"How did we end up here?"
Cuddy sat on the table in exam room 2 while House inspected her injured hand.
"Well you put on foot in front of the other and did this thing called walking." He looked up from her hand. "If you don't remember that then maybe you do need that CT scan"
"My head is fine House. I meant when did we become these people, how-SHIT!" Cuddy cursed as He applied the antiseptic swab to the wound. "Never mind, I just…. I think I am just overtired"
"Being attacked by a patient can do that to you." He injected the Lidocaine into her palm around the wound and waited for it to take effect. "I should know"
He slowly started to join the two sides of her skin back together with small precise stiches. "You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time Cuddy, it could have been anyone in the ER that the patient attacked," Three stiches, four stitches. "although the funbags do seem to attract a lot of attention." a beat. "It is not a reason to start revaluating your life"
"What is a reason?"
"When you start to hallucinate that you slept with your boss"
She looked up at him but he remained concentrated on her hand, his work precise, meticulous, the way he had always been.
He admired is handiwork as he applied the dressing. 8 stitches in all, bridging the gap that run diagonally across her palm.
"All done, keep it dry, 5 days, don't take them out yourself."
"I went to medical school as well, got a certificate and all."
"I know I was there," He finally looks up at her.
It had been 20 years.
He was older.
She was older.
He had had an infarction, had his thigh muscle removed, been shot, became an addict, admitted himself to the phsyc ward and was still living to tell his tail, even if a little broken.
She had been there for all of it and everything that had happened in between, had saved him from himself when he was too blind (or high) to see who he was hurting. But now she had a real child to take care of and watch over, not just the 40 something doctor or the hospital.
Their story may have read like it was a soap opera but they never seamed to be in the same scene at the same time. 20 years and she still didn't know what they were to each other or where they were going, but as long as he was still there she could live with not knowing.