Author's notes: This is my very first fanfiction and it was written for the any ship contest, my perfect excuse to try my hand. It was inspired by a brazilian X-files story I read many moons ago.
Somehow I think I should add athousandsmiles and 2tailswaggin names beside mine as authors, because they helped me so much, I couldn't possibly thank them enough. I wouldn't never finish this without them.
Girls, as I said before, my first born will be named after you two. ;) Thank you so much for the extreme patience and pushes!
xXxXx
He had been tossing his tennis ball for some time when she strode through his office door without even bothering to knock.
She stopped by the end of his desk, hair in a loose ponytail and dark circles beneath her eyes that seemed as much a part of her daily attire as her pink scrubs.
"House, what is this?" she asked with a weary sigh, holding out a partially unwrapped box.
He sighed, having already accepted this conversation was bound to happen from the moment he left the box inside her locker earlier that morning.
Cameron never quite learned how to simply appreciate and keep moving, did she? There just had to be a conversation over the fact that he was nice for a change.
"And I always considered you the smartest of the old ducks."
The gossip had been flying all over the hospital as usual, and she had been the main topic for at least a month now.
Rumor was her mother had shown up in the ER late one night and they engaged a heated discussion. Ignoring the prying eyes of the staff and patients, her mother yelled for a good extra minute before leaving the hospital, proclaiming Cameron could rot in hell.
Or something very close to that. He didn't know exactly what had been screamed, since Wilson never learned to repeat the exact words properly. Plus, he got the already digested story out of mean nurse #4 down at the clinic, who was not known to be the most reliable source. What really bothered him, however, was the lack of real information on what motivated the whole thing. Cameron was much less susceptible to his charming methods of interrogation after stitching stupid people's foreheads the whole day.
The rumor mill had moved on to other juicy hospital gossip in the weeks since, and things continued on as usual.
And then Chase started dating the new radiologist.
She was a blue eyed, leggy blond that turned Wilson down because she was "a nine and he just wasn't"; something House was still razzing him about. But, if anyone asked House's opinion, she was a perfect match for Chase: brainless, boring and likely to share his taste in hair care products. The two were inseparable, as were their tongues, and they didn't seem to care who saw their very public make out sessions.
After that, looks of pity and muffed comments followed Cameron either way she went. The jury was still out whether the fight with her mother had anything to do with the breakup, or why she hadn't date anyone before Chase.
House was mildly offended that only one nurse seemed to remember how determined she'd been to get inside his pants before screwing the little hair-product boy. But that issue became less relevant when he was distracted by Cameron's sudden ability to hide on some of his favorite spots.
He could understand her need to hide, but didn't particularly enjoy sharing some of his perfect get-away from clinic hide-outs with the endlessly sad, puppy-eyed female.
"You gave me a set of Legos?"
She took a step closer, holding the offending box in one hand.
"No, it's actually the cure for cancer in very small plastic bricks. Is this National Stupid Question Day? Because if it is, I have four hours to make up for, but that certainly would explain Cuddy asking me if I had done all my clinic hours yesterday!"
"Seriously, you gave me a box of Legos? Since when do you even care about my birthday?" She pointed to the small card with a simple Happy Birthday written on it.
"I didn't only give you a box of Legos, I gave you an incredible 2500 piece edition, but you can return the damn thing if you don't like it." He took his feet from the desk and extended his left hand with the palm up, ready to grab the box back. "Except I must say I wouldn't have felt charitable enough to give you anything if you'd just stop walking around the hospital so depressed and moody. You look like shit, and while I'm not sure if that's a new style you are going for, the constant frowning is creating some very creepy wrinkles, and your new resemblance to a bulldog disturbs me. Some would expect that to happen while working for me, not after. Just go ask Thirteen. A week ago she was mumbling about getting a year older for each minute spent talking with me, although I don't hear her complaining anymore. Doing my clinic duty and spending time around little kids with running noses must be making her feel younger again."
She stared at him, a glimpse of offense turning back to confusion.
"Just... why a box of Legos? What am I supposed to do with this?"
"Well, Dr. Cameron, let me enlighten you by pointing out this simple fact, since you obviously had no childhood: with these magic little pieces of plastic you can build anything you can imagine. Even the perfect little world you pretend to live in, where everyone is nice and polite all the time."
She didn't move, still lost by the whole thing.
"Oh, for God's sake, just gimme."
He got up and reached out, grabbing the box before making his way to the middle of the room, sitting on the floor with his legs extended and his back resting against the wall.
"What are you doing? Now you're opening my gift?"
He tore away the rest of the wrapping paper and the plastic, then turned the box over, spreading colorful bricks all around the floor.
"You're so selfish," he smirked, "didn't your mother teach you to share? I'm officially teaching you the important lesson of sharing your toys."
"You're teaching a lesson on sharing?" She stared down at him incredulously, folding her arms. "I seem to remember a time when I asked to borrow your iPod charger during my lunch break and you spent the rest of the day walking around with it in your pocket, just to make sure I wouldn't touch it when you weren't looking." She paused, before adding, "Oh! And that, of course, was after you held the charger in front of my desk, saying 'Do you want this? Really? Too bad, you can't have it,'" Using her most annoying voice to mock his words.
"Well, that's because you had serious boundary issues. I was teaching you another lesson. I'm always trying to pass down my wisdom; I'm all about teaching. Now, are you going to sit down or what? It's kinda rude to stare me down so bluntly. It's really crushing my self esteem."
She sat down beside him and watched as he moved some pieces around, putting some together, shaping them into two legs and a torso.
