A Rush Of Blood To The Head – Chapter IX

"Do you do this a lot?"

Alex leaned up against the wall of a small house. It was night time. Meredith was standing on the small path leading up to the house, glancing nervously from side to side, looking for anyone who may be watching. Foreman took out his credit card from his wallet and went to the door. "You won't believe how many times I've done this. I've actually considered a life of crime, but there would be no point in having a medical degree. Or even a high school diploma."

Foreman started trying to open the lock. Meredith moved from her place on look out to under the porch where Alex sitting down on a seat, huddling in the cold. Meredith sat down next to him. "Are you ok?"

Alex blew on his hands. "Yeah I'm fine. Seriously." He looked up at Foreman who was still having trouble with the lock. "Dude, you right there?"

Foreman put down his credit card. "Yeah, it just takes a while. Hey, you don't have a hair-pin I could use?"

Meredith took out a hair-pin and gave it to Foreman. Leaning back into the seat she sighed. "You know, you can tell me what's up."

"What, between the messed up scary and damaged people?" Alex scoffed.

"Yeah." She said sincerely.

Alex looked down at his feet and then up again. "A month ago she was swooning over a living corpse who was too weak to wipe his own ass. Now she's got that Australian guy…" Foreman smiled to himself quietly "…and I can't stop thinking about her. She's not my girlfriend. I know that. But I hate it."

Meredith looked at him sadly and laid her hand on his back. Foreman opened the door. "Ok! Come on, before the neighbours called the police."

Alex got up and walked in the house. "Has that ever happened before?"

Foreman had already started to tap the walls. "A couple of times. Meredith, go and check for chemicals, anything that might hint to a termite problem. Alex, check out for drugs, he might be overdosing on rat poison for all we know. And I'll just, knock on wood."

Meredith started looking through the kitchen cabinet under the sink. "She's just trying to get over Denny," she yelled out from the cabinet. "Looking for a quick fix. Trust me, I know the feeling. Who keeps an old shoe under the sink?"

Alex was looking through the bathroom. "She's not like you. Anyway, if she wants a quick fix it's almost always me." Alex thought of the time with the bomb.

Meredith was still looking through the copious amounts of chemicals under the sink. "Well, if the sprays are anything to judge with, this guys got every single insect imaginable living in this house." She stood up. "Maybe she doesn't think of you that way any more. You were practically a knight in shining armour at the prom."

Alex got up from the toilet and looked at Meredith through the doors. "It's not like that. And it's fine, you know. I want her to be over me. I want me to be over her. But I just can't. That's what pisses me off."

Foreman was still tapping on the walls. "Sounds like someone I know." He jutted in, thinking of Cameron. He stood up from listening to the wall. "Ok, does anyone know how to listen to termites? This is ridiculous, it's not even naphthalene poisoning. House just wants to piss me off."

Meredith walked up to him in the hallway, chemical bottles in hand. "Sounds like he does that a lot. So, it's either ant poisoning or cockroach infection 'cos it ain't termites. Not a single deterrent for them in this house."

Alex came in and leaned on the door frame. "Well, it isn't drugs. The dude's got serious load of nicotine gum but diarrhoea's not one of his symptoms."

Foreman sighed. "Well, that was a complete waste of time, come on, we may as well go home."

Suddenly all three pagers went off.

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Chase walked up to the bar.

"Could I have a glass of dry white wine and a schooner of your best beer thanks."

Joe looked up at the new customer. "Schooner?"

Chase realised what he said. "I mean pint, the big one. Sorry, mental blank."

Joe started to pour the wine. "Don't worry 'bout it." He looked over the counter to see Izzie sitting at a table on the other side of the room. "You with Izzie?"

Chase looked up from the peanut he was cracking. "Ah, yeah. Why?"

Joe put the two drinks down on the bar. "Just look out for her."

Chase put down a his money, picked up the drinks and walked to Izzie. "Your dry white wine, Madame."

Izzie reached out for her drink. "Why thank you!" Izzie took a sip of her drink and smiled at Chase who was now sitting down next to her. "So tell me, what makes a hot Australian leave his down under."

Chase smiled. "So you think I'm hot?"

"Does it matter what I think?"

"Aw, yeah. I reckon it does."

Izzie smiled. "No seriously. What are you doing here working for House?"

Chase looked down at his beer. "You don't want to know..."

"I do!"

"It's far too early in the night for this. Wait till I'm in the mood for scotch."

Izzie put her drink down and moved her hand onto Chase's. "You can tell me."

"My mum drank. A lot. My dad, he was a famous doctor. He wrote... a text book. But he left. And then when my mum died I couldn't stay in Australia. I just had to get out. Which I did. But then my dad came to see me, he didn't tell me he had cancer. And now he's dead too." Chase took a slug of his beer and then tried to smile. "What kind of date is this? Me telling you about my completely screwed up life."

Izzie smiled warmly. "I don't know. But it's nice. To listen to you. To know I'm not the only one."

Chase looked up at her quizzically. "A tad sadistic don't you think?"

Izzie laughed into her wine. "Yeah, maybe it is. But it's been nice. Hanging out with you today."

"But it probably will end soon. House'll figure out what's wrong with the guy and I'll head back to Princeton-Plainsburough."

Izzie looked at Chase. "Yeah... let's not think about that just yet." They smiled at each other.

Suddenly a beeping noise emulated from their bags. Someone was paging them.

