DISCLAIMER: I don't own HOUSE MD
AN. I got all restaurants and stuff from the web. Thank you PRINCETON DINING GUIDE. Lol Plus, I don't really know if I'm a Barry Manilow fan... I don't mind him, but the two songs mentioned are the only ones of his I own, and I got them from iTunes.
Chapter Three
The silence that filled the car was neither awkward nor comfortable as House drove to their destination, but rather one of, uncertainty, as neither party was sure where to begin a conversation. It suddenly became easier when House, in an effort to drown the silence, turned on the radio to find Barry Manilow's Mandy playing, and he and Cameron both moaned slightly in unison.
House gazed sideways at her in interest. "You're not a fan, either?"
Cameron shook her head, grimacing. "No. There's only one Barry Manilow song I've ever liked, and he didn't even sing it originally."
House raised an eyebrow. "Oh? What was that?"
To his surprise, Cameron blushed. "I don't want to say."
"Oh come on!" he protested in disappointment. "You can't just leave me hanging!"
"Uh, I'm pretty sure I can," she teased. "It's embarrassing..."
"Oh come on, I won't laugh," he pleaded. Off her smirk he admitted. "Ok, I might. But I promise not to ever bring it up again."
Finally, she relented. "Fine. Let me be your wings."
House frowned. "Never heard of it."
She gave a small shrug. "It's from Thumbelina."
House nodded in understanding and then chuckled.
"Shut up," she glowered at him, but she was smiling.
Music was an easy conversation to get them to the restaurant, seated and order. That led to movies and musicals, and then books and television. It surprised House how well the night was going, and then Cameron made a surprising admission over dessert.
"I almost said no when you asked me," she admitted sheepishly.
House's heart skipped a beat but he remained casual. "Oh? Why?"
She thought carefully over her words before she said them, not wanting to give him the wrong impression.
"I was just... being cautious," she answered and House snorted.
"You mean, in case I was an ass like last time we went out?"
Cameron blushed, but laughed lightly. "If you want to put it that way, then yeah."
"So what made you say yes?" he asked her.
Cameron decided to leave out the fact it had been Zoe who accepted on her behalf, but answered his question with a half-truth.
"My friends said I should take a chance, so I did," she shrugged.
House raised an eyebrow. "Really? Just like that?"
She grinned. "That's all I'm going to say on the subject."
House groaned in disappointment. "Oh come on. What did they say?"
"I'm not going to tell you, because it's a girl thing and you wouldn't understand," she insisted, then suddenly paused. "Although you might provide some insight."
"Ok, so?" House pressed, truly interested to know what had made her accept the invitation.
Cameron took another bite of her dessert and swallowed before speaking. "Fine. We've all read He's just not that into you, and it's kind of Zoe's bible. She lives by that book, that was mainly why we all read it, so we could understand what she was talking about," she explained.
"And 'we' are?" House asked.
"Me, Kate and Emma," Cameron continued. "Anyway, a big part of the book is don't bother with guys who don't call, insult you, don't believe in marriage or commitment, only want to have sex, don't want to have sex, don't want to meet your family or friends, etc, etc."
"Basically any version of me?" House finished. "I don't understand why that helped you say yes."
Cameron giggled. "Well, the first thing they tell women is that all those stories you hear, like 'my sister's college roommate was with this guy on and off for six years, and they still lived happily ever after'? They're the exception to the rule, and to think of ourselves as the rule," she instructed him, and House had a sudden flashback to another dinner with Cameron as she paraphrased Freud and wondering where this was going.
"And how do you know if you're the exception or the rule in a scenario?" House frowned.
Cameron laughed. "That's what I've always wondered! Zoe says the only way is to dive in and see what happens, that if something real is there, people can... not change, but just adapt. That's why she said I should come tonight."
House nodded thoughtfully. "That makes sense."
There was a comfortable silence, and then Cameron, slightly embarrassed, changed the subject. That night, when he dropped her home, Cameron unbuckled her seatbelt nervously, as House drummed his fingers on the dashboard.
"So, I'll see you tomorrow," she said finally.
House had to think for a moment before he realised she meant at work and nodded. "Yeah."
Cameron smiled faintly. "Thanks for dinner, those burgers were really good," she said sincerely and he offered her a faint smile.
"Glad you liked them."
After a moment, Cameron opened her door and got out of the car, heading towards her building.
"Hey, Cameron!" a voice called out from behind her and she turned to see House leaning out the window.
"What?" she called back.
"Want to see a movie Friday night?" he asked, and she smiled, pretending to think it over.
"Sure," she nodded and House nodded back at her, pulling his head back in the car and driving off.
Shaking her head slightly, Cameron headed inside and up to her apartment. She had barely walked in the door when the phone rang.
"Hello?" she answered, frowning slightly, perplexed at who would be calling at nine-thirty on a Sunday night.
"How did it go?" Kate demanded.
"You were gone ages! I've been watching for the past half an hour!" Emma chimed in, and Cameron gaped.
"What are you guys doing?"
"Conference call, whether to celebrate or console," Zoe replied cheerfully.
Cameron laughed. "You guys are pathetic!"
"Yeah, we know. Give details," Kate instructed.
Sighing wearily, Cameron did so and paused at the end of it.
"So, what do you guys think?" she asked with bated breath.
"Well, he asked you out again," Emma said reasonably. "So, it can't have been a bad night."
"What did he think of the bible?" Zoe asked, not referring to the actual bible, of course.
Cameron mused over it for a minute. "Uh, I'm not sure. I didn't ask him to review it. But he's a guy, so I'm not sure he would have understood it the way we do."
"Is it going to be weird seeing him tomorrow?" Kate asked her friend.
"I don't think so, unless we make it weird," Cameron replied and shortly after, bid her friends goodnight.
