These will be the last two chapters of this fic. They are a little longer but are sort of set up as several one shots within the chapter if that makes any sense. I will try to have the last chapter posted by tomorrow. Enjoy!
Year of the Dog, Part I
January.
"Oh that's perfect. Just fitting." Wilson slammed the door to his apartment and tossed his keys on the end table. House moaned and dropped his cigar into an ashtray sitting just in front of the empty bottle of bourbon and the half empty glass on the coffee table. "I love how you are still dealing with loss like a twenty year old boy. Get drunk, cry on your best friends couch. Don't try to do anything constructive like find an apartment or spend time with your kid."
House ignored him. "She really did leave," he said instead. "I saw her office it was empty. She's gone."
"You knew she was leaving."
House dropped his head to one side and ran his hands through his hair. "What I did was shitty, but we could have moved past it. She wanted to leave."
"Oh cut the crap! You screwed around on her and she left you. That is an appropriate reaction infidelity. It sucks but it's not unexpected. She would have forgiven you for anything; there was nothing you could have done that would make her leave. Except this. You betrayed her, and you got what you deserved."
House looked up at Wilson hurt, but Wilson didn't back down. He rolled over and closed his eyes.
February.
Jenna sat at House's desk working on a math sheet. She crinkled her brow and traced her finders over the numbers and multiplication signs. She liked music class much better.
House glanced at his daughter through the glass door. She seemed like she was concentrating intently, but he knew she was day dreaming.
"House?"
He snapped his attention back to the team. "It's not anemia. Her iron levels are fine."
"She had a baby three months ago." Taulb pointed out. "What if she had a mild anemia while she was pregnant, and now her iron level has balanced out but her other symptoms have persisted."
"If her other symptoms were related to low iron, they would have gone away when she got better. It's something else. Redo the blood tests and run a hormone panel." House looked back in at his daughter. She had pushed aside her math homework, stuck her ipod in his stereo and was doodling a picture of a gorilla on a piece of scrap paper.
Once the team had left House walked into the office and sat in a chair across from Jenna. "How can you listen to these emo boy bands?" He asked her.
"I like them. Better than that old hippy stuff you like." She crumpled up her gorilla and tossed it the garbage. She was only eight years old but she was incredibly clever and had a really great since of humor for her age. Not sarcastic really, but dry enough to catch House off guard more often than he would think possible.
"How's your mom?" He asked cautiously. This had been her first long trip out of town, and since House was still refusing to find his own place, he and Jenna had been staying at her home. But she would be back tonight and he would be back on Wilson's couch.
"Fine," Jenna answered. "She misses you."
"Did she tell you that?"
Jenna shrugged. "I guess I just miss you guys together." She was also more honest than he was comfortable with.
"Jenna—"
"It's okay you don't have to tell me. Mom said it wasn't anyone's fault that you guys still loved each other but you needed to be apart right now. Lots of the kids in my class have divorced parents."
"We're not divorced. And your mom lied; it was my fault. She just doesn't want you to be mad at me."
A tap at the door. Cuddy smiled from outside of the office, then pushed the door open. House smiled at her. "Hey," she said in a soft voice.
"Hi." House stood up and step toward her. She looked amazing. She wore a dark green skirt which hugged her hips and thighs and stopped just above her knees. She wore a top which he had never seen before, sage and scooping below her neckline. Her hair was pinned up with tendrils falling around her face and neck. She wore lipstick a shade darker than usual and freshly applied. Had she dressed up for him?
"How are things going around here?" She asked, trying desperately to break the silence.
"Terrible," he said. "The new you is horrible. He makes me take boring cases, and has no sense of humor. He actually accused me of disrespecting him when I commented on the size of his ass in front of my team."
She smiled and even let out a small laugh. She was quiet for another moment then she looked over at Jenna who had been watching them closely. "Get your stuff, sweetie, we have to go."
March
"How are things with the new job?" Wilson sipped his coffee and watched Cuddy push her eggs around her plate with her fork.
"Fine. Busy. I had no idea how stressful this would be. They are asking me to make decisions about people's jobs who I hardly know or have yet to work with." She sat down her fork and picked up her own coffee. Wilson asked her to come and have breakfast with them before she left town again. The two hadn't spent much time together since she'd left House, and Wilson considered her one of his closest friends. He didn't want her to think they couldn't still have that.
