Chapter 8

Legover

House hung up, shaking his head, feeling anxious about what he had said. In fact, he wasn't sure where the last few minutes of monologue had come from. It was stupid, cheesy. She was probably laughing, rolling on the floor over his sentimentality. House wondered how he could defuse it, take it back. But as soon as it came out of his mouth, he knew the cat was out of the bag. He didn't want to hear her response, the rejection in her voice, so he ended the call. He poured the Maker's Mark and knocked it back.

He didn't call her, couldn't call her…not after making a fool of himself. He was relieved when the rest of March saw a string of new patients, all occupying most of his time. It wasn't until April that he had enough time to put his plan into action. The spring weather was a welcome break to the cold winter. When he had time off, House watched the restaurant from across the street, ball cap pulled down as he appeared to read a book on the walkway bench. He occasionally talked to customers who were regulars, discovering that Maia got off at 2:30 pm. Her days off varied, but were usually Tuesday and Wednesday.

It was a Tuesday. House had worked six days straight and was taking the day off. He watched as she made her way out the front of the restaurant and started walking down the street, preoccupied with papers in her hand. He followed behind, admiring her sensual sway. He was curious when he followed her into the local computer store where he saw her looking at printers. The smell of vanilla hit him as he came up behind her.

"Computers are useless, they can only give you answers."

Jumping, Maia squeaked from surprise, turned around and snarled, "What are you doing here?"

"I thought you might like to go out for pizza and some sex."

Her jaw dropped.

"What? Don't you like pizza?"

"You know, tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy. Have you ever thought of not being crude?"

"Look, I know that sex is not the answer. Sex is the question. Yes is the answer."

She kept shaking her head. "No, thank you."

"Okay, no pizza. How about sex?"

She almost smiled, "No! I remember your enthusiasm the last time we tried it."

"Can you blame me? You wanted too much money."

She shrugged her shoulders.

He gave her the warmest smile he could muster and then did a little tap dance. "I'll settle for coffee. One little, tiny expresso."

She sighed, walked down the aisle so that no one would hear, then shook her head, "Greg, go away."

He held up two fingers, indicating a small amount, "Tiny, itsy, bitsy expresso."

She exhaled in frustration, "You're not going to take no, are you? Let's get this over with." She stormed out of the store, House following quickly behind. The air was clear, the wind strong and crisp, blowing her hair into her face. She blinked at the sunlight, took out her sunglasses and put them on. House did the same. Putting his hand on her elbow, he guided her in the direction of the little bistro down the block.

House took the chair opposite Maia and stared at her with an intensity that was almost comical, as if she was Carmen Electra. Maia stared back, not saying anything, but secretly wanting to bust up laughing. He wouldn't take his eyes off of her. It was as if he was afraid that if he blinked she'd disappear. The waitress came up to the side and gave them a strange look, curious as to why the two adults were sitting perfectly still, just staring at each other.

"Can I get you something?" The waitress picked up her pad and waited.

"I'll have a diet coke."

House looked up, "Coffee, white, with one sugar."

When she left, House went back to staring, but Maia had already grown bored with the game; she was staring out the window. Turning back to him she chuckled, "You don't have long to impress me. I suggest you start working your magic."

"I'm staring because you're looking much better, almost pretty."

She snickered, "Almost?"

He winced, "Okay, you're looking well."

"Ouch, that's a step back from good looking."

He smirked and turned his head away from her, talking softly, "Go out with me."

She turned in the direction he was looking, "Are you asking the wall?"

He turned and stared bug-eyed at her, "Go out with me."

She said nothing for a few seconds as she thought. It's not like intelligent men are breaking down my door to woo me. I get asked out, but they're always plumbers and mechanics, great guys, but hardly someone I can talk to about black holes and quarks. He did save my life and he's got enough money to take me somewhere nice. I could do worse. He's good looking.

"Okay, one date." She leaned over and said firmly, "One date."

He nodded slightly, "Saturday night. I'll pick you up at 7:00 pm. We'll go for dinner."

She laughed, "You like to take chances, don't you?"

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Dinner means you have to actually talk to me. For you that's taking quite a chance. That is, if the goal is to get me to go out on another date with you."

He smiled. "You may be surprised; I might just be charming and winsome."

"I don't think so."

The waitress brought the drinks, sitting them down along with two napkins. Maia gave the waitress a warm smile, turned, still smiling and looked into his blue eyes. She felt a pang of desire ping through her from her breasts to her groin. The hairs on the back of her neck went up. Something wasn't right.

"How's the counseling going?" He asked.

She looked down at the table, "It's starting to pick up again."

"Did your former clients stay with you?"

"Yes, I lost a few, but I kept the best ones."

He stirred his coffee to cool it off, "Is there one that's a favorite?"

"I can't discuss my clients with you."

He chuckled, "You aren't their attorney, doctor or priest. There's no legal obligation to keep your yap shut."