"What are you making?"
"Cuddy, duh, don't you see the enormous goodies?" He answered, after adding two more pieces on each side of the body, trying to create some cleavage.
He built a small copy of each duckling, both new and old teams. Soon after, he made another figure, a four times taller one, holding a proportional cane.
Taking the new ducklings and Cuddy in his left hand and the old ones in his right, he impersonated their voices, while making them bend down in front of the tallest figure.
"Oh, God House! Give us the grace of your witty mind!"
Cameron smiled wickedly and picked House's miniature up, taking advantage of his occupied hands, and started talking with a low and grumpy voice.
"What are you morons doing now? Get your asses up right away! Go do my clinic hours and abuse my patients for me. I have to steal my best and only," pausing and glaring slightly at him for dramatic effect, "friend's lunch, so I can save my precious money to pay for my own cable here at the hospital, since the cold and heartless - although sexy and incredibly intelligent - Dr. Cameron wouldn't help me. A life without Ultimate Fight Challenge is just not worth living!" Cameron dramatically shook the doll, as if it was crying in sorrow.
He grabbed the likeness of himself from her hand, outraged.
"I sound nothing like that! You suck at being me, you should be ashamed of yourself!"
"Yes, I should! Because I kneel in front of you everyday!" She exclaimed, indicating to the Lego figure that was a representation of her, a little offended while obviously amused.
"I sure would like you a lot more if you did. Just sayin'."
She rolled her eyes and made no further effort to answer him.
"Gimme the whites," he ordered impatiently, pointing out to a small group of white pieces resting by her left leg.
"No, I'm using them to make a car that I'm going to drive to California."
"California? How predictable and annoyingly sunny of you! If you plan to go swimming without a bikini, build two seats in the car, I'll go with you. But remember to make the ceiling high, I'm a tall guy."
"Yeah, I'll make sure we have enough space for you and your huge ego."
"And my cane. Don't forget my cane, it's proportional to my size."
He raised his eyebrows a few times, smiling smugly at her and waving the plastic doll in front of her.
"The cane is two inches long," she pushed his hand away. "You know, that does explain why you are so bitter."
"Ha. Ha-ha. Your sense of humor has improved so much down at the ER. Really, I'm impressed. Do you practice your come backs on unconscious patients?"
He reached out and grabbed a hand full of greens.
"What are you doing? You're using all the green ones!" Cameron whined, trying to get some of them back.
"There are like 500 pieces of each color, what difference does it make if I'm using ten of them?" He inquired, picking up some extra pieces closer to her and adding to the head of the now completed Godzilla, which was already rushing into attack, knocking down Chase and Cuddy on the run. "What are you making anyway?"
"If you must know, I'm making the palm trees for the beach. I don't care if you use greens, just stop taking mine. Get your own!"
She gestured to the monster pile of mixed colors in front of them, as to make her point.
"'Get your own,'" he repeated with a high-pitched voice. "Well, well, who knew little Dr. Cameron could be so possessive." He paused, looking down at the white convertible. "What are you doing in the driver's seat, anyway? You really think I'd let you drive?"
"It's my car, my trip. You're the one inviting yourself along."
"Fine, I take it back. I'm going on my own car, and Naughty Nurse will keep me company."
"Fine, I'll make someone else to go with me."
She built a slightly taller guy, with a large chest and blond hair, while he was still working on Naughty Nurse's boobs.
"I hope you're not expecting much," he mocked suggestively. "By the size of his chest, looks like he has being doing steroids for a while. Your boy toy won't be able to get it up."
"Oh, shut up, House. And he is not on steroids, he just has a great body."
"Yeah, sure. I can already hear the intellectual conversations you two will have. Ohh, dude, you rock! Dude, this is so coool!"
"Are you sure you have enough money to pay for Naughty Nurse's services?" she retorted. "Of course, if she needs extra cash she can always rent out her boobs as flotation devices."
"That offends me," he cried, hand over his heart in false anguish. "You know silicone doesn't float!"
She looked at him shaking her head and let out a small chuckle, being soon rewarded by a genuine smile from him.
"I'll let you drive us back, if we stop to get ice cream on our way," she offered.
"What flavor?"
"Vanilla. Always."
"Sounds good to me. Get your skinny ass out of the seat, the new ducklings are already crying without me and Kutner can't be left unsupervised. He touches my game boy thinking I won't notice. And I have the feeling Foreman is trying to teach the other two stupid ways to answer me during differentials, I swear they have no back-bone whatsoever, it isn't even fun to yell at them anymore."
They stayed in relative silence for a while, moving the pieces around and building a two-floored version of the hospital, which in House's project also included a big flat screen TV and a bed in his office, even though none of the other rooms had any furniture or staff.
"Are you ever going to tell me the juicy details about the mom fight?" He asked, breaking the silence and reaching out for more pieces to finish a balcony.
"Are you gonna tell me about your parents?" she asked simply, not bothered by the question, happily working on a small garden for the hospital's main build.
Touché.
He silently added one more piece, checking his office, which suspiciously seemed to take over almost the whole second floor. Maybe he could show Cuddy the miniature replica as a remodeling suggestion. After all, more space was needed since now he had five people working, not four.
"Hey, Cameron," he said, attaching Chase's feet to the balcony railing, so he'd be hanging upside down next to Foreman.
"Yeah?"
"Happy birthday."
"It's Foreman's birthday. Mine was over a month ago."
He looked up and stared into her eyes for a fraction of second before answering her.
"I know."