AN: Hiya, gang! The italics are thoughts in this one. Idk if I did that in the others or not but I decided to for this one. Hope you enjoy.

Chapter 5

Each day was the same for the Ducklings and House. They would get up, take a cab to the Convention Center, see a single lecture (always the shortest one), and spend the rest of the day doing whatever they pleased. Cameron spent most ofher free time at the River Walk, Foreman was always in the French Quarter, Chase was at the Casino usually (picking up hot babes with his accent and shark story), and House went everywhere.

Each night was the same as well. Foreman and Chase usually found nice bars to go to, House stayed in with some Southern Comfort or some other form of alcohol, and Cameron would wander.

Every night Cameron struggled with the same battle; stay in her bed and endure another night of little to no sleep or sneak into House's bed and sleep like a baby. Her stubbornness kept her in her own bed for that entire week. One time she had flung her sheets off, marched to the edge of his bed, and just glared down at him resting peacefully; how dare he sleep so well while she was being tortured every night? Her hand twitched for the edge of his comforter and recoiled as if she was burned. Cameron pulled herself away from his bed and flopped back onto hers. For the boys it seemed to go by fast, but for Cameron the week was dragging on.

It was Thursday in the afternoon and they were all having an early supper at a restaurant where the pirate Lafitte planned a huge raid or something. Cameron was a bit antsy all day and this didn't go unnoticed by the guys but they refrained from commenting on it. Cameron did have a nasty temper when push came to shove.

Cameron decided she had enough of the Big Easy and out of the blue said, "Why don't we just leave tonight?" Everyone looked at her funny and so she
continued, "We can still pretend to be here and not go into work until Monday. That way we have more than one day to unpack and unwind."

Chase added, "Well, I am kind of missing my bed."

Foreman thought for a moment, "And I could use down time at home."

They all looked to House who had yet to actually say anything really all day. They assumed he was in one of his moods. He said, "Well, three against one cripple isn't fair guys. But fine we'll leave tonight."

They finished their meal leisurely and made their way back to their hotel. Pretty soon they all met down in the lobby, got to the airport, and were waitingfor the next flight out. This left Cameron time to think; a dangerous past time for her in her current state of mind.

She was surprised that House barely made any scathing remarks or sarcastic replies for those four days or so. He even failed to comment on her state of undress when she came out of the bathroom in a tank top and boxer shorts for bed. Something had to be wrong with him. He didn't look mad or depressed. He just always looked deep in thought. She shuddered at what could keep him so deep in thought for four days.

Little did she know, the object of his thoughts was her. House was constantly thinking about her attitude towards him lately. She used to be naïve, then she was withdrawn, then she got drunk and opened up more, and then, here in New Orleans, she became withdrawn again. He was awake that night that she crept out of her bed to hover over his. For a split second he thought she was going to smother him with the pillow next to his. Then she edged away from his bed like Boo Radley from his front porch window.

Just then their flight number was called and the PPTH doctors boarded the plane. Cameron was stuck next to House again. Since it was a nine o'clock at night flight, the plane was smaller and had maybe eight to twelve people on it including the doctors.

Once the seatbelt light came off Cameron moved to the seat across the aisle. House quirked an eyebrow at her. She just shrugged and said, "I don't want you to get rabies from me."

She then leaned back her chair, put earphones in, and appeared to sleep. Of course, she didn't but it was nice to have some quiet time to herself. Music
seems to stop one's thought process if you really listen to the lyrics. Cameron always believed that and tried really hard to just listen to the lyrics of the songs. Just then "Till There Was You" from the musical The Music Man came on her shuffle and she wanted to punch something. She skipped it and next came "Gimme Gimme" from Thoroughly Modern Millie. With that Cameron growled in frustration and turned off her iPod.

The rest of the day was a big blur for Cameron. She just wanted to get to her cat and lay in her own bed. At least in her own house she had less of a chance of sneaking into her boss's bed in the middle of the night. As she got settled in her bed for that night's tossing and turning, Cameron couldn't wait for tomorrow night's sleep. That was the real reason Cameron wanted to get back early. She had become dependent on those Friday night pass outs. Cameron was not going to get drunk in a city she didn't really know, especially with House as her roommate. Now, THAT would be bad.

