," Wilson answered with a grin. "I feel sort of bad throwing House at Cameron this time of year, but I think she needs it."

"This time of year?"

"Yeah… Tomorrow is the anniversary of her husband's death."

Cuddy frowned. "She doesn't seem all that upset about it at work."

"She wouldn't." Wilson sighed and readjusted his position in his chair. "Cameron's not as much of an open book as everyone makes her out to be. She's sweet and charming, sure. But she isn't weak, Lisa."

"I'm still getting over the fact that you caught him kissing her," Cuddy said, her face breaking into a wide smile. "I honestly didn't expect him to cave so quickly."

"Well, it's a good thing we've plotted together. I think us telling her that House was just being himself around a woman that he might be interested in really helped your case. Not only did they kiss, but House told me today that he's upset with himself. He likes the way everything with Cameron is falling into a routine, and hates himself for it," Wilson said with a wide smile. "He'll be all over her in no time. She's exactly what he needs right now."

Cuddy nodded happily. "How long do you think it'll take before they're sleeping together?"

Wilson laughed. "Lisa, please. They'll be in the same bed by the end of the week. Oh! I called the exterminator's and told them to change his contact number to my cell, just so you know."

"Good job," Cuddy praised. "We'll stick the two peas in a pod for as long as humanly possible."

Wilson smirked evilly. "I also told them to go ahead and do a complete extermination on the place. Gave them my billing address." He cringed, though, and frowned. "But they shoved his rat off on me." Not that Wilson had anything against… Well, okay. He didn't like rodents.

"Poor baby."

"Hey, do you want to take care of the thing? The exterminators said that he could have stayed there if they were only doing the sink, since it's a caged animal. But since I told them to do the whole apartment…"

"You got the rat." Cuddy grinned and shook her head. "That's what you get for plotting behind his back."

"You're in on it, too! You're lucky I don't shove the rodent off on you to take care of."

"You'd never," she replied with an innocent smile. "You like me too much to do something like that to me, James."

"Yeah, yeah… Anyway. I need to get back to my office. I've got an appointment in a few minutes." He stood and walked to her desk, leaning down to place a small kiss on her forehead. "Here's to hoping that Cameron gets to House by the end of the week."