A/N: Nardini's Suck is now accepting applications for a BETA in all my House M.D. stories, have any ideas or thoughts or just want to criticize, please contact me, my e-mail address is in my BIO. I need it DESPARATELY. Inquire Within. : P
Disclaimer: Forgot one in the first chapter. HOUSE MD does NOT belong to ME. Although that sexy voice and eyes have penetrated my dreams for the past three years.
Song is based on "Dig", by Incubus, I will be using the lyrics to bring a point across in one of the remaining three chapters and I don't own that song either.
Dig
The sound of wood on wood ran through the apartment as she finished storing her belongings into its box. She had again been crying, not for him, but for herself, she would indeed miss him, but more than that she would miss all that accompanied Princeton. Knowing that it could only be House she stilled any movements that would cause noise in hopes that he would leave and not make this any harder than it already was.
"I know where you keep your spare." She heard him say through the door and after another rap on the door with his cane she heard a key being placed in her door. Running in her sock covered feet from the couch she managed to push the door shut as he opened it.
"OW!" He exclaimed as the door closed on his hand. "Damn it, Allison!" With a hearty push he was able to open the door wide enough to pull his throbbing hand from the door.
"You know I could get you for breaking and entering." She hissed through the closed door, opening it only a crack to peek at his hand and make sure that he was ok.
"Not when you keep a spare key on the door frame!" He replied.
"Shhh…House, my neighbors don't need to know that."
"What does it matter, you're moving out this weekend anyway. Are you going to make me talk to the door or are you going to let me come inside?"
"Why are you here?"
"I wanted to talk to you." He replied.
"You can't convince me to stay."
"I don't intend on asking you too." He growled, waiting impatiently for her to grant him access to her apartment. A million different thoughts ran through her mind at that moment as she contemplated opening the door to him. Sighing, she came to the realization that his visit would only be brief and it would be better to get it over with now rather than Sunday.
"You about broke my damn hand." He murmured as he stepped through her door and analyzed his surroundings. A mass of boxes covered every inch of the living area in the apartment and he turned to look at her as she closed the door. "So you were serious about leaving?" He smirked, turning his back to her and glancing at the contents of some of the boxes she had yet to tape up.
"House-"
"I don't blame you." He interrupted. "You have every right to move on and better yourself, I won't hold you back, Penn was an excellent choice."
"Thank you." She replied, watching as he maneuvered around the room and snuck a peak at a box marked lingerie. Slowly she moved to him, folding the four corners of the box up and lifting the final tab underneath another to close it. "Why did you come here?" She asked him, folding her arms over her chest and glaring at him.
"You know your posture tells me that you aren't going to be listening to what I'm about to say." He informed her as he took a seat on her couch. "Sit down so that I can talk to you." He pointed to the end of the couch opposite him and she took a seat, a box resting on the middle cushion serving as barrier as he lets his cane rest on the arm rest and rubbed at his throbbing hand.
"Yes." She stated eager for him to begin the conversation for two reasons: to get him out sooner and to see what he wanted to say that required a personal visit to her home.
"Well as you know, I have to interview new fellows starting Monday…." He trailed.
"Yes…" She replied, awaiting the rest of the sentence.
"Well, while they might be educated enough to follow orders, I need doctors who are already experienced to administer the proper treatments to my patients…"
"House, I am not going to…"
"I'm not asking you to…I'm asking the three of you."
"What are you talking about?"
"An offer has been made to both Chase and Foreman already to serve as somewhat equals to me. I will remain the head diagnostician and you three will continue to work under me as your advisor, but you will have the titles of diagnosticians."
"So our supervisor would be?"
"Cuddy." He replied immediately, keeping his eyes on his hand as if looking at it as if he could will the pain away.
"Have you talked to her about this?" She asked, total disbelief etched all over her face.
"Of course." He said his voice somewhat small. "The three of you will run your own cases and can seek the help of one another and will answer to Cuddy, I will be there to advise while dealing with my own cases."
"What have Foreman and Chase said?"
"They said they weren't sure…both said something about talking it over with the three of you."
"Are you serious about this?"
"I wouldn't have offered if I wasn't." He replied, refusing to meet her eyes.
"Who suggested this, you or Cuddy?" She asked.
"I did."
"And she has no problem upping out salaries."
"We just got more funding in for the department, three million a year for the next eight years, your contracts would be for that long."
"You would only be our advisor?"
"Yes." He replied, reaching into his jacket pocket and pulling out a bottle of Vicodin to pop two, this time for his hand.
"We would answer only to Cuddy?"
"No, there are some perks that come with running the department Cameron, the three of you would have to follow only minimal instruction and of course I will assist you on cases if they catch my interest."
"Shit." She muttered under her breath, falling back into the couch and closing her eyes.
"What?" He asked, finally turning to her to watch her pinch the bridge of her nose.
