I WANT TO THANK EVERYONE WHO HAS BEEN READING AND REVIEWING THIS STORY. IT WAS A GREAT CHALLENGE AND SO MUCH FUN TO WRITE.

I AM BEYOND GRATEFUL AND HAPPY THAT I GOT SO MANY WONDERFUL REVIEWS ON THIS.

I HOPE YOU ALL ENJOYED READING IT AS MUCH AS I ENJOYED CREATING IT.

AND THANK YOU SO MUCH TO HUDDYLICIOUS WHO PROVIDED ME WITH THE ORIGINAL PROMPT. :D

HERE'S THE FINAL CHAPTER.

PLEASE LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS AND ENJOY!! :D

CHAPTER TWENTY:

ONE YEAR LATER.

Cuddy exhaled deeply as she wiped the sweat off her forehead and the back of her neck with the handkerchief she had tucked in the waistband of her skirt on her way to the charge's nurse's desk.

The Clinic was packed with patients, all suffering from various ailments, the combination of the heat wave that had hit New Jersey that July and the fact that the Clinic's air conditioner had broken down that morning.

"Call maintenance again and tell them that if they don't fix the air conditioner in HERE that I'm turning off their cable service down THERE," Cuddy ordered nurse Jeffrey as she picked up the next patient file and headed to exam room 1.

"Yes, Dr. Cuddy," Jeffrey replied as he picked up the phone to call maintenance.

Cuddy entered exam room 1 completely immersed in her current patient's file.

"So what brings you here…" Cuddy began, finally looking up from the file.

She stopped in her tracks upon seeing a pretty blonde girl in her early twenties whose legs were completely covered with red welts, which she was scratching incessantly as she sat on the top of the exam table.

"… today?" Cuddy finished, her brow arching significantly upon eyeing the girl's legs.

"It's itching like crazy. I went hiking the other day, but I know what poison ivy looks like so I avoided it," the young girl complained as she continued to scratch her skin.

"…This isn't poison ivy. They're mosquito bites," Cuddy told her upon closer examination.

"Mosquito bites?! They're HUGE!" the girl exclaimed.

"That's because you had a mild allergic reaction," Cuddy explained to her while she opened one of the drawers underneath the counter in the exam room.

The young girl's eyes widened tremendously when she saw Cuddy pull out a sterile needle with a rather long point along with a small bottle.

"What's that?" the girl asked her nervously.

"I'm giving you a shot of cortisone," Cuddy told her.

"… C-can't you just give me a cream or something?" the girl suggested, eyeing the needle with trepidation.

"I AM going to give you a cream. And an antihistamine. But you also need this if you don't want to scratch your skin off your legs," Cuddy told her firmly. "Now lean over."

The girl nodded and did as Cuddy told her to, screwing her eyes shut as she pulled down the waistband of her shorts. She winced in pain as Cuddy administered the cortisone injection into the top of her behind.

"Do you have Benadryl or Zyrtec in the house?" Cuddy asked her.

"I have Benadryl," the girl replied, gingerly rolling back onto her butt.

"Take one pill twice a day for the next three days. I'm also writing you a prescription for Diprolene cream, which is a topical steroid. You're going to apply that to the bites twice a day as well. You should feel much better in three days. If not, come back," Cuddy told her as she wrote out the prescription.

The girl nodded as Cuddy handed her the paper, looking at her curiously.

"Do you always work in the Clinic?" the girl asked her.

"All of our doctors work in the Clinic. Why?" Cuddy asked, confused by the randomness of her question.

"…I was here six months ago with a cough and a different doctor treated me…" the girl began, her cheeks flushing slightly pink.

"… And… I was kinda hoping I'd see him again," she added with an embarrassed shrug.

"Who was your doctor?" Cuddy asked.

"Really cute blonde Australian guy?" the girl said.

"Dr. Chase," Cuddy said, a knowing smile appearing on her features at the mention of his name.

"Yes," the girl said, her eyes lighting up with excitement. "Do you work with him?"

Cuddy paused for a moment, her tiny, yet melancholy smile remaining.

"…Sorry. Dr. Chase doesn't work here anymore," Cuddy told her.

"Well that stinks," the girl said flatly.

"Is that the only reason you came here?" Cuddy asked her.

"…I did need to see a doctor," the girl replied sheepishly.

"You can fill that at the pharmacy," Cuddy said with a laugh as she grabbed the girl's chart on her way out of the exam room.

At around the same time, House and Wilson were having lunch in their usual booth in the cafeteria.

"How's your patient?" Wilson asked as he took a bite of his BLT.

"Still sick," House replied, grabbing a few French fries off of Wilson's place.

"How's your team?" Wilson asked him.

"Boring," House stated flatly.

"Foreman, Taub and Thirteen aren't entertaining you?" Wilson said sarcastically.

"Foreman and Thirteen are sleeping together again, and Taub reconciled with his wife. Again," House explained.

