AN: Sorry for the long wait. Almost two months between the fifth chapter and this one! I am so sorry. I've been swamped with schoolwork in this new semester and I'm not going to lie, I've rewatched four seasons of FRIENDS since they put it on Netflix on New Years. That explains the one lonely Chanoey fic I posted and the FRIENDS references at the end of this chapter. (Spoiler: House and Cameron watch an episode.) But anyway, here's the new chapter. I'll be working away slowly at chapter number seven. Until then, ENJOY! And have a great evening. From sue-sylvester-shuffle

-

House sat in the waiting room with James for a while. The boy finished his cookie, and the apple juice that House had also bought for him. And then, about half an hour later, Susan came out of surgery.

"It went well." Cameron informed House as Chase, Foreman, and two nurses pushed Susan's cot down the hallway with James on their heels. "We removed the tumor and it looks like she'll be okay."

"We'll just have to see how she is when she wakes up." said House.

"You're right. Hey, were you just with her son?" Cameron asked.

"Yeah. Apparently someone sent him off to find me." He glared jokingly at her.

"Sorry about that. He was just… there, and we couldn't have him come into surgery…"

"I tried to give him to Wilson, but the brat wanted to stick with me. So I had to buy him food." House grouched.

"Oh no." Cameron responded dramatically, her gloved hands flying to her face. "You had to buy the kid a five dollar sandwich? Horrible."

"It was a cookie and some juice, actually. Four dollars."

"Even worse!"

House cracked a smile. "You owe me one. How about you give me a lift home?" he suggested. "Patient's out of surgery now. I have no reason to be here."

"Sounds fair." said Cameron. "Are you going to bring the wheelchair home?"

"No, I'll leave it here. Wait, my car's here. Can you pick me up in the morning too?"

"Sure." The immunologist smiled. "Let's go get our stuff from upstairs, then I'll bring my car around to the front. Sound good?"
"Okay."

Cameron wheeled him over to the elevator. They went back up to his office. House grabbed his cane and his coat, while Cameron milled around grabbing her stuff as well. The older doctor looked down at his cane and instantly thought back to the conversation he'd had with James earlier that day.

"Why can't you walk?" the boy had asked.

"Well, I can walk. Just not well. Usually I walk with a cane." he'd responded patiently.

"Like my grandpa!" James had giggled.

House's stomach tightened. He glanced out at Cameron, who was pulling on her coat. She was young. Hell, she probably wasn't even thirty years old yet. He definitely had twenty years on her. What was she doing, going out with someone like him?

Like a chain reaction, the awful things he'd said to her on their first date came back to him. "I'm twice your age, I'm not great looking, I'm not charming, I'm not even nice. What I am is what you need. I'm damaged." Immediately House cringed, just thinking about it. He hadn't meant to hurt her. Well… maybe he had. To push her away. That's what he did. He had forgotten how to do anything but self medicate and push people away. Cameron was no exception.

"You ready?" Cameron's voice shook him out of his thoughts. House looked up to see her standing beside him, smiling.

"Yeah." he replied. "Let's go."

She wheeled him back down to the lobby. When they got back down there, House gingerly stood up out of the wheelchair. The pain was still bad, but not as excruciating as it had been that morning when he had first gotten out of bed. Spending the day in the wheelchair had helped. "Are you all right?" asked Cameron, passing him his cane and moving the wheelchair away from him.

"Fine." House said, shifting his weight onto his cane.

"Good. I'll go pull my car around now. Put your coat on, I think it's cold out there."

"Okay, mom." he joked.

Cameron laughed softly as she walked outside. House leaned his cane up against the front desk as he pulled on his coat. Once he had it on, House limped out of the building. Soon enough, Cameron pulled up in her car. The older doctor opened the passenger seat door and sat down.

"So you said you were picking me up tomorrow for our date, right?" Cameron asked as House did up his seatbelt.

"Yeah. At seven-thirty."

"Okay." She looked pleased as she pushed her foot on the gas, and they started to drive off.

"It's going to be much better than our last date." he promised her.

"I know. You don't need to keep apologizing for that."

"I'm not apologizing. I just don't want you to think I'm going to be an ass this time. Maybe then you wouldn't want to go."

