This one is a little longer than Chapter 12. And I took a little bit of creative license with Wilson's wives. Enjoy! R/R please! Thanks!

Usual disclaimers...

When the Fog Lifts

Chapter 13

The sun was beginning to wane in the western sky when Cameron arrived on the roof. She leaned on the wall and gazed at the shades of pink and purple on the horizon as her tears fell. In order to hope that her patient would get well, someone else would have to die, and that was just not something she could hope for. This is why I didn't go into transplant surgery, she thought, wiping the tears from her face, how do you balance thinking like that?

She rubbed her face with her hands and yawned. Even with all of the joy she felt at her budding relationship (Is that the right word for it? she thought.), the last couple of days had been long ones and she hadn't gotten a lot of sleep the night before. She smiled thinking of the reason behind the lack of sleep, and of their little deception that afternoon. Wilson had looked SO surprised when she had run through his office from the patio with just a wave in his direction. She would have to stop and explain that to him later, if House hadn't already.

Leaning her arms over the edge of the wall, she yawned again as she stretched.

"You're not gonna jump are you?"

Smiling, she turned to see House walking towards her.

"No, not today I don't think," she replied, wrapping her arms around him.

"Because it wouldn't look very good for me if you did, ya know – us being together for only two days and all. Although, I'm sure somebody, somewhere in this place, would win the hospital pool on us."

"There is a pool on us – on you and me – on how many days THIS will last?" she asked pointing back and forth between them to emphasize her point.

He pulled her back into his arms. "No, not yet. But I'm sure there's going to be."

She leaned back and looked up at him. "Well, when you put your $5 in, and I know you will, make sure you pick a high number….a VERY high number."

He moved his hands to her face and pulled her lips close, softly enveloping them in his own. Caressing her cheek, he whispered to her, "You've been crying, Dr. Cameron."

She looked down for a moment, but then returned her gaze to his. "Well, I could lie and tell you no."

"Yes, you could. But besides the fact that your damp face tells me otherwise," he stroked her face with his fingers, "you don't really want to prove me right, do you?"

She smiled at him. "No, I probably don't." She put her forehead down on his chest. "I just don't know how the transplant teams do it. I mean, how do you as a doctor, care about your patients, not to mention your job, yet know that all of that depends on the deaths of others?" She turned away from House and looked over at the horizon, as the sun finally dropped out of sight.

"It's like real estate..."

"WHAT?" she interrupted, turning to look at him again.

"Location-location-location. Look, you don't actually hope for the death of someone. You just have to assume that's going to happen. What you hope is that when it does, everyone and everything is in the right place to make a transplant work. Like I said, location-location-location."

Allison sighed and shook her head. "Only you could use a real estate metaphor for something like this….but, I get what you're trying to say. Kind of scares me that I get it, but I do."

House put his hands on her shoulders. "Hah! The conversion has begun!" he said, followed by a menacingly evil laugh. "C'mon. Are you ready to get out of here?"

"Yeah…I want to go soak in a hot tub until I'm wrinkled like an old lady."

Wrinkling his nose in mock disgust, House said, "That's not quite the image I had in mind."

"Well, YOU don't have to watch then."

"But I want to….and I have just the place in mind."

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In her car, Allison struggled to keep up with House, who was on his bike. She still didn't know where they were going, as he had told her to just follow him. So follow him she did, for about 25 minutes, before finally pulling up in front of, his house?

"What are we doing here? Did you need to pick up something?" she asked from her car window.

"Nope. Go park it and come on in." he yelled as he walked toward the building.

"House – wait! I'll be right back. There's something I need to go pick up."

"Like what? I thought I was all you needed!" he said arms wide.

Allison rolled her eyes at him and sped off. Thinking ahead that morning, she had thrown a change of clothes and a toothbrush into a bag in the trunk, but there was something else she hadn't thought of and she headed to the nearest drug store in search of it.

Hmm, he thought. That gives me an idea. He walked into the apartment, leaving the door unlocked, and headed down the hall to his guest bathroom.

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About 15 minutes later, Cameron arrived back at House's. With her bags in hand, she knocked on the door. She heard a muffled "Ow! Damnnit!" followed by "It's open" in the distance, so she slowly turned the handle.

She stuck her head in the apartment, which was dark. "Greg? Are you here?"

"Yeah - In here. Lock the door behind you." she heard from down the hall.

She locked the door, leaving her bag of clothes on the floor. Carrying the bag from the drug store, she walked towards his voice. As she entered the guest bathroom, she found it bathed in candlelight from the small, glass candles that were scattered throughout the small room. She picked up one that was purple and read:

James and Bonnie

May 15, 1990

She smiled and picked up another one, blue this time, and read:

James and Julie

February 14, 2001

"Don't forget wife #1" House said, pointing to yet another candle, this one in a lovely shade of green:

James and Missy

August 21, 1986

"I knew these would come in handy someday. This one's a collector's item." he said tossing her one he had not yet lit.

James and Audrey

December 31, 1999

"It's the one that never happened. They broke up right before. I've got a bunch of those," he explained, pointing to the other yellow candles set up around the room.

Allison couldn't hold the laughter in any longer. As she laughed she took his face in her hand's and kissed him. "Thank you for doing this."

"Yeah…well…what did you have to go off so desperately in search of? Girly things?"

Reaching into the bag, she produced a bottle of strawberry shampoo and a bottle of strawberry body wash. "Just these. Wanted to make sure I smell like me you know."

He finished lighting the last candle and turned back to her. "Hmmm….only problem is, I might end up smelling like you."

"Were you planning on joining me?" she asked, with a rather large smile on her face.

"I was considering it." he answered, leaning down to kiss her.

"Mmmm…I'd like that. I'd also like a large glass of this." she said pulling a bottle of wine from the bag.

He took the bottle from her and kissed her again. "I'll be back," he declared and limped off towards the kitchen.