Gregory House was still befuddled by the brown-haired conundrum when he was snug in his bed that Thursday night. Snug being a loose word for in extreme amounts of pain from a leg bump into a counter earlier that night. He found 3 vicodin, a glass of scotch, playing Jagger, and thinking of Cameron helped keep his brain off of his leg for the most part. But then again how do you forget that a chunk of your thigh muscle is missing?

He knew deep down that Cameron still had feelings for him. He just wasn't sure why she decided to hide it. She wasn't going to quit and he wasn't going to
fire her. He didn't know what would happen when her fellowship was up. House didn't really like to think of that time. He'd cross that bridge and all those other clichés. House took a sip of his drink. So eventually, they would have an epic showdown of their feelings. Who would win? Tune in next week.

Maybe you should chase after her, a miniature House told him from the post of his bed. House almost dropped his drink on himself. He blinked and the
mini-him was gone. House set down the scotch and flipped over on his side. He really should be more careful about mixing vicodin and alcohol. As House was drifting off to sleep he decided that he would text Cameron Saturday. Just to see how her Friday Night Solo Drinking Contest had gone.

Cameron awoke breathing heavy. She had the strangest dream last night that she was on Jeopardy and Alex Trebek called her an idiot for answering Baltimore, Massachusetts. She needed to stop watching Jeopardy so much.

She rolled out of bed and stretched as her cat, Bastet, stretched on her bed. The pair padded into the kitchen and Cameron fed Bastet before making some toast. As she stood there munching on her toast, Cameron contemplated her half-life. She needed to do something new to put the spark back in her eye.

At this thought, Cameron scoffed. She would probably meet the Pope before she changed her ways. People don't change. Cameron made an odd noise that was a mix between a grunt and a growl. She couldn't even eat breakfast before Houseinvaded her thoughts or images. Bastet mewed at her human and rubbed against her.

"Sorry Bastet. Didn't mean to scare you baby. What are we going to do today hmmm? Clean the house? No that's gonna be saved for tomorrow. How about we sit down to a nice Classic movie marathon? Sounds good to you too? I'll get the DVR set up, you start the popcorn." Cameron shook her head at herself. She had always spoken to her pets like humans and probably couldn't stop now but she was wondering what House would say to such behavior.

The next month was the same as usual for both Cameron and House. Cameron was silent mostly, House mocked everyone, the patient almost died, Cameron went out to her bar every Friday, and House always had an eleventh hour stroke ofgenius. The only thing different that took Cameron two Fridays to notice was that no one seemed to bother her anymore at her booth. No one sat in his seat, no one drunkenly hit on her, and her ass was not grabbed once.

On the eve of the third Friday, Cameron was determined to figure it out. Cameron was back at her place in the bar, in the same pose, with the same drink, looking at the same spot. If she couldn't figure her problem out at least she would get as shit faced as the bartender would let her. She sat there pondering what changed about her. A whole lot of nothing, her sarcastic mind reminded her. It was hard but she tried to focus all of her brainpower on this change. She treated it like she would a patient.

After a couple of hours it was 1 o'clock in the morning and she still couldn't figure this out. She noticed that it wasn't that there weren't as much people. Actually, they were busier than usual. She bit her lip and scratched her right eyebrow. What possibly could have finally driven these men away? Cameron shrugged and went to finish her 7th glass. Her lips never touched the glass. Cameron sat up suddenly as the thought hit her.

It's House.

It's always been House. She tried every kind of guy out there it seemed and she was always comparing them to House. Now that she didn't want attentions from any other guy, she didn't receive it. Well, at a bar where he beat a guy up for her. Word must have gotten around that she had a protector of some sort.

But she had sworn to be done with him. He was bad news, a life ruiner, a bastard, and sarcastic child at times. . .

And yet she wanted him more than ever. Her brain screamed at her.

Why do you want that bastard? All he has ever done is hurt you.

