Title: Succumb (12?)
Author: Teenwitch
Summary: We have to succumb to the feelings we can never face.
Author's Note: Thank you very much for the kind words. I'm so glad you're all still enjoying things, and there wasn't much disappointment over Brooklyn's father.

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Darkness saturated the glass walls of the hospital. House slung his bag over one shoulder, striding gradually down the empty hall towards the elevators.

He had remained late in his office after his team left under the pretext of attempting to correct their diagnosis of Kaitlyn Clark. However, he was soon caught up in the moody tunes blaring through his iPod and had difficulty properly focusing on the case. Finally, he gave up, prepared for another dull evening at home in front of the TV, or better yet, lulling himself into a drunken stupor with cheap scotch and Vicodin.

He turned the corner at the nurses' station, his cane sounding dully on the floor beside him. A dark shape neared him from the opposite direction, and he drew to an abrupt halt just as Cameron stopped short of walking into him.

She lifted her head in surprise. "Oh. House. Hi."

"Cameron," he acknowledged slowly. She looked weary and preoccupied. "I'd ask if you were working late but—what work?"

She straightened the strap of her bag over her midsection, eyes darting away from him awkwardly. "I forgot something. I was just coming up to get it."

He lifted an eyebrow, vaguely amused by the lameness of her excuse. "Brooklyn?"

"She's with a friend. I… needed some time to myself."

"Ah. Time that was so important you thought it would be fun to spend it in an empty hospital."

"I wanted time to think," she corrected quietly.

He nodded, voice low and dripping with sarcasm. "Right. On whether or not to turn in that pesky application letter, I bet."

Her face twisted in a startled frown, and she folded her arms in a characteristic sign of defensiveness. She was angry. It only added to his satisfaction. "You read that?"

House felt a smirk form of its own accord. Their earlier camaraderie seemed to have faded, yet again, without Brooklyn to act as tenuous intermediary. Provoking her was so much easier. It was like second nature sometimes.

He wondered why it felt like such an act.

"That surprises you? Since when do I respect anyone's privacy?"

Cameron scoffed, shifting in place. "I suppose thinking you might have grown out of it was too good to be true?"

"Undoubtably."

Silence enveloped them; that awkward, loaded silence that they were so damn good at. His eyes ticked over her. She was staring off to the side, slender frame poised with tension, as if she were prepared to launch off on the balls of her feet at the nearest opportunity.

House narrowed his eyes. "Are you going to apply?" he asked sharply, leaning heavily on his cane.

Cameron frowned at his bluntness. "I don't see why that's any of your business."

"True, but again, I have this quirk about knowing everything about everyone."

"I have a lot of things to consider," she said shortly, starting past him towards the empty Diagnostic office.

He turned, unwilling to be dismissed so abruptly, especially by her. His fingers flexed around his cane as he limped after her, following her into the dark briefing room. "Yeah, I hear those unemployment benefits are really worth it."

Cameron barely glanced at him, scanning the interior of the office until she found whatever she was looking for on Chase's desk; the one that he had once considered hers. "Why do you care?" she asked shortly, flicking her mane of dark hair over one shoulder. She fixed her eyes on him calmly.

House halted in the middle of the room, eyeing her dispassionately. Of course she was going to make this about them. "Personally, I don't care. As one doctor to another—"

"When have we ever been 'one doctor to another'?" Cameron questioned derisively. "If you don't have a personal interest in something you're not interested at all. Do you want me to come back?"

"Would that change your decision?" he asked lowly.

She slowly shook her head, pursing her lips. "No."

He stared at her intently. The darkness was a friendly shroud and protected him from her perceptive gaze. "Then why does it matter?"

Cameron frowned, sliding her pocketbook over her shoulder and depositing it roughly on Chase's cluttered desk. "Why are you here?" she demanded snappishly.

House remained typically impassive. "Why are you?" he responded evasively. "I find it interesting that of all the places you could 'come to think' you chose here."

Cameron narrowed her eyes, stepping forward slowly. Her pale features came under a sliver of moonlight as it reflected through the window and she was almost ethereal in appearance. He wondered if that was what she had been these last few weeks; nothing more than a ghost, tormenting him from the past.

"I shouldn't have to explain my motives to you, House. It's not like you would understand what it means to have an emotional attachment to anything."

House lifted his eyebrows, unaccustomed to the venom in her voice. He found himself numb to her insults. "Low blow."

She only rolled her eyes. "If you want me to leave, then fine, I will."

She made to step back, but he surprised both of them, holding out a hand. "Technically you have as much right as I do to be here."

She lifted an eyebrow, attempting to judge his sincerity. Finally, she nodded. "Okay then."

An awkward pause fell between them, and Cameron lowered her eyes to the desk. House didn't know why he hadn't left already. He cleared his throat, dropping his own bag to the table. The load was weighing down his shoulder. "Foreman wants to know why I haven't asked you to come back to the team."

Cameron blinked at him, taken aback by his honesty. "You don't… You have Hudson."

