A/N: Wow it took me long enough, but here's an update. My computer was taken away but I got it back so the next chapter could come faster, I just gotta, you know, write it. I got a suggestion to make a scene or two in the hospital and I'm pretty sure that will be in the next chapter or two. Okay, on with it.
Chase took a right at a tall office building and stopped to let an elderly couple cross the road. He silently laughed as the man looped his arm in hers and, clutching her purse in his other hand, said something to her. The woman's white hair swayed as she laughed and looked at the man with eyes full of what could only be described as pure love.
Chase smiled as the couple finished crossing the road. He glanced over at Cameron who was smiling as well, eyes crossing the road with the couple.
"Sweet, huh?" He asked, letting her know that he too had watched the couple.
"They just look so…"
"In love?" he offered as they drove on.
"It takes real love for a man to carry his wife's purse," she noted. "So are you going to tell me where we're going?" Cameron asked a few minutes later.
"Relax, we're almost there," he said, purposely not telling her.
A short 15 minutes later Chase made one last turn, this time into one of his favorite parks in the area. 'This was the big surprise?' Cameron thought, but decided to give it a chance.
"Can you grab the blanket from the trunk?" He asked her once they were parked. Despite the unusually warm winter day he decided to bring thelarge andheavyblanket.
She walked around and grabbed a large blue fleece. As she lifted it out of the trunk a small rectangular box fell to the ground. She was about to tell Chase when he appeared next to her and smiled.
"Open it," He said as he leaned against the car and took the blanket from her.
Inside the box was a bracelet with alternating square rubies and sapphires. Chase gently reached over, took it out of the box and clasped it around her wrist. Cameron was speechless, she knew they were serious, but this just seemed to take that to a whole new level. It was so much more than just jewlrey and she knew it.She smiled as she realized that for the first time since her husband died she was ready to actually let go and love again. She'd been let down too many times and had always kept her guard up, especially towards House. But she was beyond that, way beyond.
She pulled herself out of her thoughts and glanced up at Chase, he said nothing just leaned forward and pulled her close to him. Cameron smiled and wiped her watery eyes with a free hand.
Chase saw the tear fall down her smooth cheek and her hand glide up to wipe it away, he hadn't been expecting this strong of a reaction, but took it as a good thing. The blanket getting heavy in his arms, he unfolded with a swift flick of his hand and wrapped it around both of them.
After a moment of thought, Cameron looked up at him and whispered audibly, more asa realization to herself than to Chase directly, "I love you."
She pulled away a little to look at his reaction. His eyes seemed to melt as he looked back at her and said, "You don't know how long I've been waiting to say the same thing." He leaned down and kissed her softly. "I love you too."
She was thrilled to hear it but when she glanced around them and realized they were still standing in the parking lot under the light of a tall streetlamp, she couldn't help a small chuckle from escaping.
"What?" Chase asked, confused.
"Sorry, I just remembered that we're still standing in a parking lot."
"Oh, right. Come on then, I brought you here to show you something a bit more significant than the parking lot," he said and took her hand, leading her across a patch of grass.
"And that would be, what exactly?" Cameron asked as they walked along a gravel path lit by street light type lamps.
"Just trust me," he said.
'I'm working on it,' she thought and held his hand tighter as they walked a short distance to a wooden bridge.
Looking to her left she stood on the middle of the bridge and admired the view. The sky was tainted the slightest bit red from the sun going down, and a single lamppost glowed from just beyond the bridge. Trees bare for the winter surrounded edges of a trickling stream full of half melted ice from the day's heat.
Raising an eyebrow, she followed Chase's lead and sat down on a bench that was built into the structure of the bridge.
He re-arranged the blanket and said "I just wanted to bring you somewhere special." He brought her close to him and wrapped the blanket tighter.
"It's nice, really," she said sincerely and paused to listen to the rhythm of Chase's breathing and the soft ripple of the stream beneath them.
Cameron sighed aloud. Her day had been a crazy emotional roller coaster. She always took it hard when a patient died but she wasn't used to having someone there to actually care. Normally she just dealt with it somehow by herself, by either cleaning, blaring loud music or occasionally a bottle of wine.
"What's wrong?" Chase asked, nearly reading her mind.
"Nothing, just not used to all the special treatment I guess. I feel like I should be…I don't know," she trailed off and twined her fingers in his.
"Jenna?" he asked.
She hated thinking about it when he was taking so much effort to make her feel better and take her mind off it. "Yeh, sorry," she admitted.
"Do you remember the girl we saved that was obese, turned out she was taking diet pills and had that genetic disorder?" He asked her.
"Um, yeh," she said, not quite sure where he was going with it.
"My point is," he smiled, "that she will go on living, possibly closer to her mother because we saved her. You've got to think of the living, don't forget the dead, just look forward."
"Forward, huh?" she grinned, "I think I can do that." She looked up to him and cast away the mental video that appeared in her head of her and Chaserunning playfully witha small brunette around a lush green yard on a hot day. She knew it was wrong to make herself think that this could be her future. 'Hey' she thought, 'you never know.' The thought made her smile.
The next half hour was filled with Chase's explanation of why he chose this park and generally getting to know each other even better.
"We better go, it's getting cold," Chase said, feeling the cold night air begin to blow. He stood up and helped Cameron off the bench as well.
Having been sitting in the same position for a while she rolled her neck and stretched her arms above her head, arching her back.
Chase couldn't resist. He swiftly pinched her sides with his hands. She once again let out a high pitched "eeee" sound and nearly fell over. She lost her balance and fell back into Chase.
"I thought," she began through a smile after steadying herself, "I told you not to do that." She laughed and leaned closer to him then pulled away, purposely teasing him.
"Guess I forgot," He said innocently and laughed along with her.
"So where do you want to go for dinner?" He asked as they walked back to the car.
"Know what?" she asked with a sly suggestive smile. Chase raised a questioning eyebrow. "I'm not really hungry…" she turned her body and playfully kissed him. "…for food anyways," she finished the thought and laughed.
"Why, Allison," he spun her away from his bodyin a dance room like movement and brought her back to him in a fluid movement. "Are we trying to insinuate something?"
She smiled back and felt his pace quicken.
"HEY!" Cameron yelled toward the bed, while spraying perfume on her neck. No response. He was the hardest person to wake up that she had ever met. Most mornings she just set the alarm clock really close to his ears.
'Fine' she thought, 'be that way.' Cameron picked up a pillow that had clearly been in their way last night off the floor and threw it with a bit of force at a sleeping Chase.
Chase simply moved the pillow off his face by rolling over, meanwhile mumbling something along the lines of "yeh, yeh I'll see…"
Cameron laughed, he rarely talked in his sleep but when it did it never made much sense. Her smile fading, she slipped on her watch and assured herself that she still had enough time to wake him up before she had to leave.
Cameron made her way over to the bed and laid down close to him.
"Chase, it's time for work," she whispered in his ear. She laid a trail of kisses from his chest, up his neck and stopped at his mouth.
His eyes opened and she moved a little away from his face. "Good morning." She smiled and climbed off the bed. "You've got to do something about this whole deep sleep thing," she warned him.
"Keep waking me up like that and we won't have a problem," he said, getting off the bed, slipping on a pair of pants and wrapping his arms around her waist from the back. He rested his head on her shoulder and sighed.
She pulled away and smiled. "Hey, I'm going to head in early for an appointment, 'kay?"
"Mmm, okay, bye," he said and smiled after her as she walked out through the spacey living room.
TBC- Review please.