Disclaimer – See chapter 1

Author's Note – Woohoo! This is the last chapter I needed to edit. After this it's new material all the way! In this chapter I have used the phrase "ward sister". I don't know if that's what they are called in America. I mean the nurse in charge of a ward or department. As always thanks for the reviews. Please keep them coming!

Allison Cameron looked across at her colleagues. Each wore a different expression, which revealed their expectations of her answer. Chase looked confused. It was obvious that he did not understand why House had quickly switched teams, or why their conversation had taken such a sudden twist. House seemed annoyed. He clearly didn't expect her to answer, and yet seemed to be prompting her to do so. He wanted to hear her feeble excuse, as though that would give him some sort of power kick. Foreman's expression was one of shock. Finally realisation had hit him – Cameron had been telling the truth. Unfortunately it was too late to do anything about it.

Cameron gulped and then began. "Foreman is wrong because he knows partially who Owen Miller really is-"

She was cut off by House. He quickly turned to look at Foreman. "You knew who the patient was and yet insisted on presenting information he'd given under a false name?"

"I thought she was lying," Foreman burst out. He turned to Cameron. "How can you expect me to believe something like that?

"Wait, you knew this too?" House turned to Cameron. "How unprofessional can this get?"

"It has nothing to do with profession. This is personal," she replied. Boy, would she regret telling him this. "Today I've made a few discoveries, come across a few surprises. One of them was the true identity of our patient. The Owen Miller lying in a bed in our department is not who you think he is, nor is he a six year old boy from Boston. His name is Mark Holloway, from Philadelphia."

"Holloway? Isn't that what Foreman said he'd been calling you?" Chase spoke up, but it was House who answered.

"Of course. He's her husband."

Cameron stared at House, ignoring Chase's own stare at her. "You knew?" She was aghast. How could he possibly know? He'd only found out she had been married a few months ago. He couldn't possibly have tracked down her husband, discovered he was actually alive and somehow convinced him to go to New Jersey in such a short time. House was nosy, but he would never go to such lengths just to satisfy his own intrigue.

"Not till just now. It all adds up. I already knew you had been married. The way you've been acting all day, like you've got something on your mind, it raises suspicions you know. You said it was personal. He kept calling you Holloway and you insisted that it wasn't because he was mad." House looked pleased with himself. Cameron remained suspicious, but then reminded herself that he could diagnose an illness with less information. Given his interest in other people's lives she was surprised he hadn't worked it out earlier.

"You're married?" Chase finally spoke.

"Was," Cameron paused and sighed. "Still am." She really didn't want to go into this, aware that within ten minutes of them leaving the room the whole hospital would know. Maybe it would just be best to tell the truth now before the hurtful rumours began to circulate, started by the nursing staff's attempts to fill any gaps in her story she had left untold.

She took a deep breath. "It was…a while ago. I was still in med school. I met him one day and fell in love. We got engaged quickly, and then waited ten months to actually marry. I knew it was too good to last. Just before we got married Mark was diagnosed with cancer," she paused and looked at her shoes. Their delicate stitching was suddenly very interesting to her. "I stood at the alter wondering just how far away 'till death do us part was,'" a single tear fell from the corner of her eye and she took a deep breath. Should she really be telling this to her colleagues?

"I went to visit my sister and her new baby the next Christmas. She lives in Britain and Mark didn't want to come. A friend of his offered to let him stay with him to keep Mark company while I was away. I thought it was a good idea; there was someone there to keep an eye on him. A couple of days into my stay and the phone rang. Something had gone wrong. By the time I got back to Philadelphia, where we lived, he was…dead."

"And yet he's lying in a bed down the corridor." Foreman couldn't help but still remain a little sceptical.

"I didn't identify the body. I couldn't bring myself to. James, the man Mark was staying with offered to do it. I can only assume he did. I attended his funeral, catered for the wake, grieved with his friends."

"His family didn't care?" House questioned.

Cameron shot him a hateful look. "He has no family. He told some truth to Foreman, although he wasn't adopted," she thought a moment before continuing her story. "Until today I didn't suspect anything. It was only when I saw him being wheeled in this morning I began to sense something strange going on. Even then, I thought I was mad."

"Why isn't he dead?" Chase asked. It maybe wasn't the most sensitive thing to ask, but then again it wasn't like there was any sort of appropriate behaviour for discovering your colleague's husband-that-you-didn't-know-about was in fact not dead.

"I don't know. We haven't spoken much. Just…shouted," Cameron blushed. "I have no idea what's going on, but what I do know is that he's alive."

There was a pause while everyone got used to this information before House spoke up. "You two, see if those samples are back form the lab. Cameron, I want you to stay here and go through what you know of the patient's history with me."

It was evening and the night shift was just beginning. Most of the diagnostics team had gone home, each reminding the ward sister that they were just a phone call away. All apart from House, who reminded her that his phone was broken, as it had been for the last twenty-one months. Phone companies just aren't what they used to be.

Cameron was the only member of the team remaining. She had been hiding out in the office until things had gone quiet. Unsurprisingly, Foreman and Chase had managed to let it slip about her husband to a couple of members of staff on their way to and from the lab, who promptly alerted anyone else they set eyes on – be it member of staff, patient or pot plant.

Two things had surprised Cameron though. First was that House hadn't tried to find anything more out from her. She had assumed his motive for sending Chase and Foreman to the lab was so that he could question her in peace, without people with the slightest hint of a conscience there to try to defend her. However, he had remained true to his word and only asked her suitable questions about their patient's history. It seemed he really did just want to save his patient.

The second thing to surprise Allison was that neither Cuddy nor Stacey had visited her. She believed Cuddy would want to speak to her about the implications of treating your husband, even if he was supposedly dead, while Stacey would be pestering her to be her lawyer if any of this went to court – which it could well do.

Cameron reached up to the peg on the wall and placed her perfect white lab coat on it. She then collected her long, heavy winter coat and chunky knit scarf from the peg next the peg next to it. She collected her bag and headed for the door.

As she walked down the corridor she could she Mark who was now sitting up in his bed. An orangey light fell over him for the cheap temporary light bulb above him. As she neared his room he saw her and gestured for her to come inside. Part of her wanted to – she was relived to see him back up and wanted to check that he was ok. However another, stronger part of her surged with hate. She was annoyed at him for leaving her, and for chickening out of telling her why by faking his own death. She hated him for causing her so much upset in her life, and for what she knew was yet to come.

Without a second thought she continued down the corridor and into the lift, which would lead her to her car and the safety of home.