Title:Hidden Moments
Rating:T
Disclaimer: House doesn't belong to me, no copyright infringement intended
Spoilers: Nothing big in the plot so far but based on episodes series 2-4
Archive: Probably but please ask me first anyway.
Sorry its taken so long to upload a new chapter. This one is quite a long time after the last, halfway through season 4.
Mirror Mirror
They lay tangled together in the bed. House could feel himself drifting off to sleep, content with the woman snuggled against him. Just as he was on the brink of drifting off he heard
'I've rehired Foreman, hope you don't mind.'
But his sleepy mind couldn't comprehend what Cuddy had said and he only managed a muffled 'mhm' before he succumbed to sleep.
The next morning Cuddy was rudely awoken as the man she had been lying on shot straight upright in bed.
'You did what?!' he shouted, she knew exactly what he meant, but she'd been hoping that he would have forgotten and she could have used the agreement he gave last night against him.
'Foreman is back on your team, you're just going to have to accept it,'
'No. Not happening. No way.'
***
House looked up to see Cuddy and Foreman walk through the door. He couldn't believe that woman. He had been almost certain he'd convinced her with his 'I wont ever have sex with you again argument' but apparently she hadn't believed him. Smart woman.
'You didn't tell him I was coming back?' asked Foreman
House and Cuddy looked at each other
'She did, I said no,' technically, eventually when she wasn't being manipulative. Unfortunately he could tell that this was one she wasn't backing down on, yet. He would just have to be more resourceful.
***
House looked tentatively into Cuddy's office. The nurse who had bought him here had told him it was urgent and he was scared to go in, not sure how angry he had made her in the last few hours. The blinds were drawn which made him even more worried, whatever his punishment was it obviously wasn't going to be pretty.
He stepped inside the room but before he could do anything he found himself pushed up against the glass with Cuddy kissing him and her hands roving all over his body underneath his jacket. He was confused, this wasn't how this was meant to go, she was meant to be mad, not trying to play out one of his favourite fantasies. Then he stopped thinking and just went with it, who was he to try and fathom the workings of a woman's brain.
As Cuddy kissed him hard her hands deftly searched his pockets for the ever present bottle of pills. As House undid her shirt she took his jacket off, throwing it across the room and threw the vicodin in the other direction.
House was reaching round behind her to undo her bra and reach his prize when, as suddenly as she had started, she stopped and pushed him away.
'I have a meeting,' she said breathlessly by way of explanation, bundling him and his jacket out of the room.
House found himself standing in the clinic wondering what the hell had just happened. Was this her way of getting him back, teasing him forever but never following through? He was about to walk off when Cuddy emerged from her office and handed him back his tablets, before silently disappearing again. Confused House went to find his team.
***
Two hours later…
Cuddy knew that once House figured out his vicodin had been switched he'd move on to his stash, which was why she was in his office trying to find said stash and replace that too, a process slightly less fun than the last switch. She turned, startled, as the door opened. House would not be happy if he found her in here rummaging through his things. She gave a sigh of relief when she realised it was Wilson.
'You don't knock?' she said irritably
'Are you putting KY jelly on his phone receiver? An exploding snake in his drawer?' all good ideas and ones which she wished she had thought of herself.
'No. I'm replacing his vicodin stash with laxatives,' Wilson looked surprised but not as appalled as she would have thought
'Don't. Don't stoop to his level,' he said shaking his head. She wasn't in the mood for being told what to do today though. She had had enough and wasn't going to take it anymore,
'Why? Because he's suddenly going to realise he's no longer 14? Either I take his garbage forever, or I give him a reason to stop.'
'You don't have to make him miserable. Just... make him think that he's won' Cuddy narrowed her eyes at him, did he not realise how miserable House made her sometimes?
'I'm not going to fire Foreman,'
'I said think he's won. Find some other way to soothe his ego. The thing's big enough. You must be able to find some corner to polish.' That was true enough thought Cuddy, perhaps she had been a bit hasty in punishing him this severely. Sighing in defeat she returned his stash to its proper place,
'Where were you two hours ago?' she asked.
'Where were you?' Wilson replied looking confused, she didn't think he'd want to know.
***
Cuddy smiled as House walked off, Wilson was right about his ego, she thought. House took a few steps then turned as though realising just how easy that had been,
'Wait a second. What the hell was that? You were won over by my soaring rhetoric? I basically just threatened to hold my breath,' Cuddy turned and smiled at him, she knew he was never going to win this.
'You never intended to stop me. You just pretended to stop me, so you could pretend to fail to stop me, so you could stroke my ego. Uh-Uh. War doesn't end till Foreman's gone.' Cuddy moved into his personal space until they were nearly touching, making sure in the process he got a good look down her top, the more distractions, she had decided, the better,
'Foreman's not going anywhere,' House looked defeated for a moment and her grin grew bigger, then he moved towards he slightly and said in a lower voice,
'And I know when my Vicodin isn't Vicodin. Do you know when your birth control pills aren't birth control pills?' Cuddys face fell as he turned triumphant and carried on down the corridor, he wouldn't, would he?
***
'See I knew I was the dominant one,' House said smugly as they sat in front of the TV.
'Only because I let you, replied Cuddy tartly. She was still annoyed about House's patient picking him as the dominant one but she had to admit – if only to herself – that in a way it was true. She couldn't think of anything he was likely to do which would actually make her fire him, sanctions were pretty useless unless it was with clinic duty, which he didn't hate nearly as much as he professed. That meant he held all the cards, he was much more inventive that her when it came to winding each other up.
In the end though, she decided she didn't mind, not when they were sitting together enjoying an evening in with no thought about the hospital or patients. Just the two of them. Evenings like this made putting up with him during the day worth it. Plus she'd replaced all her birth control pills – just in case.
