Title: Vicodin is for Lovers pt 7?
Author: revolution25 aka laurieisme
Summary: will later be House/Cameron. Between love and hate, Cameron and House find a happy in-between.
Rating: Teen right now, may go to Adult later.
Author's Notes: My first House fanfiction, but hardly my first fanfiction. As ever thanks eternally to my vessybeta.
Earlier parts can be found here:
Quid est veritas( what is truth )
The kiss did not mean anything really. It just happened, the both of them knowing it wasn't anything more than what it was.
So why did Cameron even question it? Of course he would be going back to Stacey, he loved her, and even if she didn't want him back she still loved him.
She was a doctor, why was she thinking so stupidly about all of these things? She should just leave her emotions out of everything, just try and get her job done to the best of her ability.
But for some reason it still hurt, it hurt to think that not only did House still care for Stacey, but what if he cleaned up for her? That would seal it, that he just couldn't love her, even if he did try at one point.
The next five days were confirming everything she had thought, and she was finding herself heartbroken.
House and Stacey at least talked once a day, in his office for long periods of time, with the door shut and the blinds closed.
He was also avoiding her, not talking to her outside of work, and never really looking her in the eye when they were working.
She looked over to his office, the door was shut and she heard him say something to which Stacey laughed.
She went to her desk, and plopped down on the chair. She grabbed a letter addressed to House, then took the letter opener and violently opened the letter.
After answering at least forty letters, she checked the time, it was eleven at night, and they were still in his office. She couldn't take it anymore, she grabbed her coat and walked out, she left the hospital and walked over to a park nearby. Feeling the cold air on her face always made her feel good, it made all of her thoughts disappear until she thought of nothing, not even the cold.
Once her head cleared she went back to the office, ready to finish House's patient files for the clinic, then go home.
"Cameron doesn't need to know."
She could clearly hear House saying.
"I don't know why you insist on Dr. Cameron not knowing. Everyone else knows, why not her?"
"Because she's a spy for the Russians, we can't let her get the key codes."
"Fine, you deal with it, but sooner or later she's going to figure it out."
With that Stacey left.
Cameron's head went back to the uncomfortable state it had been in before her walk. Had everyone else, Foreman and Chase, known about the two of them, and House was keeping it from her?
Why?
She would have asked herself that if she didn't already know the reason for it, House was being nice and was trying to stop her from getting her feelings hurt.
She hated the thought of House being nice, she just wished he could be an asshole and tell her what was going on. She would have liked it if he told her and laughed when he saw she was miserable, that way she could hate him.
But she couldn't hate him for being nice to her, even though she wanted to.
She hated all of this. Once things looked like they were getting better, once it seemed like they were friends again, House avoided her. She hated all of these feelings, and all of the stupid things that had been happening.
If he was seeing Stacey he could tell her to her face, he owed her that at least. She went into his office without knocking seeing him sitting looking at something on his computer, which he shut off quickly when he heard her enter.
"What is it I can't know House?" She asked.
She was never one to beat around the bush, and it was doubly so when it concerned House.
"Because I... I can't take much more of this," She began, "First you leave for the longest time, then you come back and you... I want to hate you for leaving but I can't because you... you're here. I was so angry with you for leaving me alone like that, I wanted to tell you, I wanted to scream at you. And then I saw you and all of it fell silent. We were good for a couple of days, we were better than before; and now... Now you, what you can't stand the sight of me? You don't even acknowledge that I'm alive and now I'm just as angry as I was before. But now it may be more than before because you're actually here to get mad at I can't do anything about it because it's unprofessional, but I can't bring it up with you after work because you wont speak to me! So what is it that I can't know, tell me, because anything is better than this."
House looked at her shocked by what she had said, processing it for a moment before he spoke.
When he spoke his voice was even and he tried to show as little emotion as possible, "I was trying to protect you."
"Obviously it hasn't worked." She said harshly as she held onto herself trying to stop herself from falling to pieces.
He took a manila envelope out from his desk and opened it, "The robber, Joseph Perry, is trying to sue you. He says he refused treatment from you and because of what you did he now can't use his leg." He paused, "I thought you had enough problems because of him, I was hoping that it could all be settled without your involvement."
All of the emotions that came forth crashed together and she was not making a sound, but crying. House was being nice for all the right reasons, but she was frustrated because he thought she couldn't handle what had happened. She loved that he thought of her, but hated him for treating her like glass. She hated herself for being a complete idiot, and she felt proud that she could actually say something like that in front of him. With every mixing in and her feelings of the robber she felt very overcome.
"I saved his life." She tried to say it emphatically, but she sounded hurt as well.
"It's rarely done, but... yes, he's suing you for saving his life. Stacey, your lawyer, and I have-"
"My lawyer?" She asked.
"You usually need one when someone's suing you for over a million dollars."
"A million?"
She sat down at the chair in front of House's desk which made him get up and move to the same side of the desk as she was at.
"He wont win, that's why I thought it was best if you just didn't have to deal with it."
"Is that why you haven't so much as looked at me lately?" She asked looking up at him.
