Chapter 5

Cameron rushed home, feeling ashamed and unwanted. No, she thought, holding back sobs, someone does want me. She slammed the car door shut and headed for her building. Shaking, she put the key in the lock and opened her apartment door. She had planned to wallow for a couple of hours. Cameron needed time to cry, to release the stress and tension that had been building for the last three days. Actually, it had been boiling for quite a lot longer than that. She would call him as soon as her heart was ready. But she was not going to get the needed privacy. As she swung the door back, she saw why. He was there, still sitting on the couch. His head was in his hands.

He stood up, and stepped towards her. "Allison, what happened?" he asked. "Are you okay?"

She marched toward him, grabbing his head with her hands. She pulled him down and kissed him. Cameron's lips massaged his, encouraging him to kiss her openly. It did not take too much pressuring. As her lips moved down to peck his neck, he regained some consciousness. "Allison," he heaved, overwhelmed, "are you sure?"

Cameron looked at him for a moment. She saw House looking down at her, his hands caressing her waist, his lips kissing hers. Blinking the vision from her mind, she saw the man who actually wanted to commit to her, that actually wanted her. She dropped her hands that had been around his neck to the bottom of his shirt. She started to unbutton it. Cameron sighed, "Yes, I'm sure."

The man's face radiated pride and love. He lifted her from the ground and headed towards the bedroom, never taking his lips from hers.

………………………

This had been a lousy week for House. He had been shot. His leg still hurt as if "Gilda—The World's Largest Woman" was dancing on it. And he pushed away the only woman that had been able to put up with him over the last decade. In reality, Cameron meant a lot more to him than that. She was strong, beautiful, and witty. God didn't make women like her. She was pure fiction out of a novel. And he told her to get lost.

His head dropped back unto the pillow. He wasn't listening to General Hospital as it bounced through the room. Squeezing his eyes shut, House could still see Cameron lying on that operating table. He remembered her holding her breath in anticipation as he brushed her cheek with the robotic arm, as he blew air on her stomach and clipped the button from her shirt. He sighed, praying that he could go back to sleep, hoping he would dream of her. House knew that hallucinations and fantasies were the only way he would ever be able to touch her now that he had monumentally screwed up. He didn't even touch her in his own dream—a robot did! What was wrong with him?

His thoughts were interrupted by an opening door. Wilson grinned as he entered the hospital room. "How's our favorite patient?" he asked.

House fixed him with a cross look. "Jubilant," he replied sarcastically. "I get a reprieve today." House was right. He would no longer be a patient by the end of the day.

Wilson checked his vitals and then handed him a sandwich. "You've already told me that," he said as he sat down next to the bed. "What you haven't told me is why the morphine we've given you isn't making you giddy like a schoolgirl." He took a bite of his own sandwich. "You also haven't told me why Cameron hasn't come to see you."

House unwrapped the cellophane from his lunch. House grumbled, "She's found someone. She asked me to tell her how I feel. I told her to go with him."

Wilson's mouth dropped. "You ass," he exclaimed. "You let her go."

House's eyes drifted far away in thought. "I bet it's that TB doctor from Africa. What was his name?" House asked pettily, "Mr. Whatever Angelina Jolie Can Do I Can Do Better?"

Wilson's eyebrows rose as he said, "I think you're losing it."

House was still on his tangent. "I don't see that guy adopting Brad Pitt…"

"You want her don't you?" Wilson asked softly.

He ignored the question, raising his head in thought. "Could be Foreman," he pondered aloud. "He's been way too gooey eyed ever since he nearly ate dirt."

Wilson stared at him. "House," he cried, "do you want her?"

House puffed out his breath. His head bent down. "Yes."

Wilson became so excited that he dropped his sandwich. "What are you waiting for?" He declared, "Go after her!"

House shook his head. "She's better off with him."

Wilson looked stupefied. "You don't even know who it is. And if she truly wanted to be with someone else, she wouldn't have asked you first. She wants you, idiot."

Frustrated, House barked, "She won't be happy with me."

Wilson looked at his friend and said quietly, "I don't think she'll be happy without you. Let her be the judge of her own happiness."

House was so quiet, Wilson almost didn't hear him. "Once I was with her, I don't think I could bear to lose her."

His friend nodded. He recalled the conversation he had with Cameron before her first date with House. He had almost told her as much. "I know," he said now. "That's why you have to make sure you won't lose her.

TBC