"Well you are really missed at the hospital. I mean, Br. Barns is doing a good job, but it's just not the same." Cuddy didn't really acknowledge this; it didn't matter if the new guy wasn't as good as her, she wasn't the boss anymore. "And House isn't really endearing himself to the new regime." At this she did raise an eyebrow and smile.
"Is anyone surprised by that? What's he done?"
Wilson shrugged. "He's just acting out because he misses you." Wilson paused and then carefully, "Did you hear that Cameron quit."
Cuddy flinched slightly at the other woman's name. She had heard Cameron put in her resignation last month, but she didn't want to talk about it. She took a sip of her coffee without commenting. "Has he started looking for an apartment yet?"
"No," Wilson said flatly. "And it's really starting to cramp my style."
Cuddy smiled, but shook her head. "What is he waiting for?"
Wilson shrugged, "Have you started looking for a divorce attorney yet?" He gave her a knowing smile, to reassure her that he wasn't being mean, just making an observation.
Cuddy frowned. "I get your point."
April
House had been lying in Cuddy's bed listening to the rain for a couple of hours. She was due home tonight, but her flight had been delayed because of a storm in Boston. He lay in her bed, their bed, and listened to the pounding water against the window, and he wondered, will I ever get to lay here with her in my arms again? He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. A few hours later Cuddy finally came home. She had taken a cab from the airport, walked into her pitch dark home, and felt her way to the bedroom. She set down the suitcases without turning on a light and undressed. Exhausted she felt her way to the bed and slid under the covers. She felt House's weight shift beside her and she shook his shoulder.
"House?"
He moaned and rolled over toward her. "Honey, you're home," he said in a hazy voice. He reached for her and pulled her against him, but she wiggled out of his grasp.
"You have to get up." She whispered, "I don't want Jenna to see us here and get the wrong idea."
House opened his eyes to find her level with him, her tired eyes looking right back at him. "You look like crap," he said.
"Thank you. Go home."
"I am home."
"House—"
"Do you still love me?" He didn't let go of her gaze and asked her as pointedly as he could still half asleep.
She of course ignored him. "Go back to Wilson's."
"Answer the question and I'll go anywhere you tell me too." He glanced down suggestively at the space between them.
"I'm serious," she said.
"So am I. Answer me or I stay the night, and I make breakfast in the morning wearing nothing but your bathrobe. What kind of ideas do you think Jenna will get then?"
"You are ridiculous." She said smiling in the dark.
"Do you still love me?"
"You know I do," she whispered.
House smiled. He rolled out of bed and slipped his shoes on, then leaned over her and kissed her cheek. "It wouldn't kill you to say it once and a while," he whispered back before leaving her alone in the darkened room.
May
"I got my own place." House sat in Cuddy's living room twirling his cane. Jenna was in her room packing a bag for the weekend.
"Oh yeah?"
"Wilson made me. He said if I didn't move out soon he was gonna make me sleep in my car. I think he's got a new girlfriend, but he hasn't told me about her."
Cuddy laughed. "I can't imagine why."
"It's not you is it?"
She rolled her eyes. "You know better than that."
He nodded. "My place is just around the corner from the hospital. You should come over for dinner. Actually you should come over and make us dinner," he smiled up at Jenna who had just walked into the kitchen, her overnight back slung over her shoulder. "Jenna hates my cooking."
"Microwave pizza is not cooking," Jenna said grinning.
Later that night Cuddy stood in House's kitchen loading pots and pans into the dishwasher, as she maneuvered around half unpacked boxes. He sat and watched her from his sparsely decorated living room. She had been quiet during dinner, but after they ate she agreed to stay and spend some time with them. They played cards for a while and listened to Jenna read to them from Moby Dick, then House went to make up his extra bed for Jenna and Cuddy cleaned up the kitchen. Another familiar routine.
Cuddy came into the living room and sat down next to House in front of the tv. She leaned back and he stretched his arms in a mock yawn and let one arm casually drop behind her shoulders. Cuddy rolled her eyes at him but didn't move away.
"How long are we going to keep doing this?" House asked her.
She didn't need to ask what he meant. "We're not doing anything House. I can here tonight because I don't want Jenna to think that her parents hate each other because we never spend any time together."
