Ari's Note: Ok, so I know that the start to this story has been somewhat slow. I'm hoping to redeem myself in this chapter and I really really hope you guys will give it a chance and review! Pretty pretty please? *Bats eyelashes*

The Letters

Part IV

Cherry Lollipops

The Present

The day following Cuddy, abruptly leaving the hospital- House waited patiently in his office to hear of her return…it never came.

So he waited until the following day, and instead focused on the humorous letters between the Cuddy sisters to keep himself entertained. But after each one that he read- and it seemed like they'd both written one daily to each other because there were a couple hundred of them- he kept pausing to look for her, wondering when she'd be back.

Another day passed- no Cuddy.

House dared not ask about her. Wilson had already suspected there was something going on, after he'd caught House smiling at her back a few days prior. And if he were to ask him what the status on Cuddy was, he'd automatically assume that he was concerned- he couldn't have that.

Cuddy had been gone a total of three days- not that House had been keeping track or anything- he told himself. Though, he had noticed her clear absence at times when Wilson- the interim Dean of Medicine- had shot down every test or procedure he'd asked to perform on his patient. House got the feeling he was doing it to earn respect from his fellow colleagues at the hospital, but it was still very annoying.

It was a funny thing that everyone thought Cuddy let him get away with anything he wanted- ok maybe it was partially true, but it was really wasn't the total truth. She'd just known him long enough to know that he was usually right when it came to his crazy unorthodox procedures he liked to perform on his patients.

If it had been a vacation that she was on, House would have bothered her and called her- maybe even showed up wherever it was that she was. But the fact that she was attending a funeral for her uncle and aunt- that stopped him.

No it wasn't that he felt empathy for her, over the fact that she was going through a difficult time, but because if he tried getting close to her, he feared that she would attempt to lean on him. Maybe she'd even cry on his shoulder? And what he was most scared of, even more than the latter was the fact that he might be ok with it. And honestly, it was all due to those ridiculous letters he'd found.

After weeks of reading the letters between Cuddy and her sister Julia, something had softened when a thought of her came to him. It was like he remembered a younger him and the obvious sparks that there'd been between them.

However, on the fourth day of Cuddy being gone, a low whispering erupted through out the hospital over the fact that she was back. House had picked up on some whispering between nurses and had promptly made his way down the elevator, only stopping to pocket some red lollipops, and one in his mouth before walking unannounced into her office,where she was seated behind her desk reviewing some papers.

"I was wondering when you'd stop by", she said flatly, without taking her eyes off all the papers in front of her.

"You ok?" he asked nonchalantly, plopping on to one of the seats in front of her, and a lollipop into his mouth.

His question caught her attention and she looked up, "Fine. Is there something you want House?"

There was a moment when he stalled, because he had no reason to be there other than to check on her- which she didn't seem to believe. Also he didn't want her to believe that either, so he licked his lips once and cleared his throat trying to think of something on the spot, "Yeah. Next time you decide to ditch your duties of the hospital, you might want to leave someone in charge who can make effective decisions."

"I thought you would have been the one person thrilled to have Wilson in charge?" She scoffed, turning to place a paper in her outbox.

House sucked on his lollipop and shrugged his shoulders, "Wilson is fine as a best friend- but as a Dean of Medicine? He sucks. He wouldn't let me do anything to my patient, who nearly died by the way. In the end it just turned out that she had TB."

Cuddy turned to him seriously, and took a tiny breath, "Noted. Anything else?"

He was a little caught off guard by her aversion to his humor, but shook his head and stood up, ready to walk out. He wasn't going to beg her to tell him how she was doing.

But there was a moment when he felt like really asking if she was ok- really wanting to know exactly what had happened to her extended family, and if she needed anything. But he couldn't bring himself to do it.

And he could also tell when he stood up to turn around that there was a moment where it looked like she expected him to ask too. After all, couldn't they be considered friends after having known each other for almost twenty years?

A few seconds passed by and he shot the thought from his head, taking out his Vicodin instead and popping a pill, to avoid pesky little feelings from festering in his head- they were beginning to be dangerous. He made a mental note to up his dosage.

