Thanks everyone for the amazing feedback for the first chapter! To be honest I didn't think anyone would read this. I'm glad you guys are reading and enjoying it so far!
Enjoy :)
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Cuddy's face was serious for a fraction of a second, but then she laughed in his face. "You seriously think I'm going on a cruise with you? House, I can't stand you five feet in front of me, let alone sleeping in the same room as me. In the same bed probably."
Instead of being insulted, a small smirk crept up onto House's face. "I love it when you get so personal, Cuddy. You're coming with me."
"No, I'm not. I can't take a vacation. I have Rachel at home, this place is a mess, and I have files up to my ears." She sighed. "It's a great offer, House, but I can't. Ask Wilson."
House scoffed. "Oh right, yeah, because it's normal for a dude to go on a cruise with another dude."
"Then sell them. God knows you're always trying to find some way to make money. I'm surprised that wasn't your initial plan."
"Actually…" House stepped closer to the desk, "you were the reason I called."
Cuddy stopped shuffling around. Their eyes met. He laid one of the tickets down in front of her on a messy heap of loose papers. Cuddy just watched it land before her, not making a move.
"It's a luxury liner, Cuddy. That ticket in front of you is worth two grand. Think about it. If you don't want to go, give it to someone who cares. If not, toss it, I don't care. It means the same to me either way if you're not going to be the one using it."
House said that in a non-bullshitting tone, which surprised Cuddy. He was being sincere.
House turned around and walked away.
"Hold it," Cuddy said, stopping him just as his hand touched the door handle. "Why do you want me to go with you so bad? You can't really care that I haven't had a vacation in years, or take pity on the fact that I have a lot of work to do around here. You never cared before."
House turned around, but stayed in that spot. He sighed dramatically. "Okay, Cuddy, you beat it out of me. I want to take you on the cruise because I haven't gotten laid lately and I thought it might be fun to try it with you for once instead of hookers. My Visa card is almost maxed out. Happy now?"
Cuddy looked insulted by that, even though House is House and she shouldn't be surprised by the snide comment in the least.
"Don't lose that ticket or else I'm going to be very, very hurt," he said and left before she could say anything.
Cuddy looked at the ticket in front of her. She picked it up and looked at it more closely. Even the ticket itself was beautiful. It had a picture of the cruise liner on it and said in the most beautiful font—Royal Caribbean, Legend of the Seas. They definitely wouldn't be in a shoebox for a week either. These were balcony tickets, possibly suites, with spacious rooms snatched up for nearly two grand. She would be stupid to miss out on this.
See, if she wasn't going with House, things would be so much better. She'd take this ticket and make plans for Rachel to stay with a sitter in a heartbeat. House made it difficult to choose.
Cuddy had never been on a cruise before. She had never given them much thought either. If she wanted to relax, all she did was sit on the couch, pull up a good book, and sit back with some tea and read until she felt sleepy. It's all she had time for, really.
Just then, the door was knocked on. She picked her head up, snapping herself out of the daydream and motioning for Wilson to enter.
"I see that House gave you the ticket," he said, seeing it in her hands.
"Yeah. Now the big question is—do I stay or do I go?"
"You should go," he said casually. "From what I hear, there's a bed and a couch in the balcony rooms. Make him sleep on the couch."
Cuddy chuckled. "You know that wouldn't work with House. He'd find some excuse to come sleep with me. How do you know about the room anyway?"
Wilson exposed a thick welcome book and slapped it in front of her. "I snuck a peek."
"What is this?" she asked, studying the front cover.
"Some book that House got with the tickets. I guess it tells you about the ship, activities, whatever."
A small smile formed on Cuddy's face. House sent Wilson with a book as a last ditch effort to get her to go. "He just doesn't give up, does he?"
"I think you should consider it. It'll do you good to get away from this place for a week."
"The hospital needs me and a week with House is no vacation." Nonetheless, she opened to the table of contents and scanned it for anything interesting. "Oh, they do have a day spa in here," she said aloud to herself.
"He called for those tickets especially for you, you know."
"Oh, he told you that lie, too?"
"I was with him. I saw him make the call after wondering if you would want to go on a cruise. Well, then he wanted me to take you, but I guess he got over that."
Cuddy looked up from the book. "He wanted you to take me?"
Wilson shrugged. "He had to have said it half a dozen times, but that's just him evading what he really wanted."
"What he really wants is to get me into the sack," she said flatly. "No surprise there."
