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Vacation

Chapter 5

There was a brief moment of silence, followed by a mad rush to the door. The teams squeezed out, fast-walking (with the exception of House, who was, in fact, fast-limping) and talking over one another.

"Do you have a camera?" Chase his teammate. She nodded. "Yeah, it's up in the room. Lemme go get it."

Less than thirty seconds later, she departed from the elevator holding a yellow and black 27 snap-shot disposable camera. Cameron looked at him for a mere second and said, "Let's go."

They were the first team out of the hotel; Foreman's team and Cuddy's team both needed to go to the gift shop to get a camera. Chase snickered silently. The two walked along the sidewalk for a minute, but Cameron grabbed Chase's arm. "Where are we going?"

He made a thoughtful face. "I really don't know. What's the first thing on the list?"

Cameron shook her head. "No. Start from the bottom and go up."

Chase tilted his head as he said, with a hint of sarcasm, "Ok, so what's the last thing on the list?"

She checked the paper. "The Humility Bowl. We need to find a copy of it."

"Why that book?"

"What do you mean?"

Chase clarified, "God, I've never even read it; never heard of it. Why did you pick that one?"

"I don't really know…Cuddy suggested it when we were making the list."

"Well…Is there a bookstore in this city?"

"Of course there's a bookstore!" Cameron replied, rolling her eyes. "At least…I think there's a bookstore."

Dr. Chase examined the sidewalk, thinking. "I'm pretty sure I saw a Walden Books when we were driving here earlier today."

"How sure?"

"99.9 percent sure."

"Ok, let's go."

Chase led the way, even though he wasn't quite sure where he was going. Twenty minutes and seven blocks later, they were inside Walden Books, making the man at the check-out desk run a search in their stock for the mysterious book.

The man read off the computer screen. "The Humility Bowl by Sali Ducdy. Am I right?"

Cameron, who was still out of breath, spat out, "sure."

"Ok…We've got six copies in the back room." The man moved from behind the desk to the aisle, making his way to the door in the back of the bookshop. "It's not a very popular book anymore."

"What do you mean, 'anymore?'" Chase questioned.

The man shook his head and walked. "That book was a top seller in the U.S. about six years ago. We used to have it featured in our windows- I was checking out copies everyday. After a while, though, pretty suddenly, It just…stopped selling."

Cameron and Chase exchanged glances. "Did the author ever write anything else?"

The man shook his head again. "I'll be right back," he said, and ducked into the back room.

"But I've never heard of that book," Chase whispered.

"Nither have I." Cameron replied.

He soon emerged, carrying with him a book that seemed to have about 200 pages in it. The cover read "The Humility Bowl," on the front, in big golden letters, with gold bars on ether side, running up the edges of the cover vertically. Also in gold letters read the author's name, Sali Ducdy.

"Here it is. It's pretty, isn't it?" The man asked.

Chase didn't respond. "How much?"

"I'd reckon about ten dollars. I don't really know…I don't think it's in the catalogue anymore."

He dug around in his jeans pocket. "I've got ten dollars and two dimes. How's that?" He dropped the money into the man's hand. On closer examination, the man chuckled and held up the two coins. "These are nickels."

Chase rolled his eyes and muttered something that sounded like, "Damn American money!"

"Well, this is fine."

Since their business was done in that particular store, the two doctors bid the man goodbye and exited the store, eager to find the next item on the list.

"Wait up!" House called out to Cuddy, who was walking much faster than he. In the time that it took Chase and Cameron to get the book, House and Cuddy had already gotten the item with Jesus' face on it at a Lemstone Christian right across the street from the Inn. Now, they needed a picture on a trampoline. House stared at the list .

"How the hell are we going to find a trampoline?" House said pessimistically, looking around as if he expected for a trampoline to just roll down the street at him. Cuddy thought for a moment, looking down. Suddenly, she looked up, a smile slowly spreading across her lips. She answered, "I think I know a way."

"What are we doing here?" House, who had had no idea what wheels were turning in Cuddy's head for at least fifteen minutes. He stopped, motioning with his cane to the backyards of houses they were walking behind. The team was on Pear Street, and Cuddy was practically jogging- determined to win- down the street, closely examining the yards ahead of her, not paying attention to the traffic whizzing behind her, yelling crude things about her ass. No, she was oblivious.

"We are looking…" Cuddy said, absentmindedly, too busy searching to really pay attention.

"For what?"

Cuddy smiled wide and pointed to a house three down from them. "For that!"

In the back yard, along with various other children's playthings, was a trampoline. The answer to their prayers.