"Yes." He said quietly, but soon afterward added, "What are you going to do about Perry?"
"Whatever my lawyer tells me to do." She said automatically.
They remained silent, neither wanting to say anything before the other initiated it.
Cameron was the one to speak after a long uncomfortable silence, "House?"
"Yes?"
"Can we watch soaps?"
Cameron didn't really like the soaps, but as she laid on the floor, using House's bag as a pillow and her lab coat as a blanket, she could just picture House next to her watching it intently, which made her drift off.
A little after three House woke her up and drove her back to her place where she passed out on top of her covers before he even left. She hadn't remembered that much of it, mostly because the entire time she felt as if she were half asleep. She also knew that sleeping would just take it away, all of the things she was supposed to be dealing with in the real world could be just washed away when she was dreaming.
She woke up feeling more refreshed than she had in a while, she put her nose to the pillow and nuzzled it, breathing in deep the sent of clean laundry. She smiled and looked over to her clock.
12:37
Her heart dropped into her stomach, she was late for work.
She did not bother to try and comb her hair, or look at her own makeup, she just went to the closet and put the closest thing on and ran out the door as she was putting shoes on.
As she drove to the hospital she tried not to speed, but kept finding herself driving a few miles above the speed limit.
She walked into the conference room to find no one there, which was a relief and worrisome. A relief because she didn't have to explain her tardiness to Chase and Foreman, and worrisome because she didn't know how much trouble she was in.
"Love the shoes." Cameron jumped at the sound of House's voice, he was in his office at his desk looking at her feet.
She looked down and saw that she was wearing untied converses. She blushed, knowing that she should have picked something, anything, else.
She bent down and began to lace them, "I'm sorry, I didn't know how late I was, for some reason my alarm didn't go off."
"The alarm clock gnomes strike again."
There was something in the way he said that, it made her think that he was the one who turned off her alarm.
"Well Sundance, we've got a meeting with Butch. Apparently the trial is going to be sooner than she thought. Which means you've got to study your lines."
Cameron sat in the chair facing House, and they waited for at least fifteen minutes before Stacey came charging through.
"Finally, I get a meeting with my client."
Cameron got up from her seat and stood near the wall, and Stacey sat down, not bothering to thank her.
"Is this the time where we play musical chairs? I wanna play too!" House said, he got up and motioned for Cameron to sit down at his seat and she thanked him.
House leaned up against one of his shelves and crossed his arms in front of him.
"It seems he's pushing for the trial to happen soon, which is making Princeton Plainsboro a very happy hospital; the sooner we can get this over with, the better. Now, because he is suing you, and not pressing charges, you're in a bit of a pickle. The jury only has to find in his favor in the preponderance of evidence, which means that they have to find that it was more likely than not, the story as he describes it. The good part is that you are a doctor, which means you are creditable, and not only is he currently serving time for robbing a drug store, but also for kidnapping."
"So, can he win?" Cameron asked.
Stacey shook her head, "No, he doesn't have a chance."
"Than why is he doing this?"
"Maybe he's just mad because you aren't dead," House chimed in.
Stacey gave House a rather mean look, "Is there a reason my client has a chaperone?"
"Yes, she's too young for you, you can't have her... unless I'm watching."
"Chase didn't need a sitter." Stacey pointed out.
"Chase did as he always does, he made a mistake, Dr. Cameron's only mistake was to save the man's life. Besides, you guys might talk about me behind my back."
"What do I have to do at the trial?" Cameron said, breaking up the fight that was occurring before her.
"Look pretty."
"You'll have to testify as to what happened," Stacey tried to say over House's interruptions, "So tell me what happened."
Cameron swallowed and began, "Mr. Perry, after he robbed the drug store-"
"What were you at the drug store doing?"
"Getting heartburn medication for Chase."
"You'll want to say something like..."
"Dr. House and I volunteered to go inside the drug store, we were going in to get heartburn medicine for a friend, Dr. Chase." Cameron said from the stand.
Stacey looked up from her notes on the large desk in front of her, "Why did you go out?"
"Objection your Honor," Mr. Perry's lawyer said from his seat, "My client's actions aren't what is on trial here."
"Your Honor," Stacey said calmly, "I'm trying to show the court what kind of emotional state my client was in that night, there by showing partially the cause of her actions."
"I'll allow it, go on Dr. Cameron."
"A patient we thought was going to die, made a full recovery, we were celebrating. Robert had too much spicy food so we had to pick him up something for it."
"And as you were picking out something to help him, what happened?"
"Mr. Perry came in, he had a gun and asked for all the money in the registers."
"What did you do?"
"When he asked us to get down, I did."
"you weren't going to stop him?"
"No, like I said, he had a gun." Cameron said a little quietly.
"What happened next?"
"Mr. Perry took the money from the boy at the register, apparently he thought there would be more because he pointed the gun at the kid's head, but there wasn't so as he was leaving he grabbed me."
"He grabbed you?"
"Yes. Then Dr. House asked him not to, and that's when he hit Dr. House."
