And stopped into a strange hotel with a neon burnin' bright.
He felt the heat of the night hit him like a freight train
Moving with a simple twist of fate.
She broke away from the kiss first. It wasn't because she wanted to, he felt, but because she needed to.
"House…your car…"
He whirled around and followed her eyes as they both watched two thugs, who had just apparently hot-wired his car, drive off with it, flat tire and all.
There was no snide remark that would make two street-hardened hoodlums give his mechanical baby back. He watched as it disappeared down the street. His hand grasped his cane even harder.
"House, I'm so sorry. It's all my fault," Cameron told him and grasped his upper arm.
He tugged away from her and started walking down the street. He wasn't going to make it home tonight, that he knew. He needed to find a taxi (didn't look like any hung out in this part of town) or a little motel or place to stay. He wouldn't sleep outside and he didn't want Cameron to follow. The kiss was a fluke—a lapse in judgment, intoxication by the night, a terrible twist of fate…
"Take another step and I'll scream," Cameron threatened from not five feet behind him.
"Why in God's name would you do that?"
"House, you know why. There's a motel straight down this block. I have my credit card and we can stay the night. Give me this, please?" She begged, but her voice was oddly free of neediness.
"I can't love you," he told her resignedly.
"And I can't love you," she replied.
"So, it's sex for both of us? Lonely, empty, and meaningless?"
His blue eyes fixed on hers and they exchanged a look of exhaustion. He was exhausted of fighting with everyone around him; she was exhausted of trying to love a man who would never love her.
"Lonely, empty, and meaningless," she whispered back.
He nodded his head and she came up to his side. They started walking again, together this time.
They made it to the motel, and, even at the late hour they managed to get a room. It was the typical, seedy motel out of a B-movie, but neither of them cared. He quietly undressed with an air of melancholy about him. He always had that aura around him—he could have just won the fight for a patient's life, but that didn't mean he had to be happy. She undressed equally defeated. Neither one of them wanted this. They lied to each other and their selves. He made his mind tell his heart lies so it wouldn't destroy him. She lied to herself that this wasn't pity sex on his part. Oh, how the little light in the room illuminated their feelings so.
It was she who took charge during their poor attempt at 'making love'. It was just as they had agreed—lonely, empty, and meaningless. There were two bodies in the bed, but God knows that their souls wished to be somewhere else.
House listened to her heartbeat as she worked on feminine magic on his decaying body. He wished he had met her years ago, when he wasn't so jaded and bastardly. He wished he was not a coward who couldn't say, I love you. He wished that he hadn't become lost. He wished he had stayed in the hospital; it wouldn't have put her in this position.
She deserved better than this, but he wouldn't admit that to her. The low thread-count of the sheets brought no comfort to him. This was not how it should be.
"Cameron…stop," he told her.
He knew she wanted this more than he did, because she would be able to talk herself into the feeling that this was something. She didn't want to stop, and the tears streaming down her eyes confirmed his suspicion.
"Stop. I don't want this and neither do you."
She rolled over to her side, letting him view only her backside. He could hear her small sniffles in the bad lighting of the room.
He got out of the bed and hobbled around to the side on which she was facing. He sat down on the edge of the bed and she slowly backed up to give him room.
There were no words exchanged, as his thumb wiped the tears off her face. Her eyes slowly closed from fatigue and too many unnecessary feelings. He lifted up the cheap comforter and nudged her over a tad. He climbed underneath the sheets and she snuggled close to him.
Finally, they both drifted off to sleep…
Together.