House smirked as he moved through the balcony door to Wilson's office. A bald kid and her mother looked over at him as if he was growing horns.
"Don't mind me." House said as he slumped into the couch, his feet dangling from the edge of the furniture that was too small for his long frame. "My death can wait. He's really such a great doctor isn't he?"
The mother looked shocked and indignant. The kid smiled.
"How come's you're not bald mister?" The boy mumbled... almost all of the patients in his ward were bald. All of Dr Wilson's patients were bald.
House smiled softly and was about to answer.
"Because he's a mental patient escaped from a padded room on level 6. Pay no attention to him or you'll make him worse." Wilson offered before delving back into Jack's recovery, the mother now clinging to her child fearing for his safety in the same room as a lunatic.
Jack thought it was funny.
So did House.
House stayed quiet and closed his eyes; glad to have some sort of breather from his hectic and entirely strange day letting medical jargon and Wilson's empathy roll over him like a thick comforting blanket of familiarity.
"Thank you Dr Jimmy." The kid murmured and hugged Wilson.
House smirked and rolled his eyes beneath his closed lids.
The door opened and closed.
"Dr Jimmy?" House said with a smirk as he stood and moved over to the seats in front of his desk, shifting one closer as he sat down pulling and important looking document to a fraction of clear space on his side and a marker from his pocket and began coloring in thick letters on the back of the paper.
"Word on the street is you slept with Stacy last night."
" Right street. Wrong end." House said agreeing and disagreeing with him, "A helluva lot's happened since then."
NO stared up at him in large blue colored letters. He stuck out his tongue and moved to the next line.
Wilson sighed glancing at the paper.
"Care to enlighten me then?"
"Well..." House sighed. "I said Allison when I had sex with Stacy. I realised I want Cameron instead of Stacy. Stacy hates me but still loves me and tried hurt me by talking to Cameron and making her cry. I like Cameron, Cameron likes me now that she knows why Stacy said those things and Stacy is getting divorced because I talked to Mark and Stacy's quitting too."
Wilson's eyebrows danced furiously all through House's words and his jaw dropped slowly lower and lower.
House glanced up at Wilson and grinned.
"You're not lying." Wilson said in disbelief.
"Nope." House said turning back to his scribbles.
"I mean really you're not lying... every word of that was true and yet all of it seems impossible." Wilson reasoned.
"Not that impossible." House grumbled in reply.
"I mean it seems like something straight from General Hospital."
"With a better looking male lead."
"How... but... you..." Wilson stammered.
"Any chance you can talk in sentences at some point?"
"But... she..." he stuttered again.
"I'll take that as a no then." House replied and returned to his drawings once more.
"House!"
"What?" he said innocently.
"How the hell do you manage to get into this sort of shit?!" Wilson exclaimed.
"Hey it's not my fault I'm such a hot guy and I have women falling over themselves to get to me."
"No you just shout out someone else's name so they have to fight over you!"
"When you put it like that it sounds like every bros dream but trust me when I say it not."
"So you came here to what? Gloat? Cry on my shoulder?"
"I came here to hide out." He said holding up a sign that said "NO GIRLZ ALLOWED". "Cameron's sleeping on the couch my office and I figured we could make a club house and talk about puss and gore and the porn I put on you computer over coffee, cookies and chips after the horribly girly day I've had."
"She's sleeping on your couch?"
"She's had a long day. Her HIV test came through negative," thank god, "but she's been worrying and she had that encounter with the evil bitch Stacy. She needed a break." He said attempting to sound gruff and apathetic but his emotions towards her couldn't help but filter through strong enough for Wilson to hear loud and clear.
Wilson couldn't exactly send House back to his office, he'd get bored to quickly and end up waking Cameron during her much needed rest. "Fine." he sighed. "But I'm doing this for her not for you."
"In that case she'd like coffee, cookies and chips. Oh and if you could hang this up on your way out too it would be great." House said handing him his doctored document.
Wilson rolled his eyes but none the less did as he was asked.
"Greg! Greg! Please open up I want to talk to you." Stacy shouted as she banged on his office door for what must have been the fourth time.
