Hi, thanks for reviews and feedback. The point was raised that you wouldn't go through withdrawal after one dose, albeit high dose, of morphine, however I can't help but think there would have to have been some consequences of having it and they decided to keep administering it as it helped with the pain best, therefore leading to a dependence once again.

May not be entirely realistic, and I hope it doesn't offend anyone who has been through a similar situation/has firsthand experience, but I hope it doesn't put you off reading, as I very much enjoy writing this :)

Five days later

'Cuddy, do you really have to be here for this?' House asked her in a petulant manner.

'No, I don't have to be here but I want to be. I need to know what kind of things you'll be doing so that then I can make sure you're actually doing them when we go home,' she told him plainly and carried on reading her magazine in the chair where she'd lived for the past 3 days.

The anti-inflammatory meds had helped dramatically to reduce the pain, and now that the swelling had decreased the pain was much less intense. Despite this however, House had relented and allowed Cuddy to continue to administer regular doses of morphine so as to stop the effects of withdrawal for now.

'Look, I promise you I'll do them, why don't you go home and get some decent sleep? You haven't left the hospital yet and you know that while I'm doing this I can't be getting into any real trouble, it makes sense that you choose now to take a break.'

'I don't need a break, and I know that the real reason you want me to leave is so that you can berate the physical therapist without meeting my scowling glare, and, because you're scared of how much it'll hurt and don't want me to see that anymore.' She saw by his face that she'd got it dead on. While he prided himself on being able to read her every emotion, he didn't realise that when it came to him she could do the exact same. He exhaled.

'Cuddy, please, I don't know how badly this is going to hurt and yes you're right, I don't see any reason to prolong the amount of time you see me screaming like a baby. I can get her to give you a list of the exercises afterwards if you want? Because when I do them at home they're still gonna hurt like a bitch and I know you'll be there then, so give yourself a break, go home, and I promise I'll be fine.' He took her hand and tenderly caressed it, willing her to leave, for both of their sakes. She could see how desperately he wanted her to go and she wasn't offended, she understood how vulnerable he had been feeling and she didn't want to make things worse. And she wasn't going to lie; a few hours sleep in her own bed wouldn't go amiss. He could see her relenting.

'Ok,' she sighed, 'if that's what you want. I'll go home, call Rachel, have a proper sleep; shower, and I promise I'll be back by 7. How does that sound?'

He kissed her hand. 'That sounds perfect. Tell Rachel I miss her, ok?'

'House, I'm not going to lie to her.'

'I'm being serious, I really do miss her. We'd sorta become a family and then I went and messed it up, so tell her.'

'Don't be silly, you didn't mess it up. She was going to be with Julia for the week anyway so we would have been on our own despite what's gone on. I mean, I can think of better things we could have been doing with our time...' she said, trying her best to make light of the situation, until she realised that a rather terrifying woman was standing in the doorway.

'Gregory House?' She boomed in a voice that matched her persona perfectly.

'That is I,' he replied, casting Cuddy a sideways glance.

'Amanda Sutton, nice to meet you,' she said as she threw her bag down on the chair next to Cuddy's and warmly shook his hand. 'And you are?'

'Dr Lisa Cuddy, Hou- I mean Greg's partner,' she said as she stood up and was too met with a fierce handshake. 'I'm going to let you two get on, see you later,' she said as she tenderly kissed him on the lips and squeezed his arm. 'You'll do great, ok?' She whispered so that the Beast couldn't hear her.

'Ok,' he replied. 'I love you.'

'I know,' she said, and she left the two of them to begin.

H

Before Cuddy left the building, she decided to swing by House's office so that she could give him an update on what had been happening while he had been gone. As she approached the glass wall she could see Chase and Taub sitting around the table in their usual seats while Foreman was on whiteboard duty, clearly liking the little bit of authority he had obtained, until he made eye-contact with her and suddenly looked very uncomfortable. When the other pair realised he had stopped mid-flow they followed his gaze and also shifted uncomfortably in their seats. She almost walked away, but this was her hospital and she was their boss, and she came here for a purpose and she was going to fulfil it.

As she opened the office door, both Chase and Taub rose to their feet as one traditionally would when a superior entered the room, however to Cuddy it made her feel uneasy. 'Please, don't act all weird, ok? I just came by to find out how your case was going; I think he might need something to distract his mind this evening and a good medical puzzle might be what we need.'

