Chapter 20: You Can't Always Get What You Want
(Disclaimer: I want to be hired by David Shore so that I don't have to put up any more disclaimers.)
Weeks passed slowly as Lisa's first year in school slowly drew to a close. She thought she had handled it rather well, finishing up with straight A's and a ton of new experiences; some more pleasant to remember than others. She hadn't heard from House since the day she asked him not to call her again, and unfortunately he had listened to her. As she packed her bags she mulled over the rather depressing thought of House choosing such a scenario as her demanding he never speak to her again as the one time he listened to her. She had almost gone back, she had almost tried to go explain herself, to tell him it didn't matter, and that as long as she had him, whether it be as a friend or something else. Of course she couldn't, she was too hurt and too full of pride.
"God… dammit, House." Lisa sighed and snapped her suitcase shut, plopping down on the bed and covering her head with her pillow. Why had she let herself get involved with him? She knew, she knew from the very beginning, that she would never be able to control herself with him. She knew there was something about him that simply drove her crazy, in ways both good and bad.
"Lisa?" Karen's voice was quiet through the door. She cracked it slightly and poked her head into the room, "Lisa, are you done packing?"
"Yeah, I'm done." She sighed, quickly pulling the pillow off of her and sitting up.
"Can we talk?"
"Don't we always?"
Karen rolled her eyes and walked into the room, crossing over to her now very empty side of the room. "You know… I've tried not to pry… But what's up? You've been totally miserable for the past few weeks, House hasn't called, you haven't called him, his weird room mate keeps asking me if I know what's wrong and I'm just like, 'Look, I don't know you…' so since whatever you two have done, I think I should know about it since it's involving me."
Lisa managed to produce a small smile as she looked over at her roommate and now friend. "It's involving you?"
"Well, now that creepers keeps talking to me it is."
"Some times I forget that I'm not still in high school when I talk to you, did you know that?"
"Oh my God, Lisa." Karen sighed, making a dramatic show of throwing her hands in the air. "Stop deflecting and tell me what the hell is going on!"
"Nothing." Lisa sighed, casting a glance downwards. "Unfortunately."
"Oh no… What did he do. What did you do? Oh fuck, you slept with him, didn't you?"
Allowing a soft sigh to escape her, Lisa nodded. "Yeah. I did."
A stunned look crossed Karen's features, which surprised Lisa. She figured that Karen knew already, since she had guessed it. "What, you didn't think we did?"
"No, actually. I was ready for you to deny it like you always do. Shit… That… Wait, what the fuck. Why aren't you dating or something now?"
"He doesn't love me." Lisa whispered, pressing her forehead to her knees to keep from crying.
"Right…" Karen said slowly. "I don't believe that."
"Well believe it!" She snapped. "Cause it's true. I went over there and told him that everything needed to stop or go forward because it was really fucking with my mind."
"Uh… What was?"
"We'd been… hooking up, I guess."
"Oh… So you told him you wanted to move forward, right?"
She nodded and continued, "I said I loved him… He said I didn't, then I yelled at him and said he had no idea what I was feeling… then we… had sex."
"How many times?"
Lisa shot her and icy glare and Karen winced, "Sorry, sometimes I… I don't think before I speak."
"I know. And twice."
"Not bad." She shrugged. "Have you talked to him since then?"
"No. Not since he said that he was just giving me what I wanted by sleeping with him."
"What a douche bag."
"I know, right?!" Lisa sighed and flopped back onto the bed. "I told him not to call me anymore, cause I didn't want to talk to him."
"Well, don't you think you should? Maybe he was just nervous about how he felt, so he said a bunch of stupid things."
"What's the point? I'm leaving in three days, what can happen in three days?"
"You can get his number." Karen nods. "And have sex like, six times."
"Whatever, I don't want to have anything to do with Greg House."
"Yeah right." Karen scoffed, getting up and heading to the door. "Come on, let's go to the kitchen and have a beer."
"I don't even like beer." Lisa mumbled, standing up to follow the annoyingly perky blond anyway.
On the way to the kitchen Karen stopped to get the door after a resounding knock echoed through the slowly emptying house. She waved Lisa on, telling her she'd be in the kitchen in a sec and to grab a beer for her. Lisa did so obediently, wandering in and opening the fridge with more force than she had probably meant to. She grabbed two of the brown bottles and called out to her friend, "There are only a few left, so I don't know if I'll have one."
"Well I'm glad you're giving yours up for me." A gruff voice answered, a smirk in their tone. She closed her eyes in an exasperated manner and turned to face all of her problems.
"Go fuck yourself." She spat menacingly, trying her best to make her way around him. "Karen, why'd you let this asshole in here?"
"So you'd talk to him." She replied from the front room. "Let me know how it goes."
