Title: Pour Some Sugar on Me
Disclaimer: Trust me, if I owned House my bank balance wouldn't depress me.
Rating: T
Description: Cuddy is in an accident and gets amnesia, forgetting roughly twenty years. Huddy.
Decided i'd make my own 80s-ish fic - and because i raid my mums Cd collection on a regular basis:
Love is like a bomb, baby, c'mon get it on
Livin' like a lover with a radar phone
Lookin' like a tramp, like a video vamp
Demolition woman, can I be your man?
Pour Some Sugar on Me – Def Leppard
-
Cursing under her breath, Cuddy switched her cell phone to speaker and pushed her foot on the excellerator a bit harder. Seventy eight in a seventy zone wasn't that bad."Dr. Cuddy"
"Hey, Cuddy. Where are you? Miller just got here and he looks pissed."
She let out a suffering breath as she switched lanes with little warning, thankful the driver behind her had decent brakes.
"Miller always looks pissed! Can you keep him busy? I'm about eight minutes out. Sorry, my babysitter was a little late and..."
Wilson laughed over the phone "Don't worry, you're not even due in for another twenty minutes and Miller's appointment isn't for another thirty."
She ran an aggravated hand through her hair as the traffic lights flashed to red and she had to break hard, she ignored the horn blast from behind her. She would have had trouble going through that without getting flashed, let alone the car following her. "Miller's always annoying early, if he didn't donate so much money each year I'd kill him, and you know I could get away with it..." the light changed to green and she took off quickly.
She barely heard the chuckle on the other end of the phone as a car screeching through the red light to her right appeared in her peripheral vision. She slammed her foot down, preventing the red Nissan from slamming into her door; instead, the cars impact on the back half of her Lexus had enough force to spin her car around and into the side of the Nissan. Her head was thrown into the driver's window, skull cracking on impact as her world suddenly faded to nothing.
----------------Princeton Plainsboro
Gregory House limped into Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital a full hour earlier then he considered 'on time'. He ignored the surprised looks several of the nurses gave him as he swaggered past, as well as any man with only one good leg could do. Wilson had called him a good two and a half hours earlier telling him he had to get to the hospital, where House had promptly hung up before he could explain why it was so dire for him to be anywhere at six forty am. Unless free strippers and a hell of a lot of jello had miraculously appeared in the clinic overnight (which he doubted since were that to happen he was pretty sure he would have inexplicably known there were strippers and jello) he did not need to be anywhere near the hospital! Even so, he had arrived an hour early. The eleven missed calls from Wilson had pretty much piqued his interest, not that he'd bothered picking up. He wasn't that interested!
Stepping into the elevator, he gave a decent glare at the two med students who attempted to enter the lift with him complete with lowering of the eyebrows. A satisfied smirk appeared on his face as the doors closed sharply without any added occupants. Today was a good day.
He'd barely stepped out onto the fourth floor when a familiar freakishly high pitched for a man's voice reached his poor eardrums. Maybe not such a good day.
"HOUSE! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!" Oncologist-wonder complete with bushy eyebrows came scooting in his direction, what House assumed was anger added to his half run in his direction. In all honesty, it really just made Wilson waddel side to side like a duck. "With your mum. In your house. On your bed. She said to say hi!"
Wilson's typical eye roll, grudging acceptance and indulgence of whatever came out of House's mouth seemed not to be in play today as Wilson finally stopped in front of him, what House had mistaken for anger could easily be seen now as worry. He frowned.
"What? They discovered the cure for cancer and you're out of a job?"
With a shake of his head Wilson quickly spurted out, "Its Cuddy, she was in an accident."
Honestly, Wilson had no idea how House would react to the news. House and Cuddy were close, not in the typical come over on a Friday night and watch corny movies over pizza tight but they had there own thing. Either House was going to laugh his head off (doubtful), break out in tears (even more doubtful) or he was going to spontaneously combust. Scarily enough the third option seemed the most likely, he never would understand those two.
House froze, every muscle in his body tightening and straining as his mind whirled around the prospect of Cuddy being hurt. He was convinced when some idiot eventually let off a few dozen nuclear warheads the cockroaches would survive and so would Lisa Cuddy. "W..where?" was that his voice?
"Next floor up, room 224" Wilson had barely finished his sentence before House had spun on his heal ignoring the sharp protest from his leg and limped back into the elevator. Jabbing the fifth floor button several times because the more you press it the faster the damn thing had better well go!
Wilson ducked in just before the doors closed and stood in the awkward silence of the elevator. He could feel strange electrics radiating off House. He was still as a statue and yet Wilson could feel the adrenaline lying just under House's skin. Vibrating and pulsating to escape its confines of the human body.
"Injuries!" barked House as the elevator came to a halt with a ding and he hobbled through before the doors before they had a chance to fully open.
"Uh, fractured Ulna and bruising across her right ribs but no break. Head trauma, but House you need to know something..." Wilson trailed off as House flung the door to room 224 open. Stopping abruptly, he barely stepped into the room.
Chase, Cameron and Foreman all stood inside the room. They looked up startled as he burst into the room, but he paid them no heed as icy blues zeroed on the woman sitting against the headboard of the bed with sheets pulled up and over crossed legs. He expected a glare, a tongue lashing at not being here when she was bought in battered, bruised, and bleeding. He would have accepted that, hell, he would welcome it – it's not like he didn't deserve every second of it. What he didn't expect was for her to crack a smile, a huge one that showed all her teeth and didn't hide any guilt or flash of pain behind its sunny exterior.
"Gregorus!" her smile faltered slightly, "what happened to your leg?"