None of the fellows wanted to be the first to speak and they all waited for another to make a move, until Foreman finally opened his mouth. '27 year old Caucasian woman, presents with papules covering large areas of her body, some of which are becoming hyper pigmented. Hugely swollen lymph nodes, fever, vomiting, been to 6 doctors in the past few months and none are sure what this is, and to be honest, we aren't sure where to begin either. Taub thinks autoimmune, Chase thinks some bacterial infection, we can't decide on a course of action.' He handed Cuddy the file, which she took and glanced at before nodding her head.

'Great, thanks. I can't see anything glaringly obvious so hopefully this will keep him occupied for a while later.' Unsure of what else to say, she started to walk towards the door before Chase spoke.

'How is he doing?' She turned to look at them, after all none of this was really their fault but she couldn't help but feel they were somehow implicated, even if it just meant them stopping him from performing that bloody brain biopsy to start with.

'He's doing a little better; he's with a physical therapist right now as he hasn't had any movement for the past 3 days and we don't want the muscle to atrophy. The longer he leaves it the worse it will be so he decided he wanted to start as soon as possible.'

'And the morphine? I mean, has he started withdrawal?' Chase couldn't help but ask, he could feel Foreman and Taub glowering at him at the inappropriateness of his question but Cuddy knew he was battling with his conscience and didn't really resent it.

'He's on a continuous morphine drip at the moment, withdrawal would be too much for his body to cope with now but when he's a little stronger we'll have to address it,' she explained, suddenly feeling drained. 'Thank you for the case, I'll pass it on later. If you have any breakthroughs let me know,' and with that she turned and left them reeling in her wake.

H

'Right,' the physical therapist said, 'we're going to start off slowly and easily because not going to lie, having seen your history this is going to hurt. First of all, I want you to sit forward, and sling your legs over the left-hand side of the bed.' House looked at her. This small and menial task was much harder than it would have sounded to anyone who was untrained, and the motion of pulling his right leg across to the other side of the bed was going to be very difficult. The lack of movement he'd had over the last few days had played havoc with the muscle and he couldn't remember the last time it felt this stiff, not to mention that while the swelling had decreased it hadn't completely disappeared.

He threw the duvet back and slowly sat forward. He shuffled his left leg across the bed as far as it could go before he needed to move the right, and automatically his hands went to support the underside of his thigh to help him manoeuvre it. 'Nope, all muscle power. Hands away,' she chastised, to which House sent her a withering look. 'Hey, if we're going to do this we may as well do it properly. This is an everyday task that will be made easier in the long run if we work on it.'

'Well in that case this is stupid as I sleep on the right side of the bed, and wouldn't need to get out on the left.'

'Therefore, getting up should be made 10x easier when you go back to doing that after you've mastered this. Now come on.' Very slowly, House dragged his right leg across the bed until it met the left, and eventually he reached the required position. He sat with both his legs dangling off of the bed and took some deep breaths for composure before the next task began.

'Ok, great,' she said. 'Now, I'm going to manipulate your right leg for a bit to try and increase blood flow and mobility. It will hurt, and I'm going to show Lisa what to do so that she can help you in the mornings and evenings, but it will be necessary for the recovery process. Ready?'

'If I say 'no' will it stop you?' He quipped, but she stared at him and clasped his leg with her burly hands.

'We're going to start off easy and as you get stronger I'll increase the intensity. Put your hands on my shoulders.'

He warily obliged, and she started simply by taking hold just below his right knee and drawing it up towards his body until he pulled such a face that it was a signal to stop. She lowered it again, waited 30 seconds, and then repeated the motion a further 9 times. By the time she was finished, he was a shaking, sweating wreck.

'You did good today,' she said as she helped him back into a horizontal position on the bed, 'I know it may seem inconsequential but you'll really notice the benefit when you start to get up and about.'

House nodded at her before closing his eyes and resting his head back against his pillow. 'I'll catch up with Lisa soon; I have another patient here tomorrow so I can go through the exercises I was talking about with her then. I'll see you soon,' she finished with, and left without him saying another word.

H

Cuddy's alarm went off at six o'clock that evening, thrusting her back into the land of the living. It took her a while to gauge where she was, it seemed like forever since she'd slept in her own bed, however without House it didn't quite feel right. She rubbed her face and sat up, before getting up and gathering a few things to take back to the hospital – some books, a warm jumper, and the picture of Rachel that usually sat on her bedside table. She quickly applied a touching of makeup before she got back into the car and proceeded to drive back to the hospital.

