Disclaimer: Neither House M.D. or anything else you recognise is mine.

Hello again guys.

This is the sequel to 'Excuses' although I don't think it's strictly necessary to read that first. Basically it was the story of how House and Cameron got together and this will deal with their progressing relationship. Chase and Cameron broke up and while she was growing closer to House, Chase met another doctor, new to the hospital, called Vikki Tatum. She's not his girlfriend but they are good friends. Anyway, this picks up around a few months after the end of 'Excuses.'

This chapter is quite short just to start off with.

Hope you enjoy it.

Jenny.

Total Lockdown.

Chapter 1.

"House, what are you doing now?"

"You mean you don't know?"

Cameron studied him for a few moments, drinking in the sight of him sat cross legged under the table, apparently hiding from something. This was a feat made even more useless by the fact that the desk had no front and so he was in plain view of everyone passing the office. "No. Can't say I do. Do you?"

House leaned back to observe her over the top of his desk. "Honestly? Not entirely sure, no. I'm pretty certain it started off as a way to annoy Cuddy but it would just be stupid to give up now."

"She's tearing her hair out down there."

House smirked but said nothing.

"You can't just refuse to do clinic duty."

"Why? I've done it before."

"Not this adamantly. It's your job! Well, part of it at least. She needs all hands on deck, as it were. It's chaos down there. Just... just come out and go downstairs."

House just stared determinedly back at her but his face had a small smile and his eyes were warmer than a few months previously as he looked at her.

Cameron let out a grunt of frustration. "Urgh! You're so irritating! You're like a child."

House's smile spread. "You know you love me, Allison."

Cameron's head shot up. "Is that what this is about? You want me to tell you and you'll do clinic duty?" House nodded. "Promise?" Another nod.

"Okay. I love you, Greg. Now come and do clinic duty?"

"But then it looks like I'm giving up!"

"Greg. Clinic. Now."

He stood up muttering under his breath but couldn't help smiling widely at Cameron's faux stern face as he passed her.

"I don't wanna! Do you seriously enjoy causing me additional pain?"

"What I live for." She rolled her eyes. "Now go on. The sooner you get down there, the sooner you can leave."

"Undeniably logical I'll admit, but I'd rather not go down at all and not do clinic duty."

"You can't always get what you want, Greg." She quoted, smirking knowing she'd got him there. How could he argue with the words of his idol? If he would ever admit to having anything as normal as an idol.

He glared at her.

"Fine. But don't think I'm staying there long and don't think I'll let you forget this cruel, torturous act of yours anytime soon." Cameron smiled at his retreating back before hastily following. As she caught up with him he glanced across at her. "Following me? Don't you trust me?"

"Not when it comes to clinic duty, no. And I'm not really following you I'm just heading in the same direction. Got to go the ER."

"So you get out of clinic duty? That's not fair."

"I'm needed in the ER. It's my job. Unlike you I wouldn't hide to avoid doing it."

They entered the elevator when it arrived and descended together. Reaching the ground floor they stepped out together.

"I'll see you later?" Cameron said as she turned to walk in the opposite direction to the clinic. House, who had been eyeing said clinic with ill-disguised dislike, turned at the sound of her voice.

"Yeah, okay. I'll page you when I've given up enough of my soul to be allowed to exit hell. You finish at five, right?" Cameron nodded. "I'll see you later then." He gave her a small smile, a slight upturning at the corner of his lips which were becoming more common nowadays, ever since he had decided that Cameron was worth trying for. And she was so glad. Admittedly it was early days, but Cameron personally thought things were going rather well. He was still his snarky, acerbic self but seemed to have acquired a softer edge, or at least a way of blunting his barbs so they didn't sting quite so much when they were flung at people in a temper. He seemed happier than he had been and perfectly content to let things slide along the way they had been.

She returned his smile and he averted his gaze back to the doorway to the clinic and sighed. Cuddy was leaning out of the gap gesturing furiously for House to join her.

Cameron smirked. "You better go. Actually, I should too."

"Bye."

"Bye."

They turned simultaneously and headed in opposite directions.

Cameron sighed, frustrated despite only having been there a couple of hours. There was still two thirds of her shift left. She brushed her hair off her sweaty forehead in a desperate attempt to cool herself down. Would it kill them to open a window? In all fairness, it probably wasn't all that warm, but with the amount of dashing about she had been doing, it felt as though it were fluctuating around 200 degrees. 200 degrees centigrade that is, not Fahrenheit.

