A/N: Thanks to everyone for your feedback so far. Here's a nice long chapter for you - hope you enjoy it, I liked writing this one.

Don't forget to let me know what you think - it really does make my day!

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A couple of hours after leaving Wilson's office, House called Chloe's cell phone and to his surprise she answered. He wasn't sure what to expect, but her voice was calm.

"Hello Greg."

After grabbing a cab from the hospital, Chloe had gone back to her hotel room and, after throwing herself on the bed for a decent cry, she'd gone for a swim. Doing some mindless laps had given her mind time to settle and she'd taken a kind of meditative comfort from the ache in her pelvis, despite the tearing pain each time she turned and pushed off the pool wall.

After she'd had a shower and a glass of whisky the world had seemed to calm down around her and she'd been able to rationalise exactly what had gone on that afternoon.

She'd decided that Dr Wright's advice had been right – there was no point in worrying. There was something definitely wrong with her – in itself, sort of good news – but it could most likely be fixed, and he'd said there was a ninety per cent chance it was benign. So there might be a few more medical procedures involved, but, hey, she'd been through enough of that recently to know she could survive the unpleasantness. And then, just maybe, she'd be well again; there'd be no more pain.

"Hi. Are you OK?" She could hear the note of concern in his voice and it was just enough to stop her bristling at the question.

"Yes, I'm fine. Sorry about walking out like that. I just needed to get away and think."

"Yeah, I guess I can understand that." He paused. "I'm sorry for scaring you."

"No, it's OK, I wanted to hear the facts and that's what you gave me. I actually feel pretty good now. At least I know that there is something wrong and that it's most likely fixable. I don't mind waiting a couple of days to know more. At least, I assume we'll be doing things on Monday?"

House breathed a sigh of relief at her answer. "Yes, I called Wright and returned your file. You're all set for Monday at ten am – with Wilson."

"Good. And thanks. For sorting things out for me."

"No problem. I'm glad to hear you sounding OK about everything."

"A good shot of Dalwhinnie has helped no end," she laughed a little.

"Yes, that does make the world seem a better place, I've often thought," House agreed.

"Can I buy you one?" Chloe offered impulsively.

House paused. He'd just got through complaining to Wilson that he was getting more involved with Chloe than he thought wise. But then he thought about the morning in bed with her and the kiss they'd shared. He considered his empty apartment and compared it to a night drinking fine whisky with a beautiful woman.

"I guess I could stop in for just the one," he replied.

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As Chloe watched him walking through the hotel lobby to meet her she was struck by a sense of déjà vu. Their last meeting here had started with an argument and ended with him in her bed. She wondered what to expect from him this time.

When he entered the bar, she held up the two glasses in front of her to let him know she'd already bought them drinks. He walked over to her and there was an awkward moment as they worked out how to greet each other. Finally he settled for leaning down to her and giving her a kiss on the cheek.

Chloe smiled as he settled into the chair opposite her and looked down at her drink, trying to hide the blush that had just risen to her face at his brief touch. At that moment she realised exactly how she wanted the night to end and the feeling was so overwhelming she felt a little light-headed. Or maybe that was just all the blood rushing from her brain to other parts of her body – she could feel her heart racing. It didn't make any sense at all, and yet she knew what she wanted with a certainty that took her breath away. It was scary as hell.

She picked up her glass and looked over at him.

"Cheers," she smiled.

He looked at her, taking in the color in her cheeks, her bright eyes. It was probably just the whisky, but she looked almost the way he remembered her from the first days of their relationship: lively, sparkling, sexy.

"Cheers." He raised his glass and clinked it against hers, looking back into her face as he swallowed the amber liquid in one gulp. He wondered for a moment if he needed his glasses: there was something in her eyes and he was sure he knew what it was, but he didn't think it could be – surely not, after everything she'd been through that day?

"Are you really OK about today? I mean, it's a big thing to take in – we can talk about it more if you want," he asked, hoping she wouldn't want to.

Chloe smiled at him. "Can we please declare the 'C'-word and all medical-related discussions off-limits until Monday? I don't have to deal with any of it until then and that's exactly what I plan to do."

Chloe broke eye contact with him to call out to the bartender.

"Can we have another round, please?"

The bartender walked over and topped up their glasses with another shot of the expensive drink.

"Just put it on my room tab, please."

"Certainly ma'am."

"Actually, how about you just leave the bottle?" House suggested. "We're going to need another one after this," he said to Chloe.

She giggled loudly, then clapped a hand over her mouth, appalled at how girly and drunken it sounded.

House laughed at her. "Actually, maybe I'm the only one who's going to need another one."

