Loving this chapter. I hope you're all enjoying the story so far, by the way. We have Wilson being a bit of a jerk here, but don't worry, that won't be staying. We have cuteness on the House/Cameron front, and some Lisa Cuddy thought. All with a dash of light Stacey bashing. Perfect. Read and review.

Chapter four- Introductions.

There was no denying it, their lunch was great. They got along like a house on fire, no pun intended. In the bright lights and casual atmosphere of the cafeteria, neither party felt the need to mention 'DHA', or even work. They just chatted about Houses bike and Corvette, and Cameron's little Lexus, which she had been saving for since college when her husband died. House was pretty impressed that she wasn't driving something completely tasteless. They talked about her apartment, how she actually really liked it where she was, and didn't get any noise, despite teenagers in the same building. He talked about how his apartment, no doubt, got better views than hers, describing his area as the 'cool kids' area of Princeton. All in all, they got along excellently, to Houses surprise.

About halfway through their meal, after House gathered up the courage to steal a tomato from Cameron's plate, and she had begun stealing his fries (which she had persuaded him to have- 'a Reuben isn't enough for lunch!'), when Wilson and the little blonde thing came strolling into the cafeteria. House noticed this immediately:

"Oh God." Cameron craned her head slightly to where House was staring miserably.

"Don't stare at them House, they'll only want to join us"

He would have snarked at this usually but he really wasn't in the mood right now. So he did as he was told.

Approximately five minutes later, the oncologist and limpet were paying for their food. House started staring at them again, completely distracted from what Cameron was saying. She looked over again to see what had provoked such an utter look of disgust in Houses eyes. She saw. And she understood. The blonde had her hand on Wilson's lower back, and was gently moving it up and down… dangerously low down for a public place. But the look of disgust was also a slightly hurt look, wistful even, as though House should be the one with a beautiful blonde attached to his side. Maybe he was once upon a time, thought Cameron. She couldn't stand to see him like this for much longer, to see a man with such strength and intelligence be put down by a blonde stealing his lunch buddy? It just didn't seem right to her. So she put her hand gently on top of his.

"House?"

At the sudden contact, Houses' head snapped back, making eye contact with Cameron. He didn't say anything, and Cameron felt pretty pleased with herself, because he didn't move his hand away either. Cameron said quietly:

"They'll only want to join us."

He smirked at her knowing look. She was right; he would go clinically insane if he had to watch the lovebirds fawn all over each other. And he didn't fancy puking up fries. What a great end to a great dinner.

"Yeah" He smiled at her, just a little. She adored the way that his smile started at the corner of his mouth, and only dared to show fully for an instant, so if you were to blink you'd miss it. Then she realised how clichéd her thoughts were becoming, and stopped herself.

She slid her hand off his and it rested back on the table, just a short distance away from his. When House glanced up, he saw that Wilson and pal were heading in their direction, and he alerted Cameron to this fact by placing his hand over hers and rubbing his thumb over it quickly. He told himself that he did this because any other warning would have been overheard by the approaching couple.

Cameron's stomach fluttered at the gesture, even though she knew it was simply an alert to the approaching couple's descent.

"Hi House, Cameron" Wilson greeted, only getting a 'hey' in response from Cameron, House didn't even bother to make eye contact. Wilson continued, "Uh, This is Miranda Sears, she's our new oncology nurse. Miranda, this is Doctor Allison Cameron, known to most as just Cameron"

Cameron held her hand out to the young woman. Cameron couldn't help but notice that the girl looked remarkably like Eva Longoria, with blonde highlights. Impressive.

"Hi, nice to meet you" Cameron said politely shaking hands with Miranda.

Wilson continued his introduction:

"And this is Dr Greg House, he's head of diagnostics. World renowned"

"Hey!" said Miranda, offering her hand out. House didn't take it. Cameron wondered why Wilson looked so surprised, he'd known House forever, but he wasn't acting like it. Miranda looked a little surprised at Houses reaction, but carried on talking, trying to lighten the mood.

"I studied nursing in my hometown, and I'm so thrilled to be working with James, I mean Dr Wilson. So thrilled. I'm sure you felt the same way, working with Dr House?" She sounded a little uncertain as she addressed this question to Cameron, who answered coolly.

"Absolutely. It's great to work with someone so recognised in their field" Her eyes fluttered back to House who was watching her intently as she kept up the stilted conversation. She smiled at him.

Miranda opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off by House, who simply said:

"Cameron." And handed over his Reuben, for de-pickling. Cameron waited until Wilson had steered Miranda off to the other end of the cafeteria before starting her pickle related challenge.

"Aren't you going to lay into me now? Tell me I should have been polite, spoken to her without referring to their romantic escapades?"

"No. I was having enough trouble myself staying off the topic."

The fact that this was her answer cheered him up immensely. She was definitely not Stacey. And that was definitely a good thing.

Cameron then felt it necessary to add:

"You did the right thing, you don't want to hurt Wilson, he is still your best friend."

Usually, such a comment from the woman in front of him would have provoked a comment about not needing such clarification from her. But for some reason, he was happy to know that he'd been in the right. He was pleased because of her approval. Maybe he was more insecure than he thought.

Just then, the click of patent Prada heels made House close his eyes and want the ground to swallow him up.

"House, I'm pleased to hear you've been doing your clinic hours today."

"I aim to please"

"Keep it up. Enjoy your—"That was when Cuddy realised that House didn't have anything in front of him. Her eyes snapped to Cameron, who was- removing his pickles? Cuddy was intrigued, as the dainty immunologist carefully removed the last of the offending food stuffs and put them on her plate, before handing House his sandwich back saying:

"There, no pickles".

The dean of medicine was shocked. She had never seen Stacey ever do such thing for House, in fact just then Cuddy had a flash back to when Stacey would come by the hospital some lunchtimes and would often tell House to 'quit whining Greg' or 'give it up, you're not five'. There was no such behaviour from Allison Cameron, who happily polished off some of the pickles as House murmured an appreciative 'thank you'.

Cuddy felt somehow she was intruding; which was ridiculous, she told herself. But she couldn't help but feel that she'd walked in on a moment which only the two of them should share. So she excused herself:

"Well, better get back, the hospital isn't going to run itself".

At her retreating back House chuckled:

"The perfect crime, how to avoid clinic, chapter one!" He shuddered then as Cameron crunched on a pickle. "How can you eat those? They are the Lisa Cuddy of the food world."

"Well, then, you won't want to be kissing me this afternoon."

Usually, this would have caused an awkward silence between them, but today, things were different. So the conversation continued and wandered to the approaching Christmas holiday season. The two of them headed back to the diagnostics department in a wonderful mood, all things (i.e. Wilson and Miranda) considered.