[for greg]

[more_flexible]

[Morning of March 22]

It began with one off-hand comment. "Why don't you dig up Faramir and make me a pocketwatch out of him?" At the time, he had scoffed, asking if House wanted him to go blind making the teeny pieces.

But the man should know by now that Jack had a literal streak a mile wide, and if House wanted something...anything...Jack would make sure he had it.

He'd spent a week at Stu's, eating roast dinosaur and talking to the man about Texas, Sam Houston, Arnette, the plague, the future, the baby, Jane...whatever came up between the long gaps of silence as they both worked. Stu on the toys for the kids and Jack on the itty bitty pieces of bone which he chipped and carved and shaped and polished and assembled just as the book the shelf had given him clearly illustrated. It wasn't that hard, all gears and a spring. He'd had a harder time repairing his ship. Hell, it was harder to repair a automobile than to build one of these things from scratch.

And it wasn't like there was a shortage of bone now. All he needed was to wait for it to dry out a little. The bone he'd used for Greg's watch was dry enough to wind up with something he was really happy with.

He hoped Greg would be happy with it, too.

Comments

[misanthrope_md]

House hadn't been able to sleep, so he'd gotten out of bed early that morning and gone to the compound for a while, read a little, taken a shower, had some breakfast, and then when there were actual people beginning to mill around, headed back to the treehouse.

When he got back to his room, Jack was sitting on his bed grinning like an idiot.

"What, did you just eat a canary?" House asked with a snort.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"No," he replied, smiling wide as he pulled a carefully wrapped box from behind his back.

[misanthrope_md]

House ran a hand through his wet hair and looked confused. "I know there's some confusion as to when my birthday is but I'm pretty sure it's not in March."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"It's not a birthday present," Jack replied. "Just...open it."

[misanthrope_md]

House limped over to the bed and sank down on it, then took the box. "You're starting a bad precedent, you know, random gifts when I haven't even done anything particularly worthy..."

He opened the box, and pulled out... a pocketwatch. He started at it, about to ask Jack where he got it, but then realized that there was something so intricate about the imperfections...

His mouth dropped open. "No fucking way. Jack. You didn't make this?"

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Well...yeah," he said, looking at it proudly. "It doesn't keep the time quite right, though."

[misanthrope_md]

House turned it over in his hands, looking stunned. "Jack, it's... god, that's amazing. Is it make out of dinosaur bone?" He looked up at him. "You made this in a week? It must have... I can't even imagine the hours of work..."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"It wasn't that hard," Jack said, showing him how to open the back to see the workings and completely ignoring the question of his choice of material. "Not much more than a puzzle, really. Do you like it?"

[misanthrope_md]

House examined it for a minute, shaking his head. "Of course I like it, it's... I just can't believe you put so much effort into making something for me."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"You said you wanted one," he shrugged, leaning in to kiss his cheek lightly.

[misanthrope_md]

"And who cares if it keeps the right time, it's not like time means shit around here anyway."

House closed the watch and turned it over in his hands again. "Thank you, Jack."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"You're welcome," he grinned. "I hoped you'd like it."

[misanthrope_md]

House honestly didn't know what else to say. He couldn't think of what he'd possibly done to deserve something like this. Hell, what had he ever given Jack? Even that ring on his finger he'd carved himself. So House didn't say anything further, just studied it some more.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

Jack rubbed his back lightly, waiting for him to say something. Anything.

"Yeah?"

[misanthrope_md]

House offered him a small smile. "I'm just not sure what I did to deserve this, that's all."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Maybe it was how worried you were about me while I was gone. I don't know. You asked, I made it for you. That's all."

[misanthrope_md]

"I...?" He'd asked? Then he remember - "Oh." He quirked a smile. "Cute, Jack. If it weren't for all the dinosaur bones lying around, I might be a little worried."

He looked at the watch one more time, then slipped it into his pocket, and tilted his head to kiss Jack. "You don't think I'm a shit for never giving you anything?"

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"You took me on a date. And you give me this," he said, kissing him softly.

[misanthrope_md]

House snorted. "You took me on a date, says the guy that just spent a million hours carving every moving piece on a frickin' watch." He sighed and shook his head. "No wonder everyone wonders why you're will me."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"You think you need to give me stuff?"

