The phone rang at Cameron's desk shaking her out of a dull fog. She'd been re-reading the same journal page on neuromuscular disease for over ten minutes. Grateful for the distraction, she quickly picked up the phone.
"It's all set up", she heard Wilson's voice on the other end say as she tossed the dregs of her salad into the trash can by her desk. "I'll need you to catch up with me sometime today in the Oncology Lab for blood work. The earlier you can do it, the better. Page me or call on my cell when you think you can get away and I'll meet you there".
Cameron shifted nervously in her chair trying to give the appearance she was deeply engrossed in the conversation the caller on the other end of the line was engaging her in.
Wilson continued, "And then tonight, meet me down in the clinic, exam room one at 7:15. My nurse, Linda will be there to get you settled and then we'll check you out and do a biopsy if necessary".
"I think House mentioned that all of your cases are ongoing but none critical, right?"
Cameron felt like a teenager trying to set up a late night escape from her parent's house. "Yes, that's correct. There shouldn't be a problem with that".
"Well", Wilson said, "I doubt very seriously House will still be in the building that late-voluntarily. Page me this afternoon."
"Thank you for the information. I appreciate you calling back so quickly" she said overtop of the dial tone and hung up.
Over in his office, House had stopped bouncing his red and grey ball and held it up close to his jaw. "Interesting", he thought out loud.
Cameron spent the next couple of hours shuttling between the clinic to relieve Chase and the rooms of two of their three patients. Foreman had gotten out of his rehab around lunchtime and had jumped right in to help. He'd all but taken over the third patient, who after finally being diagnosed with Lupus, seemed to be stabilizing and was responding well to their treatments.
"One down, two to go", she said to herself. Glancing at her watch, she wondered if this was a good time to run to the Oncology lab for her blood work. She walked over to the nurse's station, picked up the phone on the desk and dialed in Wilson's pager number and then the nurse's desk extension and waited.
"Cameron!" House's voice bellowed from down the hallway. "Why aren't you with Lupus guy, Mr. Marinara?" he asked somewhat annoyed.
"Foreman's with Mr. Greenwood, the Lupus 'guy', now", she managed to get out, as if she was explaining the information to an older person suffering from senility. "Mr. Marindino" she continued, handing him the patient's chart, "has the migraines- and I just checked on him ten minutes ago".
"They're also short staffed in the clinic today, so Chase is still down there helping out as a result of pulling your duty". She no sooner got the words out of her mouth before the desk phone rang loudly, causing her to jump. She froze and stared at it intently, as if to will it to be quiet by her thoughts alone.
On the third ring, House looked up from the chart he was pretending to be giving a crap about and took a quick sweep around the nurse's station. "No nurses", he said flatly. "Please, God answer that".
"Fourth floor nurse's station, this is Dr. Cameron", she said looking back towards House who was now giving her his best pained look.
"Hey. You're paging me, so I'm assuming you're on your way to the lab?" Wilson's voice was polite, but sounded a bit rushed. "Um, yes" she said awkwardly. "I think I can do that".
"Good, see you in five" and his voice was gone causing her to rattle off a fake 'thanks and goodbye'.
"That was the lab", she said as she quickly picked up her charts from the desk. "They have a couple questions", she threw out only to see that House wasn't the least bit interested. And with that, she turned and was gone.
This time, House's eyes weren't glued to her form as she slowly walked away, but instead focused squarely on the display screen of the phone. Caller: James Wilson/Oncology x4617, it read before it faded off the screen.
House couldn't take his eyes of the screen of the now blank phone. Biting at the inside of his lower lip he thought, "Why would she lie about the lab being on the phone? And what's with her and Wilson today?" It wasn't his birthday, so that ruled out clandestine meetings about a surprise party. And as if House had suddenly overruled all other plausible theories, he threw the patient chart over the counter onto the nurse's desk and quickly made his way to the elevators.
He'd almost made it before Cuddy cut him off just feet from the elevator. "House!" she bellowed.
"Love to chat, but I'm answering a page- Doctor stuff", he said brushing by her.
"Nice try, House. Want to explain to me why Chase is swamped downstairs covering for your assigned clinic duty?"
"Nope", he said as the elevator doors opened and he stepped inside.
