Thank you for all the support. Sorry the last chapter was so slow coming and short. I spent a couple of days in hospital due to dehydration b/c of a bad case of the flu and a bad reaction to some iodine mouthwash - turns out I am really allergic my tongue was about 4 times the normal size~ and due to a blocked nose and bad lungs it was not too good to put it lightly... scary stuff not being able to breath (at times for like 20 seconds) but all is good and I am over the flu - so more up-dates with longer chapters.

as always... House is not mine and I am making no $ from all this

"In an Instant"

Chapter Three

Cameron slid into the set next to her mother and held her hand. When she had arrived at the hospital a couple of hours ago she had learnt that her Aunt, Uncle and Ryan had all died on the scene from the impact (each with at least 4 broken bones, internal bleeding and head trauma). Cameron and her mother were currently sitting outside the operating room with Alyssa while her Mom had been in surgery for about 40 minutes now to repair the damage to upper torso. The doctors had waited as long as they could to stabilize Ella before taking her into surgery, but due the extent of the damage done to her body they all knew that the odds were against her making it through the surgery.

Looking down into her mothers lap she saw that Alyssa had finally gone to sleep. She was the lucky one in the car, other than a few cuts and bruises on her hands and face she would be fine. The blessings of a good child car seat and sitting between her parents in the back seat had prevented lasting damage to her little body from the outside forces to the car.

Looking down at the watch Cameron thought she had better call Dr. Cuddy and update her on everything that had happened so far that day. As she dialed the number she wanted she walked away from her mother…

"Good afternoon, Dr. Cuddy speaking"

"Hello Dr. Cuddy it is Cameron here. I am just calling to give you an update. It was worse than I thought. My Uncle, Aunt and cousin-in-law Ryan all died at the scene, my cousin Isabella is currently in surgery but it is not looking to good. I was shocked to see her awake and talking when I entered her room earlier, but happy to be able to talk with her for a few minutes before they took her to the OR. Isabella and I are like sisters. I am named as the guardian of her daughter Alyssa in their will along with any other children they may have at the time, she is about 8 months pregnant with twins. So if things do not go well in surgery I may be coming home with three children as long as the twins are fine."

"Oh, Cameron! Is there anything I can do for you?"

"No, everything is organized here, one thing about having a large close extended family, my father is organizing everything for my Aunt/ Uncle and Ryan from here in the hospital, Mom is here with Alyssa and Isabella, while I have the job of calling and telling family and friends about what is happening. Everyone will be here by Friday." Cameron replied.

"Well, Cameron, whatever happens you will be great. Take the next 2 weeks off and keep me updated – call me after the surgery please, I can help you get everything organized from this end if needs be. If you need to come back with the children you can have maternity leave, and there is a good daycare here in the hospital for when you come back."

"Thank you for that, it is one less possible problem that I will have to worry about"

"Keep in touch o.k., and if you need someone to talk to just call me o.k.. I will let House know that you will be gone for at least the next 2 weeks."

"Thanks Dr. Cuddy, you have taking a load off my shoulders, I will call you again tomorrow to let you know how surgery went."

"Thanks, Bye"

With that phone call out of the way she went to go sit down next to her mother again when she got a phone call.

"Hello, Dr. Cameron speaking."

"Hey it's Forman here. How are you doing at the moment Cameron?"

"Just keeping my head above water at the moment. My mother is still in shock. My Aunt, Uncle and cousin-in-law Ryan all died at the scene, my cousin Isabella is currently in surgery, but the odds aren't in her favor. Her daughter Alyssa will be fine though, just a few minor cuts and bruises. Mom said that if Isabella pulls through that she will look after Alyssa here. As the guardian I will be bring them home with me if she doesn't make it. But mom said she will come and help for a couple of weeks."

"Cameron, it will be o.k., sit down and take a couple of deep breathes and tell me what you mean by them."

"You know about Alyssa who is almost 3 years old, But Ella is also about 8 ½ months pregnant with twins – twins run in our family."

Forman, hoping to get Cameron to calm down a little started to ask her a couple of questions. "Can you tell me about your family?"

"ummm… ok, are you in the conference room?"

"yeah"

"O.k., on the top of my desk you will find a stack of papers. At the bottom you will find a small diary that has a photo image on the cover… Got it?"

"My goodness Cameron… who is who? It looks like it is 5 of you…" Forman said loudly in shock.

"The photo was taken a couple of days before I came here for the fellowship. At the back you have my Mom, Emily and my Aunt Ashleigh, as you can tell they are identical twins. I am a carbon copy of them and kneeing on the left had side in front of my mother. Isabella is on the right hand side, she is two years younger than me. She has green eyes but is other wise a carbon copy as well. In the front is Alyssa at 7 months old. She looks like her grandma, but she might end up a little taller than the rest of us with slightly curlier hair. What else would you like to know? That is all the female in my family." Cameron smiled a little as she recalled the day the photo had been taken.

Forman replied still staring at the photo "Cameron, if you had a photo of each of you taken at the same age you would not be able to tell you apart! But what about the male in your families, are there any male siblings?"

Cameron smiled as she answered "o.k. Forman, how long have you wanted to ask me about my family? But to answer you question, Aunty Ashleigh and Mum were only children. Aunty Ashleigh married a Gilbert Benson, and they only have the one child Isabella. Isabella married her collage sweetheart Ryan Morgan 5 years ago. Ryan is the youngest of 3 children but his brother and sister are 16 and 18 years older than him and his mother died when he was 14, his Father later remarried an old friend but he died early last year I think it was. It is sad; their family is not close at all.

"Ummm, I think Ryan and Isabella were planning on naming the twins Caitlyn and Maddison. Anyways…

"I have 3 younger brothers. The youngest 2 are the 21 year old twins Christopher and Benjamin who are both at college. And then there is Michael who is 26, he and his wife Megan have 4 children from 9 months to 5 years of age, and from what Mom has been saying it sounds like they are expecting once more. Other than that there is my dad Jonathan and my grand parents who at 88 and 89 live in a retirement village in Florida of all places.

"Alyssa is going to have a hard life, luckily she is younger, and hopefully she will not remember too much of the bad and she will be able to have a normal life once everything settles down. The investigation is still just starting but it sounds like they were hit by a S.U.V. this morning, the police think the driver fell asleep at the wheel after driving through the night…

"Umm, Forman, I have to go, there is a Doctor walking towards my family. Thanks for calling Forman, you have managed to help me calm down a little, and I think there may have been a smile there as well" As Cameron started to walk towards her mother.

"O.K. Cameron. Well we are thinking about you o.k. Later." As he put his phone back into his pocket he looked at the photo on the diary one last time before placing it on Cameron's desk, on top of the original pile.

A/N next update soon - I have written to chapter 7 - but I am not sure how fast chapters after that will come. Do you want the next chapters to come quickly before slowing out again or 2 a week? thanks for reading ~astig