So my next Chapter, I'm still not sure I finished it in the right place but I don't really know where to go from here and I realised that not much has happened in the last few chapters, I'll try to change that. Enjoy and sorry about the long wait between updates.
Whenever Chase looks around the room it seems to be enveloped in a dismal grey haze. It's like the silence has solidified and crawled into the shadow filled corners. The Tangible atmosphere asphyxiates him. The seconds seem like minutes and the minutes like hours, he's pretty sure he's been awake for hours. Silence is all that has filled his time.
"Can we at least talk?" Cameron's had her back to him since she woke up and the disturbance in the melancholy calm hasn't changed that, he's not sure she's even listening until her rough voice penetrates the air.
"No!" It's not loud but it rings around the room- ricocheting of the walls. The harshness catches him off guard. Her mood swings are getting tiring.
"What happened to us? - I mean, I know what happened to us… I killed a man and you left me, but… you can't hide from what we had, we can at least talk. Not about us, not about House, not about anything significant. We can just talk" She still has her back to him and he feels like he's talking to a brick wall. Thoughts of how this symbolises the futility of talking to her flash through his mind. Trying to talk to her-to get her to let him in- is just as rational as talking to a wall.
"No Robert we can't" Slowly she turns to glare at him.
"You know what: No! You don't have the right to be angry. I'm the one who got left behind. One day you tell me you'll love me no matter what, the next you leave me, no warnings, no signs you just leave. Hell! House knew that you were leaving me before I did." He sees where her moods swings are coming from. Something inside of him has snapped and he's tired of playing the bad guy.
"Yeah and House, Foreman and some random priest knew what you did before I did. In fact you did everything in your power to stop me knowing"
"You got any popcorn?" Chase and Cameron look up in unison (all thoughts of their argument forgotten) to see House elbowing Foreman-who somehow manages to look sympathetic and bored at the same time- in the ribs, while Thirteen and Taub stand in the corner looking very uncomfortable. "Please carry on. Don't stop on our account." House continues with a smug smile on his face. 50 different violent, merciless and brutal ways to kill him spring into Chase's mind.
"We're sorry" Thirteen shoots both of them an apologetic smile and turns to leave.
"We'll leave. Come on House." Foreman tries to coerce House out of the door.
"No. I wanna see what happens next. Do you think she'll punch him?" House whines like a child who's been told play time's over (not that play time is ever over for House)
"We're leaving" Taub turns to open the door, but House locks it before he can.
"House unlock the door." Taub starts to unlock the door but something stops him. "Crap, the key broke." Taub holds up half of the key like an ill-fitting trophy, whilst getting looks that he fears may kill him on the spot from Cameron and Chase (neither of whom has moved since their shouting match was interrupted.)"
"But you unlocked the door right?" Taub shakes his head in answer to Thirteen's question.
Chase laughs bitterly and all eyes turn to him. Cameron smiles emotionlessly, sharing the joke.
"What's so funny?" Foreman stares from Cameron to Chase then at House to see if he knows- because House always knows.
"It's just ironic" Chase answers receiving blank looks from his colleagues
Cameron sighs and answers their unspoken question, seeing that Chase isn't going to. "The last time me and Chase had a real conversation we were locked in a clinic room together."
"What! When did this happen?" Foreman asks a little hurt that Chase has never told him.
Judging by the amused and apathetic expression on House's face Chase assumes that he already knew about his visit from Cameron. If House knows about that he probably knows what happened afterwards too.
"I dunno some time when the hospital got locked down" Chase says wearily.
"I think the question you need to be asking is what they did with all the time they had together in a locked room." They take no notice of House's remark that has just confirmed Chase's fears.
"I'm friends with both of you, why didn't I know this?" Thirteen asks exasperated and unfazed by House's interruption.
Nobody speaks but Cameron and Chase can both tell that they want to know about what happened between them.
"It wasn't very interesting- I was a bitch." As Cameron speaks she catches Chase's eye and the reluctant smile that goes with it. Neither of them wants to relive that day, their final goodbye, especially not like this- not to please House and his petty games.