"Right, Mr Ryder, test results back. Er..." she paused while flicking her eyes over the all important sheet clutched in her sweatier than usual palm.

"Are you alright?" the patient was concerned and she looked up, disoriented.

"I'm just fine, thanks. More importantly, so are you. Tests reveal no heart disease. It's heartburn. You were right to call the ambulance, though as any heart problems should be treated very seriously. We'll get you some pills from the pharmacy and you can go." She looked up at him and gave him a smile which he returned willingly.

"Thanks Doctor Cameron."

"No problem." She left the cubicle and walked back towards the nurse's station. Without stopping or even slowing her gait, she placed Mr Ryder's file in the outpatient's tray and picked up another from the pile of patient's still to be treated. Flicking it open she read as she walked, asking a nurse to retrieve some heartburn pills for Mr Ryder as she passed.

"Female, 29, collapsed with breathing difficulties, came into the ER an hour ago..." Cameron read the file under her breath. It sounded an innocuous enough problem. It shouldn't be too difficult. She wasn't sure if that made it better or worse. On the one hand, a problem too taxing might be too much for her mind in its current state, tired from the heat. However, a problem too simple might be, dare she say, too... boring. She smirked at the thought. House really was rubbing off on her. The thought that her boyfriend, who was probably just as bored in the clinic, was expecting to meet her later perked her up a little and, rejuvenated, she opened the curtain with a smile.

"Holly Byrne?"

If Cameron was slightly bored in the ER, it was nothing compared to the 'bored-out-of-his-skull' feeling House was experiencing. He was sitting in exam room 3 with a patient who was talking about... oh, God knows what he was talking about. House glanced at his wrist, conveniently at eye level where his hands were resting on his cane, propped up before him. This patient had been describing symptoms now for just over seven minutes. If House hadn't fallen into a heat-induced stupor about an hour ago, he might have found the energy to be impressed with the man's stamina in warmth so intense that he could see it rising in waves from the window-sill outside.

"Doctor? Doctor House?" House was rudely pulled away from thoughts of Cameron's incandescent face, lit softly by the lights in her favourite Chinese restaurant the night before, and her eyes looking at him happily to face the patient clicking his fingers in front of him in a most distracting manner.

House stood up suddenly causing the man to lean back suddenly to avoid being head butted. He looked up at House, startled. House felt in his pocket for the familiar cylindrical bottle and pulled it out, shaking out two pills as he started talking.

"You have arthritis." He paused for a moment to allow this to sink in and to swallow the oval pills in his palm. "Astounding as it is that you could ramble on for so long about such a common condition, I'm actually more amazed that you haven't equated joint pain to the fact that you're getting older. It's arthritis, nothing sinister. I'll write you a prescription for painkillers- not these because they're mine-" House broke off momentarily to wave the orange Vicodin bottle in front of the man's face before placing it back in its home in his pocket. "-and I also recommend ethanol. Lots of it."

"Ethanol?" the patient was clearly very confused. House handed the man a hastily written prescription.

"Alcohol. It might make you less boring. I doubt it but anything for a cause that good has got to be worth a shot. Take that to the pharmacy." With a point at the prescription, House left the room, slamming his hand on the nurse's station as he reached it. Cuddy arrived beside him suddenly and he found himself wondering how she had managed to sneak up so quietly.

"Done?" She asked with a bright voice and a sunny smile that fooled nobody, least of all House. "Here's another then. Off you go." She slapped another file into his outstretched hand and he groaned loudly.

"Can't I just go? Most of the waiting room's been cleared."

"No. Doctor Silverson's just left so we're still not wonderfully staffed."

"Not fair!" House whined childishly. "Why does she get to go?"

"Her daughter's gone into labour."

House stared. "Now that's really not fair. I don't have a daughter! I can't use that excuse."

Cuddy turned her head away, trying to hide a smile at his antics. He picked up on it of course and gave a self-satisfied grin. Cuddy composed herself and looked back at him, albeit with some of the warm mirth still present in her eyes. "No, you can't use that. So," she pointed at the file in his hand. "Exam room 2. Now."

House's shoulders sagged and he sighed over-dramatically before turning and limping back to the exam rooms, Cuddy watching him with an amused smile the whole time.