A/N:First just let me say thanks to those of you who reviewed, I greatly appreciated it. I've had a bad case of writers block with my other story so I have decided to continue with this one for now, I don't really know where I want to go with this so I'll just wing it. Anyways, I wrote this part late at night so I'm not sure if it will make much sense, I hope it does. Anyways, if it does make sense I hope you enjoy!
House woke sometime in the middle of the night, the morphine had worn off and the pain was starting to burn through his leg again. Reaching out he located the bottle of vicodin that Cuddy had conveniently left there for him. He grabbed it and quickly swallowed a few pills, hoping they would at least take the edge off. While he waited for the pills to work he let his mind wander back to his talk with Cuddy earlier that afternoon. He was unsure as to what would happen now, and uncertain about weather he should open up and allow himself to place his trust in Cuddy. It had been a long time since he had allowed himself to trust in the good will of others. She had appeared to show genuine concern for him, but she had tried to trick him by giving him the placebo earlier that day, and before she had talked to him this evening she had appeared to agree with Wilson that his pain was a psychological problem as much as a physical one. However, as much as he hated to admit it to anyone it was sometimes hard to go through this alone. He had tried hard to make himself completely independent over the last few years. Convincing himself and others that he didn't need any help, he could take care of himself. So he had shielded his feelings behind intelligence and sarcasm, and he had even started to believe it himself, for the most part, and had begun to push away anyone who had tried to offer their assistance. At first he had pushed away his family, then Stacy, and finally Wilson and Cuddy. Every time he had allowed his defenses to break down enough to go to either Cuddy or Wilson for help, they had thrown it back in his face. Saying that his pain was a psychological problem and not legitimate, and as he had told Cuddy earlier, it was hard to place his trust in someone who didn't believe he had a problem. But things were getting worse now, and he'd tried almost everything he could think of to dull the constant pain, but no matter what he tried the pain still clung to him, following him like a shadow. It was starting to wear him down, more and more frequently over the last few months the pain had reached near intolerable levels. Most of the time he had been able to successfully hide his problems from his team and Wilson, but he was finding it increasingly difficult to slip past Wilson's radar. He often felt he had no one to turn to; Wilson was always trying to get him to deal with his feelings and seemed reluctant to accept his problems as physical ones. And Cuddy seemed only concerned that he do his clinic duty and limit the amount of legal messes she had to clean up. He was reluctant to accept her help, but he was beginning to get tired of trying to hide it all the time, to pretend like everything was fine when it wasn't. Besides, if he did nothing there would soon coma a day when he could no longer conceal his pain from them, and he did not want that day to ever come.
By now the pills had kicked in, the pain reduced to a dull roar, and House was able to contemplate moving into his bedroom where he might be more comfortable. He had reluctantly decided he would go and talk to Cuddy tomorrow about other methods of pain management. He didn't know what she would suggest, but if she was willing to help he was ready to accept it with little resistance. As House began to raise himself up off the couch he noticed that Cuddy was still there, asleep on the recliner on the other side of the living room. He was surprised that she was still there, she had obviously decided to stay and make sure he would be alright. He grabbed a blanket off the end of the couch and carried it over to her, gently placing it over her sleeping form. When he was sure she would be comfortable until morning he limped off to his bedroom, where he spent the remainder of the night staring at his ceiling and trying without much success to regain sleep.
The next morning Cuddy slowly opened her eyes, she was slightly disoriented and it took her a few moments to realize that she was in House's apartment. Remembering she quickly looked over to the couch, where House should have been, to find it empty. Concerned she quickly threw off the blanket that was covering her and began searching the apartment to see where he was, he had been in a lot of pain last night and she didn't quite trust him not to do something stupid. Peeking into his bedroom she found him lying on the bed, sleeping restlessly. Knowing that he had woken in the night and had probably just gotten back to sleep she decided not to disturb him yet, so she went to the kitchen to make breakfast. Cuddy quickly discovered, however, that unless she wanted a breakfast that consisted of peanut butter, slightly stale bread and out of date milk she would have to go out. So checking once more that House was ok she quickly slipped out and went down to the bakery down the street and bought some food for the two of them. When she returned she put House's breakfast on a plate and carried it into his bedroom. She paused at the edge of his bed, not wanting to wake him up, but knowing she had to. She hoped that she had got through to him last night, and she desperately hoped that he would allow her to help him. He had been resorting to more and more drastic measures do deal with his pain and she feared that the next time he might take those measures too far. Cuddy knew that he didn't know she had been watching him that closely, he believed that he was hiding his pain from her. But she hoped she had allowed him to see that he was standing on the edge of a cliff, and hoped that he would take her outstretched hand. Cuddy was beginning to tire of continually offering that helping hand out to him. This would be the last time, from now on if he wanted her help he would have to ask for it, she was tired of having her generosity shoved back at her. Cuddy let out a sigh and gently placed her had on his shoulder.
