TITLE: Asking For The Right Thing

AUTHOR: VIDZ

PAIRING: Hameron

TIMELINE: 2x09 Deception, the night before Hameron had their first bike ride together.

DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc of the TV show House, M.D. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this fic. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: This is the last night's snow House mentioned when trying to persuade Cameron to ride with him in Deception. Speaking from my experience as a biker, the fact that Cameron rode with House in those conditions (cold, hard asphalt, cold tires with no grip; salt, ice and water on the roads) is a testament of just how immensely Cameron trusted House and what a huge amount of confidence she had in him. Only a woman deeply in love with the man is capable of possessing that much trust and confidence and belief. Cameron rode with him on his bike in winter, not caring if her hair got messed and trusting him not to make them fall. Can anyone HONESTLY tell me Cuddy would EVER do the same? Thought not.

SUMMARY: "House." she called softly and waited until he turned and looked at her before continuing "I'll never be able to say no to you, we both know that. But when... IF you ever come asking, please be asking for the right thing."

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"House!"

He was started by the call just as he was about to sneak into the lift.

Groaning he looked up at the ceiling in defeat and in the "Why me?" gesture, then turned around to see Cameron hurrying towards him. Seeing the helmet in his hands, Cameron stopped in dread, then hurried even faster to block his route of escape. "You're not taking your bike home, are you?"

He looked around sarcastically "Well, d'uh, Dr Obvious:"

"You can't be serious..." but the expression on his face told her that he was indeed serious "It's snowing outside!" she exploded in exasperation and fear of what could happen to him.

"How astute of you to notice that, Dr Cameron. You should be the weatherwoman." he snarked, turning back to the lift.

"House." she demanded his attention and, rolling his eyes, he gave it to her, fixing her with a glare

"Let me drive you home." she offered, half pleading.

"But, Mom!" he whined "You're not gonna start cuddling me, are you? Cause I don't want your cooties."

Cameron rolled her eyes "This has nothing to do with... that, House..." they both knew what that was, namely her love for him "...this has to do with the fact that even if I didn't like you, at least as your fellow and co-worker I wouldn't want you to die on the road like a dog. Wilson and Cuddy would never forgive me if I didn't try to stop you from doing this, and I definitely would never forgive myself."

"Look, Cameron..." he started, but went silent when Cameron pulled out her cell phone and threatened him with it.

"You better re-think what you're going to say, cause if you get into that elevator to try to get home on your bike, then the first thing I'm gonna do is to call the security and tell them to stop you. And then I'm gonna call Cuddy. Who will not only chew you out, but will also give you more clinic duty as punishment. And I will give her the idea for it." she looked extremely smug at the way she'd manipulated him into a corner and through his resentment House couldn't help but admire this manuever and be proud to have taught her the art of manipulation.

"Okay." he growled after a minute of trying to stare her down, with her doing the same. Her smile at having beaten him grew only more.

"Let me just get my stuff." she responded.

After scrutinizing him for a few seconds she hesitated, then quickly walked over to the arrived lift and with a press of a button sent it away. House's despondent look revealed that she'd correctly guessed his intentions: to escape while she was busy gathering her stuff.

"Are you taking lessons from Cuddy?" he snarled, but she ignored him, with a motion too swift for him to counter took away his helmet and quickly ran to gather her coat, purse and pack away her laptop.

She hurried back and was lucky to arrive just as the lift dinged again, with House waiting for it. Stepping into the car at the last second she heard House's muttered curse.

The rest of the journey to her car went by in silence, just as she'd expected. House was less than pleased to have been thwarted in his every attempt at independence. And idiocy.

Watching the snow fall thickly he quietly admitted to himself that Cameron was right: this was no time to be on a motorcycle and especially not on a superbike that is even more dangeorus in bad weather. Still, he'd rather spend the rest of his life serving in only the clinic than admit aloud to Cameron that she was right. He was way too stubborn to do that.

They were only a minute into their drive to his house when Cameron couldn't control her curiosity and exasperation anymore "Why does this bike mean so much to you that you would risk riding in snow? It's just a machine, it's not a real person."