"Well, humor me" she said, reaching out to interrupt the doors as they started to come back together. "Okay, if you must know", he said rolling his eyes. "It seems Chase has the hots for that suit you're wearing today", he said incredulously. "Apparently he's named it and everything. It's got him worked up into such frenzy, he practically begged me to switch with him in the clinic today".
A small curve of Cuddy's lips told House he had pulled it off. But as quickly as it had appeared, the smile was gone leaving only one mildly ticked off Cuddy in its place.
"House, go down to the clinic and relieve him – now", she said stabbing the 'L' button with her finger. "I don't think he's had lunch. We wouldn't want him to starve and go blind", she winked mischievously at him as the doors slid closed.
House glanced down at his watch and then reached up to press the '4' button. "Chase can wait", he said to himself.
The elevator doors opened and House stepped out, turning right towards Wilson's office and Diagnostics. Wilson's door was closed, but unlocked. House's eyes quickly surveyed his friend's office.
On his desk, there was a half eaten sandwich lying on a perfectly folded piece of white paper towel. Next to that was an ugly generic metal fork obviously lifted from the cafeteria and a lime green Tupperware container. A crumpled up napkin had been tossed near the phone where a red light blinked quickly.
"Interrupted a perfectly good lunch", he said aloud and then reached over to grab the half eaten sandwich before turning to make his way back into the hallway.
Cameron had been sitting in the Oncology Lab for what seemed like forever. She watched as Dr. Wilson drew the last tube of blood and rubbed the reference label across it's now crimson exterior, before dropping it in the specimen tray alongside the others.
"Ok", he said as he slowly withdrew the butterfly needle and tubing, throwing them in the medical waste trash. He placed a cotton ball over the small speck of blood that had started to seep out and pulled her elbow up against her forearm. "You know the drill. Keep that there for a few minutes. Do you want a band-aid?"
Cameron smiled nervously. "No, it'll be fine. Thanks". She pushed herself out of her chair to go but wobbled a bit in her footing. "Whoa, careful", Wilson said gently as he reached out his hand to steady her.
"Sorry. Giving blood isn't one of my favorite things to do", she said as she felt herself grab onto the sleeve of his lab coat.
Wilson's left hand moved to her back as the other enveloped her in an open embrace. "Here, let's move back towards the chair", his voice was low and concerned. "Just relax", he said as he carefully lowered her frame back into the chair. Crouching down before her, his hands rested one on the chair, one on her arm. "Can I get you some water?"
"No, thank you. I'm sorry to be such a problem. I'm just um…." But she couldn't finish her thought before small tears began to drop from her eyelashes. Wilson's breath was ragged. He bit the inside of his bottom lip roughly as if debating with himself on how far he should go to console Allison Cameron.
"Hey", he said quietly as his right hand reached up to wipe away a lone tear that had made its way onto her cheek. "It's perfectly reasonable to feel upset about this, but you've got keep positive". "We're going to get through this, ok? I'm going to be right here for you, no matter what" and with that he reached down to place his hand over hers, giving it a gentle squeeze.
"Come on", he said pulling her gently to her feet and guiding the small of her back with his hand. "Let's get out of here before House starts to get wise as to where you ran off to", Wilson said flashing a gentle smile.
The last bite of Wilson's sandwich lodged uncomfortably in House's throat as he stood in the small, dark nurse's alcove across from the door to the lab. "Ok, what the hell was all that about?" He thought to himself as he wiped crumbs with the back of his hand from his mouth.
Five minutes ago, he was a bored, nosey busybody hot on the trail of mysterious behavior, and now he stood frozen in the nurse's alcove, shell-shocked. "We're going to get through this…." Wilson's muffled voice rang in his thoughts as the image of his hand so gently touching Cameron's face burned across his brain.
How was it that in one morning, Wilson was flying through two bases of intimate contact with Cameron that House could barely allow himself to have in two years of his private thoughts?
"Can I help you with something, Doctor House?" one of the Oncology nurses dressed in a cheerful smock with some sort of cat theme pattern was standing beside him looking somewhat perplexed. He stared at the absurdity of the pictures of little cats tossing balls of colorful yarn around on her top, as if anyone dying from cancer would be comforted by that.
"No", he said gruffly and brushed past her. She stared for a moment at the back of the moody doctor. Her hand touched the fabric of her smock and she looked at it for a moment before shaking her head and turning to walk away.