Chapter 7 - Sorry
House was sat in his office. He sighed. He couldn't concentrate. The pain in his leg had been getting worse the last few days, and he knew he had been taking too much Vicodin than was healthy.
He could not get the image of one of his ducklings curled up shivering in the chair he was now sitting in. He could see her in his mind, pale and very sick, wearing nothing but a thin pair of pyjamas and a dressing gown. All he could hear was the shaky sound of her voice saying "I love you House." It played over and over in his mind as he remembered how vulnerable she had looked. He picked up the giant tennis ball and squeezed it.
Lots of thoughts were whizzing round his head. She's too young for me, but he also imagined her lying next to him in his bed; her soft body curled up against his. Why would she want a man who is old enough to be her father? "Hell," thought House, "I could be her father". He realised he knew nothing about her family other than she had a twin. House had done a lot of stuff whilst he was in the band, he was already pretty sure he had one daughter it wouldn't have surprised him if he had a few more scattered across the country. He dismissed the idea quickly, his thoughts moving to Cameron walking into the office they all shared wearing one of those little waistcoats that made her look so sexy. She didn't have Cuddy's breasts but everything else was perfect. He threw the ball against the wall.
He thought back to that day when she had kissed him. At first he couldn't believe it was happening, then the passion over took him and he kissed her back. For ten glorious seconds she was the whole of his world nothing else mattered. Then he had seen her hand slide into her pocket and pull out the empty syringe. It wasn't love or even lust she was just using his feelings to get a blood sample. Or was it? There was something there. There always had been. They had been on dates before. He knew he had been a jerk when they had gone out for that meal. He had been so harsh towards her, but deep down he knew that it had been a front, he hadn't wanted her to know how much he cared.
He would go and pay her a visit in a few moments. The fever had gone down and she was apparently awake. House had shouted at the poor nurse who was looking after her, demanding that he be paged the moment she wakes. Her fever wasn't even medically interesting, just a chest infection. His mind wondered for a second wondering if she was always going to be off work sick, removing the spleen reduced the body's ability to fight off infections before they took hold. Who cares, he thought, at least she is alive. He stood up grimacing as he put weight on his bad leg and headed to the elevator.
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House stopped just short of her room, and looked around. Why did he feel so nervous? There was no one around. He slid open the door to find Cameron asleep. There weren't any monitors hooked up to her any more. It just looked like she was sleeping. He pulled up a stool beside her bed and sat down, hooking his cane on the arm of the bed. He picked up her file from the bottom of the bed and looked over it briefly, before nodding and putting it back. He watched her for a while, he could see her chest rising and falling as she breathed. She looked so pretty he thought, even when her face was void of makeup. House pushed a stray bit of hair out of her sleeping face, she shifted slightly.
His face was close to hers, he could feel her breath against his stubbly face. "Did you mean it?" he whispered.
"Mmmm" she replied. Her eyes still firmly shut.
He put his hand on her cheek. Her skin was soft against his fingers. "You said you loved me," his fingers traced a gentle pattern on her cheek. He felt Cameron press her face into his hand and he stopped moving his fingers and just cupped her face in his hands. "I love you too" he said. Things like this were a lot easier when the receiver of your words was asleep. He leant over and kissed Cameron on the forehead, "I'm sorry if I've been a jerk" he almost whispered to her.
He sat there just staring at her for a while, he didn't notice Wilson walking stopping at the door for a few seconds taking in the scene of his best friend looking at Cameron. He hadn't seen that look on Houses face for a long, long time. The last time he had seen it was the week after Stacy had left him. He had had that lost puppy looking face, and it worried Wilson. He decided that he would talk to House later and walked on down the corridor towards the clinic.