Cameron sat on the edge of the couch fidgeting wondering what she should do.
"Greg!" She said in a pleading anguished tone.
Cameron's mind was made up; she quickly pulled off the heavy leather jacket and then her shirt and her bra before putting on the jacket once more, zipping it up only enough to cover her modesty and leaving it low enough so that there was now doubt that she wore nothing beneath it. Her hair was wild and tousled from her short nap suiting her needs and completing the look. She shoed her right foot and placed it four inches from the edge of the door so that it could open no more.
"Greg!!" Stacy shouted her fists battering the glass.
Cameron pushed the blinds apart slightly to unlock the door, making sure she still couldn't see into the room as she opened the door. She adopted the look of smug satisfaction and awaited her reaction.
Stacy recoiled instantly as what seemed like the sight of a sexed and satisfied Cameron appeared before her.
"He's busy."
"Apparently." Stacy said in a lofty tone overcoming her shock swiftly. "Two women, two days. My, my the man-whore does get around fast."
Cameron smirked. "You were a mistake and you know it. He's mine now. So get over it."
House snuck back into the office and was surprised to see Cameron at the door talking to someone.
"I had him first. I bet it just kills you know that." Stacy shot back darkly.
House's blood boiled at the sound of her voice.
"Petty." Cameron said in an almost sympathetic tone. "You're jealous. And so you should be."
House glanced at the couch and saw her shirt and bra lying on the leather; he smirked and pulled off his own shirt. Time for a little back up. They didn't have to do anything alone anymore.
"Jealous? Me? You've got to be kidding. Enjoy my left-over's. That's all he is; table scraps for the bitch." Stacy snarled.
"HE IS NOT!" Cameron shouted. "And don't pretend you didn't come here begging for him to take you back. I could hear the middle-aged desperation in your voice!" She spat. "And you're calling me a bitch? Don't even get me started on that you evil vindictive hag!"
"I second that." House mumbled sliding his arms around Cameron, his naked shoulders visible over hers.
She jumped a little in his arms not expecting him to be there.
He squeezed her lightly and kissed her hair, letting her know that it was okay.
"Time for you to move on." he said darkly. "I have my girl."
He pulled them back and closed the door locking it once more.
Her groan of anguish and hatred made them both shiver.
They waited a few moments in the silence his arms still tight around her.
"Think you made her jealous enough?" He asked in a whisper.
"I... I just wanted her to know you were mine."
"Job done." he murmured kissing her hair. "Very well in fact."
She pulled herself from his arms and zipped up her jacket a little more.
He felt hurt again but he understood... and yet he couldn't help but hate the fact that Stacy had seen her more naked than he had.
She picked up her shirt and her bra and held them to her chest protectively.
He sighed softly and turned around. "I won't look."
There was a short silence before he heard the loud sound of the zipper of his jacket. Seconds seemed to take whole hours to pass as he waited. He sighed and closed his eyes resisting the urge to turn around. Eventually the torturous rustling behind him stopped and he heard the sound of leather moving against leather as she sunk into the couch.
"Done?" He asked softly.
"Yeah." She murmured.
He turned glad to see she'd pulled his jacket back on, glad that it could bring her comfort.
He picked up his shirt and dropped into the couch beside her shirt still in hand. The leather was almost unnaturally cool against his skin sending goose bumps cascading over every inch of his chest and arms. He glanced at her she looked tired despite her nap, her arms were tight around her body and she looked pained.
"Are you okay?"
"If you think you can fix everything just by kissing me then you're wrong." she snapped. Her latest encounter with Stacy had shaken her to the very core and made her so very exhausted.
"I know." He held out his hand. "But it's a start right?"
Her arms stayed tight around her body. He sighed and sat forward to pull on his shirt. "I don't know what you want." He mumbled through the material before settling it around his torso. "I don't know what you need." He leaned back and wrapped his arm carefully around her shoulder. She shook slightly in indecision and anguish. She was still shaken but he was just so warm and felt so comfortable. She sighed and leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder.
