It was mid-afternoon but the hangover from the night before was still vicious, sitting behind his eyes and making his whole body ache. House sagged back into his office chair and closed his eyes. If every time he fought with Jess they were going to solve it by getting smashed, perhaps marrying her was an even stupider idea than he thought.

He couldn't believe that he'd accidentally proposed last night. The words had just slipped out of his drunken mouth. Despite the fact that her confession last night had touched him, he still wasn't sure if he was going to do it. Her betrayal over the job still bothered him. But if he did, he was going to do it properly. Maybe go back to Charlies – it seemed to be their favourite hangout – get the waiter to put the ring in her champagne glass or something cheesy like that.

If they ever drank champagne again, that was. Just the thought made his stomach flip.

The buzz of his cell phone cut into his thoughts like a sharp blade and he answered it, just to make the irritating sound stop.

"House." He rubbed his head as he answered.

"House it's Cameron. I'm not sure whether or not to bother you with this, but I just had a patient in the ER and . . . well, the paramedics said she was saying your name when they picked her up." House thought she sounded nervous. "I don't know why, there's nothing unusual about her case and we don't have a file on her here, so I don't think you've ever treated her. She's just gone up to surgery, but I thought I should call."

Suddenly House felt his body clench in fear. This was the problem about having people in your life you cared about. You jumped to conclusions, were vulnerable to being blindsided by…

"Jess?" House asked, his voice surprisingly calm.

"Yes, her name's Jessica Mitchell." Cameron was obviously surprised.

"What happened? Is she okay?" House asked, already rising and making his way to the door.

"Oh."

In that one syllable, House heard Cameron make the connections. To her credit she skipped the questions he was sure she was about to ask and got straight to business.

"Motorbike accident. A car ran a red light and she was hit."

"I'm on my way."

House hung up the phone and strode as quickly as he possibly could out of his office, ignoring the looks from his team in the conference room.

--

In the ER, House quickly located Cameron.

"She wasn't conscious when she came in and when the paramedics mentioned it I wasn't even sure if it was you she was asking for, but they said she definitely asked for 'Greg House' before she passed out. So I figured it was worth a call," Cameron explained.

He shrugged, irritated. That wasn't what he needed to know and he wasn't about to give her praise for following paramedics' advice. "The accident?" he asked bluntly. "Her injuries?"

"It wasn't Jess's fault," she explained, pulling House into a more secluded area of the chaotic ER. "From what the police told me, someone ran a red light and hit Jess as she went through the intersection. Thankfully the car wasn't going too fast, otherwise she…well." Cameron obviously thought she'd made herself clear enough without needing to say the words. "She was wearing a helmet, and there were no head or spinal injuries that we could find. But she's pretty badly injured; at least three broken ribs, a broken left tibia, some internal bleeding, probably her spleen. She had a collapsed lung when they brought her in, but we managed to fix that before she went up to surgery."

"She was riding my bike," House said quietly.

He didn't miss the puzzled look that flashed across Cameron's face at that news. But she covered it quickly and nodded. "Well, I don't know how bad the damage is to that.…"

House waved his hand, not sure how to express the fact that worrying about his motorcycle was far easier than worrying about the woman he'd woken up with just a few hours ago.

"I'll take you up to the OR," Cameron offered.

"Don't be ridiculous." House's bite was automatic, a cover for his inability to find whatever emotion it was he was supposed to be feeling at that moment. "I know where the OR is."

"Yes but…" Cameron put a hand on his arm, trying to comfort him. A trainee nurse interrupted.

"Dr Cameron?" she asked. "The police brought in Jessica Mitchell's purse." The nurse handed over a red leather purse that he recognised as Jess's. She then handed over a small plastic bag. "Her jewellery. We had to take it off before they took her up to…"

"Come on," House interrupted. He reached over and took both bags from Cameron. Looking at the plastic bag made him feel sick, a sickness nothing to do with his hangover. Jess's watch, gold bangle, necklace. Exactly why the little sapphire and diamond ring wasn't in there suddenly made no sense at all. Except it did. Its absence mocked him.

You really thought you could be happy?