Finding North (PG)

[deelaundry]

Title: Finding North
Author: Dee Laundry
Rating: PG
Words: 629
Summary: Ficlet from a meme: “Name something you think I will never, ever, ever write.”
Prompt: House fires Cameron for her continued sexual harassment of Wilson. (jdr1184)

NOTE: This takes place in the AU Directed!Verse created by aris_writing (based on an SGA fic by helenish): “In one of the next universes over, sexual attraction is not guided along lines of gender, but along lines of power--dominators to submissives, tops to bottoms.” This story takes place after the fourth fic in the series, “Magnitude and Direction.” You will find it very helpful (and awesomely entertaining) to read aris_writing’s four fics first.

“You’re fired,” House declares with no preamble, and Cameron thinks for a minute that she’s caught in another dream.

“Anything you have in your desk or your locker, get them now and get out.” House walks to the bookcase and grabs the corner post. He looks at Cameron again, but she can’t move, as overwhelmed as she is with the stuck-in-molasses feeling. “Now!” House barks, and that somehow breaks it.

Cameron squares her shoulders and looks him straight in the eye. “I’m not going anywhere. What possible reason would you have for firing me?”

House brings his cane to his shoulder as if it’s a rifle. “Misconduct with a sub,” he replies. “Offense eligible for immediate termination. Don’t try to say you didn’t know, because I know you. You’re the goody-two-shoes type who’s read every syllable of the hospital code.”

“If I’m a goody-two-shoes type, why would I have made a termination-eligible offense?” Cameron is still annoyed by this unwarranted accusation, but she’s also starting to feel perplexed. “And I haven’t ever brought a sub of mine to the hospital, so how could you know what I might or might not have done?”

Bouncing his cane on his shoulder, House seems to be trying to grow taller, to push more intimidation into his posture and presence. His anger is palpable, and all of Cameron’s emotions are now morphing into a very intrigued curiosity. House may be claiming she did something to a sub, but he’s acting like she’s done something to him.

“It must be someone in the hospital,” Cameron muses, pacing away from House and not letting him see her smile. “Can’t be a nurse; you don’t give a damn about any of the nurses. I slapped Chase last week during that argument in the lab, but there are dozens of witnesses that he’s been in top-mode for weeks, so that doesn’t count. And he smacked me back anyway.” She stops and turns on him quickly. “You are not accusing me of misconduct with a patient. I will sue you for defamation so quickly –”

“Wilson!” House interjects. “You’ve been sexually harassing Wilson, and it stops now.” House starts shoving at things on her desk. “Pack up and get out.”

Cameron scoffs, although she does race over to rescue her laptop before it hits the floor. “Wilson and I haven’t done a damn thing that’s prohibited for doms and subs who are both unattached…” She trails off and gently puts her laptop back on her desk before turning on House. “But he’s not unattached, is he?”

She feels a sense of triumph when House won’t meet her eyes. “You said misconduct with a sub, but you really mean misconduct against a top, don’t you? Nothing I’ve done with or to Wilson would be considered improper unless he belonged to another top.”

House is still bristling with anger, but Cameron ignores that completely. She knows a secret he doesn’t want her to know, a secret she’s damn sure Wilson doesn’t know either. She’s immensely proud of this victory – and she thought she might not be a top, ha. This is going to make her life so much easier.

She stalks right into House’s personal space and locks him into her gaze. “You draw it on him with a finger when he sleeps, don’t you?” she whispers. “A pretty, pretty collar around his pretty, pretty neck.” When she brings her hand up to illustrate on House, he grabs her wrist. The fear lurking in the back of his eyes emboldens her even more, and she smirks as she pulls away.

“My clinic hours are two to five today,” she says, sauntering to the door. “You can do them yourself or send Wilson; I don’t care.”

It’s good to be king.

Comments

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

Heh. I've read this AU-verse (the SG:A one is particularly fascinating) and find it very interesting.

I've thought about exploring it myself. I like this, although it makes me want to have House turn Cameron over his knee and spank her.

;-)

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Cameron wants House to turn her over his knee, I think.

This universe is amazingly cool, and Aris is doing an outstanding job of exploring it and keeping it whole and consistent. The Foreman storyline in the last fic with non-dynamic sex was very, very interesting and its juxtaposition with House wanting a non-dynamic relationship was... I'm out of adjectives. How about great?

I hope Aris writes more in it, and your take on it would be fascinating as well.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Hee! From Xanthe to Helenish to Aris-Writing to you. This is fun, with nice sharp edges -- I like House trying to stake a claim without revealing himself, and Cameron's cold triumph at figuring it out -- and of course her collar comment. Mmm. So where's the sequel where House finally makes his move to claim Wilson?

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Thanks. JDR's prompt brought the universe to mind immediately for me, but I was unsure whether I should write in it. I don't have a problem with using canon characters but dabbling in another fic!verse makes me feel like I'm stealing - go figure. Fortunately, Aris gave me permission and here we are.

I had been going over in my mind a plot in which House gets Cameron to collar Wilson, and they live together in an odd H/W, H/Cam, Cam/W triangle relationship.

House's reluctance to have an "official" relationship with Wilson in large part stems from how he thinks Wilson's behavior would change. Based on hints from stories so far, this would especially be problematic at work. House couldn't help but try to get Wilson to go along with his schemes, and if they were officially dom/sub, Wilson would have to obey, wouldn't he? Then there wouldn't be any of the back-and-forth that helps House get his puzzles solved, and which House enjoys.

