House slammed down his glass that was full of scotch a second ago demanding for more from the bartender who was pouring drinks for people on the other end.

"Are you sure you want more? I think you've had enough," he told House as he came over to his side and stretched out his arms, placing his hands on his end of the bar and faced him.

"No, I've drank a lot more than this." House spat out. "One more."

The bartender studied House and saw that even in the dim light surrounding the bar that he looked sad. "Girlfriend troubles?" he asked him as he stopped pouring at the halfway mark of his glass. When he saw House's annoyed expression he stood his ground. "That's all you're getting. So, is it?"

"Will answering you get me more in my glass?"

"Maybe. Depends on the story."

"Then, yeah," he paused. "No...she was, but, now she isn't. She's my boss at the..hospital," House pointed in the direction of Princeton-Plainsboro.

"Is that why you're here? Just broke up?"

House threw his head back and laughed to himself. "No, not just. I ran my car into her house when I saw her with another guy," he slammed his fist on the bar as he saw it in his mind's eye. "Dammit, Cuddy!" He gulped down the scotch, paused and looked into his now empty glass. "She won't leave me alone all her-" he stopped. "Why the hell am I telling you this?" he looked down at his drink again. "I did have too much." He stood up and used the bar to stop wobbling and grabbed his wallet and threw some bills at the bartender.

"If you ask me, this Cuddy, still has a thing for you. No woman tolerates a guy doing that unless she still feels something." He lifted an eyebrow while watching House sway when standing. "You need a cab? I don't think you should be driving."

House lifted his cane, "I'm not driving." The bartender kept a close eye on him and saw he ran into the doorway, fell and hit his head.

"Shit!" The bartender walked around and ran to House. "His heads bleeding! Call an ambulance! Say he needs to see a-a Cuddy! Princeton-Plainsboro!"

"Cuddy?" Stephanie one of the nurses from the ER said when she came into her office after knocking once.

"What is it, Stephanie?" she asked looking up from her computer.

"I have a patient in the ER who, was brought in to see you," she started nervously, Cuddy seeing a file being held in her hand.

"To see me? Why me? Can you get Foreman to go take a look? If they want to talk to the Dean of Medicine you can just explain that he sometimes stands in for me and-"

"No, in this case, I don't think that will work."

She got Cuddy's full attention and curiosity. "Let me see the file," she reached her hand out and Stephanie slowly walked over to her and laid it in Cuddy's right hand. She opened it to see the name. When she did she felt dizzy, afraid to read what it said below "Gregory House" in the name section. "How long has he been here?" She asked getting up and walking to the ER with Stephanie.

"Not long. He's awake now and sober. I gave him a banana bag. He hit his head on the floor of some bar, the bartender told the paramedics to send him here and to alert you when he got here."

"Head trauma?"

"No, not that we could see, just cut himself is all. We put a bandage on him so he looks worse than he is."

They reached the ER and Cuddy saw him right away, sitting at the edge of the bed, his head covered in a bandage like she was told and was looking anxious to leave. Cuddy thanked Stephanie for getting her and stormed over to House who saw her coming.

"You SON OF A BITCH! Do you know you could have KILLED yourself if you hit your head harder? Or, could have wandered out into the street and gotten hit by a car? What are you doing at a bar at noon?"

"There were a lot of people there." House retorted back unaffected by her screaming at him.

"Oh, well that's alright then," she answered sarcastically. "Why are you doing this? Why do you feel the need to DESTROY your life and EVERYONE ELSE who cares about you?"

"Why do you care so much?"

"Are you KIDDING ME?" she got in his face and he looked over her shoulder.

"You're attracting a lot of attention to yourself," he said casually.

Cuddy wheeled around and saw all the nurses at the station looking down as soon as they saw her turn, acting like they weren't listening and Cuddy grabbed the curtain and pulled it around the bed to stop them from at least looking at them while she was there.

"You never answered the question," House commented. Cuddy's look turned from frustrated to soft and concerned. He looked over to the side at nothing in thought. "He was right," he mumbled.

"Who was right? Are you seeing someone? Are you hallucinating?" Cuddy asked putting her hand on his face to turn for him to look at her.

"What? NO!" he took her hand off of his face. "Answer the question, Cuddy," he studied her face as she was clearly trying to not answer it. But, she knew him well enough to know he wouldn't shut up until she did.

"I tried... SO HARD to hate you. When you did what you did, it was easy. I hated you and NEVER wanted to see you again. I was done," she took a breath and continued, staring into his eyes like they were staring at hers. "But then...time started to pass. All the GOOD stuff that you have done started to outweigh the bad. And then Wilson called and I SAW you again. I can't handle watching you be so self-destructive! It hurts me to see how much you DON'T care about your well being. And it doesn't matter how much Wilson says he cares, or, how much I- YOU need to care about you. Please, House. I need you to care. I NEED you ALIVE." She paused again and he stayed quiet. His stare was growing more intense the more she revealed. She felt tears building up in her eyes. "I'm not saying..I don't know what I want from this..I just, I HATE that I STILL love you," she wiped away the one that fell and House inhaled deeply at her confession. "PLEASE," she grabbed his right hand in hers. "Get help, go see someone if Wilson and I aren't enough," another tear dropped that she just let slide down her cheek and House watched it as it fell. "Do it for me. Then maybe...who knows. If you need me, I'll be there for you. Then we'll see where we are."

He sat still. He didn't move, or speak, and Cuddy searched his face to try and guess what he was thinking but didn't want to say anymore than what she already did.

"Okay," he said softly.

She let out a laugh that was masked as a sigh of relief. "You will?" she asked while wiping the tears away. "You're not lying to me?"

"No," he said in the same soft tone, never in a million years thinking he would see Cuddy break down like this over him again.

She squeezed his hand and let go, and he watched her as she stood up. "I have to get back to work," she said while trying to compose herself before moving the curtain. "Can I call you tomorrow and see how you're doing? You'll answer if I call?"

He nodded his head 'yes.'

She turned after smiling and he watched as she was now straightening out her skirt from sitting. "Cuddy," he said and she turned around to look at him again. "I never stopped loving you."

Wanting those words to be the last she heard from him for the day, she turned back and left.