Pairing: House/Cameron
Status: Two-shot, Work-in-progress
Warnings: None
A/N: Okay, so...this is my third (!!!!!!) Hameron fic. It was fun writing the other two so I had to do another one. This isn't exactly a song fic but "Look After You" by The Fray does play into the story later on. I ADORE this song so I decided to work it into a story. It actually took me a while to come up with this plot but I think I got a pretty solid story in the end (this is what happens when I force myself to come up with a story rather than have them jus come to me.) It's a two-part fic so the second part will be up soon since I'm not even done with it yet. It's a bit of a slow start but the Hameron will pick up in the next part. Anyway, read and please leave a review! ;)
Disclaimer: Don't own it...Well, I do own Wilson's allergy to mushrooms. XP But otherwise that's it.
Look After You
"You can't spend the entire night drinking, you know." came the condescending voice of James Wilson as he looked pointedly at the glass of wine in his friend's hand. "It's called 'dinner' for a reason."
"And you can't spend the entire night getting off every time Cuddy happens to look this way." House replied smoothly. "It's called 'self-control' for a reason. But then again you don't have that." Raising an eyebrow inquisitively at Wilson, House made a show of taking another huge gulp from his glass.
"I'm not-"
"It's okay, Jimmy. She's probably getting pretty lonely even with all those filthy rich benefactors swarming around her."
To make his point, House glanced at a nearby table where a clearly disgruntled Cuddy sat among several well dressed men who were each trying to get the feisty hospital administrator to warm up to them one way or another.
They were at PPTH's first Staff Talent Show Benefit Dinner. As the name implied, the staff of PPTH had prepared, auditioned, and prepared some more for the semi-formal event. The show included a variety of employees, ranging from interns to board members, all of whom had performed their own special "talent" for the entertainment (or torture) of their peers. This year, it was more for the latter as most of the acts had been absolutely horrible. In fact, they had been so horrible that two days after auditions, Cuddy had called the head of her Department of Diagnostic Medicine down to her office for a bribe.
"I need you to perform at the talent show." she said as Greg House sauntered into her office.
House looked suspiciously at his boss. "What talent show?"
"The one at the benefit dinner we're holding on the 15th."
"Oh, you mean the suck fest!" he exclaimed with mock surprise. " 'Cause for a second there I thought you were talking about an actual talent show. You know, with talent and everything."
Cuddy glared at him. "That's exactly why I need you to be in it. The auditions were a mess. Only about five people had a decent act but we obviously can't have a talent show with just five acts so we had to include the others."
"Well, I'm sure they can't be that bad, Cuddles. Just have your doctors do what they do best." House pretended to ponder the thought for a moment. "I know! You can have Taub up there with a corpse and have him start slicing away at every unwanted feature. That should be a real crowd pleaser."
"This isn't Frankenstein, House!" Cuddy snapped. Frustrated, she rubbed her temples. "I can't have this show be a complete disaster in front of all our benefactors. I need someone with actual talent up there to lessen the humiliation." She looked up at House and he could see that organizing this thing was killing her. "I've heard you on the piano. At least three songs. That's all I'm asking. I'll even give you a month off clinic duty."
At the words "month off clinic duty", House's ears perked up. Damn, she must really be desperate. After a second of deliberation, he slowly nodded. "You're on." he said and stretched out a hand for Cuddy to shake. "Three songs. No more." And with that he headed for the door.
"House."
He paused at the door and looked back at his boss.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Cuddy smiled slightly. "Thank you."
And so he had performed tonight. Three songs just as Cuddy requested and he was on and off that stage in under 15 minutes. However, despite the bribe of a month off clinic duty, House was beginning to regret taking the offer as he was now stuck at a table with his team, Foreman, and Wilson for the next two and a half hours.
Just then, Wilson's voice broke through his chain of thoughts. "You should eat."
But House was still staring interestedly at the action going on at Cuddy's table. She was having a conversation with a skinny, balding man on her right who seemed to have had one too many glasses of wine. "They've been going at it for ages."
"Do you have any idea how much this event cost?"
"Urkel over there's been trying to get dear Cuddy to laugh for the past five minutes."
"It's 50 dollars a plate." Wilson continued.
"But all he's managed to get is a grimace and a polite but diverting question about his 85 year old mom-" Almost on cue, Cuddy's lips crinkled into what looked like something between a smile and a frown after the man had enthusiastically told her what appeared to be a joke.
"People took pay cuts to make this happen."
"-who Cuddy probably doesn't give a crap about but is the only thing that will get the idiot's mind off of how to get Cuddy in bed."
"House!"
