I was bored and going through my old stories. There are quite a few I haven't posted here, and I found two that fit this particular anthology, so I figured what the hell. (I'm bored. Work is very quiet).

As a reminder, cause it's been a while, this is not meant to be read as an ongoing story, but rather a seriesof short stories, each meant to delve into a different aspect of Huddy. I hope you enjoy.

WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN

-1-

House walked out of the office, a smile on his face. It had been an interesting few days. Why was everyone suddenly so concerned with his love life? He would have loved to be a fly on the wall of Cuddy's office right now. There was no way Stacy was just going to pretend he hadn't said what he'd said. No way. He continued down the hall, sure he would get all the juicy details later.

"What did happen between you two?" Stacy had taken the bait House laid out for her. The trouble with House was you could never tell when he was being serious, and when he was yanking your chain. It was only Cuddy's hint of a smile that caused Stacy to search for some grain of truth in his implication.

"Nothing. We're friends, we work together." Cuddy was quick to remove the smile, but she knew Stacy had seen it. It was going to take a lot of backpedaling to get Stacy off the scent.

"Just friends?" Stacy didn't sound convinced. "Come on, Lisa, you can tell me. We can compare notes."

"There's nothing to tell." With that, Cuddy moved the topic to legal matters.

-2-

"Come on House, something's going on." Wilson was practically begging for the dirt now.

"Something is always going on. People are getting sick, doctors are healing them. Hey, you're a doctor. Shouldn't you be off healing the sick or something?" House gave him a pointed look that said case closed.

Wilson didn't look back, and therefore didn't think the case was closed. "You two argue like an old married couple."

"You caught us. We're married." House threw up his hands in surrender.

"Really?" For just a moment, Wilson bought it, then he remembered who he was talking to. "Seriously House, what's going on?"

"If something were going on, and I told you, it would be all over the hospital by the end of the day."

"No it wouldn't." Wilson sulked as they walked along the hallway in silence. Why did everyone think he was such a gossip?

-3-

"But he was going through her underwear drawer."

"House was just being House." Foreman tried concentrating on his work.

"House went through Cuddy's underwear drawer?" Cameron was both jealous and disgusted. Why hadn't House gone through her underwear drawer? Were Cuddy's underwear that much more interesting than hers?

"He went over that house with a fine toothed comb." Chase was excited to have someone new to gossip with. "I think he likes her."

"He doesn't like her." Foreman was still pretending to do his work by leaning over some slides.

"Foreman's right." At least Cameron hoped he was. "There is nothing going on between them."

"How do you know?" Chase was taking on that pouty air he got when the others started ganging up on him.

"She told me." Cameron said with matter of fact pride.

"You asked Cuddy if she had a thing for House?" Foreman was surprised. Cameron always seemed a bit intimidated by Cuddy.

"Not exactly. I asked her if she knew him back in Michigan."

"Did she say no?" Foreman was suddenly more interested in the conversation. He put the slides aside and turned to face the group.

"Not exactly."

"Aha!" Chase said excitedly.

"She said she had heard of him." Cameron was trying hard to deny Cuddy's lack of denial.

"What's that mean?" Chase was left scratching his head.

"It means she didn't want Cameron to know that she knew House." Foreman read between the lines.

"No." Cameron shot out defensively. "It means she only knew of him. She said he was a legend in school. They might have passed in the halls or something, but that's it."

"Right." Foreman shook his head slowly.

-4-

Cuddy walked toward the bedroom door with a cup of tea in her hands. It had been a very long day. All she wanted to do was curl up in bed, pull up the covers and go to sleep. Maybe she could find some peace in her dreams.

She walked into the bedroom, the thought that House had been there earlier, going through her belongings with Foreman and Chase gave her a rather creepy feeling. The bedspread was rumpled. Someone had messed with it.

She put the cup down, and pulled down the covers. She was so ready for sleep that at first she didn't notice that there was something on her pillow. She put her head down and felt a piece of paper crumple under it. She pulled the paper out, and opened it.

Wrapped inside the piece of paper was a small, crumpled up picture and a note. The note read "To the good old days." The picture was from one of those instant photo booths. And it was of a young House and an even younger Cuddy making out in one of those instant photo booths.

Lisa Cuddy drifted off to sleep that night to dream of her college days, watching House play on the lacrosse team, cheering him on from the bleachers, long nights of studying, the winter formal, days she longed to return to, but knew would never come again.

-5-

House walked around his cluttered apartment. Insomnia had struck again. He wondered if Cuddy had gone to bed yet, had she seen the surprise he'd left her. He had carried that picture around in his wallet for years. It was the sort of thing you forgot you even had, but somehow kept without even knowing it.

He sat down at his piano and started tapping out his old school song. "Hail to the victors valiant, Hail to the conquering heroes, Hail! Hail to Michigan, the champions of the West!" Maybe, just maybe he could go back to his school days, when he was the conquering hero, and Lisa was by his side.

Maybe, if he had stayed in Michigan, maybe if he had been ready to commit to a serious relationship, maybe…he drifted off to sleep, wondering what could have been, and what would never be.

4