The Bet

Chapter 6.

House continued to laugh as he pushed the piece of pancake around the syrup on his plate. He was instantly feeling more relaxed at IHop than he had at the fancy restaurant. Whether that was because of the venue, or the fact that the woman across from him was no longer trying to kill him with her stare, he wasn't sure. However, all of a sudden he found himself enjoying himself immensely.

"Twelve o'clock." He told Cameron with a mischievous grin, gesturing her towards the middle-aged man whom was sitting alone and waiting for his food. "Cinn-a-stack pancakes."

"Hhmm…" Cameron mused, attempting to study the man as inconspicuously as possible. "I'll say pancake platter with a side of bacon and sausages."

They both watched on as the waitress went over and delivered the man with a plate of butter pancakes with a side of bacon and sausages.

"Unbelievable." House shook his head in genuine amazement. "How do you do that?"

They had been sitting there taking guesses about what the other customers in the restaurant would be ordering, and it had come as a massive shock to House that Cameron absolutely had his measure. He was the one who was supposed to have the genius ability to read people and their motives, and yet, as they sat there, the score remained five to two in favour of Cameron.

"You never did give me enough credit for my observational skills." She smiled at him coyly.

He smiled back, ignoring her obvious stab. "And so the student becomes the master."

She sat there satisfied, throwing a few loose blueberries in her mouth and wiping her hands together. "We could play a game that's more congruent with your skill level…" she trailed off teasingly, "like 'I Spy' or something."

"Ouch." He said, pretending to be hurt and grabbing his chest for emphasis. "That was mean."

"I'm sorry." She smiled mischievously. "We can leave if you like?"

"No!" He said quickly, mentally slapping himself for sounding so desperate to keep her there. Regaining his composure, "you still owe me the rest of our date little lady."

A small smile played at her lips. "Oh really?"

…

Almost three hours later they were still sitting in the same place. Talking, laughing…things that House hadn't remembered doing…well ever, really.

As much as he hated to admit it, being with Cameron was…fun. It was fun. Strange how he now found that such a foreign sensation, but then again, with all of the Cuddy mess, there hadn't been very much "fun" going on in the past couple of months.

However, he had actually enjoyed just hanging out, talking, laughing, playing stupid games…with Cameron of all people.

He couldn't remember the last time he had done that. Couldn't remember the last time he had just simply let go, and not let himself think too much about his demons. Couldn't remember the last time he had simply just stopped thinking all together, and had allowed himself to simply feel.

The last of the other customers had left hours ago, and the young college student working there had turned the lights off as a giant hint for them to hurry up and leave so he could close up. None of this fazed them however. They just stayed there, talking, laughing, holding onto one another's words as if they were the only two people left in the world.

They had covered every topic imaginable. They had told one another amusing stories from their years in med school, and they reminisced about her fellowship years. Wilson and Cuddy had always implied that he should be some kind of egalitarian boss who respected each of his fellows equally for their unique skills, but he had always considered the group that consisted of Cameron, Foreman and Chase as his favorite…and he'd always just assumed that everyone knew it too.

She had talked of her past and her future, and, despite his best wishes, he found himself in slight awe of his former fellow. It had shocked him how many things he hadn't known about her…despite his previous belief that he had her pegged.

She had studied in France for a year during college after she lost her husband, where she waited tables and conversed openly with the locals of the differences between Monet and Manet, of Godard and Truffaut.

She had told him of her plans to visit Africa in a few months time during their Summer break as part of the Trin Foundation: A foundation dedicated to bringing medical attention and aid to those living in poverty. House had to roll his eyes at this. Typical Cameron. Still though, as she talked so openly and animatedly about her dreams, for once, he couldn't find it in himself to mock her.

He had always prided himself on never being surprised by anything, by anyone. Nobody ever caught him off-guard. Nobody ever really provided a threat to his established thought-process. And yet, here he was, completely astonished by Alison Cameron of all people.

He latched onto her every word, never wanting her to stop speaking, never wanting to see the gorgeous smile or glint in her eyes that appeared as she spoke vanish. He knew he sounded like an old sap, but he didn't care.

They continued to converse and laugh, and the bet drifted further and further from the front of his mind.

