Title: Responsive
Author: Eyrianone
Rating: K+
Disclaimer: House and all his collegues do not belong to me.
Summary: "You kissed back." Sequel to 'Response.'
Spoilers: Thru S3
For the last week and half Dr. Allison Cameron had been feeling a little triumphant, and
for none of the usual reasons. Whilst saving lives and solving medical mysteries was the
normal reason she felt this way, recently the feeling had been inspired by something
completely different, something personal for a change and non-work related. . .well maybe
not quite. She supposed feeling triumphant because you kissed your boss while he
kissed you back was, technically, work related. Each day she still had moments when
the reality of it would hit her. . .'House kissed back'. . .and she would find herself having
to wipe the smile from her face.
Granted she had initiated the kiss, and certainly she'd had other motives than just her
natural desire to do so, but still she found herself strangely confident about his response.
Though she knew she'd surprised him, House had willingly participated, and the kiss itself
had been, for her at least, worth the wait. All three years of it.
Something had been changing lately between herself and House, something which she
hadn't noticed until well after the change itself had begun. For so long in their assocation
House had been pretty much a complete mystery to her. While he was consistently rude,
abrasive, demeaning and demanding, the way he would react to a new situation was rarely
predictable. He could be blunt, tactless and brutally honest one moment, and the next
suddenly almost gentle. Often she was convinced he was lying or at least with-holding
information that might - if known - let her see through the fortress of emotional walls
he had around himself.
Recently there were moments, rare, but each burned into her memory, that she would look
into those amazing blue eyes of his and find herself peeking through the armor. Moments
when the person he could be gazed back at her, instead of the person he allowed himself to be.
House was she knew, still vulnerable, and because she saw this, Cameron found herself
completely unable to let go of her emotional attachment to him. She loved him deeply, though
she could never say exactly why. Since almost the first day they met she had simply and
instinctively felt it.
House for the most part, had always acted completely indifferent towards her. Even going so
far at one point early on that he'd flat out told her he didn't like her. It was for Cameron a very
painful memory, a sore point even now when she'd long believed he'd been lying. Deep inside
her an inner voice had always maintained it wasn't the truth, and after years of shared work,
long days and many struggles, that inner voice had become confident and strong. She no longer
required the words from him, she could sense that he not only liked her, but that much as he
tried daily to fight it, he was as drawn to her as she was to him.
She doubted she would ever hear him admit it, and she knew she might never get him to let her
in; but she felt it now and so she'd begun pushing at the wall between them. Testing the
boundaries, experimenting even.
Exhausted with the sexual frustration of wanting House so much, Cameron had decided she at
least didn't have to live with that. She'd taken a lover. . .Dr. Robert Chase. Sleeping with
Chase was fun, it was easy. He was physically attractive, a competent lover, and she felt
absolutely nothing for him emotionally. He was probably the last man she knew that she could
ever fall in love with, that connection required just wasn't there, for her it was safe; and if some
small part of her was using him to provoke House she rationalized it away. When asked,
'I'm over him,' was her standard reply, it kept her private pain over him just that.
Chase suspected she been trying to make House jealous but remained a willing participant,
in the end too willing. Though she'd been very careful to lay the ground rules before embarking
on their physical relationship, Chase had become attached and so she'd been forced to end
the affair immediately. It would have been cruel to continue when there was no way her
feelings were ever going to become involved. Her stubborn heart was committed to House,
and though she no longer wore said heart on her sleeve as she once had, the truth was still
the truth.
At first she couldn't decide whether House had been affected by her fling or not. He certainly
knew of it, he'd caught the two of them about to go at it, but she hadn't seen any instant change
in him. A few days later however she'd felt his gaze on her as if it had a physical presence.
Looking up from a new patient file she'd locked eyes with him and been astonished at what
she saw there.
Heat. Instead of his usual cool, almost distant look, those fiercely vivid eyes seemed to burn
right through her. The intensity was startling, and then it was gone. House dropped her gaze
and resumed firing questions. Flustered she'd barely made it through the diffrential without
making an ass of herself, and judging by the smug look her boss wore as he returned to his
office, her discomfort hadn't escaped his notice.
Since then however, she'd dumped Chase and she'd kissed him, and now it was his turn to be
flustered. Though House being House, you had to know him pretty well to tell.
He was just a tad more cranky and ascerbic than usual. He kept sneaking glances
at her when he thought she wouldn't notice, and whether he knew it not, he kept shooting
murderous looks in Chase's direction. Shooting down Chase's opinions with even more
zealousness than normal. He would look right at her when discussing work, but couldn't
do it if the topic changed. He would focus somewhere behind her and if she managed to
pin his gaze to hers that same heat would reappear, followed by an immediate need
for him to be elsewhere.
She was loving it. For all his denial of any feelings for her whatsoever, House desired her.
Even if it was just a physical thing, Cameron decided it was step forward with him and she'd
waited a long time just for that. So she allowed herself to be okay with feeling a little triumphant
about it, making any progress with House was motivating indeed.