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House entered the hospital Monday morning with one purpose in mind. He was going to set Cameron straight one last time. He was not interested in a relationship. At least that is what he was determined to tell her. During the last twenty-four hours he'd come to the conclusion that had things been different he could quite easily fall hard and fast for the woman. After all, she was smart and sexy and nice. And she put up with him.If only he wasn't her boss, he was ten years younger and he wasn't a cripple with a drug addiction.
If only pigs could fly.
Fortunately for him, although he cursed his luck at the time, Cuddy caught him before he'd made it to the elevator.
"House, I need to talk to you," she demanded.
"No I won't sleep with you. I thought we'd already established that fact," House countered.
"My office, now!" Cuddy ordered.
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He argued until he was blue in the face, but the end result was that he was losing Cameron to Immunology. As he left Cuddy's office he couldn't help but think back to the arguments he was preparing just a short hour ago.
Ok... if only he was ten years younger, and he wasn't a cripple with a drug addiction.
Damn he was losing ground fast.
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When he entered the Diagnostics conference room there was no sign of Cameron, although the coffee was made and the mail appeared to have been sorted. Chase and Foreman were both at the table working on paperwork.
House wasn't in the mood to play games so he simply blurted out "Where's Cameron?"
Both men looked up in confusion, but it was Foreman that finally spoke. "Immunology needed to borrow her. She's probably still in the lab," he replied with a small frown.
The frown only deepened when House turned and left.
"That was odd," he mumbled.
"It's House," Chase replied and the two went back to the charts they were working on.
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She knew he was coming before the door was flung open. Some small part of her had been listening for his distinctive footsteps in the hallway. She also knew that he had already talked to Cuddy as theDean of Medicinehad been kind enough to page her as soon as House left her office. And she could guess where this conversation was headed. Or at least where House thought it was headed.
"I'm not going to ask you out," he stated bluntly.
She looked up from the microscope and studied him for a minute. "Alright," she replied and leaned back over her equipment.
"What no argument?" he asked suddenly feeling deprived. You couldn't win an argument against someone who didn't fight back.
She looked up at him again with a measured stare. "I assume you have spent time debating the issue, and that you have come to this decision after careful consideration. If that's the way you feel then there is nothing I can do to change your mind."
"I have, and you can't. In a few weeks you will be out of here and you will forget all about this," he promised.
"If you say so," she calmly replied.
House studied her for a moment. He was sure she was up to something, but he wasn't sure what it was.
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Over the next two weeks he would ponder the puzzle that was Cameron many times. The news would be broken first to Foreman and Chase, then to the rest of the staff. Her new peers in Immunology took her to lunch as a welcome to their department, Chase and Foreman took her out to dinner as a farewell. And all the while House tried to figure out what she was up to. Several time she caught him staring at her, and she always just gave a little smile as if she knew a secret he didn't.
And with each passing hour he realized more and more how much he would miss seeing her every day. How truly dependent he had gotten on having her around. How much he really wanted to ask her out so that even if he wouldn't be seeing her during the day he would have an evening together to look forward to. But he refused to back down. By the time Cameron's last day came and went he was becoming increasingly difficult to deal with. Both Foreman and Chase had gone to Cameron to practically beg her to change her mind.
It really hit home during Cameron's first week on her new job. He spotted her a few times in the cafeteria, but she was always just grabbing a sandwich or salad on the run. He heard through the grapevine (aka Wilson) that she was swamped. He could only wish that he was as well. They hadn't had a patient in ten days and between being bored and missing Cameron he was truly turning into the terror of PPH. The only upside was the Cuddy didn't bug him to do clinic duty all week because the nurses down there had threatened to quit after his last shift.
Then on Friday as he was packing it in for the week, everything changed.
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TBC