He slipped from the bed and took a very quick, very hot shower trying to wash away the memory, the feeling. It had seemed so real. She had seemed so real. Walking back into the bedroom he kept his distance from the bed as if it were tainted, infected like some diseased inanimate object.

He'd find no rest here tonight.

He dressed quickly in stray clothes that didn't smell too bad and made his way to the sanctuary of his office to think.

Or not to think.

That is the question.

He snuck into his office glad that no one saw him. Not wanting to be disturbed he made sure the blinds were shut tight and all the lights switched off to keep up the pretence and illusion that he'd gone home for the night. He lowered himself carefully into his easy chair feeling the ache of sex settling in his limbs, but it was the ache in his mind that kept him awake and refused him rest.

To think.

That was the answer.

And yet it offered him no reason or conclusion about what had transpired.

Why had he said her name? Why had it been so easy for him to imagine her moving over him? Why had his fogged un-reigned mind sought out her and not the woman he'd loved for so long who resided in his arms?

His cell phone vibrated silently in his pocket.

"Yeah?" House answered with an exhausted sigh.

"You've got to come back in." Cameron's voice sounded.

"What?" he said in a confused tone, his stomach flip-flopping at the mere sound of her voice.

"You have to come back into the hospital. Margo, our patient, had a stroke."

"Fine." he grunted and flipped his cell shut, not letting her know the fact that he was already in the hospital. He needed more time to compose himself if he was going to appear normal in front of her; he was shocked at the reaction of his body to the sound of her voice. Was it because it was suddenly so easy to imagine her screaming his name? So easy to imagine her moving over him?

He shook his head and listened as his fellows filtered into the room next door.

"He should have been here 20 minutes ago."

The sound of Cameron's voice makes his stomach still twist and turn though to a lesser degree than before. He can tell that they are all sitting at the conference table waiting.

He made them wait. He still felt shaken up from the events of the last hour.

"Doubt if he makes it at all. I saw him leave with Stacy."

Something in him twisted in him at the sound of her name but it was entirely dissimilar to the almost pleasurable, anxious twist in his belly when Cameron spoke. No... this was a far more nervous reaction.

What was she going to do?

House had seen her smirk from the end of the bed. The calculating look that lingered in her eyes always said that she would not let this insult pass by without payback.

"He's probably just walking her to her car." She sighed.

He could read her tone like a book. She was rationalizing trying to absolve him so that she could almost believe that he was pure... but she knew. Of course she knew.

And he hated it.

"Oh, yeah. That sounds like House." Sounded Chase's voice of reality.

"He's not an idiot. He's not gonna hook up with a married woman."

Oh how he wished that were true, he thought as he stood having heard enough.

"I hope he is getting some. Maybe he'll mellow out."

"Wine mellows." Snapped House at Foreman as he stepped into the room. "And sex with Stacy would never be the cause for people to spontaneously start mellowing."

"You've been in there the whole time?" Asked Cameron indignantly. "We've been waiting."

It took him a millisecond to compose himself once more... seeing her was far harder than just hearing her.

"And I made you wait. It's not as if the patients coding or anything." He grumbled moving around them. "Foreman, you owe me 100 bucks."

"You didn't take the test?!" Foreman asked Cameron incredulously.

Cameron shrunk and looked severely uncomfortable.

It made him uncomfortable.

"Is Cameron our patient? No? Good. You lot got me in here to work so lets get it over with, shall we?"

They progressed quickly through possibilities and impossibilities all the while some small portion of his brain was always aware of her sitting there so close. He felt vulnerable and unsettled as if a single nudge would send him crashing to the ground.

"Ultrasound her uterus this time. See if there's something growing in there that doesn't look adorable in a onesie." he concluded with little effort in his sarcastic barb.

They all stood and made to leave.

"Cameron." He sighed calling her back. He pulled a swab from a drawer and shuffled towards her. "Take the test."

"It's not a big deal. I had the viral load and antibody tests. It's 99.9 that I don't have HIV." she answered with fake confidence and the air of disbelief in her voice he heard as she suggested that he had only walked Stacy to her car earlier..

"It is a big deal!" He grunted exhausted and annoyed. He rubbed the heal of his hand over his tired eyes before lowering his hand and sighing. "We deal with the nigh impossible everyday. Just take the damn test."

Her eyes connected with his and seemed to rip though him.

She sighed and took the plastic tube from his hand, their fingers touching briefly. Before him she swabbed the inside of her cheek before slipping it back in it plastic sheath and handing it back to him.

He frowned slightly.

That shouldn't be sexy he thought as he watched her.

House took the swab back, their fingers touched again and electricity sparked between them. "You'll have your test results tomorrow."

She nodded, with obvious fear pouring through her.

"Off to work with you." he said slightly unkindly, but he knew focusing on their patient would take her mind off her own problems.

He only wished it would work for him too, House thought as he watched her disappear down the corridor.