It is over, and her hands have steadied. She sits sipping at a white wine. She so often feels awkward and clumsy in her life, but there seems to be something sophisticated and "big girl" to her about sipping a chardonnay at a near-empty hotel bar in the middle of the afternoon.

She is trying to look casual, but she anxiously turns toward the doorway each time someone strolls in. She hopes in the ridiculous schoolgirl corner of her brain that he will come in and confess his love and she will be ready with something witty and charming to say.

But why has he come? To watch her squirm? Whatever it was, he is gone now, and she has a train to catch.

She takes her briefcase, weighed down by House's paper and starts out. She is halfway down the hall when she hears the piano coming from one of the empty ballrooms. Cole Porter. Night and Day. She smiles to herself. The door has been propped open, and she cranes her head around the corner.

The ballroom is empty. There is a baby grand piano pushed into the corner, and someone has sneaked in to play.

It is House, bent over the piano, head down, eyes closed. His fingers fly gracefully over the keys. He is beautiful.

She enters quietly and watches him play for a moment before speaking.

"Cole Porter," she says.

Suddenly, his eyes snap open, and he pulls his hands away from the keys as if from a hot stove. He is frozen there with his curled fingers poised above the keyboard. He is caught, and he can think of nothing more clever to say than, "Yes."

She moves toward him tentatively. "I love Cole Porter." She smiles wistfully. "I was in a high school production of Anything Goes,"

"Let me guess. You played the sweet and innocent ingenue Hope Harcourt."

She is being teased, and she knows it. "How did you guess?"

"Reno Sweeney, you're not." A moment passes, and their eyes are locked. His fingers are suspended still above the keys. Finally, "Well, I guess I'd…" And he is fumbling for his cane.

"No, don't!" She reaches out and impulsively touches his wrist, and it is as if a small charge has been sent through her body. "Play something else. Please. I love this kind of music. When I was growing up, all my friends were listening to grunge and rap, and I was listening to Gershwin and Jerome Kern." She smiles, almost embarrassed. "I'd love to hear more."

He sits for a moment with his hands on his thighs, but then he lifts them and curls his long, elegant fingers and they begin to play. Jerome Kern. The Way You Look Tonight.

She loves the song. "Oh…but you're lovely." The line seems the hopeless, ineloquent expression of someone who can't put into words just how beautiful his loved one is. It seems appropriate now, as she looks down into his gaunt face, and he looks back up at her with his haunted eyes.

It has been a long time since she has sung in public, but she sings along, softly, as the song ends and the last notes trickle away into nothingness.

"I can see there's a reason you went into medicine and not musical theatre," he teases, but it is gentle, and there is a smile small at the corner of his mouth. Her cheeks go pink.

He begins to play again. The wine has given her courage, and she walks to the piano bench and perches there next to him. She can feel his body tense as her arm brushes against his, and they sit silently together as he plays.

It strikes her, then. He has come for her.

She speaks softly, warmly. "I didn't think you were coming."

"I said I didn't do public speaking. I never said I didn't do conferences." The lilting melody changes then into a series of harsh, strident chords. "I mean, the place is crawling with pharmaceutical reps laden down with free samples."

He looks at her with dark eyes, and the spell is broken. Her head drops as he slides off of the piano bench.

"If I'm not mistaken, you've got a train to catch, Dr. Cameron." He staggers out as quickly as he can, leaving her there alone in the empty ballroom.

OOOOOOOO

A/N: "The Way You Look Tonight" is my favorite song, and one of my favorite renditions is from the movie "Peter's Friends" as performed by Imelda Staunton and…Hugh Laurie! Check it out if you haven't seen it.