The next day went by without any irregularities. Cameron tried to avoid House as much as possible, which was quite easy since he was doing clinic hours.

It was almost 5 o'clock when she finally got out of the conference room, to pick up Joe to get him home. Cameron had switched her shift with Chase two days before so she would have all evening with Joe. Another on the plus side was that she would not be here when House would get back in an hour.

She was able to quickly grabbed her stuff for the weekend and hurried to the elevator. When she walked around the corner, she saw Chase coming in from the stairs. His face made her stop in the middle of her steps.

"I am so sorry, Cameron. Thomson just called; I need to cover the pit. There was a major car crash at the interstate. I was just on my way to tell you," he gave her a friendly, but sorry smile.

Cameron sighed, and then looked back to the office,

"Is Foreman still around?"

"Uh, no. I think he left early today, he said something about a family emergency. Sorry; Cameron," he looked at her, uneasy.

But Cameron waved it away,

"Nah, that is not your fault. I'll figure something out."

"Well, this might be insane, but since House is still down in the clinic for another hour …,"he trailed off, smiled at her and then went back to the emergency room.

Cameron sighed out loud. It was insane to ask House to take over for her, even if it just would be for two or three hours. But what other choice did she have?

She found House standing at the nurse station, a lollipop in his mouth, preoccupied with a folder.

"Dr.House?"

"Dr. Cameron?" he teased, not looking up from his folder, which she now saw was actually a magazine on top of it.

She looked at him, hesitating.

"Are you just going to stand there and watch me read a magazine?" now he glanced at her from the corner of his eye, grinning slightly.

"I wanted to ask you for a favour," she suddenly burst out before she could even think about it.

"Oh, yes please." now he looked up and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Could you take over the on-call duty for me? It would only be for 2 or 3 hours," she looked at him with a mixture of anxiety, confusion and expectation.

"Uh, no. Sorry, got a hot date tonight," with that he closed the folder, threw his magazine into the trash can next to him and then vanished into exam room one with the folder.

Cameron watched him leave.

Why did she even bother in the first place?

She bent over the counter and picked up the phone. It rang two times before he picked up.

"Joe's residence."

"Hey Joe, it's me," she smiled slightly even though he probably would not notice.

"Oh, hey. I've got a question: Do you think I can nick some towels without Nurse Brenda noticing?"

Cameron could hear him chuckle loudly, when Cameron did not answer he continued,

"Let me guess, you'll have to stay at work?"

"I am sorry."

"I could wait in your office?" he offered, his voice soft.

"No, I am on call; I will have to stay here all night."

"Oh, okay."

She could hear him smile over the phone and it made her even sadder.

"I am so sorry, Joe."

"Ally, it is okay. It is not your fault. And even though I would prefer being driven home by a

gorgeous doctor, I think a cab'll do it."

Now she had to laugh.

"I could grab some coffee when I am done, and instead of a dinner we could have breakfast," she offered.

"Sounds great, Ally."

She caught herself smiling again, like so many times in the last couple of days. She had missed this feeling.

"You're going to call me when you are home, okay?"

Joe chuckled again at the other end of the line and then she hung up.

------

She had decided to do some paperwork until she was needed, so she sat down behind the table with a mug of hot coffee and put the two beepers right next to the stack of folders.

It wasn't exactly in her description of job to do her boss' work but she did not mind doing it, especially when she could kill some time with it.

It was about an hour later when her stomach started to rumble, and since she hadn't eaten in a while and had still some ahead of her she decided to get something before the cafeteria closed.

Quickly grabbing some money and the beepers she headed downstairs.

At the cafeteria she got the last salad, also two apples and a coffee. She paid, put everything in a paper bag and was about to go back when she spotted the head of Oncology on a table in the far end corner, surrounded by a rather large pile of blue administration folders.

She took her food and went over.

"Wilson, hey."

"Oh, Dr Cameron. Still here?" he had looked up at her with his dark-brown eyes.

"I am on call," she said and as if on command one of her beepers started to vibrate.

'I am home. Can not wait for breakfast. Joe.' It read.

She did not notice that she was smiling until she saw Wilson curiously looking at her.

While she quickly put it away her glance felt on the backpack on the chair across from Wilson.

"Is that House's?" she slowly asked.

"Yeah. Uhm, do you …"

"I am gone for two minutes and here you are, flirting with …"

Cameron turned around and saw House limping over to them, and when he saw who was in front of him, his mouth turned into a slight smirk.

Cameron just stared at him.

"Dr Cameron, are you joining us for dinner?" House said his face sporting a smug grin, sitting down on the chair in front of her forcing her to step back.

"That is your hot date?" she started, still looking at him.

"First of all, 'it' is a 'he' and then … you have no idea how hot it can be to be with Wilson," he said winking at his friend. Wilson just responded with a disgusted look.

Cameron inhaled slow and deep, trying to not let her anger take over. It was futile, she realized when she looked back at him.

When House looked back from Wilson to Cameron, he saw her eyes piercing him. They were sparkling with anger.

"I can't believe you."

