Okay, just a warning...House is SERIOUSLY ooc in this chapter, but let's chalk it up to him showing his sensitive side to Cameron. Also, the dance references belong to the writers of Center Stage. I absolutly love that movie...and it eliminates the need to keep up with original characters. Ya'll know the deal, read and review. Let me know what you think.


Once all the other ducklings have left Tuesday night, Cameron goes in search of her sister, finding her in the on-call room on the surgical floor.

"Hey," Cameron states, startling her sister. "What are you reading?"

"Just some literature. Reading up on my neurology, wouldn't want House to call me on it again. He's just like you described him."

"But if there's anyone that can find out what's wrong with Captain Reed, he's the one to ask."

"I see that your infatuation with him hasn't dwindled." Cameron ducks her head down and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear nervously. "I have to admit though, for an older guy, he is hot. Gotta give you points for that."

"Thanks," Cameron gives her a wry smile before taking a seat on the floor next to the bed.

"So there's a rumor going around the hospital that you've got some hot date tonight." Thatcher sits up and starts playing with Cameron's hair.

"Yeah, well, you know how hospital rumors are."

"Yeah, there's usually a shred of truth to them. Who's the guy?" Cameron tilts her head back and smiles softly.

"No one you know."

"No shock there, given that I'm stationed in a different country. Fine, no names, tell me about him." Thatcher takes the tie out of Cameron's hair and starts to put her hair in a French braid.

"Just a guy."

"Any clue what you're doing tonight?"

"Nope. He just told me to wear comfortable shoes and bring an appropriate jacket."

"So what will you wear?"

"Jeans, sneakers and one of my Beatles shirts."

"And the 'appropriate jacket'?"

"Remember that one I got at Urban Outfitters two years ago?"

"Yup. Nice choice."

"Thanks." The siblings remain silent for a moment, before Thatcher speaks up once again.

"So how did you two meet?"

"Here, at the hospital."

"He's a doctor?"

"Yeah."

"First date?"

"I'll let you know tomorrow."

"Tonight is your first date?"

"Yeah. We've tried other times, but something always comes up. We managed to get through a cup of coffee two weeks ago. We made a deal that if we could go two weeks without wanting to kill the other, than we'd arrange an 'real' date. The other times have just been filled with small talk: favorite movies, books, and such."

"Ahhhh, so this is the 'feelings' date."

"Hopefully. He's not known for revealing his feelings, so hopefully I won't scare him off. I think this will just be to give me a little insight into him and what he likes, the next date, I get to plan."

"What are you going to do? Or have you not planned anything, in case tonight goes badly."

"I've got an idea, but I'm not sure."

"Well, if you need any help, you can come to me as long as I'm here." Thatcher finishes off the braid, tying it off.

"Thanks. It's good to have you here, Angie." Thatcher leans back on the bed to continue reading, but is interrupted when something is thrown on her chest. She puts the book down and picks up a key chain with a key attached to it. She looks to her sister, not voicing her question. "Spare key to my place. Just in case." Cameron leaves before Angela can say anything


Cameron is putting the finishing touches on her make up when she hears the knock on her door. Glancing down at her watch, she see that it's just before six. She gives her hair one last primp, having left it in the braid her sister put in it, all she did was make sure that it was still secured before grabbing her purse and answering the door. Immediately she notices that he's wearing his leather jacket. I guess this means that we're taking the bike.

"Hi." She hopes her voice doesn't sound breathless.

"Hey. You can leave that here." He motions to her purse. "You won't need it."

"Okay." Cameron drops her bag on the couch, pulling out a tube of lip gloss and her ID before returning to the door. Closing and locking it, she turns back to House, looping her arm through his. "So, are you planning on telling me what we're doing tonight?"

"Nope, that would spoil the surprise." Once they've reached the curb, House grabs the spare helmet and hands it to Cameron, who dons the helmet before straddling the bike, scooting as far back as she can, before being stopped by the basket strapped to the back. She attempts to peak into it before she's stopped by a gentle smack on the hand by House, who straddles the bike himself, putting it into gear and pealing out into traffic, causing Cameron to grab tight around his waist.


"Where are we?" Cameron looks around and recognizes the grounds of a high school just outside of town. House gets off the bike, giving Cameron a helping hand before unstrapping the basket, handing it to Cameron with an apologetic look on his face. She takes it without question, before being dragged off to the woods surrounding the practice football field. In the dim light, Cameron notices that they're following a path. After a moment of silence, they come upon a clearance. House glances at his watch before taking in the setting sun.

"We've got a few hours." He cryptically states before pulling out a thin blanket that was tied to the top of the basket and spreading it out on the ground and settling himself down, leaving space for Cameron.

Cameron remains standing, though she does drop the basket. "What are we doing here?" She asks again, hoping for an answer.

