A/N: Thank you for all your lovely comments. I am really not sure about this one, so tell me what you think.
It was almost eleven when House arrived at the hospital two days later.
He had spent the whole night after leaving the hospital walking around in his apartment and finally being able to fall asleep at 4 am, his leg was finally starting to hurt less or it was the half bottle of Vicodin he had taken.
Stepping inside the building he cursed himself for not taking the back entrance, of course Cuddy would be here, waiting for him to give him shit.
"Nice of you to show up eventually," she did not disappoint him, giving him one of her 'I-am-serious'- looks.
House just limped passed her seeing his escape via the elevators, decreasing his pace slightly.
"It is eleven, House. You might get away with a lot around here, but there is a line even you should not cross," her voice had started to take on a warning tone, House usually just responded to with an insulting remark about her breasts. But today, he just wanted to get to his office, and have a nap.
"And you really should … ," she looked at him, when he stepped into the elevator.
"What?" House gave up unnerved.
"You okay?"
"Sure," House pushed the button and Cuddy quickly got into the elevator.
"So, you are just not in the mood for a sarcastic remark about my outfit today?" Cuddy looked at him suspiciously.
On that House just shrugged and looked down. Cuddy watched him for a moment, then decided to leave him be for now. The elevator signalled its arrival and when House got out of the elevator, she just watched him walk to his office.
"Please, try to be in before 10 am from now on," she said but wasn't sure if he heard it, then the door closed.
House did not even bother to check if anyone was in the conference room before heading straight to his office. Once inside he closed all the blinds, turned on his iPod, selected the most appropriate band for his mood; ACDC, cranking it up as loud as he could to annoy everyone around but not as loud as it would give him a headache.
Leaning back in his chair he hoped the music also would tip everyone off to leave him alone; to let him dwell in his loneliness. He dry swallowed three pills at once, propped his legs up on the table and started to drift off.
Cameron was sitting at her desk, going through the mail, House's mail. The music had been on for over an hour now, and of course she heard it. But somehow it did not bother her at all. She even caught herself humming along every once in a while.
She was having a really good day so far, and she wondered if by her being in a good mood, someone, namely House, would have to have the exact contrary to balance it out.
Chase came in shortly after, followed by Foreman and threw a folder in front of her on the desk. Cameron looked up at him, giving him a questioning look.
"We got a case." Chase said, as he sat down at the table while Foreman poured himself a coffee. Cameron flipped the folder open.
"We think you should tell House," Foreman said, taking a sip of the dark brown fluid.
Cameron looked over the edge of her glasses, frowning.
"Well, you are the person least likely to get killed," Foreman shrugged.
"He already threw something after me, when I tried to talk to him about a patient half an hour ago," Chase said, half grinning.
Cameron scoffed and slowly got up, throwing the folder back on the conference table so it half hit Chase's arm. Then she walked around her desk and wanted to knock, but then went right in, since House probably wouldn't have heard it anyway.
"House? We got a case," her eyes tried to get used to the dark in the office, the only light coming from the conference room. He was sitting behind his chair, leaning back and his eyes closed, the constant rhythm of his chest rising told her that he was asleep so she stepped nearer. After she had turned off the music, she looked at him. He seemed so peaceful when he was asleep, like nothing bad had ever happened to him.
"House?" she slightly touched his shoulder with her hand. On hearing her voice his eyes shut open and he looked around confused, his eyes locked with hers. A long moment passed between them.
"We got a case."
House looked at her for a little longer and then nodded shortly and followed her to the conference room.
Two hours later House was just coming back from the cafeteria, after he had been offered a coffee by Wilson, unintentionally. Pushed the button of the elevator he saw Cameron walking towards the patients rooms; since their current patient was in the ICU, waiting for the test results she was supposed to do with Foreman and Chase, he figured she was on her way to this … Joe.
House couldn't tell why he was so irritated by her behaviour; that she neglected her duties of treating patients, everyone knew he should be the last one to judge such behaviour; and yet, he did. He still was her boss after all.
So when he got back to the conference room, he found Chase reading a medical journal or a comic, House could not really tell.
"What is going on here? The three of you are supposed to do the tests and yet Cameron is making googly eyes at her friend and you are sitting here … reading," House pointed on the magazine in front of Chase.
"Foreman is waiting for the results in the lab. I was called for a consult at the NICU."
"NICU? Miss your kangaroos that much, mate?" House said in the best Australian accent he could manage. Chase gave him a disgusted look.
"Get Cameron here. Tell her it is an emergency." House said and vanished into his office.
Five minutes later the door of his office flew open and Cameron came in, taking fast deep breaths.
"What is going on? Chase told me you said there was an emergency."
House now turned around in his chair, having a hard time not bursting out in laughter at this picture.
"Come again?"