"But I do have a moral one."

"Just tell me, who's your favorite client?"

"Well, he's got a bad leg like you. But he's nice and he's a musician. "

"And he just needs a little stimulation…give him some get up and go…a pep talk. Isn't that what a life coach does? Help him rise to the occasion?"

She turned red and was about to say something when she heard a "pop"…"pop," followed by House grabbing her sleeve and yanking her down to the floor with a thud. He put an arm over her head as she heard the squeal of tires outside.

A woman screamed behind her, "Oh my God! Leonard, Lenny…are you okay? Wake up."

Maia tried to turn over, but House continued to cover her head, "Stay down for right now…wait a second." His face was only inches from hers.

Maia could feel and smell his breath on her face; it smelled like coffee. "What was it?"

He had his hand on the back of her head and looked deep into her eyes, "Someone just fired shots into the restaurant."She tried to raise her head to look, but he pushed it down. "What don't you understand about staying down?"

"But, it sounds like the shooting has stopped."

House picked his head up and then raised up cautiously to look around. Maia started to lift up and found her faced smashed back down on the ground by his long fingers. He was frustrated, "Will you stay down?"

Maia gave up and lay back down. House looked around and saw the two holes through the glass and the man, obviously dead, on the floor in the back of the restaurant. Several patrons had dropped to the floor or ran out the back. The waitress was hiding behind the counter. Everyone looked scared out of their wits. The blood from the dead man was pouring out from the wound in his temple. House realized he was going to be there for the rest of the afternoon once the police arrived.

He looked down at her. "You can sit up."

Maia sat up and looked around, "Oh my God, is he dead?"

"Yeah, here." He handed her his cell phone.

"What's that for?"

"If you were supposed to be somewhere today, you better let them know you aren't going to make it. We're going to be here for awhile." House nodded at the dead man.

"Why? I don't know him; I didn't see anything."

"Doesn't matter, they're going to be interested in you."

"You mean all of us."

House shook his head, "No, I mean you. That man was sitting almost directly behind you. Both the holes in that window line up with you. They only missed you by a fraction of an inch. "

Her mouth dropped and then she chortled, "No, you don't mean that. Who would…" and then she remembered the pears. Without thinking she reached out and grabbed House's lapel out of fear. "Oh God! Greg, do you really think that they wanted to kill me?"

"Well for once, I don't think it's me they want dead. Unless they have uncorrected myopia."

Maia turned white. He was watching her react, thinking how vulnerable she looked. Her eyes were searching his for comfort. He leaned down, brushing his lips over hers, opening his mouth slightly, his tongue barely separating her lips and touching the tip of hers. He gave her a gentle kiss, then pulled back, seeing that she had closed her eyes, looking almost childlike.

She opened them and looked up at him confused, "Uh, uh…uh…I, uh…"

"Would you like to buy a vowel?"

She chuckled, relieving some of the tension.

They sat up as police and paramedics rushed inside. Maia turned to House, "Could you keep your theory to yourself?"

"No, you need protection. Someone wants you dead."

She looked sad, "Greg, come on, you know a lot of people want me dead, I just don't want to have to relive it all over again."

"Don't you think the guy on the floor deserves to have his killer caught?"

She looked at the woman who was bent over the man, crying, and nodded, "Yes, of course."

A female police officer came over, "Are you two alright?"

They looked at each other and nodded.

"I'm Sergeant Ferrier, the detectives will be here soon. Can you tell me where you were sitting?"

House pointed, "This table."

The Sergeant looked at the glass and then the location of the table. Another female showed up and crossed to talk to the police officer.

"Right. Sergeant what do we have?"

"This couple was sitting at this table. They're lucky to be alive looking at the angle of the bullets."

The dark haired woman stared into House's gorgeous eyes, "I'm Detective Smithers, homicide. I understand that you were both sitting at the table in front. Can I ask who was sitting in which chair?"

Maia said nothing. House, annoyed with her silence, turned to the detective, "I was there and she was sitting in that chair where the bullet came through."

"Names?" the detective asked.

"Maia Conelly."

"Dr. Gregory House. But you can call me Greg."

Maia rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. Straight from kissing me to flirting in front of me with another woman. What a jerk.

House could feel Maia's anger wafting off of he and smiled to himself. He would normally allow her to stew in her jealousy, but he knew he couldn't play it up too much or she'd walk away. I better regroup and behave or she'll find a reason not to go out with me

"Detective, this isn't the first attempt on Maia's life."

The detective cocked her head in interest, "You two better sit down and tell me."

They sat at the table and House told Detective Smithers about the pears. She turned to ask Maia about her past when Smithers stopped and stared, then smiled.

"You're the attorney who bitch-slapped that defense attorney."

Maia closed her eyes, her shoulders slumping.

