"Hey," Cameron said as she boarded the elevator. "I didn't hear you leave this morning," she told Chase.
He smiled and kissed her good morning as he inhaled the light scent of her body wash and shampoo that was uniquely hers. "I had something to take care of," he vaguely explained.
"You're so cute when you're trying to hide something from me," she said with a smile to let him know that she trusted him with whatever he was keeping.
They were silent as they stood closely while the elevator made its way up. They had both noticed that they had become a lot more comfortable with each other over the past couple weeks. Initially after their confrontation at the park he had been reluctant to go back to what they had before, but Chase knew he needed to help Cameron, not just for her, but also for himself. He loved her too much to let go so quickly.
Cameron had also finally let her guard down. Now that he knew so much about her she had nothing left to hide. It was the little changes that made Chase realize how lucky he was. He loved how she would occasionally wear one of his t-shirts around the house. She would come out of the shower, hair wet, wearing one of his shirts. It drove him absolutely crazy.
In the past he probably would have considered it an invasion of privacy, but with Cameron he just couldn't bring himself to care that much.
Now, nearly two weeks later they were both on track again, though it seemed like so much longer than two weeks to Cameron. More than two weeks since she'd come back to the apartment, strode in and plucked the meth off the sink and dumped every last bit of it in the toilet. Chase had come in and held her as she flushed it down. This showed her just how much he was going to be there for her.
And he was, every step of the way. She felt like they had gotten to know each other more in the last two weeks than they had since they first slept together.
The silence between them was filled with wordless understanding and love, not to say that they still didn't playfully bicker.
The elevator stopped and they both got off, Chase holding the doors open for a couple of nurses. They looked up at him, smiled, blushed and got on the elevator giggling to themselves.
Cameron couldn't hide the amusement in her smile.
"What?" Chase asked, clearly oblivious.
"Dr. Chase;" Cameron imitated the nurses, "chivalrous and sexy," she said in a girly voice.
"And taken," he added, placing his hand on the small of her back and lightly kissing her on the cheek.
She smiled up at him, "House suckered me into clinic this morning, so I'll see you at lunch?" she posed this as a question.
He looked like he wished he could just kill House and get it over with, but instead of saying anything he just smiled and told her that he would see her for lunch later.
"Foreman," Chase said as a 'good morning' while he walked to the coffee maker, more out of habit than actual need for coffee.
Foreman looked up from the table. "Almost didn't recognize you without the ball and chain," he commented because it was kind of rare for him to come in in the morning without Cameron.
"She's got clinic," Chase said, ignoring the 'ball and chain' remark. He was in too good of a mood to be bothered.
He'd been planning this surprise for a little while and was a little disappointed that she could tell he was hiding something. As long as she didn't find out exactly what it was, he was golden. The thought left a smile on his face as he turned back to Foreman.
"Why are you here!" Cameron spoke loudly; as if the elderly woman would suddenly understand her if she repeated the question for a fifth time.
No luck. Cameron was pretty sure the woman was Russian or Italian, but either way she clearly didn't speak any English.
"Okay, have it your way," Cameron said and pulled out the odoscope from her white lab jacket. She stepped closer to the woman and turned the light to her odoscope on.
The plump woman turned as Cameron got closer to her ear and smacked her hand as if she were a child being punished for misbehaving.
Cameron jumped backwards and sighed, this was getting nowhere. She threw her hands up in the air and turned to leave.
She was almost out the door when a faint cough followed by a sneeze caused her to turn around.
"Of course you have a cold, it couldn't havebeen anything interesting," she muttered to herself. Clinic had been boring, she'd hoped a patient would come in with more than a cold or a sore throat.
She held up a pointer finger tot ell the woman she'd be right back.
Cameron started to leave the room and nearly got knocked over by a small boy with curly black hair dashing into the room. She turned to see the young boy yelling frantically, in English nonetheless, to the woman sitting innocently on the examining table, arms folded in her lap.
"How could you grandma, you are supposed to stay with Kelly," the boy rampaged, "you're not sick!"
The woman slowly hopped down from the table. "Okay dear," she said and took the boy's hand.
"You'll have to excuse her doctor," he said to a wide-eyed Cameron, "she's a little delusional sometimes." He walked off, grandmother in tow, leaving Cameron in the doorway, still a little perplexed.
"Okay," she said to herself. "Time for lunch." She dropped her clipboard off at the nurse's station and took off to find Chase.
She found him when she turned a corner into a secluded hallway. Cameron quickened her pace and, standing on her toes, enveloped Chase in a hug.
"I am so glad to see you," she said into his ear.
"Didn't know lunch was so exiting," Chase replied, pulling back a little to look at her.
"People in this hospital are so frustrating," she told him as they walked out of the hospital.
"That basically sums up my morning," he agreed.
"House?" she ventured a guess.
"We were trying to make a diagnoses and he insisted on leaving his portable TV on so he wouldn't miss anything. It was on all morning, couldn't tell him anything. He doesn't even know I'm gone." He smiled at the last part.
"Sneaky," she replied as they sat down at a marble table outside their favorite café, that happened to be right outside the hospital.
"So, when are you going to stop renting that apartment?" she asked him once they sat down.
He smiled. "It's storing a lot, what do you want me to do with all my stuff?"
"Good question," she started before she was interrupted by her phone. "Hang on," she told Chase as she turned and flipped her phone open.
"Hello?" She answered.
"Is this Allison Cameron?" A man asked her.
"Yeh…"
"This is Dr. Carlson, from the University Hospital in Pennsylvania; we have your father in the ICU. I'm sorry to call you but you're the only listed contact for Mr. Cameron."
She glanced at Chase, who was looking concerned as she turned her attention back to the call.
"What happened?" she simply asked.
"He was in an accident," he began to explain. She knew the tone well enough to know when she was being let down easy.
"Just be straight with me, how bad is his condition?"
He went on to tell her what he knew, and that her father's condition wasn't likely to improve. She flipped the phone shut and sighed.
What's going on?" Chase asked, about to explode if he didn't find out what was wrong.
"It's my dad," she said quietly. "He fell asleep at the wheel."
"You going to be okay?" he asked when he saw her expression.
"Uh, yeh. Looks like I'm going on a vacation," she said with a forced laugh. She set her phone down on the table and looked up at Chase. "Just what I need."
He moved his chair closer and took her hand. "I'm coming with you," he said and left no room for argument.
She nodded, showing that she was glad he would come with her and be there when she knew she would need him.
Review. TBC!