House's Heart

Summary: Post Wilson's heart. House and Wilson haven't spoken in weeks and due to certain circumstances, Cuddy's niece has to stay in House's office for a week. House soon discovers something rather unusual about the girl and a friendship develops based on the common understanding of not being understood.

Pairings: HouseOC friendship, maybe Huddy later on. I'm not sure yet.

Disclaimer: I do not own House M.D. or any of it's characters, I only own the story line and the characters I have created myself.

Author's note: This story has been sitting in my head for years now and finally I've decided to write it down. There are still a few kinks I need to work out in the later plot but I wanted to at least get the first chapter out there. I'll try to update it as soon as possible, hopefully once a week, and intend to finish it before the end of this summer, or before season five starts. This is my first fan fiction by the way, or, first that I've actually written down. Reviews and constructive criticism are much appreciated! Enjoy!

Chapter 1

House awoke to the insufferable buzzing of his alarm clock. 9:19 the clock read, and he hit the snooze button. He had experienced the strangest dream last night and gave himself a moment to recall it. It was extremely vivid, there was a colossal room. It felt like a cavern it was so big, so dark, and yet he could see everything only to realize that there was nothing. He was sitting, no, standing in the middle of it. He didn't have his cane, he didn't need it. There was no pain there, it was strange. The whole place was strange and yet in the middle of everything it felt so... familiar. He pictured to room again, the nothing, the no one. He was alone. He was always alone.

He rolled over and rubbed his leg, lately he had been more alone than usual. Wilson had not spoken to him in the weeks following Amber's death, he had been unusually quiet towards everyone but House he refused to talk to. House himself tried to apologize to him for what had happened, knowing he has partially responsible and hating himself for it. He was never good at anything of that nature, and hardly ever felt the need to apologize to most people. He felt it was worth a try, but Wilson wouldn't hear it. "Leave me alone," he said. Alone.

House rubbed his leg again and suddenly wished he was back in his dream. At least there was no pain there. He reached for the bottle of Vicodin on his nightstand and took one. He then grabbed his cane and limped off to face another day. He didn't feel much like breakfast this morning, and figured he would just snag something off of... not anymore, he reminded himself and quickly pushed the thought from his mind, and decided to distract himself with getting dressed. He reached into his closet and pulled out the first few things he could get his hands on, which happened to be a white Queen shirt and a black suit jacket. He decided a longer sleeve shirt underneath might be a little too warm for today's weather, given that it was the second week of June. He then picked a pair of jeans up off his floor, tossed them on and left for work, not wanting to spend too much time deciding what he would wear that day.

HHHHHHHH

Cuddy stood in the lobby, anxiously clicking her pen. She couldn't believe she was asking him this, that she actually ran this low on resources. She wondered why this week, of all weeks had to be the one she took Alice. How was she even going to start this off? "Hi House, you see, my sister-in-law travels a lot for her job and-" No. Too much explaining. He'd lose interest before she could even finish. A more blunt approach would do better, she thought.

Cuddy sighed, trying to get a grip, and watched the entrance doors. She wished there was another option but the girl just couldn't sit alone in her house all day, she needed a little human contact at least once in a while.

Suddenly she saw him. "Oh God," She thought to herself. She really didn't want to have to do this, but she really had no choice. She took a deep breath, set the pen down on the counter and power-walked her way over to him. "House," she called to get his attention.

He kept walking.

"House!" she called, louder this time. There was no way he couldn't have heard her. She was pretty close now.

House kept walking.

She gave a huff, rolling her eyes. "House," she said, standing next to him now.

"Not interested." he said, and kept going. She followed along side him.

"House this is important, it's not about a patient I-"

"Not interested" he said again, as if to make himself clearer.

This was no use, she'd have to be blunt. Cuddy stopped in front of him now, "I need you to let my niece stay in your office."

He gave her the strangest look. The bluntness had worked, at least he'd stopped. "What?" he asked, looking at her as if she'd just spoken some alien tongue.

"You don't have to watch her, she's fifteen. Just let her stay in your office, she'll probably end up wandering off anyway I just need to give her a place she knows she can be."

He still looked confused. "Yes, but why does she have to come here?" he asked, trying to make sense of this. "Can't she just sit at home in front of the TV all day on Myspace like any other teenager? Unless someone forgot to tell me about 'bring your daughter to work day' again. Of course that wouldn't even apply to you seeing that you have none, but even I didn't think you'd resort to kidnapping."

She rolled her eyes. "Just listen," she said, and took a deep breath, "My sister-in-law travels a lot for work, usually it's just for a few days but this time it's for a week and she asked if I could give Alice a place to stay. Usually she's fine on her own but it's for a week and-"

"Doesn't she have a dad? You see, most families-"

"They're divorced, he lives in Michigan."

"Then send her to Michigan."

Cuddy shook her head, he was so impossible. "House, I already said I'd let her stay with me, and she can't just sit alone in my house all day. I told her mom I'd let her come in with me, get out of the house, have some human contact for crying out loud."

He sighed, rolling his eyes. "And why can't she stay in your office?"

"Because there's a health inspector coming this week, a board meeting on Wednesday, and if you hadn't pulled that stunt with Mrs. Jones I would have one less angry patient of yours storming in and out of my office, not that one less would really even make that big of a difference, but the point is, there is way too much traffic in my office for her to be there. Any other week would have been better, I just wasn't anticipating all of this." she paused to breathe, "Honestly, do you think I just want to come and ask you for this?"

He studied her, thinking. She was out of breath from explaining. "What's in it for me?" he asked.

"One week off clinic duty," she said, surprised he was even considering. She knew he'd push it further but she had to start somewhere.

"A week?" he asked. That was it? "Three weeks."

"House," Cuddy sighed, three weeks? He had to be kidding. Realistically though she should have expected a month. She had no choice but to take his deal. As much as she hated to admit it, she was desperate, and he knew it. "Fine, three weeks." she said, giving him a look. "I'll go get her." she turned and headed for her office.

"Wait, she's here already?" He turned around, sounding genuinely surprised for once, though it wasn't a pleasant surprise.

"Yeah, the health inspector doesn't come for another hour. She's in my office." Cuddy kept walking, House followed.

"Then keep her another hour."

"Oh no, I just gave you three weeks off clinic duty. She's yours now," she said, and kept walking.

Authors Note: Ok, so I probably could have gone on a bit more but it looked like a pretty good place to end the chapter. I promise I'll update soon! Read and review please!