Thanks for all the awesome reviews! Here's the next chapter! Also, I posted another Hameron story called: The Cripple, The Carebear and The Amputee. It's my contribution for Halloween. Hope you like it! Danielle Lynne

Chapter Thirty-Four

I Fear, My Dear, This Ain't A Warning...

Cameron's scream pierced through silence and reverberated loudly throughout the hall. She froze in fear before stumbling backwards, trying to get as far away from the wall as possible.

House, assuming that she needed to be comforted from the scare, rested his hands on her shoulders. Cameron jumped, yelping in fright at the contact and started to back away, momentarily forgetting that he had been standing behind her the whole time.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed, retracting his hands like he touched something extremely hot and holding up his arms in surrender. "It's me, Cam. It's me."

She stopped and took in the situation.

Door closing...wall...lightning...Teeth!

Lots and LOTS of teeth!

Got to get away...

AH! Something is touching me!

Breathe, it's just House.

Wait...House?

Her eyes bulged. Oh, no! House!

Embarrassed at the show she must have displayed for him, but not enough to hide from him, she dropped her head and ran towards him.

"Oof!" he let out as she collided into him, burying her blushing cheeks into his chest, attempting to regain her composure once again. "Careful! Cripple, remember?"

"Sorry," she mumbled.

"You would be," he scoffed, playing it off as no big deal.

"What was that?" she asked, peeking behind her to see if it was still there, looking as if it were ready to pounce.

"That, my dear," he said, flipping on a light switch he'd found behind him and pointing to the wall of terror, "is the hungry glare of Teethus Maximus, or as I have appropriately named in in the last ten seconds, Jaws."

The hungry shark waded in a predatory pace, back and forth in front of the glass pane, wishing the glass would disappear so he could have a nice bite to eat.

"Well...what's he doing here?" she demanded with a slight whine. House was surprised to actually find himself amused at her tone. Cameron was so professional all of the time, so when he heard her childish exclamation, it was far from what he was used to hearing.

"Probably wondering what we're doing here," he chuckled.

"Funny," she glared at him.

He shrugged."I thought so."

"But where's here?"

"I think we're in the worst dimension of Hell," he cringed, taking in the rest of the room's sterilized atmosphere. "It looks like a cross between Exam Room One and the morgue."

She gave him a questioning look.

"What? You can't honestly think that Stan's room is my only hiding spot. I have to go elsewhere when he get visitors."

"Well, I'm sure he enjoys the peace and quit time he gets when you're away, actually doing your job," she teased.

"Hey! You don't know what you're talking about! Stan and I are bestest buds."

She rolled her eyes, hands on her hips. "Oh, really?"

"Yup. I even like him better than Wilson," he lied.

"Why? Because you can treat Stan however you want and he just lays there and takes it."

"Well, he doesn't really have much of a choice, now does he?" he said, grinning mischievously. "And yes, that's one of the reasons."

"What's the biggest one?" she asked, curious to his response.

"He listens to me," he stated simply.

Cameron snorted. House looked at her and frowned. "What? What's so funny?"

She started to giggle, but soon it turned into a full-fledged laughing attack.

House started to have a hard time keeping his straight face the more he mentally repeated what he'd said. He knew he said it and he meant to. He though of it as his way of lightening the mood. When her chuckles died down into giggles once again, she turned to connect her eyes with his. Upon connection, the corner of his mouth rose upward and his hard stare turned easy and relaxed.

As much as they were both genuinely enjoying the enlightened moment that came over them, Cameron was the first to break the gaze to examine the room more thoroughly. It looks like some sort of veterinarian clinic."

House nodded in agreement. "And judging by Jaws in the fish tank for a wall, I'm guessing...giant aquatic aquarium." Scanning the room, he discovered some brochures fanned out on top of a nearby table. He picked one up and started to skim through it.

"We're standing in 'The Audubon Nature Institute's Aquarium of the Americas'."

"Do you think he could break through that glass?" Cameron asked nervously, trying to win the staring match she found herself in with the famished carnivore.

"Sure...if the glass wasn't two feet thick and made out of fiberglass."

Impressed by his answer, she turned around to face him. "How do you know that?"

"I know all," he boasted cockily.

She narrowed her eyes. "And?"

"And...it might've been printed in this brochure," he said, waving it in his hand.

"What else does said brochure have to say? Perhaps what that thing is? What it eats? Where we are? Is there a map or diagram of this place?" she inquired, trying to get a better look at the paper flying back and forth.

"Maybe," he teased, pulling the paper to his chest and turning around to keep her from seeing it.

She walked around to stand in front of him to get a better look, but House was quick and raised the paper high above his own head. He grinned as he watched her jump up a few times, trying to snatch it from his grasp. Failing, she gave up, crossed her arms and huffed at him in frustrated disappointment.

"What's wrong, Shorty?" he taunted her.

"Come on, House...I just want to see it," she reasoned.

"I don't think your little girly mind could wrap around all of this big kid information," he joked patronizingly.

She dropped her arms and connected her hands timidly behind her back. Her eyes widened and her lower lip jutted out into one of the most pitiful sulk he's ever seen. To top it off, she let out a quiet wounded puppy whimper.

He frowned. "Aw! Now, come on! You know that doesn't work on me."

