Disclaimer: I do not own House M.D. or any of the characters from the series.
A/N: I am terribly sorry about being so slow with these updates. I haven't been able to log in for days; I kept getting an error message. I'm also experiencing severe writer's block; I can sit here staring at a blank screen for hours on end. Ah well, at least the music's good. I will try to pick up the pace.
Thank you for the reviews.
Chapter 3: Hide Me
As House regarded the young doctor, he toyed with the idea of twirling his calloused finger around a soft curl of her hair. It was just so inviting. So soft. So . . . soft. Wow.
He also thought about taking Cameron's resting face in his palms and doing something sweet - he didn't exactly know what. Her supple skin called to him. A secret. A forbidden longing that could never be fulfilled. His fingertips, his lips - oddly enough - buzzed with the need to do something to her.
But he slapped himself. Not mentally - physically. He slapped himself on the cheek, and the resulting echo woke Dr. Cameron with a startle. She didn't sit up - only opened her eyes. Immediately, she felt a presence lingering over her, and the vibe she got was disturbing. The shadow on the wall was disturbing. The silence was disturbing.
Everything felt wrong.
Turning her face away from the wall, she felt a warmth catch the back of her head as it rolled from it's resting place on her arm. Even that was disturbing. Bad electricity shot through her. Yet, the warmth was strong and gentle, and she felt five fingers touch her through her hair.
"Contorting your neck like that can be dangerous," House scolded, half-sarcastically, and lowered Cameron's head to the bed.
Blue eyes - so blue - bore through her. She would dance with those blue eyes if they weren't such liars. Always pretending; always avoiding. Always running from the truth. She couldn't possibly run with them.
She faintly moved away from him and House removed his hand. Apparently she wasn't as amused as he was. Then again, she wasn't peering down into the face of adorable innocence. She was peering up into years of gruffness and sin. House understood when she looked away.
"You're in the ladies' locker room." Cameron didn't bother sitting up.
"So are you," House countered.
"Yes, well . . . I'm a lady," she excused herself. Her voice was still a bit groggy.
"Don't let the whiskers and rugged jeans fool you. A little Nair and I'm just as much woman as you are." House winked. The wink was a little too soft. Damn. Here he was trying to be cold and distant. "So this is where you go to run away from the world," he looked around, pretending to survey her choice of haven. "Nice digs. Very simple; very modern. A little wet," he lifted a foot and glanced at the floor, "but the exquisite decor makes up for it."
Cameron wrinkled an eyebrow and rubbed her face with a sweaty palm. She began to un-contort her body from its odd sleeping position, twisting her lower half to lay flat on the bed. She writhed in pain from the sudden discomfort to her back.
"You know," House continued, pretending not to notice, "I had you pegged as more of the throw-rug-and-a-baby-blue-couch type girl. Sufficient lighting, rubber tree plant in the corner, maybe a Teddy bear and a zigzag pillow. Schmaltzy, overly sentimental, classic - something of that nature."
"You talk too much," she said between dwindling gasps of pain. "Why are you here?" She attempted to sit up.
That's when the wooden door on the other side of the locker room opened and two ladies came giggling inside. House's eyes widened slightly as the talking then got louder and noticeably closer. "Hide me," he whispered dramatically, trying to sound like a guilty teenage boy caught in his girlfriend's room past midnight.
"Hide yourself." Cameron was apathetic. "You got yourself into this."
"Now that was rude - "
"Tell me why you're here," she repeated, more forcefully this time.
"I will, if you'll hide me."
"And if I don't?"
"You don't get it," he whispered, "continued conversing between the two of us is not the objective here. You're supposed to agree and - "
Allison clapped her hand over his mouth and hopped down from the exam bed. Pain shot through her joints - still awkward from sleep - and she muffled a gripe through her teeth. House barely had time to put his cane to use as Cameron pushed him backwards and into one of the showers. His back hit the tile wall with a thud, and Cameron's body hitting his caused yet another thud to the wall.
"If I'd known you felt that way - " House began, but Cameron re-clapped her hand to his mouth and there was silence. Cameron slid the curtain closed just as the two women appeared in the entrance of the room. The ladies stood there quietly, looking into the room, as if contemplating the source of the 'thud'. Cameron tightly closed her eyes - the way she always did to deter the inevitable - and muffled her breathing against her boss's rumpled shirt. If there were anyone to pray to, she'd pray that those ladies would pick somewhere else to change their clothes.
House stood as still as he could, with his arms instinctively bent at the elbows and squished against his sides - his fingertips pointed toward the ceiling. The walls were wet, the floor was wet, and he was sure he'd catch a disease if he touched them. If high school showers were any precursor, his fears were duly merited. His back was probably festering with mold from the tile at this very moment. He was trying to concentrate on being quiet, but . . . naked women had been in here. And now he was in here. And so was Cameron. His concentration went haywire. But he did like the warm spot Cameron was breathing into the middle of his chest.
After a minute or two, the ladies finally decided to pass through the locker room and enter the restroom instead. Perhaps they'd been sufficiently creeped out. Perhaps they were apprehensive of the mold as well. Whatever the reason, it was one heck of a blessing for Cameron.
She removed her lips from his shirt - and her hand from his mouth - quicker than she probably should have, and backed out of the shower disgustedly.
"Well, you just have the grandest ideas," House mocked, extremely careful upon exiting the shower, trying not to touch the walls - like he was playing Operation and he'd get shocked if the tweezers touched the edge.
"I'm glad you think so . . ." she retorted, hardly in a playful mood. She had just saved his ass from suspension and he was complaining. "Now, ante up. Why are you here?"
"You think we could blow this joint first?"
"No. No, House. You'll stall, you'll avoid the subject, you'll find a way around it. Tell me now." Only as she started fixing her hair did she realize she was standing in the locker room with her boss, slightly wet from being pressed against him in the shower.
"You don't understand. Locker rooms hang-out-spots are like, so last year." He pressed his luck just a little further. By the look on her face, his luck was at the limit, and danger was clearly beyond. He watched her soft hair cascade over her shoulders as she lowered her arms back to her sides. "I got a phone call."
Cameron's expression was blank. She hadn't caught on. Or maybe she had, and that part of her was dead. Or dying. Or buried far away. She stared, waiting for him to continue.
And so, Greg House took another breath - a deep one - and looked to the wet tile below him. It looked harder and wetter than it had a second ago. What if he fell? That would hurt. For sure. Cameron was still glaring. Why did she glare like that? Did she think this was easy for him? Her eyes were so green. Or maybe they were hazel. They were something - they were beautiful. And numbing. He bit his lower lip. "Cameron, they found my license plate."
A twitch, in her eyes. Something snapped. Or died. Or awoke. It was so slight it was unreadable. "They found your car?"
"No," he corrected, "they found my license plate." House regarded her questioning gaze with a safe emotional distance. "Off a steep embankment sixteen miles from here."
T.B.C. . . .
A/N: 'Operation' is (or was - I haven't played it since I was seven) a board game where each player takes turns removing a bone from this guy's body with tweezers. The bones are entrenched in the body (the board, essentially), and the walls of the entrenchment are metal. If the metal tweezers touch the walls while removing the bone, the guy's nose turns red and the player is 'shocked'. (Not that it hurts or anything.) Does anyone else remember that?
