Chapter Twelve

Althea sighed as Emmett pulled into the driveway of his house the next afternoon. Their romantic weekend away was perfect, but had ended all too soon. He noticed she was quiet on the drive back but so was he, wondering how things would be once they were back to the normal routine.

She hopped out of the truck and they took their stuff out of the back. Emmett wasn't sure how to ask if she wanted to stay at the guest house, or the main house but he thought he'd let her decide. There was an awkwardness that wasn't there before and he didn't know what changed. She took her bag and her guitar and went to the guest house without a word, leaving him to scratch his head in wonder.

Once he brought everything into the house, he decided to start dinner. When it was almost done, he texted Althea. Dinner's almost ready. Are you hungry? I made plenty.

Within a few minutes, she responded. Not hungry. Thanks anyway.

Now he was concerned, but decided to let her be. Later that night, before getting ready for bed, he went over to the guest house and knocked on the door. When she didn't answer, he used his key and went inside. The house was quiet, and he stood still, waiting to hear something. Finally, he heard her coughing so he went down the hall to her bedroom. "It's Emmett, Althea. Can I come in?"

"Yes," she called out, before coughing again. He found her in bed, under the covers with a box of tissue next to her.

"Are you alright?"

"No. I'm not well. I can't stop coughing and my nose constantly runs. Is it possible I got sick from being outside too long last night in the snow?"

"It's unlikely but it's possible you caught something that night we went out for dinner. There were alot of people. It's a petri dish of germs."

Althea giggled. "House would agree, which is probably why he never took me out anywhere."

She sighed again and looked sad. "I'm sorry, Emmett, if I ruined this weekend."

He cocked his head to one side. "How do you think you ruined it?"

"By getting sick."

"I'm still not following you. How is that your fault?"

"I had all these plans for when we came back…and on the drive home I just felt worse by the minute. I feel so cold…"

He leaned over and gently placed his hand on her cheek and then her forehead. "You have a fever. Stay here, I'll go see if I have something in the medicine cabinet."

He went to the bathroom but didn't find anything, so he called to her "I'm going to the house. I'll be right back."

"Okay."

Ten minutes later he returned with some cough syrup, a thermometer and a few other things. "I'm going to take your temperature first. Open up."

She allowed him to place the thermometer under her tongue and when it beeped, he took it out. "102. Not too bad, but not great. Here, take these. It'll help your cough and reduce your fever. I'm going to stay here tonight in the room across the hall in case you need anything."

She smiled at him and placed her hand over his. "Thank you, Emmett. And I also wanted to say thank you for my amazing weekend away. It was perfect. You were perfect. I had a very nice time."

Emmett blushed a little and cleared his throat. "Good." He then went and got a heating pad. "This will keep you warm until your fever goes away."

"You take such good care of me," she sniffled. "When I'm well again, I'll make it up to you."

He chuckled and pulled the covers back over her once the heating pad was situated on her lap on the low setting. "If you insist. Now get some sleep."

"I'd ask you to sleep with me but I don't want you to get sick too."

"I'll be right across the hall," he whispered as he leaned over and kissed her cheek. "G'night, Althea."

She smiled and snuggled under the covers. "G'night, Emmett."

XXX

A week passed and Althea was finally on the mend. She had a horrible cough and when Emmett called House and he spoke to her, he prescribed a cough suppressant to help her sleep at night. Eventually that seemed to do the trick and she was back to hanging out with him in the lab. Sometimes she brought her guitar and played it, which Emmett loved.

Down by the water, my love said to me,

I don't think I can do this now so won't you let me be?

My love, oh, my love, left me all alone,

And my skin is cold, my heart is made of stone.

"What song is that you're singing?"

"Something I wrote," she said with a shrug and then continued to sing.

Down by the water, people walk on by.

They look up and see the sun shining so high.

Down by the water, is where I left my tears,

And that's where I keep them safe for all my years.

