Chapter Two

24 Hours

Thanks to Kris the fanficaholic, starstacey, KewlKid, mj0621, BlkDiamond, bluemoon86, trophydog, hell's-sugarrushed-angel, gh2005, HOUSEM.D.FanForever, Aerocrombie princess, and HouseAddiction for their reviews! They were much appreciated!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything pertaining to House. I wish I did, then we would have a lot of Huddy moments.

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He barged into Cuddy's office without knocking or even waiting for an answer. Strangely enough, Cuddy had given him the spare key to her office, obviously a huge gesture of trust on her part, or a momentarily lapse of insanity.

Strangely enough, it was empty. That was not normal. House checked his watch. It was past ten. She should've been at work already. He hadn't seen her around the hospital, though he had been looking. He went to her desk and pulled open the drawer, yanking out her planner. She had a meeting at 10:30. She would have been in her office around, getting everything ready.

He was wearing a confused expression when Wilson barged into the office. His eyes were red, obviously from crying.

"Aw, Jimmy. Who broke your toy?" House asked, sarcastically.

Wilson just shook his head. Usually he would throw a weak attempt at returning banter, but now he had none to give.

"Did you see the new this morning?"

A drop in his stomach. House shook his head.

Wilson pulled House out of Cuddy's office and into one of the exam rooms, turning on the TV. House stared at the news cast, feeling disconnected from his body. He leaned his head against his cane, feeling the rush of the cold wood enter his skull, trying his best to counteract the deafening roars in his ears.

He was in denial. He was in pain. He was confused.

"Why?" he asked, his voice choked up in spite of himself.

"They think it was a suicide." Wilson said softly.

House jumped to his feet, anger written on his face.

"It wasn't a damn suicide!" he yelled. "This is Cuddy we're talking about. She would never do something that stupid. She's not weak enough to give up like that. She's too stubborn, too controlling, too…CUDDY!"

Wilson shook his head. "There's a breaking point for everyone." He said.

"Not for her." House said, his voice, strangely quiet, causing Wilson to look up at him.

House realized what Wilson looked like now. A lost puppy. Someone who had had all the direction in the world and was following it step by step when the floor was yanked out from under them. Wilson was lost without Cuddy's direction.

House couldn't blame him.

The ducklings shoved through the narrow door, all three at once. Each wore an expression ranging from confused to disbelief.

"Did she really kill herself?" Foreman asked. He was the favorite duckling of the former Dean of Medicine and had come to care for her as a friend. Her death shocked him.

"Why did she do it?" Cameron added, her eyes were rimmed with red.

"What happens now?" Chase continued. He was the one with the look of utter confusion.

House waited for silence and when it came, he answered, "She didn't kill herself, so the why doesn't matter. And what happens now is that you three go back to the breakroom and check out our case files. There is no use for us to allow her hospital to fall into shambles because she's not here. We can't undo the work she's done since she won't be here to fix it."

They scurried, but Cameron paused at the doorway.

"Did you just make a decision based on human emotion?" she asked.

House glared at her. "No, I made a decision based on how you morons can keep your jobs."

She rolled her eyes and ran out, trying to comprehend how easily it was to lose someone just overnight.

Wilson glanced at him. "Are you okay?" he asked.

House nodded. "Yeah, no one to order me around anymore until the next witch shows up." He muttered.

Wilson punched him. House stared as his rubbed his chin.

"Look, House, I don't care if you don't give a damn about her. I don't care if you look at her like a controlling bitch who's got nothing better to do but to order you around, but don't you dare say anything bad about her in front of me. You want to something? I asked her out. Yeah I did. Yesterday. I never got an answer, but I just want you to know that she did change some of us and she did matter to some of us and some of us cared about her more than your range of human emotions." Wilson said to House.

With that, he walked out the exam room, slamming the door shut behind him.

House didn't move. He stared at the window. It seemed so wrong for the sun to be shining while Cuddy was no longer there to have the rays dance across her face.

He would never admit it, but he loved her. He had loved her more than he had been brave enough to admit. Memories of her life played over and over in his mind and he could not understand how she could have been bantering with him only twelve hours earlier and then suddenly leave without as much as a warning.

If he had known he only had had one day left with her, he would've told her how he felt. How much he loved her, how much he needed her. If he had known he would've had only one day left with her, he would have held her and given her a kiss that would've gone on and on, reliving every one they had left untouched.

He thought he had all the time in the world. Turns out, he didn't.

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"Hey Melinda." Catherine Willows greeted as she entered the autopsy room.

Melinda gave her a wave with a latex covered hand. She was bent over a Caucasian male with a couple of stab wounds on his chest.

"So where's my vic?" Catherine asked.

Melinda turned to glance at her strangely. "I thought you knew. The family wanted no autopsy. They decided not to rouse up the media further."

Catherine stared. "What?" she asked.

"Yeah." Melinda said. "I tried to convince that it wasn't a good idea, but they wouldn't hear of it. Said that it was a suicide and just to let her rest in peace."

Catherine shook her head. "It wasn't a suicide." She said. "I don't know why I don't think it is, but it isn't."

Melinda gave her an apologetic look. "Look, talk to the family, friends, talk them into letting me do an autopsy. If it proves your point, I'll be glad to testify to such."

