#i do find hameron fascinating from a cameron's character perspective

[all-pacas]

This is something I always wondered - In s2, do you think that cameron was ever jealous of stacy or atleast bothered by her involvement in house's life? S2 cameron was still in her crush era and she has already seen that house is in love with stacy. And house was always kinda flirting with stacy, giving her heart eyes or generally was soft around her which was unlike his usual behaviour. And we do know that cameron always wants to be super involved in house's life. So did she ever get annoyed that stacy is getting the treatment she wished she would get back in s1?

I don't know about annoyed per se, but it was definitely on her mind. In Honeymoon, Cameron was immediately intensely interested in Stacy — enough Stacy called her out on it — and when given free reign to ask her anything, asked what was House like before? She seemed disappointed to learn that House wasn't a drastically different person when Stacy knew him (and while Stacy, Cuddy, and Wilson all agree House has changed, I think she probably is correct that it wasn't… the 180 degree shift Cameron seems to imagine), and at the end of the episode Cameron has a big dramatic moment of "it was me you couldn't love" to House.

I definitely think Stacy was a clarifying moment for Cameron. The thing is, House kind of has a type, you know? Stacy, Cuddy, and Wilson are three points of a very interesting triangle; when it comes to people he likes and is drawn to, there's a real pattern. (Thirteen, with her dry, snarky sense of humor, never missing a beat, is also more similar to this type than not, and he likes her right away too.) Obviously this doesn't mean everyone House could be attracted to falls into this pattern but… it's a pattern. Cameron goes through a lot of S1… doing the very classic crush thing of reading into House's every action and kindness and gesture. Do people like me? Do you like me? House is… gentler to her than he is the boys in a lot of ways, for probably a number of reasons: Cameron wears her heart on her sleeve much more than the terminally repressed Chase and the what-are-emotions prideful Foreman; she also demands he treat her gently, not in the literal sense but — she approaches him for serious moments, attempts at emotional connection, in a way others don't. And House responds, he doesn't shove her away.

I think Cameron overreads a lot of his responses — not to say House doesn't care about her and wasn't attracted to her, but she really goes from zero to you're being mean because you're in love with me real quick lol — but House is also very quick to tell her on their date that she's… looking to fix him. He's damaged, he's lonely (I think the House forgot his own birthday subplot in Socratic Method was 100% the moment Cameron got her crush), but she's also someone Cameron wants to understand, she spends years trying to understand him, from S1 and their little talks to S3 and her attempts at white knighting him and puzzling him out. She wants to be the one who understands him (and tie all that back in to her control freak ways).

Except… Stacy shows up. And Stacy is very different. House spends episodes finding excuses to talk to her, he is constantly thinking about her, and yes, half the time it's this twisted manipulative I need to prove she's in love with me because I lowkey am in love with her ridiculousness, it's unhealthy and was never gonna turn out well, but it's different. Even if it's antagonistic, House shows miles more interest in Stacy than he ever did Cameron. Stacy isn't gentle or sweet or nurturing, and House is and was into it. He wasn't a different person, she tells Cameron. House probably didn't give a shit about his birthday before his leg, either.

Cameron realizes, I think, that she doesn't understand him, he's not the person she thought he was. And Cameron loses interest. Not all of it, not right away, but enough. By S2 she has a little crush on TB Guy; she later sleeps with Chase; these aren't exactly deep connections but they're Cameron showing interest in others, she's not as into House. He calls her on it in S3 by asking her on a date; she actually does start S3 with a touch of white knighting/House analysis/crush time, and has a second brief re-emergence of feelings after the kiss in Half Wit, but she's clearly over him (or as over him as Cameron ever is anyone) by that point. House will always be someone she finds attractive, physically and mentally, but he's no longer the idealized person she created in her head, either.