Not letting up, she intensified with a quiver to her lip.

"Fine. Here," he groused, handing her the paper in his hand. "I'm only doing it because you looked so pathetic and I didn't want you to break down and start crying or anything."

Cameron smiled triumphantly and squealed slightly. "Thank you," she smugly added. Glancing at the pamphlet, her smile turned upside as she noted it wasn't the same thing he was holding before. "Hey!"

"What?" he asked, looking about as innocent as a three year old caught in the act.

She gripped the bottom of it tightly and held it up. "This is not it."

"It's what I had in my hand" he said, defensively.

"No...this is a "Our Salt Water Friends" coloring book!" she said, looking at him pointedly, smacking it into his chest.

He grabbed it before it could fall to the floor and gave a slight affirmative nod. "Which was in my hand. It just happened to be my other hand." He flipped through the book. "Look at that! Your human-hungry friend over there is a Sandtiger Shark. It says they're not considered aggressive unless provoked." He looked at Cameron teasingly. "Did you provoke the shark, Cameron?"

"No! If anything, he startled me."

"I'll bet you did! Did he get tired of talking about his feelings toward the cute little female in the next tank over?"

Cameron ignored his remark this time and growled in frustration. "Does it eat humans?"

Negative. It feasts it's razor sharp teeth on mackerel, other sharks and rays, squids, lobsters and crabs."

He smirked. "There's an STD joke in there somewhere, I just know it."

She pointed to his hand. "Does it have a map?"

He flipped open the book. "Don't think so. But it's got a nice outline of a starfish on a coral reef you can shade in."

"House! You know what I meant!"

"I choose to pretend to be ignorant to that fact."

"Why?"

"Because you're really hot when you're mad," he grinned evilly.

She looked at him incredulously. "What?"

House starting limping closer to her. "Yeah...your hands ball up into fists, your cheeks get all red and you clench. When you're really ticked off, mostly at me, your whole body clenches, your hands go to your sides and you get this murderous stare that sometimes makes me wish I wore a cup - and not just to work. You've been known to show up at my door step a few times. Not that I'm complaining, but next time, go with something a little more..."

"Provocative?" Cameron suggested, not moving.

"I was going to say Cuddy-ish, but you know, either way you say it, it means the same thing. "

Cameron felt a dark blush starting at her neck and creeping up to her cheeks, but challenged him with her eyes. "Why? So you can have your lobby art look the way you want?"

He took a final step forward until they were an inch away from touching noses. Cameron felt a bit lightheaded as his breath gently hit her face. "I think they'd look a lot better on my bedroom floor."

She gasped, feeling the air hitch in her throat. He lingered before her, looking like he could take the rest of her breath away in one simple pass of his lips. Once he was satisfied that she desperately wanted him with closed eyes and barely pouted lips, he pulled back and opened the map, holding it dead in front of her face.

Opening her eyes, she jumped back at the sight of a diagrammed map greeting her instead of House's soft lips and rugged stubble. She grunted at leaving her hanging like that. She scolded herself for falling for that. Of course he would pull something that insensitive - he's House!

She quickly snatched it from his hands and turned around to look at it, mumbling a short string of obscenities under her breath. Before she could locate the room they were currently in, the room went dark.

"Aw, great!" she complained. "What on earth could possibly go-"

"Ah ah ah!" warned House, "Don't even finish that sentence. You know as well as I do that considering where we are and what's go on that everything could go terribly wrong."

"Yeah, well," she barked, "I can't see a darn thing!"

House grabbed her and turned her around to face him. "Good," he replied before hungrily assaulting her lips with his. Taken completely off guard, she dropped the map and linked her hands behind his head, pulling him closer to her.

With a moan of immense appreciation and encouragement, House used his tongue to gently glide over her bottom lip, seeking permission to slip inside of her mouth. A tiny gasp emitted from Cameron's mouth from the surprise of his request. In her way of giving her consent, she parted her lips and used her tongue to dive into his mouth and seek out his.

The sweet smell of sweat, pheromones and Old Spice circled her, consuming her senses and sparking them alive as his ingrowing stubble raked across her chin and the sides of her cheeks. She ran her soft tongue against his and chills ran down her spine and throughout her body.

When she started to participate in this kiss, he used his lips to kiss her hard, signaling it was about to end, and slowly pulled away.

Mystified, and disappointed, she slowly opened her eyes to see him grinning smugly at her dazed expression, her mouth handing slightly open.

"What do you say we get out of here and raid the fridge in the Employee's Lounge? I'm starving!"

She nodded, unable to form a single coherent sentence, fuelling House's self-contentment.

He took a look at the map and found the documented door across the room.

Approaching it, he opened it and stopped half-way through the threshold. He looked over his shoulder and meaningfully at Cameron, making sure to lock eyes with her. "Ready?"

It was a double entendre coming from House.

It was meaningful. Commitmentful.

Wonderful.

He was willing to give her something.

She was willing to take anything.

He wasn't promising a thing.

She wasn't asking for marriage or kids or even a white picket fence. Just a chance.

The same exact thing he wanted.

Cameron shook her head as she followed him through the door and into unknown territories. But that was alright.

She liked wrought iron fences better anyway.