Office Romances 43/?
Title: Office Romances Chapter 43/?
Author: Bex81385
Pairing: House/Cameron
Rating: PG 13-R
Authors Note: I'm soo sorry for the long long time between updates. My House muse failed significantly as Cameron started spending less and less time on screen...
Previous chapters can be found here...
Chapter 43
Once allowed to set off the attack, diagnosing Mark with AIP was easy, as was his treatment. House just finished administering the proper medications when Cameron walked into Mark's room.
“How's he doing?” she asked inquisitively before picking up Mark's chart and looking over it.
House half smiled. “He should make a full recovery. Six months physical rehab and he should be fine.”
“Good,” she said before replacing his chart.
House nodded. “You want to know what's even better?”
“What's that?” she asked intrigued.
“The physical therapy he needs can be done anywhere, which means they can finally go home.”
“He's sitting right there you know,” she chastised.
House shrugged. “And...”
“And, it's rude to talk so disparagingly about a patient in front of them.”
House shrugged again before crossing the room to stand beside her. “Since when does my rudeness surprise you, Cameron?” he asked while smirking.
“It doesn't,” she said lightly before turning her attention back to Mark. “I'm glad you're doing better, Mr. Warner.”
Gazing at their patient, Cameron’s face softened with sincerity and caring, a small smile caressed her lips. Mark’s eyes warmed and his head gave her a slight nod in response. However, when she turned to look back at House, her kindly expression had vanished and was replaced by a frown as she rolled her eyes at him before walking out the room.
House rolled his eyes at Cameron's behavior. He'd given up on understanding Cameron's mood swings long ago.
“Trouble in paradise?” Mark rasped out, his voice weaker than he'd like.
“Women.” House muttered jokingly before turning and limping off after Cameron. “Have the nurses page me if something changes,” he yelled behind him as he exited the room.
xxxxxx
Stacy expected it to be positive, that much she was sure of, and yet there she stood listening to Cuddy tell her that her test was negative. “Oh.” she muttered shocked by the result.
“I'm sorry.” Cuddy said honestly. The Stacy she knew had never wanted children, but it was clear to her, that despite that fact, her friend was disappointed with results.
Stacy shook her head slightly. “No, it's fine.”
Cuddy could tell by the look on her face and the waver in her voice that it wasn't ok. “Are you sure?”
Stacy nodded absently. “Of course. I mean I wasn't even sure I wanted kids anyway.”
“Still...” Cuddy started only to be interrupted by Stacy standing up suddenly.
“I should go check on Mark,” she said before turning and exiting the office without another glance back at Cuddy.
Cuddy sighed deeply before rubbing her eyes tiredly. Having Stacy and House in the same hospital was exhausting, and with Cameron thrown into the mix, it had only gotten worse. She couldn't help but think the sooner Stacy was gone the better.
xxxxxx
House soon found that following after Cameron had led him straight to the clinic and he wasn't pleased about it. He'd allowed himself to be distracted, his mind trying to work out what exactly Cameron was annoyed about this time and hadn't seen Cuddy enter the clinic as well.
Of course, had he seen her he'd have ran as fast as he could in the other direction, but not seeing Cuddy meant she had the jump on him. He hadn't had enough time by the time she got to him to make himself scarce or find a way to talk himself out of his clinic duty, so he was banished to land of overprotective parents and whiny kids.
He spent nearly three hours tending to kids with runny noses and hacking coughs before he finally escaped from the horrifically boring clinic. A quick look at the sign out sheet told him Cameron had left as well and he made his way back up to his conference room.
Once standing in front of the translucent glass walls encasing his department he was immediately met with the sight of Cameron. He watched as she diligently worked in what was most likely Mark Warner's chart and sighed.
He still wasn't sure what it was he had done to take her good mood from the morning and turn it into the snippy one he witnessed in Mark's room and he knew he wouldn't figure it out by watching her work and avoiding her. Still, that didn't mean he had to do it right that second. He continued to watch her for a brief moment and inhaled sharply as she looked up at him and scowled.
He groaned, annoyed that she'd caught him watching her, and made his way into the room. “OK,” he finally snapped once he was standing next to her, “what did I do this time?” he demanded.
Cameron rolled her eyes. There was no doubt in her mind that House had no clue what he had done, and she knew she shouldn't have been surprised. After working with him for as long as she had, it should have been crystal clear to her at this point that House only cared about himself. She'd been confused about that, considering the way he'd been behaving towards her and Maddie, but she wasn't confused anymore.
House groaned again. Her gesture was taken the way he knew it was supposed to be. It was meant to say 'If you don't know than why should I tell you'. Typical woman, he thought to himself. He considered taking it at that and walking away but he knew he couldn't. Going home with her at the end of the day wasn't going to be good if she wasn't speaking to him.
He knew the awkwardness alone would drive him insane, and the tension in the room would no doubt reek havoc on Mads’ behavior. The last thing he wanted was to listen to the little girl scream all night long. He told himself that Mads was the only reason he was staying to question Cameron further and that Cameron being upset with him didn't bother him at all; but he knew he was lying to himself.
“Whatever it is, just tell me. Otherwise I'm probably going to do it again,” he told her pointedly.
Cameron sighed. “I told you the day Stacy showed up here that I wasn't about to let you just shove me in her face so you could annoy her...”
“And...” House interrupted.
Cameron glared. “And that's exactly what you did.”
House sighed before pulling out the chair next to hers and depositing himself heavily in it. He leaned tentatively against the table and looked at her, his eyes wide with disbelief. “You're not actually surprised by that.”
