Chapter Two

September 4, 2007

The sun was shining and it was a good day for house hunting. Cameron had a good feeling about it as she went about her morning routine. She knew House had something up his sleeve. Of the three houses he chose, she'd only seen two online. The third was a mystery and she wondered why he'd saved it for last. However, she knew he had his reasons so she merely went along with it. All would be revealed soon.

The first one they looked at was nice, but it was too small inside, despite its large square footage and nice yard so they passed. The second was bigger still, but too far away from where they wanted to be.

"That just leaves your mystery house," Cameron teased as they got back into the car.

"Yep," was all he said as he backed out of the driveway. They headed back the way they came until they reached a gate at what looked like a closed community. The real estate agent they were following opened the gates and they proceeded up the winding road.

The home was at the top of the hill with a full view of the mountains. It also had a three car garage and Cameron wasn't at all surprised.

"So this is the mystery house?" she asked as they got out of the car.

"Yep."

"The website pictures don't do it justice," the realtor told them as she unlocked the front door. "And it comes fully furnished."

"Nice."

It was a large home. In fact, it was considerably bigger than the other two that they saw, but Cameron had to admit it had character and an open floor plan so she knew why House had chosen it. There was certainly room for his piano in the main living area. She could almost hear him playing for her while she cooked dinner in the fabulous looking kitchen.

"Wow…" was all she could say as she looked around while the realtor listed off the features.

"We need a hot tub on the deck," House whispered in her ear as they went outside to check it out. It was covered and screened but had an incredible view.

"I think I know why you saved this place for last," she whispered back.

"You like it, huh?"

"It's amazing. But can we afford it?"

"I wouldn't have bothered to check it out if we couldn't."

He had a point, but still, she was skeptical. "How much is it?" she asked the realtor once they'd gone through the house. She almost didn't care how much at that point. She wanted it.

"Two and a quarter. Although I'm sure we could bring it down to an even two million. It's been on the market for awhile."

Her eyes widened and she looked at House who simply shrugged. When he saw the look of worry in her face he reached for her hand and pulled her out of the room.

"Excuse us," he said to the realtor, who nodded.

When they were out of earshot, he turned to face her. "What's wrong?"

"Can we really afford this?"
"Yes, we can. I have enough to put down a substantial down payment, and when we start working at the hospital we'll be making more than enough money between the two of us." He placed his hands on her shoulders and looked intensely at her. "You trust me, don't you?"

"Of course, but...it's a lot of house...and it's not as close to the hospital as the first place."

"Sacrifices must be made to get what we want. We can do so much with this place. It has plenty of room. Hell it even has a man cave and space for my piano. And did you see the master bedroom? We're definitely going to make use of that poster bed."

She chuckled. "Okay, okay. But you're not the only one paying for it. It's our house, right?"

"Right. Think of our wedding vows. You did promise to love me for richer or poorer. This is the richer part."

She laughed again and nodded. "Okay. Let's do it."

He leaned over and gave her a soft kiss. "I knew you'd see it my way."

After making an offer and signing the paperwork, they headed to a nearby cafe for lunch. "I never get tired of looking at these mountains," she said as they sat outside on the patio.

"Well now you can look at them all day long."

"What if they decline the offer?"

"Then we submit another. We will get that house," House told her, sounding very confident. "Waiting is the hardest part."

"I hate waiting," she sighed as she picked at her burger. "But once we get the house we have to go back to Princeton to pack up our stuff and testify at Greyson's trial."

"Yeah. I forgot that's coming up. I'll need to find a piano mover."

She chuckled at the way he changed the conversation and shook her head. "I'm looking forward to actually making dinner for a change."

"You like to cook?"

"Yeah. I just never seemed to have time or the motivation. Do you think we'll have more time for ourselves now that we'll be running the new hospital?"

"I actually think we will. No clinic, no charting, we choose our own cases, delegate to the team when needed. Which reminds me, we need to find some worthy doctors for that."

"Are you going to hire fellows? Personally, I'd prefer not to."

