All through the final DDX House kept a careful eye on Cameron. She seemed normal enough so he could only assume that Stacy hadn't spoken to her yet; which was something her was entirely relieved about. For the smallest instant he contemplated the notion that Stacy might not try to hurt her... try to hurt his relationship with her but he dismissed it in an instant, the evil look in her eyes was still as persistent in his minds eye as it probably was in that harsh gaze.

He knew that she was more than capable of hurting an innocent party to get to him... because that's what he would do.

Telling the patient about their diagnosis was an experience in itself, she was willing to let them chop of a piece of their liver just to cover her lie but even so his thoughts still dwelled on Cameron. He headed down the hall back to the elevator and the sanctuary of his office.

"House." sounded a stern voice from behind him.

He stopped and turned around. "Mark." He said in a quiet tone.

They stared at each other for a moment.

"I'm here about Stacy. She told me."

"I heard." House answered.

"Have you no guilt or shame?!" He hissed angrily.

"No."

"You have no humanity" Mark said darkly.

"And I still pulled your wife." He shot back hating himself instantly for the comment. He didn't want her anymore so there was no need to fight with him anymore.

Mark shouted in rage and tried to launch himself at House; they crumpled together in a crippled mass and fell to the floor.

House pushed Mark firmly from his chest as he tried to swing at his jaw.

"Why are you angry with me?! I didn't betray you!" House hissed as the force of his throw sent Mark into the wall.

Mark lay there curled and defeated.

"Look..." House glanced around the corridor glad that it was quiet and that he was able to glare the away the stares of a few random nurses. "I don't want her anymore. Really she's all yours. But I think you should know that the only reason she left me last night and came home to you was because I said another woman's name."

"You're lying." Mark said tears forming in his eyes, either from the pain in his body or the pain in his heart.

House sat up and looked him in the eye.

"Why would I lie? I don't want Stacy I want... I want Allison." he said standing shakily. He shuffled over to him, passing his cane to his left hand and holding out his right. "She hurt us both... I'm not your enemy."

Mark grunted and gripped House's wrist.

They managed to get him back into his wheelchair without hurting themselves any further.

"You really said someone else's name?" Mark asked as his breathing calmed.

House nodded.

"Allison?" He asked.

House breathed deeply and nodded again.

Mark echoed his movements seeing the emotion in House's eyes and knowing his words and feeling were true.

"We're not enemies... but that doesn't make us friends." Mark said warily.

"Couldn't have put it better myself." House said returning to normal after the shock realisation that he wanted her. He wanted Allison Cameron. Now he just had to tell her.

They shared an amicable nod and went in separate directions. Mark went back to his room and made arrangements to move back home and continue his phsyio on his own.

House went back to his office wondering what exactly he was going to do.

Yesterday he'd wanted a married woman... now he wanted his much younger fellow; he sighed. Greg House was never one to do things the easy way.

Cameron sat diligently over a microscope trying desperately to ignore the breeze that ruffling beneath her lab coat and even more so the person that preceded it. The air was thick with expensive perfume and the clicks of her heels; if Cameron were a more squeamish person she was sure she would have thrown up at that exact moment and spoiled at least two hours of hard work.

"Hello." a normally sharp voice sounded in an overly sweet and too familiar tone.

"Hi." Cameron replied curtly.

"You're completely in love with him aren't' you?" Stacy's voice uttered as a statement rather than a question.

Cameron remained silent and for all intents and purposes still, but her jaw stiffened and a muscle in her neck twitched.

Stacy observed all of this with a distinct air of knowingness and vindictive relish.

"No need to hush up about it. I know it. You know it. And Greg..." she purred his name as if basking in the sound knowing that the woman before her would rarely get the chance to utter it. "... knows it too."

Cameron strained to keep her thoughts clear of her words and focused on her word but every lilting sound of her voice permeated the invisible shield she'd erected.

"He thinks it's quite annoying actually." Stacy muttered matter of factly as she leaned against the counter.

"What?" Cameron stuttered, a slightly indignant shiver in her voice.

"Greg..." his name seemed to roll both utterly sweet and bitterly poisonous from her tongue, "... finds this little infatuation of yours rather annoying and tiresome. He mentioned it when we were in Baltimore. We had a lot of time on our hands what with the plane being snowed in."

"Hmm." Cameron muttered in an unsure tone.

Some silence passed between them.

Stacy bided her time.

"What do you mean...?" Cameron started as she turned to her.

"That little stunt with the date certainly got him interested but only to a degree. And it didn't exactly turn out well did it?" She said rhetorically. "Charity case, right?" Stacy continued as if trying to remember the words of some distant conversation.

Cameron very nearly gasped, but some how she managed to restrain the sound to a small squeak but even at that both of them knew doom was nigh.

It was as if a single drop of blood fell into the water and a shark had caught hold of the scent and began powering towards the vulnerable and damaged prey.

Cameron wondered how she could know that... House must have told Stacy which meant that she could be telling the truth and House was lying to her.

Everybody lies.

"I know why you love him... trust me if anyone's going to know its me and you haven't even seen the best parts yet. Sure, after last night I wonder why I even left him in the first place." Stacey murmured in a dreamy tone.

Cameron tensed trying to press away the images that poured unbidden into her mind. She pushed herself further back from the microscope and pulled off her gloves tossing them into the trash.

"Last night?" she asked in a clipped tone. She tried to tell herself it was just lies but Chase had said they'd left together, he'd had been chasing her for months and there had been rumours of what might have gone on in Baltimore.

So much didn't add up.

"Yes." Stacy said confidently.

Cameron just couldn't trust House implicitly with all this evidence stacked against him.

"Still just as amazing even with his leg." Stacy continued as if in a day dream, a coy smile on her lips.

Cameron felt sick again.

"He's never going to want you. He thinks you're pathetic. You could never handle him. So get over it." Stacy whispered in her ear like some dark angel on her shoulder.

The clicks of her heels grew dull and quiet as she disappeared down the hall, but every sound sent another wave of despair through Cameron's already shuddering body.