FIC: "The Evolution of Caring", Allison Cameron
Title: The Evolution of Caring
Fandom: House, M.D.
Characters: Allison Cameron
Community: psych_30
Rating: G
Prompt: 03. Addiction
Word Count: 898
Spoilers: None
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: Not mine. Could happen, though.
A/N: Many thanks to amazonqueenkate for the late-night beta. I wasn’t expecting this to go quite as it did, but I like it.
When Allie was three, she watched her mommy take David’s temperature, then shake her head. “Still sick, David,” she said softly. “You want some juice?”
David, Allison’s oldest brother, nodded, coughing. “It helps my throat.”
“Come on, Allie,” her mom said, rising. “Let’s get David some juice.”
“Can I bring it back?” she piped up. “I want him to get better.”
Her mother smiled down at her. “Sure, Allie. You can help.”
At seven, Allie’s baby sister was born. Her mom and dad were upset, and she overheard them saying something was wrong with Cara. Allie didn’t care; Cara didn’t cry a lot, and she was sort of limp when Allie held her, but Allie got to feed her. David and Bobby mostly ignored the new baby, more interested in teaching Jimmy to throw a ball.
Allie’s mom was working from home when Allie was nine and Jimmy fell hard on the edge of the sidewalk, cutting his knee so deep Allie could see white under all the blood. Their mom was busy with something, doing paperwork and scribbling numbers, and David said they shouldn’t bother her. Instead, Allie soothed away Jimmy’s tears before she told her big brothers to bring her a big Band-Aid and the Neosporin, with a clean, wet cloth to clean up his knee first. They skittered off to do her bidding, and David came back lugging Cara, who was calling, “Aw! Aw!” After she bandaged Jimmy’s knee, she took Cara from her brother, going back inside to get her a snack.
It took some doing, but at thirteen, Allie convinced her parents to let her foster kittens from the local shelter. She didn’t mind waking up to their mewling every two or three hours, and they entranced Cara. Even her brothers helped feed the four tiny things, David laying claim to the all-black one. Allie kept the littlest, a tiny dark tabby with white paws, to herself, eventually naming it Peach and charming her parents into letting her keep it, and Jimmy and Bobby traded off the orange-striped and the white ones.
Cara got sick, really sick, for the first time when Allie was fifteen. Pneumonia, the doctor said, and Allie begged and pleaded to stay home and take care of her sister. Grades were more important, her dad said, overruling Cara’s plaintive cries for Allie between coughing fits, and Allison took care of her after school instead, doing her homework well after Cara had finally gotten to sleep for the night. She even slept on Cara’s floor, so she’d be there if Cara woke up in the night.
David let it slip to Allie when she was seventeen that her physiology course would require killing and dissecting frogs. She hated the idea of killing anything, even a spider in Cara’s room, so she broke a window to the science lab late one Tuesday night. It was only after she’d released the last frog, hoping they’d find their way to the nearby creek, that the flashlight beam caught her. It was a misdemeanor, and the judge sentenced her to community service at an elementary school’s after-school program. For Allie, that was more reward than punishment, and she’d have done it all again.
Allie couldn’t bear to think of leaving Cara or Peach when it came time to pick a college. They were living in Durham at the time, and Allie’s grades were good enough for a partial scholarship. So she went to Duke for her undergraduate work, planning to become a nurse. At twenty, she met Tom Cameron. She could tell he was sick, his face drawn and hair thin, but he made her laugh, and feel loved in a way her family couldn’t manage. She married him at twenty-one, already knowing he was probably going to die, but she’d care for him as long as she could. Their honeymoon was a weekend in a hotel, close to the school and its hospital.
Six months later, Allie’s family gathered around her as she wore a widow’s black veil and modest suit, watching her husband’s casket be lowered into the ground. David and his wife flew back from Illinois, where he had a modest law practice, and Bobby came home from school. Jimmy was still at home, in his senior year of high school, and Cara didn’t seem to quite understand, but she gave Allie a hug and stayed close to her all the same. That day, Allie filed the paperwork to change her major from nursing to pre-med.
After Allie finished her internship and got her certification as an immunologist, she started casting her net for a fellowship. She narrowed her focus to ones with convenient adult day care centers, and the one she pursued most aggressively was with one Dr. Gregory House. Princeton had an excellent facility nearby, and Cara could even stay the night there, if need be. Once Allie had the job, she talked to her parents about taking Cara. In their sixties, they were too old to have to keep taking care of her, and they agreed readily. Cara was just happy to be with her sister again.
Now, after a day of being Cameron and working her ass off to save patients, sometimes from the cure, she stops by Princeton’s Rainbow Adult Center and picks up Cara, and then she’s just Allie again, taking care of the baby.
