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CHAPTER SEVEN

A few days later Laura Walton sat on the exam table in room 3 waiting for House and she was slowly getting pissed. She hated people that weren't on time, but she should have known better with House; that man was never on time.

She looked at her watch, sighed, stood up and was reaching for the doorknob when suddenly it was pushed toward her, hard, and the door smacked onto her bent fingers. A cracking of bones echoed in the door way and then she cursed, which spilled out into the lobby. Several patients in the waiting room looked up from their book, child or whatever they were doing while they waited, to see what the commotion was about.

Laura's head was down a bit, cupping her right hand with her left. When she opened her eyes she saw two feet and a cane. "You idiot! Do you need me to explain to you the meaning of 'knocking is the polite thing to do?'" As she said that her eyes moved from his feet to his face and she became completely dumbstruck. She was looking at Dr. Greg House.

"I don't knock, never have, never will. Besides, I had to get the blood test results before I came to see you. They take forever," he said, rolling his eyes.

Laura was speechless. She didn't know if it was over the shock of possibly having broken fingers or at the realization that the man she was looking at was leaning with a cane.

"Yeah, well, maybe you should reconsider that rule because I think you just broke my hand," she replied, but actually wore a smile. He gently grabbed her by the elbow and led her back to the table where she sat down.

"I can't believe it. You use a cane to get girls, now? That's real lame, even for you." She instantly regretted what she'd said because she noticed his face flinched at the 'joke' about his cane.

"Oh, but I have a friend, his name's Wilson, who said it works like a charm," he said as he examined her hand, slowly straightening her fingers while she moaned under her breath from the slight pain.

"Well, it won't work on me. All men are crippled if you really thing about. You know, I should sue your ass because I won't be able to play drums an…" she suddenly screamed when he bent her middle finger straight.

"Ok, I'm not really a doctor but from this purple and black mark that has already appeared, I'd say your middle finger is broken," he said as he walked to the cabinet, opened a drawer, pulled out some items and went back to her.

"That's a shame, because I won't be able to flick you off, then, will I?" she asked then laughed.

"You do have another hand," he said as he placed the roll of gauge beside her and reached for her hand again.

All of a sudden she remembered why she'd actually come to see him. "Well, that's the problem. I've been having some problems lately," she told him. As she rattled off several symptoms, House mentally marked off the 'possible diagnosis' list while he bandaged her hand.

When he was done he scooted back on the stool and looked at her very closely while she spoke. It was ten years since they'd seen each other, and she looked so different: her face had thinned out a bit, making her chin more prominent and her cheekbones mysteriously seemed to have moved up; her hair was a dirty blonde with red highlights and, well, everything else was the same.

But her eyes; there was something about her eyes, and it bugged him that he couldn't put his finger on it soon enough. 'They are the same slate grey they'd always been, but there something missing, the spark, maybe?'

"…and then when I had sex with those two women in the corner of the park I…" she playfully said because she realized he had zoned out. The words he'd just heard snapped him out of his own thoughts, his eyes flew open and his mouth dropped.

Laura started to laugh really hard and when she regained her composure she said, "Glad to see you haven't changed, Pooh. You're still the pervert I knew and loved." Her cheeks blushed a little when she said 'loved' but it didn't seem to faze House.

"And you are still the antagonist that brings out my pervertedness, Fifi," he told her with a laugh.

Then he did the most miraculous thing: he reached out his arms, put them around her waist and placed his cheek against hers. She giggled quietly when his short beard tickled her cheek and she returned his hug.

"I've kinda missed you," House said, seemingly choking on his own words.

She slowly let go of him, pushed him slightly away and told him, "I'll give you $100 if you shave the beard."

"No, no way! The beard is my back up. If the cane doesn't work the beard always gets the ladies."

Laura laughed again and said, "Greg, I am not touching that comment with a ten foot pole!"

Once they stopped laughing House told her to go get x-rays of both hands, the right one to confirm the finger was indeed broken and the left to see if it would show anything.

This case interested him. He had no clue what was wrong with her hand. But was it the case that interested him, or Fifi LaRoo? He watched her walk out the door and smiled a genuine, heart felt smile.

"Yeah, I loved you too," he said to no one in the room as he placed the bandages in the cabinet and left the exam room to go back to his office, a bundle of mixed emotions.

HOUSE M.D. HOUSE M.D. HOUSE M.D. HOUSE M.D. HOUSE M.D.

A few minutes later House walked into his office and was surprised to see no one was in the conference room except Cameron, who was sitting at the desk, the chair turned away facing the window. He couldn't detect her mood from her body language because she sat motionless.

She'd be moving out the following day and he wasn't sure how he felt about it. The past few days since he'd had the nightmare had been rough for the both of them. She slept on the couch while he slept in his bed and would always be up, showered and left for work before he even woke up.

He couldn't stand the silence between them. Even when they did speak there was a coldness that emitted from her and he didn't like it, not from her. He had tried, many times, to have a heart to heart talk with her but he couldn't do it.

'What's the one thing that we bond over?' he asks himself. 'Ok, well, other than sex.' He looked at the medical chart of Laura's and a bell went off in his head.

He walked into the room and loudly exclaimed, "We've got a new case, Goldilocks." He threw the folder on the desk by Cameron and walked to the coffee machine. She didn't flinch.

He walked to her as he sipped his coffee, racking his brain to think of something clever. When he saw her face he dropped his coffee mug, bent down on his left knee and smacked her, hard, on her face.

"Allison…CAMERON! Wake up!" he yelled as he felt her pulse and her pupils. Her complexion was pale, her eyes were black in a half-circle under her eyes and her mouth was slightly open, with a little drool streaming down from the corner of her mouth.

"No, Cameron, no, no!" he said, as he reached for his phone and called Cuddy's office.

"You didn't have to do this…you didn't…"