House sighed exasperated, but not letting go of her eyes, "Oh, here we go," he mumbled.

"You are unbelievable. All I was asking for were two or three hours. And …" she trailed off, looking at him.

At this moment, he could see her surrender. The anger in her eyes was replaced by a blank expression he could not read.

They looked at each other for a few more moments, and then she turned on her heels and walked out.

"What was that all about?" Wilson ripped him out of his thoughts.

"Nothing," House mumbled and started to fiddle with his cane.

"Didn't look like nothing."

When House did not respond Wilson added, "Whatever you did … "

"What makes you think I did something?"

"Whatever you did to her, and I am sure it has something to do with her friend, you should bring her the food she left, because of you."

House followed Wilson's finger which was pointing to the bag behind him.

House stared at the brown paper bag for a moment, as if it would be some kind of strange alien then looked at Wilson,

"You are annoying. Do it yourself. I got to go."

With that he got up, took his backpack and limbed out of the cafeteria towards the elevators.

Ten minutes later Wilson found himself entering the Diagnostics conference room, carrying a bunch of folders in his one hand and the food bag in the other one. The table was stuffed with manila folders, patient charts, and Cameron was sitting at the other end. She had propped up her feet on the table listening to music on her iPod.

Wilson put down his folders it was only then she noticed that someone else was in the room, it almost made her jump up on her feet.

When she pulled out her earphones, he could hear she was listening to heavy metal. The music for angry people. The music for people who had to deal with House on a daily basis.

"Sorry. Uh, you forgot this when you … "

"Oh, thank you" She said taking the bag from him.

When she stood in front of him he noticed how small she was without her high heels. But looking her into the eyes he knew she was anything but petite and defenceless. She was nothing like she had been when she came to PPTH.

"So, what did he do this time?" he carefully started.

She took a deep breath and smiled softly, "Just House … being House."

When Wilson gave her a questioning look she quickly added, "I don't want to talk about it."

"Wow. It must have been something really bastard-like."

She turned back to him, frowning.

Wilson gave her a friendly smile, "Well, usually you are the one to keep up with him. You contradict House whenever you think he does something wrong or pisses you off …" he stepped neared, "… and ten minutes ago, you just gave up."

"Can you blame me?" her voice sounding sad and exhausted.

"No. Not at all," he laughed humourlessly.

"May I ask why now?"

"I don't know. Maybe I am just tired of this. Of him," she shrugged.

Wilson watched her for a moment, she did look tired. Not physically, but emotionally tired and he was sure it wasn't just because she was a doctor. He picked up his folders and turned to leave the room.

"Dr Wilson?"

He turned around before he stepped out of the room.

"Thanks."

Cameron smiled at him, not sure though if she thanked him for the food or for the talk.

She watched him leaving, there was something about him. She did not know what it was, but there was a strong connection to him, she had felt it every time she had talked to him about personal things.

When Wilson entered his office, he sighed, slumping down in his chair.

It did not take a shrink to figure out what was going on here. If House would not stop acting like this, he surely would loose his female fellow in a not so distant future. She hadn't given up completely yet, but Wilson was sure it would not take much for her anymore.

Cameron sat on Joe's couch, her knees pulled up under herself while he was taking care of the dishes. His apartment was small, but with the view over the river from the living room it was also really comfortable. It had been a wonderful morning, after she had left the hospital. She had gotten them breakfast and they had spent the whole last hour just laughing and talking.

Now a wave of sleep washed through her body and she yawned loudly.

Last night had been a calm night, fortunately. And though when she leaned back and closed her eyes, it was all it took to fall asleep.

A loud ring pulled her out of sleep, to what seemed just a few seconds later. Though the clock on the wall told her that it had been two hours; she looked around but she was alone in the living room, the only sound coming from her cell phone.

She fiddled it out of the bag, the caller ID showing her that it was the hospital.

"Yeah," she answered her voice gruff and sleepy.

"It's Chase. I know you were on call last night, but we got a case and Cuddy wants you in."

Cameron sighed, closed her eyes.

"Give me half an hour," she said. After she hung up she noticed Joe standing next to her,

"Going back to the hospital?"

"Yeah," she slowly pulled some strands of hair out of her face.

He came nearer while she put her phone back into her bag.

"I should go and get changed," She said while grabbing her stuff

"Yeah, sure."

She felt Joe putting his hand on her arm, "Ally, wait," he said soft and almost inaudible.

When she looked up at him, she felt Joe's hand moving down her arm. He closed the gap between them and then his lips touched hers for the briefest moment.

But before she could even react he stepped back and smiled at her.

At this moment she realized that Joe had pulled something out of her, she'd thought was long gone.

The feeling of happiness.

That was when she started to smile, too.

So, what do you think?
Oh, and I got a small problem which I did not even know I had before I watched Spin again.
That guy had the same disease I wanted to include in my next chapter, but I totally forgot about that when I wrote it. I had it all worked out and now I need to start all over again. sighs
Well, not your problem, right ;) Unfortunately I have an exam coming up on thursday so I won't be able to finish the next one until the weekend.