"So… everyone's getting along…" Wilson began.

"Ergo, BORING," House stated as he began to flip through the tabloid magazine he had purchased earlier that day at the hospital's newsstand.

Wilson nodded, eyeing his friend with contemplation.

"You going to Cameron's wedding?" Wilson asked him.

"Didn't go to her last one," House replied, not bothering to look up from the glossy magazine as he turned the page.

"And look how that turned out," Wilson remarked.

"So you're saying if I go to THIS one, her marriage will last and equilibrium will be restored in the universe once again," House stated.

"Karma's a weird thing," Wilson quipped.

"I left the response card in my other pants," House snarked.

"That's ok, 'cause mine is right here," Wilson said cheerily as he took an ecru colored card and matching envelope out of the front pocket of his lab coat.

House rolled his eyes skyward as he watched Wilson write "DR. JAMES WILSON AND DR. GREGORY HOUSE WILL BE HAPPY TO ATTEND" in the space provided on the card.

"You know what people are gonna say when they see us arrive together," House commented.

"They've been saying that about us for years. You gonna let it bother you now?" Wilson asked him.

"…Good point," House admitted.

Wilson placed the response card in the small matching envelope, sealed it and placed it back in the pocket of his lab coat.

"Wonder if Maxwell let her keep the sperm," House mused.

"Cameron's fiancé's name is Michael and I KNEW that you missed Chase," Wilson declared smugly.

"You got that I miss Chase from mentioning Cameron's late husband's sperm?" House asked with a grimace.

"I just know the way you think," Wilson said with a satisfied smile on his face.

"I don't miss Chase," House muttered, stealing more of Wilson's French fries.

"You said it yourself. Your team is boring and you can't deny that things were definitely more interesting when Chase was around," Wilson pointed out.

"I'm not confirming or denying anything. And I DON'T miss Chase," House stated.

"Then why did you call him yesterday?" Wilson said in an accusing tone.

"How do you know I called him?" House demanded, his eyes widening in genuine surprise.

"You need to look under the stalls in the men's bathroom before you make a phone call if you want total privacy," Wilson revealed smugly.

House snorted as he reached across the table to nick a sip of Wilson's diet coke.

"Forget it, House. Nothing's bringing Chase back here and you know it," Wilson told him.

"This is all Cuddy's fault, you know," House stated as he gave Wilson back his soda.

"Of course it is," Wilson said, his voice heavy with sarcasm.

"Oh. So it's MY fault that they decided that they couldn't work together?" House demanded.

Wilson didn't answer him, reaching across the table to grab House's tabloid.

"I had the perfect situation! A lap dog that I didn't have to train AND a skilled surgeon at my beck and call! And Cuddy had to go and screw it all up," House complained.

"My heart bleeds for you, House," Wilson said flatly.

House leaned heavily on his hand, focusing once again on Wilson's plate and the few French fries he had left.

"You gonna finish those?" House asked him.

Later that evening, House was alone in his dimly lit private office, sitting on his leather chair, his legs stretched out on the matching ottoman, deep in thought when Cuddy walked in.

"What are you still doing here?" House asked her, noticing as he had so many times before how the security lights illuminated her shapely, toned legs.

"I was just on my way home. How's your patient?" she asked him.

"Stable," he replied.

"Then why are YOU still here?" she asked, taking a seat next to his legs on the ottoman.

"Waiting for test results," he told her, moving his legs over slightly so she had room to sit down.

"You never wait around for test results," she pointed out.

"I've got a bet with Taub that it's not osteomyelitis and I wanna see his face when I'm right," he said.

She nodded with a tiny smile, not believing him for a moment.

"Probably would've had a diagnosis already if I had another team member. Preferably a blond Australian—" he added begrudgingly.

"It's been almost a year since Chase left. When are you gonna stop this?" she asked him in exasperation.

House turned down his lip, pretending to think it over.

"Knowing me… never," he said.

She chuckled slightly, tracing his features with her eyes as his lips slowly curled into a smile.

"You look tired," she commented softly.

"What you're really saying is that I look like crap," he stated flatly.

"I did not say that!" she said defensively.

"'You look tired' is the diplomatic way of saying 'you look like crap,'" he told her.

"When have you ever known me to be diplomatic with you?" she argued.

"I think that's my line," he quipped, the corners of his lips turning upwards once again.

She couldn't help but laugh again at that. She placed her hand on his shin and rubbed his leg over his jeans affectionately.

He gazed thoughtfully into her eyes, both of them enjoying the comfortable silence between them.

"I spoke to Chase yesterday," House stated off- handedly.

Cuddy arched her brow slightly, the only indication that her facial expression had changed at all.

"I asked him to come back to work for me," he added.

"…So… my feelings on this don't matter at all," she clarified with an edge to her voice, trying to quell the rising irritation and slight anger that was beginning to build up within her.