By having Cameron collar Wilson, that gets Wilson officially off the market, but lets he and Wilson continue to act as more-or-less equal friends and colleagues at work.

What does Wilson get out of it? He gets to go home to House.

What does Cameron get out of it? She gets to explore the submitting to House thing she's been dreaming/thinking about, with occasional times topping Wilson to keep that side of her psyche intact.

But I'm not writing it. Nope. Because I want to see where Aris takes the universe.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Well, you've written it well enough for me in that outline there. Really, the problem now is that you've gone all nice and thinky and I'm just gazing at your pretty, pretty icon. *gazes*

Heh. That's an excellent point about how House fears he wouldn't be able to enjoy the same antics he indulges in now with Wilson if Wilson were required to do what he wanted, and an intriguing proposal to solve the problem by insinuating Cameron in the middle, so to speak. I do hope aris-writing will explore how Wilson's actual behavior differs from how House expects him to act (based on experience and/or sub stereotypes) once they enter into a relationship—but even if she doesn't, they story's sure to go in an equally interesting direction.

[aris-writing.livejournal.com]

Ha! Write it! WRIIIIITE IIIIIIT! You write faster than I do, anyway. ;)

[inlaterdays.livejournal.com]

I love the play on "sub". Very nice.

“You draw it on him with a finger when he sleeps, don’t you?” she whispers. “A pretty, pretty collar around his pretty, pretty neck.”

Oh, yes.

I am going to have ~good~ bad dreams tonight :)

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

ZOMG, Krycek. Wouldn't Krycek be... well, exactly himself in the DomSub universe? Screw safewords! Krycek and Mulder (and Skinner and Scully) in the DomSub universe, oh yes, oh yes.

And thanks. Hope your dreams were awesome!!

[inlaterdays.livejournal.com]

Weren't you the one who steered towards me Xanthe's XF fics or was that someone else? ;)

DEE DEE DEE

Someone jokingly mentioned a crack!pairing in my LJ last night and NOW I WANT TO WRITE IT.

House/Krycek.

...

help.

slashiverse!Wilson and Mulder can console each other...

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!! NOW! Oh, oh, oh. Krycek pre-arm amputation or post-?

Wilson + Mulder = hot forlorn love

Wasn't Mulder's father military? Maybe he served with House's father? Or maybe I'm high.

Want more prompts? I can come up with more.

[inlaterdays.livejournal.com]

SEE my mind went there too! Like: it! could! work!

I was thinking post-amputation because they can be injury-bitter together and Krycek can swipe House's Vicodin and House can make insulting cracks about how poorly the amputation was done and Krycek can jump him (IV stands go flying - nothing new for PPTH - and nurses look scared) and make cracks about how stupid the glass walls are

and

yes.

I didn't even think of the military connection.

I'm working on this tonight.

(Wilson reveals to Mulder the lengths House went to to avoid an amputation....)

[inlaterdays.livejournal.com]

Haha sorry, I really rambled. I will probably email you later if you don't mind.

[daisylily.livejournal.com]

That's very interesting, and I actually like this Cameron (don't faint!)

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Oops, sorry for missing this comment. Thanks! Did you read Aris' series? She actually gives a good justification for Cameron acting so differently from episode to episode.

[(Anonymous)]

This doesn't work one bit, you really don't seem to have a clue on how BDSM relationships work in RL or this AU. The point of Cameron in aris_writing's AU is that Cameron is a sub pretending to be a dom & House is the dom-est dom around. No way would House ever behave like this or Cameron for that matter, because she's ALWAYS subed to him. Even if you're not using that AU but a straight BDSM, House can't defend any claim against Wilson if he's uncollared without Wilson's public acknowledgement, which is missing here - Wilson must have given Cameron consent for her actions - she can't touch without a sub's consent, and there's no way he would have if House had a prior claim. And there's no way House would have made a claim against Cameron unless he were authorized to do so - no dom would ever behave like that, least of all someone with the kind of self-control & lack of fear House has. To suggest House would be afraid of Cameron is completely ludicrous.

Do you actually write anything original? It seems that the last half dozen things you've written have all been derivative off of other people's work.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Responded to you on my LJ here: http://deelaundry.livejournal.com/60534.html

Feel free to ignore the comments below the post!

[(Anonymous)]

I actually like the fact that Cameron won this round against House. It's boring to see the women lose in all the slash stories, or being stupid and shrill. This is a niiiiiccce change. She's great in this. House would be boring if he ALWAYS got away with being an asshole, or didn't pay a price for it sometimes. You did justice to them all.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

It's boring to see the women lose in all the slash stories, or being stupid and shrill.

Excellent point; very true. Just because we want the boys to have all the sex doesn't mean we should be insulting the girls. : ) Thanks!

[aris-writing.livejournal.com]

I like how you've fleshed this out--great stuff! And good on Cameron finding a backbone.

Like I said above--write more. WRITE MORE! Mwahahaa.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the encouragement - maybe after some of my other fic commitments are done, and there's something else I'm forgetting... What is it? Hmm.

Oh yeah, real life! *sigh*

[photoash.livejournal.com]

Wow I didn't know you wrote anything for this series! :) I liked this it was definitely and interesting power play!