Around noon on the first day anyone in the hospital knew that Gregory House was in a mood.
He didn't care.
He sat in his office killing spacemonkeys when Cuddy came in shooing him away to clinic duty.
It took him one and a half hour to annoy enough patients that she came and yelled at him for the first time.
It took him another thirty minutes to scare away all unimportant cases that could be cured with a hanky.
He spent another hour tormenting patients who really had a problem.
Finally Cuddy reappeared for the… he had lost track of how often she had yelled at him that day, actually. Anyways, she reappeared, this time screaming at him to please go back to his gameboy.
That's what sealed the gameboy's death.
Wilson came by to reason with him, and he actually threw it at him, still really angry.
When he finally limped out of the hospital at 4:30 everyone sighed with relief.
If House was living in hell, then he made life hell for the rest of the hospital, too.
They didn't see the grin on his face when he passed the Department of Genetics on his way to the parking lot. He'd been way too nice the last few days. He surely had a reputation to lose and since his other hobby was lying on ice right now it was "Torment other people" time…
Around noon the second day they wondered why Cameron was the only one who could go into the lions den without being even growled at.
He had solved two patient-puzzles before it was 10 o'clock that day and slept in his chair peacefully until Cuddy thought that he should actually work for the money they paid him.
This time it only took him half an hour before she screamed at him for the first time.
When she came next time to yell at him about an obese woman he had offended he had a kid in the room who told her that he was the nicest doc on world.
He had just cleared the waiting area from idiots that thought they were dying from a simple cold by telling them that with medicine it would take them one week to get well, and without it would be seven days, when she reappeared.
She yelled at him to go back to his gameboy and he accused her that it was her fault that it was broken, refusing to leave the clinic.
Well, there was a first for everything.
Wilson tried to talk to him once but was hit by a bedpan.
Around 4:30 everybody was hiding from him, even patients, begging Cameron to do something to stop his rude behavior.
She and Hannah were laughing loudly at the inability of the people to cope with the cranky doctor. Both were slightly wondering why there were never serious consequences when he was behaving like this.
"He's definitely not a dull person…"
"That he's not, but very exhausting", Cameron sighed.
Even if he had filled her in partly… well, he was a really good actor, not leaving her alone, since it would destroy the picture.
"You can tell him I will be in the gym around 6:30…" Hannah smiled.
"You're not supposed to do sports with your foot."
"Don't you worry about that. I'll be in the pool anyway…"
Cameron smiled back.
"You know, one day I might ask you, how he is… knowing him he's already assuming we're talking about nothing else anyway."
"Well, then he has to learn that this's not 'Sex and the City', and we do have other things to talk about than that he can make you come in less than five minutes and then plays with you for two hours mercilessly afterwards", the neurologist answered with an evil grin.
The young immunologist just shook her head amused.
"I think I know why he likes you… you have a sharp tongue and the same humor. You don't have a brother by chance, do you?"
"Actually, I have 8."
"Any of them capable of the 5 minutes – two hours thing?" Cameron asked, not even blinking at the number.
"God, I really don't want to know! But I can give you the phone numbers of the ones that aren't married or still minors."
"I might be coming back to you for that. And now I think I should go, before he really gives Cuddy a reason to fire him."
He stepped carefully on the brown, wet tiles around the pool, not wanting to slip and watched her swimming. She was the only one in the water, but some other people occupied the sauna or tried to pump their muscles.
She seemed to have seen him, now floating easily on her back.
"Wanna come in?"
"You have two broken toes!" he growled.
"I'm not using that foot. Is there someone grumpy out there?" she teased, making him growl once more.
How should he not be grumpy? She had said two days. The last hour he had busied himself with finding out that his celibacy didn't last exactly 48, but now a little more than 62 hours!
"Now, do you want to come in or what?"
Actually, he did not.
What he wanted was her in his bed while he intended to take a closer look at that ticklish spot behind her knee, he wanted her sweaty, panting, screaming his name, when he…
"God, House, take that jeans off already and come in!"
By now she laughed at his shocked expression.
"Just leave your boxers on and trust me, okay?"
He had to admit that the water felt refreshing when he stepped into the pool, a firm grip on the banister of the steps.
And he was glad he'd put on the simple black boxers and not the ones with the green aliens this morning, when he saw her swimming around in the water, circling him like a shark his prey.
"You really shouldn't be swimming", he reminded her, turning around in the water, always facing her.
