Chapter 2
The rain was cold and wet and it soaked through her lab coat and sweater, drenching her with its persistence; she didn't even feel it. How could they make a game out of it?
Cameron pushed her hands back through her hair and threw her head back, allowing the rain to pound down on her face.
"Cameron!" She was startled out of her reverie when Wilson pulled up to the ER doors in his Volvo. He got out and stood there with the door ajar, the faint rock music detectable over the pounding of the rain on the pavement. "What the hell happened? Where is he?"
Cameron looked sadly at the only man House could call a "friend." He was standing there in his jeans and sweater, the rain drenching him by the second and anxiety clearly polluting his boyish features. She tried to soften the blow of her words. "A former patient shot him in the conference room. He is upstairs in the OR right now, they are trying to repair his jugular and stop the bleeding in his abdomen." She struggled to get the words out, they sounded so foreign and twisted on her lips.
Wilson silently slipped back into the idling vehicle and parked it in the nearest spot. He ran back to her, holding his jacket over his head and ushering her into the sterile-smelling hospital to the bank of elevators on the right.
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"So you are telling me that this guy just walked into the hospital with a gun, shoots a doctor then walks out again?" Wilson yelled incredulously at anyone who would listen in the surgical waiting room.
"It all happened so fast. Security is looking at the tapes right now with Cuddy." Chase chose his words carefully, knowing that Wilson was liable to start kicking and/or throwing things in his frustration.
"Did any of you recognize him?"
"No, but he knew who Cameron was. I think her and House saw him in the clinic a few years ago, before I even started in this department." Foreman checked his watch, "We should be hearing something soon, it's been an hour since he went into surgery." The surgeon operating on House didn't allow the three ducklings to scrub in or even watch the operation from the gallery so they were forced to wait like every other person who had a loved one under the knife.
Cameron appeared in the doorway, "He is out of surgery. They were able to stop the bleeding in both the jugular vein and abdomen. The bullet bypassed all vital organs in his abdomen but he's lost a lot of blood. He is going to be transferred to the ICU after recovery but they are going to keep him in a coma to allow him to stabilize more before he wakes up." Despite the tumultuous emotions that were coursing through her, she somehow delivered the news calmly without a hitch. "I'm going to get changed then try and convince the ICU nurses to let us transport him to the ward ourselves. It is ridiculous all this secrecy; we're doctors for god's sake and he is our boss!"
She left the three men wondering what had come over the seemingly shy immunologist that made her so proactive and persuasive. Secretly, all three of them knew Cameron's feelings toward their boss and even though they were sure her affections weren't being returned, they couldn't help but notice she was acting how a person would if their family member was in such danger.
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Cameron rushed through the deserted hallways towards the women's locker room on the third floor. She was able to keep her emotions in check through the whole evening and didn't want anyone to see that she was facing an imminent breakdown.
She pushed open the heavy metal door into what the male hospital employee's called the "ladies lounge," and began stripping the blood-soaked clothing from her shivering body. She pulled open the door to the shower and turned it on full-blast, the hot water quickly steaming up the room and fogging out any bravery she was forth putting. She stepped in under the sweltering spray and pulled the door closed behind her.
Cameron sank to the floor of the shower and wrapped her arms around herself, burying her face in her hands. Her armor started to chink and soon tears were running down her face and mixing with the streams of hot water. Her sobs became louder and more powerful yet they were still masked by the pounding of the shower above and the blanket of steam swirling around her.
For many minutes she sat there on the chipped tile floor, her body cleansing itself of the panicked and desperate emotions she found herself immersed in for the last three hours. It seemed so long ago, yet it was only this morning, that her and House had made love in his shower and lived like two normal people in love. Nothing felt normal now. Everything was different and she was scared.
T.B.C…