Disclaimer: I don't think I even want it anymore.

A/N: I wrote this a while ago, but it took ages to finalise it. It's set in season 5, starting with the episode Locked in and going AU after it. It's a short, fun story which means that it may be slightly OC, but not too much for my liking.

House was leaning on the table in his office, staring at the whiteboard with the symptoms and waiting for a revelation. No luck thus far. The patient with the locked-in syndrome was proving to be one tough cookie.

Suddenly, the door to his office opened, and he heard Cameron ask, "When's the last time you changed that dressing?" while she approached him.

"Judging by the smell of it, I'd say never," she cringed as she reached him.

He glanced at her to see her laying down a medical kit. Gazing back at the whiteboard, he began musing out loud, "He's locked in, his kidneys blew a fuse . . ."

He stuck out his arm without looking away from the whiteboard, "and now his eye is oozing puss."

She began tugging on the edges of his bandage as she commented, "I assume you went over all of that with your team. I also assume they didn't have any brilliant ideas, or you wouldn't still be muttering to yourself."

"This is going to hurt," she warned him before quickly pulling off the bandage.

"Ow!" he yelped as his eyes flew to his wounded arm.

The scrape didn't look that bad and he hardly registered the burning sensation during the day. He had more important things to do.

He once again focused on the whiteboard. "The way he's losing his myelin makes an infection most likely."

He was vaguely aware of her dabbing at his scrape.

"Could be varicella . . ."

"Road debris has come to the surface. I'm going to have to scrub it out," she interrupted him, seemingly ignoring his musings.

"But the initial acyclovir would've treated that," he continued unperturbedly, "Which pushes me towards an autoimmune disease. Like Behçet's."

"Here," she gave him a paper cup with pills, "This is going to hurt even more. Take two now, two later."

He downed all four of them in one go, and mumbled an insincere "Oops," in response to her unamused stare.

Without any further notice, she immediately started scrubbing his abrasion.

"Ho!" He briefly wondered if she was that gentle with all of her ER patients.

He let out a long breath before continuing the differential, "Of course, if the varicella was resistant, it wouldn't matter what they did up in Middletown."

"Do an LP," she remarked off-handedly, and he gave her a patronizing look.

"You've been in the ER too long," he taunted her, but she only smiled bemusedly at his gibe.

"When the patient had head trauma, white blood cells only indicate that he had head trauma," he added as a clarification.

"Or you could use the LP for something useful," she said as she placed a new bandage on his elbow.

"If you find polys, it's varicella. Lymphs, Behçet's," she said simply and he couldn't help but stare at her in amazement.

Why didn't he think of that? Why didn't his team think of that? There were four of them and they were all completely useless. Not like in the good old days, when she was still working for him.

"Why did I fire you again?"

"You didn't. I quit," she answered in that confident, sassy manner of hers.

He was instantly aware of the loss of warmth when she lifted her hands off his arm and suddenly, something clicked inside him.

He wrapped his arms around her before she had the chance to turn around, and kissed her fiercely on the mouth, and she immediately responded, and it was heaven. Her hot mouth. Her tongue brushing against his. Her hands resting high on his chest, torn between pushing him away and bringing him closer. Her fingers against his skin in the wide expanse of space created by his loosely buttoned shirt. And he thanked all gods he didn't believe in that he didn't wear a T-shirt today, and yanked her tighter against his body, and her hands slid against his skin up his neck, and he thought of things he had no right thinking.

And then the kiss ended, and he was left panting heavily against her soft, moist lips, and he could feel her warm puffs of air against his lips as well, until she pushed away from him.

She briefly caught his eyes before grabbing the medical kit and disappearing out of the door, and he was left alone and confused.

What the hell just happened? What the hell did he do just now?

He lightly touched his lips that were still tingling from the kiss. There was no way he'd be able to focus on the case now. He could only hope that Wilson was still in the hospital as he walked out of his office.

TBC