This chapter is rated a mild M for a non-explicit description of a sex act. However, it is most assuredly NOT about sex.
House was again content to let her take the lead, though by no means did that render him passive; where she led, he willingly and enthusiastically followed. He was however obliged to stop her when an exploring hand slipped under the waistband of his boxer shorts. "That's not second base," he chided, firmly relocating her hand to a safer location.
"It is according to the Internet," she countered. But she humoured him for a few minutes before trying again.
"Okay, slugger, that's quite enough of that." He rolled upright and straddled her body, pinning her arms down on the bed with his own. "I don't know that I'm exactly qualified, but I'm appointing myself the guardian of your integrity, one night only. So be forewarned: next time you may not be so lucky."
"Spoiled sport." Any further complaint was quieted by his lips on hers.
Soon they traded places to relieve the stress on his leg. He pulled off her shirt, which had ridden up so far under the questing of his hands that it was no longer serving a purpose anyway. He loved the feeling of her bare skin against his as she rested her full weight on him. Running his fingers over her back he found the sutures and he remembered how it had all began. This meant something.
This meant something.
When her hips started to move atop his in an approximation of the act he was trying to avoid, with great difficulty he remained still but made a conscious decision not to stop her. Even as his body responded to the friction, he knew this wasn't what they were about. Let biology do what it must; it wouldn't change things for him tomorrow. And though he expected she would feel conflicted when the moment had passed and reality set in, in his opinion it was better for her to face it with someone she could trust to love her anyway and allow her to discover where she really stood.
Later, he would come to realize that this was the most emotionally mature decision he had ever made.
Her movements increased and her lips left his, her head coming to rest on his shoulder as she focused her efforts. His hands found her hips and he let her ride it out until she began to shudder with release.
He didn't speak, and he didn't move except to press a kiss to her forehead so she would know it was alright. When she slid off of him and trailed a hand down his stomach once more, he faltered for only a moment, allowing himself to revel in the feeling of her fingers wrapped around him just long enough to reaffirm that this was most definitely what he wanted but not remotely what either of them needed.
So he took her hand and kissed it, placing it back over his heart where it had began. And he was ready when the tears came, holding her tightly against him and perfectly willing to never let go.
"I miss him so much..."
"Of course you do. And you should."
"I'm sorry Greg... I'm so sorry..."
"You have nothing to be sorry about."
"I... I don't feel good. I need to..."
He felt no pain of his own as he helped her the short distance to the bathroom without the aid of his cane. Perhaps she'd been more right than she'd realized when she said his brain could only register one source of pain at a time. And right now he was feeling hers.
Arriving just in time, she retched into the sink but her stomach produced nothing.
One of his tee-shirts, discarded before a shower a few days before, was hanging on the back of the door. He pulled it over her half naked form. When she retched again, he sat down with her in front of the toilet, holding her in his lap. Still she cried, and when there was nothing left in her stomach she cried some more.
House flushed the toilet and helped her to her feet, holding her as she brushed her teeth and washed her face. Holding her as she made her way back to her room. Holding her as she lay awake, unable to get the tears to stop, not wanting them to stop, releasing the anguish and uncertainty and loss that had plagued her for nine long months.
This release was much more important than the first.