Emmett stopped working for a moment to listen. It was a very sad kind of song, and he wondered if House inspired it.

Oh my darling, don't forget my name.

I'm begging you, please understand that I'm the one to blame.

Down by the water, that's where I dived in.

And the sun don't shine no more,

It's sink or swim.

The sun don't shine no more, it's sink or swim.

Emmett turned around in his chair and she looked sad as she strummed the final lick to end the song.

"You have a very nice singing voice," he said softly.

"Thank you."

He got up and sat down on the couch next to her. "Play me something else."

She thought for a minute and then began to sing a song that he remembered from years ago called I'm Your Puppet. But her version was more somber and hypnotic than the more playful version he was used to, and he was totally captivated.

When she put the guitar down and sighed, Emmett leaned over and softly kissed her. "Thank you," he whispered before kissing her again.

"Did you like that?"

"I did. You can serenade me anytime," he grinned as he pulled her even closer.

Althea wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him. "You've made me so happy," she whispered.

Emmett's heart skipped a beat and he gave her a gentle squeeze. "Good. Now come on, it's getting late and I'm hungry. Let's go back to the house."

With the lab locked up, they went back to Emmett's and decided on spaghetti for dinner which they cooked together and ate in front of the TV in the living room.

"I have been thinking," Althea said as she reached for a piece of garlic bread.

"Mhm?"

"I should probably go back to Princeton and get the rest of my things."

"I thought you brought everything."

"No, I had to leave some things behind."

"I can take you…if you want."

She smiled up at him. "You wouldn't mind?"

"Not at all." He cleared his throat. "Of course, that's assuming you want to stay here…with me."

Althea placed her hand on his cheek and he leaned into her touch. "You even have to ask?"

Emmett shifted, suddenly feeling anxious about the conversation that was to come.

"We've never really talked about the future. Perhaps we should."

"Alright, what exactly did you want to talk about?"

"Well there's the subject of marriage, of course. Which I realize is probably very premature, but given how fast things have progressed between us…"

She blinked. "I didn't know it was on your mind. It wasn't ever on House's. I just thought marriage wasn't a requirement anymore. Not like it is back in my time. House liked to call it "shacking up."

Emmett laughed. "Well, House has a way with words." He reached for his glass of wine and took a much longer sip than normal, but it gave him a chance to choose his next words.

She could feel his anxiety and it was making her anxious and she pushed her plate away.

"Not hungry?" he inquired.

"Not anymore. So what is this, Emmett? You've had me and now you're hoping I don't want marriage?"

"What? Where did you get that idea?"

"I just feel like this is where the conversation is going. House never had any intention of marrying me. I figured that out pretty quickly. And now you're saying that it's too soon, which, to me, means you're just stalling for time. I mean, as my Father once said, why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free." With that, she grabbed her plate and took it into the kitchen.

Emmett scratched his head in confusion. "Well, that escalated pretty fast," he murmured and grabbed his own plate. Althea was making a lot more noise than was necessary as she cleaned off her plate and put everything in the dishwasher.

"Althea," he said as he came up behind her and put his hands gently on her shoulders. "That wasn't what I was getting at..."

She turned around and wiped at a tear that had fallen. "So you do…want to get married?"

"Eventually, yes. But there's another matter we need to discuss."

"And that is?"

"Having children."

She blinked. "Emmett…the very idea of childbirth scares me."

He nodded. "I know, and understandably so. The risks of giving birth in the seventeenth century were very high. A lot of women died during, or shortly afterwards."

"Yes. While House had me thoroughly examined when he brought me to this time, and deemed me to be healthy, he still put me on birth control because he said I'm too young, which I am, and that I had lots of time to decide if I wanted them later on."

"A wise move. Anyway," he said, feeling a little more at ease, "the reason I'm asking is because I'm certainly well beyond the age where I should be fathering children. So if children are eventually what you want, it probably won't be with me."

"Why not?"

