Title: Cold as Ice
Author: morningafter
Rating: G
Summary: My take on House and Cameron's conversation at the end of "Control".
Notes: I know, every House fic writer in existance has written their take on this scene, and a long time before I did. I'm, what' almost a season late? It's been done ad nauseam, but I'm not one to turn away inspiration when it hits me over the head with a blunt object.
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"They like you. Everyone likes you." His tone is flat, unemotional, and she feels the irritation at her inability to read anything into her boss's statement rising within herself.
He starts to walk away, and the words tumble out of her mouth without forethought. "Do you?" She's unsure what answer she expects, or even what answer she really wants, but her curiosity is insatiable.
He stops. Turns around. Cameron can't figure out if his face is devoid of emotion, or if she sees a hint of a frown. Maybe a smile? All her instincts scream, what's left of her rational mind begs her to leave. To say forget it, no big deal. To move on and deny the existance of this conversation, this make-or-break, sink-or-swim moment. To go back to being dismissed, and be grateful for the pain she's been spared. To heed the glaring red letters that say 'thin ice' and find another pond.
Instead, she looks up, urging what little courage stirs inside her to show on her face. "I need to know." Not afraid. Not afraid. Not of House, or anything he can say. Their eyes meet, and time stops. She's standing on the frozen mass of her own questions. A cold, brittle connection, a string of pure ice, holds them, rendering both unable to move, to speak.
His body language gives away no hint of his answer, but his eyes... His eyes are soft. Not kind, lord knows House is never kind. But something shines in them. Almost pity, though whether for herself or him she will never know. The frigid silence explodes with a single word. "No."
And the ice shatters.