"No way."
"House, please. Just do this one thing for me and I swear I'll never ask a favor like this again," Wilson pleaded.
"No! Why the hell would I want to spend a weekend in a cabin in the woods with you and your girlfriend?" Wilson was out of his mind.
"Because Cuddy's going?" he tried. He needed House to go on this trip with him so things weren't awkward.
"You told me two weeks ago Cuddy and her boyfriend were going," House countered.
"That's why I need you to come! She and her boyfriend broke up so she'll be the third wheel if she comes with me and Amber alone. Plus you'd get Monday off work. You're the only mutual friend I can think of that she has so will you please, please, please come."
"No."
"I'll do anything in return."
"Anything?" House's interest piqued.
"Yes, anything," Wilson said desperately.
"Fine. We'll come to that later. I'll go."
Wilson's body language relaxed. "Fantastic, I'll go let Cuddy know."
[H] [H] [H] [H]
After work around six o'clock Wilson pulled up to House's apartment in Amber's SUV with Amber in the front passenger seat. He limped out with his cane in one hand and a duffel bag in the other. Wilson hopped out and opened the trunk for House to throw his duffel bag in.
"I don't get shotgun? I'm a cripple," he whined, gesturing with his cane.
"Nope," Wilson said unsympathetically. "We're stopping to pick up Cuddy next so hop in."
House grumbled but got in. It was a brief ride to Cuddy's. She was ready on her porch, a full suitcase packed.
The trip got rolling as soon as Cuddy joined House in the backseat.
"How long should the car ride be?" Cuddy questioned.
"Three hours," Amber replied.
"Wow, I didn't realize it'd be so long," she said.
House hadn't either. Rubbing his leg, he thought about the cramps three hours of sitting could give him. He popped open his Vicodin bottle and swallowed two pills, catching the look Cuddy gave him out of the corner of his eye. It was empathetic. She avoided her gaze to the window.
The first hour of the trip was silent other than chatter between Wilson and Amber and quiet music from the radio. Cuddy was reading a book and that left House to put in his own headphones because Amber's music was terrible.
House watched her for a while as she read. It was dark outside now so she'd switched over to a little book light. Her eyes were drooping, subtly at first, but now her eyes were shut and her head was hanging limply. She had fallen asleep.
House smirked at her. She looked so young, eerily similar to how she was in college as she slept. Lines of stressed had disappeared from her face.
Cuddy shifted slightly, enough to lean over and rest her head on House's shoulder.
At first House stiffened as she unconsciously snuggled up to him, but then he loosened up and rested his arm around her slumbering body. He took the book from her hands, marking the page and turning off the book light.
Amber looked over her shoulder to the back seat and gave House a 'well isn't that cute' look. He reciprocated with a look that clearly said 'shut up.'
And before long, with the scent of Cuddy's hair in his mind, he drifted to sleep.
[H] [H] [H] [H]
"House… Cuddy… hey, wake up," Wilson muttered with a smile on his face. House awoke first, blinking away the fuzziness in his eyes. Cuddy remained out like a light against him.
House rubbed her arm up and down and she aroused. She made eye contact with Wilson in confusion and glanced up at House. Her cheeks turned red in embarrassment.
"And the answer to the question I know you're thinking, yes, we do have photographic evidence," Amber chuckled, waving her phone.
"Oh god," Cuddy laughed and sat up rubbing her eyes.
House chuckled and she sent daggers with her eyes, making it all the more funny for him.
"Let's go check out the cabin, guys." Amber bounded into the cabin.
The cabin was average sized, and on the older side with a nice character. The driveway was narrow and dirt and surrounded by trees, as was the cabin itself.
The interior contained two bedrooms and a living room with a couch, television, and fireplace. Downstairs there were a ping pong table and another couch and outside on the back deck were a hot tub and a grill. There was one bathroom with a tub-shower combo.
"Alright, one bedroom has a queen sized bed and the other has two twins. The couch is also a pullout if one of you…" he trailed off and scratched the back of his neck. "Anyways, Amber and I will take the room with the queen." He left to go put his and his girlfriend's bags into their room.
He made eye contact with Cuddy.
"I'm okay with sharing the room if you are," Cuddy said.
He nodded. "We could even be bunk buddies if you know what I mean." He winked at her.
They took their own bags to the room. House plopped his duffel bag onto the bed on one end of the room and said "I call this one."
"'Kay," she replied and took the remaining bed.
She looked at her phone to check the time. 10pm. "I guess I'm going to climb in bed and the fun begins tomorrow?"
"Cuddy, the fun can begin right now if you like," he said suggestively, raising his eyebrows and eyeing her.
"Right, in your dreams."
"You are correct, I do fantasize about you in my sleep," he replied.
"Oh, I so didn't want to know that," she laughed. "Turn around while I change, will you?"
"Sure." He turned around and waited a good ten seconds before turning ever so slightly and checking her out in his peripheral. Her stomach and legs were exposed and –
"House! Turn around for Pete's sake!"
He smirked and turned around completely, content with what he saw. Grabbing his own bag he pulled out sweatpants and stripped out of his jeans to put them on. Cuddy turned around in a tank top and shorts and he was in his boxers. His scar was covered mostly by them.
"Oh, sorry," she muttered, turning around again. Wow, House was in good shape. She could see his upper body strength demonstrated in his toned arms.
"It doesn't really matter." He pulled the sweatpants on and climbed into bed, remaining shirtless.
"It's freezing in here. Remind me again why we came so early in the spring?" Cuddy exclaimed, shivering in her bed.
"I'll go turn up the thermostat a bit." House ventured to the kitchen where the thermostat was kept and turned it up a few degrees.
"It'll take a while to warm up with this dinosaur heating system," he told Cuddy when he came back to the bedroom.
"Fantastic," she said. She lay back down in her bed and pulled her thin covers over herself. "Are there spare blankets?"
"I think Wilson and Amber took them all into their own bed."
She sighed. "I'll be alright. I should have packed warmer pajamas anyways."
House lay down in his bed and pulled his blankets over himself too. "Good night, Cuddy."
"Good night, House."
It was silent for about ten minutes, till Cuddy started chattering her teeth from shivering.
"Can you keep it down over there?"
"Sorry," she uttered.
Yet her teeth began to chatter again in five minutes, keeping House awake still.
House laid there and listened to it to the point where he couldn't take it any longer.
"You know what?" he said. He climbed out of bed and picked up his blankets and pillow. Carrying them over to Cuddy's bed he plopped them down. "If you're not gonna shut up I'll just have to warm you up myself."
"House, no. I'll be okay."
"I'm not listening to that all night and I'm not moving to the pullout couch, not with my leg. So this is option C."
"House, get back in your own bed."
He positioned his pillow and placed all the blankets on top of Cuddy's body before sliding into the bed himself. It was only a twin size but he made it work by spooning her. Taking his arm and wrapping it around her midriff, he pulled her back against his bare chest. He wriggled a bit and got comfy, his body fitting into all the nooks and crannies of her own. He became Cuddy's personal space heater, his warm skin heating her body. His nose touched the back of her neck and she smiled a little.
"We sure have been snuggling a lot lately, Cuddy," he said sleepily as he closed his eyes. "I told you we'd be bunk buddies."
"Yeah, I guess so. At least I'm warm now."
"'Night."
"'Night," she replied.
Next chapter soon, friends.