A/N: Feel free to be mad at me for taking so long to update, there's no excuse execept a nasty case of writter's block. Anyway, enjoy th chapter and please review.

"That's not even possible," Chase said to Cameron, inadvertently sounding a bit rude. "Symptoms would have shown long before." He glanced around the table to House, Cameron and Foreman, Foreman nodding his agreement.

House, suddenly struck with an idea that he was probably going to make them guess at, pushed back his chair and walked to the white board. While Foreman's eyes were following House, Cameron caught Chase's glance. She looked at him as if to ask 'what the hell was that for?'

He shrugged. Cameron glared back at him for a second and stuck her tongue out at him. Unable to keep straight faces they both smiled and Chase suppressed a laugh.

"Ahem," House coughed to gain their attention. "Let's focus on the dying person," he added with a sarcastic smile.

Their smiles faded as they turned to the board and continued to theorize. "Fever, seizures, irritability," House listed off.

"Not to mention she collapsed before she came here," Foreman added.

They went on listing symptoms and possible conditions but found nothing to fully explain all the symptoms. House settled on having Cameron perform a Lumbar Puncture and Chase running more tests to make sure the patient hadn't been lying about not doing drugs.

"And I'm going to do what?" Foreman asked. He really hated that House was back as boss, he had so enjoyed bossing him around, even if House never listened anyway.

"You have clinic duty to attend to," House said and left the room after Cameron and Chase.

"What!" Foreman said. He knew he already put his time in for this week, but House was gone. 'It's just his twisted idea of revenge because I was his boss for a change,' Foreman thought and went to find Cuddy about her offer to make his boss position last a little longer.

Meanwhile Cameron and Chase were both in a lab running tests and waiting for results.

"So you think she was telling the truth about not taking anything?" Chase asked, knowing this was a touchy subject.

"She was around it, probably got sucked in," Cameron replied, and she knew they weren't talking about the patient anymore.

"Is that what happened?" Chase asked, because they hadn't really talked about it seriously since she had taken the drugs.

Cameron slid her glasses down from her hair and made adjustments to the equipment then took her glasses off and set them on the counter. She turned to him. "I guess," she said with a sense of shame that came with bringing forth the memory she tried to suppress.

He looked out the glass walls of the lab and seeing nobody around he wheeled his chair over to her and took her hands in his.

"Just wanted to make sure it wasn't more than that," he said, trying to read her expression as thoughts of depression and other such things entered his mind. He wondered to himself why he hadn't talked to her about this before.

"I'm fine," she said and, seeing his not fully convinced expression she added, "Really."

An alarm beeped from behind them, alerting them that the results were ready. Chase turned and read the paper the printer had spit out. His mouth twitched into a tight circle.

"What?" she asked, walking over.

"Nothing but a trace of methamphetamines, probably from a couple days ago."

She'd had a feeling it was going to be meth, she couldn't escape that easy. She switched her focus from personal to professional. "Could it have been laced with anything?" she wondered out loud.

"No traces of anything else, so I doubt it," Chase replied.

They waited a while longer in silence and headed to House's office with the rest of the test results.

"We found," Chase began.

House, without looking up, shushed him and held up an index finger.

Chase raised an eyebrow and glanced over at Cameron, who rolled her eyes.

A few seconds later House snapped his head up, put his feet back on the floor and said, "Next time don't bother me when I'm trying to beat the last level, do you know how long it took me to get there?" He placed his silver gameboy on the top of his desk.

"Sure," Chase said, not really caring. "Anyway, the patient lied about not doing meth."

House rudely shot Cameron a look and she glared back at him and hated that he knew. He was basically addicted to his pain pills so he couldn't say anything, but she had the feeling he was just waiting for the opportunity. She wasn't even sure how he'd found out that she had done meth more then once. She had been less obvious about it, not that she was particularly proud that she had given in to it.

House and Chase continued talkingbut she waslost in her thoughts.

'I should have told him the truth,' she thought as she looked at Chase and was vaguely aware of the discussion taking place around her.

She was reluctant to tell him thatshe hadn't done meth just once because they were at a good place and she knew things were going well, she had no desire to ruin that. 'Plus,' she told herself, 'It's not like it's out of control.' She thought about their night at the park the other week and was aware of the small weight of the bracelet on her wrist.

She was brought back to reality by Chase's hand on her bare arm. She blinked herself out of her thoughts and looked over at him. He was facing the door and giving her a 'let's go' glare.

She turned quickly and followed him out.

"Something wrong?" he stopped to ask her once they were out of House's earshot. He sounded worried and at the same time disappointed in her unprofessional lack of focus.

"No, just tired," she replied, and it was true.

"We have been here for a while," he said and glanced at his watch. "She's been stable all day," he said, referring to their patient. "We could probably go home and catch some sleep," he said and placed a hand on the small of her back as the walked out, ignoring stares from passing nurses.

"House said that she probably has a genetic disorder that may have interacted badly with the drugs," Chases recapped the conversation while he drove toward her apartment.

Silence.

Chase glanced over to the passenger side of the car. He had to smile.

Cameron had her elbow propped against the door and her fingers entangled in her long brownhair while her hand supported her head. She breathed slightly louder than normal as she slept.

She was still sleeping when he parked close to the stairs of her apartment a short 20 minutes later.

'Don't drop her, don't drop her…' he thought as he carried her up the steep stairs and somehow managed to open the door with his key.

He carried her down the dark hallway without bothering to find the light switch, and cursed when he stubbed his toe on the doorframe.

Chase managed to get her coat and shoes off and get her into the bed without her waking up. He kissed her on the forehead and walked into the bathroom.

He pulled his shirt off and tossed it in the general direction of the hamper. Opening the cabinet above the sink, hegot out the toothpaste he had made Cameron switch to. He smiled tiredly as he remembered the ridiculous argument they'd had over the toothpaste one night when they were both on edge. They'd ended up laughing about how stupid it was and he had even snuck a tube of it in her purse a few days after.

"Shit," he muttered as he knocked a bottle of something behind the dark wood cabinet next to the sink.

He bent over to reach behind the cabinet and grabbed the bottle,feeling something else as his hand passed over something that crinkled beneath his hand.

His expression fell as he looked at the small baggie and didn't have to look twice to know what it was. Disappointment showed in his eyes as he looked through the doorway to Cameron asleep on the bed.

'So much for it being a one time thing,' he thought as he placed the meth on the edge of the sink.

TBC (remember to review)