Author's Notes: This came out of nowhere. And I take all blame for mistakes as it's unbeta'ed (is that a word? See why I need my beta!)
Spoilers: Everything up to the end of Season 2
Summary: Valentine's Day fluff – House Style.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and places are the property of FOX, Heal and Toe Films, Bad Hat Harry Productions and NBC Universal Television. This piece of fan fiction was created for entertainment, not monetary purposes, and no infringement on copyrights or trademarks was intended. Previously unrecognized characters and places, and this story, are copyrighted to the author. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Mr. Romance
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Mr. Romance he was not. But Allison Cameron had gone into the relationship with her eyes wide open so she never expected flowers or jewelry. And she certainly never expected House to even recognize Valentine's Day. But then she never really knew what to expect from the man, especially in the beginning.
On their first Valentine's Day together he gave her a drawer. No fanfare, just when they went to bed that night he opened a now empty drawer in the dresser in his bedroom and told her to feel free to keep a few things there. He probably never realized that the extra sexual favors that night were due to how happy that simple act made her.
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The next year he actually handed her a box with a bow on it. Like the year before she had gotten him a new game for his PSP and the just issued copy of the swimsuit edition of Sport's Illustrated, so she was a bit nervous that he might have gotten her something expensive. Inside the box was a key ring with two keys, one to the townhouse, one to the sports car.
She moved in two weeks later.
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By year three she was stumped. They were in a well established relationship, and she had no clue whether there would be anything from House or not. She bought him tickets to a jazz fest to play it safe. It was a thoughtful gift, but not too romantic.
She received a set of legal documents making her his medical proxy. Later in the evening she'd snuck off to the bathroom and cried with joy. House might as well have had a skywriter proclaim his love.
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Their forth year together they had just gotten past a pregnancy scare. Cameron had missed her period and a home pregnancy test had given a false positive. It was only when she'd finally been late enough to do a blood test at the hospital that they'd learned she wasn't pregnant. In the end Cameron really hadn't known if she was happy or sad about that. Surprisingly, House wasn't sure how he felt either, although he was definitely leaning towards relieved.
Which left him feeling slightly guilty.
Which caused him to do something really out of character.
That year Cameron received a diamond studded white platinum band and the option to wear it on her right hand or her left. The only stipulation to wearing it on her left hand was that it had to be a quick and simple ceremony at city hall or Las Vegas.
She picked Las Vegas figuring House would enjoy that more.
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While House certainly didn't regret his impulsive Valentine's gift of the year before it left him in somewhat of a quandary for their fifth year together. Especially given that the holiday and his anniversary were now only a week apart. Would Cameron expect something romantic again? It was already February 7th and he had no ideas.
Then he got a patient and all thoughts of anything else flew out the window. Grace Kathryn O'Malley was seven and the only survivor of a car crash that had killed her whole family a year before. She'd been in foster care until several weeks ago when she developed a high fever and became lethargic. Since then she'd been in the children's ward at the University hospital. At least she was until the pediatricians there had admitted they were stumped and had given Cuddy a call.
House had to give them credit. They had eliminated most of the things he would have checked for first. Still he had his crew of relatively new ducklings repeat some of the tests and threw in some new ones to see if he could get a handle on what was going on with the child. He had all the records from the accident and the treatment she'd received. He was going to send one of his ducklings out to visit the foster home to see if they could get up-to-date information as soon as they got back from running tests.
Even as he was thinking this he heard a knock at his office door and he looked up to see a woman in her fifties standing there with a box in her hands.
"Dr. House? I'm Claire Matthews. I'm Grace's foster mother. I understand you are taking over her case and I thought you might want these files," she said in the way of introduction.
It turned out the box contained all of Grace's medical records for the ten months she'd been in the Matthew's care. They were thorough and well organized.
"You chart better than most doctors," he commented.
"That's because I'm not a doctor. Doctor's just want to get the paperwork done. I'm really trying to track what's going on with these kids," she quipped.
House liked her instantly. "What's your gut telling you?" he inquired.
"I think they missed something from the accident. She never fully recovered. She caught every bug that passed through the door and with four kids in the house for most of that time she was constantly sick. Nothing serious, just always had a runny nose, or a cough. I think something is keeping her down. Some infection that hasn't cleared up or something they didn't find the first time around. She was lucky in that she was mostly just bruised up but everyone else in that car died and I'm betting she could have been more seriously hurt than anyone thought. I just haven't found a doctor who was willing to listen to me," she explained.
House nodded. "We'll go back over the charts from the accident with a fine tooth comb," he told her.
"I hope you can help her Doctor. Grace is a really sweat kid. Smart as a whip," she concluded.
After she left House called together his new team, and for the heck of it called in Wilson and Cameron (who still went by Cameron at the hospital) to consult. If Foreman and Chase had still been around he would have called in them too. Something was telling him time was of the essence, and truth be told he'd been suckered in by a set if green eyes and a button nose sprinkled with freckles.
It turned out that Claire Matthews was correct. In the end they found a piece of wire smaller than a pin that had pierced the young girl during the accident and was practically up against the wall of her heart. Luckily it hadn't pierced the organ, but the inflammation and periodic infection surrounding the foreign object had begun to do damage on their own. She would need to have the wire removed and go on a long-term dose of antibiotics, administered via daily shots. If the heart didn't respond well, she might need further surgery to replace one of the valves that looked like it might already have been damaged.
This left Family Services with a problem. Claire and Steven Matthews were not prepared to take in a sick child that would need constant trips to the doctor for check-ups and physical rehab to build up her heart muscles. And neither of them felt they were capable of giving shots.
And that is how House ended up giving Allison the best gift of all. One look into Cameron's sad eyes as she talked to the Social Worker about possible places Grace could go and he'd caved. He would later claim it was delirium from being over-tired, but nonetheless he suggested that they could take her in short term.
After all they both had plenty of vacation backlogged, and it was just until Family Services found a family qualified to handle her unique medical needs.
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One year later on Valentine's Day Greg and Allison House signed the paperwork to officially adopt Grace.
And Allison told House he didn't have to get her anything for the holiday ever again. House agreed to avoid any argument, but he had no intentions of following through.
Mr. Romance he might not be, but he had this Valentine's Day thing down pat.
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The End