"House, wake up," she said as she softly shook him awake.
After some grumbling he rolled over to and propped himself up on one elbow.
"I brought you breakfast," she said passing him the plate, "of course I had to go and buy it because it seems you've learned to live off of peanut butter."
"That's what I want you to think, what time is it?"
"Almost nine. I have to get back to the hospital, and so do you. If you want I'll wait 'till you get ready and you can get a ride in with me."
House was about to tell her that he would be fine, but then changed his mind. He knew that this was her way of saying she wanted to keep an eye on him. Besides if he cooperated with her maybe he could get out of doing any actual work today. He badly wanted to shut himself up in his office, alone with his music and game boy. His thigh was quickly getting past the point of annoyingly sore already and the day hadn't even started.
"I don't need babysitting you know, but since you're already here you could give me a ride in."
"Alright, I'll wait for you to get ready." She said accepting that that was the closest to a polite answer she would probably get from him this morning. She rose and began to leave the room, but looking back noticed that he had begun to slowly massage his thigh. "Do you want to talk about that now or later?" she asked, nodding towards the leg.
"Later, too early in the morning for philosophical discussions. Besides, I don't know if you've noticed but there happens to be a girl in my bedroom. Very distracting."
Cuddy allowed a smile to form; at least he was feeling good enough this morning to throw some sarcastic remarks out. She left and waited on the couch for him, watching him walk towards her as he came down the hallway and noticing that while he wasn't as stiff as yesterday his steps were still small and his pace controlled. She allowed him to get into her car unassisted, standing on the sidewalk ready to offer assistance if he asked. He managed to get in with little difficulty so she walked around to the drivers' side and got in. They drove towards the hospital, both of them remaining in companionable silence during the trip. When they arrived, Cuddy headed off towards her office and House went straight to his, trying very carefully to avoid running into Wilson. Reaching his office he found that his team had found no new cases they deemed worthy of his attention, so he promptly sent Foreman and chase to do his clinic hours and told Cameron to answer his mail. He then locked himself in his office, closing the blinds and putting his I-pod on, successfully avoiding Cameron's curiosity and questions. Half way through the day he got the first page from Cuddy saying that she wanted to see him immediately. He decided that he didn't want to go through the effort of getting up and walking down to her office, his leg was steadily throbbing by now, so he ignored the page. The first one was followed by four more, and then Wilson walked around the corner.
"House, don't you have your pager with you? Cuddy has been trying to reach you all afternoon."
"And I have been successfully trying to ignore her, I'm assuming that's the reason she sent you over here."
"Yes, well I'm slightly harder to ignore than a pager, and you can't shut me off. So why don't you just go down there and see her, because I have better things to do than stand here annoying you all day."
"To early to go down there, I might have to work."
"House!" said Wilson glaring at him angrily.
"Fine, I'll go are you happy now?" He said grabbing his cane and lifting his leg off the top of the desk, setting it gently on the floor. "I don't know why you people just can't leave me alone. I want your help; you won't give it to me. I want you to leave me alone, and then you suddenly decide I need to be helped. And people say I'm complicated." House fumed, angrily shuffling out of his office, knowing that he had to get this over with eventually if he wanted to get the vultures off his tail so he could deal with his pain in peace. He walked into Cuddy's office unannounced, as usual, and found cuddy in the middle of a phone call. So he made himself comfortable on her couch and loudly tapped his cane on the floor while she finished, which earned him an annoyed glare from Cuddy.
"So are you ready to talk?" Cuddy asked, hanging up the phone.
"Oh that's all you wanted, no afternoon delight? Well then in that case, I'll be going." He said rising from the couch.
"House, I'm serious. If you don't want to talk that's fine. But like I said last night, I'm getting tired of giving you all of these chances and one day my generosity is going to run out. I'm not going to offer my help again. So you either want it or you don't."
He stopped five paces from the door and let out a frustrated sigh.
"Fine then, let's talk."
Well that's all for now, if you liked it let me know. If you didn't let me know. Next chapter will be what Cuddy proposes to do to help House and if he accepts it or not.