I just realized how behind I am, I'm up to chapter 8 on the House boards! Oops!

Anyway, enjoy!

xxx

Cameron was still pacing around the room and randomly spurting out increasingly absurd and morbid reasons as to why Dan was still not there, when her pager went off. Looking down at it, her already light complexion paled visibly, it was the ER. Either Chase needed an immunological consult, or Dan really had been hurt in someway. Praying to a God she'd been previously certain didn't exist; she dashed out of the room, opting to take the stairs rather than wait for an elevator.

Apparently she chose the slower of the two options as House was already waiting for her in the ER, either that, or he'd learnt to apparate.

"What's up?" he asked, grabbing her arm as she attempted to brush quickly past him. She considered pushing him off, but the concern in his eyes hit her so deep, she could practically feel herself melting.

"I got a page from the ER!" she was a mess, hyperventilating and sobbing at the same time, if she didn't calm down House wouldn't be surprised if she suffocated there and then.

"And?" Ever since he started dating her, he could have sworn his IQ level dropped by at least 10 points.

"It's Dan!"

And it dawned on him; Chase had been called down to help with the over-flow brought on by a huge car accident, on the road Dan would have been on. At least it explained where Dan was.

"OK, you don't know that for sure! Why don't you just calm down, and we'll go and see how he is?" If Gregory House had a weakness, he was sure comforting crying had to be it. He was terrible at it. He didn't like comforting, he didn't like crying women, put it together and what have you got? A recipe for disaster.

But Cameron nodded, sniffled a bit, and proceeded towards the nurse's station. Just before she reached it, Chase came skidding up.

"Cameron, you were…quick. I need to tell you something." Chase said hesitantly, he would have preferred to have anyone tell her but himself, but it seemed only fair since he knew her the best.

"It's Dan, isn't it? Something happened?" Cameron asked, anxious to get it over and done with. Once it was out in the open she wouldn't have to worry about worst-case scenarios, "Just, please, tell me he's alive!"

"He's alive, and stable." Chase answered immediately, Cameron was halfway through a loud sigh of relief when Chase continued talking "But he's in a bad way, and a coma." It wasn't the most sensitive way to tell her, but he figured she wouldn't want the sugarcoated version.

"I want to see him."

"Are you sure? It's not pretty." And it wasn't, his broken bones had been set, and the shrapnel removed from his leg, but after an accident like that, and 356 stitches, nothing could be pretty.

"He's practically my brother!" Cameron almost screamed, "Of course I'm sure!"

Chase took an automatic step backwards, as if moving out of firing range, seeing the petite female was on the verge of tears, he turned and led the way to Dan's bedside.

Chase had warned her it wouldn't be nice, she was a doctor, she knew it wouldn't be nice, but nothing could have prepared her for the sight of her younger step-brother lying disfigured, hooked up to all sorts of machines, in an uncomfortable and impersonal looking bed. She couldn't take it, her breathing sharpened, and next thing she knew, she was flying to the ground, her head hitting against the bed rail on the way down. She was out-cold.

"Great," said House. "Now we're going to have two vegetables."