Tickle Me Pink- Chapter 2
A/N: I know I switch from calling her Cameron to Allison but sometimes it feels more correct to use her first name. Thanks for the reviews and keep them coming, I was actually surprised that people are really liking this. Ok, on with the story.
"I'm Sorry Mrs. Lexing," Cameron said with a small smile that had nothing to do with being happy. Cameron wanted to comfort her, but knew there was nothing she could say that would suffice, so she quietly walked around the corner after briefly placing a comforting hand on the woman's shoulder.
The woman's daughter, Jenna, had just died after a final attempt to save her life. The poor girl had been in the hospital for a couple weeks undergoing many tests, in attempt to find a diagnosis. Cameron, with the help of the rest of the team, had come to the conclusion that the woman suffered had an advanced stage of an extremely vicious and hard to detect cancer.
Cameron had let herself get too close again, and she knew it. Feeling the pain of the girl's death like a friend should, she struggled to contain her emotions. Taking a deep breath she reminded herself that this was not the time to break down.
As Cameron rounded the corner she spotted House coming her way.
"What's up?" she asked
"Lunch," he said and didn't stop moving towards the elevator.
She didn't bother to tell him that they had already had lunch, because she knew he just wanted an excuse to leave. "Thought you would like to know, our patient died," she told him quietly as she walked alongside him.
House simply continued walking, without a word.
"You're not going to say anything?" she asked.
He turned to look at her, "Nope," he said and kept walking.
At this point she stopped and let him board the elevator, satisfied that he must feel something.
The rest of the day was spent with filling out the necessary evil that is paperwork. By the time she was done with her share and the portion she knew House had snuck into her pile she took off to find Chase.
With no luck in the break rooms, or where she often found him she asked a nurse if she had seen him.
"Uh, yeh, I think he left about a half an hour ago," the tall brunette informed her.
"Thanks," she said absently and figured he must be at her place.
She drove just a little above the speed limit the whole way home, replaying how they could have saved Jenna. Finding her efforts pointless she reminded herself that she couldn't get so emotionally attached to the patients they dealt with. True, they saved a great deal of patients, but she always seemed to get attachedto the patients who had the least chance of surviving. In a twisted way, it made sense to her why she felt this way. Sighing, she wiped her watery eyes, walked up to her door and was surprised to find it locked, meaning Chase wasn't there.
Trying not to feel disappointed, she reminded herself that he did have a place of his own and as much as she wished he did, he didn't live with her. Taking a deep breath, she dug her own key out and unlocked the door.
What she found couldn't have surprised her more. As she opened the door and looked up she found, on the counter, a huge glass vase filled with roses, a clear bottle of pink bubble bath and a card. Skeptical only for a moment, Cameron allowed her self to let her mind wander away from her thoughts about Jennaand smell the roses. Her curiosity getting the better of her she quickly set her bag down and grabbed the card. She sat on the edge of a nearby chair and read:
Allison,
I know it's been a rough day, but I want you to relax and take a load off. I'll be back at 7 to pick you up, be ready.
Love, Chase
Unable to stop a smile from forming, she looked around her apartment, gently placed the letter back on the counter and picked up the bottle of bubble bath. She couldn't even remember the last time she had taken a bath. 'Well,' she thought 'might as well go along with it.'
She walked into the bathroom and drew the water for a bath. Testing the water with a toe, she gently slipped into the water and let herself relax, temporarily forgetting about her day, her thoughts about Chase's plan taking over.
'What does he mean, "be ready", how am I supposed to get ready for something I don't even know about,' she thought as she absently picked a clump of bubbles up into her palm and blew them back into the water. After pondering that for a few minutes, she decided to take his advice and relax. She gently closed her eyes and let the smell of the bath soothe her.
Awakened by her huge clock ringing from the living room, she glanced up at the small radio clock on the counter and was alarmed to find it 6 already. Quickly rinsing off and drying herself she wrapped a towel around her hair and tied her bathrobe around her waist.
'What to wear, what to wear...' she thought as she rummaged through her closet for an all-purpose outfit, she had no idea what his plans were. She finally settled on a pair of dressy black pants, a crisp blue blouse and a silver and light blue scarf.
When she finished getting dressed, fixing her hair and make-up, Cameron sat on the foot of her bed and considered changing again. Fortunately, Chase saved her from doing so. The doorbell rang and her heart started beating faster. If she wasn't a doctor she would have swore her heart was going to beat right out of her chest, but she knew that wasn't possible.
'Why are you so nervous, it's just Chase!' she attempted to calm herself.
She placed a hand on the doorknob and took a slow breath before turning it.Feeling her uneasiness about what the night held slowly disapear,she looked up at his face and smiled. She realized that he always had a way to calm her down and make her feel at ease.
"So…where are we going?" She asked while they walked to his car.
"For a walk," Chase said cryptically and opened the car door for Cameron.
She rose onto her toes, leaned over the door and kissed him quickly. "If you say so," she said with a smile and climbed into the car.
A/N: Yeh, I know it is a cliffhanger, I try to avoid them generally but I felt that if I kept writing this would turn into a really long chapter, so this is basically a filler chapter, please don't hate me. Review, as always.
TBC, by the way.