AN: One is I don't own anything. Second is that it is slightly OOC but I feel like it's the character that we don't get to see. C is that it's a one shot, so if you don't like it, you don't have to read it and it won't continue to be updated. And finally, I am really bad at spelling and spell check only does so much, so sorry for any misspelled words.

House/Cuddy

"It takes two baby, it takes two." Cuddy hummed as she walked down the hall.

"It does take two, and I must say, the two twins are doing well this morning."

"Dr. House. Its only 9:25, what are you doing at work so early?"

"My hooker showed up early, tired me out quickly. Then again, three rounds will do that to little House… Well, he's not really little its just a figure of speech. More like House Jr."

"Don't you have patients to terrorize in the clinic? Run along."

"Run? Run? I can hardly walk and you want me to run."

"Good bye House." Cuddy began to walk away but House followed her as usual.

"You were humming. You never hum which means either a brain tumor or something 'struck your fancy' in the last, oh say, 36 hours and has embedded itself in your brain and your brain is reliving the event through the song you are attempting to hum. Since humming is your only symptom, I'm going to say you don't have a brain tumor, and that only leaves the second explanation."

"I could just like the song House."

"And I could be a people person. What happened?"

"I just like the song; it's stuck in my head."

"It's stuck in your head for a reason."

"I had a date, ok? We went to dinner. I had pesto pasta, ceaser salad and bread. We saw the movie Hairspray, he bought me popcorn, he said goodnight and I went home."

"No dessert?"

"What?"

"No dessert, but you're humming."

"Yes House, I'm humming. Now go to work before I tell Cameron you have a thing for her."

"You wouldn't." Cuddy picked up the phone and started dialing what appeared to be the extension to Houses office. He was out the door with in seconds.

Minutes later he stormed into Wilson's office. "Cuddy had a date."

"Ah, good morning House. Meet my patient Heather. Heather, this is Dr. House. He's a good doctor; he's just an ass hole with boundary issues." Heather looked a little dazed and confused.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, enough praise. Cuddy had a date."

"Good bye House. I'll see you later when I have no patients." Wilson said while pushing House out the door.

"But she had a date" came through the door just before the lock clicked over.

"Sorry about that. He won't admit he's in love with her."

House was pacing his office, muttering to himself. "A date. A date with a man. Met him online. He's probably an accountant. A guy who works nine to five, Monday though Friday and NEVER on weekends, and can raise the kids while she's at work. He's an idiot, probably has a lame name like Bob or Fred. The kind of guy who cant stand up know her like-"

"Like you do?" Wilson asked from the corner.

"When did you get here?" House grunted.

"'A lame name like Bob or Fred'. What's wrong with her dating? Maybe she'll find someone who can make her happy." Wilson always was a sucker for 'happiness'.

"She'll never be happy," was Houses dark response.

"Not with out you, you mean? Why don't you just ask her out and get it over with? This foreplay has been going on since college."

"I don't want to ask her out."

"Why not?"

"She'll say no."

"What if she says yes?"

"She won't. She'll say no."

"Ok, Theoretically. Say you ask her out. She says yes. Then what?"

"Theoretically, we go out and then suddenly it's all 'happily ever after'. Reality. Maybe we go out once or twice. Maybe we date and it gets serious. Then I'll be an ass. I'll say something wrong; I'll overdose on vicodin, break some major hospital rule or make her feel horrible about herself. She'll hate me and then either she would move away or I would, and then she would not be in my life at all." House wasn't really looking at Wilson as he finished, he was almost looking through him.

"You haven't thought this much about a woman or a relationship since you told Stacy to go with Mark."

"And look what happened then. Can you imagine what would happened if Cuddy and I broke up?"

"Maybe you should talk to her, a real conversation. Ask her how she's doing. Start somewhere."

"Yeah, and maybe I'll run the Boston Marathon."

"HOUSE! Gregory House! What the hell were you thinking?" Cuddy stormed into houses office with fire in her eyes. "You preformed an exploratory surgery on an unstable patients?"

"And if he had been stable, there would have been nothing to explore," House retorted. The ducklings sank toward the back of the office attempting to go unnoticed.

"You basically preformed an autopsy on a living person."

"And as a result, he is still living."

Cuddy threw her hands in the air. "Stalin was more rational than you."

"Thank you. He always was an idol of mine." Cuddy shook her head and stormed out of the office. House looked back at the team. "Now that that's over, differential people." Everyone was silent. "Don't worry. Mommy and daddy may be fighting but we still need to save this patient"

"It could be lupus."

"Goddamnit."

House was sitting alone in his office. It was late and most of the hospital had gone home, including Wilson and the ducklings. House barley moved when Cuddy walked in. "I heard you solved your case." She stated, although it was more of a question.

"Yeah."

"Well, what was it?"

"Lupus."

"It's never lupus."

"Ah, here is where the exception makes the rule."

Cuddy sat down and stared intently at him. "Are you ok?"

"What is ok?"

"House. You seem off a little. Like you don't care about solving the puzzles any more."

"I showed up, I did the clinic hours, and I did my job. What else do you want from me?"

"I want to know what's going on inside your head. Why did you do your clinic hours so willingly? Why did you give into your case so quickly?"

"There was nothing there, we tested for lupus, it was lupus. Don't you want me to do my clinic hours willingly? Doesn't that make your life easier?"

Cuddy sighed. She didn't have anything to go on, she just felt like something was off inside of him. "How's your leg? Same amount of pain? Same kind of pain?"

"Yeah. No worse, no better."

"You're not laying off the Vicodin are you?"

"No, same amount of Vicodin."

"Well then, what's going on?"

"I just have a lot on my mind, that's all."

"Want to talk about it?"

"No."

"Are you sure, It could help."

"It wont."

"How do you know?"

"Because it's you. You're on my mind, and I cant get you out of it." House stood up as his voice raised and he turned away from Cuddy to look out the window. "I cant do this anymore but there is no other option and I finally hit my limit. I need to figure it out before I 'talk it out' with someone."

"What do you mean I am on your mind? What can't you take anymore of?" Cuddy asked with an air of surprise and concern in her voice.

"I love you but I can't be with you because either you don't love me or I will screw it up and you will leave and not be in my life but I need you in my life. Right now is not working because you are just there. You're in my life, but not really in it. I need more, but I can't risk more. It's like jumping off a cliff while being afraid of heights. I want to do it and I need to do it, I just can't do it. I can't get close enough, with out committing, to see what is on the other side."

"You love me?" Cuddy squeaked out.

"Yeah, I do. I've loved you forever, and I'll continue to love you." House said as he turned around to face her.

Cuddy looked at him for a moment before walking over and giving him a hug. He was frozen for a few moments before his brain was able to return it. Her arms were wrapped tightly around his neck and she was on her tip-toes in order to reach him. His hand came up and began to stroke her hair while his other had securely wrapped itself around her waist. They stayed in the embrace for a while until Cuddy pulled away to look at House. "I love you too. I have loved you since college but there was always something, and then it was just us and it seemed like we made stuff up." She slid her hand along his jaw line while the other entangled its fingers into his hair and pulled him into a kiss. "Come on, let's go to my house. I'll make coffee. We can talk."

"Are you sure? Are you sure you want to do this, take this step? Every thing is going to change."

"Yeah Greg, I'm sure." She turned and walked out of the office and House followed her as usual.

The End.