Fandom: House, M.D.
Characters: Allison Cameron
Community: psych_30
Rating: G
Prompt: 03. Addiction
Word Count: 898
Spoilers: None
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: Not mine. Could happen, though.
A/N: Many thanks to amazonqueenkate for the late-night beta. I wasn’t expecting this to go quite as it did, but I like it.
When Allie was three, she watched her mommy take David’s temperature, then shake her head. “Still sick, David,” she said softly. “You want some juice?”
David, Allison’s oldest brother, nodded, coughing. “It helps my throat.”
“Come on, Allie,” her mom said, rising. “Let’s get David some juice.”
“Can I bring it back?” she piped up. “I want him to get better.”
Her mother smiled down at her. “Sure, Allie. You can help.”
At seven, Allie’s baby sister was born. Her mom and dad were upset, and she overheard them saying something was wrong with Cara. Allie didn’t care; Cara didn’t cry a lot, and she was sort of limp when Allie held her, but Allie got to feed her. David and Bobby mostly ignored the new baby, more interested in teaching Jimmy to throw a ball.
Allie’s mom was working from home when Allie was nine and Jimmy fell hard on the edge of the sidewalk, cutting his knee so deep Allie could see white under all the blood. Their mom was busy with something, doing paperwork and scribbling numbers, and David said they shouldn’t bother her. Instead, Allie soothed away Jimmy’s tears before she told her big brothers to bring her a big Band-Aid and the Neosporin, with a clean, wet cloth to clean up his knee first. They skittered off to do her bidding, and David came back lugging Cara, who was calling, “Aw! Aw!” After she bandaged Jimmy’s knee, she took Cara from her brother, going back inside to get her a snack.
It took some doing, but at thirteen, Allie convinced her parents to let her foster kittens from the local shelter. She didn’t mind waking up to their mewling every two or three hours, and they entranced Cara. Even her brothers helped feed the four tiny things, David laying claim to the all-black one. Allie kept the littlest, a tiny dark tabby with white paws, to herself, eventually naming it Peach and charming her parents into letting her keep it, and Jimmy and Bobby traded off the orange-striped and the white ones.
Cara got sick, really sick, for the first time when Allie was fifteen. Pneumonia, the doctor said, and Allie begged and pleaded to stay home and take care of her sister. Grades were more important, her dad said, overruling Cara’s plaintive cries for Allie between coughing fits, and Allison took care of her after school instead, doing her homework well after Cara had finally gotten to sleep for the night. She even slept on Cara’s floor, so she’d be there if Cara woke up in the night.
David let it slip to Allie when she was seventeen that her physiology course would require killing and dissecting frogs. She hated the idea of killing anything, even a spider in Cara’s room, so she broke a window to the science lab late one Tuesday night. It was only after she’d released the last frog, hoping they’d find their way to the nearby creek, that the flashlight beam caught her. It was a misdemeanor, and the judge sentenced her to community service at an elementary school’s after-school program. For Allie, that was more reward than punishment, and she’d have done it all again.
Allie couldn’t bear to think of leaving Cara or Peach when it came time to pick a college. They were living in Durham at the time, and Allie’s grades were good enough for a partial scholarship. So she went to Duke for her undergraduate work, planning to become a nurse. At twenty, she met Tom Cameron. She could tell he was sick, his face drawn and hair thin, but he made her laugh, and feel loved in a way her family couldn’t manage. She married him at twenty-one, already knowing he was probably going to die, but she’d care for him as long as she could. Their honeymoon was a weekend in a hotel, close to the school and its hospital.
Six months later, Allie’s family gathered around her as she wore a widow’s black veil and modest suit, watching her husband’s casket be lowered into the ground. David and his wife flew back from Illinois, where he had a modest law practice, and Bobby came home from school. Jimmy was still at home, in his senior year of high school, and Cara didn’t seem to quite understand, but she gave Allie a hug and stayed close to her all the same. That day, Allie filed the paperwork to change her major from nursing to pre-med.
After Allie finished her internship and got her certification as an immunologist, she started casting her net for a fellowship. She narrowed her focus to ones with convenient adult day care centers, and the one she pursued most aggressively was with one Dr. Gregory House. Princeton had an excellent facility nearby, and Cara could even stay the night there, if need be. Once Allie had the job, she talked to her parents about taking Cara. In their sixties, they were too old to have to keep taking care of her, and they agreed readily. Cara was just happy to be with her sister again.
Now, after a day of being Cameron and working her ass off to save patients, sometimes from the cure, she stops by Princeton’s Rainbow Adult Center and picks up Cara, and then she’s just Allie again, taking care of the baby.