A/N: Thank you for the kind reviews, they mean the world to me;-)
And Happy new season! Only to those, of course, who will be sitting in front of the TV to watch the new episodes. I actually liked the season premiere, but I've always liked the episodes where House isn't in the hospital to solve his cases…
The news of the relationship between him and Cuddy spread through PPTH like wildfire. The only person who seemed relieved was Wilson, because he was known to spread gossip before people were supposed to know.
Now, House did expect some looks coming his way, but as he left the hospital later that evening he wasn't prepared for how many pair of eyes turned his way. Some nurses were even stopping and pointing at him while shaking their heads, clearly not liking that he and Cuddy were together. He just had to get out, he was getting to much attention. Good that he and Cuddy didn't leave together, otherwise the gossip would've been out of control, but there's always tomorrow, House thought.
It was 10 pm and finally Cuddy was able to pack her things and head home. She was smiling all the way home, just knowing there was someone other than Rachel waiting for her just made the smile unstoppable. Luckily, because of the late time there weren't so many eyes following her. And Cuddy didn't notice anyway.
When she opened the door all the lights were out, except in her bedroom. She could hear the TV and House's voice. When she entered the bedroom she had to smile of what she saw. House was watching Prescription Passion, while he was explaining the plot to Rachel. It was really adorable, Rachel was hanging on every word he said.
"Well at least you're not watching The Real Wives of New Jersey with her. Is she having trouble sleeping again?" She said and took a seat next to them on the bed and reached for Rachel, giving her a hug as soon as she was in her arms.
"Yeah and Real Wives is next week." He said and pulled them closer to them, while still keeping an eye on the TV. "There's some pizza in the kitchen if you want some." She nodded and handed Rachel back to him.
In the kitchen she found a covered plate waiting for her, it was a homemade slice of pizza, her mouth watering already. After 2 minutes in the microwave her little slice of heaven was ready to be eaten.
She heard House limp down the hall, probably to Rachel's room. Some seconds later she heard him limping in her direction.
"Turns out the soap opera made her sleepy." He said standing in the doorway looking tired dressed in some blue pajama pants and a white t-shirt.
"God… this pizza is amazing. The dough is so thin, yet at the same time light and fluffy, how did you do that?" House smiled still standing in the doorway leaning his head against it. "Just go to bed, you don't have to wait for me."
Normally he would've had a sexual remark at the ready, but he was just too tired. His body was aching all over from the swimming, so he just nodded and left Cuddy to eat her slice of pizza alone. And sure enough as soon as his head hit the pillow he was out like a light.
40 minutes later after finishing her dinner, answering some emails and packing her briefcase for tomorrow, she was finally ready to join House in the bed.
2 weeks later his body wasn't sore all over anymore and he actually could be longer awake than 4 hours at a time and he felt like his leg wasn't hurting so much anymore. Nolan had mentioned it could also be because he was happy, but House didn't believe that, he knew it was because the PT was working. He had a hole in his leg and that's why he is in pain, sometimes he wondered why he even bothered with that shrink.
Nolan was right about one thing though, he is happy. Or at least the happiest he can be. For the first time since he can't remember when he was actually looking forward to each day. A big part of that he owned to Rachel… and he guessed that he was her new best friend as well, especially when he had given Rachel her own Bally. It was her pride and joy, she always carried it with her.
And at work the relationship between him and Cuddy hadn't changed much, the only difference was they had lunch together. Sure there was still some staring and gossiping from the nurses, but many just ignored them. And there was one new topic to gossip about anyway, Nurse Jeffrey had a girlfriend, nobody could really believe it.
Yep, all in all his life couldn't get any better right now. Or so he thought…
On Monday morning he woke up to the sound of Rachel talking to herself on the baby-monitor, while at the same time he could hear Cuddy humming in the shower. He smiled thinking about why Cuddy was in such a good mood.
House got up slowly letting his leg get used to his weight, just like every morning. He slipped on some pajama pants not bothering with a t-shirt. That was the trouble of living with a woman, it was like living in the tropics. Cuddy had the heating turned on to the maximum, she was always cold.
He limped slowly to Rachel's room, the little girl smiled as soon as she saw the door opening and waited for him to pick her up so she could get her good-morning hug.
Yes, House realized he was acting out of character here, but he had made a promise with himself, he was gonna be a better role model than his father.
House had just finished making the last pancake when Cuddy came into the kitchen. It had sort of become their routine these last weeks. House would make breakfast, feed Rachel and stay out of Cuddy's way. She was very hectic in the morning, running around the house putting the last papers in her briefcase. If someone from work could see the sometime panic in her eyes no one would believe their own eyes.
Cuddy would then leave when Marina came to begin her working day. She would kiss House and Rachel goodbye and then speed to work thinking she was late, which she never was.
His day first really started when he entered PPTH after his morning swim, the real challenge was for him to get to his office without collapsing from the pain. It was always worst right after he had been in the water, sometimes he wished he was in a wheelchair.
"Morning," Thirteen greeted him, when he entered the office. "We've been trying to call you, but you've left your cell phone here."
Of course, he thought he had been having the feeling that he had forgotten something.
"We have a case…" Foreman stormed into the office. "30 year-old pregnant woman, who just had a heart-attack." Thirteen could see he was interested and to be honest so was she, they hadn't had a good case in a long time.
At lunch time they still hadn't found an answer, if anything they were further away from the answer because the patient had had another heart-attack already.
Cuddy found him staring at the whiteboard deep in thought.
She stood behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist, she felt him lean back against her, letting some of the in him tension go.
"You always react like this? I could be a complete stranger."
"Only to you and Wilson."
"That explains a lot." House could hear the smile in her voice. "You wanna go get some lunch?"
After a while he nodded, knowing he wouldn't come up with the answer, he needed another piece for his puzzle.
The lunch turned out to be less dramatic as Nurse Jeffrey was there as well and stole their thunder.
An hour later he was back in front of the whiteboard again, none the wiser about his patient. It they didn't come up with an idea soon he would have to pay the patient a visit, which he wanted to avoid to the last possible moment.
Suddenly he felt his phone vibrating in his pocket.
"This better be good news…" He said thinking it was someone from the team.
"Uh hi Dr. House, this is Ruth Stephens your landlady. And this might be good news that's entirely up to you." In his mind it was never good news when the landlady called, but he waited for her to continue and get to the reason for why she actually called. "I've noticed that you haven't really been living your apartment these days and I was wondering if you might be interested in selling the place? There already is someone interested in buying it off you."
Selling his apartment? Where would he live? Well he could move in with Wilson, but where would all of his stuff go? And he needed room for his piano, but he didn't really want to live with Wilson. He guessed he could move in with Cuddy, but again where would they put his stuff? And another question entirely was, were they ready for a step that big?
"Dr. House? Are you still there?"