A/N: Sorry about the delay in getting this posted. As some of you know, my cat passed away last Tuesday. It was very unexpected and we still don't know what really happened. Anyway, here's an extra long chapter for you.
Chapter Five
During a break at work on Monday night, Cameron went into her office to catch up on paperwork. When the door was flung open, she jumped and dropped a file. House limped in leaning heavily on his cane.
"Need you," he said before turning to leave.
Quickly, she got up and followed him. She walked faster when she saw where he was headed. On Wednesday the week before, a girl came in with leg pain. One of the other doctors, JoAnne Dixon, prescribed rest, warm compresses and an over the counter pain reliever. Now the girl was back and screaming in agony. Her parents looked frantic and House looked...well, she had never seen House look the way he did. His face showed a mix of anger, disgust and pain.
"Doctor Dixon sent her home without doing a CT scan!" House hissed pointing at Dixon who stared defiantly back at him. "Now she's back and it turns out she has an infarction in her left leg!"
The girl's father stepped forward and Cameron was not surprised to see he was furious.
"Doctor House told us she needed a scan when she was here last time. He even ordered one but that...that...woman told us he was overreacting because of his own leg problem. Now she," he yelled pointing at Dixon, "says the only thing to do is amputate Carly's leg! I want her fired! She shouldn't be allowed to practice medicine!"
Cameron took a deep breath and put her hand on the man's arm.
"I'm Doctor Cameron," she said softly. "I'm afraid I don't know your name but I remember Carly. Come to my office and we'll talk about this." She looked at Dixon. "Doctor Dixon, come with us, please."
Thirty minutes later, Dixon was fired and Carly's parents agreed to have their daughter's leg amputated.
As the nurses prepped Carly for surgery, House sat at the nurses' station with his head resting on his cane. Cameron sat down next to him.
"Dixon's been fired but the parents agreed to the amputation. I'm sorry. I had no idea Dixon overrode your orders." She shook her head. "She tried to put it all on you but the Dean agreed that you were right. I have to okay every procedure now but it's something I should have been doing all along. Thankfully the parents aren't suing us but they are suing Dixon."
She sat and waited for him to reply and when he didn't, she put her hand lightly on his back. "Greg, this is not your fault."
"I knew what was wrong with her. She didn't have to lose her leg," House said as he got up and slowly limped away.
For the rest of the shift, House did his job efficiently but only spoke to the patients and then only when necessary. Cameron watched him with concern but let him work. She could talk to him later.
At the end of their shift, House packed up and left without saying goodbye. He showed up the next night with bloodshot eyes and leaning more on his cane. Cameron tried to talk to him but he brushed her off. She knew he heard that Carly died from a fat embolism during surgery. It was heartbreaking but not unheard of in cases like hers. How Carly managed to deal with the pain for six days was a miracle in itself.
House approached her with a chart. He didn't look at her as he thrust it at her.
"All good, Boss?" he rasped.
She looked over it, initialed it and handed it back to him.
"Greg," she began softly.
He shook his head. "Don't. Just don't."
As he started to walk away, she touched his arm. He looked over his shoulder at her.
"Six days. She suffered with pain you can't even begin to imagine for six days and now she's dead." he said before walking away.
Cameron's phone buzzed in her pocket, letting her know she had a text. Usually she ignored it when she was at work, but she knew it was from Amber so she quickly checked it. Are we on for tonite? It read.
Cameron quickly texted back. Yup. I'll be there at 9.
Coolness. Cya then.
Meanwhile, House was still pissed off about the whole Carly situation. Even though he was assured by all involved that he did everything right, it only made things worse. If he had his own department, he would have been in charge and Carly would be alive with her leg intact.
And that's how he ended up in one of the seediest, darkest dive bars in town.
"Okay buddy," the bartender said as he took away House's empty glass, "you're cut off. Time to go."
"I'm not your buddy."
"Whatever, sir. Just pay your bill and go home. I don't want any trouble."
"It's Doctor."
"Fine then, pay your bill, Doctor, and get out of my bar."
House reached into his back pocket only to find it empty, and that's when he remembered he left his wallet in the locker at the hospital.
"Damnit, left my wallet at work. Gotta call for reinforcements," he said as he took out his phone, which was dead. "What the...okay, I need to use your phone."
"Payphone's over there."
"What part of I don't have my wallet didn't you get?"
The bartender rolled his eyes and handed House the cordless. "Better be a local call."
The first person he called was Cameron, but it went to voicemail, so he called Wilson, and nobody answered there either, so he left a message.
Half an hour later, Amber showed up.
"Come on House, let's go. I've got plans tonight and you're not going to ruin them."
House merely shrugged as he slid off the bar stool and started to walk away.
"Hey!" The bartender shouted, "he didn't pay his bill!"
Amber let out a loud groan and quickly ran back to the bar to settle the bill before finding House outside leaning against her car.
"Get in," she said as she unlocked the doors and got in behind the wheel. "Hurry up!"
House climbed in and let out a loud belch as she pulled out of the parking lot.
"Classy, House."
"Anything worth doin' is worth doin' right."
It was a short drive to the house and Amber had to help him out of the car and up to the side door where his entrance was.
House hung onto her like a lifeline as he searched his pockets for his keys. When he stumbled, Amber caught him.
Finally, he got the door open and she helped him inside and dumped him on the couch. "Get some water and go to bed. Wilson will drive you to the bar in the morning to get your bike."
"Yes, Doctor," House chuckled as he closed his eyes and promptly passed out as Amber went upstairs. Then she texted Cameron to find out when she was coming over, if she ever was, as it was getting late.
When there was no answer, she left a quick text and locked up for the night.
XXX
A week went by at work but there was an undercurrent between House and Cameron that he couldn't quite figure out.