She looked up and her gaze locked onto the deep blue sea that was his eyes. Suddenly, she wasn't so confident and all her reasoning felt faulty. “I just... I thought...” she stammered nervously.
She saw his lips smirk slightly as a smile tempted to appear on his face. It was clear to her that he was enjoying her nervousness very much. His eyes shone brighter and dug deeper into her own. She felt her face warm considerably and looked back down at the file in an attempt to hide the blush of her cheeks.
House had to fight not to smile outright. Cameron was adorable when she was nervous and flustered and clearly all it still took to achieve those conditions was the right facial expression coming from his direction. He felt several remarks about her blushing come to mind but instead decided to simply ask her what she meant. “You thought what?” he questioned curiously.
“I don't know.” she admitted. Her gaze remained glued to the chart she was working on, still not feeling brave enough to lift her eyes to meet his again. “I thought things were different since...”
“Since what?” he asked even though he knew exactly what she was referring to. He never should have kissed her, it had ruined they're entire dynamic. Still, he couldn't shake the way her lips felt pressed against his, the low, breathy sound she made as she moaned ever so slightly. I really shouldn't have kissed her, he thought to himself.
Suddenly, it was like all her insecurity and nervous stammering disappeared. She returned her gaze to his, this time a cold glare being sent back instead of a naive one. “You know what!” she hissed angrily.
“Do I?” he asked in an annoying manner. He looked away from her not fully prepared to talk about the kiss, even though it was all his fault that there was something to talk about in the first place.
Cameron rolled her eyes, frustrated with his nonchalance. “You kissed me!” she yelled in annoyance.
House frowned at the anger in her voice. He knew they had to talk about it, even if he didn't want to. A sigh of defeat slipped past his lips as his memory returning to where it had been only seconds before, the kiss. “You know what that was...” he said defensively.
Cameron held up her hands in surrender. “I know, I know... it was a way to shut me up,” she said annoyed. “Still... I told you I didn't want you using me to piss off Stacy!” she snapped, her anger pouring off of her in waves.
“Why the hell not?” he asked indignantly, “You used me to piss her off. Remember that stunt in my office and in the elevator...”
“Of course I remember the stunt in the elevator,” she said pointedly, “Which is kind of my point!”
How could she possibly forget the moment in the elevator? House had undressed her; pulled her shirt off over her head allowing his fingers to dance and glide across stretches of her skin that she didn't think had ever been touched so tenderly by anyone; his own skin lingering on hers far longer than necessary sending paralyzing electricity throughout her entire body. She definitely remembered it. She wasn't sure she'd ever forget the moment in the elevator.
House saw the far away look in Cameron's eyes and knew exactly what she was thinking about. It was written all over her face. “What point?!” House demanded pulling Cameron back from her thoughts.
Cameron blinked rapidly for a second and then focused back on the argument she and House were having. “That things are different!” she yelled.
House shook his head ferociously. “Nothing is different, Allison,” he said softly. “Nothing has changed.”
Cameron slammed the chart closed angrily and stood up suddenly. She adjusted her lab coat and glared down at him. “The patient is cured, I'm going back to your place.”
House sighed. He could tell she was hurt, he'd always been able to read her like a book, and right now she was wearing the face of a Greek tragedy. “Cameron...”
“I need to start looking for a place anyway. I want to be out by the end of the week,” she said before scooping up her personal belongings and leaving the room giving him no time to stop her, not that he'd tried.
House leaned into his palm feeling a strange mixture of relief and sorrow. He sat, not moving, for a few minutes before suddenly realizing that Cameron had referred to the apartment as “his place”. She hadn't done that once, she'd always referred to it as “home” even though she didn't technically live there. He decided that there was no relief left in the way he was feeling, only sorrow, and for the first time in a really long time he found he wasn't ok with that at all.
xxxxxx
Stacy took a deep breath and told herself it would be ok, and that Mark would take the news well. She entered his room and looked in his direction. He noticed her and smiled at her warmly. “How are you feeling?” she asked.
Mark nodded slightly. “I'm feeling ok.”
“That's great,” she said honestly. “I was so worried about you.”
Mark sighed tiredly. “I know. I'm sorry I gave you so much grief about coming in and constantly insisting that I wasn't sick.”
Stacy nodded in response and moved to sit next to him. “It's ok…so listen, I took the test and it turns out that I'm not actually pregnant,” she said hurriedly.
Mark's smile faded instantly, his lips drawing thin in an emotion that felt shockingly like anger. “Oh.”
“I know you were hoping that I was...”
“As far as I knew Stace, so were you.” he said bitterly.
“I just think that maybe it's a blessing I'm not. I mean now isn't exactly the best time to expand our family.”
“Why is that? Is it because I'm confined to a wheelchair for the next six months or is it because you still think you have a chance with House?” he snapped venomously.
Stacy looked down at the ground shamefully. She honestly didn't know the answer to that question.
Mark rolled his eyes at her downcast expression. “I have news for you Stacy. You don't have a shot in hell with him. He's in love with Dr. Cameron. You can see it in the way he looks at her, so if you've been hanging all your hope on House you're going to be sadly disappointed.” he snarled.
“Mark...” Stacy started defensively.
Mark shook his head. “Don't. Just get out.” he yelled.
“But...”
“Come back when you know what the hell you want.”
Stacy looked at him sadly before turning and leaving the room. Mark was right. She still wanted something with House and she couldn't get it if she went back to Short Hills.