Thanks for the reading, here's the next installment. Reviews equal love!:)
Three days later, Cuddy sat in her office alone. Of course she had yet another phone call from yet another self-important donor who thought Cuddy had nothing better to do than grovels for their money.
"Mrs. Pulley, I understand you want to make sure your money is going to good use, and I promise that with your generous donation our Oncology Department will make immense strides towards improvement. Yes. Uh-huh." She rolled her eyes at the old woman on the other end of the line but kept her voice as normal as ever.
The doors to her office both swung open dramatically, with House at the center and his arms spread. Couldn't the man ever make a quiet entrance?
"Excuse me, Mrs. Pulley, can I call you back? Yes, I have some sort of an annoyance to deal with. I do understand the importance of what you're trying to do. Mrs. Pulley. Okay. Okay. Bye for now." She hung up with a sigh.
"House, are you aware you have the worst timing ever? Because I am painfully aware."
"Actually I think I was just in the nick of time. It sounded like that donor was really hounding you. I was helping." He stressed, with a face of mock innocence.
"Right. Well if she pulls her donation because she thinks I don't care about the money, you have extra clinic hours."
"Well that's not fair, now is it?" He gave her a small smirk, almost unrecognizable if Cuddy didn't know his face better than she knew her own.
"Really, what do you want?" She leaned back in her chair, looking at him. House hooked his cane on his wrist and poured two vicodin into his palm before knocking them back. He took two hitched steps forward and looked right at her, being serious.
"You've been avoiding me." He said, looking Cuddy straight in the eye.
"I have not, I've been busy, working. You should try sometime, it'll do wonders for you." She didn't look him in the eye as she shifted paperwork around on her desk. She didn't want to look at him and melt under his gaze. She didn't want to have to pretend she wasn't affected by the glare and put on her boss face and give out orders.
She wanted to just be Cuddy but she couldn't be that if she wanted. Because he was her best employee. It's more than that and you know it. She pushed her thoughts to the back of her mind. You don't want to get hurt.
Cuddy thought about a relationship with House that night after they flirted in the hallway. Cuddy knew what she wanted in a man, and part of that was she wanted a man who was willing to stay with her long-term. She had no illusions about her age. She knew she had a much more limited amount of time to find a husband and she knew her window for a child was gone.
And she understood how House was. She got involved with House in college and that ended with him viewing her as another notch on his bedpost.
He walked right up to her desk and put each of his hands flat on either side. Cuddy lifted her idle glare up grudgingly as she met his eyes. They stared at each other for what seemed like forever. The silence felt like daggers.
"I thought things were going good between us, Cuddy. Avoidance is my specialty, not yours." House stated. Cuddy uncrossed and re-crossed her legs.
"I know, and they were, it's just-" She sighed. She couldn't even finish her own sentence. "I wanted to do this, I did."
"Then why can't you?" He was frustrated, she understood. She was caught between her heart and brain, as cliché as it sounded. She wanted House more than she would care to admit, but she wasn't sure she was ready for this.
"Because, I'll get hurt one way or another. You'll hurt me." She blurted out before she thought about it.
"Is that what you think about me?" He growled.
"No, House, I don't, it's just what we do. That's us, we hurt each other. You can't blame me for wanting to prevent a train wreck."
"I can blame you for not wanting to try." He muttered as he stood up straight.
"House, I-" She started.
"No, Cuddy. I actually wanted this to go somewhere. I came to ask you if you wanted to come to my house for a drink tonight. I tried, looks like I learned my lesson. Won't make that mistake twice." He said as he turned around and walked out of her office.
Cuddy put her face in her hands. I've got a knack for screwing things up, obviously. She jumped at the sound of her phone ringing. She sighed and let it ring for a moment before deciding she had to get it.
"Lisa Cuddy." She answered. "Oh, Mrs. Pulley. Yes, I took care of it. I am terribly sorry for the interruption."
Tell me what you think! Was it in character, did you feel something was out of place, I'm open to any criticism. Please!