House sighed and held her, kissing her temple and stretched his leg out figuring they'd be here for a while. He didn't want to leave this office until they got this sorted.
One way or another.
"Are you mad at me?" House asked softly.
"No." She mumbled. "Actually yeah... I am mad at you." She said in a more sure tone her body still curled to his despite her tone and the truth in her words.
"Why?" He said softly wanting her to voice her feelings and doubts, so he could fix them.
"How can you just jump from her to me?" She said confused and lost. "How does that work?"
"I don't know. We've... we've always had a thing." he said vaguely.
"A thing?"
"Well yeah. It's not as if I'd asked anyone else to go to the monster trucks with me while Wilson ditched me for dinner with Stacy."
"He went to dinner with Stacy?!" She said in shock turning to him, her arms uncrossing.
"Yeah... he said he couldn't back down on it. They used to be friends before we dated."
"Oh." She settled back against him. "I would have picked the monster trucks."
"Me too... but I'm kind a glad he didn't." His hand rubbed her upper arm gently.
And almost comfortable silence wrapped around them for 20 seconds.
"So you were saying we have a thing?"
"Yeah...um... You should have seen the wreck I was before our date. Talk to Wilson if you don't believe me."
She sighed.
"I was sure you'd never want to talk to me after it. I screwed up I know... but it was how I felt at the time. What I thought." he said in a contemplative tone.
"And now?" she enquired.
"How I feel about you?" he felt her nod slightly. He sighed and tipped his head back and thought deeply. "You're beautiful. You're smart and I can't understand why you want me. If you still want me that is. I doubt I'll ever understand. But how I feel about you... those weeks when you'd quit were darker somehow... I missed you. I missed just seeing you, hearing your voice. You came back and I guess I felt safe. I knew you couldn't leave me and that darkness wouldn't return so I just continued as normal. I pushed the boundaries a little, I pushed you. And instead of chasing you, the one who pushed the darkness away I chased after Stacy hoping I could reclaim the happiness I had with her."
He felt so vulnerable, just sitting there talking about significant feelings with nothing in return but the remembrance of the look in her eyes and the touch of her lips to keep him from falling over the edge.
"You still haven't said how you feel about me."
"I feel..." He glanced around the room as if searching for the answers. "I feel protective towards you. Today brought it out in me because honestly in a very vain and self-preserving sort of way protecting you is protecting me because if you hurt, I hurt. I've invested myself in you over the past few years somehow. I like you. I want you. I want... I want to be with you."
"So you're saying you can't have it with Stacy so you want it with me?" She said, though she was moved but his words the presence of Stacy still weighed heavily in her mind.
"NO! I don't want Stacy, I want you! And the things I want with you are different from the things I wanted with her. With her I wanted to go back and re-live with the past. With you I want a different happiness with my leg the way it is and whatever you want too, no doubt with puppies, kittens and rugrats." he said with an indication of only minimal discomfort at the thought. "I'm going forward, I don't want to be stuck any more and I want you there with me." He said reaching for the hand that rested on her thigh, knotting his fingers through hers and drawing their hands over his half thigh. He sighed and focused on the feel of her hand in his.
Her thumb moved against his.
"Okay." She whispered.
"Okay?" he asked hopefully.
He could feel her smile against his shoulder before pressing her lips to it gently. "Okay."
"Okay." He said with a soft grin, shifting deeper into the couch and slightly closer to her. "Are you hungry?"
"Yeah." she said with a slight giggle.
"Chinese or Italian?"
"Chinese." She answered surely, "Italian didn't work so well last time."
"Ha ha." he said without laughing. "Tell you what we'll do both and you can choose."
"Both? Where the hell are we eating?"
"Someplace with comfy seats and the best taste in music."
"Let me guess... we're going back to your place and we're ordering take out."
"Damn girl, you like to go fast don't you?" He joked. "That okay?" he said seriously wondering if it would be too intimate.
"Yeah. It's just fine." she said her thumb still rubbing his gently.
"Okay."
"Okay." she said with a giggle and a grin.
He grinned too.