"You had me paged. And Chase said the results are not back yet, so what is going on?"
Now House heard a slight hint of annoyance in her voice.
"Oh, yeah. Uh … I need you to call those guys who wrote me this letter," he said, handing her a sheet of paper and watched her while she read it. Her look turned from confusion to blank and finally to anger.
"Your phone bill? That is your emergency?" her voice was calm but her eyes spoke a very different language.
"Can't let those guys get away with that, can we?" he turned back to his computer and started to play solitaire.
He heard her inhaling slowly,
"First. I am a doctor not your secretary. Second. This is hardly an emergency and yet you had me run through the whole hospital. And third …"
She was interrupted by Foreman who had opened the door,
"The results are here."
House got up, walked towards the door, but stopped when he reached Cameron and lowered his voice,
"I would love to hear number 3 later."
Then he went out.
Maybe this day wasn't as bad as he'd thought it would turn out to be after all.
After House had vanished into the conference room, Cameron took a few very deep sharp breaths.
"Dr. Cameron? Care to join us in here?" She could hear House yell.
She took one last breath and exhaled it slowly, trying to steady herself and then went out. She sat down at the table without looking at House.
"So what else can cause the symptoms if it is neither lupus nor … death." House said looking at the whiteboard.
Everyone threw in some more theories, which House, as usual, turned down. But Cameron remained silent most of the time, staring at House, like she would be able to infect him with a painful disease by just staring at him.
How dare him treating her like this. Of course, it wasn't the first time he'd done something like it before, but, this seemed like he had not done it to get an advantage. No, this was the first time he had done it purely to annoy her. And then the fuss he made with Joe, with not letting her treat him, he was acting like a little boy who would not share his toy with other kids.
A few hours later she was sitting in the lab across Foreman who was doing some tests. Staring at the computer, hoping it would get out the results faster. She was tired and was in need of a shower, so instead of staring at the screen she got up.
"The results will take another ten minutes so I am going to take a quick shower."
Foreman just mumbled something like a yes and turned back to his microscope.
House was highly annoyed again. The little prank with Cameron hadn't brightened up his mood at all, the patient was getting worse and Cameron was acting weird. She had never neglected her duties like this. The test results had been back half an hour ago, and now he and his two male minions sat in the conference room, without her.
So, now after they had the results from the patient and had agreed to start treatment on dengue fever, he had sent the boys off and was now on his way to find his lost fellow. Of course, he knew where he would find her. Stopping next to the door, where the blinds were closed and listened. And what he heard threw him off just yet.
Cameron was laughing. And it wasn't just little giggling or something he had heard before. No, it was the kind of rare laugh you do when you are absolutely happy, he had never heard her laugh like this.
When he noticed he had closed his eyes, he cleared his throat and then threw open the glass door and stepped inside. He saw her head turning around; the smile she was wearing was stunningly and utterly gorgeous. Her whole face was glowing, but when she realized it was him standing in front of her, it immediately faded to a small forced smile.
"Be right back," she told Joe getting up from his bed.
House forced himself to look away and stepped back outside.
"What do you think you are doing?" House stared down at her, his eyes not giving away anything.
"I was checking in on a patient," Cameron replied calmly folding her arms.
"The wrong patient"
"When the results came back, I was taking a shower. When I found the message on my beeper I called Foreman and he said they could handle it," she said, her voice still steady and calm.
House sighed, and quickly glanced at Joe inside the room, he was watching them.
"But you do know Foreman is not your boss. Because I am. What I say counts," his voice had gotten a bit louder, so he took a deep breath and continued, "and when I say you are not off the case, you are not."
"What is this really about House?"
He gave her a slightly confused look.
"The patient will respond to the treatment, Foreman said the results were definitive. And all I wanted was to take care of a patient, yet here you are, behaving like a child, claiming his toy back," she stared at him, her eyes piercing his.
House looked at her for a few moments and then scoffed, "You work for me and you do what I say. This is how the system works."
With that he turned around and left her standing outside on the hallway.
She watched him vanishing into the elevator and only then noticed that she had gritted her teeth. Taking some deep breaths, again, she slowly counted to 10 (which did not work at all).
"Was that about me?" Joe asked when she stepped back inside his room.
"No. No, that was only about him and his ego. Forget about it. Just … forget about him."
How much she wished she could just forget about him.
"… so I thought we could have some pizza tomorrow."
Why was he acting like this? He usually did not care at all if they took over other patients, even when they had a case.
"Ally?"
"What?" Cameron turned back to hi and looked at him.
"You okay?"
"Yes, sorry. What were you saying?" she sat down on his bed again and smiled brightly.
Cameron focused back on Joe.
House was not worth it. She was over him, and all she needed was to move on with her life.
Find someone else.
Joe.