Sorry for the delay. The Muses make me work for this plot...
"What?" Cameron sniped, fishing a large hand towel from the crook of the arm that was holding Christopher and tossing it over her exposed shoulder, covering her as decently as possible. "Never seen a mother breastfeed before? Honestly, with your experience, one would think that this"––here, Cameron's free arm gestured at her state of almost-undress––"would be…"
Whatever it would be will never be known to House, because Christopher's whimpers of distress cut off his mother's tirade. Cameron immediately moved to comfort the baby, turning around so that she could readjust him on her shoulder without giving his father any more "views".
House shook his head before stepping inside the room, closing the door behind him.
"Living room's over there," Cameron said as she walked away from him, rubbing Christopher's back in soothing motions. She walked to her room and closed the door behind her. Cameron placed Christopher down in the middle of the bed before adjusting her maternity bra and blouse. She looked down briefly to make sure she looked presentable before she picked up her son from the bed and opened the door. She nearly dropped the baby when she saw House standing on the other side of her bedroom door.
"Why did you leave?" he asked gruffly.
Momentarily confused, Cameron said, "Christopher went to sleep and—"
"Not today!" House cried in exasperation. Christopher looked up from his prone position on Cameron's shoulder and looked at House, wide-eyed in surprise. "Why'd you leave last year? And why didn't you tell me about mini-me over here?" He raised his left hand to indicate Christopher, who followed the path of his father's hand with a steady blue gaze of wonderment. Fascinated, House waved his hand again in front of Christopher's face; he stopped abruptly when he saw Cameron's look.
"I'm waving for emphasis," he muttered. "Are you going to answer my question or not?"
"I might," Cameron said calmly, "if you'll let me pass."
House stood to one side, letting Cameron and Christopher pass, before following them to the living room. She motioned for him to sit on the sofa, rocking Christopher in her arms so that he could be lulled to sleep. She fixed House with a warning glare.
Keep it civil.
House looked impassive.
"You didn't answer my question yet," he said gruffly, trying not to appear obvious as he closely observed Cameron and her attempts to calm down Christopher. Christopher obviously was not ready to be put to sleep; he tried to find an available breast to nurse from, rubbing his face in Cameron's chest and mewling pitifully.
House squirmed uncomfortably.
Lucky kid.
Above Christopher's whimpers and grunts, Cameron heard their visitor sigh as the stuffed chair he sat on creaked as he stood up. The next thing she heard was the scrape of wood on rough carpet; when she raised her head and looked, House was sitting back down on the chair, which was now conveniently facing the opposite direction.
"You better start feeding Nemo over there before he starts bawling his lungs out," House said brusquely, "What will Child Services say?"
"I'll tell them it's his father's fault," Cameron shot back, "because he's so infuriating." She quickly grabbed two overstuffed throw pillows from the corners of the couch and placed them behind her. Checking to see that House wouldn't peek over the stuffed chair, she undid her blouse and the left cup of her maternity bra before settling down comfortably and letting Christopher continue his rudely interrupted dinner.
She was so intent on her task that she momentarily forgot about the sliding glass doors a short distance beyond the living room area. Though the reflection wasn't good and the chair was angled a few degrees away from the glass doors, House saw everything. He tightened his hold on the cane when Cameron exposed a creamy left breast for a moment until Christopher's auburn-haired head blocked his view. Before House's mind had any chance to dwell on impure thoughts about cup sizes, the baby's noisy smacking brought him back to reality.
"Well!" he said loudly in mock enthusiasm. "Judging by the sound of THAT, I can see why Nemo there couldn't wait to find his way home to dinner! Any chance of sampling some of that, Mom?"
Cameron snorted, choosing to ignore the suggestive question as she leaned back on the pillows and adjusted her hold on Christopher. She wasn't comfortable, being exposed like this. The sooner House got out of her hotel room, the better.
House seemed to share her sentiments on the matter.
"Why did you leave, Cameron?" he asked gruffly. He centered his gaze on her reflection in the sliding glass doors, seeing her contort her beautiful face into different expressions as her sharp mind whittled up an answer to his question. The one that came back repeatedly was a wince of pain—House couldn't tell if it was from a flashback or if Christopher was getting a little too enthusiastic in getting his dinner.
