Disclaimer: I own nothing.
"So wise so young, they say, do never live long" --Shakespeare
By the time Cuddy entered college, she was more motivated than anyone else. That is why House annoyed her; it just came to him. He worked half as hard as you and got twice the grades. You stayed up late in the library while he got wasted. It still amazes you that their circles every collided. Each of you spinning in a separate world—work and play—without ever thinking of each other. You had heard of him but not known him.
When you do meet, it is just a brush. By the time you realize who he is he is gone. He's the talk of the campus but you were never one for gossip, too busy. You wish you hadn't been. You were always busy, always somewhere, always trying to reach the next level. If you had just slowed down you would have had the chance to enjoy your time.
So when you are older, and you hire him, college seems to have been a lifetime ago. Everything was different but at least between you two, everything was the same. Except you were in charge and successful. You got more than you could have imagined those late nights studying in the library. But you were missing the same thing you had been missing back then. Despite being surrounding by people all day, you were so very lonely. You had been blinded by your work, and now it was like the dream ended and the fog lifted. This was your life. The certificates on your wall were your accomplishments. And as great and respectable that they were, the people who had awarded them didn't know your favorite color or that you had a pet cat named Lucy when you were a kid. They only saw your work. If you died today, that is what you would be remembered for. You use to think that was what you wanted.
Now though, you wish you had friends and family to remember you for you. Trying to have a baby had been so artificial and desperate. A baby couldn't make up for years of little human contact outside a hospital or office. You couldn't create memories of parties and back-yard barbeques with friends by having a baby. That wouldn't fix things. Those mothers in the maternity ward had so much more than that. To them, a baby was just another step, not a beginning.
But you still hoped, still imagined that something would give and you could put those lonely times behind you. But with each passing day, you feel the bars of the jail that is your office and stacks of paperwork come in on you.
So when House asks you to go bowling, you agree. It wasn't deep and emotional. That was what you had been doing wrong. You wanted totally commitment from dinner and a movie. Things had to be more gradual and with House you had a head start. You already knew his favorite color—blue, like his eyes—and his childhood pet bunny's name—Stew. And you hoped that everything would just fall in place from there, and they will.