Wilson shook his head. "No, I don't think so."
"Wilson, going on this trip with House is like taking Rachel along. All I'll be doing is constantly babysitting him and putting up with his whining about seasickness or whatever random complaint he throws at me. It's like being here, only I'm a thousand miles away in a new territory, on an ocean liner, in the middle of nowhere."
"Yes, but at least you'll have the familiar structure of home with you when you have House at your side. Cuddy, can't you just see this as a vacation and not an ulterior motive?"
Cuddy scoffed. "Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it. Don't you have work to do? I know I do."
Wilson gave up and left. Cuddy set aside the book and forgot about it temporarily, although she did find herself working to clear the mess faster so she could look at it again.
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"Are you really going on a cruise?" Thirteen asked.
House, who was busy at his computer watching random YouTube videos, didn't bother glancing back at her. "Yes. And sorry, you're not invited. It's for straight people only."
"He's asking Cuddy," Foreman said, wearing a smile. That got House to look back.
"Wipe that smile off your face. How did you even know about that anyway?"
"Everyone knows about it. Walls have ears in this place, House."
"Okay, would you rather I took you?" House asked Thirteen. He stood. "Although I don't think your Hershey's Kiss would like that very much."
"Hey, if Cuddy doesn't want to go, we'll buy them off you," Thirteen offered.
"Oh, Cuddy's going. I'll see to that."
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Cuddy found Wilson in the cafeteria around two. She wasn't looking for him, but ended up joining him with a quick lunch that consisted of a green apple.
"Hey," he greeted and then motioned towards the welcome book for the Royal Caribbean. "How's the reading coming along?"
"So far I only glanced at it," she said, setting it down. "Actually, I lied, I'm like half way done of just glancing at the pictures. God, Wilson, the more I see of this ship, the more I want to go. It's so beautiful."
"So then go," he said, acting as if it were that easy.
"I can't," she said in a mix of a pout and whine.
Wilson set his sandwich and pen down in their respective places and started speaking with his hands to put extra emphasis in his words. "Okay, weigh the pros and cons here, Lisa. Pro: you get to go on a vacation that's probably the best vacation you've ever been on, assuming you've ever taken one in your life. Day spas, hot oil massages, a gym, casinos, lounges, restaurants with all sorts of varieties of food to choose from, you get to visit places in the Caribbean, as well as beaches with white sand and crystal blue waters. Con: --"
"House," she interrupted.
Wilson shrugged. "So you have one con, but a dozen pros. Pros outweigh the cons, so therefore, you should go."
Cuddy chuckled. "The con is big enough to outweigh the pros, even if I had a million reasons to want to go on this vacation," she said icily, biting into her apple.
"Why don't you want to go with him?"
Cuddy looked surprised that he even asked that. "Seriously? He makes me miserable at this hospital, and even away from it. If I did go with him, he'd be whining the entire time about something, get into trouble, probably start fights with people who glance longer than they should at my ass, blah blah blah, do I really need to go on? We've been through this already. He is not mature enough to handle going on a cruise and I refuse to be the one looked at strangely for taking a child on board with me. He's such an idiot he'll probably hurl himself overboard and see if I'll jump in after him."
"You know, Lisa, actions speak a lot louder than words. You're sure hanging onto that book pretty tightly for someone who's not interested."
Cuddy wasn't aware that she took it back into her arms. She shrugged it off innocently. "Research for future vacations. Tell House I'm not going. He can take one of his hookers instead for all I care."
Was that jealousy in her voice?
"Yeah, you're right. Who needs a free week of rest and relaxation anyway? How dull and uninteresting."
Cuddy smiled up at him. "Your reverse psychology won't work with me."
"I was being sarcastic. Cuddy, House wants to go with you. Just go as friends. Who cares if he's annoying the entire time. Go for the spas, the relaxation, activities. Get away from Princeton for a week. You need it."
"Why are you so hard up in getting me to go with him?"
That was a question lingering on her mind for a bit now. He was trying very hard for someone who didn't have a part in this.
"He's happy for once without the use of certain narcotics. It's nice seeing him that way."
Wilson stood up and left. Cuddy sighed and dropped her eyes to the welcome book. Even just the front page was so beautiful and colorful that it would entice anyone to go. Wait…House was happy? What was his motive for doing this anyway? He must have a secret agenda. He tries to avoid her. He spends his days trying to get away from her and now he wants to spend a week at her side.