Then he saw the wince replaced with a look of resignation. "Why do you care, House?" Cameron asked quietly.
"Maybe it's because I'm a closet Care Bear and I'm ready to come out," House replied glibly, coating each word with bitterness as he spoke. "or its because I felt used last time you were at my place; I wanted to hear from you if all you ever wanted from me was the sex or if you've finally made a hypocrite out of yourself."
"What do you mean I made a hypocrite of myself?!"
House saw her eyes widen with outrage. She was doing that clenching thing again; Christopher began to fret again in her arms. Stubborn ass that he is, he ignored the warning signs and continued.
"Somehow, you appointed yourself as a well-meaning martyr after you married your dying sweetheart and stuck it with him until the end. Then you got me in your line of vision and admitted that you like me and wanted to help me and all that hero-worshipping shit. After that, you claimed that you hated me when Stacy came back—nice bit of self-denial there, Cameron.
"Then I got shot—somehow, Mom likes you and appointed you my official nanny while I was on sick leave. Then we did it—and you left."
House stood up at that point. He slowly limped his way to Cameron, his fantastic blue eyes never leaving her aquamarine eyes, which darkened to a dusky shade of blue.
He stood over her, looking down at her with an impassive face and eyes filled with a mixture of hurt and longing. Cameron held Christopher close to her, holding on to him to protect him and using his little body to cover her exposed flesh.
"Didn't like the damage you saw, didn't you, Allison? Was I too damaged for you to save that you had to leave me and never given me any idea about Christopher's existence?"
Cameron's face went blank for thirty seconds before a look of incredulity came over her. "Unbelievable, House," she whispered, shaking her head at him. She stood up from the couch a bit awkwardly—she didn't have the chance to cover herself decently and was still clutching at Christopher's body over her naked left breast—and walked a few steps forward to House, who moved back a bit.
"You are damaged, House," she said softly. "I don't have it in me to change you for better or for worse, and I still don't care about that scar or whether you're older than me—I would've stayed either way.
"You want to know why I left before you came back? I had two reasons…"
vv
There was a sense of urgency to make it last all night.
Before and after Cameron got married, she had been in few relationships that had been sexually intense and satisfying, but none of them equaled to what was happening between her and House. A niggling worry about the lack of protection was pushed further back into the periphery of her mind when House reached for her again.
"Oh my GOD!" she gasped as evidence of House's arousal was pressed against her ass. "House, this is the—ooh!—third time. Is this a side-effect of—ohGodYES—ketamine?!"
House chuckled wickedly as he nibbled at the base of Cameron's neck, alternating his puppy nips with teasing licks as he prepared himself and Cameron…
She screamed into the pillow when she came, and she felt House spill inside her for a third time, felt him shuddering with passion…
She was basking in the afterglow, their bodies in a spooning position, his hands caressing her limp and satiated body, when these words shattered the moment—her moment:
"…beautiful, Stacy…"
When House woke up the next morning, he saw Cameron placing the phone down on the cradle. She was dressed in the clothes she wore yesterday. House was about to say something when the incessant beeping of a cab cut through the silence.
"I have to go House."
He saw her letter of resignation on his desk three weeks later.
vv
House looked like he'd been shot in the gut again.
"Cameron, I'm—"
"The second reason came from Jason's family," Cameron continued.
"Jason?"
"My late husband; his family didn't approve of our marriage. I received a message from my sister-in-law, asking me to call her. Anyway, I flew out to Colorado the following day and met up with their family lawyer––"
"Let me guess," House cut in flatly. "The dearly departed left you a neat little nest egg."
Cameron nodded. "That's when I found out that I was pregnant…"
"…and decided not to inform me of my impending fatherhood." House quietly finished for her.
They fell silent then, looking at Christopher at the same time. The baby had witnessed his parents' verbal sparring without making a peep.
vv
When he saw House get off the elevator, Wilson jumped up from the couch in the lobby and chased him to the hotel doors. Wilson looked like he napped on the couch while waiting for House.
"Still here, Wilson?" House asked in mock surprise. Wilson scowled.
"Well, your bike effectively blocked my escape route, and it's too heavy to push out of the way," Wilson grumbled. "What happened between the two of you?"
House paused halfway to his parked motorcycle. Wilson looked at his face from the side, and it was enough to tell him that Cameron had finally told him the truth.