But he has really opened up to me lately.

He opened up to Stacy and look how that turned out.

Well, she did cut out his thigh muscle.

You know that is not the point.

What IS the point then?

The point is that right now you are arguing with yourself when you've known the answer all along. It doesn't help that you are drunk right now.

What is the answer?

I literally JUST said that you know it already!

Cameron huffed at her drunk self. She did know the answer. The answer was right there in front of her the whole time. She was just too tired to face it. House would always be in her thoughts no matter how hard she tried to not think of him. The point was that there were a million reasons why she should hate him but she only needed one point to be with him.

Because he opened up to her without prodding.

Well, no prodding for the most part.

Now, that she knew what she wanted, she had to take action otherwise he never would. No day but today. She laughed at her random musical reference that always seemed to show up without fail. Cameron left the unfinished beer on her usual table with more than enough money to cover the tab and the tip. She staggered out the door and made her way in the general direction of House's apartment. The doctor was a little over halfway there when the clouds above sent a wave of rain towards the city. Usually, she would have run for cover or cursed. But she remembered a time when she was young and she would just stand or sit in the rain. Feeling each drop hit her exposed skin as she tried to guess where the next one was going to hit. Cameron strolled her way towards House's apartment.

House was flat on his back staring at the ceiling of his living room from the couch. He had watched five or so episodes of The L Word from 7:00 to 12:00 about and wondered how Wilson could have ditched him and their baseball watching plans for a new nurse in Cardiology. So what if she was hot? So was every nurse that Wilson hit on. Well, there was that one from anesthesiology.

She was a doozy!

House's thoughts about Wilson's girlfriends were interrupted by a knock, knock, knocking at his door. He checked his watch and shook his head. There was no way that much time had passed but his wristwatch was never wrong. He slowly got up and got his stiff leg loose when a louder knocking was heard.

"Can't you give a cripple a little time to get to his door? Sheesh," House yelled at the door as he made his awkward gait over there. He swung the door open ready to give it to whoever dared to knock upon his door that night.

But whoever it was gave it to him instead. As soon as the door was wide open someone flung themselves at House and kissed him right on the mouth. Well, the very corner of his mouth since whoever it was seemed to be- CAMERON? House pushed her back by her shoulders to look her into the eye.

"Cameron? Why are you here?"

Cameron rubbed her palm from his left pec over his shoulder and bunched the fabric of his already crinkled white dress shirt in a fist with a coquettish smile, "I thought that was obvious enough."

She went in for another kiss but he stopped her as he got a whiff of her breath. "Are you drunk?"

"If only I was," she said with a wistful sigh. "Then I could blame it on the alcohol." Blame it on the vodka, blame it on the henny. Blame it on the blue top, gotcha feelin' dizzy.

"Cameron, are you singing in your head again?"

She immediately stopped, "No."

"Yes you were. You were humming it slightly."

"That's not the point!" Cameron waved her hands around as if shooing his words away. House stood there looking down his nose at her, like usual, with that penetrating gaze that used to make her freeze in place when caught. Cameron closed her eyes to compile the things she wanted to say to him out of her half-drunken thoughts.

"The point is that for the past three Fridays, including tonight, not a single man sat in your booth or hit on me once. I used to think that you couldn't care for or love anyone. Then Stacy came along and I saw you could love, you just couldn't love me. Instead what I got from you was care when I needed it the most. You may deny it and I don't care because I know the truth now but I know you care for me. So, if I care for you and you care for me, why not be together while this thing lasts and make the most of it."

House broke his eye contact with her and looked at the ceiling with narrowed eyes. "You're all wet."

Cameron shivered as she remembered that she just walked through pouring rain, "So I am."

They smirked in unison as House lowered his head and slowly kissed Cameron. The kiss was timid and tender on both ends at first. Cameron whimpered slightly opening her mouth, quietly begging for more than just a peck. House obliged by sucking her lower lip into his mouth and biting gently.

AN: Muwahaha! Btw the next chapter is the last one guys. *twirls my mustache of evil*