"How hard did he hit the doctor?"
"Hard enough to knock him out." Cameron said weakly.
"What did he do next?"
"He put me in his car and drove... somewhere downtown, he stopped at a factory."
"Did he order you to do anything?"
"To get out of the car."
"Did you?" Stacey asked, sounding sincere, but Cameron knew it was all a facade.
"No, I was afraid, I just sat there. Then he came over to my side and pulled me out."
"After he pulled you, what happened?"
"I hit the ground, and there was a sharp metal object, I grabbed it in my hand, when he tucked in his gun to try and pick me up, I stabbed him in the leg with it, then I ran."
"Did you run very far?"
"No, I stopped because I knew if I didn't do anything he'd die."
"So you went back to save his life?"
"Yes."
"Why would you do that for a man who still had a gun, and probably wanted to kill you?"
"I knew from where I made the wound that he would be in too much pain to care about the gun; and I didn't want to kill anyone."
"What happened next?"
"I approached him, he asked me what I was doing, and I said I was a doctor. I placed the tourniquet around his leg, then began to run away again."
"After you said you were a doctor, did he say anything else?"
"No."
"Then what happened?"
"He shot me as I was running away, I didn't stop, I just kept running, I saw a gas station, went inside, then the attendant called nine-one-one."
"Anything else?"
"I don't remember anything else, I passed out from the lack of blood."
"I have no further questions at this time." Stacey said to the judge.
He looked over to the lawyer for Mr. Perry, "Cross?"
"Yes. Hello Dr. Cameron."
"Hi," was the only thing she could think of responding.
"We heard testimony earlier from Dr. House, he said you worked for him in the diagnostics department."
"That's correct."
He let a low laugh out, "Well I have to say, even when he explained it, I didn't really get it, what is it that you do?"
Cameron smiled when she heard the jury laugh, "Sometimes doctors don't know what's wrong with a patient. Sometimes there are so many symptoms that it doesn't fit one disease, or that it seems like nothing is wrong with a patient and yet their body is shutting down. What we do is to diagnose all of those things that either other doctors had no idea on what's happening to their patient, or when other doctors don't think there is anything wrong with the patient."
"So if I have something wrong with me, and no one else knows what it could be, the diagnostics department is my last great hope?"
"Something like that, yes."
"Dr. Wilson said that before he saw my client walk into the drug store you and Dr. House had been in there for about five minutes, is that accurate?"
"Yes," Cameron said aggravated.
"You remember this bottle?" He held up a picture of a bottle of Maalox.
"I was holding that in the drug store."
"The cashier said that when you and Dr. House came in that was the first thing you picked up, correct?"
"Yes, it was."
"What happened from that point until five minutes later when my client came into the store?"
"I don't understand what the-"
"You had in your hand what you wanted, why didn't you pay for it? Your friend, Robert, was in the car in pain and you waited in the store for five minutes for what?"
Cameron was left speechless again and the lawyer went to some of the notes on his table and straightened them up.
"Why would it take you, my 'last great hope' that long in a drug store?" He didn't pause long enough for her to answer, "Another question Dr. Cameron, why is your lawyer the same one that works for the hospital?"
"She's doing a favor for me." Cameron said, finally happy she could answer something.
"Are you two friends?"
"Not particularly."
"So why is she doing you a favor?"
"Maybe it's best for the hospital."
"Could it be because you helped diagnose her husband with Porfieria?"
"Maybe, I don't really know."
"May I ask why, up until recently you were never said to go on the witness stand, and even that you weren't going to come to this trial at all?" He stopped her from answering, "let me rephrase, how long have you known about this case?"
"About a week." Cameron fumed.
"Why is it that you were unaware of a lawsuit brought up against you? Who was handling the case before you knew?"
"Stacey and Dr. House."
"So doctor House kept the very existence of the case from you, why?"
"He said he thought I had enough dealings with Mr. Perry, he thought it would be better for me-"
"Objection, the witness is clearly speculating." Stacey said.
"Overruled."
"Defense calls for short recess to confer with my client." Stacey said before the plaintiff's attorney could ask another question.
The judge agreed and Stacey showed Cameron and House into a meeting room.
"What in the hell is going on here?"
"A trial apparently." House said, he only seemed to be half trying with his sarcastic tone.
"What in the hell is going on out there? Why wont you answer his questions?"
"Because the answers don't make either of us look good," House said, his eyes not leaving Cameron.
"Well what are they? At least give me some warning as to how much damage control I have to do here."
"We were in there so long because we wanted Chase to feel bad for a little while longer." Cameron said.
"Great, that makes you look good."
"The fact that earlier Chase took complete advantage of her doesn't make him look too good either." House said.
After ten minutes of bickering, the bailiff came in the room and told them that their time was up. They went back in and Cameron took the stand again.
"What took you so long in the drug store?"
Cameron thought about it for a moment, then said the first thing she could think of about Chase, "Robert was helping the person in charge of the hospital, who had something against Dr. House, get anything and everything bad on him. It was wrong, but we delayed getting it almost as a payback."
End of part seven