Chapter Eleven : Whatta Man

"Wanna see the new Tom Cruise movie?" Lisa inquired when she met up with House in the elevator. His lunch with Amanda seemed to take forever and Lisa waited another few hours before following him.

"Thanks, but no thanks."

"Okay, then what about..."

"I have plans tonight. Sorry."

"With whom?"

He stepped out of the elevator when it reached his floor and of course she followed.

"Since when is any of that your business? I work for you, it doesn't mean I have to share my private life. There's a reason they call it private. Now, was there something you needed or can I pack up my stuff and leave in peace?" he asked as he exited the elevator and headed for his office. She trotted behind him and stood in front of his desk, hip cocked at an angle with her hand resting on her narrow waist.

He started shoving items into his backpack and then grabbed his jacket.

Cuddy gave him a sweet smile. "Well, I hope your plans don't include the company of Doctor Evans because there's been a multi-vehicle accident and since she's in the ER, and Woods has already left so she could be in there for awhile."

That was it. He'd had enough. "What the hell is your problem? Why are you treating her like this? She's an amazing doctor, and you're wasting her talents in the clinic and the ER when she was doing just fine before. Why can't you just get it through your head that you and I are never going to happen?"

"I just thought…"

"That's your problem. You think way too much. Just back the hell off and leave her alone, or you're going to lose her and probably more. I've worked for a lot of administrators and you are by far the poorest excuse for a Dean of Medicine I've ever worked for."

"Yeah well we saw how that worked out for you. You got fired from just about every place you worked. You couldn't even get hired at a blood bank! I got you cheap."

"Right. You gave me everything I wanted, because one night I gave you…"

Her eyes widened as she hushed him and he stopped. "That's it, isn't it? You're still hooked on that one night. You've been carrying a torch for years and now that you've got me in your hospital you think you own me. Well think again. I don't need PPTH as much as you want me to believe."

And with that, he turned the lights off in his office and left her standing alone in the dark. He went down to the ER to see for himself. It looked like AJ had things under control but it was still busy.

"I can't get out of here," Amanda told him as she worked at giving stitches to a woman. "Sometimes I wonder if Lisa didn't cause this car accident just to make sure I was stuck in here."

"She's capable of a lot of crap, causing car accidents isn't one of them. How many more people do you have to see?"

"Just a few."

"I'll give you a hand then, but we are going out tonight."

"Fine," she sighed and went back to work.

It was well after midnight before they left. Greg walked with Amanda out to her car.

"I'm sorry," she told him leaning against the car door. "Maybe we can try another time."

Impulsively, he leaned forward and kissed her. To his surprise and delight she responded. Deepening the kiss, his pulled her into his arms and she pressed against him as her tongue slid against his. His hands slid beneath her scrub top and stroked the silky skin of her back before unhooking her bra. She moaned when his hand closed over her firm breast. He rubbed the palm of his hand over her taut nipple. He sucked her bottom lip into his mouth as her hand dipped into his pants. Pulling back slightly, he looked at her. Her lips were swollen and her pupils were dilated as she stared back at him.

"Come home with me," he whispered.

She nodded and he walked to his car. Amanda unlocked her car and followed him. She smiled when she saw he still drove the Dodge Dynasty he got after the accident. He hadn't changed and that made her very happy.

Lisa watched them from her office window. Rage bubbled up when Greg began to kiss and fondle Amanda. When they broke apart and then drove off, she knew she had to do something. Someone was stealing opiates from the pharmacy. Lisa knew it was Gail, a pharmacy tech, but no one else did. She would blame Amanda, get her arrested and then fire her. She reached for the phone and then stopped. How would Greg react? This could backfire on her and she could lose him. She wasn't willing to risk that. Pulling her hand back, she began looking through the pile of papers on her desk. She found the one she was looking for and read it over. Doctor Alan Petrie was retiring as Dean of Medicine at Miami General. He sent out an email with a list of candidates to replace him. Amanda's name was at the top of his list. Lisa just had to be willing to release her. She smiled and turned to her computer. She quickly typed out an email and then sat back in her chair. Perfect. She would have to wait for a response but she knew what the answer would be. Petrie and the board at Miami would jump at the chance to have Amanda and Lisa would be rid of her This way she would have Greg to herself and he couldn't get mad about his oldest friend getting a job like that. She glanced at her watch. It was nearly two in the morning. She picked up her phone and dialed Amanda's pager. Then she sat back and waited.

