It has been four days since what happened in the Clinic.
Every time she came for the day, or left, she saw his motorcycle still there. Because he was too.
She never went back up to his room. As she said, she was going to stay away. But Wilson felt it his duty to keep her up to date. He had a setback with his breathing, so they kept him a little longer for observation, and he'll be back to work tomorrow.
That was yesterday.
She was trying to keep herself busy with paperwork. She tried waiting for him to come in so she could get that moment over with, but that just made time go by slower. So she opted to stay busy.
Her phone rang that she answered on the second ring, while still looking down at her desk. It was her old hospital asking if they can borrow a surgeon. They were short one, someone called in sick.
"Um, hang on, I think I have a copy of who is supposed to be here somewhere, to see who I can spare-" she bent down to look into a drawer when a bang hit against her door. She jumped in surprise and looked at the door and saw House who used his cane to knock and opened it when he saw her look up. "Can I call you back in a couple minutes?" He stood there waiting, staring at her. "Okay, thanks." She hung up and looked at him.
"I figured we should get this over with," House announced.
"Get what over with?" She responded coldly.
"Oh, I get it. You're all rigid because you're still thinking of that fight that we had last time I saw you," House answered.
"Oh, you mean about the one where I say I'll leave you alone and you let me walk out? That one? Yeah, I guess I am. What do you want, House?"
He breathed out deeply, let his head drop to point to the ground but raised his eyes to look at her. "You know I was just trying to get my way out of staying."
"What do you want, House? I have a phone call to return." She was trying to be as distant as she could but found it harder the longer he stood there staring at her.
"Aren't you even going to ask if I'm healthy enough to work?"
"What's the point? You'd probably just lie to me about it, even if you weren't."
"Wilson has been telling you."
"Maybe. But, how do you know it was Wilson? How do you know I didn't hear from someone else?"
"Because NOBODY BUT HIM AND MY NURSE WAS IN MY ROOM!"
She didn't break, she kept her face serious. "Whose fault is that?"
House slammed the bottom of his cane on the ground in frustration. "Dammit, Cuddy. Fine, I NEEDED you in there. You happy? Ever since you walked out the damn door I needed you!"
"No, House. I'm not happy," she she giving him a sad look, "I'm done. You said you were going to let someone in, go do it. YOU go be happy. I have work to do," she walked out of her office, leaving the door open for him and never gave him a second glance.
He got up to his office and sat down, staring at his door. She had to come up sometime and give him a patient. If he could do anything to perfection, it's waste time. So, that's exactly what he was set out to do.
His team was in the other room sitting around the table looking in on him, trying to decide if they should ask him if they can do anything for him.
"No," Chase said. "If we ask him now, he'll send us to do something stupid and degrading just because we asked him. When you see the look that he has now on his face, be thankful he's leaving you alone. We stay here until he gets us." They went back to awkwardly looking at him and each other, as they waited for something to happen.
House's stare was pulled away from a book he had open on his desk that he wasn't reading to the man in a suit he had never seen before walk in. "You Dr. House?"
"Depends on what you want?"
"Dr. Cuddy said you might say something like that," he started walking further into the room.
"Dr. Cuddy?"
"Yeah, she has a patient for you," he placed the file on his desk.
"She couldn't give it to me herself?"
"No, she said that she had other things to do, and that you seem to want the distance, so she was letting you get what you want." House looked at him angry. "Her words, not mine."
House looked down at the file to see what was wrong with the patient. "Should I tell her you'll take the case?" he asked innocently.
"Do I have a choice in the matter?" House snapped.
"I don't think so."
"Then yes, tell her I'll happily take the case. Because I'm HAPPY now."
The man walked out of the room and House's gaze lingered on his door, annoyed, then looked at his team who tried to quickly look away. He grabbed his cane and the file and walked into the room. "We have work to do."
Cuddy knew she probably should have went up to his office herself, but, she didn't want to see him yet. So, when the new Dean of Medicine from her old hospital stopped by to give her more supplies from their hospital that they were running low on in exchange for a surgeon, she asked him to do one little favor before he left.
Since then, her office was quiet. House hadn't come in once to ask her to okay anything. She saw him walk by a few of times to go into the Clinic to get a member of his team and a couple of those times, saw him quickly peek into her office, but that was it.
Around 3pm, she saw Wilson standing at the lobby desk without House and decided to go talk to him. "So, how's his patient doing?" She asked when she stood on his right.
"If you mean his patient, as in HOUSE'S patient, you can ask him yourself."
Cuddy scowled at him. "I can't do that. He made it clear he wants distance. So-"
Wilson scoffed. "So you're letting him have his way? When do you EVER do that? You guys argue more than anyone to avoid letting each other have what the other wants. You're worse than any married couple I've known."
"But we're NOT married. And, I've stopped caring. He clearly is still upset with me for what I did, so why try and fix things with him? You know he even tried to get me to believe that he NEEDED me when he was in observation?" she paused. "I bet you told him to say that."
Wilson looked at her thoughtful. "I... didn't. He told you that?"
Cuddy looked surprised. "Well, it doesn't matter. I'm done," she turned on her heel to walk back to her office.
"Yeah, I believe you," Wilson said in a sarcastic tone.
She turned and looked back at him, "oh shut up."
Then she heard it. The sound of something hit the railing by accident on the second level. She looked up and saw the heel of House's right foot, and the thing that made the noise: his cane. She went back into her office wondering how long he was standing there.
As he walked back to the elevator to go back to his office he knew he screwed up. He said the wrong thing, and it hit her harder than he expected. So, she has given up, he had to find a way to let go too.
It was coming close to 5:30, and Cuddy was gathering all her stuff to leave for the day. A day that definitely took its toll on her. She was exhausted from avoiding House, and sighed when she thought she had to do it all over again the next day.
She grabbed her coat from her chair, slipped it on and put her purse strap over her right shoulder when she saw House walk through the lobby with his backpack over his shoulder, also leaving.
She didn't want to have to walk out at the same time as him so watched him walk out first, but noticed something else.
He wasn't alone. He was with a woman.
She recognized her as a nurse that Foreman must have hired because she never worked with her. But, the reason she knew her was because she saw her as House's nurse when he was in observation. The day she went up there, she was on that floor.
House never looked in the direction of Cuddy's office. He kept his eye on the nurse and she was walking out with him.
Cuddy's heart felt heavy, regretting the words she said to him earlier. He was trying to let her go...