It was late Wednesday afternoon and Cameron was waiting at the reception for Dr. Anna Stevens, the new immunologist who would replace her in House's team.

They had just found her last week and after House would not agree to do any interviews himself, she had started to look out for a replacement herself. And last Friday they had interviewed Dr. Stevens, and from the first moment on, Cameron was sure that she would handle House easily.

"Dr. Cameron?" the blonde woman walked up to her from Cuddy's office where she'd just signed all necessary papers. She was wearing a pinstriped pants suit and was carrying a brown leather suitcase. Her long blonde hair was held together in a ponytail at the back of her head, and her brown eyes were surrounded by black eyeliner. She was in her early-thirties and this would be her third fellowship.

"Dr. Stevens, welcome at PPTH," she shook hands with the woman and smiled.

They had agreed to introduce her to the others and House today, and maybe get her used to the daily work around here, before Cameron would leave on Monday.

"So, you ready?" Cameron asked her.

"Let's face the devil," Anna nodded grinning and followed Cameron.

Cameron watched her from the corner of her eye; Anna was extremely beautiful, intelligent and had the right amount of humour to be able to handle House. Nevertheless she was a bit nervous because House was still acting like nothing would change, like she would not leave at all. But she was; she would have her last day on Monday in one week, then Joe would come pick her up and they would drive to Yale and get settled, and on Monday in two weeks she would sign her new contract.

"How complicated is he?"

Cameron turned around to Anna and frowned, not sure what she was talking about.

"Dr. House. I am not naive, he's a legend and all but I also heard that he can get quite complicated," she grinned.

"Well, you'll find that he is indeed one of the best doctors you can find," Cameron tried to avoid the real question to not scare her off so fast.

"Is that a 'yes, he is a jerk'?" Anna laughed when Cameron just gave her a look.

"That is what I thought," she added as the doors of the elevator slid open getting out while Cameron tried to hide a smile.

They entered the conference room, and found Chase sitting at the table trying to solve one of his crossword puzzles.

"Chase? This is Anna Stevens," Cameron introduced while Chase got up and offered his hand.

"You can call me Anna," she took the hand smiling.

"Anna, I am Robert Chase. Nice to meet you."

Cameron watched the two smiling at each other. Maybe this whole thing was good for more than one person after all.

"I'll be right back," she said going over to House's office walking straight inside.

She found House hanging over his computer, reading something Cameron could not identify.

"House?" she asked carefully.

"What?" he snapped back not looking up.

Cameron hesitated; he was in an even worse mood than usual today.

"Is this some kind of game where I am supposed to guess why you are in here?" he mumbled turning around to face her.

Cameron's frown turned into a slight smile, "We got a case."

Then she turned on her heels swaying her hips with a bit more purpose as she left.

House watched her leaving his office as fast as she'd appeared.

Something was weird about her today.

He sighed, finally getting up limping to the conference room, where he found Chase and a blonde woman talking.

"Where is the black one?" he said quite loudly so Chase and his girlfriend would notice him.

"Dr. House, nice of you to come out to say hello to your new employee Dr. Anna Stevens," he heard Cameron saying from his left leaning against the glass wall to his office.

The blonde woman walked towards them, offering him her hand, smiling friendly.

House immediately turned around; trying to get back into his office, but Cameron was in his way, blocking the escape route to his door.

She was grinning at him.

"Would you, please?" House raised his eyebrows expecting but Cameron did not move at all, instead she looked at him, her eyes showing her determination and the smug grin still on her face.

She knew him way too well.

So he stepped nearer, their bodies nearly touching, his face now only inches away from hers.

House stared down into her eyes for the longest moment before he started, "Get out of my way."

His voice was a low rustle, almost inaudible only loud enough so Cameron would be able to hear. But it didn't have the effect he planned; Cameron didn't waver, instead she stared back, her eyes showing a determination he hadn't seen in a while.

They stared at each other for some time until they were interrupted by a female voice,

"Dr. House?"

House slowly turned around seeing the woman standing in front of him, a huge smile all over her face, offering her hand again.

"It is a big honour to finally meet you."

House looked at her for a little bit longer, sighing he took her hand.

