Ok guys, here's another chapter. I 've got another busy weekend ahead of me so I may not post again till Mon or Tues. Hope you enjoy it ;)
Chapter 10
It was a few weeks later and on a Friday that Cuddy was seated at her desk inside of her office. Feverishly trying to finish up an approval on a last minute budget item so she could leave by three pm and pick up Jessica and Ryan for the demist appointments she had scheduled for them at 3:30pm.
Reviewing the proposal one last time, she heard a knock at her door.
"Come in." She said without lifting her eyes from the computer screen.
"Hard at work again?" Jack questioned as he entered the office and closed the door behind him.
"Jack, I don't have much time. What do you need?" Cuddy answered, giving him a quick glance as he walked up to her before focusing back on the screen.
Jack rounded the corner of the desk. Watching as Cuddy looked up at him once more.
"I don't need anything, Lisa. I just wanted to show you the new icon for our dictation system on your desktop. We got it installed ahead of schedule so it looks like I'll only need to be here next week at the latest until everything is ready to go." Jack told her in a good natured tone. Which of course had a bit of pride attached to it because of the fact that his IT team would be getting the job done ahead of schedule.
"Oh, of course…by all means." Cuddy replied, leaning back from the computer screen as she minimized the document she had been reviewing.
Jack smiled as he leaned down towards her, reaching in front of her for the mouse.
"Now as you can see right here, the new icon features a stethoscope. Which of course my idea." He bragged as he clicked on the small image, thereby opening up the program.
Within his next breath as he told Lisa about the options buttons on the display window that had appeared before them, his nose was filled with the scent of her perfume.
These past few weeks working here at the hospital and being in the presence of his ex lover from so many years ago had proven one thing to him loud and clear. He was still very attracted to Lisa Cuddy …even though her name included a hyphen and the name House attached to the end of it.
As he continued to speak to her while taking in the scent of her perfume, Jack glanced down towards the peach blouse Lisa was wearing today. Finding within his view the vision of her perfect breasts nestled beautifully inside the cream colored bra she was wearing.
As the mouse stilled on the screen, Cuddy raised her eyes up towards Jack's face, feeling her breath catch in her throat as she realized immediately what had distracted him from his demonstration.
"Jack, I think you better go now and have someone else on your team come by tomorrow to show me the progress you've made." She said to him in a controlled voice even though she had been completely unnerved by the situation.
Jack took a step back from her. "Lisa, I'm sorry…..I.." He started to apologized clumsily as she got up from the chair and took a step away from him, creating even more distance between them.
"Jack, please...just go." Cuddy told him while inside of her mind her thoughts were already spinning as to how she was going to tell House about the awkward moment just now between her and her ex lover.
"I've never gotten over you." Jack confessed to her as he took a step towards her.
"Jack ..stop." Cuddy protested, feeling her head begin to spin as it suddenly was filled with the ghost of Jeff Hansom.
"Lisa, please.... you need to be honest with yourself. You and I both know you didn't just hire me because of the computer software. Deep down you know even with your two kids and a marriage to House, the two of us make more sense together than you being with him ever would. I just screwed things up for us a long time ago…but that doesn't mean it's too late for us." He added as he gently moved his hand to her cheek, meaning every word he had spoken.
In an instant Cuddy shoved him back from her as a harsh breath escaped her mouth. Her eyes were now wide and filled with confusion, hurt and anger all at the same time.
"Get this straight Jack, I love my husband... and whatever you think my motives were for hiring you....you could be more wrong. Now I suggest you leave my office now before I end up firing you." Cuddy told him just before she clenched her teeth, completely enraged that he would have the nerve to think he could ever be half the man that Greg had been for her.
Jack felt his throat tighten, threatening to cut off the supply of air to his lungs. He had fucked up big time and now the only recourse to keep from getting his as fired was to do exactly what Lisa wanted him to.
Without saying another word he turned and left her office, thinking that there had to be someway to make this all right again. To make her calm down and patch things up again.
I just need a little time, Jack repeated inside of his mind over and over again. The words becoming mumbled and rushed like an old vodoo curse as he pushed the button to the elevator before him and stepped inside of it.
Fifteen minutes later, Cuddy was inside of her car, driving towards the middle school to pick up Jessica before heading onto the grade school to pick up Ryan.
Breath…just breath, Cuddy told herself when she had realized just how close she was to hyperventilating as thoughts of Jeff Hansom combined with the scene between her and Jack inside of her office a few minutes ago.
Jack would never try to rape her. Would never hurt her physically in anyway like Jeff had done. He was not a madman. He was just a man who refused to believe that he had lost her forever because of the hugeness of his ego.
"Mom?" Jessica yelled from outside the car door as she pulled on the handle impatiently.
