Ruined Part 5

Chase stood in the elevator, staring out at Cameron and House. "What??" he asked, his mouth hanging open.

They were all quiet for a moment before House tried the stupid act.

"What?" he asked back, trying to look confused.

Cameron came out of her shock long enough to roll her eyes at House.

The elevator doors began to close but Chase quickly hit the hold button. "I can't believe it!" he laughed. "I knew something was going on."

"Chase, you have the wrong idea." Cameron tried, but the look on his face stopped her.

Now everyone would know.

"What? You mean this isn't what it sounds like?" Chase asked doubtfully.

House and Cameron looked at each other but they didn't know what to say.

"Oh, man. How long has this been going on?"

House was getting annoyed. He didn't know if he should lie to Chase, or punch him in the face. For some reason, the latter was becoming more tempting with every minute. He could see how flustered Cameron was and, from somewhere deep down, the protective part of him was trying to come out. "Just keep your mouth shut." He said angrily.

Chase held up his hands. "Hey, you don't have to worry about me."

House rolled his eyes, knowing he couldn't trust Chase. He led Cameron into the elevator and they were all quiet on the ride down to the lobby.

Cameron felt like she was going to vomit, just thinking about the whole hospital gossiping about their relationship. She wondered if people would take her seriously, knowing she had slept with her boss. "I think I'm gonna be sick." She said quietly.

"Cameron, calm down." Chase looked at her. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone." He sounded almost defeated, like the promise he had made to House about being quiet about them had been a lie. This time he meant it.

The elevator doors opened to the lobby and Cameron rushed out ahead of them. She ran straight to the ladies' room.

"See what you did?" House asked, extremely annoyed with Chase.

"Is she going to be ok?" he asked, pointing to the door she'd just run through.

"For your sake, I hope so." House grabbed a chair from the reception desk and sat down. He didn't know how long he'd have to wait for Cameron to come out, so he put his feet up and waited.

Wilson came out of the cafeteria and sat down next to him. "You missed the count down."

"If I wanted to see balls drop, I'd go to the children's ward." House replied, his eyes glued to the bathroom door.

Wilson was quiet for a moment, watching the door too. "... what are we waiting for?"

House looked around and found that Chase had left. He sighed. "Chase found out about me and Cameron."

"What?" Wilson turned to face his friend.

"Now you're starting to sound like him." House rolled his eyes. "Cameron's upset and she ran into the bathroom. She said she was gonna be sick."

"Well, sleeping with you is fairly disgusting."

"Nice." House said, failing for a comeback. "Some concern, please?"

"Sorry, I didn't know you were so sensitive."

"I'm not, but she is."

Wilson started to feel concerned with Cameron being holed up in the bathroom for so long. "Should we get someone to check on her?"

"No." House sighed, then stood up and walked to the bathroom door. He turned back to Wilson before going in after Cameron. "Cover me, I'm going in."

He pushed open the door and walked in, first noticing that the women's bathroom was a lot nicer than the locker room-look of the men's room. He was first confused, and then jealous, when he saw that they had a couch to relax on. He walked farther in, looking for her. He didn't know if he had expected her to be crying, but the room was silent. "Allison?" he called.

Cameron came out of the first stall, a wad of tissue in her hand and her eyes black with running makeup. "What should we do now?"

House wanted to kick himself for feeling so much for her, but he didn't keep himself from going over and wrapping his arms around her. "Maybe we don't have to do anything." He said, his chin resting on the top of her head.

She sighed against his chest.

"C'mon, let's get out of here."

She wiped her eyes and followed him out the door. She waited for him in the hall as he went in to get their coats, and then they left to go to his place.

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Cameron was nervous to go to work the next day, but House had not seemed so worried at all. She had spent the night with him, and all night she had been haunted by the thought of not being with him. She didn't want to think that she could never sleep with his arms around her ever again.

When she arrived at the hospital, she was greatly relieved to spend most of the day in the lab.

Some time after noon - while she was spending her lunch time safely away from the others - Chase came in to the lab with a few more tests to run for their new patient. At first when he saw her, he hesitated and then silently made his way over to run gels while she kept her eyes down in the microscope.

Cameron's mind was racing with all the things she wanted to say. She wanted to threaten him, bribe him, and beg him all at the same time just to know that he wouldn't tell anyone what he knew. She looked away from the microscope but didn't turn to face him.

"You've ruined everything." She said quietly.

Chase knew that tone too well. It was the tone she used when she was extremely scared... and dangerously pissed off. "I haven't said a word to anyone."

She hesitated for only a moment, but continued confidently. "No... but you will."

He gave her situation some thought as he turned a machine on. He looked across the lab to see her sad face. "You're really serious about House." He paused. "I'd always figured it was because he does whatever he wants... but you're really serious."

"I am." Her eyes hardened and Chase knew she was becoming defensive.

He looked down, knowing he could never tell and feel ok with himself. But he also wanted to protect her. The feeling was somewhere between Foreman's brotherly protection and House's emotional protection. "How do you know that House is serious?"

"I just know," came another simple answer.

Chase nodded slightly. "I'm not going to tell. Just be careful."

Cameron picked up her lab results, gave a nod, and walked out.

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Cameron went straight to House's office with her the lab results he'd been waiting for. She let herself into his office since he was always there, but this time he wasn't alone.

House looked up at Cameron as she stood far back from his desk. Stacy was seated on the other side of his desk, a stack of folders in her hands. She turned to also look at Cameron.

"Lab results." Cameron held up the papers in her hands. "I can come back." She turned and was almost out of his office when House spoke up.

"Cameron."

She turned back towards House and Stacy.

"Stacy was just leaving." He turned to Stacy. "Need your papers by the end of the day; got it. They'll be there." He then turned all his attention on to Cameron and waved her forward.

She came over to his side of the desk and leaned herself back against the edge of his desk. She handed the file to House, who opened it and began to skim through it. She looked over to see Stacy curiously watching them. But that didn't last long, for Stacy quickly left when she realized House was now ignoring the fact that she was still in the room.

"The patient's white count is low," Cameron said, looking back to him. He remained silent so she continued. "In her condition, she'll need to be moved to a clean room very soon."

"I agree." He put the file on his desk and leaned back in his chair. "So, what's going on?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," he gave a sigh for dramatic purposes. "Have we been outted yet?"

"Chase said he hasn't told anyone."

"Hmm..." he nodded and chewed on a pen as he thought. "I guess we only have one choice."

"What's that?" She asked wearily. 'One choice' could be many things. He might mean that they stop seeing each other. Cameron couldn't bare that and she liked to hope House would feel the same way.

"Well, I say we should just relax and act normal like nothing's happened - like Chase never found out."

She smiled for the first time that day.

"Better." He commented quietly. "Ok." House pulled himself out of his chair. "Let's check this girl and see if she's gonna need a clean room. Chase has more tests coming about it."

Cameron followed him out of his office, feeling almost like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

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Wilson had just gotten back to his office from a patient's room. He was feeling pretty good considering that he actually had been able to give good new for once in what seemed a very long time. He sat down at his desk, rearranging the scattered files that covered his desk.

A knock on his open office door got his attention and he looked up to see Stacy standing there.

He groaned inwardly, knowing it could only be about House. "What did he do now?"

"Oh nothing." She came in and sat down on the opposite side of his desk. "At least not that I know of."

"Good." He sat back in his chair. "So what's up?"

"Actually, I was curious..." She paused. "Is there something going on between Greg and Cameron?"

Wilson shifted uncomfortably.

"You know you don't lie well." Stacy smiled. "What do you know?"



Ruined