Thanks for the wonderful reviews. It made me write more!
Hours passed. House finished the remaining drops of beer, shut off the television and watched the hands on the clock click to exactly 3 am before picking up the phone. As he dialed Wilson's number, he grabbed his CD player remote and hit play. Within thirty seconds Wilson was woken up to the loudest, most abhorrent heavy metal blasting in his ear.
House smiled. He could almost hear Wilson cringe. Revenge was sweet.
He turned the music off and waited…
"HOUSE!"
"Not so loud Wilson, its late you know…"
"I can only assume", Wilson continued, ignoring his friend's smug response "that your phone call from hell means that you haven't asked Cuddy out yet."
"Not going to."
"House, we discussed this earlier. Do I have explain again why this could work? Do I need to remind you how smart…"
"Yeah yeah smart, funny, hot, big ass", House interrupted, "So I've heard. Like I said Jimbo, if you like her so much why don't you ask her out."
"Because until about five minutes ago, I was sleeping like a baby, while you were wishing cuddy was…"
"Having a STAFF meeting with me?"
"I was going to say kissing you again", Wilson chuckled, "but the point is you were thinking of her."
"SMASH"
A crashing sound came from outside of House's apartment.
"Got to go Jimmy Boy. Something came up"
"House that better not have a double mean…."
House hung up. Something was rustling around outside. A mystery. What better way to avoid thinking about …
"Cuddy." House said quietly as he open the door a crack.
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Cuddy was crawling around the hallway outside House's apartment on her knees. The contents of her purse were everywhere. Cuddy sighed. This couldn't be going any worse.
It had taken her four hours to work up enough courage to walk into House's building. She had driven around for what seemed like an eternity, reviewing what she wanted to say word for word in her head until it became a mantra. After a few wobbly attempts to exit the vehicle, cuddy finally got out of her car, adjusted her shirt, checked her makeup and made the decision that it was now or never. Unfortunately it seemed, now, was ten to three in the morning.
All logic pointed toward her going back. It was too late. He'd be asleep, tired. He wouldn't hear her out.
Cuddy smiled. How many times had he showed up on her doorstep, unannounced, at this hour – later even? The irony wasn't lost on her as she approached the building's doorway, took one last look back at her car and walked in.
She was ready.
She was strong.
She could handle anything.
She…
…tripped on the last step of the second floor landing, scraping her knee, dropping her purse and spilling everything in it along the entire length of the corridor.
She was making a mistake.
She had to leave now.
She couldn't handle this.
At least his door was closed. There was still time to gather everything and make her escape. This was definitely a bad idea.
Crawling on her knees to get the last few remnants of her bag, Cuddy heard the door to House's apartment open.
"House", she said quietly as he opened the door a crack.