"McKlustky meteor shower is supposed to show tonight. I thought we could watch it."

Cameron drops beside him is silence, stunned. "Wow, I have to admit, I figured we'd be doing something like watching TiVo'd L-Word episodes while enjoying take-out."

"Well," House reaches into the basket for the rest of the items, and pulls out a container from a Chinese food place up the street from the hospital - one that the team has often frequented on a late night watching after a patient. "You got part of the evening right."

Cameron laughs before taking one of the containers labeled with her name and settling herself beside House, who opens up is own container of Chicken Fried rice and proceeds to eat. They sit in silence, with House attempting to steal some of Cameron's food, though he's snipped at by her chopsticks every time.

"How long until this meteor shower starts?" Cameron asks as they finish their food and put the empty containers back into the basket.

"About 3 hours, if it starts when the space people say that it's supposed to."

"And what are we supposed to do until then?"

"How about a question game? I ask you one question, you answer; you ask me, I do the same, though we both reserve the right to plead the fifth."

"Deal." They both lay down on the blanket, staring up at the sky while they each think up a question, House is first.

"If you could spend the day with only one of your parents, who would it be?"

"Dad. You?"

"Mom. What would you do."

"When I was an undergrad, I was home every weekend. Dad had a vintage car that we were restoring together. That's what we'd do. We'd spend the entire weekend in the garage talking about everything and nothing."

"What kind of car?"

"'68, GTO." House lets loose a low whistle.

"That's a nice car."

"Yeah, apart from the fact that it gets maybe 8 miles to the gallon."

"What does he do with it now?"

"He shows it in antique car shows."

"How much work did you two put into it?"

"Let's put it this way…it's a really good thing that three of his five children got scholarships to college."

"That much, huh." The two remain silent for a bit before House once again breaks the silence, "What are you thinking of?"

"I'm trying to figure out if those three stars are Ares or three random stars." House follows her pointing finger to pick out three stars in a V shape.

"It's Ares. And those two over there," House takes her hand and directs it to a pair of stars just below them, "Those are Gemini."

"Nice. What are you thinking about?"

"How much crap I'm going to get from Elliot tomorrow."

Cameron laughs softly. "Does she know what you were planning on doing tonight?"

"Nope, and I'd like to keep it that way."

"She won't hear anything from me." Cameron turns her head and meets his gaze before snuggling closer to him under his arm as he puts it out for her. Cameron poses the next question. "What happened with the cadaver that you had during gross anatomy? Elliot told me that she had an unknown cause of death and that you figured it out and told her family the truth. What happened when you told her family?"

"Nothing. She was the only child of only children. Her parents died a few years before… the only family she had left was her senile grandmother, and I don't think that she fully understood what it was that I was telling her. Why did you choose Immunology?"

"My best friend died of AIDS when we were 18. I was determined to find the cure before I died."

"Instead you come to work for me."

"It has it's perks. If I hadn't come to work for you than I wouldn't be here right now."

"I beg to differ. Prometheus once stated 'Once, a long long time ago, all people had four legs and two heads. And then the Gods threw down thunderbolts and split everyone in two. Each half then had two legs and one head. But the separation left both sides with a desperate yearning to be reunited, because they each shared the same soul. And ever since then, all people spend their lives searching for the other half of their soul'. We would have met eventually."

"Are you calling me your soul mate?" Cameron turns her head to watch him as he answers.

"If I said yes, would you run away?"

"If I did, would you chase me?"

"Sorry, gimp leg."

"Seriously, House."

"Seriously…" House looks down into her eyes, "Yeah, I would." He leans down and delivers one of the sweetest kisses that Cameron had ever received, though he pulls away before it can gain any intensity. "So, perfect rainy afternoon would be spent doing what?"

"Cooking with Dad."

"You cook with your dad, restore cars with your dad, and talk to your dad. Is there anything that you do with your mom?"

"Yeah." House looks down and sees that she's biting her lip in embarrassment. She laughs softly before continuing. "Mom taught me how to relax."

"By doing what?"

"You know that blue and white blanket on the back of my couch?"

"Yeah."

"First one I ever made." She looks up at House. "Mom taught me how to quilt and crochet."

"Hmm." House takes a moment to ponder this new piece of information. "Did she affect your decision to become a doctor?"

"No. When I was 12, she took me to work with her one day. There was a woman that just had her appendix removed and her stitches popped. I passed out from the sight of the blood."

"Obviously you got over that."

"Obviously. What made you choose nephrology?"

"No one else in my class was going to specialize in that field,"

"And you always want to be different."

"Yup."

"Why'd you choose Infectious Diseases as your subspecialty?"

"There weren't any nephrology fellowships offering when my residency was up, there was one in infectious diseases."

