……and the story continues...

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Matchmaker (Pt II)

House chuckled as Cameron opened her mouth and attempted to say something that she apparently then thought better of. Chase had departed for the clinic, Foreman had left a few minutes later in response to a page from Neurology for a consult.

"It.. They.. ," she trailed off, for once at a loss for words.

"Yees…that makes sense." He turned his head to her, momentarily distracted from the more important task of attempting walk the dog with his new yo-yo.

She tried again. "You don't have a problem with this? Unbelievable."

The yo-yo stopped moving. "Ooh...Tell Uncle Greg why Cammy is mad."

"You think this isn't going to affect our working relationships?"

"Grow up, Cameron. They're adults - they've been discrete and it hasn't bothered anyone so far; so what if Foreman decides to make a grand romantic gesture once in while." He paused, considering. "Its kind of sweet actually - I didn't think he had it in him."

The yo-yo started moving again, but House studied her face carefully, watching her reactions to what he had just said. "You didn't know, did you?", he stated with what he was sure Cameron would consider an unreasonable amount of smugness.

"And leave them alone, Cameron. I'm sure Chase will tell you, if he hasn't already, that its none of your business." His tone was serious now, disinclined to brook any argument from her.

Cameron looked as though she was prepared to argue the issue, then subsided and stalked out.

"Wonderful," he thought. "She's going to dig in anyway." Well, that made it someone else's problem, probably Wilson's. He wondered what was enraging her more - that Chase had dared to have a relationship with anyone other than herself or that it was with Foreman, now her competitor in more ways than one. She and Foreman had reached a fragile truce after Foreman's illness, but he suspected that it wouldn't take much to set them at each other's throats again, and he wouldn't put it past either of them to try to use Chase as a pawn in that battle.

He chuckled again, at some level he couldn't blame Cameron for her discomfort. That whatever had been going on between Chase and Foreman had actually turned into a relationship had caught him off guard too. His foolish wombat had always been somewhat ambivalent about his preferences, all that repressed catholic guilt no doubt, but Foreman, Foreman everyone, including himself, had assumed was straight.

He wasn't naive enough to think that meant Foreman wouldn't ever sleep with a man, hadn't considered the possibility at some point in his life plus it was glaringly obvious to him at least that Foreman was attracted to Chase, no matter how hard he tried to hide it under the veneer of criticism and subtle put downs. The question had been how to make Foreman act on the impulse.

Was it almost a year ago, he wondered, when he and Wilson had speculated about the situation over too much whiskey at that oncology shindig Cuddy had insisted on holding at PPTH. He'd thought Chase might indulge Foreman just to let him get it out of his system, maybe because he was curious and maybe because he had nothing better to do, so in the interests of team harmony House had needled Foreman into a fit of pique which would hopefully send him rushing into Chase's arms.

Wilson had gone to town with that one.

"Team harmony, my ass." To say Wilson was indignant was an understatement. "You're playing games again, particularly with Chase. He doesn't exist for your amusement, House, no matter what you may think. And if Foreman finds out you're manipulating him into this, I'm certain he'll be happy to break your good leg for you. Besides which, I though Chase wanted Cameron."

"He does," House had grinned back at his friend. "But she wants me and I want Cuddy, funbags and all,.. and I wonder who Cuddy wants? Be ironic if it were Foreman," he'd joked.

He'd also blithely assumed that everyone would then get on with their lives as normal the next day, and he'd have ample future opportunities to tease both Foreman and Chase over their momentary lapse. Astoundingly, he'd been wrong on all counts. Well, that was why he kept young Aussie around, he supposed, he'd never quite cracked the puzzle that was Robert Chase.