"It doesn't come with in-laws, for one." shot House back "It's curves never sag, you can ride it anytime of the month, it whines only when something is really wrong, you can ride it for as long as you want and it won't get sore,.."

"Yes, yes, I've heard of this list." interjected Cameron, but House wouldn't be deterred.

"It never has a headache, it doesn't insult you if you're a bad rider, if you've become bored with the way it looks you can always repaint it or buy some visual mods,..." listed House off, getting into it.

"And you can trust it to never break your heart or betray you." finished Cameron in a sad tone observantly. The last part was actually from the list of why motorcycles are better than women:' a motorcycle never cheats on you'.

House froze ' How the hell can she read me so well? '

"But it can still kill or cripple you." she continued.

"A woman can do that too just as well." his voice was quiet as he unconsciously tapped his useless thigh and Cameron felt her heart twist from the pain in his voice and in her heart. "Many times more cruelly, slowly and painfully than any way a bike can."

"We're not all like Stacy, Greg." Cameron's voice was a whisper, but her use of his name made it louder than a cannon salvo.

"Really?" he turned to her disbelievingly "Then what would YOU have done if you'd been in Stacy's shoes, that after you and I had been living together for 5 years and I had an infarction that was diagnosed too late? I bet you would've done the same."

She looked at him, feeling pain at just the thought of after loving him for 5 years, having to see him in so much pain and facing such an enormous decision. Still, her honesty wouldn't let her say anything else, even though she was sure he wouldn't believe her "I would trust you when you'd decide to go into coma until the toxins left your body. I wouldn't go behind your back to either amputate your leg or to cut out the dead muscle-tissue. I would trust in you knowing more about it, since you're a world-famous professional, to know better than me what to do."

"And what if you had to make the choice?" he challenged her, fire in his eyes. With everything he'd gone through by the hand of other people and even after knowing her for over a year and a half, his mind still couldn't believe she would do what his heart knew she would. "Would you cut off my leg? Or would you cut out the muscles?"

Allison sent him an almost desperate, hurt look, that clearly said ' Why are you doing this to me? Can't you see the thought of you in so much pain and danger hurts me? That what hurts you, hurts me too? Do you really like to see me in pain? '

But he didn't relent and she sighed in resignation, barely holding back tears "I would have you woken up and make the decision yourself."

When he stared at her in disbelief she continued "And I'd hope and pray you would make the right decision for both us and that you'd love me enough not to choose death instead of life. I know it'd be the easy way out by choosing death, but for those who love you and would be destroyed by your death, it would be far from easy."

A solitary tear got through her defences and rolled down her pale cheek. For a second House felt guilty, but quickly suppressed it.

"And if I wouldn't want to live without my leg?" House didn't know why he was pushing this and cursed himself silently for hurting her. As so many times before, his mouth was running off on him.

Cameron had to stop the car, her hands were shaking too much, the held-back tears threatening to blind her. She looked down and sniffled quietly. When he heard her sniffle House hated himself for making her go through this even more. But it was too late, the question had already been spoken.

"Then I would let you do what you wanted. And follow you soon after." she finally said, barely-audibly. She knew it was a risk to say that to a doctor, he could have her committed to the mental ward or fired, but she couldn't hold it in.

"What!?" he couldn't believe his ears "You'd kill yourself if I died?" never had someone loved him so much and it just didn't compute for him "What about when your husband died? You're still alive..." he pointed out.

