Title: Stragglers Moon

Rating: K+

Part: 1/?

Pairing: Huddy

Words: 945

Genre: Drama / Romance / Angst / Humour… bit of everything really!

Other: This is the first time I've written anything House that isn't a one parter so please let me know what you think. Also massive thank you to everyone that has replied to my previous two stories. Love you guys! XD

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Chapter One - Back Down To Earth

House opened his eyes and was surprised to find himself staring at the sky. He blinked a couple of times to confirm the fact that he wasn't imagining it. No, when he opened his eyes again he was still laying in what appeared to be a patch of grass looking up at a dark blue sunless sky. It was apparently early evening.

The last thing he remembered was being on a plane and dozing off after a glass of wine and a few vicodin. After using his hands to push himself up House took another look at where he was. He may have been sitting on grass but to the left of him there was nothing but sand, and eventually sea. He was on a beach? House could feel that there was something sticky on the right hand side of his forehead and put his hand up to see what it was. It stung as his hands met it and he swiftly brought his arm back down. Blood? He licked the deep red substance that was now on his fingertips. It definitely tasted like blood.

Pulling himself to his feet House tried to ignore the pain in his right leg. Something had obviously happened on the plane, but what he had no idea. He needed to find Cuddy. Not sure what direction to go in House glanced around for any clue that would indicate where the rest of the people on the plane were. Noticing there were what looked vaguely like faded footprints to his left House began following them. Roughly half a mile later he was on the verge of giving up and sitting down when he saw what looked like a small child curled up on the edge of the beach. Groaning, House continued towards them slightly irritated by his bad luck. Of all the people to see first it just had to be a child who was no doubt whining for it's mother. Well he wasn't going to sit there comforting it, he would just find out where everyone else was and then go and find them. Only as House got closer he realised that it wasn't a child. Once he was no more than a few feet away he called out, half in shock at discovering who was actually curled up on the beach. "Cuddy."

Cuddy looked up at him and House immediately noticed her tearstained face. "House where have you been? I thought you were…" Cuddy's second sentence broke off and she jumped up flinging her arms around him, a look of relief spread across her face.

"You thought I was what?" Was all House managed, wanting her to stop hugging him but not daring to say anything incase she began crying again. Why was she looking at him like that?

Cuddy stared at House for a moment. Had he not realised yet? She let her arms drop and took at step back from him. "House I thought you were dead. I thought you had died when the plane crashed like everyone else."

"Everyone else?"

"Yes everyone else" Cuddy repeated. She had seen the bodies spread across the sand back where the plane had crashed, and it was not an image that she was likely to forget any time soon.

"But that isn't possible. I saw footsteps, I followed them, I…" House took a look over his shoulder at the "footsteps" he had followed. There was nothing there. No, that couldn't be right. He walked back to where he had come from; nothing. He had imagined it, the fact he had run into Cuddy was nothing more than luck. He turned back and walked towards her again. "It's just us?" By now House already knew what the answer would be, he just wasn't ready to accept it yet.

Cuddy nodded "just us."

"You sure?"

"Very, I counted all the bodies to make sure that there was no one wandering around injured; only you were missing." Tears were forming in her eyes again at the thought of all the lives that had been lost; and all in an instant. Then it only took a moment for someone to die, having worked her entire life in a hospital Cuddy should have been used to this by now.

"But how did I end up so far away from the rest of you?" Cuddy's thoughts were interrupted by House, who was trying not to think about all the dead bodies that were piled up somewhere next to the wreckage of the plane. He tried to concentrate instead on how he had come to be separated from the rest of the group.

"You must have been flung out further than we were. It might have had something to do with the fact that you were asleep. As we were going down everyone else was running around and struggling with the emergency exits."

House nodded. He wasn't really sure what else to say at this point, there wasn't really anything else to say. He allowed his body to drop to the floor to take the weight of his right leg, and Cuddy sat down beside him and rested her head gently on his shoulder. It was over an hour before either of them spoke again.