Author: Milady Dragon
Disclaimer: still no closer to owning either House or the Tomorrow People
Author's note: I keep saying it, but I mean it: Thanks for reading and for those of you who took time to review! This chapter might seem a little shorter, but it needed to end where it did...as you'll see.
Chapter Eighteen
" – and so we have six days before the Sharrion decide they'll want to do things their own way again."
Cameron glanced at Elena as she wound down, and the other Tomorrow Person nodded in agreement with the story.
They were in John's room, and it reminded Cameron of old times…except the players were slightly different. Paul was sitting in the only chair, arms resting on his knees. Elena stood beside him, on the opposite side of the bed. Cameron herself was standing on John's good side, where she could keep a surreptitious eye on the remaining instruments still attached to her friend.
And then there was House.
He was leaning against the wall, facing full onto the bed, and therefore the entire meeting. His cane made lazy arcs in front of him as he listened, his eyes half closed in that way Cameron recognized as him paying close attention. He'd been quiet throughout her recital, taking it all in. He'd been in the room when they'd arrived, and no one had asked him to leave. It appeared that he was officially "in".
Cameron wasn't so sure she liked it, but there really wasn't anything she could do to change it.
"Well done, the pair of you." John was sitting up as much as he could, his bandaged head propped up on several pillows. He still looked far too pale for Cameron's liking, but his eyes were clear and he was fully alert. His broken arm was being held in traction, and there were twin lumps under the sheets where the casts on his legs protruded. The shunt removal had been scheduled for later that afternoon, and then he'd be moved into a private room.
"Tim has the recording of the anonymous communication," Elena added. "He's analyzing it now."
"Good. Keep me informed."
John was frustrated; even if Cameron wouldn't have heard it, she could certainly have sensed it. While his mental presence was still very much diminished, she could feel it flickering in her mind like a distant candle flame. She wanted so much to call out to him mentally, but didn't dare, for fear of setting his recovery back. Did the others sense what she did?
She once again glanced at Elena and Paul. They were both looking at John; but apparently they both noticed her attention at the same time, for the turned to meet her gaze. They didn't have to say a word, either out loud or silently.
They could feel John, as well.
"You know," the elder TP groused, "I think I now know how the Saps feel when we're speaking telepathically to each other."
Cameron blushed, and she knew the others were as equally embarrassed. "We weren't, actually," Paul denied.
"He's right, John," Elena backed him up. "We weren't saying a word, honestly."
"Not at all," Cameron added.
John looked at each of them in turn, his eyes shrewdly examining them. When his gaze met hers, Cameron could once again sense that weak, yet obvious, presence. She winked at him.
That brought a smile to his stern features. "So what was that all about then?"
"We can sense you," Elena answered. "It's very faint, but it's there."
"And I wanted to see if the others felt what I was feeling," Cameron grinned.
"And we were, mate," Paul put in.
The relief lit up John's face like a Christmas tree. Then he frowned. "But I'm still getting nothing from any of you."
"With the brain trauma you've suffered," House spoke up, "your powers aren't going to just reappear with the snap of your fingers. And these three," he indicated the uninjured Tomorrow People, "aren't damaged. It only makes sense that they'd sense you before you do them." He sounded slightly snide about it, as if he was insulted by John's apparent unintelligence.
John himself didn't seem to notice House's tone. He sighed. "You're right, of course, Dr. House. Thank you."
Now, that seemed to surprise House. He stopped twiddling with his cane, and he nodded in response.
"Tim is also rechecking his link to the Intellex computers," Elena said, bringing them all back on subject. "The Sharrion were positive that their technology would have survived the explosion."
"And that Greer person claimed that it had been destroyed," Cameron said.
"No, he didn't," House disagreed. "He said that the actual breakthrough had been destroyed. He didn't say anything about the tech it was engineered from."
"But he said all the information and prototypes had been destroyed…" she faded out, as the implication of what she'd just said hit her. "And he didn't actually say they couldn't rebuild, did he?"
House tapped the handle of his cane to his temple in acknowledgement.
"I would say that this Greer chap knows something that he's not sharing," John mused.
"Maybe Tim can sort that out," Paul said.
House stomped forward, leaning on the footboard. "Or maybe we should be paying our Mr. Greer another visit."
"Let's see what Tim can dig up first," Cameron said. "Then we can decide our course of action."
"I don't get you lot," House snapped, throwing his hands up in defeat. "You have all these oh-so wonderful powers and you won't use them to get to the truth! Can't you just get into Greer's head or something? Force him to tell you what we need to know?"
"It doesn't work that way, Dr. House." John's voice was equally irritated. "Yes, we're telepathic, but that doesn't give us the ability – or the right – to force ourselves mentally on another person."
"Oh, I see." House's tone was distinctly unfriendly. "You're going to let an alien race come down here and do whatever they want? Just because you don't want to do what's needed?"
"House – " Cameron tried to cut in.
"You don't seem to understand what we are," John overrode her. "We have responsibilities, but we also have limits. We can't do deliberate harm to another human being, even if we desired to. It's against our very genetic make-up."
"Wait a minute." The elder doctor looked stunned. "You're saying the very thing that makes you Homo Superior also makes you incapable of violence?"
"That's exactly what I'm saying."
House was silent, and Cameron could actually see the wheels working in his head. "Then what good are you?" he finally asked.
She'd been disappointed in him many times, but this time Cameron was genuinely hurt by House's response. Just when she thought he understood…she couldn't look at him, not at that moment. She could sense the dismay from Paul and Elena as well, as if they, too, felt the betrayal Cameron herself did. They'd risked discovery by trusting him with John's care, and this was how he repaid that trust. Didn't he realize what he was saying? And after everything she'd shared with him?
"We do the best we can," she spoke into the silence that had smothered the atmosphere of the room, her voice betraying her inner turmoil.
She felt a hand in hers; it was John, his good fingers grasping hers. Cameron could truly sense him in that moment; felt his support, his faith in her.
And his anger.
Of course he'd be furious. Having been around the longest, John had been on the receiving end of quite a lot of bigotry from the Saps who'd found out about them and their weakness. But it wasn't anger at House's sudden attitude toward all of the Tomorrow People; it was the dismissal of her, and the fact that Cameron should, after having worked with him, have at least a modicum of respect from the man who was her boss.
Cameron squeezed back, wanting so much to 'path her gratitude to her oldest friend but not daring. She lifted her head, meeting House's eyes. There was something in them, something she couldn't read. She wasn't sure she wanted to know what it was. "We've done more – sacrificed more – for this planet than anyone will ever know. And we do it despite the certain knowledge that, while we can defend ourselves, when it comes down to it we can't make the one response that most people would respect…we can't kill. And you'd be surprised at how many races out there think we're weak just because we're incapable of murdering someone in cold blood…incapable of torturing someone for information, or rooting around in their private thoughts for what we need. Sorry, House, but if that's your idea of being strong, then maybe I've misjudged you completely."
"Hear, hear," came Paul's strong, yet quiet, mental affirmation.
John squeezed her hand again, the sense of his support seemingly stronger.
"Very well said," Elena added.
From House, there was no reply. He was simply staring at her, as if seeing her for the very first time. Then he limped out of the room, without a backward glance.
Cameron didn't know whether to cheer at her apparent victory…or cry over his apparent rejection.