Chapter 8 – Why?
Cameron was sat up in bed, her brother sat beside her, tapping away on a laptop that was balanced on his lap. She felt 100, and once again wanted to get out of the hospital. She felt like she had been at work for weeks and wondered what state her apartment was in seeing as her brother had taken up residence there.
She was thinking about what had happened the day before, she had been in that strange state between sleep and waking, she thought she had heard House come in and sit beside her. She thought she had heard him say he loved her. She thought he had kissed her. But it was probably a dream. A dream she liked the idea of a lot. She didn't know why she liked him so much, he was old enough to be her Dad, but his eyes were so beautiful. But he was a jerk, she loved the way he always had a clever remark. She thought about him playing the piano just for her, when the door opened and the man himself stepped in.
He grinned sheepishly at her as he entered. She smiled back, was it her or did he seem slightly embarrassed. Adrian looked up from his laptop as house grabbed a stool with the hook of his cane and pulled it beside him.
"Hey," he said to the pair. The resemblance between the two was remarkable. House wondered if they finished each others sentences. Now that would be cool.
"Hey," Cameron said questioningly, as her brother just looked at House and nodded hello.
House leaned towards Adrian trying to see what he had on his screen.
"You watch porn with your brother?" House asked faking a look of disgust.
"You're not are you!" Cameron said looking shocked at her brother. House and Adrian laughed.
"Ally, you're gullible sometimes, it's nothing but code" Adrian said turning the computer around, and showing her the screen.
"Maybe it's geek porn!" House said, but he looked interested in what Adrian had on the screen. He's interested in everything, Cameron thought and before she knew it had added that to her reasons she loved him.
The three of them sat in silence for a while. Adrian was engrossed in his programming and House was watching him. Cameron remembered something her brother had said about writing software like being a giant logic puzzle, and how the moment he had found the problem and figured out how to fix it, the actual writing of the code was the boring bit. She realized House was a lot like her brother, and wondered if House had been a closet geek. She found herself wondering what he was like as a kid, but remembered the guitar and piano, and knew he had been one of the kids that lived in the music rooms.
She suddenly wanted to hear all his stories, his stories of being at school, of being in a band of the things he got up to at College. She wanted to tell him her secrets too, she wanted to tell him about the adventures she had as a Girl Scout. How she had once drunk so much at a party she had passed out and woke up to find someone had shaved off her eyebrows. She wanted to share everything with him.
Adrian looked between House and his sister. "I need to check this in," he said, closing the lid and standing up. House looked from Adrian to Cameron as Adrian left the room without saying anything.
"Isn't he going to say goodbye?" House said pulling his chair closer to her bed.
"He's coming back" she said. House was once again drawn to the whole sibling closeness thing, he didn't know what it was like to have been so close to somebody that you knew exactly what they were going to do, just by what they said or didn't say.
House was looking carefully at Cameron. He had a sudden urge to kiss her. He sighed and pushed the thought to the back of his head, but pulled his stool closer to the bed. Cameron smiled gently at the other doctor, he smiled back.
"You don't smile enough" Cameron said. House's smile grew, and Cameron wondered for a second if he was laughing at her. He felt his leg give a sudden twinge and his face contorted for a second and his right hand shot to his thigh to try and relieve the spasm as his left hand pulled out the vial of pills.
"Are you ok?" Cameron asked sitting forward and looking concerned.
"You care too much about people," He replied. "You nearly died earlier this week, and you're more concerned about me!"
Cameron bit her bottom lip, knowing what she was going to say next would be awkward. "I care about you." House stared at her. Their eyes locked and he felt as if Cameron was opening up her soul to him through her eyes. "I care about you a lot."
House stood up and for a second Cameron thought he was going to leave the room. Instead he took another step towards the bed. He laid his hand on hers and sighed. His eyes never left hers and Cameron saw a change and was suddenly scared of what he was going to say. He stomach was churning and she could feel her heart rate quickening.
A thousand witty retorts raced through House's head as he stared into her olive green eyes, all he could think of saying was "I care about you too", but he didn't want to say it. He wanted to say, "You only care about me because you want to fix me and I can't be fixed." What he eventually said was: "Why?"
Cameron looked sadly at the man in front her. "Does it really matter?"
"Yes, else I wouldn't have asked the question" he said his voice sounding slightly patronizing.
"Your amazingly clever" she said, she could feel the chemistry between them. House looked stony faced but his thumb had started stroking up and down her bare arm defying his facial expressions and showing her his real feelings.
"You're handsome, you're a brilliant musician, you have beautiful eyes, I like… " House was grinning now. He reached out and put a finger on her lips.
"I get the picture" He said. Cameron could see the tenderness in his eyes and in the way that his finger that had touched his lips was now brushing against her cheek.
"I dreamt that you told me that you loved me," Cameron said her free hand now moving to House's face.
"It wasn't a dream," He said forgetting to be uncaring and sarcastic; and just saying what he knew should have been said before. Cameron just looked at him, puzzled.
"I came in and told you that I loved you", he said looked away.
Cameron felt her heart soar and put her hand under his stubbly chin and lifted his head so that their eyes met again. Cameron leant towards his face. She could smell his aftershave as she felt his hand move into her hair and their lips met. This kiss was so much more than the first time they had kissed. There was no syringe in her pocket this time and there was a deeper connection between them.
They moved apart, both of them smiling. House moved back towards her and kissed her again, more passionately than before.
A/N
Thanks you for all the brilliant reviews. I was a bit scared that my Britishness would show through so I hope there weren't any phrases people don't understand.
I wanted to end it like this before it got all soppy and too saccharine sweet.