Right about when he was about to make it to the door, Cuddy spoke up, "House?"

His head snapped around instantly and looked at her expectantly- it was obvious that she needed to say something, she needed to confide in him.

House was nearly ready to listen, and it scared him how much he wanted to hear what was going on with her life. He blamed himself for that, for invading her world by reading those letters that had shed a light on a side of Cuddy he never knew existed.

He'd only seen a fire in her once, and it was the night when…well he didn't want to remember it at the moment- yet there had only been a simple glimpse into the warmness she harnessed. Other than that, he'd felt that just like he, she'd become hard, and had pushed everyone an arms length away.

Honestly, he'd never questioned it. He wasn't one to talk about people's feelings or lack there of, but those letters- there had been a flood of emotions from her that he'd never expected to see. And the funny thing was that instead of wanting to make fun of her or feel a little freaked out by how much she'd liked him- which ok he still did want to, he found himself wanting to see more. And House didn't like that.

So when she'd called his name and he turned his head to hear what she had to say, he felt his heart beating a little fast with anticipation.

Yet, it never came.

What did come, was the front glass door to his body very violently, causing him to fall dramatically on the floor and hit the floor with his bad leg.

He held his breath, as he felt a series of hot searing pain shoot through his thigh. It had been a long time that he'd felt such throbbing in his leg- perhaps not since he'd been hospitalized for the infarction. Every inch of dead muscle surrounding the hole in his thigh lighted up in flaming red pounding pain. The worst part was that after a few seconds it didn't subside, it kept hurting and aching like never before, and he almost feared it would never go away.

There was a rustling noise around him, but he'd closed his eyes at the impact, and held his thigh, not caring what happened around him. He only focused on rubbing it, hoping that he could mentally convince himself it wasn't that bad.

"House? House? Are you ok?", Cuddy was at his side within seconds with both her hands on his back.

He nodded his head but didn't say anything.

"Emily, you need to be careful…You can't just open a door if you know that someone's standing in front of it- its rude. Why didn't you say anything?" Cuddy said to what he assumed was someone young, by the tone in her voice.

He couldn't open his eyes or say anything, for fear of yelling or maybe having painful tears escape his eyes. So after a few more seconds of irregular breathing, he inhaled deeply and swallowed, opening his eyes to see who his assaulter had been.

As House opened his eyes, there was a little girl, who couldn't have been older than five, in front of him.

The girl he assumed to be Emily, had medium olive skin, with big oval hazel eyes and extremely curly brown hair. She was wearing a blue dress with mustard socks and black Maryjane shoes.

He realized as he focused on the little girl, some of the pain had vanished, and instead he just felt the pressure and throbbing of where it had been- so he kept it up.

"I'm so sorry, this is Emily…my- cousin. Emily, what are you doing down here? You were supposed to stay with Ryan in the playroom."

The little girl looked like she was going to cry, or had been crying already, and she shrugged her shoulders, "Ryan left. He said he was going to find something to stimulate his bored brain because I was a bore."

House looked over at Cuddy who let out a huge sigh, "Did he leave the hospital?"

Emily nodded her head, then eyed the lollipops that had fallen out of House's pocket- she looked up at him.

"Sure, take one- its the least I can do after you assaulted me", he muttered- only half serious.

The little girl brightened up instantly and picked up all the lollipops, putting one in her mouth. House could tell that Cuddy didn't look too happy about the whole thing, but let it slide for the time being.

He felt Cuddy place both of her hands on his arm, "Do you think you can stand up?"

"I'm fine", he lied while grabbing his cane and only mildly leaning on her as he stood up.

As soon as he did, the pain return, and Cuddy noticed- helping him to her couch just in time, before his leg gave out completely.

"I'll be right back", she said grabbing Emily by the hand and leading her back out of the office- which left House alone to finally let out a huge sigh of repressed pain.

He took out his prescription bottle and didn't pay attention as he poured a small amount in his palm, swallowing them all at once. After he'd swallowed them, he realized it had been a little bit too much to swallow without anything to wash them down, and turned his head searching for any water or mugs.

