Depression is a prison where you are both the suffering prisoner and the cruel jailer. -Dorothy Rowe

Cameron stood shivering in the bathroom; she knew it wasn't just from the cold. What the fuck had possessed her to punch the wall? And what had just happened with House?

The last thing she wanted right now was for those feelings to resurface, she'd been successful so far at keeping them hidden, but now that plan was out the window.

"Shit!" she said, sighing and sitting down on the edge of the tub. She was just starting to convince herself that she was over him and now here he was helping her. He was picking up the pieces of a broken woman without as much as a complaint, so very unlike him.

She sat there confused and depressed by these thoughts, well more so than she already was. She knew she needed help, but she wasn't going to help anything by torturing herself by being so close to him knowing she couldn't have him. Unfortunately this was her only option, he seemed to be the only person who could help her and at least try and understand her, because he knew the real Cameron, the broken one.

She sat there thinking for a while, and for what seemed to be the hundredth time that night she cried.

With his impeccable sense of timing House chose to walk in at that moment with a t-shirt, sweatpants and medical tape.

"Allison? Are you crying?" he cringed at the stupidity of the question. She just continued to cry as if she hadn't heard him.

He set the clothes down on the edge of the sink and limped over to sit on the toilet lid. He placed his hand on her head and started to gently stroker her hair.

Cameron sniffled and looked up at House, a mixture of surprise and sadness on her face.

Her nose was red and her cheeks were stained with tear tracks. He looked into her eyes and saw that behind the tears there was a mixture of pain and hope.

"House…I'm…" she began, trying to wipe the tears away that kept falling. He placed his hand on her good hand to stop her actions.

"It's okay. I don't mind, but maybe you'd like to get dressed, I'll fix your hand and then we can go sit in the living room and talk about it?" he said gently.

Cameron nodded. She stood up slowly and held out her hand to him to help him up. He looked at it and instead of taking it, took the other one and began to tape her fingers with the medical tape he had brought with him.

Cameron winced in pain as he taped her fingers. He was being gentle but it didn't matter how gentle he was she was pained by her own stupidity.

"All done," he said gruffly, picking up his cane and starting to leave the bathroom.

"House?" she called softly. He stopped and turned to look at her. "Thank you."

He froze, sure she had said those words before to him, but these were so full of emotion and meaning that he knew it wasn't just for taping her fingers. She was thanking him for helping her out of the black pit of despair.

He nodded, "you're welcome."

She moved to close the door, and he called out, "Hey Cameron, you sure you don't need any help getting dressed?"

She smiled in spite of herself. "I'm pretty sure that I can handle this on my own," she said saucily, throwing him a wink before shutting the door.

House smirked. That woman was going to be the death of him one day.

He stood there in the hall, despite his leg's protest, waiting for her to emerge. She walked out after five minutes and to him looked like an angel, well a really comfortably dressed angel.

Her hair had been brushed and was somewhat damp from the shower but she had let it hang loosely around her face. She'd had to roll up the waist of his sweatpants so they came only down to her ankles, and she was wearing one of his old Gravedigger t-shirts. She looked down at the shirt, and up at him and grinned.

He shook his head bringing his thoughts to the present. He hadn't even realized that he'd pulled out that shirt. He smiled back at her and led the way to the living room. She sat down on the couch, while he brought over their dinner. This way he could make sure that she ate, and she could talk to him in a comfortable setting if she wanted to.