He shrugged. "And I thought I made my feelings on him pretty clear." He took a step forward, feeling the warmth saturate the air between them. "It's certainly a valid suggestion…"

"Dr. Kendall… already told me the job is mine. If I want it," Cameron said uncertainly. Her wide green eyes followed him, sliding up to his face as he stopped, looming in front of her. Even with his weight on his cane he was much taller than her, and it gave him a sense of added control. He liked feeling in control. Cameron was such a volatile addition to his life; she continued to disrupt that self-assurance.

"So why don't you take it?" he asked deliberately.

She swallowed. "Brooklyn… she needs a home. I need to be sure this time will be… permanent."

He had to smirk. "Which is why working for me is such a bad idea."

"Yes," she said, surprisingly firmly.

He nodded, tilting his head down at her. "Why?"

Cameron frowned. "You know why," she said hoarsely.

He stepped closer, effectively eliminating any semblance of personal space. Cameron's breath caught. He had always enjoyed playing on her attraction to him, but now, the uncertainty only heightened the tension.

"Not really," he replied lowly.

Cameron continued to stare up at him, remaining carefully motionless. Her eyes traced his face. "Is playing with me really worth tormenting yourself like this?" she suddenly asked, voice soft and tentative. "Why can't you just admit what you want here?"

House stared down at her intently, annoyed by her attempt to analyse him. "What makes you think I want anything?"

Cameron stared back. "I know you."

He scoffed, determined to hold her gaze. "You certainly like to think you do."

Her jaw twitched defiantly. "I know enough," she repeated flatly. "You hide from people because there's less chance you'll get hurt that way. You play your Gameboy and watch your soaps so real people can't touch you. That hasn't changed. From what I can see, it's only gotten worse."

"Hospital gossip really is a reliable source," House said caustically.

She stood her ground, determined not to let his closeness unsettle her. "I have Wilson for that", she shot back. "And Foreman and Chase. You think I don't know why Cuddy asked me back here? I'm not stupid. She never really liked me; she has no reason to do me any favours."

House hated that she, like Wilson, appeared to have uncovered Cuddy's motives so easily. He noticed everything about everyone. Why was he so blind when it came to himself?

"Oh yeah, I'm really cut up inside. But you're going to make that all better."

She stared at him pointedly. "No. That chance passed a long time ago."

He lifted an eyebrow at her coldness. The need to strike back was overpowering. "What makes you think there ever was one?"

Cameron scoffed, unable to stop the feeling of hurt from welling up in her chest. She backed away from him and turned to snatch up her bag. The days of standing still as he gave her an emotional battering were over. She didn't have to take this. She whirled to leave, and he stepped in her path, effectively blocking her and forcing her back to press against the desk.

Cameron drew in a breath, glaring at him angrily. "Get out of my way."

House rolled his eyes. "Oh, what are you going to do, kick me in the nads? Then again, a girl like you probably has mace stowed away in her handbag. I hear that stuff stings pretty bad."

Cameron swallowed. She never, for one moment, imagined that he would harm her, but she couldn't help the minute burst of fear. "Why are you dong this?"

"What am I doing? You were going to leave in the middle of our conversation and I'm stopping you."

She tilted her chin slightly so she could meet his piercing gaze. "If we never had a chance then why aren't you letting me leave right now?"

House rested his cane by her side, brushing her hip as he did. His bright blue eyes swirled with conflicted emotion and Cameron was caught off guard by their sudden raw honesty. "I don't know."

"What do you want, House?" she challenged bluntly.

"I don't know," he repeated tightly, clenching his jaw.

"No. You never do," she said darkly.

"And you still think you have it all figured out," House snarked. "You really are just as naïve as–"

She seized his jaw with her hand, swiftly cutting off his retort, and drew him roughly to her lips. House barely paused before responding, opening his mouth and allowing his tongue to harshly caress hers. She heard his cane clatter to the floor as he moved his hand, twining it through her soft brown hair and tugging her more firmly towards him.

The familiar rush in her stomach that she had attempted to suppress since returning to Princeton flared to life, and her heart picked up a frenetic pace. The edge of the desk jabbed into her back as they stumbled back a step, and her other hand gathered a fistful of House's shirt in an effort to reassert some semblance of her former control.

She knew he wanted her. She wasn't stupid. It was the unprecedented possessiveness of his returned assault that startled her. She was kissing House, and he was kissing her back. Her younger self would have rejoiced at this moment, but now she was only overcome by a mixture of shock and yearning.

He drew away first, breathing unsteadily, and he cursed her angrily under his breath before limping back a few steps.

Cameron didn't stop him, chest heaving with her gasps for air. Her green eyes sought out his face, and he looked positively torn. She thought it was the most honest, emotional expression she had ever seen him give her.

The full impact of her actions hit her and she felt her heart contract wildly.

She was falling hard for Greg House. All over again. She knew there was no way she would ever land on her feet. Not with someone else along for the ride.

"I have to go," she whispered abruptly. She grasped her fallen bag, throwing it over her shoulder and striding past him so quickly it was almost a jog. She didn't stop until she reached the elevator and the sliding doors closed behind her. She never allowed herself to look back.

It was better that way.

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