Cameron laughed. "House, don't talk like that."

"Fine."

They continued driving. "I bought a new dress for tomorrow." Cameron told him after about a minute.

"God, Cameron, you didn't have to do that."

"I know I didn't, but I wanted to. It was nice, and I wanted to treat myself." she said. "What are you going to wear?"

"Ugh, Wilson asked me the same thing. Maybe I'll steal one of his suits."

"You told Wilson?" Cameron glanced over at him.

"Of course I did. Come on, he's Wilson. I tell him everything." House reminded her. After a few seconds, he added, "Are you upset?"

"No. Sorry, I just didn't expect you to spread the news around." Cameron replied. "It's okay, though. I don't mind at all."

"Why wouldn't I tell people?" House asked. "You're way out of my league. It's great."

Cameron laughed. "Okay, okay. So, what did Wilson say when you told him?"
"A lot of gushy, romantic shit. I wasn't listening." House said. "So, uh, you didn't tell anyone about our date?" He found himself more insulted than he should be.

"I don't know who I would tell."

"Chase? Foreman?" He was getting desperate. She was ashamed to be going out on a date with him. No, it was more than that. She was ashamed of him.

"They would just laugh." Cameron shrugged. "I want to feel good about tomorrow night. I want to be excited. But they'll just talk me out of it. I know they will."

He pursed his lips, trying to hold back the self-hatred that was threatening to spill into his thoughts like intrusive oil into a water supply. "Cameron, if you don't want to do this… you don't have to."

"Oh, no, no, I do want to!" she exclaimed. "Remember, I was the one who suggested we go out on another date. I want this, House."
"Okay." He turned slightly and glanced out the window. Just then, Cameron laughed softly. "What's so funny?" asked House darkly.

"Nothing. It's not funny. Or, it shouldn't be." she replied. "It's just… well, I never thought you'd be the kind of person to be so insecure about something so trivial."

"What?" He swivelled his head back around, eyes sharp. "Insecure? I am not insecure. I just know how badly I screwed up last time and I also know how much better you could do than me. You could have someone younger. Someone nicer. I know I'm on thin ice, Cameron. And it's damn hard to walk on ice with a cane."
She paused for a moment. "Can't you walk without a cane in your own metaphor?"

"No." he said stubbornly. His thoughts flashed briefly back to his fall, which had been the event to throw fuel on the flames of his and Cameron's romance. He was a realist. Even in metaphors, even in his imagination, he walked with a cane. It was an inescapable fact.

"Okay." She sighed, and stared pointedly out the windshield. "Have it your way."

They drove in silence all the way to House's apartment. Once they pulled up to the curb, the older doctor undid his seatbelt and muttered a quick thank you. He reached for the door, but Cameron stopped him by grasping his wrist. He glanced over at her, looking confused.

"We had such a nice day today. I don't want to leave it like this." Cameron reasoned.

"Okay." he replied. "Do you want to come in, then?"

Cameron nodded. "I'd like that."

They got out of the car and walked up the stairs to the door of House's apartment together. Walking up the steps made House's bad leg burn, but he pursed his lips and kept going, not wanting to worry Cameron. At the top of the steps, he groped around in the pockets of his coat for his keys. Once they were in his hand, he unlocked the door and they went inside.

"Home sweet home." sighed House.

Cameron smiled. "Looks the same to me. Isn't it weird that the last time I was here was when I resigned?"

House shrugged. He had been trying not to think of that night ever since he had gotten her to come back to the hospital. He had mended the broken situation and was now trying to get over it. Like their disastrous first date, his reaction to Cameron's resignation had been one of the many screw-ups that he regretted. He hadn't wanted her to leave, of course. She had been there in front of him, her dark hair spilling out over her shoulders, looking up at him with those blue-grey eyes that he so wanted to lose himself in. Really, at the time part of him had wondered if the whole thing was a Vicodin-induced nightmare. Cameron would never leave. She just wouldn't. But there she had been. On the verge of leaving. She'd held out her hand to him, like an offering, an act of peace. He hadn't been able to take it. Why he hadn't been able to still haunted him. Maybe he just hadn't been able to wrap his maladaptive mind around the thought that Cameron was leaving.