"I haven't decided. Probably not, just specialists I think might be useful to us."

"Yeah. Well don't be surprised if Chase comes running when he hears that you're hiring."

"Would that bother you?"

"I don't know. He's a good doctor and he's already getting good at thinking outside the box like you can. But we do have a history. I guess I'll know if he applies."

House knew she was right. "I guess we'll just have to see who applies and go from there."

House came through the front door of GG's cabin and dropped the keys onto the table. "Honey, I'm home!"

Cameron laughed as she stood in the doorway of the living room. "What? No hat being tossed onto the hat rack? No kiss hello?"

"No martini?" he replied. "And where's my lunch?"

"Keep it up and you'll be wearing it."

"Spoken like a true newlywed," he said as he lifted her up off her feet and then gave her a long kiss before he set her back down. "How was that?"

"Mmm, I think I'm going to need more convincing."

"I see," he said before throwing her over his shoulder and walking to the bedroom.

Meanwhile, Wilson and Hilary were sitting outside on the deck having drinking iced tea when they heard the commotion.

"They're at it again," he said with a roll of his eyes.

"Oh pish," Hilary replied. "The honeymoon phase is still going."

"I've just...never seen him like this."

"Like what? Happy?"

"Yeah. Not even when he was with Stacy. He loved her, but he was never like this."

"What was he like with her?"

"There were never any PDA's, that's for sure. Stacy could be fun but she was pretty conservative. The total opposite of Cameron."

"I guess Allison is the one."

"Yeah," Wilson said with a smile. "This is just a version of House that I've never seen. Even more since he's no longer in pain. Playing that round of golf before the wedding was huge. We used to play all the time before the infarction."

"There's a country club not too far from here. I'm sure Daddy could get you two into it."

"As long as it's not full of snobs. House hates that crap."

"I don't know. You'd have to ask."

In their bedroom, House's lips were working their way across Cameron's stomach as he untied the string of her yoga pants and tugged them off.

She lay underneath him, her hands gripping the sheets as he went lower still and tugged on the waistline of her panties with his teeth, giving a playful growl which made her giggle.

"Such a tease," she laughed and then gasped when he shoved the fabric aside and penetrated her with his tongue.

"You were saying?"

All she could do was moan in response and close her eyes, leaving House to do what he wanted. He honestly didn't expect sex when he got home from his meeting with the realtor, but his good mood must've been infectious.

After he'd gotten his fill of her, and had her begging for release, he kicked off his jeans and proceeded to make love to his wife. His wife. Those two words tickled him and he smiled against her lips as they kissed.

It didn't take long for them to reach their climaxes and when they did, they clung to each other, their lips crashing together as they both let out a deep, satisfying sigh.

"Mmm...afternoon delight is always a good idea," he said as he kept her close and stroked her hair.

"Always. So where were you this morning? I didn't know you had a meeting."

"It was a spur of the moment kind of thing."

"Where did you go?"

"To meet the realtor."

Cameron sat up. "And you didn't think to wake me?"

"You were sound asleep. I shook you, even whispered in your ear but you just rolled over. I took that to mean you didn't want to get up so I let you be."

"Well? Are you going to tell me why you met with her? Did they accept our offer?"

He nodded. "They did. The house is ours."

She was so excited she practically pounced on him and peppered his face with kisses, making him laugh.

"Excited, much?"

"Much."

"We have to meet with her tomorrow to sign the official papers and do all the fun banking stuff."

She squealed and kissed him again before getting up and finding her clothes. "We're having a celebratory dinner tonight. I'm going to the store."

"Get steaks," he told her. "And wine. Oh, and some non-alcoholic stuff for Bunny."

"Wanna come with me?"

"No way. Shopping is women's work."

Cameron rolled her eyes and laughed as she gathered up her clothes and then got dressed.

(If you want to see the House house, go to YouTube and enter 125 Stone brook Trail, Black Mountain, NC. There are videos that show it inside/out. It's GORGEOUS)