Mirror, Mirror

Thirteen knew that House would notice her want to go with Cole. And she knew it was because she didn't want to 'look in the mirror'. She only hoped that she'd be able to stay away long enough to not have to deal with the patient or his insane Mirror-ness… She couldn't think about the future, she could only think about the fact that she was not there in that moment… that she would be stalling for as long as possible… That's why she was only half-assing her looking for the car with Cole.

Cameron on the other hand, had heard that the patient has Mirror Syndrome and that there was a betting pool against Foreman leaving that week… So, she really wasn't surprised when she was inspecting a wound in a man's thigh and Foreman walked up to her in a bitchy mood.

"Your boyfriend's got me at even odds." He crossed his arms.

Cameron was going to respond to what her brain had preemptively told her he was going to say, but then realized what he actually said. She closed her mouth and stared… okay, she glared at him until he broke.

He chuckled a bit to himself and looked down then back to her eyes, "I'm sorry…" He was telling her he was sorry for implying straightness to her know that she had come out… he couldn't help but joke about Chase's crush though… it was pretty sad and pathetic and obviously something that they would all joke about until they don't work together anymore…

Cameron only shrugged, "It's okay." She looked back to the man's leg, "I got a hundred on you anyways." She gave him her 'What can I say? I'm a bitch.' smile and shrug.

He glared at her and walked away before she told her patient that she would be right back and ran over to him, arms up so as not to contaminate her gloves, "What do you care what other people are betting on?"

"If Chase is trying to screw with me because he's jealous Cuddy didn't ask him to take this job—"

"Right. You're figuring he's jealous of your misery." She gave her friend a look.

"He's messed up enough to..."

She didn't respond for a moment. She took Foreman in and made sure that he was paying attention, "The problem is you're not miserable."

"Then House has been wasting a lot of time."

"You've been humiliated, treated like crap. You've every right to be miserable, but you're not, because even though this job is insane and House is insane, you like it. You always have."

"You know what's worse than a sanctimonious speech? A sanctimonious speech that's dead wrong."

"See? You belong with House." She smiled before she walked back over to her patient.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Thirteen and Cole finally got back from getting into his car. They went to House's office and found him sitting at his desk.

"His name's Robert Elliot. He's from Hamilton, Ohio." Thirteen started.

"Here's everything he had in his trunk and in his glove box."

"No need for the heart biopsy. I now know exactly who he is and what he has. You saved his life." House said.

"Really?"

"No, you idiot. It's vapor rub and lunch receipts."

"We have his name. We can find his doctor, get his medical records."

"It's 8:00 at night. The biopsy will be faster. Not fast enough to save him, but that's hardly the point." They both tuck their tails between their legs and start to leave, but House stops them, "Thirteen." They both turned so House stared at Cole, "Is your name Thirteen?" He waited for Cole to leave, "Why did you volunteer to go street walking?"

"I thought I could help that way."

"A black Mormon could help that way. There's no reason for you to want to be there. Which means there's a reason you didn't want to be here. Didn't want to look in the mirror?"

Thirteen looked back at him and jut her jaw to the side.

No… she was not surprised at all when they made their way to Robert's room… She was not surprised when he scooted her forward to the laid out gloves on the desk so she could finish up what Foreman was doing… And she was not surprised when he kicked Foreman out.

"Hi. Cuddy called. She needs you to iron her shirts. We'll take over… Go ahead." He told Foreman to leave silently then pushed her forward a bit, "Talk to him."

"Uh... you might feel a little tug when the catheter's in the heart."

"Come on. Make him feel comfortable." House encouraged.

"I've done this procedure dozens of times. It's completely—"

"My god." Robert said staring at her, "You are incredibly hot."

Thirteen looked over to House and he rolled his eyes, "I'm not here, deal with her."

"Are you an idiot? Do you not think she's hot?" Robert looked to House, and Thirteen couldn't help but grin.

"I'm not the alpha here. She is. She's my boss."

Thirteen looked down at Robert's hand, "The rash is back."

"Increase the drip. If... you think that's the right thing to do." He tried to catch himself, but realized his mistake too late.

"This is so frustrating." Robert threw his head into his pillow.

Thirteen stood next to House, "I don't think that's me." She grinned.

House stalked out of the room and then it got interesting…

As she finished the test, Robert started talking, "I'm scared."

Thirteen knit her brows, "It's okay. It's going to be okay."

"No. No it's not!" He looked at her, "I think I might be dying. I think my wife will leave me if I am…"

Thirteen looked at his ringless hand, "Are you married?"

"Of course I am. We've been together forever… I partied a lot to take the edge off, but then she came into my life… everything changed and that was good." He looked at her, "But if I'm dying…" He looked down.

"You're not dying." She swallowed hard.

"You don't know!" he said angrily and turned from her, "I assume you're done… so you can leave."

With that said, she walked quickly out of the room.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Foreman paged Cameron and Chase to the patient's room because he knew that they would want to see what's going on. They walked up together from the elevator and Cameron was the first to ask, "What's going on?" She stopped by Thirteen and played as casual as one could.

Chase had walked around to Foreman to ask the same thing.

"The patient has Mirror Syndrome… We're seeing who's the dominant one…" Thirteen explained as nonchalant as possible as she stood behind Wilson and next to Kutner and Amber.

Cameron nodded and looked over to Foreman who had turned around to tell her as well, "This what you paged me for?"

"Didn't think you'd want to miss it…" He grinned. "Even if you do have a hundred on me… You'll be losing your money tonight, the least I could do was let you see a show…"

Cameron shook her head as they watched House and Cuddy approach the patient. They watched the patient looked between them as they talked.

During this time, Allison, ever so subtly brushed the backs of her fingers against Remy's. They stayed like that, barely touching the entire time.

Then Cuddy started yelling about how she loves her breasts, and they knew it was over… especially when House started jumping around as best he could.

They all made their way to the classroom for the elimination at that point.

Cameron, Chase, Wilson, Cuddy and a bunch of other doctors and nurses were all standing in the back for this one.

Allison stared at the back of Remy's head the whole time… and Remy knew Allison was staring… and Allison knew that Remy knew… and both of them tried to keep straight faces as House started the elimination.

"You all suck." House said from the front desk of the classroom, "The two of you," He pointed to Cole and 13, "Took 14 hours to find a car. You," He stared at Kutner, "Forgot to mention that the guy with no memory, had memories. You" This time it was Brennan, "Keep on thinking, that insane guys have hidden wisdom. You're going to wind up shooting people on the subway." He looked at Amber and Taub, "Something."

"So, which one of us sucks the most?" Taub asked.

"It's a tie."

"Between?" Amber took the second question.

"All of you."

"We're all fired?"

"None of you are fired." House stood up and walked out of the room as the rest of them sat there and breathed out sighs of relief.

Cameron fiddled with her money before she gave it to Chase. She realized then and there, as House eliminated no one, that he and House planned it. "Here. It was originally House's anyways… give him back his blood money." She said to him.

"You know, if you were my girlfriend, I would have cut you in…" He smiled that boyish smile he'd perfected over the years.

"No you wouldn't've…" She shook her head with a smirk as she walked away or started to then turned back around. "I'm sorry…"

"For what?"

"When I say things like that it gives you hope… there is no hope… not for you and me to… ever be a thing…" She shook her head, "So… I'm sorry…" She walked away for real the second time.