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Cameron waited outside at the main entrance of the hotel. Hands in her jacket pockets, she wondered how long House was going to take. He said he'd meet her out here at eight. It was ten past eight and there was still no sight of him. Maybe he was joking. His way of seeing if she was over him. She looked back to the elevators inside the foyer, waiting for one of them to open and reveal House. Suddenly there was a low grumbling behind her. She turned around to see what it was. There was House, sitting on his hired-out motorbike in the middle of the valet entrance road. "House..." Cameron sighed.

Walking up to the bike House threw Cameron a helmet. "Jump on!"

Cameron stood there with the helmet. "No way. The last time I rode with you I thought I should start writing my will early."
House revved up the bike. "Aw, come on, I know you want to! Or are you dogging me again?"

Cameron glared jokingly at House and put the helmet on. House revved up his bike once more as Cameron jumped on behind him and put her arms around him. Smiling, House took off out of the drive through area and down the road.

After an exhilarating ride, House turned off one of the main roads and went down a winding track through the trees. Cameron looked through the forest, wondering how a city like Seattle could be so close to the bush. "House, where are we going?" Cameron yelled over the engine.

House smiled. "Now if I told you it wouldn't be a surprise, would it?"

Cameron's stomach started to tighten as she bit her lip and smiled. After a while, they came to a clearing. House went off the road and rode over some of the grass slowly, moving away from the road. Coming to the sight of the lake House stopped and turned off the motor. Cameron got off the bike and walked down to the water, looking to the side where she could see the Seattle sky-line emerge from the trees. "It's beautiful." Cameron blurted out.

House looked up from the bike. "Yeah, I've seen better. Here." House chucked Cameron a small plastic container. In it was a small pile of pancakes.

"You have Wilson's pancakes?"

House picked up his cane and moved down to the water. "He's very good." House smiled. "Should have told him to come. He would have loved this here."

Cameron smiled. "Sometimes I swear you two are married. If you weren't straight I'd swear you'd make the perfect couple."

House moved to the big rock which protruded out of the grassy knoll. "Who say's I'm straight?" House sat down. "Don't worry, you have no competition."

Cameron was taken aback. What did House say? "Competition?"

House had opened up Wilson's pecan salad and was already eating it. Cameron moved to the rock and sat down. House looked up and grabbed the pancakes off her. "Hey!" She smiled.

Suddenly Cameron's pager went off. House stopped smiling.

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Christina opened the apartment door and threw her bag to the wall. Closing the door she looked up at Burke, now lying on the coach with his eyes closed, listening to Miles Davis. Christina walked to the kitchen and got herself a beer. Opening it she took a swig and looked at Burke again. His eyes were still closed. Christina looked in the fridge for food. "Hey, did you make dinner?" Burke didn't answer. Christina looked up from the fridge. "Burke?" Still no answer. She put down her beer on the mantle, went up to the record player and turned it off.

Burke opened his eyes. "Hey, I was listening to that."

"Yeah, well, I was asking you a question. Did you make dinner?"

"No, I bought dinner. And I had it. Now can you put the record on?"

Christina looked dumbfounded. "No. I will not put it back on, until you tell me what's been going on lately."

Burke shut his eyes and then got up. "I'm going to go to bed..."

"No. Burke, what's wrong. First you don't want to go back to surgery, now you're getting consults..."

"He's very good."

"I'm sure he is. But you're ignoring me."

"I'm not."

"You are!" Christina sighed. "I wake up in the morning and I don't get a good bye, I see you at work and you don't say hello, and then I come home and you just listen to your records and ignore everything I say. All the time! What do I have to do?"

"You think I want to be like this?" Burke started to breathe deeply. "I got shot! I have lost 80 of my hand function and I'm still not improving. Surgery is my life. Without it, I have nothing. You don't understand that, you pretend it's alright but its not. I am not fine!"

"But I'm trying to help! You think I'm doing all this for me?" Christina looked disgusted. "I hate doing this. I live under the fear each day that someone will discover what we're doing, and when they do... well, who knows what will happen? I they find out I will lose my job. My life. You think I'm doing this for me? I hate this! But it helps you, and that's all that matters. But you go on and on about how you don't want to do this and how I'm forcing you into things but I'm not! I want you to be happy! And I'm trying my hardest but that doesn't seem to be enough for you? Because you're asking for consults, and you're listening to jazz. But I love you. What the hell is the matter with you that you won't just let me?"

Burke was taken aback. There was a silence. "You've never said that to me... before."

Christina walked to the bedroom and opened the door. "Yeah, well, deal with it." She slammed the door.

Burke stood there in the silence. He smiled. So she did love him.

Suddenly a harsh noise broke the silence. Their pagers were beeping.

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NB: Wow! They're all so popular! (with the pagers, and all...) ok, so that was my attempt at a long chapter. I think I may have succeeded. I'll just finish with some notes: To the person who complemented my spelling: why thank you, trust me, you are the first person to ever complement my spelling. EVER. But I guess that's all the notes I have to say. Hmm, was thinking I had more. Oh well, what a sad life I live. But you know what would make it less sad? That's right: REVIEWS!!!! There is a amazing difference between the number of people who read this to the number of people who review, so to all those bludgers out there: I'm on to you! That's right! You there, sitting on the computer, procrastinating and waiting for thus day (or Tuesday) to come. If you want something... blah. Oh stuff it just review! Please! Feel good and make someone happy.

Ok, I've seriously got to shut up now. I'll stop talking, but a long story needs a long NB! I think. Right, I'll stop.