Cuddy jumped, not remembering exactly how she had gotten to the middle school and parked outside of it.
"Sorry." She said to her daughter a second later with a small forced smile after she had disengaged the lock and Jessica climbed into the passenger seat.
"Mom….. are you ok?" Jessica asked as she tucked a lock of her long dark hair behind her ear.
"Yeah Jess, I'm fine. There's just a lot of stuff going on at the hospital right now." Cuddy told her with a another small smile, putting the maroon Acura sedan into drive once more before pulling out into the street and heading towards Ryan's grade school.
With both kids now inside of the car, Cuddy had let out a few deep silent breaths, trying to calm herself down as Ryan and Jessica talked to each other about going up to the cabin this weekend.
"Mom, before we leave can we stop by the mall so I can get my ear pierced?" Jessica asked suddenly form the passenger seat.
"You already have your ears pierced?" Cuddy stated, glancing over at her daughter with confusion as she slowed a bit for the line of traffic waiting at a four way stop sign.
"No Mom, I want my ear pierced, up here in the cartilage just like you have on your left ear." Jessica informed her mother with an innocent tone as she pointed to the spot with her fingertip.
Cuddy's let out a laugh of disbelief. "Absolutely not." She informed her daughter while shaking her had as she pressed gently on the gas when the car in the line of traffic in front of her went through the stop sign.
"I told you Mom would say no Jess!" Ryan said from the back seat with a giggle as he continued to play with his gameboy.
"Shut up Ryan!" Jessica grumbled, glaring at him as he grinned back at her from the rearview mirror before she focused her gaze on her mother once more.
"Please Mom, Tennille's mom let her get her cartilage pierced last week." Jessica tried to reason.
"I don't care what Tennille's Mom let her do, you are not getting your cartilage pierced and that's final." Cuddy replied, not backing down an inch as she continued to move the car forward as she was next in line to go proceed through the four way stop.
"But it's not fair! You have your cartilage pierced!" Jessica started to argue with the stubbornness of her Father now running through her, determined to push the bounders just as much as he did.
"Jessica I'll have you know, I was eighteen -" Cuddy started to say just before her daughter let out a piercing scream as her eyes flew open wide with terror.
It only took a second for the big black truck that had ran the stop sign to slam into their car on the driver's side. The horrible sound of metal colliding with metal screaming out even louder than Jessica had before she was knocked unconscious and the car was pushed up onto the curb of the road.
"Jesus Christ!" A middle age man inside the car behind Cuddy's said as he watched the gut wrenching crash before him with his hands glued onto his steering wheel as his heart pounding inside of his chest.
For a few seconds an eerie silent moved over the strech of road as everything around the two vehicles became frozen in time.
From the passenger seat of Acura, Jessica blinked her eyes open. A groan escaping her lips.
She was smothering, or at least she thought she was a she batted away the air bag covering her face and felt a sharp pain ride up her right shoulder as if it had been torn out of the socket.
Gazing out at the cracked windshield, Jessica trembled at the sound of her own sharp breathing before slowing turning her head to her left, while keeping her right shoulder as still as possible.
"Mom?" She croaked out in a voice filled with pain, turing to face her mother and finding her unconscious.
"Mom, wake up." She said again with a bit of urgency staring to fill her voice just a Ryan was jolted back to consciousness and started to cry in the back seat
"Mom.. are you okay! Please Mom...wake up!" Jessica shrieked as her eyes welled up with tears.
"Jessie! What's wrong with Mom?" Ryan cried out as he fumbled with his seatbelt, desperately trying to break free of it.
"Mom please! Wake up!" Jessica pleaded, gently touching her mother's shoulder and jumping when she felt Ryan's hand latching onto her arm like a vise.
"Is Mom ok? Is she dead!?" Ryan blurted out, terrified beyond belief as the tears ran down his cheeks and over the angry abrasion on his chin.
Jessica glanced back at her brother briefly before quickly moving her fingers over to her mother's neck. The knowledge to do so passed on by her Father at some point in her young life.
"She's still got a pulse." Jessica told her brother as she held tight noto that small bit of hope.
"What doe's that mean?" Ryan stuttered as took in a shakey breath, staring up at his Mom as he choked back a few more tears.
"It means Mom's heart is still beating. Which means she still alive." Jessica replied, trying to calm her voice in order to stop her brother from sobbing uncontrollably. "Oh god Ryan….you're bleeding too." She then said in a hushed voice once she had turned around fully to face him. Finally seeing the cut just below the hairline on his forehead were a small stream of blood was down making its way down the bridge of his nose.
"I'm…I'm bleeding?" Ryan asked with shock…. touching his forehead and feeling of something warm coating his fingers just as the wailing sound of siren, announcing the impending arrival of an ambulance cut through the air surrounding them.