Tearing his eyes away from Cuddy's table, House turned back to his friend and looked at him for a moment before turning his attention to Wilson's plate.
He let out a fake gasp. "And what is that?" he said, gesturing to several pieces of what appeared to be mushrooms.
"What's-"
"Little Jimmy pushing around his vegetables?" House tsked scornfully. "Didn't your mother teach you better?"
Wilson glanced at his plate. "I'm allergic to mush-"
"What about those starving children in Ethiopia? You're gonna let them die just 'cause you wouldn't eat your vegetables?"
"You're not even eating!"
"And what if they have cancer too?" House continued. "Then they can blame you even more. You're not gonna feel too good about that, will you Jimmy?"
Wilson opened his mouth to reply but instead sighed and shook his head.
Smirking, House took another drink of wine.
"At least pretend like you're eating." said Wilson after a moment.
But House wasn't listening. Instead, his focus was now on a certain blonde sitting at the next table. She looked absolutely amazing just sitting there. Her body was angled away from him so that she couldn't see him unless she turned around but that was fine with him. Having her catch him staring was probably one of the last things he wanted right now. His insides clenched suddenly as he saw her companion, a man with strikingly flawless blond hair, reach over and place a hand lightly on her arm to which she greeted with a small smile. Willing his eyes to shoot daggers at the man, House emptied his glass in one fluid motion. That month off clinic duty better be heaven because the price I'm paying is putting me through hell, he thought savagely. He watched them for a moment longer until he couldn't take anymore of anything that was going on around him, including those two. Especially those two. Setting his empty glass on the table, he grabbed his cane and stood up.
"Where are you going?" Wilson asked with a hint of suspicion in his voice.
"Relax, Jimmy. I'll let you have your fun with Cuddy tonight. It is, after all, her talent show." Turning around, he began to walk away, leaving behind a spluttering Wilson and an untouched plate of Salisbury steak.
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Allison Cameron poked unenthusiastically at the half-eaten steak in front of her. It wasn't that it didn't taste good; in fact, it was one of the best steaks she'd ever eaten. She just didn't feel like eating anymore. It was as if the atmosphere around her was boring her so much that even eating had lost its appeal. Picking up her wine instead, she took a sip, letting the alcohol nip her throat on the way down.
The talent show had been a disaster. Well, partly. Aside from probably five or six acts, the "talent" that her colleagues had displayed was anything but that. The cover of The Goo Goo Doll's "Iris" by Jacobi from Radiology was decent, as was the cover of an old Van Halen song by a bunch of interns and another cover of Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely?" by a fellow attending at the ER, and the gymnastics demonstration by a young nurse from NICU was impressive to say the least. Those, along with a few others, were fine but the rest were a different story all together.
And then there was House's performance. He had done three songs, all classical, and with each one Cameron swore she could hear his very emotions flowing through the every note he played. She had watched, mesmerized by the fluid movement of his fingers as they danced across the keys, and had actually closed her eyes for a minute or two, allowing herself to be swept away by his music. In the three years she had worked for him, not once had she ever heard him play, something that she now regretted having heard him for the first time.
Just then, a warm hand touched her arm and she glanced at her companion, slightly surprised.
"Are you alright?" Chase asked, his Australian accent tinged with concern. His eyes flew to her half-eaten plate then back up to her eyes.
Cameron nodded and offered him a smile. "I wasn't really hungry to begin with."
"You sure?"
"Yeah."
Not fully convinced but not wanting to push it, Chase grinned in return and went back to chatting with a fellow surgeon.
Cameron sighed. It had been two weeks after they had broken up. Chase was a good man, a good friend. But to her, that was all he could ever be. When she had decided to take their "relationship" a step further, she thought that she could come to love him as he loved her. At first, she was patient. It'll click. We'll make it work, she'd tell herself. But as time went on, she knew it would never happen and deep down in her heart she knew why.
Chase was many things. He was handsome, smart, thoughtful, sweet, attentive. He held doors open for her, held her hand reassuringly if she was nervous, kissed her softly before they said goodnight. He was everything any woman could ever want and there wasn't any reason why she couldn't be as happy with him than any other man. But there was one thing he could never be and that was House. Rude, sarcastic, abrasive House. No matter how hard she tried, no matter what she did or what she said, she had never been fully able to let go of him. Maybe it was her dire need to help people. Maybe it was the fact that when she had fallen for him, she fell hard and fast. Or maybe it was both. Whatever it was, she knew it would never change and she needed Chase to know that. She couldn't have him keep on thinking that there was something between them when all along there wasn't. So she ended it.
But his reaction was not what she had expected.