"This is giving me a headache." She replied, opening her eyes to meet his intense blue eyes.
"Do you just not want to hire new fellows?"
"That's a part of it, yes."
"So, if you didn't have to hire fresh blood, this offer…" She trailed.
"I would have still offered it to you. I haven't changed Cameron, the idea of fresh blood is nice, new people to piss off, and the three of you would still run the tests and treatments of our patients-"
"Why?" She interrupted.
"What?" He asked, doing a double take at her bluntness.
"Why are you offering to do this? You don't hate interviews that much and it's not like you couldn't train three new fellows as easily as us….why offer us a higher salary to stay when you've made it clear that you don't need us?"
"I never said that I didn't need you all there. I don't need the three of you, the department would get along fine without you after three more years of training three new people."
"That still doesn't tell my why."
"What the hell does it matter, why? It does not matter why I am offering this position to the three of you, the point is that this is a better deal with more opportunities that you would get at Penn if you stayed eight years there. Same goes for Chase and Foreman with wherever the hell they're going…"
She sat in silence for a long moment after he trailed off. She could feel his gaze burning into her, feel his anxiety as he awaited her reaction. To make matters worse, her eyes were undecipherable, something that House had never seen in her, her eyes had always revealed her feelings in whatever situation she was in. The fact that he could not read her eyes scared the hell out of him to the point that he was actually visibly nervous as to her response.
Silently she looked over to him and gazed into his eyes and for an unknown amount of time they shared an intense gaze. Just as silently she picked herself up from the couch and made her way into her bedroom where he heard her tearing tape from a box and what sounded like the contents of that box being dumped out on the floor before she returned with an ACE bandage.
Moving to stand next to him she pushed the box on the middle cushion to the seat she had unoccupied and took a seat rather close to House. "Give me your hand." She instructed.
"I'm ok." He replied, placing his hands on his knees and readying himself to stand. Cameron's only response was to grab his right hand which caused House to wince slightly. "I told you I'm fine." He growled and stayed so that she would loosen what felt like a vice grip on his hand. Turning his hand so that his right palm rested on her left she examined the hand, pressing lightly on the joints of his fingers and then pulling each one to which he only slightly winced. "They're just sore." He replied. "Like when you got a window rolled up on your fingers."
She remained silent and only turned his hand over so that she could examine his palm and run her fingers over it, gently massaging his palm. He quieted his protests and watched her in concentration, hoping silently that she would not look at him, for he was sure that his eyes would give him away. The feel of her hands on his caused him to involuntarily close his eyes, both in pain and enjoyment as she touched him. What caused his eyes to shoot open a moment later, however, was that hers were shaking.
"Couldn't be broken, I would have never heard the end of it." He heard her murmur, undoubtedly trying to control her movements. He felt it in her touch however, her fingers shook as she ran them over his hands. She looked to him in her peripheral, noting the gaze that he set on her and this time a tremor ran through her whole body, House enjoying every moment of it. Drawing a ragged breath as she chanced a full glance at him she stood to her feet and whispered for him to stay still as she ran after an ice pack.
House obeyed orders and stayed on the couch, staring ahead and contemplating what this could mean. 'I thought she was with the Aussie?' He told himself. 'You caught them damn near making it in the janitor's closet…what would she want with an old man like you when she can obviously have someone her own age?' He had no further time to evaluate as she re-entered and took a seat next to him, placing the pack on his hand and placing his other hand on top of it. "I'll wrap it in a few minutes." She told him.
"You don't have to-"
"I almost broke it, I'll wrap it."
"I'm perfectly capable…"
"I said I'll do it!" She exclaimed, turning and giving him a glare, although her eyes were pleading with him to stay.
"Just because I offered you this job doesn't mean you can boss me around. I'm still your boss."
"I haven't accepted yet, so technically I'm not your employee."
"Ah, but your resignation doesn't kick in until Monday, you're still mine."
"If you only knew." She murmured, looking down at the floor and dropping his gaze.
"What?" He asked, having heard every word quite clearly. He watched as a lump formed in her throat and her eyes noticeably read panic. Throwing the ice pack on the table he turned to her, his right leg screaming in pain as he folded his leg up on the couch, but he didn't care.
"Nothing." She replied quickly. "I forgot the clips for that bandage." She announced, attempting to stand and evade the topic. House would hear nothing of it however, and she was pulled right back onto the couch, her thigh now touching House's knee.
"What did you say?" He asked again, running his hand up to her face to gently pull her face to him and make her gain eye contact. His hand traveled to the top of her head as they stared at one another and she swallowed hard as his fingers ran down her cheek and his thumb brushed her bottom lip, mimicking her movements in the kiss they had shared three days ago.
"I said…"
A/N: I'm tired, will continue in the morning. In the mean time, what do you think should happen? What do you think of it, is it awful, is it a good cliffhanger, I'M NOT ABOVE BEGGING, REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!