"Great." Lisa scoffed. "No one is on my side."
"There are no sides, Leese, just mixed up stories."
"Don't call me Leese."
"Fine, LEESE-uh. Can we talk?"
"No."
"Stop being a stubborn bitch." He growled, grabbing her by the shoulders to keep her from walking away from him.
"I'll stop being a bitch the day you stop being an ass."
"Well then we're both fucked, aren't we?"
"Yeah. I'd say so."
"Look, I'm sorry. What else can I say? I'm sorry that you feel I took advantage of you and ruined our friendship. But, in my defense, I did warn you."
"You… Are unbelievable."
"Lisa." He sighed, dropping his eyes to the floor, "I'm not asking you to forgive me… I just want you to know that I'm sorry…"
"Well I know now, you can leave." She pushed his arms away from him and quickly walked into her room to kill Karen.
"I don't want to leave you on such bad terms, Lisa!" He called, quickly running after her into her very lacking of Karen room. He crossed over to her desk and sat on top of it, placing his feet on her chair.
"Well how did you expect it to end? With me baking you some 'so long' cookies?" She shook her head and nodded to him, "Get off my desk."
"Make me." He smiled, tightly gripping said desk.
"No. Now get off."
"Get me off. As I recall it wasn't difficult for you."
"I'm sorry to say the feeling isn't mutual." She lied, narrowing her eyes at him and walking over to push him away.
"Ouch. Talk about an insult."
"Get. Off. My. Desk."
"Talk to me."
"We are talking."
"We're arguing."
"Which is talking."
"Which is arguing." He smiled, scooting the chair away with his feet as she walked up to him and grabbed both of his arms.
"Well what do you want to talk about?" She sighed. "Come on, let's talk about so you can leave me alone."
"I'll miss you." He said simply, shrugging as he did. "I'll miss you and I hope you'll keep in touch, even though you hate me right now."
She rolled her eyes and nodded, "Yeah whatever, give me your number from back home or wherever it is you come from. They have phones in hell, right?"
"Very funny." He rolled his eyes and pulled a permanent marker from his coat pocket. "You have been told you're a bitch before, right?"
"Only by you." She sighed, giving him a puzzled look at the sight of the marker. "What are you doing?"
"I don't trust you not to throw it away." He grinned, turning around and quickly scribbling his number on her desktop. "So I'm putting it somewhere safe."
"HOUSE! STOP! What the hell is wrong with you?!"
"I'll make you a list."
"Spare me!" She growled, grabbing his arm and pulling him off of her desk. "Now get out."
"Fine." He nodded, making his way to the door. "I'm leaving in the morning… So… I'll probably never see you again."
A pang of fear, hurt and sadness shot through her at his words and she turned to face him quickly, the fact that he had just written all over her desk momentarily forgotten. "W-what?"
"Yeah…" He replied, stopping at the door. "I came over to say goodbye."
He turned to her as she stood completely still in her stunned silence, hoping that she would take this last opportunity to just forgive him. It was the best he could hope for, and at the moment it was all he wanted.
But instead she just nodded, "Goodbye."
Smiling slightly, his heart sinking into his stomach, House nodded and gripped the handle of the door.
She bit her lip as he turned back to the door, and though she tried to stop herself, she couldn't help but have him wait. "House…"
"Yeah?"
He turned around just in time to catch her as she threw her arms around his middle and placed her head on his chest. His smile grew and he, in return, wrapped his arms around her.
"Thank you… For all the times you didn't screw up."
"And thank you." He laughed. "For all the times you did."
She scoffed and pulled away, glancing up at him. "I don't screw up."
"I know." His eyes met hers and a silence settled in, one of those silences that probably should have been more awkward than it was.
Lisa knew that silence well by now, and she smiled at knowing exactly where his mind was, "You want to kiss me, don't you?"
He licked his lips softly and nodded, his voice barely above a whisper, "I always want to kiss you."
Her heart raced as Lisa leaned into him, her lips almost against his, and made the biggest mistake of her life, a mistake that both of them would never fail to regret.
"Have a nice life, House." She whispered and turned her face away from his, opening the door behind him, signaling it was time for him to take his leave.
He nodded, the small smile coming back to his thin, tired face. "I'll see you around, Cuddy."
"Goodbye, House."
And then, for many years following, he was gone. Just a faded picture in her memory and a number on her desk, a myth and a regret, a legend in his own mind, and now in hers.
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A/N: So um… I think I'm done… D: Oh House and Cuddy, why didn't you just stay together?!
On another note, some have been enquiring about a sequel or an Epilogue.
The answer is "YES!" to both :D \o/
Kind of. My other story, "Risky Business" is basically the sequel, set in modern House time. So if you want some delightful GNN references you can read that. :3
Thank you all so much for reading!