…

"Just so you know, it was really inconsiderate buying an apartment in a building without an elevator."

Cameron rolled her eyes in amusement, turning around to face him. He had insisted on walking her to her door, and yet she was the one that had to stop every few steps to give him a chance to catch up. "I'm sorry. I really should have bought one that was cripple friendly."

"That you should have." He told her, almost sighing in relief as he finally got to the top of the stairs. "You really didn't think this through very well did you?"

She turned to face him as they reached her door, a playful smile pulling at her lips. "Well in my defense, I never expected that you'd be asking me on a date."

"And being a gentleman and walking you to your door" he reminded her. "Gosh, I'm just too darn sweet aren't I?"

"You're something alright." She teased. She smiled at him genuinely. "Well thank you House. Excluding the beginning, I actually had a nice time."

A smirk danced across his lips. "See? I said you would didn't I?"

"Okay, okay." She sighed in defeat. "So maybe it wasn't a complete bust."

His smile just continued to grow. Her admission that she had enjoyed herself triggered a huge sense of relief. He had been desperately hoping all night that she was enjoying herself as much as he was…and not just because of the bet. He wasn't sure what it was exactly that made him think this. However the high that he was still on from their night, along with the vision of her standing there beaming at him in that dress, gave him the all-encompassing urge to kiss her.

He took one step closer to her, and when she didn't back away, his eyes dropped to her lips before fluttering shut.

This was it. He was going to kiss her. He leaned forward to close the distance between their lips, but instead of feeling her soft lips under his, he felt nothing but the breeze that formed when she backed away abruptly.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Her words acted as an instant cold shower. "Trying to molest you, obviously." He said sarcastically, doing a terrible job of hiding the intense frustration that was lacing his words.

"You were going to kiss me!" She pointed out in alarm.

He glared at her. "Well yeah, it's not like I wanted to kiss you, I just thought you'd get pissy if I didn't." Still feeling the painful sting of rejection, he reverted back to his safety net of mockery. "You're into all of that fairytale crap. I assumed you'd be imagining a scene where lights suddenly started flashing around us, music started playing, and the prince kisses the pretty girl in the red dress."

"Except for the fact that this is no fairy tale." She pointed out to him, not knowing whether she felt more amused or annoyed that he thought she would be thinking that. "And you are certainly no prince."

"Of course not." He agreed, contorting his face to portray disgust that she would even feel the need to tell him that. "I'm the King. I run the entire kingdom baby, despite what Cuddy thinks."

She couldn't help the grin that appeared on her lips at his words. Putting her key into her lock she opened her door before turning back to face him. "I really should be getting some sleep. It's late and we have work tomorrow."

"Plus our second date."

"What?"

He quirked a brow at her in confusion. "Keep up Cameron. I know you don't date a lot because your prefer to just marry men instead," she rolled her eyes at this before he continued, "but that's generally how it works. Two people go on a date, they enjoy themselves, they go on another one."

"No no no!" She said defiantly. "This was a one time thing House. One date. That's what I agreed to remember?"

"But you said yourself that you enjoyed it." He tried to make the words come out even, but he was sure that she could sense the shocked rejection behind them.

"I did, but that doesn't mean that I want to date you."

Her words hit him harder than he had expected, and he had to try his hardest to hide the hurt from his face. "Why not?"

She sighed. "Because despite what you've always thought, I am not still in love with you House."

His face fell at this so she gave him a slight smile. "Really though, thank you for a pleasant evening."

He watched on at a complete loss of what to say or do to change her mind as she walked into her apartment and closed the door behind her. He let out a groan of frustration and ran his free hand through his hair. Reluctantly, he tore his gaze from her door and turned to leave.

Great. More fucking stairs. Just great.

A/N: Sorry, I know that was a really bad chapter...but I wrote in on New Years day (I wasn't sure when I'd get another chance to update), and to say that I'm tired would be an understatement ;) Hopefully the next one will be a little better and I promise that Wilson will be back too.

Oh, and I'm not sure if they even have IHOP in the US anymore. I remember going there as a kid though and thinking that it was the coolest thing ever.

Sorry again for the bad chapter, but I thought that a poor update would be better than no update. And I hope you all had a good New Years :)