"I shouldn't be doing many things, but where's the fun in that?"
She was approaching him slowly.
"I wasn't having any fun for the last 63 hours!" he growled, observing her movements.
"I don't believe you."
"I didn't. And my gameboy's broken by the way. That is all your fault."
She was still too far away…
"I didn't throw it at Wilson, that was you… and don't tell me it isn't fun for you to make Cuddy run down to the clinic from her office 20 times a day."
Almost… just a little nearer…
"Okay… that was fun."
She just grinned at him, her auburn hair floating around her when she moved on.
"But that was fun for my brain. Rest wasn't havin' any, just as you ordered."
And then she learned that he could be really fast too.
He grabbed her wrist pulling her towards him and growled, when his hands felt the fabric of her bathing suit.
"These two were missing those two", he said, brushing his hands briefly over her breasts.
He was surprised when he heard her gasp.
"Seems they missed me to", he acknowledged, big grin on his face.
"What did you think? You not getting any means I'm not getting any, too! I hope you think about that before doing something like that again." She made that little pout thing that caused him to look only at her lower lip.
"I told you already that I don't know why I said something like that about you. I'm still analyzing that…"
He was once again caught by her black stare, locking with his blue eyes, denying him to look somewhere else.
"I don't care if you tell everybody about me that I'm an alien with the ability to blow earth into pieces. But you pulled someone else into this… and Cameron has feelings, you know?" she mocked him while he frowned.
"Actually it was Wilson who pulled her into this… can we stop talking about that, please?"
She put her index finger on her lip, looking at him thoughtfully.
"Hmmm… Have you been a good boy?"
He shook his head, pulling her even closer to him.
"Nah… I've been bad… really, really bad. You might even want to spank me…"
She laughed at that, throwing her head back.
"I might consider that after my nightshift, yeah…"
The grin on his face disappeared.
"Night… nightshift?"
She nodded with an earnest face.
"Yes. I'm a doctor, we have those now and then…"
"I know that, thank you. You can't do that to me."
"I have no other choice, Greg."
"Change shifts with someone."
She was looking intently at him and he rolled his eyes.
"And yes, I know that sounds desperate and pathetic."
"Well, then I think you're lucky that I don't have nightshift today…" she said with a small smile on her face.
"That's fine then… You don't what?" Now he looked really confused and she laughed again.
"I said I might think about spanking you after my nightshift… didn't say I had it today… Gotcha!" she grinned.
"Trying to cure me with my own medicine, Dr. McLachlan? I should think about spanking you…" he growled.
"You can do whatever you want to me today… I thought I might spend my evening as a toy, what do you say?"
He said nothing, just moaned softly.
"But first I want to show you something."
She put her arms around his neck, parting her long legs to slide them around his. Pressing her body against his he could feel her lock her legs behind his ass, leaving her practically sitting on his…
"I know I've got a boner, no need to show me", the diagnostician groaned, placing his hands on her waist to hold her where she was.
"Yeah, I knew somebody would be happy to see me. But that's not what I meant."
He was already painfully aware of her nearness, the feeling of her body switching his hyperactive brain off better than any music or killing spacemonkeys could do. He almost didn't hear the sound of her words, totally engrossed into the feeling of her warm breath next to his ear.
"How's your leg?" she whispered.
His fingers gripped her waist harder when he realized what their actual position was.
He was standing on his two legs equally, carrying a beautiful woman… and it didn't hurt.
The scientist in him knew it was because of the water holding most of his and her weight.
The rest of him was fascinated
"You could work with that", she whispered.
Didn't say 'We can work with that'.
It was his decision and she accepted that.
"You must know I'm destined to screw things up. Sometime I'll say or do something to push people away and they don't come back…"
She smiled at his honesty.
"We're at the screwing AROUND stage, Dr. House, not at the screwing up. As long as I don't get bored with you I won't let you screw up, though."
"Just wanted to warn you. I'm a complicated man."
As if her father hadn't said the same things. And now he lived luckily with her mother for over 40 years now with a bunch of 16 children…
"'kay, I feel warned…"
"And maybe you should let go off me before we're being caught by those sauna-freaks", he added, shifting a bit uncomfortably.
"Why, are we modest today… they could learn a thing or two from us", she grinned back, not letting go.
At that he crushed his lips on hers hard before gently pushing her from his hips and starting to swim.
"Three rounds. And don't expect too much, I haven't been swimming since rehab."