"You're full of crap. You came over here tonight because you miss this." He pulled away and turned so that he was facing her. "You miss us."
"No, House."
"Yes. You still love me, you told me you did. And I think I've been punished long enough. Either you can forgive me, in which case you let me move back home, or you can't. If you can't then you need to get it over with and divorce me."
Cuddy recoiled, "Are you giving me an ultimatum? Take you back now or divorce you? That's pretty bold."
House nodded. "I feel pretty confident that you don't want this end anymore than I do. What'll it be?"
"House, you can't—"
"What. Will. It. Be?"
"Fine," Cuddy stood up and crossed the room then turned back to challenge him. "Then I chose divorce you."
House stared at her for a moment. "Obviously I was bluffing. Take all the time you need."
She smiled and shook her head. "You know I don't even think it is about time anymore. I've forgiven you. I've moved past what happened with Cameron, but I…You're not the same person to me anymore. And that is what I can't get past."
"I am the same. It was a slip, it could happen to anyone. But not to me, ever again."
"Never?"
"right."
"Maybe not with Cameron but what about when the next beautiful young doctor comes along who thinks she can heal your wounded heart, or the next time I get busy and start to neglect you? What then?"
"Cuddy…" he stopped and looked at her. He realized that he wasn't going to be able to change her mind. Not tonight anyways. "As a human being it is always possible that I will slip, and you too. But I can say without a doubt that I don't want anybody but you. I never did. Now unless there is any chance that you're gonna take your clothes off tonight…I think you should go home."
June
"Are you completely out of your mind?"
House turned his head slightly and smirked, "That seems like an obvious question."
"House!" Cuddy had been pacing around his office since she got the phone call that morning. Dr. Barns found out that House had taken on a case that Dr. Barns specifically told him to stay away from. House thought the patient was sicker than she actually was and, as a result of their treatment, the patient died.
"I thought she was dying. I thought she…"
"I don't think I can help you this time. Barns is gunning for you, and even my place on the board can't save you because we're still married and I'm conflicted out of the vote."
"Wilson—"
"This is an ethical issue. Wilson will have to vote along the ethics guidelines. Not on who's his best buddy in the whole world. Would have done this if I was still your boss here?" She asked him tersely.
"You would have made a much better argument than he did. And you look much better in a v-neck sweater."
"I'm glad you're finding this so funny, because it's probably going to cost you your job. The best you can hope for is that my little speech in there and the autopsy I ordered on your patient is enough to convince them that you did nothing ethically wrong in treating her, and that the treatment didn't kill her; that she did indeed die of a rare degenerative brain disease and you just got to her too late."
House narrowed his eyes confused. "That's what you found in the autopsy?"
"No," she said. "But that's what my report says I found in the autopsy." She lied for him. Again. He couldn't believe it.
Cuddy was called back into the meeting and she left House sitting in the hallway alone.
"Dr. Cuddy," Dr. Barns said once the door was closed. "It has been suggested to us that on occasion you have manipulated the facts to keep Dr. House out of trouble, so there is some question of reliability when looking at these reports."
Cuddy glanced over at Wilson who shook his head slightly. "I don't know where those suggestions are coming from," she said, "But they are completely unfounded. If you are accusing me of something unethical then I should be the one getting a hearing. Otherwise, you should have no reason to question my report."
"It seems," Dr. Barns continued grudgingly, "that Dr. House has not technically done anything wrong. But he has shown a disturbing lack of respect for this administration and its guidelines. I know I run this hospital differently than you did, Dr. Cuddy, but if Dr. House can't follow the rules, then he can't work here. I hope that you'll communicate that to him. For me."
Cuddy drove House home that evening as Wilson followed behind them. When she pulled up in front of his building he turned toward her. "Wilson and I are gonna have a few drinks and play some cards. Do you wanna come up?"
She shook her head no. "I have to get back home to Jenna."
"Okay," he said. "Thank you for what you did."
"Just promise me you'll try to be a little more accommodating toward Dr. Barns so that I don't have to do that again. From now on no means no, and if you even suspect that I would disagree with you on something, you shouldn't do it."
House rolled his eyes and tossed his head back on the head rest. "I really hate this new guy." She didn't say anything and he looked over at her. "You sure you don't want to come up?"
"Yeah I'm sure." She didn't pull away when he leaned over and kissed her cheek.