She was silent for a few minutes, trying to figure out how to answer his question. Finally she decided to tell everything "When I met and fell in love with Dean, I already knew about his cancer, everybody did, I went into that relationship knowing I'd lose him soon. I knew I could easily have stepped away, stopped myself from falling for him, prevented being hurt by his death, but I couldn't. I didn't want him to die alone, I loved him. His family disowned him because he chose to become a doctor instead of a priest, his mother was deeply religious. They were also against any kind of treatment for his cancer, stupidly claiming that it was God's plan and we must'n't interfere with it." she rolled her eyes in anger and impatiently wiped off a few tears "It was the only time in my life that I called someone an idiot and I still don't regret it, they were willing to sacrifice their only child on the altar of their brainwashing religion. I didn't give up on Dean, went with him to every treatment. In the end it was I who asked him to marry me, not the other way around. I wanted him to know I loved him and would be there for him all the way, wanted him to constantly have a solid reminder of my promise. A wedding ring was that. I can't imagine being with someone without commitment to them and from them. When he died..." another tear broke through and she sniffled, continuing with a teary voice "When he died I fell into a depression. I was on anti-depressants for the rest of pre-med and then most of the medical school. I've known him for only a year before he died and it hit me hard."

For the first time since she'd begun to share her past with him she turned her head to lock their gazes. Her green eyes were alight with intensity, fire, passion and another emotion he'd always tried to ignore whenever their eyes met, yet was always there: love.

"If you died after I let myself love you and we became lovers, and especially after we've been together for so long, I'd die too. I wouldn't know how to live without you and, frankly, I wouldn't want to." his eyes were still confused and she knew he wasn't getting it "You were right about me, I'm too emotional, I care too much. I was with Dean for less than a year and his death left me so depressed my parents involved a shrink. If I'd been with you for 5 years, if I'd been allowed to freely love you for so long, you would've been just too much a part of me, you would've been my life and losing you would've been losing my heart. I could never survive it."

House was still speechless at her revelation. It was a new thing for him, to have someone love him so much, so he didn't really have any biting comebacks prepared.

"I know you said I only want you because you're damaged and that I want to fix you, but you were wrong." hesitantly she reached out with her small hand and cupped his bristly cheek, caressing it gently. Against his will House's eyes slipped closed and he leaned into her tender touch. "I don't want to fix you. I don't want to change you. I love you just the way you are. To me you're perfect."

House felt a slight breeze before something soft touched his lips so briefly he wondered whether he hadn't imagined it. Snapping his eyes open he was confronted with the sight of Cameron restarting the car and merging into traffic.

They were both silent the rest of the way, Cameron because she feared she'd said too much and ran him off for good and House because he was still reeling from Cameron's confession.

Stopping in front of his building, Cameron finally looked at her passenger as he was unbuckling his seatbelt.

"House." she called softly and waited until he turned and looked at her before continuing "I'll never be able to say no to you, we both know that. But when... IF you ever come asking, please be asking for the right thing."

He knew what she meant. If he wanted just an affair she'd say yes, but it would destroy her, destroy her heart and the person she was. With him, especially with him, she'd take only one option.

Searching her eyes House didn't have it in him to mock her, so he just nodded sharply and got out of the vehicle, standing on the curb until he saw the rear-lights disappear behind a curve.

Letting himself into his apartment he was faced with the bleak loneliness, an apartment devoid of happiness, even contentness, but definitely devoid of love and warmth.

He couldn't help but think of Cameron's tender face and words of love and something small, yet significant switched into place inside him. He was on the wrong side of 40 and for the first time in his life, suddenly, he began to wish for love and happiness, for instead of entering an empty, cold apartment; to be able to be let into his home by the woman he'd love and who'd love him and be greeted with her loving kiss and gentle, happy words and the delighted yells of their children clinging to his good leg.

There was only one woman he knew would ever accept him the way he was, much less love him, never trying to change him. One young, impossibly strong, gorgeous doctor.

Fueled with a sudden assault of courage he pulled out his cellphone and, upon hearing her voice on the other line, took a breath and changed his destiny, giving her the answer they both wanted.

"I'm asking for a lifetime."

Cameron sat, curled up beneath a blanket on House's couch, reading a book. They'd been dating for 3 months now and she couldn't be happier.

A month ago they'd finally made love for the first time, a long wait that had confused her to no end until House had explained to her however reluctantly after she'd forced him into it ("I may be an ass, but I'm not gonna treat you like a hooker and have sex with you on the first date") and since then she had for all intents and purposes moved into his apartment, his being larger. There was no way they could've squeezed his piano into her small hole in the wall and, since she loved listening to him play and be otherwise surrounded by the things that were him, she'd quite naturally started spending most of the time there.