Wilson stepped up behind him and gripped his shoulder, "She has amnesia."
"Huh?" That was all he could get out. That was all his smart witted, sarcastic – brilliant mind could come up with! He swallowed, blinked and then blinked again. Cocking his head to the side as Cuddy looked at him as if he was nuts. Well in all honesty, he probably did look a little nuts standing in the doorway with a blank expression on his face, knuckles turning white from his grip on his cane. Huh indeed.
Cameron stepped into his line of sight and he carefully ripped his eyes away from Cuddy and towards Cameron. "She has no other prominent injuries and we haven't figured out exactly how far the memory loss goes back. She remembers you, but none of us."
Nodding, he pulled his lips together a few times before moving out of the way of the doorway. "Ok, everyone out."
Foreman opened his mouth as if to say something but House cut him off quickly "I'm going to determine how far back the memory loss goes now, vamoose!" A few eye rolls and shuffling of feet and he was alone in the room with Cuddy. Taking a deep breath, he turned back to her and looked her dead in the eye. "If you're faking this to get out of work I am going to find out and you will pay."
She blinked up at him before that grin appeared on her face again.
"Stop smiling!"
Her head cocked to one side and her grin turned into a smirk. He frowned, that's right Cuddy from years ago would pretty much do the opposite of what he told her to do. Ok, so not a lot had changed, but she lived under the rules of employee – employer now. "What do you last remember?"
"Studying for exams," came her quick reply, he felt her gaze shift over him and ignored the urge to squirm. She was studying him like it was the first time she'd seen him or like they hadn't seen each other for ten years. Well he supposed she hadn't seen him at this age before...that she could remember. If what he was guessing was her last memory – then she would remember a tall, thin arrogant male with more hair then he had now and a few more muscles. He ran a hand through his hair and had the odd though of wishing he had brushing it this morning. Shacking that off him asked, "Year?"
"1989" Bingo! She had reverted back to Michigan Undergrad Lisa Cuddy, he did a quick calculation in his head which meant she thought she was...eighteen again. He almost slapped a hand to his forehead; he barely survived Cuddy at eighteen the first time.
"I'm guessing by that look on your face it's no where near 1989?"
"Nope, it is now the year 3056 – we have flying cars and are ruled over by giant monkeys or is it apes. I forget which one's politically correct." Well really, did she honestly expect him to actually change.
She rolled her eyes. Evidently, she hadn't expected him to change, a smile crept to his face at the thought before it was sent back to wherever it came from. "It's 2009" he said simply.
Her eyes widened "Twenty years. Twenty years!"
"Saying it repeatedly isn't going to change the fact that you've aged rather horribly I might add for twenty years. Really let that ass expand."
Throwing him a dirty look, she kicked the covers back and entered the bathroom. He heard silence for a few seconds, and was about to hobble over to see if she was checking to see if water still came out of the taps when her voice came out. "When did I start straightening my hair?"
Ah! The mirror! "Last year-ish" he replied absently sitting down on the vacated bed and leaned against the headboard as he mulled over what he was going to do about this. "Why?" He rolled his eyes, "I don't know! Do I look like a girl? Go ask Wilson."
She remerged again, "The doctor with the large eyebrows?" He smirked, "Got it in one."
She lent on the doorframe and frowned at him, "So what do I do?"
He frowned. "Hang around and shriek at me like a hyena?"
Letting out an exasperated breath, she took a seat on the bed by his feet. "No, I mean my job? My life? I'm assuming I work at this hospital seeing as the staff seems to know me."
A particularly evil glint appeared in his eye, "You're a nurse."
"WHAT!" she practically shrieked at him. "What happened to med school? I didn't get in?"
Shaking his head and forcing a bleak expression on his face he said, "You failed you're exams, decided you still wanted to be in the medical profession – albeit sub par and I took pity on you and gave you a job here" He gave a non – committal shrug. She was going to kill him when she remembered everything. If she remembers, a voice chimed in, but he ignored it.
Shock would be an understatement at the look on her face. He had to struggle to stop from bursting out laughing. Wilson chose that moment to walk in and he took one look at Cuddy's horror stricken face and turned a pointed stare at House, "What did you tell her?"
"I...failed med school?" It was a string of words spoken in disbelief, quickly and without several emotions seeping into her voice - as if she was trying to wrap her mind around the idea, but Wilson chimed in quickly. "Cuddy, no! You passed – excelled! Second in your class; youngest female Dean – ever!"
House pulled a face at Wilson; he always ruined all the fun. The sudden force of a fist landing on his calf made him wince and match glares with Cuddy. "Don't you dare tell me that ever again!" Turning away from him angrily she pushed off the bed and started pacing the room. "Wait, Dean? As in Dean of Medicine?"
Wilson smiled. "Yeah"
"So I'm not a Doctor?" Wilson nodded in response, she nodded back absently. House was suddenly struck by how young she looked. Her features had lost the tension her job seemed to demand of her and her movements were not that of someone who had thirty-eight years under there belt. He frowned.
"House?" He looked towards Wilson. "Can I talk to you for a second? Outside."
Standing up House cast a look at Cuddy, standing with her arms folded across her chest and turned away quickly. They stepped into the hall and Wilson closed the door behind him. "Gregorus?" his eyebrows lifted.
"Shut up!"
Tbc?
Assuming Cuddy's 38 (from before) and that Michigan was longer then three seconds. Writers of House! Can ya stop playing with the timeline and come up with a set plan. Sure, Michigan can be first...but three weeks at MU (max) ?!?!?! Bah!