Gasp! An update! Alright folks, I've got my second wind and I'm going to work this to the end in roughly...six chapters.

Drowning in Blue

Chapter Eleven

"You kissed her?"

House sighs into his coffee. It is far too early in the morning for this.

"Try saying it a little louder. I'm sure pediatrics didn't hear you," House mutters.

"And why am I just now finding out? It's been three days!"

If it was anyone else, House would be amused. But it is Wilson who is standing next to him, his eyes wide.

It is Wilson who cannot seem to find words to speak.

"Jealous, Jimmy? Look, if the Ice Queen you're dating isn't giving you any love, don't take it out on me."

He doesn't think it's possible, but Wilson's eyes open ever further.

"You had sex?!"

Several nurses turn to see what is going on.

House fights the urge tod rag Wilson into an exam room and tape his mouth shut.

"If you must know, we didn't have sex. We just made out. A lot."

Wilson's eyes narrow. "And you're okay with that?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

Wilson shrugs. "I just thought you'd want to be in her pants right now. I mean, if you're playing her."

"I am playing her," he says defensively. "Building suspense."

"Right." Wilson seems unconvinced.

As he walks away, House wonders where that small seed of doubt came from.

He decides to go visit Cameron. Cameron will make sense. Cameron won't judge him.

Cameron brushes past him without so much as a word.

So much for making sense.

When he finally gets her alone, she is cold, unresponsive.

He queries.

"I can't believe you could even have the audacity to ask me what's wrong after you forgot."

House is confused. "Forgot what?"

Cameron turns to face him and in her eyes is resentment.

"We changed our shifts so we could take your bike up to Maine. We were going on a day trip. I was packed yesterday and waited and you never showed. But whatever. I guess it wasn't important."

"And when was this?"

"Yesterday!" Cameron explodes. "You were going to pick me up yesterday!"

House frowns. "Did you call me?"

Cameron steps back, shaking her head. "You had a day off, Greg. What did you do that made you forget?"

House pauses again. He remembers with vivid detail what he had done last night.

Got high.

Played piano.

Slept.

"Well?" she demands.

"I..got high," he says slowly.

Allison straightens, bracing herself against the exam bed. "Well thanks, House."

House juts his chin out. "You knew about it."

"What, your habit? Yeah, I knew. Maybe I just thought that you'd cut back for me...for us. I had no idea you'd stay as selfish inside our relationship as you did outside."

The exam room door clicks softly on her way out, sharply contrasting with the anger of her words.

A passing nurse wonders why Allison Cameron is smiling so broadly.

2:13 a.m.

"God damnit, Allison, open your window!" he snaps, hurling another pebble. Vainly, it falters, falling short of her third story window. Briefly, he contemplates tossing the golf-ball sized clump of concrete before deciding it probably won't help matters.

Besides, her window has opened and a very annoyed Cameron peers out.

"What do you want, House?"

"I hit the buzzer. Let me come up."

She folds her hands under her chin. "Go away, House."

"Not until you let me come up," he insists, nudging the chunk of concrete with the end of his cane.

She stares at him long enough for him to shift uncomfortably, then disappears into her room. A moment later, he hears the lock on the ground floor door demagnitize and limps toward it as quickly as he can. The tips of his fingers catch it just before it locks again.

The main lobby of her apartment building is clean-smelling, impersonal. He reflects on the braid of the reddish carpet as he waits for the elevator to descend.

It is very ugly carpet.

It reminds him of fresh blood, blood that is pushed out of an open chest, blood that rises over his fingertips as he presses them over a car accident victim, a child's knee, a head wound in a biker.

He blinks as the elevator dings and the doors slide open. All visions of attempted healing fade as he steps into the elevator.

Hesitantly, he fixes his eyes on the floor.

Ah. Linoleum. He is safe.

This flooring is much more...neutral. It is a pale peach, curling in the corner of the elevator where one too many drunken pisses has separated it from its backing. He sees the outline of a muddy shoe and follows the path of an imaginary body, settling on the unmistakable imprint of a human backside pressed against the cold metal.

Suddenly, the air is very stale. He feels ill.

This is the longest elevator ride of his life.

No sooner do the doors slide open and he is out, gasping for fresh air like a drowning man bobbing for one last sip of precious oxygen before his lungs crackle and empty.

He nearly runs into Allison's door.

He taps.

He waits.

"What," she growls on the other end of the frame. It is not a question.

"Are you going to let me in?"

"I said you could come up. I didn't say I'd look at you."

House lowers his gaze. Somehow, the hideous carpet had followed him up here. It pulsed under his stare. If he let his gaze relax just a bit, he could see the cocktail of vicodin and alcohol that currently swam through his veins reflected back up at him.

Since his drunken decision making has worked out so very well in the past, he decides a different route is in order.

"Let me in! I'll blow your damn door down."

"Not like this." He barely hears her near-whisper through the thick door.

"Why not?"

"You're in pain."

"No, I'm high on vicodin."

"I don't want you when you're high."

"Why not? You did Chase when you were high."

"I don't love Chase."

Now he really wants to see her, if only to read the vulnerability in her open blue eyes.

He steps forward, placing his hand on the door. "Allison, open the door."

He is prepared for her anger.

He is prepared for her disgust.

He is even prepared for her tears.

But nothing prepared him to open the door and see Allison Cameron facing him, wearing nothing but a smile.

As always, reviews are appreciated! Who wants smut in the next chapter? Feel free to raise your hands. See you in chapter twelve!