A/N: Guess I should never promise to have future chapters up quickly! Not even going to try to justify this. Please review.
It had been four days since her dad had officially died. Four days and today was his funeral. If you could call it that anyway. Cameron had decided on a small service, just her and Chase actually. There wasn't anybody else; everybody who might have normally come was back home. Cameron's mom was somewhere in Indiana and definitely didn't care enough to pay respects to her ex-husband. Cameron hadn't spoken to her in months. Her mom had never forgiven her for getting married at 21. She had called her sister, but she apparently, while shocked, had more important commitments.
The thought of her mother added on to the guilt that Cameron was carrying around. She had been distant with her dad and that had caused both of them pain, yet she chose to treat her mom with the same regards. Maybe the memories stirred up too many mixed emotions that she would rather not confront. Yeh, staying distant was easier.
Thoughts flickered through Cameron's mind as she mentally distracted herself from reality. She and Chase stood before a small granite stone and freshly turned up earth. Her fathers name was neatly carved on to the stone. No priests or speakers at this funeral, just them.
Cameron set down a small bouquet of pink carnations and stepped back. She had the urge to say something but didn't know what, so she just took Chase's gloved hand and after a last glace and a goodbye they walked back to the car.
It wasn't really a final goodbye, Cameron thought as she turned in her seat and grabbed the small opaque bottle from the back. She set it in the cup holder between herself and Chase. She spotted a small number on the side of the bottle and briefly wondered what it meant. Probably an ID number, she figured.
"Which way?" Chase finally spoke while he drove down the highway.
"Next exit," Cameron replied.
Cameron had decided to do one last thing for her father, leave part of him in a place that would always hold good memories. She'd had him cremated just to be able to do this. Her dad had never made it clear to her, or left his wishes in his will about his funeral, so Cameron had decided on cremation.
Another left hand turn and a stoplight later Chase pulled onto a long road that seemed to be deserted, which made sense this time of year. The road, lined lightly with light colored sand, led to one of the popular beach places during the summer.
"So, if you grew up in the Midwest, how come you vacationed here?" Chase asked, the curiosity too overwhelming for him to ignore.
"My grandma had a beach house here, spent a lot of time with her."
"There a boardwalk?"
"Yeh. My dad tried to take me fishing underneath it once. He didn't know that it wasn't allowed." She laughed. "I caught a minnow in my net before some security guy came sprinting towards us. I kept that minnow for the whole day."
"What happened to it?"
"I flushed it. I was 17, I had better things to worry about."
"It wasn't dead?" Chase said with shock.
"It was 10 years ago, I don't remember!" she said.
"You lie, Allison. You killed that minnow," he joked.
"It went to a better place."
"The sewer? Uh-huh." Chase shook his head, laughing.
He dropped it and let the silence come back. He never minded riding in peaceful silence with Cameron. With so many other people, silence while driving was awkward and dragged on. He would look over at her every once in a while just to see her staring out the window, either expressionless or deep in thought.
"Just pull over here," Cameron directed him, pointing to a sand lot.
"You want me to come?" Chase asked and realized it was sort of a stupid question, what was he going to do, sit in the car?
"Yeh."
Cameron put on a pair of gloves and stepped out of the car, holding the small vile of her father's ashes. It was hard for her to think that it was part of him in the bottle.
She uncapped the bottle as they walked closer to the shore, her feet sinking a little in the damp sand. The salty wind blew cold air towards them.
"I've never been here when it was cold before," Cameron thought out loud.
"It's nice, in a way. No people," Chase replied, feeling his face blush from the cold.
Cameron stopped under a pier and looked up at Chase. A smile formed on her face. "You were not meant for the cold." She took off her left glove and poured a little ash into her palm. "I'm not really sure what to do with this."
Chase stepped closer to her and gently poured a little bit from the bottle into his own hand. "Into the wind on three," he told her as they shifted positions so the wind would carry him away. "One, two, three," Chase nearly whispered.
Both of their palms opened and bits of white and black ash flew away with the wind.
Cameron finished and placed the empty bottle in her pocket. A few tears were falling down her cheeks. She was glad she picked this spot; it had meant something to her as a kid and would now have more significance to her.
But she wasn't thinking about the significance. Cameron was remembering her dad. For the first time her thoughts were all positive memories, she wouldn't let bad memories ruin her goodbye. No matter how bad things were at home they always had the beach, will have the beach. It was right that he was here.
"God, I had the strangest dream last night," Cameron said to Chase as they walked towards the hospital the next morning. Cameron supposed she should feel sad, depressed even, but somehow she felt relieved.
"Me too, House was nice and bought us all puppies," Chase joked.
"I'm serious," she told him after rolling her eyes. She started to speak but both of their pagers went off.
Chase dug his out of his pocket. "House."
I'll tell you about it later," Cameron said before pulling out her cell.
"What do you need?"
"Someone's pissy. Can you get my lunch; I left it in Wilson's office. I figured I would catch you before you came in."
Cameron looked up to see House waving out of one of the windows. She rolled her eyes. "I'm hanging up now."
"Wait. I need you to pick up something at the pharmacy," House started.
"I'm not picking up your Vicodin, House. Or your lunch."
"It's lupus meds for our patient. Though it might be fun to see what would happen if…"
Cameron hung up the phone as they walked through the main entrance. "We have to stop by the pharmacy," she told Chase. "It's probably not lupus anyway…" she muttered.
"I've got clinic this morning, I'll see you later," Chase told her before they split ways.
Chase walked down the hallway, his mind wandering.
Wilson rounded the corner and nearly knocked Chase over.
"Sweet Jesus!" Chase screamed.
Wilson found this quite funny. "Little jumpy are we?"
"I'm just… preoccupied, okay?"
"Ah. House?" Wilson guessed.
"No," Chase said and walked off.
Wilson, obviously unwanted, followed Chase down the hallway, intrigued. "Oh I've been there. It's Cameron isn't it?"
'He's got to stop hanging out with House,' Chase thought to himself.
"It's not what you're thinking."
"You're going to ask her to marry you aren't you?"
Chase stopped in the middle of the hallway are stared questioningly over at Wilson.
"Oh come on, it's written all over your face."
Chase continued walking. Wilson didn't follow.
'Great, now Wilson knows. And, oh God, House will soon enough.' Chase let out a moan before picking up a clipboard of records and walking into an exam room.
TBC - I have to figure out what is going to happen first. haha