"Nice to meet you Dr. Stevens," he said with a friendly face, a bit exaggerated going unnoticed by Anna.

"Please call me Anna,"

"Right," he said his smile vanishing as he turned back to Cameron who was still standing guard in front of his door.

"Satisfied? Can I go now?"

Now a huge smile appeared on Cameron's face and she slowly stepped aside.

House slumped down in his chair, mumbling.

'What was that? How the hell did Cameron manage to become such a calculating woman? Did she take lessons at Cuddy?'

The thought of Anna replacing Cameron, he avoided.

Of course he knew Cameron would leave, she was too stubborn to not do it. But somehow he actually believed that if he would not accept it, she would stay.

Of course he knew that was stupid. Admitting it was the hard part for Gregory House.

Whether it was a good thing after all would probably depend on the point of view. But when Cameron entered Cuddy's office the next day at around noon, she was sure it wasn't a good thing. At that time she did not know that this was the day everything in her life started to turn upside down.

"House fired Dr. Stevens this morning," Cuddy started sighed exhausted.

"What happened?"

"That is what I want to know. Dr. Stevens came to me at nine this morning, telling me that she had been in the conference room when House came in and started yelling at her, then just said she was fired,"

"Did you talk to him yet?"

"I tried, he didn't even react when I threatened to up his clinic hours for the month. And then I thought Dr. Wilson could talk to him, but he won't be back until later today," Cuddy said her voice showing definite traces of exhaustion.

"Do you want me to talk to him?"

Cuddy nodded wearily but managed to smile at Cameron as she got up from the chair and left the office.

Cameron leaned against the back wall of the elevator sighing. Of course she should've expected something like this to happen. This was so House-like.

After their personal encounter yesterday she wasn't so sure what to expect.

Him staring at her like this had brought up feelings she had thought were long gone. No, she was over him, but the way he looked at her, the way he had challenged her to move out of his way … there was something about it.

House was working on some electronic device when she entered the room. He quickly put down his glasses and leaned back, trying to hide a slight smile dancing around the corners of his mouth.

"Why did you fire her?"

"She made crappy coffee," he grimaced looking at her.

"You're kidding?"

"Nope."

"House," Cameron's eyes were filled with sadness as she looked at him, disappointed.

"What? I'm okay with how things are right now," he said shrugging.

"She is a very good doctor," Cameron tried again, but House did not respond. Instead he looked at her curiously.

"I'll be gone by next Tuesday, House. And you've probably scared off the best applicant you could've gotten,"

"Don't care,"

Cameron looked at him silently, trying to figure out what he was thinking.

"Yeah, me neither. I tried to help you, which was obviously totally stupid of me, since I should've known you wouldn't care,"

"I didn't ask for help," he said slowly rising from his chair, walking around his desk stopping a few steps in front of her.

Cameron scoffed quietly, lowering her face to fiddle with her sleeve.

"Well, guess what: Sometimes people do something in order to help others, it is called 'being nice'. Oh wait, right, you've probably never heard of that before,"

"Oh, snap. That hurts," he grimaced again and wiped an imaginary tear away from his cheek.

"You know, just forget it. I'm tired of doing this all over again."

Cameron looked at him, her eyes full of sadness and resignation. She turned around to leave, once again she felt House fingers grabbing her arm, holding her back.

This time she didn't turn around, didn't look into his deep blue eyes, not giving him a reason to look at her in this degrading way.

She would just wait for him to let her go.

He didn't.

"Cameron," he whispered quietly.

She squeezed her eyes shut trying to force herself out of his grip, but she failed. She failed completely, because next thing she knew, she was looking into his eyes.

And what she saw made her gasp.

There was something inside his look, something she had rarely seen before.

For just an instant his eyes were telling her everything, everything she always wanted to know about him. Just the whole truth about Gregory House.

She wanted to say something but he pulled her nearer, their bodies once again only inches apart. They were so close she could feel his breath tickling her skin almost burning it.

About to open her mouth to ask him what he was doing she was stopped by his grip tightening. He wasn't hurting her but the tension in his grip was undeniable.

She almost forgot to breath.

Then he pressed his lips onto hers.