Back to Orchard Cove

DJ Dubois

August 2007

Rating: M (Mature—language, some fighting and sexual content)

Notes Part 1: This story is a follow up to my "Gone for the Weekend" story.

Notes Part 2: The characters from House MD belong to FOX and their copyright holders. All other characters are fictitious.

Chapter 1 [Cuddy's Office—Halloween/Two Weeks after "Gone for the Weekend"]

Cuddy sat at her desk, sifting through the latest departmental reports. With the end of the year annual review for PPTH coming up, her head ached from the details and stats. How much easier can I make it? She almost slammed the pile of poorly prepped reports on her desk and groaned.

Needing a break from that mess, she glanced over the day's mail. As if by design, a blue envelope with an "Orchard Cove, Michigan" postmark sat on the top. "As if I need this?" She opened it to find an invitation to her thirtieth high school class reunion in December. Who the Hell schedules one of these things in December? She rolled her eyes at the thought of being back there (and with that group of classmates) at that time of the year before pushing the invite off to the side and going back to work.

At that moment, House barged into the office with a terse glare on his face. Under his free arm, he carried a large manila envelope. Seeing her consternation, he straightened up and assessed, "WHOA! Looks like the Clinic went belly up!"

"You wish, House," she scoffed while rubbing her forehead to deal with the headache there. "Speaking of which, don't you have some hours? Like oh….RIGHT NOW?"

"Priorities. My boss really wants this report done. You know her—evil queen of numbers. All that and more. Hey. Guy's gotta have priorities," he retorted.

She frowned, knowing full well that any lecture on the Clinic would be a waste of time. "At least tell me that you've got one of your staff covering?"

He tilted his head back and considered her with the wide eyed blank stare. "Gee, well…Cameron and I were debating how long the whiners could be deprived before they start screaming for their mommies." Then he slapped the envelope on the desk in front of her.

"It's actually on time?" she asked incredulously.

"Hey, a bet's a bet, Cuddy," he retorted sharply. "Don't rub it in."

She chuckled, recalling their trip north to Lake Champlain a couple of weeks earlier. After enduring a dry weekend on the fishing front, she scraped out a 2-1 victory over him in their 'friendly' fishing duel. While she had been tempted to make him do extra Clinic duty for a month, she had commuted the 'sentence' to having the report done early. (Of course, she had anticipated him not doing that.) She opened the envelope to find seven stapled pages. While some of the sections were done haphazardly, they were done and in order at least. He's ahead of most of the others at this point.

While she read over his work, he glanced over her desk and grabbed the envelope. "Orchard Cove, huh?"

"HOUSE! PUT THAT BACK!"

He pointedly ignored her while recalling it was the name of her home town. "Let's see—Mommy Cuddy's not there anymore. That means it must be something juicy! Maybe a cleavage defining clinic? Or something even more juicy?"

"Stop it!" she hissed while scowling and coming out from behind her desk.

"Judging from how pissed you are, it's either something really bad or really embarrassing. What's it worth to you?" he supposed.

Her eyes narrowed to slits before sparking dark fire into his orbs.

"And now the hyena look. Yeah, this is going to be good!" he continued while reading the card. "You are cordially invited to your thirtieth class reunion." He looked at her. "You're scared of them, aren't you?"

"Laugh it up, House," she muttered; the smoke spewing out of her ears.

"Hey, Cuddy, you know that most of the people at these things are wannabes. They all dream of being big corporate hotshot pains. You're an actual administrative pain in the ass," he sassed her.

If anyone had said that to her, she'd have smacked him or her. However, she knew that was a House-type compliment. She looked at him sarcastically. "Gee, House, it's nice to know I merit so high a grade on your scale."

"Yeah well…guy's gotta have some challenges. Not to mention that ass and the cleavage…damn!" he noted, still trying to get her goat and compliment her simultaneously. "You are going of course?"

She snorted at him. "As if I would want to be back on the damn UP in late December? You know what it's like up there at that point!" Then she smirked. "Unless….."

He knew that look and winced. "No way!"

"Oh come on, House! What happened to the whole 'you're bigger than they are' thing?" She grinned. "Tell you what. You go with me and I'll let you out of Clinic duty for a month."

"EEHHHT!" he replied. "Thanks for playing but no!"

She rolled her eyes. "All right, House, what's it going to take? No, I am not going to let you out of Clinic Duty for an entire year."

"Damn!" He snapped his fingers.

She shrugged. "How about a rematch? Think you might want to do some ice fishing? Just the two of us alone….in the ice shack?" She smiled suggestively at him. "I might need somebody to…warm up with."

"No Chase or Cameron this time, Cuddy," he insisted.

"Hey, that wasn't my idea!" she countered. "He brought her up there by chance! Anything else?"

"What do you think?" he queried, getting just as suggestive as she was. Using his cane, he shut the door and setting the lock at the same time.

Knowing that the assistant was gone for the afternoon, she closed her blinds and smiled evilly at him while unbuttoning her blouse and slipping off her shoes. Since they hadn't been together since the trip, she definitely wanted some attention. "Fine. You asked for it." She walked over to him purposefully and kissed him.

While she did so, he unhooked her bra and tossed that aside.

In turn, her hands undid his pants' buttons. Then she pushed him down on the couch.

"Cool!" he exclaimed.

She lowered herself down on top of him. "Shut up, House." Then she kissed him again before they started into the main event…..