"I know." he said, after she had told him that they couldn't keep seeing each other. Looking directly into her blue-green eyes, his mouth twitched into a faint smile. "I just hope he understands why."
Even then, she knew that Chase was referring to House. But she knew House would never understand, even though she hoped with all her heart he would.
Distracted, she began to swirl her wine glass idly in her hand. God, she hated benefit dinners.
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Greg House let out a relieved sigh as he stepped out into the massive courtyard. He had only been in the hotel's auditorium for an hour and yet the need for fresh air had become unbearable. Unfortunately, he could only get his month off clinic duty if he didn't leave the hotel until the dinner ended, thus forcing him to stay within the compounds for the next two and a half hours. Fortunately, Cuddy had never specified where in the hotel he had to remain.
And so here he was now, the guitar he had stolen from backstage slung around his shoulder, as he wandered through the hotel's courtyard in search for a place to sit. He smirked. Jacobi was not only an idiot for thinking that his squeaking, excuse of a voice could do The Goo Goo Dolls justice but also for leaving his spotless, Yamaha acoustic guitar on its stand for all to see. At least the interns had the sense to lock their guitars away after their performance, what with House lurking around backstage. He stepped out from behind a tree and found himself standing in the middle of an aisle of ribbon-adorned chairs. Ahead of him, was a raised platform substituting for a stage on top of which were several more chairs and a banner. Curious, he walked toward it and squinted in the dim light that the full moon offered tonight.
Brennan Lowell
&
Jackie Tan
Happily Ever After
House snorted at the fakeness of it. Sure, he knew that women needed their lives to be some sort of living fairy tale but they didn't need to proclaim it to the whole world on a banner. Glancing at the picture of the happy couple, he sighed and stepped up onto the stage, much to the protest of his leg.
"Congratulations." he mumbled in the direction of the banner.
Setting his cane down, he lowered himself into a chair, positioning the guitar snugly under an arm, and began to play.
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Cameron didn't know how much more of this she could take. She didn't want to be rude and leave when the dinner was no where close to being finished but she desperately wanted to get out of that cologne-filled, steak-tainted room and get some fresh air. Sneaking a glance at her phone, she groaned when a dismal 8:45 met her eyes. There was no way she was staying in this room for another two hours.
Gathering her purse, she stood up and placed a hand on Chase's shoulder to steady herself as the two glasses of wine she had caught up to her.
At her touch, Chase looked at her, confused.
"I'm just gonna step outside for a minute." she said to answer the question that was forming in his head.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Chase's eyebrows furrowed together with concern. "You look a little pale."
Cameron nodded, backing out her chair so she could leave.
"You want me to go with you?" She shook her head. "I'll be fine. I just need some air."
Once again, Chase wasn't thoroughly convinced but decided to let it go. "Alright."
Smiling reassuringly at him, Cameron pushed in her chair and headed for the door. Having no particular route in mind, she began walking toward the direction of the lobby, the blood slowly returning to her cramped legs. Her heels clicked softly against the dark marble floor and echoed throughout the building. The hotel was dead quiet but then again it was almost nine and most people were in their rooms.
And then she heard something. It was subtle and if it hadn't been for her acute hearing, she probably would've missed it. Curious, she kept on walking and found herself looking at the hotel's courtyard through a glass wall. An open door was on her right and she stepped out into the cool night air, breathing in deep as the scent of lilacs and roses reached her nose. Standing still for a moment, she listened carefully and suddenly realized that the sound was the soft strumming on a guitar.
Almost in a trance, she edged closer to the source and as the music got louder, she recognized the song and it's soothing melody. "Delicate" by Damien Rice. Peeking out from behind a tree, she found the music"s origin perched on a stage.
And it was none other than Gregory House.
He was sitting there, head bowed, fingers strumming the nylon strings, and she could hear him softly humming along as if he was afraid to wake the hotel's inhabitants. For a moment, she just watched him, taking in the simplicity of the scene. She had never seen him so much at ease and how, while simply playing the guitar, the lines on his beaten face seemed to disappear and all his pain just faded away with the music.
Strumming harder, the song began to crescendo as it neared the end. She watched as he closed his eyes, allowing himself to be taken to a different world altogether. Then suddenly, he stopped playing for a second, before gently continuing to strum the last few measures of the song. And as it ended, the last chords he played echoed throughout the courtyard.
Cameron stood there for a moment, almost too scared to disrupt the emotion House had left hanging in the air. Then she looked at him again, his eyes still closed, head slightly bowed, and quietly began to clap.
A/N: So? What do you think? Constructive criticism is really appreciated especially since I'm still trying to get House's character down. Part two coming soon and the Hameron picks up there. ;)