Chapter 14

For the next two weeks, Nicky felt better with each day, she worked longer hours and Wilson was pleased to see that she had her appetite back. She needed to keep her strength up. She'd told him all about the date and was amazed at this side to House that was totally alien to him. He was usually too bitter and twisted for words, yet Nicky was talking about this gentle, sensitive individual and Wilson just couldn't connect it as the same person.

All too soon, Nicky had her second chemo session and House came with her this time. He told his team to contact Cuddy if there were any problems.

They walked over to the Oncology Reception and booked in.

"Dr House," the Receptionist said, a little taken aback, "what are you doing here? I'm not aware of any patients that need your attention." She flipped through her register totally flustered by his presence. His reputation obviously went before him and Nicky couldn't help but smile.

"Relax," Nicky said, as she put her hand over the Receptionist's to stop her flipping through her books, "he's with me."

"Oh," the Receptionist said, still puzzled.

"As her boyfriend," House rolled his eyes at her and grinned wickedly as if to say, I was dragged here.

The Receptionist's jaw dropped and Nicky shot him a quick warning glance, willing him not to say anything sarcastic about it.

Dr Wilson walked through at that point and smiled at them both. "Hey, Nicky, all set?"

"Yeah," Nicky replied, smiling.

"Hopefully this one won't be as long as last time," he said, putting his arm around her shoulder and leading her into the clinic and House followed behind. He led them into a room and Nicky hopped onto the bed while House sat down in the chair next to her, looking more nervous than she did.

"It's different when it's someone you know, isn't it?" Nicky said, picking up on his anxiety.

He nodded, "And love." He took her hand his and kissed it gently.

She smiled softly. "You don't have to be here, you know, Greg."

"I know," House replied, kissing her hand once more indicating that he wanted to be here with her.

They were interrupted by a large, homely looking nurse coming bustling in pushing a small surgical trolley in front of her, "Alrighty, and who do we have here?" she said cheerfully.

She picked up Nicky's notes and smiled before going through the procedure of asking her name, address and date of birth. Then she turned to House. "Not here in a professional capacity, I hope, Dr House?" She was the type who took no nonsense and spoke as she found. Nicky liked her already.

"Um, no, actually," House said taken aback.

"Good," she said cheerily, then turned to Nicky and added, "wouldn't want him cluttering up my ward with infectious diseases now would we?" She winked at her and started preparing the treatment.

Nicky grinned at House who looked astounded.

"I'm Susan by the way and I'm going to be your Primary Nurse throughout your treatment here, alrighty, sweetie? Any questions, problems or otherwise, you can come and see me at any time, I'll give you my number later."

Nicky nodded and Susan gave her hand a gentle squeeze and winked again.

"Sharp scratch," Susan said as she inserted the needle. She worked nimbly and soon the drip was flowing into Nicky's veins. "I'll leave you to it for a moment or two," she added looking at House and then back to Nicky.

"So that's that," Nicky said, "it's quite boring really."

House smiled at her, he loved how she just accepted things and took it all in her stride.

"Greg," she said quietly, "I've started keeping a diary of all this again, it's just my feelings, dates of treatments and stuff." She looked down at the sheet and picked off a piece of imaginary fluff, "if anything happens, I want you to do something with it, I don't know what, maybe you can donate it to the clinic or something, or you can keep it to yourself, I don't know." When she looked at him he saw tears in her eyes. He realised that everything was a front, she was terrified underneath.

He squeezed her hand, there were tears in his eyes too. "Why don't we do a joint diary? Then we can donate it when you've beaten it?" There was no way she was going to die from this he wouldn't let her. "All these photos I've been taking lately, they were for you to look back on when times got rough, but I think we could put them in the diary too."

"But you haven't shown them to me yet," Nicky whispered, her voice was thick with unspent tears.

"I've got them safe, trust me."

"You need to take photos of the bad times too, otherwise it won't be accurate," Nicky said finally.

Susan bustled in again, breaking the spell and they both self-consciously wiped their eyes. "Sounds like there's been some deep conversation going on in here, am I right?" she said, her voice seeming to fill the once quiet room.

Nicky nodded and smiled weakly.

"Well, this is where all the important stuff usually gets said you know, sweetie," Susan said, grabbing a chair and pulled it over to the bed and plonked herself down on it. "Forget all the day to day crap, this is where it counts most," she added as she prodded the bed. "The real heart wrenching or stopping stuff."

Wilson was waiting for them in his office when Nicky's treatment was finished and he noticed that she looked like a ghost, in fact they both looked like they'd been through the wringer.

"How was it?" Wilson asked.

"Okay," Nicky replied quietly. "It's funny, but I just want to sleep this time."

"It's the chemo starting to take effect now," Wilson said gently, "Why don't you stay here and Greg can go and fetch your script?"

"No, it's okay, I'll grab it on the way out and go straight home," Nicky said, looking at House. He noticed that the sparkle had gone.

She got up and staggered rather than walked a couple of steps, before everything went black.

When she came around, she was lying on a bed in one of the Oncology rooms. House was gently stroking her forehead, his face close to hers and the first thing she saw was his lovely blue eyes.

"What happened?" she whispered.

"You fainted," he replied gently, "James wants to keep you in overnight, just to be safe." He handed her some water, which she sipped gratefully, trying to stop the wave of nausea that threatened to envelop her. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm okay," she smiled weakly. "Just tired."

"I'll leave to you get some rest and come back later then," House said gently. She could see he didn't want to tear himself away, but she knew he had work to do, he'd been away far too long as it was.

Wilson stepped forward, she hadn't realised he was in the room too, "Just get some rest," he said quietly, "you're in good hands with us."

Nicky was too tired to argue, she felt sick and her whole body ached. House stood at her window for several moments watching her sleep before Wilson finally dragged him away and sent him off towards his office.

House found it hard to concentrate, his thoughts kept drifting back to the morning's events. They had really talked, but didn't they always? There was none of this pussyfooting around each other, they said it like it was and it was so refreshing. He hated all the guesswork that went with getting to know someone. No, she knew what she wanted and gave it straight and she expected the same back, please or offend, he'd learned that quickly.

He shut himself in his office and pondered. He felt unsettled and turned his c.d. player on. He'd bought the track that they had danced to, that time when it all started, and the music brought a smile to his face. His team barging into his office interrupted his thoughts, he watched as they threw their notes down on the table, and waited in anticipation for him to walk in. Obviously something was up. He snapped the c.d. off and sighed before grabbing his cane and obliging them with his company.

House listened as they reeled of a set of new symptoms one of his patients had developed and he wrote them on the board, interacting with them when it was necessary. He ordered more tests to be done and Foreman and Chase headed back out of the door, Cameron stayed behind.

"How's Nicky?" she asked hesitantly.

"She collapsed in Dr Wilson's office," he replied, then regretted saying it.

"Is she alright?" Cameron asked a little alarmed.

"Wilson is keeping her in overnight, but she should be fine."

"Why don't you come over to my place tonight?" she asked, "I could cook you dinner and we could talk."

House looked at her as if she was deranged. "Why would I want to do that?"

"Because it might help you to relax," Cameron said timidly.

"But I don't need to relax," House replied. "Now is there anything else?" He was getting bored with her now, he knew she liked him a lot, but she just couldn't see that he didn't and never would. He stared at her and she dropped her eyes first, she walked quickly out of the door and off down the corridor to catch up with Foreman and Chase.