"Sorry to interrupt the gossiping but we're stuck in here. So what are we going to do about it? Taub reminds them of their current situation.
After several failed escape attempts and many 'witty' comments from House they are all still trapped in the increasingly claustrophobic room. Taub and Foreman have taken to sitting on the floor, while Thirteen lies next to Cameron on her bed. House has started leaning against the wall, after pacing caused too much pain to his leg. Cameron's bed is closest to the window and Chase's to the door. Both stare at their prospective escape routes in silence. Chase had been glad to be positioned next to the door- he always liked to have a chance to run away from a situation- but in their current predicament he would happily climb out the window to get away from the room and the suffocating tension that fills it. Every one of them has given up- resigned into silence, but the look of glee in House's eye suggests that that is going to change.
"Let's play a game" He exclaims in mock excitement.
"What are you? Five?" Cameron wants to scream or throw something at him.
"Truth or Dare. You go first." He smiles at her and she growls in frustration. Foreman rolls his eyes and Thirteen shoots him a warning look but nobody does anything to stop him. When she doesn't respond he carries on.
"Ok, Truth. Was Chase the best you ever had?" He asks it innocently which only adds to Cameron's aggravation.
"House!" Chase half chokes, half shouts it at him.
"Fine different game, since that one went down so well. Do you know what she told me when she said she was leaving? When she told me she was leaving before she told you." House addresses Chase and adds the last sentence just to provoke Him, using his earlier words to get a rise out of him. Chase has spent too much time around House to be able to let things go. He will bite. He doesn't say anything but House can see the temptation in his eyes.
"She said 'I love you'" The disbelieving expressions on the other occupants of the room only add to House's fun.
"LOVED, past tense." Cameron defends herself "And it was quickly followed by 'I was an idiot'"
"And proceeded by you leaving the wombat" House was speaking in a sing-song voice and Foreman wondered briefly if Chase was going to hit him again, the look on the Australian's face didn't do anything to discourage that idea, the thought had obviously crossed House's mind as well because he shuffled away from Chase's bed, not that that would have helped had Chase really wanted to hurt him.
Cameron suddenly began laughing, not bitter or angry anymore, she was in near hysterics and once again Chase was reminded of her mood swings.
"How exactly is that funny?" House was confused now, it wasn't an emotion he dealt well with feeling, he wasn't used to not understanding things.
"Everything, my whole screwed up life." Cameron managed to answer in between laughs. "I've been in love four times in my life, and not once has it lasted."
"Is anyone else failing to see the funny side of this?" Foreman looked at his co-workers hesitantly, trying to determine whether Cameron was having a breakdown- his diagnostician side kicking in.
"The first time I was in college, and he died." Cameron was still laughing and they were all a little on edge- her husband had always been a touchy subject. "I knew he was dying, and I still married him. How fucked up is that? The second I was in med school, and he was gay. It wasn't even that he realised he was gay after we got together. He knew he was gay, I knew he was gay and I still fell in love with him."
"Jeremy" Thirteen breathes quietly.
"Yeah, we're still friends- we work together, probably the one with the best ending." She calmed down a little until she snorted her next sentence.
"The third was House!" She gestures at the older man sulking in the corner.
"All I can say is: what the hell was I thinking." The hysterical laughing starts again.
"And then… you" She turns to look at Chase, he is the only one she notices, the only one she's speaking to and the laughing has stopped once more.
"I didn't even want to be in love with you, not at first, but I was. You were perfect, you were the guy that little girls are constantly told doesn't exist: sweet and romantic and smart and completely in love with me. You were perfect, and I managed to screw that up. All the others... there shouldn't have been any others, but I wanted them so badly, none of it was my fault, but I screwed up our relationship and I don't know why. I have no rational reason for it. God I'm such a masochist." The laughter begins again.
Reviews are loved, even if it's just to tell me I ended it in a stupid place. But don't be too harsh :)