"What's wrong?" House whispered in the darkened bedroom as he and Amanda lay on his bed holding each other. They still had most of their clothes on, and she sighed heavily.

"I'm sorry, Greg. I'm just...really tired. I can't...keep my eyes open," she said between yawns.

"It's fine. You've had a long day. I forgot how exhausting the ER can be. I did a stint of that at Hopkins for a few months. I don't know how you do it. You must have super human powers or something," he teased, making her giggle.

"Super something," she laughed. Her pager beeped and she groaned. "It's fucking two in the morning…."

House reached over and checked her pager, which sat on his table. "It's Cuddy. Ignore it. Aren't you supposed to be off tomorrow...or rather, today?"

"Yeah...so why is she paging me now?"

"It doesn't matter. You're not on the clock. You don't owe her anything. Giving you only one day off every two weeks is ridiculous. Even Woods thinks so. If it were up to her, you wouldn't be working like a Goddamn slave." He wrapped his arms around Amanda and pulled her close, kissing her temple. "Get some sleep. We'll talk in the morning. I'll take you somewhere for breakfast."

"Mmm...sounds good," she murmured as she snuggled closer and fell asleep minutes later, leaving him to his thoughts.

What did Cuddy want? Why was she even still up? He knew she was up to something, and he was determined to get to the bottom of it. But in the meantime, he wanted to spend the day off with AJ. He had a few ideas, and one of them involved getting her the hell out of Princeton, even if it was just for the day.

Morning came and Amanda woke up first. For a minute, she forgot where she was, but then she heard House snoring softly next to her and she smiled. They were both still wearing their clothes and she ran her hands through her hair as she contemplated what to do next. She reached for her pager and saw three more missed pages from Lisa. Screw it. It was her day off and she was not going into work.

With that in mind, she got up, being careful not to wake Greg, and took a quick shower. When she emerged from the bathroom fifteen minutes later, he was already up, getting dressed. "Morning. Feel better?" he asked as he made his way over to her. All she wore was a towel wrapped snugly around her body, and her long blonde hair dripped water.

"Much. How did you sleep?"

"Okay," he shrugged, still staring at her intently. He wanted to rip that towel from her and take her back to bed. But he was hungry, and he did promise to take her for breakfast.

"I remember you saying something about breakfast."

"Yeah. So get dressed and we'll go."

"Umm...I don't have anything else but my scrubs from yesterday, Greg. And they're kinda gross."

"Oh," he said, and then went to his closet. He tossed her one of his band T-shirts and a pair of sweatpants. "We can swing by your place on the way to breakfast and you can change."

"Oh, are we going somewhere?" she asked as she took the clothes into the bathroom with her.

"I thought we'd make a day of it. God only knows when your next day off will be."

"Good point. I'll be right out."

When they stepped out of his apartment building and got into their respective cars, Cuddy watched them from down the street, fury still bubbling just below the surface. She decided to follow Amanda, since Greg would clearly recognize her car if she followed him. She parked down the street from Amanda's house and then watched as House pulled up shortly after. He went to the front door, rang the doorbell, and she let him in.

Amanda was changing clothes in her room so he started to snoop, checking out her CD and movie collections. He then opened the blinds and glanced out at the view of the street. Looking down the street, he happened to notice the familiar blue BMW parked down the block. He was about to do something about it until Amanda came out dressed in a crop top and a pair of Daisy Duke shorts, which showed off her long, tanned legs.

"Niiiiice," he said as he made his way over to her, Lisa completely forgotten for the moment. He wrapped his arms around her slim waist and pulled her against him. "You always did look hot in your Daisy Dukes."

She smiled at him and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Glad you approve." They kissed once, tasting each other, their tongues exploring until the need to come up for air made them split apart.

"We have a problem," he murmured against her lips.

Amanda grinned as she rubbed against him, feeling his arousal through his jeans. "No problem that I can see…"

Greg chuckled. "That's not it. Cuddy has been following us."

"What? Why the hell for?"

"I don't know. But I have an idea. Where's your car?"

"In the garage behind the house. Why?"

"We'll take yours then. She'll probably stay, waiting for me to come out to my car but she won't be able to see your car leave right?"

Amanda grinned. "Not if we leave out the back alley. You're sadistic. I love it."

"There's no reason for her to follow us. I'll get to the bottom of that tomorrow. But in the meantime, this is our day. So let's go. I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry," she said with a roll of her eyes as she grabbed her purse.