Chapter 1: A Strange Habit
House was mesmerized by the spinning silver mobiles hanging from Cuddy's ears. He had never quite understood why women wore earrings. Watches he understood. They had a purpose: to tell the time. But earrings had no apparent purpose, other than to entertain whatever person happened to be looking at them. All boring women should wear earrings as peculiar as Cuddy's were, he thought. His life would be far more interesting.
"House! You're not listening to a word I'm saying!" Cuddy snapped, pulling House away from his thoughts.
"Does that surprise you?" he snapped back. Cuddy grumbled something before pulling up the sleeve of her sweater to look at her watch. House looked at his own. One thirty.
"Alright," she said pointedly, "I have to go. But I want your ass in the clinic right now."
House watched her swiftly clack her way back to her office. He looked back at his watch again. It was Thursday. He'd noticed that Cuddy had gotten into the habit of going somewhere every Thursday around this time. She was always gone for about two hours and came back looking slightly disheveled. Her hair was a bit messy and her makeup was slightly smudged. He'd asked her where she was going, but she gave him her smug smile that he despised. He'd even tried having Cameron ask where she had gone, but Cuddy wouldn't tell her either. He knew something was up. He just couldn't figure out what.
He was still standing there when Cuddy came back out of her office and to the elevator with a large bag over her shoulder.
"Did I not make myself clear enough?" He realized that he probably looked idiotic, "Get into the clinic. Now!"
He steadily walked over to get into the elevator with her. Cuddy fiddled with her keys until they reached the ground floor. House rounded the corner towards the clinic. He waited only about twenty seconds before turning back around and following Cuddy out into the parking lot.
"Where are you going?" He turned around to see Foreman standing numbly in the doorway. House ignored him and walked ever so discreetly to his car. He didn't need to; it was raining so hard that Cuddy wouldn't have noticed him anyways.