Author's Notes: Hello everyone! Welcome to Anatomy of a Secret. I've already got a lot of this written, so updates will be steady. Once a week or twice a week... I dunno. You guys pick. Um... let's see... this story is going to feature sick!Cameron, but there will be no great mystery about what's wrong with her, there will be no romance, and she's not even one of the main characers in this story. Just to knock off all of those cliches.

This chapter is a teaser. It was taken from one of the later chapters, so when I post the next the next chapter, no one be confused! The next chapter will take place before all of this. This is an excerpt from a later chapter. Got it? I don't want a bunch of lost readers. So... on with the show! Enjoy!

Anatomy of a Secret

Chapter 1

House entered the conference room with a Rueben and a Sprite in either hand, ready to enjoy some peace and quiet after his adventure in the clinic and his subsequent discussion with Wilson. Unfortunately, he realized too late that he was not the only one in the dimly lit room—Chase was sitting in front of his laptop, face pale in the glow of the backlight. He looked up upon House’s entrance, blue eyes unknowingly reflecting the screen before him.

“Why are you here?” House asked. His mind was still in a relaxed, I’m-all-alone state, so the first words that came to mind were not at all clever or biting or sarcastic. They were just a boring old question.

“Because I work here,” Chase said in a passive voice, his eyes focusing back on the computer screen. “Unless you meant that in a philosophic kind of way, and in that case, I have no idea.”

“I told you to go pick up the girl,” House said. He ventured further into the room and laid the Rueben and the Sprite on his desk to eat in a minute, after he’d successfully sent Chase on his way. “Unless you’ve gone deaf, and in that case, I’ll have to fire you.”

Chase smiled slightly at House’s mirrored response. “I want to wait until Foreman gets back. It’s not like she’d going to run away any minute; we can afford another hour or so.”

“Why do you care to hear what Foreman says?” House asked him. He did not say that Chase had a valid point, but he sat down at his desk to convey the message that he wasn’t going to force Chase to leave.

“Because I actually give a damn about—”

“Oh, give it a rest,” House snapped, irritated. He didn’t want to think about it now, and he didn’t want Chase to throw it in his face. “You wouldn’t get like this over any other patient. Why is she so special?”

“Fine! I’ll go get the stupid girl!” Chase stood up, pushing his chair back and glaring at House.

“Oh no, stay here,” House said in an amicable tone. He took a bite of his Rueben, and then spoke again with his mouth full. “Your company is just so pleasant.”

Then the door opened and Foreman walked in. Both House and Chase went silent and turned to stare at him, waiting for him to say something. A heavy silence descended upon the room, for no longer could bickering distract them from what Foreman had been doing, and a wondering curiosity rose up. But Foreman looking uncomfortable, and unlikely to say anything, so House returned to eating his Rueben and tried to ignore it, and Chase sat back down in his chair, no longer with intentions of leaving.

“She cried,” Foreman said simply, and Chase saw the words on the computer screen blur before him. He quickly shut the lid before the light could reflect that back to his colleagues.

House stood up and left the room, brushing past Foreman and leaving his half-eaten Rueben alone on his desk.