Hold On

Over the next few days Cameron was moved out of ICU into a regular room, and House found himself paged no less than three times to help her through panic attacks. Two had been caused by nurses startling her at a bad moment, and the last had been caused by Chase. The moron. Apparently, he’d come in after hours and opened the door loudly, startling her from sleep. Her room light was off, so all she’d seen was a dark silhouette of a man standing in her doorway. That had been the worst of her panic; it had taken almost an hour for her pulse rate and blood pressure to return to somewhere close to normal. Probably longer for Chase’s heart rate to return to normal; Foreman had cornered him before House had the chance.

Chase, of course, had been feeling extraordinarily guilty and had been skulking about the conference room until House had yet again ordered him to the clinic. It was either that or strangle the annoying Brit. Shortly thereafter, an arrangement of pink roses had appeared in Cameron’s room. Probably a somewhat pathetic “I’m sorry for being an inconsiderate ass and scaring the shit out of you” gesture from the wombat. It joined several other bright floral arrangements and balloons from her colleagues.

House hadn’t brought her anything. Not that he didn’t want to, but despite prior floral evidence to the contrary, it wasn’t really his style. However, he knew that girls liked stuff like that, especially girls stuck in the hospital on the wrong side of the doctor-patient relationship. He had bought her flowers before; it had made her smile, even though he felt stupid and awkward. As he brooded over the topic, he realized that he was actually okay with feeling stupid if it would take that scared, hurt look away from her eyes for a little while. He just couldn’t find the right thing. How do you find a gift that says something like “I’m sorry I kicked you out of work so you walked through an icy parking lot and got raped and almost killed by some psycho”? It wasn’t exactly something Hallmark would come up with.

He climbed into the ‘vette and headed towards home, lost in thought and not even realizing he hadn’t turned on the radio as usual. He turned off the turnpike, realizing he was hungry and had nothing resembling food in the house, unless you counted scotch, which, after all was one of the five major food groups. He considered the scotch for a moment until his stomach gave a gurgle, reminding him that he had skipped lunch. Lunch had been spent avoiding Cuddy, and therefore, clinic duty.

Finding himself only a few blocks away from his favorite fish and chips place, he quickly located a parking spot, knowing there would be a very slim chance of finding a space in front of the take-away only fried food joint. Getting out of the car, he could smell the fried cod and malt vinegar even blocks away. He slowly made his way down the street and soon found himself in front of a pile of fried fish wrapped in the traditional newsprint.

Making short work of the fish, he began the trek back to his car. The walk seemed much longer from this end, now that there wasn’t piles of fishy goodness at the end of the stroll. He’d used to enjoy walks in the snow, but walking really wasn’t his thing anymore. Hadn’t been for about five years.

As he meandered back, he glanced in the windows of the passing shops, coffee houses and restaurants. He watched mothers drag their children to the after-holiday sales and teenagers conforming in their nonconformity sipping lattes. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something being placed in a shop window and turned for a better look. He hadn’t thought of that…

Tucking his purchase under his arm, he headed back to his car, all the while reconsidering whether he should have bought the item. He turned on the ignition and sighed. If he didn’t go bring it to her now, he’d bring it home and talk himself out of giving it to her. If she was sleeping when he got there and he was quiet, he could leave it there and she wouldn’t even know it was from him.

He pointed the car back towards the hospital.

*****

Pulling into the parking lot, he climbed out of the car, making sure his purchase was tucked securely under the jacket folded across his arm. After all, he couldn’t be seen walking through the hospital with…that.

Stepping into the back entrance, he checked to make sure the coast was clear and the item still hidden. Quickly stepping into the elevator, he pressed the button for Cameron’s floor. It should be nearly deserted by this hour. Cuddy had transferred her out of the ICU, and any other patient probably would have been sent home by now, but Cuddy wanted to make sure that Cameron was looked after. He wasn’t entirely sure whether it was because of potential liability since the attack happened on hospital grounds, or because it was Cameron. Probably the latter.

He approached her door and peeked through the glass, shielding his eyes from the glare and saw her curled up in bed facing away from him. He checked the monitors quickly and noted that heart rate and blood pressure were within the normal range for someone asleep, so he quietly opened the door and slipped inside.

Quickly removing his offering from under his jacket and placing it on the bedside table, he left the room as quietly as he came in. She would see it when she woke.