[misanthrope_md]

"No, just... I mean, I know I'm a lousy boyfriend. You can ask Stacy." He ran a hand through his hair. "Though I was always - "

He almost said "faithful", and stopped himself. He didn't want Jack to take it the wrong way, not now.

"Though when I love someone, I really love them. I just don't show it like maybe I should. More with you than in the past. Something about being here, something about my relationship with James... it opened me up a little. Maybe it's because this is the only thing in my life here that doesn't suck."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"You're doing okay," Jack smiled. "...if you really love me, just love me."

[misanthrope_md]

"You know, sometimes I absolutely cannot fathom how we work, but then, there's just times like this, and..." House sighed. "I don't know why people seem to think it's impossible for me to be happy."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"I don't know. I just like how you, I don't know, relax. With me."

[misanthrope_md]

"Well, yes, there is that. It's nice that I don't have to pretend to be happy to you. I don't have to pretend to not be in pain because that's what I'm expected so not to make people uncomfortable."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"You never have to pretend anything, Greg," he purred, rubbing across his shoulders. "I don't care what people think or say, as long as you and me don't have secrets."

[misanthrope_md]

House nodded, dropping his head a little so that Jack could reach his neck as well. "Well, you got my big one out of me."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

He shifted to slide behind him and rub his shoulders with both hands. "Feel like I should have some clue of what to give you back for that."

[misanthrope_md]

"Not making me talk about it would be sufficient," House said quietly. "God, I just... if my father ever shows up on this island I..." He couldn't even finish because he didn't know how to. What would he do? Feel like throwing himself in with the dinosaurs, most likely.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"You'll point him out," Jack said quietly, that hint of steel to his voice that gave him away far too often. "And I'll take care of it."

[misanthrope_md]

House shook his head. "He is my father." There was no use in worrying about it anyway. Besides, it wasn't as if he was scared of him, not anymore - though he could imagine few things that would rouse that sort of visceral disapproval than finding out that his son is fucking men.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

Jack bit back the burning in his heart and his eyes and laid his cheek on Greg's shoulder. In his opinion, what he'd done to Greg took the right to the title away from the man.

"Let's talk about something else," he said after a minute.

[misanthrope_md]

"All right," said House. "What do you want to talk about?" He yawned a little and in the sudden stillness couldn't help from bringing the watch out of his pocket and looking at it again.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

He moved enough to kiss the back of Greg's neck, rubbing his shoulders again. "I don't know. Tell me again how you're the coolest fucking doctor here."

[misanthrope_md]

House snorted. "I don't know about that - you weren't impressed by Chase with the power drill? I think we're pretty even with the cool medical shit at the moment."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"I was kind of trying not to watch," he admitted quietly. "Kind of surprised me, all the blood and...yeah."

Surprised wasn't quite the word. He'd never really seen gore that way before. Before it had been part of the job. When Chase was drilling into Gwen's skull, yeah, it had been his job, but...

Chase and Jack had two entirely different professions before the island.

[misanthrope_md]

"Well, I'd like to think I can take at least a little credit for Chase's training. He's an intensivist by specialty, not a surgeon - but in my department I preferred we do most of the work ourselves, from labs to surgery, whatever.¹ It's not the usual course of things, but... having broad skills has certainly come in handy here, hmm? If I only knew how to work in infectious disease and nephrology I wouldn't be much use."

¹WTF, House canon. WTF.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Good thing for everyone you know more than just those," he said, nuzzling his nose into Greg's hair. "You amaze me."

[misanthrope_md]

"Well I had to do something to make up for being a complete jackass, right?" House pointed out.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"If you say so," he laughed, thumbs working against the joint, especially on the right. "You know, I had fun making that...I think I might try to make some other stuff. Stu has good tools."

[misanthrope_md]

"Well, I'd say you could sell things if there were, you know, an economy," House said with a snort. "But then again, you actually like doing nice things for people."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"I like doing nice things for some people," Jack chuckled, letting his hands slip from the shoulders and around Greg's chest.

[misanthrope_md]

House put the watch back in his pocket. "I figure after the disaster last week I've built up enough good karma that I can go around being a complete asshole for a while without anyone being able to call me on it."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"You just don't want another write up in the paper," Jack teased.

[misanthrope_md]

"What, you don't think there'd be something about me being a good doctor. That wouldn't be sensationalist at all."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Stick with me. You'll have plenty of scandal," he teased, pulling Greg back onto the bed to lay down.