To her credit, Allison held her ground well. He had half-expected her to react with shock, but the fleeting reaction that crossed her face was more one of frustration.
"Me." She repeated back to him, distrustfully. She was clearly suspicious of his motives. He wasn't sure quite what that meant, but it certainly indicated that he still held some sway with her. House smirked and looked down at the ground, tapping his cane. After a moment he raised his eyes again to meet hers.
"I'm firing Kutner," he clarified, "I want you back on the team." His face was turned down to the ground, but he kept his eyes locked on hers. This time her reaction was as he predicted. She sighed melodramatically and dropped her hands to her side.
"We've gone through this, House. I'm done with diagnostics. I'm in the Emergency Department now, and I'm happy. You've already tried to get me to come back, and I've already told you – no." Her argument hadn't changed at all, but he still wasn't convinced that she truly meant it. The fight was going out of her, and he could see her starting to falter. So of course, he took advantage of it.
"It's after nine o'clock, your boyfriend has been home for hours now, and you're only just leaving work. And it's starting to happen more, and more often – three times already this week, by my count. There are two possibilities as to why you would say you are happy in those circumstances. Either you enjoy your work and don't mind that you never see your boyfriend, or you're lying. If it was the first, Chase would be driving you crazy. He's clearly the girl in your relationship, so I imagine that he subjects you to bouts of whining about how you're never home and then complains that you never tell him he's pretty…"
"Wait a second, you've been spying on me?" she interrupted indignantly, "even for you, that's a new low." He noticed that she ignored his barbed remark. "You don't want me back, House. If you were really going to fire Kutner, you would have by now. And besides, Cuddy has promised that I'll be first in line for the next position to open up in immunology." She was starting to get worked up now, her keys jangling audibly as she swung her hands. House decided to poke a little more and see what he could uncover.
"Yeah," he whined, "I could have fired Kutner, but then I would have had to hire again. This way, I can get rid of him and his issues, and not need to deal with idiots again." He watched her as she briefly considered it, before she caught herself.
"No, House. Once again, the answer is no. Even if I were considering returning to diagnostics, I wouldn't let you fire someone to create a position."
"Do you miss me?" His sudden change of topic threw her, and a look of shock flew across her face. She opened her mouth to reply but he continued before she got the chance. "When you left, you said that you would miss me."
"I've told you before. I miss the job. You're just the misanthropic bastard who hired me." He chuckled at her comment.
"Did you quit because I fired your boyfriend?" The old saying goes, poke a bear often enough and you're likely to get bitten. "Or is that why you went out with him… pity?"
"I quit for my own reasons, House. You can leave Robert out of it." She was starting to fume now, clearly uncomfortable with the continued pressure he was putting on her. He noticed it seemed as though she was finding it harder and harder to remember her original reason for leaving. He took a step towards her, closing the gap between them. She looked stunned as she backed up against the car, the cool metal a shock on the back of her arms. He locked his eyes on hers and her mouth went dry. Mentally kicking herself, she struggled to think of something to say. She knew he was manipulating her, deliberately intruding on her personal space, trying to make her uncomfortable.
Damned if she'd let him. As he took another step to trap her against the car, she ducked her head and slid in through the open door. The movement broke the contact between their eyes and suddenly she remembered how to speak.
"Was that all, House?" Her voice was cool. He briefly wondered if that final push had been a mistake. He gave a curt nod in reply and watched as she shuffled in her seat, putting on her seatbelt and ferociously jabbing the key in the ignition. Her demeanor became icy, a sharp contrast to the fear and confusion he had seen in her eyes only moments before. This was Allison Cameron, back in control. "Then if you don't mind, I'd like to go home."
House stepped back from the car and she closed the door. He played with his cane absentmindedly as she started the engine and reversed out of the bay. After a moment or two, he sucked in a deep breath and turned to make his way towards his bike. He was going home to think.