"I half expected you to say something like you closed your eyes and opened your anatomy book to pick your specialty."

"I considered doing that, but decided against it. I could have opened up to the Immune system…and then where would we be?" Cameron smacks his shoulder playfully before settling back into his side, grin firmly in place. "What do your other siblings do? You said that 3 of you got scholarships."

"Alex went to the Naval Academy. Angela got a partial scholarship, then joined the Navy to pay off her med school bills. I also got a partial scholarship for college. Ashley got a full ride to Julliard, and Adam has one more year at CU-Boulder for Geology and Environmental Studies. So technically four of us got scholarships, but since Angela and I only got partial ones, they combine to make one."

"What's Adam going to do?"

"He plans to work for the EPA."

"And Ashley?"

"Senior year, recruiters will be attending her senior showcase and musical. She's hoping to get a spot at the Cooper Neilson Dance Company…And you have no clue what that means."

"Sorry."

"The founder of the company was trained at a Julliard feeder academy, primarily in ballet. Ashley's the same, she always took ballet. A guy that she dated her freshman year got her into jazz and hip hop. CNDC has the most eclectic combination of dancers of any other company. They don't care about how good your feet are, just that you love to dance."

"Sounds nice. I always pictured you as a dancer."

"I did a little; was in a few musicals in high school."

"Really? Which ones?"

"Sophomore year was Little Shop of Horrors, Junior was Grease, and Senior year was Rent. What about you? Did you ever lend your musical prowess to the drama department?"

"Not willingly."

"Translation?"

"Senior year I found out that I had to have a fine arts course in order to graduate. I wanted to take jazz band, but the only period that class was offered was the same period as Anatomy. So I wound up in Drama. And I was forced to audition for the Spring musical in order to save my grade."

"What was the musical?" The laughter is obvious in Cameron's voice.

"My Fair Lady. I played Henry Higgins." Cameron can no longer contain the laughter and as it erupts, House pulls back slightly. "What's so funny?"

"The thought of you with a British accent." Cameron calms down just enough to speak. "Sorry, but that is kind of funny."

"What spots did you hold?"

"Sandy in Grease, and Maureen in Rent."

"Good girl gone wild for one, and a lesbian in another? Interesting selection. What spot did you have in Little Shop of Horrors?"

"Female lead. I don't even remember the character's name anymore. I'd rather forget that whole experience…the wig I had to wear was horrendously uncomfortable."

"Very well, let's move off of our high school embarrassments."

"What made you want to go into Diagnostics?"

House is silent for a bit before he begins this story, his voice so low and soft that Cameron strains to hear him.

"When I was a teenager, my dad was stationed in Japan. I met this guy there, he had a medical degree but he worked in the morgue. He was considered one of the untouchables in Japanese society, but he was the doctor that people went to when they had a case that they couldn't solve…and that was the only time they ever spoke to him. If someone ever died and no one knew how, he'd do their autopsy and find out what went wrong with them. He was probably one of the smartest people I'll ever know, and the most brilliant doctor, and it's a title that he'll never be referred as."

"That explains a lot."

"Oh God, you're going to analyze me again, aren't you?"

"Just shut up and deal. Here's a man that you admire, a man that essentially has no place in society, he could do what ever he wanted, and people ignored him. You feel like you're just drifting from place to place, people ignore you no matter what you do. Unless you do something great."

"Society never recognized when he did something great."

"But you do. And you show it by using that knowledge and passing it on to others, like me and Chase and Foreman. You don't let Cuddy or the public recognize when you do something great, but we know, and we'll remember…and one day we'll use it to save another. And like it or not, people DO admire you."

House turns on his side and faces Cameron, remaining silent until she turns and faces him. They each prop their heads up on their hands and stare at the other in silence. Finally Cameron breaks it.

"Why did you lie? When you said that you didn't like me?"

"Everybody lies."

"But why did you lie?"

"Because even then I knew that I was in love with you, and I thought if I pushed you away hard enough, then you'd take the hint."

"I'm not sorry that I didn't."

"Neither am I." House leans forward until their lips touch. Slowly this kiss does build in intensity until House pushes Cameron onto her back and moves so he's half on top of her. Briefly, before her eyes close, Cameron registers flashes of light in the sky above her.

Perfect timing she thinks, before allowing her eyes to close and just enjoy the assault on her lips. After several minutes, they pull back for air, and then Cameron allows her eyes to open and register that the meteor shower has begun.

"Wow." She lets the word out on an exhale.

"I have been told that on occasion." House replies with a grin. Cameron smirks and pushes him back to his side of the blanket.

"I meant the meteor shower."

"Right." House adjusts himself again, allowing Cameron to use his arm as a pillow when she snuggles back into his side, lying back to enjoy the miracle that occurred that night.