Hello! It really took me a while to get this chapter out, didn't it? Hehe... I'm sorry, but here we go with a really good chapter, the fifth, right? Wow, I've gotten further than I thought I would, actually...
I know I said there would be French in the last chapter and there wasn't, so I apologize! There is French in this chapter!
Okay, I know this sounds stupid, but just the other night I was watching a House re-run and it was one I had never seen before, with the lady who chronically makes herself sick and House ends up drugging her to induce the symptoms for the disease he thinks she has. In that episode, House and Cameron go to check out her house and House throws Cam the helmet and she rides his bike. So, when I was watching this, my jaw was open and I was like "No way! I never saw this episode before and that's how I imagine it to be in Dark Heart, Bright Soul! No way!" I apologize to any of you who are rolling your eyes right now and thinking, "Well, duh!" Last winter, I was gone a lot over the nights House was shown and not all of them were taped! So, if something sounds too familiar, I probably didn't see it; I might not even know it existed! Hehe...
Onward; you want to read a story, not a babble!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter Five
Cameron's hand ran over the necklace, her fingertips rolling the beads back and forth over her skin, causing the metal to shine in the light coming from the candle lit patio. They had disturbed several couples already, the motorcycle roaring up to the French restaurant, the engine drowning out the beautiful piano music coming from inside. House had parked the bike in front of the patio, also, causing several people to complain about obstruction of view. So far, Cameron was having a wonderful evening and dinner had not even began, but she wondered how long the date would last before House got them kicked out.
"Would you like to sit inside?" House asked, hobbling along beside her. Cameron blushed before answering.
"Um, well, we could sit- Um, we could sit-"
House stopped and looked at her, eyes never wavering, a smirk on his face. Cameron blushed harder and looked down at her shoes, rubbing at the necklace nervously.
"Are we just going to eat standing up, or would you like to pick a spot?"
"Where would you-"
"Cameron, just pick a place to sit. All the blood is going to rush to your head soon if you don't stop blushing and I don't think I could catch you if you fainted."
Cameron nodded and forced herself to take several deep breaths, ignoring his caustic tone.
"How about we sit over there?" she asked, pointing to the table under the red and white striped umbrella where they had sat at lunch the previous day. House wordlessly led the way, Cameron following him with her head bowed. What an idiot she was being! It was like she had never been on a date before in her life!
She bumped into something hard, the hard thing yielding slightly as Cameron looked up suddenly, nearly dropping her purse as she took a quick step back. Her eyes made contact with House's eyes and Cameron bit her lip.
"Sorry," she said, "But why did you stop?"
"I was going to take Wilson's advice and pull out your chair for you," House answered, raising his eyebrows. "Of course, if you would rather I just sit down first..."
House trailed off as he pulled her chair out for her and gestured for her to sit. Cameron did so, holding her breath as he pushed her back to the table. She let out a nervous chuckle as House sat down, once again placing his cane on the table before remembering he was not supposed to. Cameron tried to catch a glimpse of the scratches and chips on the cane before House placed it on the edge of the table, the handle clinging desperately to the end of the table to keep from falling to the ground. It was too dark, however, and Cameron tried to ignore the look House was giving her.
"Have you been on a date before?" he asked suddenly, mocking her. "I mean, you show up dressed in- that," House gestured to her dress, "And then you run into me, but not before making us both wait to find a table."
Cameron frowned, ready to comment on something House had said earlier, but, before she could speak, a waiter with a strong French accent strode to the table, taking menus out from under his arm with a flourish.
"Bon soir, Mademoiselle, Monsieur! Je m'appelle Michel et je-"
The waiter stopped talking as he realized it was the doctor and his lady friend, back again, and Cameron's eyes widened as she realized it was the same waiter as the other day. She did not fail to notice the waiter's eyes narrow at the sight of House, and House simply looked at the garçon with an innocent face.
"You were saying?" House prompted, raising his eyebrows expectantly. "You wouldn't want to break that phony French dialog, right? Are those menus?"
The waiter tossed the menus on the table and snarled softly in English that he would be back soon to take their orders. House, looking rather pleased with himself, handed a menu to Cameron and started to flip through his own, Cameron horrified.
"You just insulted him," she hissed, "You had no right to tease him about his accent!"
"I wasn't teasing him about his accent, I was teasing him about his language," House corrected. "If you're going to admonish me, do it correctly."
"Sorry," Cameron muttered again, taking her menu from House's hand and sighing sharply. "I just don't see why you have to be so nasty."
"I wasn't-" House sighed just as Cameron had before continuing. "Look, does it matter? Let's just eat, okay? By the time it would take us to get to another restaurant and for you to pick a new table, all the restaurants in the area would be closing."
Cameron looked at her menu, hardly concentrating on the words in front of her. House was becoming more and more venomous by the moment and Cameron doubted her good night was going to continue with this attitude. Deciding to put it behind her, Cameron took a closer look at her menu, only to find out it was all in French. Taking a quick glance at House to make sure he had not seen her initial confusion, Cameron went back to the menu, determined to make sense of it and order for herself.
As she carefully mouthed the words to herself off the menu of what she was going to order, Cameron felt eyes staring at her, making her uncomfortable. Finally, she looked up to see House simply watching her, face void of expression.