Catherine nodded. "Give me 24 hours." She said.

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He first saw her across a crowded room and he hadn't been able to look away since. She had been bent over a thick textbook on medical treatments. She had glasses that had thick black square rims that gave her a serious expression, but when she looked up at him, he had seen right through the glass and into her.

She had blue eyes with contrasting dark curly hair that fell to her waist. Of course, being House, he didn't introduce himself in a way that would be considered charming, but she surprised him.

For every retort he threw at her, she threw on back in return. She held herself proudly, strongly, as if she knew she was going to find herself on top and was unwillingly to allow anyone the pleasure of getting the better of her.

They bonded quickly over late night banters and cups of coffee. No one ever understood how it happened, or how someone like Lisa Cuddy could stand to be even a mile within range of Gregory House, but it did. They bonded and their bond held despite life's twists and turns.

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"Dr. House?" A soft voice came from the doorway to his office.

He looked up to see a strawberry blonde standing before him. She had a bulletproof vest on that said, CSI WILLOWS in bold print.

"I'm out of my mind right now, please leave a message." He stated.

She raised her eyebrows. "Actually I came to ask you a little bit about your boss, Dr. Cuddy." She said.

He sighed and leaned back against his chair. There was a certain extent of weariness about him that Catherine found to be more of a giveaway about this man's physical condition than the cane he carried.

"She didn't kill herself." Was all he said.

She took a seat across from him, without being asked. He didn't object.

"She just wouldn't have done something so pathetic. Tritter's an ass. He's a jerk. I hate his balding guts, and he's stupid enough to believe that someone like Lisa Cuddy would kill herself, then he shouldn't be a cop." He stated.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he chose to just pass it off as a suicide because he's lazy." House muttered.

She took a few notes. "I see." She said.

House looked at her, for a moment, a look of pleading and hope flew across his face.

"Find out who did this." He said. "Find out and give me five minutes with them."

Catherine hesitated.

"She was my best friend." House said. "One of the few that I have. I want to castrate the bastard, but I'll settle for a five minute talk."

"I can't say it wasn't a suicide."

"It wasn't." He replied, shortly. "It wasn't. Just promise me."

She nodded in spite of her best judgment. She had been working this job for many years and could read people better than most. She owed it to her mentor and friend, whom she missed dearly, but could not forgive. However, she had learned many things from him and one was reading emotion even when the wearer did not wish to give it away.

House had the look of a desperate man. He hid it behind biting remarks and gruff appearance, but she wasn't fooled. He was hurting, physically and emotionally. She could tell with a glance that the Cuddy case had a greater impact upon him than he let on. She knew he was a suspect.

She suspected feelings between the two of them, but she didn't voice them out loud. She glanced at Dr. House one more time before leaving his office. The two biggest reasons for murder. Love and Money. However, she found it difficult to believe that Dr. House, even with his attitude, was capable of committing a crime on someone who he tried so hard to hide feelings for.

This case is just getting stranger and stranger. She thought.

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"Mr. and Mrs. Cuddy, I'm so sorry to bother you." She said softly.

"Can we help you?" Mrs. Cuddy was a petite brunette. If Catherine looked closely at her, she could picture her daughter in her. The only difference was that this older woman had more laugh lines along the corners of her mouth and eyes.

No laughter was spared for the moment, however.

"I need to talk to you about your daughter's body." Catherine started. "It would really help push the case farther along, if you give us permission to perform an autopsy."

Mr. Cuddy was already shaking his head. "Our daughter killed herself. There's no use exposing more wounds." He said.

Catherine forced herself to remain calm. No use in losing her temper.

"Sir, I understand that this is a difficult situation for you, but we're not sure it's a suicide."

"The detective seemed pretty sure." Mrs. Cuddy spoke out, dabbing the corner of her eyes.

Mr. Cuddy quieted his wife as he spoke. "Miss you have to understand. Lisa was a very hard working girl. She didn't have a family, or kids, and rarely came home to visit. Her life was her job and her job was very stressful. It seemed plausible that she cracked under the pressure."

She mentally reminded herself to kick him later for such a stupid statement. "Yes, it would appear to be a suicide, however, I have worked many more cases than he has, and I work in forensics. In a suicide case, there are many twists that could potentially prove homicide instead." She said.

They hesitated and Catherine charged forward, driving a stake straight into their heart to win her case.

"Mr. and Mrs. Cuddy. I know you loved your daughter and I know even now, you want what's best for her." Catherine said. "I have a daughter myself and I know I can't even begin to comprehend how you're feeling, but I would have wanted to be sure that my daughter's death was her own decision and not someone else's."

They exchanged glances.

"Please." Catherine said. "Are you positive, Dr. Cuddy would have killed herself? Because if you are even slightly unsure, let me do this autopsy. If it wasn't, you don't want whoever did this to her to get away with murder."

Mr. Cuddy slowly nodded. "Do you what you have to do." He said. "You have our blessing."

Catherine shook his hand and then Mrs. Cuddy's.

"Thank you." She said. "I'll keep in touch."

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Author's Note:

How's that so far? I promise there will be more later on with both House and Catherine investigating the case. There will be more flashbacks of Huddy moments if you be patient. Enjoy! Lots of love!