She was thinking about what Wilson said. Just go for the spas, relaxation, and activities? Is that even possible? Oh well, it's a big ship, surely she'll be able to get away from him at some point. She assumed he wouldn't be hanging onto her arm the entire time. He'll do his thing, she'll do her thing. They'll only come together at night when they have to share a room. Eight hours a night they'll be stuck together. The rest of the time, she'll occupy herself elsewhere and still have a good time. A small smile crept onto her face. Why should she let someone like House ruin what could be the best vacation she ever had?
Cuddy stood up, took her apple and the welcome book, and set her destination to House's office. All she had to do was avoid him. That should be pretty easy.
She finished her apple in the short distance it took her to get from the cafeteria to House's office and tossed it into the basket upon entering his office.
"Don't you have a patient?" she asked, seeing him watching some video gameplay on his computer. "What are you doing?"
"Watching some dude play Dr. Mario on the most challenging level. This Mario guy's a genius. I get all my best medical answers from him and he's not even a real doctor."
Cuddy raised her brows as some character was dressed in a doctor suit, throwing what looked like pills into a big bottle and killing viruses. Yes, if only the medical world could be that easy.
"Oh damn! This guy owns."
"House, see, this is why I don't want to go on the cruise with you. You spend your time watching some person play a video game instead of treating your own patient. You're not going to make your patient feel better by dropping color coded pills onto the matching colored virus in hopes of destroying it."
"That's the reason you're not going with me?" He paused the video feed and turned off his monitor. "There, now that I'm not watching it, we can go."
Cuddy chuckled briefly and shook her head.
"How's the reading? Seeing anything you like? Spas, saunas, gyms…swinger's clubs?"
She narrowed her eyes at him and tossed the book in front of him. "There are no swinger's clubs on cruises, House. Hey, my eyes are up here," she said when his eyes dropped down to her chest after the mentioning of swinger's clubs.
"Sorry. Guess I got those eyes mixed up with the perky twins that were staring at me."
"This is why I can't go with you, House."
House feigned confusion. "I thought you couldn't go with me because of me watching that Mario guy instead of concentrating on my patient?"
"I can't go because I'd spend my time babysitting you instead of having fun! I'd have to keep you out of trouble! What kind of vacation is that? I could just do that here."
"Well look at it this way, Cuddles, we get to bond."
Maybe it was the way he said the word 'bond' or what he meant by it, but either way, Cuddy felt her stomach turn a bit. "No, thanks. And don't call me that. I hate that."
"Good then, I'll keep calling you that until you say you're going with me."
Cuddy scoffed lightly. "You're so immature."
"Cu-ddles, Cu-ddles, Cu-ddles—" he chanted, breaking it up in syllables.
"Okay!" she said over his chanting, interrupting him before he broke out the guitar and started strumming along with it. That was a very cheap way to get her to officially say yes, although she was planning to go already, despite him being so childish just now. A vacation is nice, regardless of the idiot she was going with. If she's going to baby-sit him, at least she'll be able to see a few sights while she was at it.
"Okay what, Cuddles?"
Cuddy cringed at that nickname. "I'll go with you, but if I hear that nickname again, you're fired."
House gasped, but put on a pouty face. "Dr. Cuddy, you no scare me none," he said, speaking like a three year old.
Cuddy smiled small. "And by the way House, in the stateroom, you're sleeping on the couch."
"But moooooom."
Cuddy held up a finger. "No buts. That's rule number one. And as soon as I figure out what the others are, I'll let you know."
House scoffed. "I'm not going to take you then if you're going to tie my hands behind my back."
"Oh, rule number two is that if you touch me at all, even as a friendly gesture, you're going swimming with the sharks. And I'll make sure your hands are tied behind your back."
Before House could retort, Thirteen threw herself into House's office. "House, we need you."
House stood. "There are such things as cell phones and pagers you know. Not that seeing you hot and sweaty bothers me a single bit."
"You turned your phone off earlier," she said, ignoring the sweaty comment.
"Good point. We'll continue this later, Cuddles. Oh no wait, sorry, Cuddy."
He flashed her a grin and wiggled his eyebrow as he limped out of the room. Cuddy slapped her hand over her face and sighed. "Unbelievable. Am I really that much overdue for a vacation to resort to this?"
But nonetheless, she was going on that cruise with House, an event that would be remembered for years and years to come. He would be the death of her, and yet…she was smiling.
She left his office with a smile. Next month couldn't come quick enough.
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