"Problems?" she asked, trying to be sarcastic.
"Yes. I can't remember our order through your mumbling."
"Our order? I'm ordering for myself!"
"Fine, fine."
House held up his hands defensively before closing his menu with a snap.
"Garçon!" House called, snapping his fingers. Cameron felt her face turn red as other customers, who had been enjoying small talk and the music coming from indoors, looked over at the rude man she was sitting across from; she felt the urge to sink under the table and never come out.
"Oui, Monsieur?" the waiter asked, voice crackling with anger, seizing his order book and a pen from his apron pocket, clicking the pen as though preparing to drive it into House's throat.
"Je vais prendre un sandwich au jambon et salade nature," House ordered," et café au lait."
The waiter, jotting this down, looked expectantly at Cameron, Cameron having a sense of deja vous. Looking at House and finding nothing but those cold blue eyes, Cameron plucked up her courage- and forgot what she was going to order.
"I'll have a- Um, I'll have," Cameron flipped through her menu, trying to pronounce the words, paying to attention to grammar. "I'll have un ta citron and the fromage au omelette. And salade nature, too."
Michel, raising the corners of his mouth in a confused smile, broke into English long enough for Cameron to understand:
"You don't have to order in French. Just tell me what you want."
Cameron felt her face burn as she said she wanted a salad, a small sandwich, and a cup of tea, much like she had had at lunch the other day. The garçon, smiling with mingled amusement and disgust, left Cameron and House alone once more.
"I bet you enjoyed that," Cameron muttered bitterly, twisting her fingers in her lap.
"Actually, I did, but not in the mean sense," House answered, never smiling. "That was a good effort for a beginner. Do you want to learn some real French?"
"Why should I? I already made a fool of myself."
"Yeah, you did, but we already ordered our food and there are other things to say besides what you would like to eat or drink. Would you like to learn or not?"
Cameron, smiling a little in spite of herself, nodded her head before asking, "Why would you enjoy watching me make an idiot of myself?"
"Because," House answered, looking as uncomfortable as he had before he pulled the necklace out of his pocket earlier in the evening, "You don't look like an idiot when you blush. You don't look bad at all."
Cameron smiled wider as House cleared his throat, shaking his head. She knew what he had tried to say.
He thought she looked beautiful.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"J'aime."
"J'aime," repeated Cameron, trusting in whatever House was telling her to say, hoping it was nothing embarrassing.
"Beaucoup la musique."
"Beaucoup- la musique?"
"Very good," House said, smiling slightly. "What do you think you just said?"
"I like music?"
"You catch on very quickly," he praised, finishing the last bite of his sandwich as Cameron tried to spear a lettuce leaf onto her fork. "That and it helps to be a parrot, too."
"Did you just call me a bird?"
"Did I?"
For the past hour, the two had sat over their dinner, House teaching Cameron how to put together simple sentences in French. She was not very good at it yet, and so House had her repeat after him most of the time, the evening recovering from it's unstable state to something enjoyable once more.
Cameron saw House's fingers tapping along to the piano music streaming out into the night air from inside the restaurant and Cameron, forgetting about House's obvious handicap, asked, "Would you like to dance?"
There was a few seconds of silence, in which House looked wistfully inside, the glass shell breaking for a moment for Cameron to see he truly wanted to dance. However, that moment went as quick as it came, and House shook his head no.
"I'm sorry," Cameron apologized, muttering those words for what seemed to be the tenth time that evening. "I forgot, I didn't mean to- I just..."
She didn't even try and finish her sentence, letting the silence grow between them, the music doing nothing to bridge the gap until House spoke.
"Do you know what song this is?"
"No."
"This is Moonlight Sonata, by Beethoven."
Cameron let this information wash over her, not understanding what House's tone was supposed to mean.
"And?" she asked, hesitant.
"And this is one of my favorites."
Cameron realized the full meaning of those words then and bowed her head, feeling tears prick her eyes. She had just asked him to dance to this song, one of his favorites, and he couldn't. He could play it on the piano, but he couldn't dance.
"Are you ready to go?" House asked, looking around into the night, the candles on the patio dimming by the second. The restaurant was going to close very soon. The mood dimmed, Cameron took the slip of paper with the total on it and opened her purse to dig out her wallet, House standing up and hobbling away toward the motorcycle, letting her pay after all. Cameron could hardly read the total through the glaze of tears over her eyes, but she could hear the jingle of House's keys as he pulled them from his pocket, the motorcycle engine drowning out the music coming from the building.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So, their dinner date didn't go so well... Sad! I know that is so sappy about House not being able to dance to the song and teaching Cameron French, but I like it... I'm going to look back on this and laugh in a few months, but I like it because I can just express how these characters might feel in a given situation (and with me pulling their strings... ) Anyway, you might not feel like I answered some of the questions posed in this chapter, but I will in the next chapter, and things will get much better, I promise! House and Cameron's night is not a total disaster!
Oh, and the "bad French" was done on purpose! Hehe... If I messed up, though, where I was not supposed to (like when House was talking) please let me know so I can fix it or at least point it out for readers in the future...
Thank you so much for reading and please tell me what you think! Thanks again!