After another week went by with him getting nothing but the cold shoulder, he knew he had to get to the bottom of whatever it was. It also didn't escape him that she hadn't been over to hang out with Amber, either.
It was the end of the day and House watched Cameron as she went to her office and since nobody was around, he followed her and closed the door behind him.
She jumped and whirled around to face him. "What do you want, House? It's late and I'm going home."
"What's going on with you lately?"
"Nothing."
"It's not nothing. Something changed. You seem...I dunno, pissed off. What did I do?"
"Nothing, House. Just go," she muttered as she shoved things into her bag more aggressively than usual.
"You're a horrible liar."
Finally she turned around and faced him, and she looked seriously angry. "What do you expect, House? What do you want me to say? I saw you two!"
House cocked his head to one side and looked clearly confused. "You saw me with who doing what exactly?"
Cameron growled in frustration. "You and Amber!"
"Well, forgive me if I'm wrong here, but we do share the same house."
"It was more than that! I saw the two of you go into your suite and you even hugged her!"
House was still confused. He would never have invited Amber into his suite alone, and he sure as hell wouldn't have hugged her. He didn't hug anyone.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Oh, so now you don't remember?"
"No, I don't," he said as he perched on the side of her desk and got comfortable. He was going to get to the bottom of it. "Please enlighten me."
"Two weeks ago, you called me but didn't leave a message. So then I got to Amber's for movie night and I saw you two going into your suite, arm in arm, no less, and then once you got the door open, you hugged her and then you both went inside."
House thought back to that night Amber picked him up from the bar but nothing that Cameron described happened.
"I don't know what you think you saw…"
"I know what I saw. I was just about to get out of my car when you two rolled up, in her car."
"Okay so you're mad...why? Because you believe Amber and I hooked up?"
"You two have had this...smouldering attraction for each other. I figured you finally decided to act on it."
House didn't know what else to do except laugh, so he did, which only served to get Cameron even more angry.
"Get out of my office. I can't even look at you."
"Why? I haven't done anything to you, Cameron. I was drunk, I called you to come get me, you didn't answer, so I called Wilson. Amber showed up, drove me home and helped me inside because I was having walking issues. Then she dumped me on my couch to sleep it off. End of story."
"Yeah right. I'll bet you slept plenty."
"Like a rock," he said as he moved off of her desk and stood directly in front of her. He could just get a whiff of her flowery shampoo or whatever perfume she had on. It smelled so good he took a step closer. "Look, if you don't believe me, ask Amber. But I want you to think long and hard about what you're implying. Do you really think I would do that to Wilson? Or Amber, for that matter?"
Cameron seemed at a loss for words so he stepped even closer. "But even if we did do something that stupid, which we didn't, what do you care? Oh wait…" he said as he seemed to come to a realization, "you don't have the hots for me, do you?"
Her eyes widened and her face turned as pink as her scrubs as she tried to come up with a response. "What? No!"
"Wow," he laughed. "Ya know, Cameron, if you're going to lie, at least have the decency to be good at it." He stepped back from her and opened the door. "Call Amber. You owe her an apology so kiss and make up, and I want ringside seats for that action..."
"Get out!" she shouted at him and threw her pencil holder across the room, narrowly missing his head as he quickly made his exit.
"What was that about?" her assistant inquired as he closed the door quickly behind him.
"I dunno, but tread lightly," he said and quickly limped away. When he got home that night, he knocked on Wilson's door.
"It's open, House!" Wilson called out from the couch.
House came into the room and joined his friend to watch the game. "Where's the wife?"
"At the hospital. She'll be home soon. Why?"
"I figured out what the issue is between her and Cameron."
"Oh? Do tell."
"Cameron thinks Amber and I slept together."
Wilson's eyes went wide and he sputtered a response. "Why...how the hell would she come up with that idea?"
House told him about that night and Wilson shook his head. "Amber never mentioned it."
"It wasn't a big deal. I called Cameron first, but she didn't answer so I called here but nobody answered either. Then Amber showed up at the bar to take me home. Where were you?"
"I was on call."
"Ah. Well anyway, Amber had to help me inside, and I guess she and Cameron had plans that night to hang out because when Cameron pulled up, she saw Amber and I go into my suite."
"Wow. That doesn't sound like her, to be so...to think of you and Amber…"
"I know, but here we are."
"So what are you going to do?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well it's obvious Cameron likes you, and you like her. What are you going to do when your ninety days are up and she doesn't have to babysit you anymore?"
"I'm going to see if they'll let me start a diagnostics department. I've out-diagnosed just about everybody in the ER and the clinic. It makes sense to have my own department."
"You should ask Cameron to run it with you."
"She threw a pencil holder at me today and kicked me out of her office. I'm just going to avoid her for awhile."
"You know that starting your own department that nobody's ever heard of will be hard, right?"
"It's the journey, not the destination. If I build it, they will come. People are already coming from other hospitals and out of state."
"Really?"
"Yep. I do need a team though, and Cameron is definitely going to be on it."
"How many others?"
"I think three is a good number, various specialties."
"Cameron's not going to want to be one of your underlings."
"If she proves herself worthy I might let her be co-department head. I've got the casting couch all ready to go," House said with a cheeky grin.
"She's not going to sleep with you for a position on your staff." Then Wilson gave his head a shake when House started laughing. "Oh God...that did not come out right at all."
"I disagree," House said, still laughing, "it was perfect."
The two men laughed as the front door opened and Amber came in. "What's so funny?"
"Nothing," both men said in unison and went back to watching their game.
"Uh-huh. Whatever. I'm going to bed. I'm exhausted."
Both men watched her go, and once she was out of the room, they cracked up laughing once more.