There was a black mug at Cuddy's desk, and he painfully stood up, slowly limping his way to her seat, and falling into it. He picked up her almost full cup of coffee and took a large sip, making a face after he realized that it was bitter.

When he put the mug back down, and in the middle of swallowing his last gulp of bitter coffee, his eyes made their way to the papers she'd been looking at on her desk. There were two death certificates and legal papers she'd been in the process of filing out for adoption.

The adoption papers were for and Emily B Windsor and Ryan- but he didn't have a moment to finish reading the papers, when Cuddy walked back into her office.

"Is your leg going to be ok?" there was sincere worry in her voice.

He shrugged, "In about twenty minutes it'll all be behind us."

She rolled her eyes, "Vicodin?"

House nodded and then cocked his head to the side with a frown, "You're adopting kids?"

Cuddy licked her lips and breathed in deeply, "I-" she paused for a while, "Its none of your business."

"That little girl…did she belong to your aunt and uncle? Was she adopted? I mean unless you have a half-Korean, half-black uncle and indian aunt- she was obviously adopted to begin with." He let out vacantly.

"She's actually a quarter Korean, West-Indian, English and Armenian- and she doesn't know she's adopted so don't go breaking her heart…she's already been through a lot", she muttered walking around to where he was seated to gather the piles of papers that were out in the open.

House sighed, "Dammit I was so close…wait, how doesn't she know? I'm pretty sure when she sat down to take a family picture and she saw that everyone else looked the same except for her, it must have peaked her interest."

"She's a child House- a kid her age doesn't understand that sort of thing. Besides it's none of your business."

He scoffed, "I was just curious- that way I know what the name of the five-year-old that I'm going to sue is."

"She's four- and you very well know she didn't mean to hit you. She's been through a lot this past week. Her parents just died, and-" It was almost instant how fast Cuddy began breathing, as she paused to collect herself- not that she let herself cry in front of him anyway.

After a few seconds, she swallowed and took a deep breath, avoiding eye-contact with him, but inevitably falling against her desk.

House took a little breath himself and looked down momentarily at the floor before softly asking, "What happened?"

Cuddy placed a hand on the bridge of her nose and he could tell she was focusing on breathing because she wanted to avoid breaking down in front of him, "They were driving their son- Ryan back from his lacrosse game and there was arguing in the car…My uncle and aunt were in the front and they hit a car coming from the opposite direction dead on. They died instantly upon the impact and Ryan survived by a mere miracle…and luckily Emily was at a babysitter's house."

"So you're adopting them?" he was still a little confused on why the responsibility fell on her shoulders.

"What? Should I hand them off to foster care instead?"

House shrugged and looked away for a moment, "Well we do have a wonderful government system for unwanted kids, but I meant- Isn't there anyone else, like in your family?"

"Not on my uncles side- he was an only child. On my aunt's side, well...Julia already has three girls, she wouldn't be able to handle two more and my mom is well past her years of raising children- especially a rebellious sixteen-year-old boy and a four year old little girl", she muttered, "Besides…I've always wanted kids someday."

House took another sip of her bitter coffee, "It's a mistake, you're not the mothering type."

Cuddy scoffed, "Right, you would know."

"I know you're too busy with this hospital. I know that you work more than eighty-hours a week and you secretly come in on your days off to check-in with different departments."

"Are you stalking me?"

House scoffed, "No, everybody knows that stuff. Which is why you adopting these kids isn't going to work. They're going to cramp your style."

Cuddy's mouth contorted into a bit of a frown and she swallowed, hugging herself, "Stacy seems to think I have a great shot of adopting them."

House rolled his eyes as he went to stand up, the Vicodin had began to kick in, "You're using Stacy to help you with this? Then you're really screwed. Last time I used her as an attorney, I got a huge hole in my leg."

He watched as she went to roll her eyes, and then had an instant thought, which formed a smile on her lips, "You're just worried that mommy won't have any time for you. Don't worry House, mommy will still love you."