"I'm just glad you're back now." he responded slowly.

"Me too." Cameron said. "Come on, let's go sit down."

The older doctor nodded. "Here, I'll take your coat." He beckoned for her to take it off. She quickly obliged, handing it to him.

"That was almost gentlemanly." remarked Cameron.

"Keyword is almost." he replied, hanging it up and starting to take off his own coat. She smiled.

The two of them headed over to his couch. House collapsed onto the cushions with a sigh of relief. "Good to be off your feet?" asked Cameron.

"You know it." He tossed his feet on the edge of the table. "So what do you want to do? Order food, watch some TV, or get right to the sex?"

She didn't look fazed at all. She was used to him by then. "I'm hungry, actually. I could go for some food."

"All right." said House. He reached over to the side table beside the couch, where he grabbed the phone and a small stack of takeout menus. "What are you in the mood for? Pizza, Chinese, pick your poison."

"Pizza sounds good."

"Okay." He raised the phone to his ear. "Yeah, hey. We'll have a medium cheese pizza with… whatever the lady wants." He held the phone out to Cameron, who took it with a smirk and rattled off a number of toppings.

"And mushrooms!" House shouted at the phone as she was hanging up. "Ugh. Think they caught that?"

"I hope so." chuckled Cameron, handing him the phone. "Otherwise, they'll have to face your wrath."

"Right. The wrath of a forty-something cripple with a cane." he joked.

She pursed her lips. "I wish you wouldn't call yourself that, House."

"What? A cripple?" He gave her a wry look. "It's what I am."

"You're disabled." she corrected him. "Don't say cripple. It's… I just don't like it."

Because she's ashamed of you, House's mind whispered. He ignored it and replied, "Fine." Again, he was a realist. He was crippled. Therefore, he was a cripple. It was a crude term, but hey, he was the crudest person he knew. Cameron shouldn't be surprised.

She stared at him for a few heartbeats before reaching out and grabbing the TV remote. "You want to watch something?" Obviously the conversation was over.
"Do I ever." House sighed.

Cameron turned on the television. "Any suggestions?" she asked.

"Eh, just flip around."

Cameron switched the channels until she gasped. "Oh, look. Friends reruns."

"Fine by me. Jennifer Aniston is smoking hot." House remarked.

Cameron laughed. "Is this what you do on all your dates? Tell the girl about how hot some other girl is?"

"Well, on most of my dates, I don't pay for enough time to do any talking." he said sardonically, with a touch of bitter realism audible to Cameron.

The dark-haired immunologist smiled pityingly. "Right."

The episode played on. It was the episode where Rachel found out that Ross had cheated on her. "I always hated this episode." groaned House.

"You actually watched Friends?" asked Cameron, raising her eyebrows.

"A little bit. Just for Jennifer Aniston," he added quickly. "Her nipples are always showing, did you notice?"

"Okay, fair enough. Why do you hate this episode?" Cameron inquired. "I think it's sad."

"It's just annoying. Ross was an ass. And so are the others, for listening in. Although," House added after a moment, "I would probably do the same. But I'm an ass too, so that's all right."

"You're on Rachel's side?"

"You're not?"

"Of course I am; Ross was an ass." agreed Cameron. "But I thought you would be on Ross's side. You know, having sex with attractive women and all. I thought you'd be all for that."

"I am. But he was dating Rachel." House reminded her. "And he was being such an ass by getting in the way of her work. Nothing should come before your work."

"Nothing?" She was leaning in.

"Most things." he corrected himself, staring into her eyes, the colour of the sea, and he was lost out on a battered sailboat, a wounded sailor who didn't want to screw things up again.

"What about me?" Her lips were seconds away.

"We'll see." House replied. Their lips met and he closed his eyes.

The pizza delivery boy came twenty odd minutes later and rang the doorbell six times, but neither of them heard him. They had gone to the bedroom. The pizza box was left abandoned on the doorstep, much like the episode of Friends blaring on the television. Rachel and Ross's problems went unresolved, but House and Cameron's problems melted away like ice left outdoors on a hot day.