Hi everyone! Here's a little taster of a new fic I'm thinking of writing. Let me know if you'd be interested in reading more :)

Warning: Mentions of self harm. Please don't read if it's going to trigger you and tell me if you think I should change the rating to M. I'm no good at judging these things.

It had been a difficult day at work. A woman had gone into cardiac arrest whilst being operated on. They hadn't been able to restart her heart. Logically, Allison Cameron knew that it wasn't her fault. She wasn't the one who was doing the surgery and she definitely wasn't the one who had suggested such a risky procedure based on little to no evidence. Of course, that was House. It was the way he worked. She knew that. As much as she would try to stop him, she had no control over what he did and knew he would go to any length to solve his puzzles, even if it meant risking a patient's life.

She hated that about him, yet she still had feelings for him no matter how many people she denied it to. That simple fact made her hate herself even more. She couldn't understand why she had feelings for him. The scientist in her told her that there was no logical reason for her to like him. He was a jerk to her, to everyone. He rarely thought about the consequences of his actions. He was rude and he certainly didn't have the gift of tact in difficult conversations. However, Allison knew that she was the type of person to let her emotions get in the way of any logical thinking. It was the only explanation as to why she was in love with House.

Allison sat on the closed lid of her toilet, her eyes red from crying. She had locked the door, despite the fact that she lived alone. She wasn't sure why she did it, only that, for some reason, she always did.

In her hands she held a small box that she had retrieved from the back of the top shelf of her medicine cabinet above the sink. She turned it over in her hands a few times, as if debating whether or not she would do it. It wasn't as if she didn't know the answer, but trying to stop at least made her feel a little bit less pathetic than if she hadn't. As hard as she tried to not give in to the temptation of an easy release from the pain, she never could. She was weak and she knew it, but she was infinitely glad that no one else knew.

More than once, she had wondered how her colleagues dealt with the pain of the death of a patient. She had no idea how she would cope, had she chosen to specialise in something like oncology rather than immunology. Wilson's patients died more often than not, despite the fact that he was a great doctor. She couldn't stand the idea that, no matter what she did, a patient would die. These thoughts only brought her mood down more as she opened the small box in her hands and took out the small blade that it held.

Allison lifted up her cream blouse and ran the blade along her exposed skin. A couple more cuts and she began to meticulously clean the wounds and the blade, covering them with band-aids. She let her blouse fall over the sore area and put the box away where she had found it. It was then that she noticed a small speck of blood on her blouse. Taking it off, she placed it in the laundry hamper and hoped that the stain would fade in the wash.

Feeling a lot more relaxed, Allison went to the kitchen and started to make herself some dinner as if nothing had happened. After curling up on her bed with a glass of wine and some predictable romantic comedy, she went to sleep. To her relief, she slept peacefully. All her anger and pain had been taken out on herself earlier in the evening, leaving her calm and able to forget about what had happened at work.

The next morning, Allison found herself to be the first of her team in the office. This was nothing unusual, she thought as she poured herself a mug of steaming hot coffee. What was unusual, however, was the fact that House walked in not ten minutes later. He was at least an hour earlier than normal.

"Ah! Morning Cameron." He greeted her. "For me? How sweet." House said, grabbing her coffee straight out of her hand. He took a sip of the hot liquid and grimaced. "How much sugar did you put in this?"

Ignoring his question, she got up to make a second cup of coffee. There was no point in trying to argue with House, at least not until she had some caffeine in her system.

"You're in early." She commented, trying to act as nonchalantly as possible despite the fact that as she moved she could feel the material of her shirt rubbing against the still red cuts from the night before. If she showed even the slightest grimace she couldn't be certain that House wouldn't notice it. That was not something that she was willing to risk.

"I'm here on time. It's 9am."

"And you're usually late."

"Wilson gave me a ride and he's too much of a goody-two-shoes to be late."

Alison sighed and went back to making her drink now that the kettle had finished boiling.

"Do we have a case?" She asked.

"I don't know. Have you been through my mail yet?"

"Has it ever occurred to you to go through your own mail?"

"Why would I when I know you'll do it for me?" He smirked, sitting down on his chair with his Gameboy.

Seconds later the office door opened and Foreman and Chase entered.

"I hope we're not interrupting anything." Foreman joked and Cameron shot him a glare. She stayed quiet as her two colleagues settled down, before getting up and grabbing House's mail from his desk. At least going through it would give her something to do until they found a case.

The morning passed uneventfully until Cuddy came in with a case just before noon. While Alison was happy to be doing some actual work instead of being essentially a glorified secretary, her excitement was short lived when her boss broke the news that the family of the woman from the day before were starting to exhibit similar symptoms.

"All we know is that it must be something environmental for them all to be getting sick. I managed to get the husband to agree for you to treat them as you had worked on Mrs Jenkins." Cuddly informed them.

"But we have no idea what killed her." Chase pointed out.

"Well the fact that other people are getting sick proves that it's got to be something that they were all exposed to. Mrs Jenkins was just exposed sooner or naturally more susceptible." Foreman concluded.

House was already writing the progression of Mrs Jenkins' symptoms on the board as the rest of the team each took a file from Cuddy. Alison found herself reading about the youngest son. He was only four years old and it was up to them to stop him from going through what his mother had. She'd met the boy only a couple of days ago and he had seemed perfectly healthy, as had his father and brother two years his senior.

Once Cuddy has left the team spent the best part of the next two hours exhausting any possibility. When they couldn't come up with anything new House sent Foreman and Chase to check out the family home again in case they had missed anything the first time.

Alison had been struggling to keep herself together at the news that the rest of this family were getting sick. She made some excuse to House and left the office shortly after her colleagues had. She couldn't help but be scared that the Jenkins family would go the same way as their last patient if they weren't able to come up with a diagnosis soon. Mrs Jenkins' symptoms had progressed so quickly that House had needed to make the rash decision to operate. They couldn't make the same mistake again.

She soon found herself in the bathroom, locking herself in one of the stalls and pulling a blade out of her purse. Exactly as she had done the night before, she pulled up her shirt and made a few small cuts on her side, this time on the opposite side to before. Once she was satisfied that she would be able to hold herself together in front of her colleagues, she went to clean herself up, only to discover that she'd run out of spare band-aids in her purse. She sighed and tried to stop the bleeding with a handful of toilet paper. She applied pressure to the fresh cuts for a while until she was sure that they had stopped bleeding. Knowing that House would start to get suspicious if she was gone for much longer she pulled her shirt back down and headed back to the office.

Meanwhile, House was pondering Cameron's exit. She wasn't doing work so he could only assume that she'd left for personal reasons, although that wasn't a good enough answer for him. He needed to know more. If someone had asked, he would've said he'd show the same curiosity had it been Chase or Foreman who had left for no reason but something in him knew that it would be a lie. But then again, everybody lies, don't they?

Worth continuing? Please leave me a review to let me know your thoughts!