Emmett closed his eyes and sighed. "Because it wouldn't be fair to you, or to our child. I'd be too old, wouldn't live long enough to see him, or her, grow up…"

"Emmett," she said, sounding worried as she grabbed his hands. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

"Oh no, I'm fine. But things do happen. I'm just thinking genetics-wise. My parents didn't exactly live to a ripe old age. And while I'm in decent shape and in good health, anything can happen. But that's the human condition for you."

She wrapped her arms around his neck and looked up at him. "If it came down to having children or spending the rest of my life here with you, I'd choose you."

Emmett didn't know how to answer that. Nobody had ever chosen him for anything unless it served them.

He lowered his head and kissed her, tasting the salt from her tears on her lips. Althea's fingers buried in his hair as her lips parted under his and she pressed herself against him.

His hands slid down her back and he quickly picked her up and carried her out of the kitchen and up the stairs, his lips never leaving hers.

Althea loved it when Emmett carried her to the bedroom. When he placed her gently on his bed, she immediately reached for him and pulled him to her, wrapping her arms around him once again.

"Oh, Emmett," she sighed as his hands slowly and very gently explored her body, removing her clothes, exposing more and more of her as his lips kissed every spot.

She tugged his sweater over his head and unbuckled his belt. He helped her by unzipping his pants and kicking them off, and then tugged on the waistband of her sweatpants. She arched her back to help him pull them down her legs, along with her underwear and he didn't waste time as he kissed a trail up her leg and the inside of her thigh.

"Emmett…please…" she begged as she tugged at his hair. She needed to feel him. He glanced up at her and their eyes locked. He knew what she wanted and so he gave it to her. Her hands gripped his and their fingers interlaced as he moved slowly.

"Althea…"

"Yes! I love how you say my name when you make love to me."

"I love making love to you," he whispered in her ear. "Beautiful. Sexy…Althea…"

His words sent her over the edge and she cried out, making him smile as he buried his face in her neck and reached his own climax soon after.

As they lay in bed, Althea slept and Emmett stared at the ceiling fan above them, lost in his thoughts.

He heard his cell phone buzzing in the pocket of his pants that were lying on the floor and he quickly got up, being careful not to wake Althea, and went out into the hall.

"Hey, it's House. You called me but I was with a patient. What's going on?"

"Althea wants to come and get the rest of her things. She and I are….what's the term you like to use…"

"Shacking up?" House chuckled.

There was silence on Emmett's end.

"Emmett? You there?"

"Oh, yes. Sorry."

"What's wrong? You sound different."

"There's no point in denying it. I'm in love with Althea. And I don't know what to do about it."

"Well you could man up and put a ring on it."

"She and I had that discussion."

"And? What did she say?"

"She loves me."

"Well then what are you waiting for? Get that girl to Vegas and make it legal before she changes her mind."

"Vegas? I was thinking about Atlantic City, since we're going to be in New Jersey and…"

"Nah, Atlantic City is the poor man's Vegas, and there's a three day waiting period. Who needs that headache?"

Emmett heard a woman's voice in the background. "My beautiful girlfriend just reminded me of something. If you want two witnesses, we're going to be in Vegas next week for a medical conference. We could meet up. I'm sure Cameron would love to help Althea shop."

Emmett was liking the idea already. "I could give her my mother's ring…"

"Good idea. That'll save you a good ten grand."

"It's not about the money, House."

"Says the man who spent six grand on a Tiffany watch," House chuckled. "Either way, you want to surprise her. You know how much she loves surprises."

"Indeed I do. Thanks House. I owe you one."

"Yes you do."

"I might have a proposal for you, too. We'll talk in Vegas."

"Can't wait. G'night, Doc."

"G'night Emmett!" he heard Cameron giggle in the background, making him chuckle.

"G'night, Dr. Cameron."

When Emmett ended the call, he returned to the bedroom and climbed back into bed, turning out the light and falling asleep soon after.

Althea's songs:

Down By the Water - Greta Isaac

I'm Your Puppet - Anna Ash