Chapter Sixteen

Cameron shouldn't have been surprised when House made her watch hours of Scooby Doo, but she went along with it, seeing as how he'd just bought her an apartment. He watched as intently as he does when General Hospital is on. Cameron's pizza was barely touched, which worried him slightly as he'd devoured his half completely. When the episode was over, Cameron was nearly asleep but since House was wide awake, he was going to force her to stay up too. He didn't want to be alone.

"Cameron!" he shouted closely to her ear as if she were hard of hearing.

She was startled, "what happened?" she jumped.

"You can't fall asleep. We haven't had a pillow fight yet!" he whined.

"You know, girls don't actually do that at slumber parties," she laughed.

"That may be true, but you can't lie and say that they don't model lingerie for each other!"

"Well, I guess sometimes they do-"

"Ah ha!" he said getting up.

"Where are you going?" she looked at him curiously as he walked over to the kitchen.

He came back with a small bag in his hands and gave it to Cameron, "And go!"

She peaked inside the bag and was shocked to find what looked like skimpy lingerie in it. She shot House a glance and he was beaming, very proud of himself to have been able to pick out lingerie.

He looked at her with a semi serious look on his face, "I bought you a house!"

She rolled her eyes, wondering how long he was going to hold that over her for. She sighed and silently got up and headed to the bathroom. After undressing and redressing in the lingerie she looked at herself in the full length mirror to her side. Lacey bright red panties and a matching bra. For a moment she stood there squeezing her nonexistent love handle.

"Stop stalling and get out here!" he yelled impatiently from the living room.

"Are you sure about this?" she questioned, worried what he'd think about her weight.

"If you don't come out here the next time you leave this apartment I'm going to change the locks on you and live here myself!"

She rolled her eyes at herself in the mirror and slowly opened the door. She shivered as she walked down the hallway towards the living room. Not quite sure of what to do next she awkwardly walked in front of the TV and his eye line and stood there.

House smiled inwardly, secretly congratulating himself for his success in actually getting her to wear the lingerie he'd bought, "turn." She quickly spun around and then covered herself with her arms.

He didn't mean to but he stared at her, his eyes burning through her skin. He thought about the last time he'd seen her in her underwear and how vulnerable she had looked, how broken and shattered she was. She looked healthier. Though her bones were still prominent and the stab wound and a few bruises were still there.

"You're staring," she whispered almost upset.

"You look beautiful," he whispered back.

Not looking up at him, she silently turned and walked towards the bathroom. She closed the door and sat down on the edge of the tub with her head in her hands. She could hear his cane thumping towards the door and could hear the knob rattle as he opened it. Silently, he sat down beside her on the edge of the tub.

"He used to tell me I was beautiful. He use to show me off to his friends and his family. Then one day he just changed. He told me he was cheating on me because I wasn't good enough for him anymore. And I wanted so badly to be good for him I listened to him when he told me I was too fat. I let him abuse me. Everything he did to me, I let him," she said angrily. "Then you got pulled in. My friends got pulled in. I never wanted that to happen".

"After Wilson and I left your hotel room that night, I realized I'd forgotten my cell phone. Wilson brought me to the hospital to get my car so I could drive back and get it. When I got there, you were gone. I looked everywhere in the hotel and couldn't find you. That's when I knew you'd gone back to your apartment to face him. When I got there you were on the ground, passed out and bleeding. I threw a few punches at him, however being a cripple and all makes it hard to stand strong on two feet. He punched me down and that's when he pulled the gun on you," House looked over at Cameron whose eyes were filled with tears ready to drown her.

"It's one thing for you to get shot for your own stupidity, you didn't need to get shot for mine."

"Protecting you was all I could think about at that moment-"

"You could have died!" she argued.

"You could have died!" he argued back. "You, sweet, innocent, angelic Cameron could have died at the hands of a bastard who didn't realize what he had".

She sighed defeated, "I'm sorry".

"You have nothing to be sorry for".

"Putting you through this?"

"You being in sexy lingerie right now makes up for all that," he said lifting an eyebrow.

She scoffed, "well you did buy me an apartment," she smiled as she mimicked him.

"Come on," he said standing up.

"Where are you going?" she asked curiously.

"I'm getting tired and I told you that we needed to have a pillow fight before bed," he said seriously as he opened the door and walked down the hall to her bedroom.

She scrunched her eyebrows and quickly threw her clothes back on and followed him down the hall, "I'm not having a pillow fight with you, House. We're too old for that, well I am, not quite sure about you".

He was already sitting on the bed with a pillow in hand, "but I bought you an apartment! Why are you clothes back on?"

"Because I'm cold and tired and I just want to sleep and not have pillows thrown at me".

"Buzz kill!" he hissed at her.

House threw the pillow against the headboard and she got comfortable under the covers and laid with her back towards him. He took off his shoes and made himself comfortable as well. He sighed annoyingly loud so he could capture her attention.

"What?" she asked annoyed with her face in the pillow.

"If you're not going to have a pillow fight with me then we at least need to spoon!"

"What's that, code for 'you want to cuddle'?"

"Maybe," he said as a child would when he wants something but won't admit it.

"Fine then. But I'm not moving so you're going to have to come over here."

Without a word, he moved closer to her, resting his head in the nape of her neck. He draped an arm over her and pulled her closer. He felt himself fighting sleep so he could memorize this moment. Last time he was this close to her wasn't nearly as good as this time. She was clear headed and calm. She wasn't worrying that someone was going to storm through the door and hurt her. She was safe. House had been there for her. As he let himself fall asleep finally, he hoped he wouldn't find a way to ruin this.