The bartender rolled his eyes discreetly as he walked away, leaving the bottle. It wasn't normally allowed, but she'd always left him good tips and the bottle was half empty anyway.

"Sorry, I am only two drinks ahead of you, but obviously it's going to my head pretty fast," Chloe tried to explain, putting the backs of her fingers to her face to try and cool her flaming cheeks.

"Yeah, sure, that's what you say. But I bet you're great friends with ole Barney the bartender over there," House gestured towards the bar. "He's probably been pouring you doubles all evening."

Chloe rolled her eyes in answer and picked up the fresh glass of whisky to take a sip. Still discomforted by her reaction to him, her hand trembled as she brought the glass to her mouth and she looked up to see if he had noticed.

Of course he noticed.

"Are you sure you're feeling OK?" he asked.

"I'm fine," she said defensively, despite knowing his question's genuine intention. For once her trembling wasn't due to illness. "I just haven't eaten anything yet."

"Well, let's get you some food then. I could use some too."

Chloe didn't like the idea of going to a restaurant and losing the feeling of having him all to herself, even in the public space of the bar. Her arousal was becoming pitched, just being near him, and she could see only two viable choices: getting him somewhere private and – to use a ridiculous expression – jumping his bones; or getting rid of him and dealing with it herself. She knew which one was safer and also which one she'd prefer.

Taking a deep breath to steady herself she put one elbow on the arm of the chair and rested her chin in her hand. She looked at him, openly, blatantly – fearfully – willing him to get what she was trying to communicate.

"We could take the bottle up to my room and get room service," she suggested.

"Oh." House looked at her. Despite the fairly obvious signals she was giving, he still wasn't quite sure what was going on. There was something about her that was saying 'come' and 'go away' at the same time. He didn't want to interpret wrongly, but he also couldn't ignore the instant stirring thoughts of her hands and mouth on him provoked.

"I guess we could do that," he finally answered.

They walked to the elevator together, House holding the whisky bottle in his free hand. When the doors opened, they entered and Chloe pressed the button for her floor. She deliberately stood close to him, wordlessly stroking the back of his hand with one finger as the elevator took them skyward. For House, her touch removed some of the doubt from his mind, it was clear what she wanted – or at least what she thought she wanted.

And it was now something he really wanted too, he realised with a start, glad there was no one sharing the elevator with them. Together, before the pregnancy, they'd had some of the best sex of his life.

When Chloe opened her room door she stood back to let him in first. He moved into the room and put the bottle down next to the television, but before he could say or do anything further he found himself pushed against the wall Chloe's hands against his chest, her face looking up into his.

"I want to kiss you," she whispered.

"Yeah, I kind of got that impression," he joked feebly.

His joke made her pause – maybe he didn't want to do this? But she'd been pretty sure he knew what he was agreeing to when he accepted her offer of room service. It wasn't going to take much for her to lose her bravado, to show this whole thing up for the play-acting she was beginning to feel it was. Despite herself, she stepped closer to him and with the feel of his body against hers she knew for certain that he was aroused. She gathered her courage and tried again.

"So, I can't exactly reach you up there. You'll have to come meet me halfway." Even in her heels Chloe could only comfortably reach his neck with her mouth.

House took another long look at her and decided to damn the consequences. He lowered his head as she closed her eyes. But he moved past her lips, ducking to kiss her on the neck, his breath hot and loud in her ear.

Chloe couldn't help but groan as she leant her head to the side to give him better access. She felt literally weak at the knees as his mouth moved down her neck and over her collarbone.

"Enough!" she declared, grabbing his face with her hands, bringing his mouth to meet hers. Despite being the shorter one, she led the kiss, forcing him against the wall as she pressed into him, her tongue delving into his mouth. This time it was House's turn to groan, he hadn't realised being dominated in such a way would be so arousing.

He reached around her back and slid his hands up inside her top, feeling the soft skin of her back, her prominent ribcage a reminder that she was still a sick woman. The thought gave him pause. Between kisses he tried to explain.

"The need to have sex…" he pulled away from her mouth and only had time to utter those few words before she claimed him again.

He turned away from her mouth to try again to speak. This time she turned her attention to his neck, pulling the collar of his shirt aside to gain further access as her other hand started to pull his t-shirt from his jeans.

"No wait…" he trailed off, momentarily forgetting what he was trying to say as she sucked on his collar bone, hard enough to leave a mark.

"Ah," he half protested, half groaned. "No, wait, listen to me."

He put one hand on her chin, turning her to look at him. "It's been well documented that wanting sex is a very normal psychological reaction to grief," he explained.

"So? I'm not grieving." Chloe said breathlessly.

"Well, you have had some potentially bad news today."

Chloe considered the information for a moment.

