CHAPTER SEVENTEEN – Love Makes One Do Stupid Things

"'I think I care about her…I think I CARE about her?!' What the HELL did I say that for?" House asked as the two men sat in his office earlier that evening eating dinner; everyone else had gone home for the night, except Wilson, of course.

Wilson felt his friend didn't want to leave the hospital because of Kathi, and although he was never asked to, decided to stay with him. It wasn't like he had anything else better to do anyway.

"House, you won't die if you care about someone," Wilson said in between bites of his Kung Pao chicken.

House stuck his tongue out at his friend and threw a packet of duck sauce at him. "Let's see what Confuscious say."

He unwrapped a fortune cookie and scoffed as he read it before throwing that, too, at Wilson. He picked it up out of curiosity. "'The one you love is closer than you think,'" Wilson read out loud then proceeded to laugh so hard he spat out some rice. "I am never eating Chinese with you again!"

House smiled and laughed. "Trust me, you are not my type. What does yours say?"

"Oh, I never read it until I'm finished eating. Bad fung shei."

House impatiently reached over for the second cookie, unwrapped then read it to himself. "Well, it's inevitable. You and I are destined to live together forever. I sooo love you, Jimmy!"

"Oh, god. What did it say?"

"'People are attracted by your delicate features.' You are quite handsome, you know," House teased.

Suddenly House's pager went off. He picked it up off the desk, groaned, threw his chopsticks on his desk and left his office, leaving Wilson no reason for his leaving so abruptly.

House walked down the hall toward Kathi's room and saw Cameron standing at the large paneled glass window, wearing a forlorn expression.

"I thought you left. What's going on?"

"Her right kidney is enlarged and lost 75 of its function and her blood pressure hasn't gone below 210/98, meds aren't helping. There's bile in her urine and her temp is 102.9. It doesn't look good. She'll be in renal failure soon."

"Get her on analysis." House asked out of genuine concern. Cameron nodded her head and walked down the hall for the machine.

House sighed heavily and entered the room. He stood at the end of her bed and looked at her.

'The first woman I've met who is somewhat interesting and she may die. This is why I don't get involved with women.'

Kathi turned her head slightly as she woke up. She looked at the foot of the bed but didn't seem to know who it was.

"Tim?"

"No, it's Greg," he simply said. He couldn't think of anything else to say.

"Hey," she said sleepily with a smile on her face.

He smiled and walked to the side of her bed, sliding down the guard rail and sitting on the bed beside her. "We're going to get you on dialysis; you're kidneys are enlarged and we need to get it functioning the way it should."

"Okay." She closed her eyes and it was quiet in the room for a few minutes. "Greg?"

"Yeah?"

"I was married once. He was in an accident at work and I decided to have him taken off life support after six months. I want that DNR thing. I don't want …"

"Wait a minute. You are far from dying, Kathi."

She opened her eyes and looked at him, reaching out for his hand and holding it tight. "Come on. You don't fool me, Greg. I have 'lying radar' and it's in high gear right now."

"Look, there are too many things that we can do …"

"I don't' care. It just hurts too much and I just want it to end. But the sad thing is that I'd hoped I'd married again, as selfish as that sounds."

House was speechless. Selfish, yes – she was selfish to want to leave someone behind that cared about her. But married to that person was a completely different story. Marriage, for what it's worth, just makes it more complicated and painful. But it was just a stupid piece of paper, wasn't it? He sure didn't need one when he and Stacy were together. But, would things have been different he they did marry after his leg incident? Who knew, and besides, Greg didn't really care. Not at the moment, anyway.

All he knew was that he had feelings for this woman and it scared the crap out of him. He wanted to be with her – go to the park, dinner, anything. He felt something when he was with her, something he never felt with Stacy.

He loved Stacy, yes. He was in love with her, yes. He loved being with her, yes. But what was so different between Stacy and Kathi? What was it about her that made him feel the way he did?

HOUSE MD HOUSE MD HOUSE MD

Soon Cameron came in with another nurse and got Kathi started on the dialysis.

"Kathi, this will put you to sleep while your blood is being cleaned through the machine. It'll take a few hours but you'll feel fine when you wake up," Cameron told her as the nurse approached with the syringe with the sedative.

"Wait…Greg…will you stay with me?" Kathi begged. House nodded his head and she smiled.

The nurse injected her with the sleep aid and she was asleep within seconds. House stayed with her the entire time, along with Cameron, who sent the other nurse out.

"House, I've never seen you so attached to a patient. I think it's sweet."

He rolled his eyes. "Let's not ruin this wonderful moment with chat, shall we?"

A few moments went by before House spoke up. "Cameron, why did you decide to marry your husband?"

"Uh, that's chat, House."

"Wow! You're quick."

The two stared at each other, neither one breaking eye contact until Cameron said, "I told you. He would have died alone if…"

"No, no. I mean, why did you really marry him? Did you love him?"

Cameron frowned. "What difference…no, why do you want to know?"

"You can't carry a conversation with a question to a question."

"I cared about him."

"But, you didn't love him?"

"I loved his sense of humor, his strength fighting the cancer, being with him. I loved him enough."

"But you weren't in love with him?"

"House, I don't…"

"Humor me."

"No."

"Yet you married him anyway, knowing he'd be dead in a few months."

"Why all this grilling? This isn't the time or place for it." Cameron's facial expression changed when it suddenly hit her. "Oh, my god. You aren't considering…but you don't even know her."

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

Sorry, I think I'm losing steam on this story! I'll take suggestions if anyone has any!!! HELP:o)