Disclaimer: I am making no money on this. It is simply for entertainment purposes. Will return them to David and Fox as soon as my sandbox is cleaned up.

A/N: The role of Seth will be played by Rob Lowe (The West Wing and more recently Brothers and Sisters). Also this is kind of a filler chapter before the story gets going. Hope you guys enjoy it.

5 Step Plan

She watched until the single taillight and the familiar roar of the motorcycle was totally swallowed by the darkness as she trudged up to her front door and let out a tired sigh. This was not the way she planned on spending the evening at all, and while she knew he would react this way, she was still taken aback by his actions. Her heart was still thumping wildly behind her ribcage and she tried to regulate her breathing, to help stop the burning in her chest. House was not one to simply walk away from a situation like this, in fact he lived for the times when he could walk in on her and ruin her dates, but his behaviour tonight had her baffled. He didn't even seem interested in the man now standing in her lounge. Well it was either he really wasn't interested or he was going to call his PI friend to find whatever he could about Seth.

Cuddy closed the door as softly as she could, hoping the noise wouldn't wake Rachel who was a light sleeper. She leaned her forehead against the cool wood of the door and her mind ran at a thousand miles a minute. What the heck was she thinking when she allowed him to feel her up like that. Sure, they were friends for the last two decades of their lives, and yes they'd shared one passion filled kiss when she had lost Joy, but that certainly did not give him the right to free reign of her whenever he felt like it. And besides it was not like they were in a relationship, she was seeing someone else.

"Lisa?" she heard Seth's gentle voice calling for her from her living room. She heaved in a deep breath, stood up straight and made her way to where he was currently seated on her sofa in the living room. Rachel was now cradled in his arms, her hand clenching his shirt as tightly as she could muster and but sleeping peacefully. Cuddy didn't have the strength to deal with talking to Seth about House; in fact she had hoped he would meet House under very different circumstances and on her terms.

"I'm going to put Rachel down," she said and proceeded to take the sleeping child from his arms and to her bedroom. Seth was a few feet behind her. Clearly he did not share the same thoughts as she did, and she thought he was right, he was going to find out about House sooner or later, and while she wished it would be later, she decided the sooner she told him the better it would be for the both of them. She was thinking of what to say , when he broke the silence, and changed her train of thought in the process.

"You look tired, maybe we should call it a night and head to bed," Seth suggested after Cuddy had placed Rachel in her bed, tucked her in and covered her with her favourite blue and white Donald Duck blanket. For some reason she loved the blanket, she would not part with it at all. Somehow Cuddy liked to think it was because House had given it to her.

"You should head up, I still have a bit of paperwork to do," she replied as she walked back to the lounge and retrieved her laptop and a stack of papers from her bag and waited for her notebook to power up before she made herself comfortable for a long night of work on her sofa. Seth seemed undisturbed by the night's events and she knew House would not return anytime soon so she was okay for now. She would deal with House tomorrow when she had more caffeine in her system and she could hide behind her power suits. And if he didn't bring it up, which was highly unlikely she would let the sleeping dogs lie.

Cuddy waited for him to barge into her office, demanding answers from her about her 'date' as soon as he walked in, but when at three o clock House still didn't show up in her office she went to see him.

0 o 0 o 0 o 0

House rode for almost an hour and a half before he decided it was too cold to ride anymore and headed in the direction of his apartment. This was going to be one of the longest nights of his life, and somehow he knew he was going to be excruciating pain, worse than when she and Stacy had decided to take out the muscle from his thigh. Still, he knew she was not responsible for that pain, it was a purely medical decision that would save his life, and yet he blamed it all on her. This felt like she was taking his life away.

He pulled out the bottle of bourbon from the closet in the hall and crashed onto the sofa. His cane fell between the sofa and the coffee table with a thud. His leg was throbbing and his head felt like it was about to explode. He needed to sleep but every time he closed his eyes the domestic picture of Cuddy and her male friend holding the kid in his arms made its way unbidden into his mind and it drove him to keep his eyes open and his mind busy with thoughts other than Cuddy. He sat restlessly for five minutes and then channel hopped, with the hope that something would capture his attention, but he was unlucky. He finally settled on the piano bench and played until the notes soothed his heart and cleared his mind, for an hour. His night passed in a blur of alcohol induced sleep and the painful throbbing in his thigh waking him up.

He reached work at a decent hour the next day, at least according to his team he was early. Anytime before noon was early for House. He didn't have a patient at the moment and he didn't want to do the paper work that was piling up on his desk. He would get Cameron or Thirteen to do it for him. And he would get one of them to deliver it to her as well, at least then he wouldn't have to see her. Luck however was not on his side, he noted, when she walked into his office a few minutes later.

"I need to talk to you," her voice was serious her expression pained.

"That' not the impression I got last night."

"That's because I didn't expect you to show up unexpectedly."

"So, do you entertain them even when the sprog is awake?" he knew he was being an ass but he couldn't help himself, he was still stinging from the previous night.

"That is not fair," her voice rose with every word, causing his lackeys to look up with interest at their boss, and their boss's boss.

"I mean with his rumpled shirt and pants and your clothes, or lack thereof, it should've given me some indication that you were busy, too bad I miss read the signs," he continued as though she hadn't said anything.

"House," she started and the tone of her voice made him want to take back all his nasty words at once and actually apologise to her, but he stood his ground, not allowing her to defend herself.

"Sorry, gotta run, I have clinic duty to do and if I don't to it, the she devil of a boss who runs this place will take my heart out and stamp all over it before killing me very slowly and very torturously," he replied and with that he brushed past her and exited his office, making his way toward the clinic on the ground level of the hospital.

Cuddy was once again left standing, watching his retreating back as he limped down the corridor in the direction of the elevators and out of her sight, his last words to her spinning around in her head. She had no idea just how true they were to him…

This was going to be worse than either of them thought.

Reviews will be appreciated. This chapter didn't turn out as great as I wanted it to... but I needed a filler and I didn't want to wait too long between posting. The story should start getting better with the next chapter.

As usual should I continue or not? Let me know,

Pretty please???