"Uh, with all due respect to your medical knowledge, I don't care." She stepped back and lifted her top, removing it to reveal a black lacy bra. "And besides, I declared all medical-related conversations off limits, remember?"

"Yeah, but I just want you to be…" House tried again, not sure why he was trying to talk her out of this, just wanting to be sure she knew what she was doing.

Chloe cut him short by moving back close to him and gently massaging him through his jeans. He stopped talking and caught his lower lip with his teeth at the sensations she provoked.

Chloe removed her hand to grab his and led him over to the bed. She pushed him to sit down and knelt on the floor to remove his shoes and socks. That done, she sat on the bed next to him and started work on his belt. She leant in and whispered in his ear.

"I know this probably isn't the smartest thing for us to do," she nibbled briefly on his earlobe. "But I do know that I want you, and you seem to want me, and that is enough for now."

House groaned his assent and pulled her back to lie on the bed with him. He ran his hands over her stomach and arms, deliberately avoiding her breasts, as she deftly undid the buttons of his shirt. He sat up again to let her roll the sleeves down his arms and pull his t-shirt over his head.

He reached behind her and flicked the catch of her bra open, pulling the straps down her arms. Now they were both topless. He leaned back and pulled her on top of him, gasping as their naked skin made contact.

She leant into him, kissing him hungrily, loving the feel of her erect nipples against the light prickle of his chest hair. She threw her left leg between his, rubbing against him with her thigh. In return, he raised his knee so she could rub herself against his leg. She moaned into his mouth.

After a moment, Chloe pulled away, flushed and panting.

"More," she whispered, pulling at his jeans.

Before attending to clothing, House couldn't resist reaching over and cupping a breast in his hand, lowering his head to kiss her nipple. When he took it into his mouth to suck, she could feel the pull through her whole body. It was more than she could bear and she impatiently began undoing her own jeans, struggling to pull them off without dislodging his mouth from her breast. It was a futile effort and eventually she put a hand on his chin to pull his mouth away.

"Jeans, off," she commanded.

House obeyed promptly, not taking his eyes from her as he watched her discard first her jeans and then her underwear. He pulled off his boxer shorts and turned to her, about to pull her underneath him when a cold thought stopped him in his tracks.

"Chloe," he said raggedly. She had dropped her head to kiss his shoulder and was making her way down his chest when she looked up at him, distracted by his tone.

"I don't have any condoms with me. I didn't think…" His passion was starting to fade as he thought of all the consequences they'd so recently experienced by chancing it without contraception.

Chloe stood up abruptly and walked over to her suitcase. She rummaged around in one of the pockets for a while and came up with two square packages.

"I don't go anywhere without them anymore," she shrugged. "Not that I've actually had any sex. But just in case."

House smiled sadly at her admission. He hadn't been with anyone else either since their last time together.

Chloe returned his sad smile and they shared a moment of melancholy. The idea of getting pregnant again… she stopped the thought before it could go any further.

Looking over at House's flagging erection, she realised the contraception discussion had done nothing to fuel his desire. But despite the momentary sadness, Chloe still wanted him, wanted this. At least, she was pretty sure she did.

Mentally flinging aside her reservations, she strode back over to the bed, putting the condoms on the nightstand. She knelt on the bed and moved over him, taking him in her mouth. At the touch of her flicking tongue and hot, wet mouth, House's fervour was suddenly restored. He ran his hands through her hair, groaning each time she took him in fully.

When she judged him ready, Chloe slid off him and grabbed a condom from the bedside table. She dressed him quickly and then returned to his mouth to kiss him thoroughly, continuing to ignore the nagging thoughts in the back of her mind.

House rolled her beneath him, leaning over her to continue the kiss. He trailed one hand down her stomach and threaded it through her damp curls, stroking her skilfully. She cried out, arching her head back into the pillow.

"Please," she begged.

House looked down at her face, knowing he had to ask, just once more. Despite her pleas there was something in her eyes that made him feel uncertain; he could have sworn it was fear.

"Are you sure?" He paused his ministrations to her for a moment.

Chloe gasped. "Don't stop now," she pleaded.

He had a sudden thought.

"It might hurt," he advised. "If the scarring…" he broke off as she started to stroke him intently with her hand.

"I know. Just shut up and do it before I lose my nerve," Chloe snapped, pulling his head to hers to kiss away any offence she might have caused.

At her comment, the puzzle pieces fell into place for House. What he'd seen was fear because she was scared. She hadn't had sex since they'd last been together. She was not only worried it might hurt; she connected it with the pregnancy. This was a big deal for her.