"Thank the lord!" She cried, and clasped her hands together as she continued making her way over to the jumping device.

House was unimpressed. "What now, Sherlock?"

Cuddy stared at him. "Isn't it obvious? You jump on the trampoline, I take the picture, and we run away."

House smiled and looked down, apparently smug with the retort he had in mind. "There are just two things wrong with your seemingly brilliant plot. One, YOU are jumping, and two, I can't run. I thought you learned that earlier! Like, a few years ago…"

Cuddy put her hand up to stop him. "Alright fine, I'll run, you'll…hobble. And, no, I can't jump; I'm wearing a skirt!"

The older doctor tilted his head back in a manner that screamed, 'Is this woman freaking INSANE!' "Cuddy! If I jump, there will be no limping, no hobbling at all… I will be immobile AND in a great deal of pain. If you jump and I see you're panties, you'll live."

"But you'll never let me live it down."

"There is that…" He paused, pretending to be deep in contemplation. "But we don't have time. We need to make this quick and painless."

Cuddy turned towards the yard. "Alright. Be ready. 1…2…"

"This is absolutely ridiculous."

"Three!"

Cuddy raced towards the trampoline, as House…well, he raced, but it was pretty damn slow and it took him forever to get there, but get there he did and Cuddy was already on the trampoline, her hands clamped to her sides, desperate not to let her skirt fly up.

"You ready?" She asked. He pulled the disposable camera from his pocket and nodded. Cuddy began to jump about three inches in the air.

"Jump higher!" House demanded. Buddy blushed but obliged.

"A bit more!" He instructed. He kept telling her to jump higher until she was well in the air.

"Jesus House, have you taken the picture yet?"

"NO!"

"Well, do it! Hurry, too, I think the people who own this property have seen us."

"I'm waiting until your skirt flies up."

Cuddy didn't stop jumping, but replied with a modest, "pervert."

Finally, she heard the camera's shutter click twice, so she stopped. Just in the nick of time, too.

"Oh, dammit," said House, pointing to behind Cuddy. She whirred around just in time to see a child about five years old running towards them, closely followed by a woman who seemed to be around 400 pounds running, full speed, towards them as well, yelling, "What the heck are you doing? Who are you people?"

Cuddy panicked and screamed, "Go!"

Cuddy believes that she will never, ever, never see House run as fast as he had in those fifteen seconds. Olympic runners that were being chased by stampeding elephants and assorted other large animals could not have even touched him. He outran Cuddy, and was at the corner of the road before Cuddy caught up with him. When she did though, she began laughing.

And laughing.

And laughing.

She was laughing so hard that she was rolling around in the grass, clutching her stomach, tears rolling down her face, and House was just standing there beside her, watching her, until finally his own face broke into a smile and he began to laugh. For the first time in what seemed like forever, he broke down and laughed. Not nearly as much as Cuddy, sure, but enough to make him feel…good. He watched Cuddy laugh some more, and that felt good, too. House had rarely ever seen Cuddy smile, let alone actually laugh. The smile on her face was too wide to measure.

After she had calmed down a bit, House asked, "what are we laughing about?"

Cuddy stifled another laughing fit and said, "You. I have never seen you run so fast. Plus, that was the stupidest thing I have ever done." She raised her head off the grass a bit, but let it drop. "The most fun, too."

House didn't respond. He just tilted his head a bit and half smiled.

Cuddy frowned a little bit, raising her full back off the ground to reveal a good amount of grass in her hair.

"Why don't you smile more? It's almost nice."

House knew she wasn't meaning to be flirtatious with him, but she was. "Why are you getting Dr. Laura on me?"

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Well, maybe. But I feel as though I could climb a mountain now."

"That was practically poetic."

"Why, thank you."

"So…are we off then?" He asked, grabbing her elbow and helping her up.

"I suppose so," Cuddy said with a nod. "Oh, and, House," she said before he walked away. "This little…situation…dies with you. Right?"

House nodded; he understood completely. Finally, after the trampoline excursion, the pair was off into the almost setting sun, on their next adventure.

Authors note: I'm not particularly proud of this chapter, but I hope you guys liked it. Please R&R. Foreman and Wilson will be next chapter… I sorta ran out of room, lol. Oh, and, I am very sad that goodgirl18 isn't with us anymore (for the time being.) Please leave reviews for her and make her feel good!

P.S.- If ya'll caught a House/ Cuddy vibe, that wasn't a romantic one, it was a friendship one. A BONDING one, but not a romantic one. That's where Cameron came in…

The conclusion- NEXT CHAPTER!

Love,

Sizz