"Oh, hey, don't worry, you're my hero. I wanted to do the same thing for a long time. She's so condescending. You know, you helped my girlfriend's daughter, Linda, for free. You wrote a few letters to the insurance company when they refused to pay her medical bills from a car accident. You got them to pay her bills and she got $15,000 on top of it. Do you remember that?"

Maia shook her head, "No, sorry. I did that a lot. I wrote a lot of letters for free. I only charged for the big cases, I had enough of them to let me help out on the smaller matters without charging."

"Well you're one helluva lawyer. I was sorry to see what happened to you. A lot of us on the force were sorry to see you get tossed. We loved your rooftop show!"

House was impressed, he knew little about Maia's successes and all about her failures. He reached over and put his hand on hers. She jerked a little and then looked up at him, surprised to see a glimmer of kindness in his smirk. She turned back towards the detective.

They spent an hour telling the detective everything that they both knew. Except Maia couldn't bring herself to tell the Detective about her porn chat line. House noticed that Maia hadn't told the detective about her side business, but he didn't think it had anything to do with the attempts on her life anyway.

"Well, it's been quite awhile since you had the pear problem. Perhaps we have two separate incidents that aren't related. Why didn't you report the pears?" Smithers looked at both of them.

"She thought the police would be more amused than helpful."

Maia looked at her. "I've had enough humiliation in the last few years. I guess I just didn't want to have to admit once again to the world that I had screwed up so badly that someone wanted to kill me. Every time I have to talk about my past cockups, a little part of me dies. I've really worked hard to pull myself out of the hole."

The Detective gave her a heartfelt nod and then took a deep breath, "It may be two separate incidents, but we shouldn't take any chances. You need to stay with some family or friends. Let us know where you're going to be. We'll be in touch. Thanks." She handed them both a card and then went over to talk to the CSI team.

Maia shuddered, "I think I'm going to go home, I'm still a little shook up."

"Home? Where are you going to go stay?"

"I'm just going to stay above the store. I can't ask anyone to take me in if someone is trying to kill me."

"Okay, come stay with me for a few days until the police figure out what's going on."

"You?"

House laughed, "You don't have to sound so disgusted. I don't bite."

She grabbed her purse, "I don't think so. I'll see you on Saturday at 7:00 pm. Bye Greg." She turned and, in a fast clip so that he couldn't catch her, took off towards the Coffee Mate.

He was going to go after her, but she was traveling at such a fast speed that he knew she couldn't catch her. He turned and went back to his car, driving home by way of the restaurant, he peaked in, but didn't see her. He looked around and realized how easy it would be to get to her in the restaurant.

House pulled up and jumped out, walked through the restaurant and straight to the back, shocking the waitress on duty who didn't know what to do about a customer walking through the staff areas. House made his way up the stairs, catching Maia coming out of the bathroom.

"Ahhh!" She yelped. "My God, what are you doing?"

"I'm showing you just how easy it is to get to you if someone wants to."

They both turned around when they heard heavy footsteps coming up the stairs. Bear appeared in the doorway, scowling, "Oh, it's you again. " Bear crossed the room quickly, ready to toss House out.

Maia jumped in front of House, "Bear! It's okay; he's a guest this time."

House yelled angrily, "I am not. I'm an intruder come to kill Maia."

Bear took a step towards him, not sure whether to believe him or not.

Maia rolled her eyes, "He's nuts."

House shook his head and told Bear about the pears and the afternoon shooting.

Bear looked at Maia, "You were involved with that shooting? It's all over the news. They thought it was some kind of gang drive-by. Maia, this guy is right; you need to lay low for a few days. He's just demonstrated how vulnerable you are. You can come and stay with me. I have an airbed."

House jerked back, "You should come with me, you need to get out of this area for a few days." He looked at Bear, "She'd be safer out of this general area."

Bear nodded at House, "Where do you live?"

"Baker Street."

"He's right, I just live a block down the street. You're more vulnerable in this neighborhood."

She sighed and frowned, "Bear, you're assuming that someone is really trying to hurt me."

He gave her a stern look and put and hand on her shoulder, "I think we have to assume that."

"Then I'll go back to the motel I was staying at before I came to the restaurant."

Bear put an arm around her and pulled her off to the other side of the room. House made a face, trying hard to hear what they were saying.

"Maia, you shouldn't be alone and I know you don't have anyone else to stay with. This guy seems legit. You said he's the doctor who saved your life…twice. He keeps showing up so obviously this guy's interested in you. He has a strange way of showing it, and I don't think I really like him, but I think you need to take him up on his offer for a few days until we can talk to the cops. You have tomorrow off too. I'll see you on Thursday."

She stood, arms crossed, breathing heavily through her nose, "You two think you know what's best for me?"

House glanced at Bear. They turned and nodded. She shook her head and grabbed a backpack, throwing things angrily into it. Turning back to House, Maia barked, "Well, I'm your new houseguest, if you'll excuse the pun." She looked over at Bear, "I'll be back on Thursday."

As they disappeared down the stairs Bear chuckled and yelled out, "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."