That's not to say that things were going completely smoothly, it was House she was involved with, after all...

Even though he tried, clearly showing he was serious about them and wanted this to last, his inner ass sometimes still broke through occasionally. Most of the time Cam didn't take the bait, having known him long enough to know it was instinctive and not intentional, he didn't mean it that way. But sometimes she couldn't stop herself. Still, they always made up, for the last month in quite a pleasant way.

I was a gorgeous Saturday morning and she was quite content to spend it at home, relaxing, even though the sunny day outside was practically beggin people to go out.

Therefore, it was quite annoying when House came in, pulled the blanket off her and told her to get dressed.

Her feathers ruffled, she followed his instructions, giving him dirty looks all the while. Which did nothing but fuel his annoying secretive grin.

Hustling her out the door he steered them across the street to a bike shop, of all things. Once they were inside she put her foot down and didn't move when he tried to push her ahead

"What are we doing here?" she demanded, annoyed at being pushed around with no explanation and puzzled as to their purpose there. After their one ride the morning after they'd reached their agreement he hadn't let her near the bike.

Unknown to her, he'd had a scary moment on his way home later that day when his rear wheel had lost traction on the too-cold asphalt for a second and the what-ifs had reared their heads. What if his wheel hadn't regained traction and he'd had Cameron with him... He could've killed her from sheer recklessness of riding the bike in winter, killed the woman he'd committed himself to, the woman who loved him and trusted him, the woman who'd hopefully stay with him for good. He hadn't gotten on that bike that winter again, having finally realized that a sportsbike with 170 HP on the crank-shaft and slick tires had no business doing anything on the road while the asphalt was still cold and hard and the tires cold and not sticking to the road.

Now it was finally March, the weather was warm and sunny and the asphalt had warmed up enough to provide enough grip and, quite frankly, House had become a little restless at being cooped-up instead of out on the road. Allison knew all that, but she didn't know why he didn't just go out himself.

Now here they were, at a standoff.

And for once in his life House decided to be honest, scaring the crap out of Cameron. "We're here to buy gear for you."

Stunned, Cameron could only open and close her mouth for a minute. When she could finally speak it was only one word "Why?"

House grew uncomfortable, looking around.

Seeing him off his kilter, Cameron pressed home her advantage. Closing her arms around his waist and pressing her body against his, she looked up at him, meeting his eyes that he'd kept glued to the ground "Greg." she said softly, catching his undivided attention. "Tell me why. I though you didn't want me to ride your bike with you."

With her pressed so tightly against him and looking at him with those big green eyes he couldn't find it in him to lie nor to change the subject. Giving in he sighed and dropped his forehead on hers, closing his eyes "Because I'd like you to go riding with me."

For a second Cameron didn't get it, but then the light flickered on and her eyes widened.

' Oh. My. God.' was the only thought in her head.

Her eyes filled with tears when the full import of his intent was revealed.

He hadn't brought her here to just buy her gear, he was in fact letting her into his last bastion of singletude, letting her in fully. The feeling she'd been having lately that he wasn't letting her in completely, that there were still parts she had no right of passage, was now explained. Since they'd started sleeping together and Cameron had practically moved in with him, the bike had been the last private time he'd had to himself, to get away from everyone, even from her and get some breathing space. But now... now he wanted to spend even that time with her, he wanted to spend every second he could with her.

She knew most people wouldn't find shopping for motorcycle gear romantic, but to Cameron who spoke Housian it was the most wonderful, thoughtful and romantic thing she'd ever known and, had it been even possible, she would've fallen in love with him even more right then, but she was already loving him as much as anyone can possibly love another person.

Then she was kissing him hard, passionately, ignoring his surprised exclamation she claimed his lips, her fingers curling into his back, as she pressed herself into him so tight not even a microbe could fit between them.

House was dazed when a breathless Cameron reclaimed her tongue and pulled away. There was only one thing she had to say and it was something she had a feeling they both agreed on it.

"A lifetime is not long enough. How about an eternity?"

THE END

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