TITLE: Erotomania
PAIRING: House/Cuddy
SUMMARY: When Cuddy started getting into the dating scene again, she started receiving strange letters from someone named H. Now its up to her to find out who he is, what she did not realize is that the letters will lead her to a past she cannot even remember.
CUDDY was busy dodging the inevitable encounter with House all morning. Usually, it was her stalking the hallways to find him and ask him about another insane procedure, which was stuck in his head, that she would have to allow in the end. But today was different, today was the reverse-role-playing-game day.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOUSE was ready to admit that Cuddy was really starting to annoy him, and the game of hide and seek was starting to get the best of him. Cuddy has been hiding from him since the wee hours of the morning; Wilson doing the same while he himself tried to avoid an encounter with the new 'suck-up' ducklings.
He made another drastic turn to a corridor. He couldn't wait until he saw Cuddy's face when he would start to humiliate her, and when he saw Wilson at the farthest nurses' station of the geriatrics ward, his eyes sparkled with gleeful self-satisfaction.
"Hey, ASTRO-BOY."
He saw Wilson wince at the sight of him, but he knew better than to start running off from House. The more he runs, the more House will track him down.
"How was last night?" House said, with a sardonic tone.
"I'm---not telling you anything."
House stared at him with his best puppy dog eyes, while Wilson's widened in horror. House turned his gaze to the direction of Wilson's sight and saw Cuddy entering the hall. When their eyes met, Cuddy dropped dead in her tracks. After she recovered from shock, she turned around and started going back.
"Hoi-" House shouted, trying to make her stop, but Cuddy ignored him and used the stairs.
House turned around and looked at Wilson. Wilson just shrugged his shoulders while House threw him daggers with his stare. In the end, though, Wilson would have to rat Cuddy out or he'd suffer much worst that he already has.
House would later on pick up a piece of paper and write a note for Cuddy to read.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CUDDY was getting ready to go home. She picked up her things and put them in her bag, then looked at the wall clock and made a mental note to remember something, when her new assistant entered and said that someone was waiting for her outside her office. She knew who it was instantly and told him to tell the awaiting party that she'd be out in a minute.
She went back to arrange her stuff when a single piece of paper dropped from the pages of her daily planner. While picking it up and unfolding it she felt coldness wrap around her body, goose bumps started to form.
Don't go out tonight.
Don't go with anyone.
Stay here, stay with me.
I love you: 1-4-3.
-H
------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOUSE received a late night phone call from Cuddy that day asking him 'what's his problem'. House pretended he didn't know what she was talking about.
"Stop toying with me, okay?"
"Not okay." House said, while watching Jeopardy.
"What? What's your problem with Joaquin? He's a decent man, he's a beautiful person." Cuddy said on the phone, exasperated.
"He's Spanish."
"And your point?"
"You don't look good together," House said, and then he stuck his tongue out in suppression of a gleeful laughter. "Jo-wakin, looks like a 'no-brainer' when with you."
"His, Joaquin is not pronounced Jo-wa-kin, House. It's Wa-keen, and drop it." She paused and went on. "Fine, Humiliate me all you want but I will not stop dating him. Got it?"
"No, I don't-" He pulled his ear from the phone when Cuddy hung up on him. She must be really mad. Because of a simple note he sent her? Why?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I told you not to go.
You hurt my feelings, you made me sad.
I was alone last night, you know.
After I told you that I love you and don't go out with him, you still did.
Cuddy swallowed, her eyes widened in horror. The letter was written in the very same stationary as yesterday and the very same scent. It's the first thing that she found lying at the top of her office table. Her assistant claimed that she hadn't seen that note when she first entered her office.
She continued reading:
I thought you love me too. Maybe I was wrong but I'll make sure you will.
You will love me, Lisa Cuddy, the same way that I love you
-H
------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOUSE entered Cuddy's office. She was reading a note that had elicited a strange reaction of fear and confusion from her face. When he approached her and sat in front of her, his plan of humiliating her for dating Joaquin last night vanished into thin air.
"What?" He asked her, confused.
"What's this?" She waved the letter in his face.
"A letter. Pretty obvious, actually."
Cuddy sighed, nodded and asked again: "Why are you telling me all these?"
House is beginning to have an idea that he doesn't know what she's talking about but he decided to guess: "To humiliate you?"
"You, telling me in a letter that you love me is just for humiliation? You got to be kidding me." Cuddy said, hurt.
"Wait. That letter? I wrote I love you, in that letter? Are you high?"
Cuddy turned pale, "You weren't the one who wrote this?"
"Hell, no. I love you? No way."
Cuddy crumpled the paper unknowingly in her hands. It was when her computer chimed signaling, that she received an electronic mail. When she opened it, actual fear started to crawl up her body.
House wasn't comfortable with the awkward silence that's been around the two of them. He went up his chair and approached her side of the table facing the computer LCD. Cuddy did not make an attempt to stop him, which was strange in itself.
What he saw made him realize why Cuddy turned pale and obviously frightened.
The letter wrote:
I don't like him.
Stop talking to him.
You can't go out with him either.
You're mine.
I'm watching you.
-H
Note to my lovely beta, Critical Blues: Past tense is good enough for me, XD. Thanks for making the time for me and this story. Remember that I am forever in your debt. I love you for doing this for me. Thank you so much for saving me.