House bit his lip before letting out a laugh, "See, I knew you were still in love with me."

Cuddy's face fell, but he didn't stop to see it, and walked out of her office instead.

xxxoxxxo

As House walked out of the elevator, he was met by Wilson who was carrying a much more talkative Emily in his arms- whose little mouth was red from the lollipops she'd stolen from him.

When she spotted him with her eyes, they popped wide open, "This is the doctor that gave me the lollipops and that I hit. Lisa said he was mean, but I think he's really nice because he gave me lollipops."

Wilson looked at House with a look that said 'help me', but House just shook his head and scoffed- he had a meeting with a Cuddy letter and his ottoman- he had to put his oncoming buzz to good use.

"Ryan!" the little girl squealed all of a sudden and both House and Wilson turned to see who the little girl was speaking of.

There was a pale teenage boy, who was a tiny bit taller than Wilson, with scruffy light brown hair, bright blue eyes and a cast on his left arm- coming from around the corner. He took a huge intake of breath as his little sister spotted him and walked over to her, "Damn, you didn't get lost."

"Ryan is my brother. He loves me", the little girl said batting her eyelashes while nodding at House and sucking on her last lollipop.

The boy looked over at his sister with amusement, yet flatly said, "Oh so very much."

House worked really hard not to laugh and bit his lip, as he heard Wilson clear his throat, "Well I'm sure he does. And I'm sure he'd love to take you back to the play room, where your aunt Lisa asked you both to wait."

"She's my cousin", Emily corrected as she wiggled herself out of Wilson's arms and walked over to hold Ryan's reluctant unbroken right hand.

When it was clear to Ryan that she wasn't going to let go, he sighed and pulled her towards the elevator, without saying another word to either Wilson or House. But Emily turned around and eagerly waved goodbye to the both of them.

"Nice kids", Wilson said with both arms on his hips, after they'd gotten into the elevator.

House scoffed and made his way towards his office, "Oh yeah, they're lovely. Cuddy's going to have her hands full."

"What do you mean?" Wilson asked as he picked up his pace to catch up with House.

He stopped and turned over to Wilson with a frown, "She didn't tell you? I thought she'd run to go tell you her exciting news…she's adopting them."

Wilson's eyes went wide, "Oh dear mother of god- no. Seriously?"

"That's what I said."

Wilson seemed at a loss of what to say, "But- she…she isn't maternal."

"And that's exactly what I told her. See if we agree, then I really must be right…or wrong? hmm…I'll have to think about that as I take my nap." House pushed his glass door open, and fell onto his comfortable ottoman that was calling his name.

Luckily Wilson caught the point and didn't follow him in, which left House to open up the next 'Cuddy Letter' he hoped would bring some humor into his somewhat weird day that he'd had so far.

October 29, 1987

Lisa,

I don't know why you'd want to remember that someone spiked your drink, and how could someone even do that? Is that normal at college parties? Actually, I can't believe you still like the guy after what you said you saw him do, and then he kidnapped you to his apartment? How do you know he didn't rape you? You are a virgin after all-

House stopped to throw his head back and laugh at that moment. It was amusing that Julia thought she was still a virgin.

Cuddy was no saint.

-I don't know Lisa, he just sounds sketchy if you ask me. Whatever happened to Atticus? I haven't heard anything about him and you told me he was going to be at Michigan too- mom likes him.

Please as a favor for me, and my sanity, stay away from this Greg House guy, he just sounds like he's more trouble than he's worth.

your-overly stressed out sister,

Julia

House snickered and pulled out the next one that Cuddy had stapled to her sister's letter, feeling smug at the fact that she'd called him trouble.

November 2nd, 1987

Julia,

Do not mention Atticus to me- and I think I may have made Greg seem a little worse than he actually is. He's actually kind of nice, in a weird jerkish way. Well, at least he did a nice thing for me a couple days ago.

See, we had a field trip planned for our endocrinology class this past Saturday, and I woke up late to get on the bus that would take us to Ann Arbor's Pediatric Department…..

TBC…