A/N: I replaced Chap 16 after House woke up in Cam's apt because Limaccia called me on it! Well, didn't call me, but pointed it out. :o) It makes MUCH more sense and I hope makes a little more sense of his thoughts. Ok, enjoy! And thanks sooo much for the reviews!!! Steph OH, and here's the Oma explanation!!!

CHAPTER TWENTY

"And when I was in my second year of college I dated this guy named Ralph Painter," Debra said, trying to control her laughter from their game of 'If so-and-so married so-and-so they'd be Mrs. So-and-so.'

It was just rounding midnight and they were working on their third round of drinks at Charlie's Bar & Grill – Scotch, Heineken, Screwdriver and Coke. They'd just come from the Chicago concert and were all having a real good time.

"You didn't marry him, did you?" Cameron asked. "I mean, Mrs. Debra House Painter?"

"I know! And no, but that's the only reason why I didn't marry him."

"I dated a girl that had a kid she named Wilson. But when I asked her to marry me she said she didn't want her kid named Wilson Wilson, just like Wilson on Home Improvement," he said, and Debra bust out laughing, held her stomach and put her hand on his shoulder.

"Hey!" House finally chimed in. "I dated this girl named Marcia Brick," he said seriously then drank his Scotch.

"Stop it!" Cameron screamed, covered her mouth, hit her hand on the table which made the glasses jump and spilling a few drops.

"Mrs. Dr. Marcia Brick House? Come on, I don't believe that!" Wilson said incredulously.

"That's a fact! And holding nothing back cuz she's a Brick…HOWZE!" House started to sing. "But it's true! I still have her number. Do you want it?" House asked Wilson seriously. Cameron flashed him dirty look but House only winked.

"Uh, no, actually…" Wilson said then looked at Debra and winked at her. "…I think I have who I want."

"Oh, please! You're gonna make me sick…wait, hold the phone!" House said with a Shrek Scottish accent then set his glass down on the table. He looked at Debra then Wilson then back at Debra. Eyes darted back and forth between the four for several seconds.

"Hurt her and your DEAD, Wilson!" House said seriously then smiled a very fake one, but still conveyed he was serious.

"Well, right after Oma died I…" Debra stopped herself because she knew how sensitive House was about their grandmother.

"Hey, well, you know what?" Wilson spoke up. He could now tell when Debra had enough from her complexion becoming pale and her eyes a little glazy. "We have to move tomorrow and we have to get up early to check out," Wilson said as he stood.

"Oh, it'll take you all morning to put the toothbrush and your hair dryer in a box, huh?" House said kind of sarcastic.

Debra knew she'd touched a nerve, stood and gave him a hug. She whispered in his ear, "Sorry 'bout that, cuz." When she stood back up she thanked him for the concert and promised House and Cameron she'd invite them over for dinner.

That left just House and Cameron alone to finish their drinks. With the mention of his grandmother it piqued her curiosity again, but she didn't want to ruin the night by asking him more about her.

House seemed to be reading her mind. He finished the last swig of the Scotch, took a deep breath, and told her about his grandmother.

"I just started my second year residency and Oma – grandma – got real ill. The doctors couldn't find what was wrong with her, but I thought I knew what it was. The tests I ran were inconclusive but I wanted to start her on Methaltrisate, which you know needs consent for it.

"Oma agreed; she didn't have any problem with it. She always had faith in me but…" His voice choked and Cameron could see how difficult it was for him to talk about it.

"Anyway, Dad had a real issue with the side effects and he refused to have it

administered to her. He wouldn't even listen to her and what she wanted, but when he left I talked with her, and she told me not to let Dad get to me, and that she wanted the medication.

"One of his brothers let it slip that she signed the papers and Dad was furious." He shook his head as if it were a bad nightmare he was relaying. Cameron was very attentive to what he was saying and slid the chair closer to him as he spoke.

"Dad convinced her not to and then came after me for it."

House stood, walked to the bar, ordered a drink and downed the shot in one swallow; his face grimaced with the painful memory as well as the burn in his chest from the alcohol burning his throat. Cameron watched him through the mirror that was behind the bar and she wiped a tear that had fallen out of the corner of her eye.

He came back and sat down, staring at his fingers tapping another empty glass.

"What happened?" she asked; her voice soft and sympathetic.

"I gave it to her anyway. Dad got mad, Oma got better, end of story," he said as he shrugged his shoulder.

Cameron frowned at him and wanted to hold him, but she knew he hated PDA, or any type of affection whatsoever, well, aside from sex. But it wasn't the time or place.

"No, it's not. What happened when your father found out?"

He looked around the room uncomfortably and avoided eye contact with her. In a voice so small, Cameron had to practically put her ear to his mouth as he said, "Threw me up against the wall for disobeying him."