She walked through the double doors and approached the lifts, acknowledging the apologetic smiles of sympathy that she received from a few of the nurses and ignoring the more sneering looks she got from those who still couldn't understand her relationship with House. She pressed the call button and waited for the doors to open, however when they did she was met by a dishevelled, unshaven man who she used to think of as her closest friend. When he saw her he downcast his eyes in shame and tried to walk past her without saying so much as a word, but there was no way Cuddy was going to let that happen.

'Wilson,' she said as he moved passed, 'you look awful?' she was shocked by his appearance, and despite her anger towards him she couldn't help but know that inside he would have been torn to shreds as his conscience would have got the better of him.

'I haven't left the hospital since, y'know,' he mumbled, still not meeting her eye. They stood in silence for a few moments, neither knowing what to say.

'Don't you want to know how he's doing?'

'I was too afraid to ask, too afraid to find out, I've been sitting in my office playing out all the scenarios and couldn't think of a single positive one, Cuddy. I've convinced myself I don't deserve to know anyway so I'll just go, ok?'

'No, you do not get to mope around and feel sorry for yourself. You made a decision for a reason and you must now live with it, and despite what you think he's actually doing surprisingly well. He's met with a physical therapist today, he's agreed to detox when he's stronger, and he's talking to me about everything, so considering the circumstances he is doing magnificently.' Her voice had become louder throughout her speech and had drawn attention to them both. All the staff now knew the circumstances surrounding what had happened as gossip spreads like wildfire and were eagerly anticipating a showdown. Cuddy sighed.

'Look, why don't you go home, have a shower and a decent sleep and come back tomorrow. Come and visit. You two have endured so much crap in your weird and twisted friendship that you owe it to yourselves and to him to try and sort it out.' She turned away without giving him a chance to protest, knowing that he would feel obliged to do what she said.

'Cuddy? Thank you,' he whispered. She turned back to him.

'Don't thank me yet Wilson, I still resent you for what you chose and if House forgives you, so will I. Otherwise, I don't see how we can ever come past this.' The doors closed and when alone, Cuddy let out an almighty sigh, pleased by her own boldness. Wilson on the other hand slowly turned away and was faced by tens of faces all eying his every move. Self conscious didn't cut it.

H

Cuddy approached House's room and slid open the door. He looked ghastly. He was pale and had dark rings under his eyes, but when he saw her he mustered up a small smile and tried to sit up.

'Here, let me help you,' she said and placed her bag and the file from his team down on her chair. She helped him sit forward and then proceeded to fluff up the cushions behind his back so he was in a more upright position, and then planted a kiss on his lips. 'How are you feeling?'

'I'm ok,' he said tiredly, 'it's good to see you.'

'I've only been gone a few hours, was I wrong to leave?'

'No, no I told you to, but it's still nice to have you back,' he smiled. She took his hand and squeezed it.

'How was it?'

'Sore, and tiring. The woman is a dragon. She said she'd come by tomorrow to show you some of her moves.'

'Should I be jealous?' She smirked, trying to make light of the situation.

'Don't worry, you're safe,' he assured her and stroked her hand for confirmation.

'Would you like something? Are you in pain?'

'Of course I'm in pain, but no, I don't want anything. I'll ride it out, I'm tired and will probably fall asleep soon.'

'Ok. Well I take it you don't want to see this then...' she said, picking up the file, taunting him with it.

'Now I didn't say that,' he said and tried to grab it from her.

'Oh no, if you're too tired then maybe we should wait?'

'Well I'm not that tired after all, and we wouldn't want to let the patient suffer because the doctors they have are incompetent and the only decent one who could help is tired could we?'

'Hmm, I suppose not,' she grinned, and passed it over. He opened it and quickly scanned through the symptoms and history, his mind rapidly at work.

'Has she been travelling recently? Sub-Saharan Africa maybe?' He said, looking up at her.

'I don't know, did they not ask?'

'Only true idiots wouldn't ask, and they can't be that stupid as they've been working for me for years, however they may have accepted she was telling the truth and not dug around. Did they go to her house?'

'Again, I'm not sure-'

'Get them in here.'

'Are you sure? I mean you're still weak, do you want visitors?'

'They aren't well-wishers they're my employees and they will come when summoned. Page them.'

H

It should be said that I know absolutely nothing about physical therapy, and to be honest the actual exercises probably aren't very important to the story but thought I'd try! Hope it doesn't really bother anyone who actually knows what they're talking about.