She had to laugh at herself the next morning, however, when she found herself panicking over what to wear to work.
"Get a grip, Allison," she scolded herself and threw on her normal work attire, a black pencil line skirt and a white wrap-around top, and black pumps. She carefully tied her hair back, and applied her makeup, quickly gulping down a cup of juice before she left.
As usual, she was the first one in the Diagnostic's department, and she started the coffeepot before collecting House's pile of mail and sitting down to answer it. She had only just started when Foreman entered the office.
"Hey," she greeted him. "How was your weekend?"
"Good, I spent it researching this article I'm working on. You?" he returned and Cameron laughed ruefully.
"I think we both spent the weekend working. House called me in on Saturday."
"Why? A case, 'cause I didn't get a call," Foreman frowned but Cameron shook her head.
"No, Cuddy made him update all his charts, but he had no idea where any of it was," she grinned and Foreman chuckled.
"Typical. That would suck though, you were so excited about this weekend. You were having a girl's day out, yeah?" he double-checked and she nodded in confirmation.
"Yeah. I still did though. I was only here for an hour or so. And then I did housework yesterday."
Cameron purposefully left out her dinner date with House, not wanting to jinx herself. Foreman grimaced at the mention of housework, and then settled himself at his usual chair with a newspaper. Chase entered the room twenty minutes after that, and Cameron and Foreman both raised an eyebrow at him as he poured himself a cup of coffee.
"What?" he asked innocently when he noticed them both staring at him and Foreman grinned.
"You're late. Who is she?"
"Are you still seeing Samantha?" Cameron asked him, and Chase reddened slightly.
"Yeah, I am."
"Wow, how long has it been now?" Foreman asked, clearly impressed.
"Six weeks," Chase answered reluctantly.
"Do we ever get to meet her?" Cameron arched an eyebrow and Chase chuckled.
"I haven't decided yet. If there's the right time and place, sure."
Cameron and Foreman exchanged a sceptical smile and returned to their work. Shortly after nine-thirty, House wandered into the office, and Cameron performed her usual duty of getting him his coffee and handing him any important mail that he had to deal with.
"Thanks," he said gruffly, taking it from her and she gave him a small smile.
"You're welcome."
'Not awkward at all,' Cameron thought to herself, immensely pleased. She forced herself not to glance into his office as she sat back down at her desk, although she swore she could feel his gaze upon her back.
As they had no cases, House spent his morning, aimlessly channel flicking until the clock reached noon, and then he strolled next door to Wilson's office to see what his friend was up to. Fortunately for Wilson, he was not with a patient or doing anything important at the time and he knew exactly what his friend wanted.
"Is it lunch time already?" he frowned, checking his watch.
House sat down on the chair opposite his desk and rested his chin on his hands, which were atop of his cane.
"Let's go out for lunch," he suggested, and that threw Wilson.
"You want to go out for lunch?" he repeated disbelievingly.
"Sure. Why not? It's summer, let's enjoy the sunshine," House shrugged casually and Wilson's eyes narrowed in suspicion.
"Are you high?"
"No. Just... maybe I just want to talk," he said seriously and Wilson panicked, noting how out of character this was for House and immediately agreed.
"Ok, sure."
All the while that he drove to a nearby diner, ordered lunch for him and House, and then sat outside in the sun to eat, Wilson's stomach was in knots, picturing just what was so serious House wanted to talk. Nothing, however, could have prepared him for what came out of House's mouth.
"I went on a date with Cameron last night," he said, gazing around at the other diners and Wilson's jaw dropped.
"What? Are you serious?" he spluttered, completely forgetting his food. "How- how?"
House shrugged. "I asked her out, she said yes, we went to dinner."
Wilson was in shock. "I'm still confused."
"See, Jimmy, normal people before they get married, have outings called dates," House instructed him and Wilson glared at him.
House told him about how she had come in to work on Saturday to help him with the paperwork; then that he had texted her that night and she had accepted; and then about their date, and his subsequent movie invitation. Wilson was both perplexed and excited about this, but wanted more information.
"So, why did you call her into work? Just to wreck her weekend?"
House rolled his eyes. "I told you, Cuddy made me update my charts! And it's true that she's the only one who knows where anything is. And ok, yeah, a little bit was just to mess with her," he admitted.
"And the dinner invitation? That idea came from where?" Wilson pressed.
House sighed, trying to recall. "I don't know. I was watching Scrubs, and I remember thinking how different she looked outside of work..."
"Good different? How?"
"Relaxed," House answered truthfully, searching for the right word. "She didn't look like Cameron, she looked like..."
"Allison?" Wilson suggested helpfully and House snorted.
"That's the only word you can think of? Fine then, she looked like 'Allison'," House mocked, rolling his eyes.
"And the dinner went well?"
"Yeah. It was awkward at first, but yeah, it was fine."
Wilson continued to press for details all through the meal, until House declared him an official high-school girl, and called for the bill, which Wilson paid. As they were walking back to Wilson's car, House suddenly stopped.
"House?" Wilson frowned, turning.
"Hang on a sec," House murmured, and stepped inside the store he was staring at.
Wilson glanced upwards, noting the store was a bookstore, and followed his friend in, puzzled.
"What are you looking for?" he asked, finding House in the Self-Help section.
House shushed him, and scoured the shelves until he let out a soft "Ha!" of satisfaction and pulled out a book.
"He's just not that into you?" Wilson read the cover. "Something you want to tell me, House?"
"Only that your left eye is bigger than the right," House quipped and limped past him to the register.
"I'm not going to ask you to explain," Wilson said finally, when they were in the car.
"I'm not going to explain," House retorted.
A silence filled the car as Wilson drove back to the hospital.
"Private joke," House ultimately offered quietly and Wilson nodded, not understanding, but not needing to know.
