Author´s Note: As always, thank you for you comments!

Chapter eight

He touches her. She feels his hand on her cheek, leaving warm traces on her skin. It almost feels good to her. Almost. She takes a step back, holding her breath, gazing at him disappointed.

"Don´t touch me, House. I thought I made that clear."

"Cameron I…I wanna talk to you." His voice is pleading, his eyes holding the same expression. He made a mistake and this time he got screwed. He knows, and Cameron knows.

"About what? Wanna explain to me how you get my file? Was it good to read it? Did it make you happy, hu?"

Still gazing at him Cameron can´t believe that he would have done such a thing. But after all, he still was Gregory House.

"Im sorry for reading it. Believe me. I…"

"No. I´m not buying anything you say. I´m not interested. Your action said it all. Hey, why don´t you go home, grab yourself a bottle of Vicodin and scotch and read my story again?" Now she smiles at him, almost looking amused.

House can´t believe what he is seeing. She smiles! What the fuck was wrong with her? Suddenly, an odd feeling is rushing through him. Something about Cameron´s reaction is strange. Thinking about it, his suspicion even grows. Wait a minute. How could she have known that he had read her report? He hadn´t say a word about that. As if she…

"How do you know?" His eyes are full of disbelief.

Again Cameron smiles and this time, it nearly made House sick.

"I really thought that you were smarter than that. I even thought that you, for once in your life, would stay out of someone´s business." Shaking her head Cameron takes a deep breath.

House remains silent, slowly getting a hint of what Cameron was going to say.

"Let me tell you something. The file you´ve read, the file you obviously stole from Dr. Tiek's office? Wasn´t mine. Well, not really." Cameron savors the confused look on House´s face. He deserved it.

"What?" He can´t say more. This all was too weird, even for him. What sort of bad movie he was in?

Cameron takes a step toward him, her warm breath touching his neck, her eyes nearly black. She´s not sure how far she can go. How much of the truth she can admit without making him even more curious. She has to find a middle way.

"It´s faked. A cover story." Dangerous field. She has to be very careful of what to say.

House jaw drops. "A cover story? You mean everything in that report is false? That" He lowers his voice, suddenly becoming aware that they are still in the psychiatry "you wasn´t raped?"

"Right." Well, sort of. "Listen, House. I spend years of making sure that nobody discovers my past, and I have several reasons for that. Well, as much as I wish, I can´t ignore the fact that you get interested in it and that you would begin to snoop. And knowing that you once stole the report of Stacy, don´t look surprised, I know what I had to do. I won´t let you destroy something that I build up so hard."

"What´s really behind this?"

"Nothing that concerns you."

"He read it?" Cuddy´s voice sounds a little deeper through the phone than usually.

Sitting in her kitchen, looking out of the window, Cameron nods, aware that Cuddy can´t see it. "Yeah, he did."

"I can´t believe it. I really hoped that he would stop. What did you tell him, anyway?"

"Some truth, some lies. But I don´t think that I convinced him to stop. I´m afraid nothing will." A single tear slides down her cheek but she´s not noticing it.

She hears Cuddy´s breath, synchronous to her own.

"Allison, I think we have no other choice than to tell him."

"No! We´re not going to tell him!" Fear overcomes her.

"Wait. I didn´t mean that we´re going to tell him the whole story. Just…the dangerous part of it."

"We can´t involve another person into this."

"I´m afraid House already involved himself. He won´t stop snooping until he gets what he wants. We can´t risk him to get you discovered. And he has to know that he plays on dangerous ground before it all gets worse."

"I can´t tell."

"Then I will." Cuddy stops a moment before speaking again. "I know it´s hard for you, but I need you to trust me."

Hanging up the phone several minutes later, Cameron just sits there, unable to move. When did this all get so wrong? When? Why? Wasn´t it already bad enough? Without House?

Maybe she really should go. Leaving all this behind. Run to another town, start a new life. A new life with the same old secrets, the same old ghosts. But there would be no House chasing her.

No. It was senseless. She was sick of running away. She already spend too much years of her life doing that. And here, she had Cuddy, covering her up. Someone who helped her. In another town, she would be on her own again.

And thinking back to her session with Dr. Tiek…she´s not that sure anymore that there was no hope for her. Maybe, just maybe, there was a way out of her haunting memories. She said his name, said it loudly out, even told the therapist about the reunion, and the world still existed. The world hadn´t exploded right over her head. But still, only the imagining of telling the doctor about the abduction, the acts of violence he did to her, the knife cutting into her flesh…all along with his gently words, his never ending professions of love to her…

Standing up she makes a tee, once again trying to banish his words out of her mind, her soul. Her headache was coming back.

A hard slap on his shoulder wakes House. Looking up, he sees Lisa Cuddy, her facial expression unreadable. Turning around Cuddy sits down across him, only his office table standing between the two doctors.

"I´m here to tell you something." The sound of her voice is strange to him.

"About Cameron?" He still hadn´t get over the whole conversation they had in the psychiatry. So many questions.

"Yes. And I want you to listen carefully."

Looking into the eyes of his old friend, House knows that this time, Cuddy wasn´t here to threaten him again. The Cuddy before him wasn´t the same that stormed into his House that night. So he only nods, preparing himself for her words.

"Years ago, Cameron had a relationship with a guy. They were a couple over almost a year. Someday, something went bad. I´m not telling you what. But it did. And it turned out that this guy was a drug dealer with connections to the Italian Mafia. After everything was over the police accused Cameron of being his partner. Of course she wasn´t. The police believed her eventually. But there still was the Mafia. Maybe they would think that Cameron knows something that could endanger them. So the police made sure that her real name never showed up in the reports and that nobody learned the real person behind the alias. They even came up with a faked report to explain why Cameron was in the hospital at this time. One Detective even thought about getting Cameron into the witness protection program, but she wasn´t a principal witness, so…"

For once in his life, Gregory House didn´t know what to say at first.

"And the guy? What happened to him?"

"He´s dead."

He liked the darkness. It gave him the feeling of pure safety. Looking around his office, only seeing the shadows in the room, he smiles while turning his attention back to monitor of his Computer, smiling warmly at the picture on the display.

Even after all the time, he never got over the fact that this all was so easy. So fucking easy. You need a way out? A new identity, a new life? No problem. Especially not when you´re with the mafia. It only took them hours to get him out of the hospital; make a donation here and there to some Detectives, some doctors, and the whole story was complete.

They even arrested his precious Cameron for a crime she never committed. Ah, well, she did, but not in this way.