Borderline

Chapter Ten: When It's Over

Cuddy walked out of House's office completely defeated, knowing that he was right and she had ruined everything between the three of them. Now she had to face James. She still didn't know how she'd be able to, not now. But of course it was only fair, not that anything up until then really had been fair to any of them.

She slipped out of the office and nearly ran straight into her boyfriend, fiancé, soon to be ex and nearly jumped out of her skin. "God, James why are you out here? I-I thought you went back to your office…"

"No I was here, waiting for you so that you could explain what in the hell is going on. Why is House acting this way?"

"He's hurt-"

"Well clearly!"

"Hey, don't. Don't have an attitude right now, please, James." She tried and failed to glare at him, so instead she resigned herself to a soft sigh and rested her head in her hand. "Can we go talk in your office?"

Wilson looked at her sadly, knowing full well that this wasn't going to end in his favor. He nodded anyway and slipped his hand to her back, slowly leading her the few steps to privacy.

"So…" He asked again, once in the sanctity of his closed in office. "What's going on?"

"House is leaving."

"You mean he's threatening to leave again?"

"No. He's done. He's not coming back."

"Is… is it because of me?"

Cuddy nodded slowly, averting her watering eyes to the ground. "Yes. And me. He's… hurt. He's upset. He's angry and he doesn't think he can forgive us."

Wilson sighed and stepped over to the couch, motioning for Cuddy to follow him, and he settled into the thick leather cushions heavily. She nearly didn't follow, but upon seeing the pain on his features her guilt dragged her over and positioned her on the opposite end of the couch, much to his dismay. He shook his head softly, trying to shake the nagging voice in the back of his mind telling him everything was over. "We really should have thought about this a long time ago."

"You should have said something to him. You're his best friend."

"You could have said something. It's not like I'm his only friend."

"James, this just never should have happened. The three of us were fine before. Not great, but we were fine. Now he's not even going to involve us in his life, he'll never forgive us!"

"Look, Lisa…" Wilson turned and softly touched her cheek. "It will work out. He'll get use to it, and he'll come back. He cares about us, much as he hates admitting it."

"James…" She sighed, turning away from him in attempt to hide the tears building up again in her eyes. "He won't come back. Trust me."

Wilson pulled away from her slowly and studied her, wondering why she seemed so different today. "What's-"

"Hasn't it bothered you? Him ignoring you? Do you not care? Why haven't you sought him out and spoken to him?"

"B-because I, I figured he was-"

"Upset?"

"Yes."

She stood to her feet and began pacing slowly. "You should have talked to him. Maybe.. maybe he wouldn't be leaving."

"You seem to adamantly believe he would have left and that he will be gone for good no matter what. Why? What happened?"

"Nothing." She said quickly. Too quickly. "Nothing. Just… I… Nothing happened. He just… He's been trying to tell me how he felt and I haven't been giving it the appropriate attention."

"He talked to you about us?"

She nodded, hoping not to go into further detail about the matter. "Yes."

"Did he talk to you… last night?"

She nodded again, "Yes we spoke last night. He was extremely unhappy. I had no idea that he'd.. Go and do that to you…"

"Do… Do you think I should talk to him still?"

"Yes! For the love of God at least apologize!"

"I did! I did last night! I tried to talk to him-"

"Maybe you should try to do it in a more civilized manner next time." She snapped, giving him a quick glare.

"Oh, now the fight is my fault?"

"No…" She replied quickly, returning to her seat next to him. I'm sorry I just… I don't want him to leave."

"I don't either…" He said quietly, slipping a hand into her hair and pulling her close to him. "I'm sorry, Lisa… I'll go talk to him. I want things to be ok as much as you do…"

He leaned in slowly to place a soft kiss on her lips, but she turned and allowed his lips to graze her cheek. Confused, he pulled back and gave her another quizzical stare. "Lisa…? Are you going to be ok?"

She shook her head sadly and looked down at her hands. "I… I can't… I can't talk about this here…"

"Well where do you want to go? What do we need to talk about? I- Do you want me to go talk to him now? What? Tell me what to do."

"Go talk to him." Cuddy sighed, her voice hushed as she crossed her arms over her chest and looked at the floor as though it could save her from this awful situation, though she knew that only a miracle could at this point. "You can come by later. We'll finish this. Later. I… I have things to do. Excuse me."

And she left him standing there, stunned, baffled and disheartened as she continued on her descent down to her office and her own thoughts on how to go about ending things between the two men in her life.

A/N: God, please forgive me for my failure in the updates. I've had a harsh month. I'll update more frequently after Nov. 13th.