Chapter 21

House just got done with the tree as he heard the door to the car slam shut. He quickly jumped behind the door out of sight and was rewarded by his efforts by having said door slam him in the face. Holding his nose, blood spurting out of it, he came around the door to meet a horrified Cameron's surprised face on the other side. Without a word, she dropped her packages and rushed off to the kitchen to get a towel and some ice. She quickly returned and pressed the towel to his nose to try to stop the flow of blood.

"What were you doing back there?" Cameron asked quickly, while dabbing at his nose and checking his progress every few minutes.

"I was doing something for a surprise and was trying to hide before you came in. I forgot we had two doors for a minute there." He admitted.

She pulled the towel away enough to look into his eyes with disbelief.

He shrugged his shoulders. "I was in a hurry and I lived in the other place for ten years. I forgot."

Cameron looked around to see that the door he was hiding behind was, in fact, in plain view of the other door she would have entered. She was closer to the front door when she got out of the car, so she went in that way. She looked around at the layout of the house and tried to place House's townhouse layout on top in her mind. The front door would have been where his bedroom would have been, so that left her absolutely puzzled as to where House had thought he was going to hide.

House noticed her quizzical look and forcefully pulled the towel out of her hands and stalked off grumpily, "Never mind." He huffed.

Cameron was startled by his abrupt departure from her arms and stared off at his limping form with her arms still up in the air. After a minute, she recovered and noticed she had his blood on her fingers and palms. She walked into the kitchen and cleaned them off methodically as her long instilled training had taught her; wrists and forearms, then the palms and each digit, then under each nail, and then lastly to rinse off with the fingers up and elbows in the sink. She pulled a fresh paper towel off the roll and quickly dried her hands and disposed of the paper. She then wandered into the living room and sat down next to House, trying not to help him.

He pulled the towel away finally and looked at the blood all over the towel. So much, it looked like, even though he knew it looked worse than it was. He turned more to her. "Is it broken?" He winced a little as her hands flew to his face to examine the damage the door had done to his nose.

"No." She looked the nose carefully over. "No, I don't believe it is." She wondered how that could be with all the blood and how hard she had hit him.

"Good" was all he said. He heaved himself off the couch and made his way into the bathroom to clean himself up.

She sighed and got up from the couch, rubbing her hands on her pants and sides to settle her nerves. She laughed a little and went to pick up her forgotten presents, now scattered over the entranceway. She walked over to the tree and started placing the presents under the tree and stopped short. The tree had been previously undecorated. It was now fully decorated. The funny thing was, it wasn't all just her decorations. They weren't new either. They were obviously House's and obviously meant a lot to him. She even spotted a 'baby's first Christmas' among the branches. She carefully finished placing the last of the packages down on the tree skirt, and looked carefully around for other surprises.

Decorations lined the fireplace and the walls. A fire crackled in the fireplace and she now smelt something cooking in the oven.

She stood in quiet amazement, as what House had truly done washed over her. He'd made it a home for her. She had been dreading trying to make him help her decorate, make him get into the spirit and he had beat her to it.

She spun around to look at the tree again and her hands came up to her cheeks in shock. Slowly, she walked up to the tree and reached out to the branches, and then drew her hand back with a key hanging from a white piece of yarn that had been looped over the boughs.

"I thought that I would add to that little collection of yours." He said softly, right behind her. She was so stunned that she never heard him approach.

With shaking hands, she lifted it to her eyelevel and examined her gift. It was obviously a car key of some kind, complete with key fob and a new key chain. The key chain was engraved, like her previous one had been. Cameron – You are my key to everything. It was too much for Cameron who started to bawl. House came up behind her, pulling her close and she turned and buried her face in his neck.

"It's the best present I could ever get." She sniffled.

He chuckled slightly. "You haven't even seen your present yet."

She pushed away from him and looked up into his face, caressing his cheeks with her balled left fist and open right palm. "No, I got my gift. Anything else is just icing on the cake." She declared and kissed him deeply.

When House had recovered from the kiss, he took her back outside and pointed across the street to a silver sedan that she had previously driven right past. "There she is." She looked at him expectantly. He nodded and lowered his hand taking her to his side and leading her over to her present. "I decided that you should not still be driving the same car you drove in undergraduate school. That was a very worn out car, and I would like some assurance that you'll actually make it home every night."

She eagerly opened the driver's side and climbed in, looking and touching every button and option in the luxury car's interior. She adjusted the seat to her liking and began adjusting the mirrors while House climbed into the passenger side. He began to explain features and she asked questions until she casually threw in, "So did you plan all of this before or after Wilson called you with the news?'

He took a deep breath. "Truth is I had this planned for weeks and had scheduled you in the clinic today so that I could get this all done. I was halfway done with the tree when Wilson called."

"It was a boy."

"I know."

"She named it after you."

"I heard. Well it was the middle name anyway." House admitted.

"Are you going to go see him?"

"No."

At this, Cameron paused for a moment. "Why not?"

"It's not my kid, Cuddy didn't invite either one of us to visit, and I signed a paper that said I would leave them alone."

"When has that ever stopped you before?"

"This is Cuddy. It makes it different."

"Would I make it different?" The words were past her lips before she could stop them, and she clutched the steering wheel tight in her grip.

A moment past and a smile graced his lips, had she had the guts to observe it. "Allison, you make the difference."

Tears rolled down her cheeks, and she turned to him in the seat and kissed him passionately.

Author's Note: All right I heard you! No more song fics, you have spoken and I have heard. What I don't get is why there are so many song fics if nobody likes to read them as was pointed out to me, oh well, you win some, and you lose some.