Hello, all. This is my first fic ever, of any kind. Any and all feedback welcome.

Title: Uh, don't know yet. This is just the beginning of a way longer sequence that hasn't been totally worked out yet. Missing scene from 'Love Hurts'

Author: me! yikes!

Pairings: House/Cameron. As much as I try not be be a House/Cam shipper, I can't help it. I'm fascinated by it.

Spoilers: The Honeymoon, Love Hurts, Kids, Heavy

Disclaimers: Don't own these guys. Fox does. And no $ for me for this piece.


He waited until he heard the click of her heels fade to nothing. When he knew it was safe, he allowed his shoulders to collapse.

“You just couldn’t love me, “ she’d said. Love? Love? How had she gotten from misguided spouting of Freud to love in one move?

***
“What I am is what you need. I’m damaged.” Blink, damn it. House tried to see the menu as a piece of information instead of a card with crap on it. He stared at it, but the letters wouldn’t form words. He didn’t look at Cameron. He didn’t need to. He knew what he would see on her face, and it would sting like hell.

Silences didn’t get longer than this one. He thought he heard her pick up her menu, had been straining to hear any sign that she had stopped looking at him. Any sign that she’d closed her mouth. He stole a peek at his water glass so he could size her up peripherally. She was reading the menu, thank god. No tears, just a bit of a flush. Good. She’d live.

“Now who’s spouting first-year psych?” He felt his brows hit his hairline. What? “I would have guessed that you snagged that monologue off of General Hospital, but it was too eloquent. You should have been a playwright.”

He pulled his jaw back up off the table. Those were fightin’ words. “Well, turnabout is fair play. You give me Freud, I play defense. I wasn’t nearly dramatic enough to qualify for the soaps. You clearly speak with no authority whatsoever.”

“Clearly. I had your show pegged as maudlin, not dramatic.”

“Maudlin. Great word. So it was the nice SAT score and not the nice ass that got you into college.”

“It was probably both. I have a way of swinging interviews in my favor.”

House fought down the twitch of a smile. There’s no way she could have seen it. “Give me the wine list.”

She arched a brow at him. “Bossy, aren’t you.”

“Fitting, as I am your boss. Give it. Your taste in men is atrocious, and your taste in wine is surely no better.”

“I like my wine dry and complex. That doesn’t surprise you, does it, Doctor?”

“It does, actually. You’re a sickeningly sweet ice-wine babe.”

Nothing from Cameron but a smile on this one. Maybe a pinot grigio. “Your lack of retort speaks volumes. Specifically, it speaks volumes about how I win, and you lose.”

“The House always wins.” Almost worthy of Wilson, if Wilson didn’t hate puns.

“You’ve been saving that one up, haven’t you? Too bad there were no witnesses.”

She was quiet again. He hoped she was changing her mind about her order. He wasn’t up for another serious moment. They’d definitely met that quota already.

The waiter made his first appearance. “Ah, garcon. Glad I didn’t have to chase you down. We’ll need a bottle of the pinot. She’ll have ravioli. I’ll have the puttanesca. Au revoir.”

He could feel her glaring. “I don’t even like ravioli.”

“Liar. It’s at the top of the right side of the menu. Your eyes kept coming back to it. Even if you were going to change your mind, you’ll thank me.”

“Yeah, thanks. Let me know when you join this decade. You know, when a woman can actually speak to the waiter?” She looked good with a pout. Much better than the glare.

“Yeowch. I touched a feminist nerve. I’d never have thought. Most beautiful women don’t go the feminist route. They’re too busy cashing in on the delicate flower strain of misogyny.”

“I take it you like me in this dress then.”

“I knew I would. When I said you were like a piece of art for the lobby, I really meant paperdoll for my amusement. Excellent eye roll, by the way. It’s the slight shake of the head that sells it.”

House was pretty sure he could hear her uncrossing and re-crossing her legs under the table. He coughed a little, to block out the swish noise of fabric sliding against her thighs. He had no interest in that noise at all. And she was staring again, brows drawn down low over eyes that a layman would describe as sexy. But he knew better. There was nothing sexy about Cameron.

“You are what I need. You got that part right.” Crap. He’d been so relieved.

“What, Cameron. You think five minutes of banter buys you five minutes of emotional jawing?”

“Yes. We were getting too colleague-y. I believe you remember the terms of my new contract?”

“We’re in a nice restaurant. It’s a date. Box checked.”

“I’ll be checking the box, thanks. It’s my condition. My call.” He hated that he felt proud of her, even if it was just for a moment. It’d been easy to dismiss her when she didn’t stand up for herself. This was a bad trend, he could feel it.

Ok, so I know House would say that seeking validation is pathetic, but can someone give this a once over and tell me if my dialogue for House is anywhere close to on? I know that Cam didn't look as though she'd get into anything as aggressive as this, but I wanted to write some verbal sparring. Any thoughts? I'm having a fit of newbie fic-er anxiety. :)

You've hit the style nicely.

Check back to "Heavy" - the scene where House and Cameron are it the lab -She's saying that she didn't screw up.

Also check back to the scene from "Role Model" where House asks Cameron - "Why do you like me?"

I feel you've got the style down well enough - I hope there's more to this story - soon.

Thanks for the feedback, Carebear. I'm glad the style is working out. Those scenes you mentioned... they're support for Cameron standing up for herself, right? I know she has it in her, but she seems so sad after House's speech in the restaurant I don't know if she'd actually get snarky. I just hope she did. :) I'll get back to work! Thank you again for the encouragement.

I like! Nice start, I hope there’s more to this.

I like the opening moment – nice observation on your part – that was indeed a VERY big leap Cameron made….

I think you’ve hit the dialog pretty square on. Little bit of polish and tightening, but just minor… have to say, I can’t quite hear House using “yeowch”… J I think you’ve got the general style right.

A thought from the For-What-It’s-Worth department: it feels to me like your whole scene in the restaurant works well standalone, but I have trouble putting it into the context of the date scene in the episode itself. You start off with some description in the dialog, but it tapers off, till we have just volley-and-return between the two of them, and that seems to happen awfully fast. To me, your pace doesn’t quite fit with how VERY uncomfortable House was in the restaurant, and with the tone of their conversation right before the scene you’ve written. Not sure how much sense that makes, or if I’m being clear, but…

Nice first effort! More soon? Please? :)

Thanks for the great comments, Cathy. Gave me a lot to think about. I was hoping that Cam busting out some snark would put House back in his element, but I should probably describe his thought process more. And it would help break up the snark parade as well, which might be hard to follow, now that I think about it.

As far as 'yeowch' goes, I was thinking of that moment in 'Love Hurts' when Cuddy is telling House about how she thinks the date is a good thing, and he does this blinky, twisted-face 'wow' thing. But I agree, he usually prefers actually english words.

Thank you again for the feedback. Much appreciated. Cheers.