Title: Sweethearts
Pairing: House/Cuddy
Rating: G
Summary: A Valentine's Day story poem.
Fragmented and retrospective, reverie and reality. 679 words.
A/N: I didn't have time to perfect this prosodically. It's just for fun.
Reviews are appreciated.

cardiac candy (sweethearts)

The coupling of Lisa Cuddy, dean of medicine
and her cranky, crass, crippled, addicted diagnostician
would be a certain sin, if it hadn't already been

Alone they will remain, separate save for one night
He gave her everything, not knowing they'd soon reunite
Somehow Cuddy knew then that he would always be right

Once he was hired, there was banter, the threat of being fired
a department, a team, a philosophy founded on liars,
what never waned was the temptation or the desire

She is the boss now, has been and always will be
and he's her best doctor, best friend, the one and only
But today it doesn't matter, today she is just lonely

The desk is a reminder of Michigan and spring
April till August on the lake and a collegiate summer fling
She remembers it all, but does it mean anything?

He gave her the memory then left with a stranger
leaving what she feels for him remote and endangered
She walked away one last time, no one could blame her

Now she drives home, to a bawling baby,
wondering and worrying about all of their maybes
all of the could have beens and every what will never be

Hungry and empty and seeing her miracle sleep
she goes out to the kitchen, trying not to weep
By herself it's overwhelming, a strangled sob smothered
It's impossible to run a hospital and be a single mother

She sleeps and dreams and wakes to a wail
February 14th, she thinks, is a day devised in hell
Then she's off to work, goodbye to little Rachel

Eros left a rose, crimson red, long stemmed and she knows
it's Wilson meddling again, trying to get her and House close
Thoughtful but the thorn pricks and soon the blood flows

Proximity would be catastrophe, she doesn't even call him Greg
They tried once, she saved his life, gave him the scar on his leg
Guilt and forgiveness and now is just the same

Respect and adoration, she can never say the word
The years they've been together are fading and blurred
What they have has gone undiagnosed, untreated, uncured

Gold rings and candles and wine, to be someone's valentine
To kiss and connect and combine, is an offer she must decline
Or resign lest she see his presence as a sign

Outside her door, the man she loves
No labcoat or stethoscope or latex gloves
Just happiness and completion and the lackthereof

He's gone before she can respond and it doesn't really matter
if she spoke or approached what they have would only shatter
She sighs and closes her eyes, sinking slow, feeling sadder

Suppressing disgust, it hurts so she works,
picking up papers and files and charts
and finding a box of Sweethearts

This is how the story starts.

Be Mine is too snide, I'm Yours far too snark
the card is blank, not one brimming cleavage or rotundous ass remark
just XOXOXO, two letters and no question mark

Expectations met, anxiety assuaged and the day is almost over
Did he make a bet, is it all a game, or tonight will he be her lover?
Can she change, be someone else than administrator or foster mother?

Cuddy waits and wonders and then there's a knock
The door opens, it's him and heart's deadbolt unlocks
A time, a place, a transgression to revisit
They know this their last chance, this is it

House at her door at the latest imaginable hour
crooked with a cane, no chocolate or jewelry or flowers
It seems like a dream and maybe it is
If only it were time to be wakened with a kiss

When she looks him in the eyes and sees the honest blue
and knows that by standing here he's saying Lisa I love you.