Tenderly she put her hand on his cheek then quickly removed it, placing it on his knee instead.

"Did he hurt you?" she asked after several minutes.

"Not physically."

"And your grandma was okay? That's what she wanted, House. That wasn't your father's call."

He nodded his head in agreement. "She died three days later from a stroke."

Cameron was taken aback. Of all that he told her she wasn't expecting that.

"Of course, Dad came after me and blamed me. Her physician told Dad with Mom and I in the room that it was unavoidable and in no way affiliated with the Cellular Myoloma. Dad didn't hear it that way. I was right, Cameron. And he didn't listen to me. I did the right thing."

House looked down out of shame but Cameron stood up, grabbed her purse, went to the bar to pay the tab and went back to House.

"Come on, it's getting late."

It took House a second for her words to register in his brain and he stood up, grabbed his cane, and the two hobbled out of Charlie's, hand in hand.

HOUSE MD HOUSE MD HOUSE MD

When they got back to House's apartment, Cameron was in the bedroom changing into his favorite negligee he liked her to wear while House was in the bathroom. After she was done and he wasn't back yet, she locked the door and turned off the lights in the living room and walked by the bathroom door.

Before she heard anything she knocked on the door and asked if everything was coming out all right.

He answered 'yes,' but she could tell his nose was stopped up and heard a barrage of hiccups that masked his sobs. It killed her to hear him like that – she'd seen him cry from pain with his leg and that was it. She'd never heard him cry over anything else.

"House, I'm coming in," she said as she turned the doorknob and opened it.

"No…don't…"

There on the toilet seat was House, in his boxers, slunched over with his arms over his stomach and his head down practically in his lap.

"House…Greg…oh, god."

She rushed to him and put her hands on his forearms, trying to make him look at her. A tear fell from his eye and he went to wipe it away.

"Cam…go away," he said, wiping the tear away and sniffed, to keep the snot from falling out of his nose, but it only produced and gnarly sounding gurgle.

"No, I won't. Oh, it wasn't your fault, Greg," she said trying to comfort him. She brushed a bit of his hair away off his forehead.

"Cameron, I said go AWAY!"

House pushed Cameron back hard and she landed against the tub, her head flung back but she got control of herself again. House's eyes flew open at what he'd just done. He'd never been more ashamed in his life.

He wiped his nose on his arm and knelt down beside her, more tears coming into his eyes.

"Allison…I'm…sorry, oh, please…"

Cameron wasn't hurt at all, and was more understanding with him than she should have been. She reached up and put his face in her hands, pulled him toward her and kissed him lightly on the lips.

"Help me up, will you?" she asked, forcing a reassuring smile that she just knew he wouldn't buy.

He stood and held out his arm, she grabbed his hand and he pulled her up.

"Run some cold water on your face. It'll make you feel better," she told him and silently walked out of the bathroom.

When she heard the water start to run, she walked to the bureau, grabbed her Vicodin and realized there was only one left and she hadn't put in the refill yet. The way her leg was feeling, and now her back from kissing the tub, she knew she needed more than just 5mg.

Cameron looked around the room and remembered House's bottle was in his pants pocket. Looking toward the bathroom listening at the water still running, she hurried to his pants on the floor and dropped one out into her palm then swallowed it. Then she thought better of it and took three total.

Just then the water was turned off and she hurriedly put them back in the pocket and sat on the bed, waiting for him to come in. When he did, he still didn't look at her. He walked to his pants, pulled out his bottle and shook out two pills, dry swallowed them then looked at the bottle funny.

House knew he should have ten pills, but there were only seven. Any chronic pain sufferer will tell you they know exactly how many pills they have at all times and when the next refill was due. He finally looked at Cameron with suspicion but didn't say anything. He didn't have the strength to talk.

He turned off the light and crawled into bed with Cameron, but then turned on his side away from her. She knew he was hurting and she wanted his pain to go away, but she knew that would never happen. All she could do was comfort him.

She slid over, pressed her chest against his back, buried her face in his neck, wrapped her right arm around his waist with her hand over his chest and gave him a little squeeze. A minute later House sighed heavily and put his left hand over hers.

Cameron didn't say a word. No word was even necessary at the moment. House just needed her to hold him like she was, because that made him feel secure, like everything was going to be okay.

But what he didn't know was that while Cameron had been using a cane for her broken right leg, she'd been taking an extra vicodin pill here, an extra one there, and now she was taking some from House.

She was in a heap of trouble.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A/N: Remember when the patient, House and Wilson were in Atlantic City and House wanted his dad to say, "you were right...you did the right thing."... that's what this was what House was talking about! I hope it made sense. It's been in my head for I don't know how long. lol