Title: Closure (1/1)
Prompt: #077 Upset
Rating: PG
Summary: She was known for becoming emotionally attatched to certain patients and cases. Watching others pain just reminded her of her own. These facts pushed her mind back to reality. Her reality. That had been her.
Disclaimer: Don't own.
Closure
It was a complicated chain of events that had led Allison Cameron to be sitting at the back of a church, watching a priest give a speech in an attempt to comfort the loved ones of the deceased.
She was known for becoming emotionally attatched to certain patients and cases. Watching others pain just reminded her of her own. Whether it was the patient itself, or the case, Cameron knew just how emotionally involved she became. In this instance, it had been both.
David Logan. 34. Married. Wife pregnant with their first child. Tumor matastisized to his brain. Advanced. Died within a week of being admitted to Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. There was nothing they could do. Nothing Cameron could do. These facts pushed her mind back into reality. Her reality. Her eyes settled on David's distraught wife being comforted in the front row, and a familiar pang hit Cameron's heart.
That had been her.
The service ended, and Cameron's eye did not leave David's wife. Jill. She had risen from the front row, being held by a friend, and followed the casket down the room. She caught Cameron's eye, her gaze not wavering. The doctor who had tried to help her dying husband. The woman who knew exactly how she felt.
Cameron felt a lump rise in her throat and she pushed it back, looking away from Jill as she was ushered out of the church. Soon, Cameron was left in the empty church, yet she wasn't making any attempt to move. She felt as though she couldn't move. Being here, seeing Jill, had only reminded her of the pain that she was still feeling. For Ben. For herself.
Cameron sniffed, attempting to break away from her thoughts. She looked up, noting that she was the only person left in the tiny church and picked up her bag, standing up and making her way out of the church.
Nearly everyone had left when Cameron reached the stairs and she made her way down them, intent on going straight to her car. What she didn't expect, however, was someone meeting her on the staircase.
Cameron stared at House, who was leaning against the side of the stairs, and walked over to him. 'What are you doing here?' She asked, looking confused.
House smirked. 'Come here every Sunday, didn't you know?'
Cameron continued to stare at him. 'How did you know I was here?' She asked softly, looking away as House stared at her blotchy face.
'It's Sunday. Day off. I woke up alone. I knew this was on today, so I put two and two together,' House replied, tapping his cane on the cement.
'Oh,' Cameron replied, but didn't look at him.
They both stood in silence for several minutes. The only sounds came from House's cane tapping on the ground. Cameron found the noise oddly comforting.
House sighed and looked at her. 'You wanna blow this joint?'
Cameron nodded, finally looking up at him and meeting his gaze. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and tugged her jacket closer to her. 'I've got my car,' She said.
House shrugged. 'Wilson dropped me off,' He replied matter-of-factly. He held out his hand. 'I'm driving.'
Cameron nodded and handed him her car keys as he turned around and limped towards her parked car. Cameron sighed and took one last look at the church behind her, before following House to her car.
xxx xxx xxx
20 minutes later, House turned the keys in his door and let Cameron and himself inside. Cameron looked oddly tense as she walked over to the couch and sat down folding her legs under herself.
House limped into the kitchen, tossing his jacket on the table and walking over to the fridge. 'Drink?' He called out to Cameron in the living room.
'No, thanks,' Cameron replied softly, staring at the fireplace in front of her.
House walked into the living room with a glass of scotch in his hand. He placed it on the table and sat down on the couch next to Cameron. They both sat in silence, neither knowing what to say.
'I-I'm sorry,' Cameron muttered, her voice breaking slightly as she turned her head to look at him.
House looked back at her. 'For what?'
Cameron shrugged, sniffing. 'For being like this. These past few weeks...' She stopped, looking down at her lap and playing with a stray piece of string from her jacket.
'It's been hard for you. I get that,' House replied, looking at the wall in front of them.
Cameron nodded, not really knowing what to say next. She wanted to blurt out everything she was feeling and cry and do everything she knew she should, but something was holding her back.
She swallowed. 'Watching Jill. With David. It reminded me so much of ... me. Seeing her today, it was like watching the past. She is feeling the exact same thing I felt. And I just -' Cameron looked down, tears welling in her eyes, 'I don't want to be feeling like this. I don't. I have been pushing it away for so many years, that now ... It was like I had to experience it again.'
Cameron felt stray tears slide down her cheeks, and she wiped them away angrily. She didn't want to do this now. She just wanted to continue pushing. Away. Pushing it away.
House didn't know what to say. He didn't want to talk. Out of fear, or out of the fact that he didn't want to say something stupid. So he did the only thing that registered in his mind. He reached out an arm and pulled Cameron towards him. She fell onto his chest and put her head in the crook of his neck as she shook. She was wetting his shirt. He didn't seem to mind.
'I-I'm s-sorry,' Cameron said, her voice watery.
'Stop apologising,' House growled into her hair as his grip tightened on her shoulder.
After several minutes, Cameron's breathing regulated and she wiped her cheeks, lifting her head gently from his shoulder.
'I wet your shirt,' She said, smiling.
'You have to clean it,' House replied, letting his hand fall from her shoulder to her waist.
'I'm s-'
'If you say I'm sorry one more time I am going to have to smack you down,' House said roughly.
Cameron raised her eyebrows, smirking. 'You will, huh?'
House rolled his eyes and redirected his gaze to the fireplace in front of them. Cameron knew that too much of this mushy stuff made him exceptionally awkward, yet she had to reach some sort of closure.
'Hey,' She said softly, placing a hand on his knee. House looked at her, waiting for her to speak.
Cameron smiled. 'I love you. And I know you hate all this love stuff so I don't expect anything, but I just needed you to know that I do lo-'
Cameron was cut off when House placed his lips on her's mid-sentence. Cameron gave a small start, before she placed her hands on House's chest and relaxed into his arms. He moved his lips against hers, slipping his tongue into her mouth and feeling it connect with hers.
It was all the closure both of them needed.
