Title: Vantage Point
Summary: He still hasn't come to see her. She realises it's because he doesn't want to. Season 4.
Characters: Stacey, Cuddy, Wilson & House
Pairing: House/Cuddy & House/Stacey
Rating: PG-13

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Stacey had never liked watching them talk. When they'd been younger and she'd been with House, she'd hear him on the phone, or talking to Wilson about her; she wasn't the jealous type – didn't even know if there was reason for her to be jealous – but it was there, lingering in the back of her mind. Later, when he'd been in pain and there was nothing she could do for him, he would pick up the phone and call her and ask her for help. Then he'd had his infarction, and he'd been taken to her, and Stacey had finally been able to put a face to the name.

Cuddy was not what Stacey had expected; she wasn't a blond bimbo, she wasn't someone who put up with House's crap. She found then that she'd have preferred if Lise had been all of those.

She remembered, in the hospital, the way they tried to pretend they didn't know one another. She remembered the lingering stares, the quiet head nods, the time she'd stumbled upon Cuddy standing over his bed, her hand grasped in his as he simultaneously thanked her and blamed her, hated her and respected her. She remembered slipping out before either of them had seen her.

When Mark was ill, it was Cuddy who convinced House to help him. It wasn't Wilson, like she'd thought, and she found that thought grated all along her nerves and unsettled her. She had no right – she was married, she'd left him. Cuddy and House were just Cuddy and House – Wilson had scoffed at the idea that they were more when she'd not-so-subtly asked him about it when she'd taken the job at the hospital.

A small part of her had wanted to hurt Cuddy; it was why she went to someone she barely knew about her problems with Greg, about wanting to leave Mark, about their one night stand. But Lisa had taken it all in her stride, never flinching, never trying to convince her one way or the other and it was then that she realised maybe Wilson was right. Watching Cuddy and House, the earlier ease of their relationship was evidently absent and she wondered if House had let his resentment for what Cuddy had done to his leg fester into resentment for Cuddy herself. Their teasing banter was particularly vicious, his stunts more and more extravagant and Lisa had told her that it was just so he could spend time with the hospitals' new lawyer.

And Stacey knew she was right. House was – and always had been – the bane of her life. He sought her out, appeared at her House, seduced her, made her want him then sent her away and made her keep loving him despite it all.

It had taken her two years to come back - two years to feel in control enough to return to Princeton-Plainsboro and handle House after his last stunt.

She wondered if Wilson or Cuddy had told House she was coming – a forewarning, something. But when she went three days without seeing him trailing behind her, without hearing his voice, she was both saddened and relieved to realise they hadn't. Because if they had, she was sure she'd have heard from him already.

So when she is sitting in Lisa's office, chatting over a cup of coffee, she is surprised when the door of the office bursts open and House saunters in, glances at her and greets her with a quick, quiet;

"Stacey."

She has no right to be, but she's saddened all the same. His eyes don't linger over her beyond the point of a quick once over and he turns back to Cuddy, whose head is downturned, her eyes glancing up at House through her lashes.

"Greg."

He nods and hovers just at the door, tapping his cane on the floor, clearly distracted and Stacey feels a small tug of joy in her chest at his awkwardness.

"House?" Greg looks up at Lisa's call, his eyes blinking back into focus and Stacey notices that he is leaning heavily on his cane, his skin wrinkled around his eyes. "Did you want something?"

Stacey can clearly hear the trepidation in Lisa's words, something akin to an apology and – something else she doesn't want to decipher. She watches as Greg purses his lips, glances back to Stacey and shakes his head.

"It can wait."

He pivots and is gone as quickly as he arrived. Stacey waits a moment, watching the doorway half expecting to see dust fly up from the carpet at the haste of his retreat. She feels a coy smile on her lips but she quickly hides it as she turns back to Lisa.

"Sorry about that."

Stacey shrugs and takes a sip from her cup.

"He was bound to find out sooner or later."

Lisa frowns and quirks her head.

"What do you mean?"

"That I was here," Stacey clarifies, shrugging again, trying not to turn around to look out at the clinic where she can imagine Greg is trying vainly to find a remotely interesting case. When she turns back to Lisa, she can see the startled frown on the other woman's face and she mirrors it. "What?"

"I told him you were coming the day before you arrived." Cuddy paused. "He knew you were here."

Stacey feels a pang, something almost like hurt, at that.

She hides it behind a quiet 'oh' and a sip of coffee.

When Lisa excuses herself for a moment, Stacey turns back to the clinic and spots Greg's lanky frame at the nurses' station, chatting to Wilson, smirking at something the other man says before limping away, folder in hand. He doesn't even glance in her direction.

--

Later, she watches him hover at the admittance desk in front of the doors from the balcony around the main entrance. She'd gone to his office only to be told by someone – Thirteen, she thinks – that he'd already left. Ten minutes before. Stacey has been watching him from her vantage point for another ten minutes, meaning that he's been hovering at the exit for almost half an hour.

She wonders if he's waiting on her but figures he's more likely to be waiting on Wilson.

But then Lisa leaves her office, making her way towards him and she can see the faintest essence of a smile on his face as he watches the Dean of Medicine walk towards him. They talk for a few moments and Stacey waits for them to part, for Lisa to keep walking.

So she's surprised when House falls into step beside her, adjusting his bag higher up his shoulder and drifts closer to her side, their arms brushing as they walk in tandem, side by side to Lisa's car.

Stacey stays there for long minutes after they leave, wondering if she should drop in on Lisa at home – just to see. And the masochistic side of her brain really wants her to do it.

But the part of her that is still in love with him – even after all this time, after everything he's done to her – tells her it's best to leave well alone.

When she's driving to the airport the next day, Greg still hasn't come to see her.

And she knows it's because he doesn't want to.

As she checks her bag in, watching the board before her flutter as the times change as flights land and depart, she mulls over it all, thinks back on all the years they've known one another – all the bickering, taunting, teasing.

Greg had loved her all along.

She's sure she should be feeling something dull, something achy.

But as her flight departs and she says goodbye to Princeton-Plainsboro, a part of her feels strangely relieved.