Disclaimer: DOH
We are Death. We take orders from no one. We are our own.
"Since you are down here, would you mind doing something, anything productive?"
House tears his gaze from the magazine long enough to give her that look that tells her exactly what he plans on doing: nothing. He loves to make her frustrated with him.
"I could, but then the cosmic balance would be thrown off and life as we know it would end."
"Or Cuddy might get wind of it and figure out this is becoming your best hiding spot?"
"The only wind she's getting is between her legs, and even then it's just dust."
Cameron whacks the back of his head playfully with a file as she pushes behind him from where he's hiding at the main desk.
"I seem to remember you wanted to be that dust."
Some days like this, when the worst accidents are scraped knees and bee stings that don't result in anaphylactic shock, she thinks she could do this the rest of her life. And then she sees House, somewhere far in a hallway, somewhere close by in the clinic, somewhere in his office, somewhere with his new ducklings, or somewhere with Wilson, and she knows this stage of her life is temporary. Thank God, though it's only a figure of speech.
"Hitting a crippled! That's bad karma!"
"House! I have been looking for you for the past hour!"
Rolling his eyes, House turns his head to the right, searching for Cameron in the active ER and finding her smiling at him from where she's talking with a male nurse. Mouthing the word 'karma,' she turns her full attention to the nurse and they walk away. House fights the small smile and turns his head to look straight at his tormentor.
"Okay, you got me! Your turn. I'll count to twenty. One –."
"I am not playing Hide and Seek with you so uncover your eyes. What have you been doing?"
"I've been helping Cameron out down here."
Cuddy folds her arms and House swears that the top button of her blouse is going to pop off any second.
"You've been helping?"
"They call me Father Theresa."
"Sure they do. Come on, let's go."
"Can't. Girlfriend gets pissy when I'm not in her immediate line of sight."
"So she can shoot you at will?"
"With admiration and adoration."
"Yeah, I'm sure. Now, off your ass. Wilson found a case for you."
"I told you! My girlfr – ."
"Is nonexistent."
"You need to tell Cuddy we're sleeping together."
"Turn the volume up, House."
House keeps the remote glued to his thigh.
"Did you hear me?"
Swirling her warm spaghetti around the fork, Cameron doesn't even bother looking at the man sitting beside her. She's not angry or frustrated because he's joking, which she's beyond used to. It's because he might not be joking at all.
"The show's back on. I want to see them catch this rat!"
"The only rat you'll be watching is the one hiding in Chase's hair if you don't tell Cuddy."
Her chewing is measured and slow, the taste not even registering because now she is mad. She's perfectly fine with the way things are progressing between them, unknown to anyone else but Wilson. This is a secret that's kept them above water, and if he wants to chance it this soon, risk the drowning, then good for him. She just doesn't want to.
"Why don't you tell her?"
"The woman didn't believe me. Kept saying you weren't that desperate or downgrading from Chase to a," he hand quotes in the air, "weenie head."
The anger fades at the response and she smiles softly in spite of herself, her hand unable to conceal it from its watcher who scowls at her reaction before taking a huge bite of his spaghetti.
"Why does she need to know, now?"
He doesn't reply to her, not even casting a glance her way as he finally switches the volume up, and she begins to think maybe it was all a ruse to begin with. Too bad for him she's upped her game by getting to know his.
Verminators ends and their plates are sitting on the coffee table, waiting to be placed into the sink for a good cleaning by her, always her, because she lets him get away with it. Dirty Jobs starts and he turns to her form resting an arm on the opposite arm rest. Cameron raises her eyebrows before moving her legs under her as if there needs to be some type of barrier between them.
"You care if people know?"
She almost doesn't know what to say. "You don't?"
It should be the other way around, House thinks somewhat ironically. He should want this to be a secret for as long as possible and Cameron's supposed to be bursting at the seams to let the world know. Before he can stop it, the nagging worry in the back of his mind slips out.
"You embarrassed?"
"No," she answers softly before asking her own question. "You?"
"Not particularly."
"Fine, I'll tell Cuddy tomorrow."
Cameron watches his expression, though she's surprised to see relief. Had he really thought she was embarrassed? Of course, he had. His fingers graze her ankle, light at first before becoming heavy. Sometimes their life is like this. Light and barely there, or heavy and too real.
Standing, she takes his hand in hers, the weight just beginning to let her breathe.
"The dishes – ."
Isn't it her who's meant to worry about the mundane act? Cameron smiles at him as she helps pull him up to stand. "Can wait."
