When Cameron returned from collecting her medical kit for the second time in two days and sporting her bathrobe, House was staring at the pool like it had suddenly turned neon pink. She called his name but still he didn't move. Cameron rushed to him in fear that his rib had broken loose and punctured something vital and caused him to go into shock. When finally she touched the bare skin of his shoulder, he lost the tension in his eyes and put on the mask.

"Sorry, I was just contemplating what you'd look like in an itsy-bitsy yellow polka dot bikini."

She knew it was a lie. It wasn't amusement she'd seen in his eyes, rather anger, questioning and perhaps fear. She was about to press the issue when her cell phone rang from the pocket of her robe. He eyed her questioningly.

"It's Wilson."

He continued to stare at her but oddly enough didn't utter a word.

"Hi Wilson."

"Hey Cameron. Enjoying your vacation?"

"It's been great. I haven't had to think about anything more than a sunburn for a week."

"Sounds nice. Well hey I don't want to add to that now, I was just wondering if you've seen or heard from House?"

"Yeah of course I have. He's lying naked here on my lounge chair, soaking up the sun and making my life a joy!" She said with the harshest bit of sarcasim she could muster.

"All right. All you had to say was No."

"Sorry must be used to House's world."

"No doubt. Well listen Cameron if you see or hear from him, I need to talk to him. He's in big trouble."

"Isn't he always?"

"Yeah well this time violence came into play and it wasn't House's face hitting the hospital floor."

"Uh-ok Wilson I'll tell him if I see him." She said and hung up.

"He says you're in a lot of trouble, House."

A smile crossed his lips. "Man, even when you're lying you're telling the truth."

"He really said that House."

"Not that, when you told him I was here. That was brilliant."

"Why are you in trouble? Who got hurt? Please tell me." She said placing her hand on his shoulder.

He grasped it firmly.

"Listen Mary Poppins, I'm not one of your pathetic patients that's gonna sob all over you and tell you the sins I've committed. That sorry little lip quiver isn't going to soften me. When I said I didn't want to discuss it, I meant it. Now help get me wrapped up or give me the damn tape and I'll do it myself."

She sighed kneeling next to him.

"How about a bet?"

"Wet t-shirt contest?" He said like the moment two minutes before never happened.

"No, I'll bet that you can't go a full twenty-four hours without insulting me."

"Oh this could get interesting. Ok I will see your bet and raise you. I bet that you can't go twenty-four hours without doing the right thing and becoming excessively caring."

"So you want me to be you?"

"Exactly, you're making me act like you, so why not switch?"

"Ok so what are the stakes?"

"What do you want?"

"If I win, you have to tell me in detail why your hiding out."

He sighed loudly and rubbed his aching side. While he thought about this, Cameron injected him with morphine to help ease the pain.

"Ok fine. If I win then you have to kiss me the way you did in my office." Cameron felt herself flush and butterflies going postal in her stomach.

"And you have to do it in front of Chase and Wilson."

"Chase makes sense, but why Wilson?" She asked after wondering if she'd really heard him.

"Proof." He said simply.

"All right you have a deal."

They shook hands and Cameron went back inside to take a shower. Her mind began going a hundred miles an hour. How could she act like House? He was cruel, miserable, and so closed off. And how could he be like she was? How exactly did he see her? And why was it so important for her to kiss him in front of Chase and Wilson?

She thought of the kiss in House's office.

She walked into his office, a little nervous at what she was about to do. But it didn't matter what his reaction would be. She only needed to confuse him for a moment and then get the blood.

"PET scan done?"

"No"

"Have you come for my feelings? Because I left them in my other pants."

"This is a letter of recommendation. I'm applying for a job at Penn."

"Thank you for writing your own. I'm sure my thoughts are beautifully phrased."

"Thank you for signing it. Saves me from having to fake your signature."

"Stay away from Weiss. He cries with his patients. Holds their hands as they die. He won't like you and your newfound non-chalance in the face of cancer."

"I thought you'd find it appealing."

"Twenty seconds. The time it took you to go from hard ass to human being."

It was like a dream come true because then he stood up from his desk. And suddenly Cameron's idea about punching him and taking his blood, formed a better idea.

"You really wanna leave?"

"If you're not here there's not much point in staying."

"I'm not dead yet."

And then a millennium passed. Slowly, baby steps, carefully, never breaking eye contact, she moved closer and closer to him.

"What are you doing?" He asked. She didn't answer.

She was nearly touching him by that point. She could feel him begin to tense and he had to rationalize it. "I know this must be a turn-on for you."

And she braced herself for it. Any second he would grab her arms and force her back or step aside and leave her standing there, but he just continued staring into her eyes. It was a dare, it was confusion, it was hunger, of all those things she was sure of. She stroked his hair and his rough face. He seemed like a giant to her but she pushed her way up to touch her lips to his. A few more tender kisses and she'd have him in the right place to draw blood. But he had the upper hand and did the opposite of what she thought he would.

He kissed her back. Not just an instant test the waters kiss. He kissed her, he wanted her. His arms came around her back, he held her and the kiss continued. How she wanted a million more. Spend her lifetime kissing him that way and then she realized if she didn't get the bloodwork, he could very well die. She had to at least try.

Her hand went down to her lab coat; and just as she pulled the needle from her pocket, he grabbed her arm. She was busted and he would now die. But surprisingly she wasn't upset. She smiled at him.

"A little whorish, to kiss and stab."

"You kissed back."

"I didn't want you to die without knowing the feeling. Actually, no woman should die without knowing the feeling."

"All we need is a few drops of your blood."

"Foreman and Chase's lips aren't gonna get so close now that I know your plan."

"There's a nurse downstairs that risking his job to collect to blood you drew from yourself yesterday!"

And that's when she saw it. She thought he'd really kissed her back out of some schoolboy cop-a-feel contest. But then he blew up at her. Yelled at her and told her where the blood and other materials were that she'd come all this way to trick him into getting. What she saw was anger and sadness. It was the one time in her working with House that she resented fooling him. As she walked from his office, she thought she heard him call her Judas.

A sharp bang on the door scared her from her memories.

"What?"

"I don't want to stay here anymore."

She could tell from the sound of his voice that he wasn't speaking from the outside, but rather the inside of the door. How she wished she had a lock on the door.

She poked her head out from behind the shower curtain.

"I know that you've already seen me naked once, but get out of here!"

"Sorry Cameron, but again I don't want to stay here anymore."

"So what's stopping you? Leave if you're going." She said although dying of curiosity.

"What I meant to say is I need to get out of the city for a while. And I was wondering if you'd come with me. You know just in case that rib cuts loose."

"Where are we going to go?"

"I have a house up in the Catskills. A little town called Margaretville in New York. It's about 3 and a half hours from here."

"Oh so we're gonna shack up huh?" She smarted back.

"Not likely, my great Aunt Vivian lives next door."

Cameron wasn't sure if she was disappointed or relieved. One thing was for certain. Being like House wasn't all that hard, but she knew it was a rough road for him.

"I thought my house was being watched."

"Oh he is; But not by anyone except you. I'll explain that one tomorrow." And with that he left the bathroom.

Very good ploy doctor, my House, yeah I caught it but I'm not going to fold.

A forth of July weekend with House; maybe her vacation wasn't going to be a bust after all.