Chloe closed her eyes as she kissed him and kept them tightly shut. She wanted this, she kept telling herself. On one hand, she knew she really did, her body was responding, almost too enthusiastically; its biological needs not met for the past seven months of self-imposed celibacy and the taste she'd had the other morning hadn't been nearly enough. On the other hand, she was terrified, but of what exactly she wasn't sure.

She caught her breath when she felt him move up and over her, putting a knee between hers to nudge her legs apart. He leant down to kiss her again, but this time his kiss was different, just lips, pressing gently, reassuringly, against hers. His slow kiss unlocked something in her and she relaxed again, the shadow of her fear fading in the light of her ever-increasing desire.

"If it hurts, you just have to tell me to stop," he whispered to her before comforting her with his soft kisses again.

He entered her slowly, allowing her to adjust to his pressure as he went. She sighed against his lips once he was fully sheathed.

"Just give me a second," she breathed, her eyes still closed, taking in the sensations.

House nodded and began nuzzling her neck, waiting for her to let him know she was ready to continue.

After a moment, she lifted her legs to wrap them around him, deepening the penetration. She gasped a little, because it did hurt, but the hurt was so profoundly entwined with pleasure she could barely tell the difference.

"Ready," she whispered and House groaned in response. He wasn't sure how much longer he would have been able to stay still in her wet heat. He kissed her softly again and began moving inside her.

With each thrust, Chloe could feel radiating waves of pain through her pelvis. But in some mysterious way, the pain picked up her pleasure and magnified it until she wasn't sure if it was hurting or not.

The sensations moved through her until she could feel the pain/pleasure in every nerve ending in her body. She never usually came from penetration alone and in the past House had always been gallant about making sure she 'finished' afterwards. But this time she could feel the unmistakable approach of orgasm as his thrusts speeded up and his rhythm became more ragged.

Unable to hold back any longer, she arched and cried out, a guttural noise halfway between 'Greg' and 'God', digging her heels into the backs of his legs.

House could feel her spasming around him, watched her face contort as she came. It took just a couple more strokes and he was joining her, surprising himself with a low moan that escaped from him without his permission. When he had ridden out his orgasm he couldn't stop himself from collapsing on top of her, completely out of breath.

Chloe wrapped her arms around him, her legs still gripping his thighs, pulling him tight to her. She wasn't sure whether it was his pulse or her own that she could feel all over, both of their hearts working to keep up with the strain they'd put their bodies through. She ran a finger down his back, tracing a rivulet of sweat.

Once his breathing had returned almost to normal, House rolled off her and grabbed a handful of tissues from the bedside table to take care of the condom.

Chloe rose on shaky legs to pour them each a whisky. She caught her breath from a tearing pain when she stood up after bending to collect glasses from a low shelf, but steadied herself to pour the drinks and grab a vial of Vicoden from the bathroom.

She returned to bed just as he was fluffing up the pillows so they'd have something to lean back on.

She handed him a drink and the pills. He expertly flicked the top off with one hand and raised a questioning eyebrow to her.

"Yes, please," she said quietly, holding out her hand, feeling a little unsettled by this new familiarity they had through medication. He shook a pill into her palm before tipping the vial up to his mouth and swallowing one himself.

"Cheers," Chloe chinked her glass against his, took a swig and then settled back onto the pillows.

They were silent for a moment, sipping their drinks contemplatively. Then finally Chloe began giggling.

"What?" House asked, suspiciously.

"I was just thinking that now I know the secret to having the best orgasms of your life," Chloe admitted with a grin.

"What's that?" House asked, preparing for some compliments on his prowess as a lover.

"Don't have any for seven months."

"What?" House was incredulous. "You mean you haven't only gone without sex, but you've gone without… totally?"

"Yep," Chloe confirmed, nodding. "No wonder I was getting a bit desperate."

"Desperate?" House questioned. From her light-hearted tone, they obviously weren't going to be discussing her reasons for avoiding sex. And that was more than fine with him. "Weren't you just overcome by my wit and charm?"

"Oh yeah, that must be it," she agreed, finishing her drink. "As Austen Powers would say, I'm shagged, baby. Literally and figuratively." She giggled again at her own witticism, putting the glass down on the bedside table and nestling down into the covers to sleep, automatically curling up a little to relieve the pain in her belly.

"Hang on, didn't we come up here to eat?" House nudged her as her eyes closed.

"Room service menu's near the TV. Go for your life," she mumbled.

House grumbled a little, but then smiled as he watched her fall asleep before his very eyes. Best orgasms of her life, huh? He couldn't help feeling a huge sense of satisfaction at watching her more-or-less pass out as a result of his love making skills.

He got up and grabbed the menu and poured another drink, dialling room service for a BLT, a side of fries, a chef's salad and a chocolate sundae. For some reason he was really hungry.