House MD Fanfiction

Differential For A Turtleneck

Hilson, dating, married, Cameron, 2942 words
By: Nemesis (ThetaSigma)

The ducklings glanced up when House entered. He wasn’t whistling or singing or ranting or thumping his cane angrily, which meant that they wouldn’t have to deal with either extreme version of House today. They heaved a sigh of relief.

Foreman’s eyes returned immediately to the medical journal he was reading. Chase’s gaze drifted to the ceiling as he thoughtfully chewed on his pencil and tried to think of what word could possibly fit the prompt “Done alone, for pleasure, turning blue (2-22)” (he had asked already and growled when both Cameron and Foreman shrugged).

Cameron continued to look at House. The lines around his face didn’t seem any deeper today than they had yesterday, which probably meant he wasn’t in serious pain today. She glanced at his right hand, curled around his cane. His grip was strong, sturdy, but his knuckles weren’t turning white and it didn’t seem the cane head would shatter under the strength of his grip. Normal levels of pain, then, Cameron guessed.

Sneakers, as usual, rumpled jeans, as usual, sports jacket, as usual, and a blue turtleneck, as usual… wait, what? Cameron looked again, certain that she was hallucinating.

No such luck. Blue turtleneck. Sky blue turtleneck, and oh God it was hot. It brought out his eyes and covered his entire neck, ending at his (very lickable) jaw line.

Turtleneck… why would House wear a turtleneck? House always wore shirts. Well-worn shirts, a wrinkled button-down, and a sports jacket. Not a turtleneck.

She needed to know about that turtleneck. It was an anomaly. Anomalies bugged House, which meant they should bug her. They didn’t always, didn’t usually even, but anomalies with House definitely bugged her. They meant that she didn’t have him figured out perfectly, and that… that was bad.

Because there was no way she was going to get the Dr. Gregory House as a carnival prize if she didn’t know everything about him. She might have to settle for the Dr. Robert Chase or the Dr. Eric Foreman, and that… thatwas creepy and wrong and definitely not what her mother had meant when she had told Cameron to marry a doctor.

There were all sorts of reasons for a turtleneck, beyond getting laid and needing to hide the evidence (the thought made Cameron seethe with jealousy). Maybe he was cold, or maybe he ran out of clean t-shirts (Cameron wasn’t sure this would stop House from wearing one, but she really didn’t want to consider it), or maybe he simply wanted to wear it. Maybe…

“Nice shirt,” Foreman commented. “Starting a fashion trend?”

“Nope,” House answered cheerfully. “Hiding the necklace of hickeys I got last night. Bit too high. Oh well.” And he gave an elegant little half-shrug.

Well, that precluded House actually getting laid last night. House joked to deflect, not to elucidate. Unless he was counting on his reputation of doing so to hide the fact that’s what he’d done.

Cameron definitely needed to know more. She needed to know everything.

“You’re wasting brain power on a crossword puzzle,” House pointed out. “What’s more, you’re clearly stuck and therefore really wasting time on it.”

“Done alone, for pleasure, turning blue. Two words, twenty-two letters,” Chase answered instead of rising to the bait.