"Not really," he replied lightly, secretly enjoying that he was goading her.

"What did he say?" she demanded.

"…He said... he's happy where he is," he said with a shrug, keeping a cool and even gaze on her.

She drew in a breath and quietly exhaled as she nodded in reply, her emotions calming.

"Just so we're clear. I blame you for why he left," House told her.

A tiny chuckle escaped her lips.

"Duly noted," she told him.

He snorted and winced, shifting his position on the chair to ease the twinge of pain that shot up his leg.

Cuddy furrowed her brow in concern for a moment, but said nothing, knowing that House never liked for anyone to make a fuss over him.

"Good luck with your bet," she told him.

"Thanks," he replied.

She kept her gaze on him a moment longer before she got up off the ottoman to leave his office.

"I've also got a pool going about how long it's gonna take before your ginormous ass shrinks back to its regular supertanker size," he told her before she reached the door.

Still facing away from him, she smiled, keeping her laugh to herself. She turned around once more to face him, her hair flipping over her shoulder as he did so.

He loved it when she did that.

But he'd never admit it to her.

"G'night, House," she told him.

"G'night, Cuddy," he replied.

After watched her leave his office, House turned his attention towards his desk, smiling almost fondly at the empty space on it where his grey and red oversized tennis ball used to be.

Around twenty minutes later, Cuddy came home to find Rosalind, her nanny, finishing folding some clothes on top of the dining room table and placing them neatly in a laundry basket.

"Hi Rosalind," Cuddy greeted her, placing her purse on the table.

"How was your day, Dr. Cuddy?" Rosalind asked her.

"Long. Is Rachel asleep?" Cuddy asked.

"Yes," Rosalind replied, folding the last t- shirt and placing it in the basket. "Would you like me to take this up for you?"

"No, you've had a long day too. I'll do it," she replied.

Rosalind smiled and nodded. "Have a good night, Dr. Cuddy."

"You too," she told her.

Deciding to leave the clean laundry for tomorrow, she toed out of her heels and cut through the living room on her way to Rachel's bedroom.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted what used to be House's oversized red and grey tennis ball in the corner of the couch.

A tiny laugh escaped her lips as she picked it up and bobbled it in her hands before heading to Rachel's room.

Cuddy silently tiptoed into Rachel's bedroom and smiled lovingly at her daughter as she stood over her crib.

Now almost two years old, Rachel slept peacefully on her stomach, her soft curls cascading past her neck and covering her face slightly.

Cuddy delicately brushed Rachel's fine hair off her cheek, causing her to stir just a little in her sleep.

As she had done so many times before, Cuddy held her breath, hoping she didn't just wake her daughter up by accident.

But as Rachel merely exhaled through her nose, Cuddy breathed a tiny sigh of relief and left the room, leaving her daughter to sleep, still holding the red and grey tennis ball in her hand.

"You trying to teach a three- month- old to catch?" Cuddy asked softly, standing in the doorway of the third bedroom, holding up the red and grey tennis ball in her hand.

From his position in the cushioned glider rocking chair in the corner of the room, Chase looked up at Cuddy and smiled at her.

"It's never too early," Chase replied, matching her soft tone, before looking back down at their infant son, Zach, as he continued to feed him his evening bottle of formula.

"He asleep?" Cuddy asked, crossing the room to them.

"Almost," Chase said, holding Zach in a slightly elevated position as their baby continued to suck evenly from the bottle.

She bent down and gave Chase a gentle kiss on his lips, smiling fondly as she always did at the sight of him with a burp cloth slung over his left shoulder as he fed their son.

She giggled as she looked at Zach's tiny wisps of blond hair, which were sticking up in all different directions.

"You ever brush this kid's hair?" she asked Chase.

"I like it like this. He looks cool, like his dad," Chase replied, slightly defensive.

Cuddy ran her fingers through Chase's now closely cropped blond hair, which was also sticking up in several different directions.

"How was your day?" Cuddy asked him, taking a seat on the matching ottoman in front of the rocking chair.

"Rachel learned how to take off her diaper by herself today," Chase told her, his voice a mixture of pride and exasperation.

"That's great!" Cuddy said enthusiastically, yet quietly so as not to upset Zachary as he began to drift off to sleep.

"Not so great when I'm trying to keep it ON her," Chase quipped.

Cuddy laughed. "It's a developmental milestone for a toddler to be able to take off their own clothing. She's actually ahead a couple of months."

"Tell that to all the stay at home mums at our pool club who have no trouble keeping their own kid's clothes on while they give me disapproving looks as I run after Rachel's nekkid bottom around the pool deck," Chase said.

"I'm paying Rosalind to help you. Don't tell me she just sits there—" Cuddy began.

"She DOES help. Your daughter's a fighter," Chase reminded her, smirking.

"She's your daughter now too, you know," Cuddy pointed out fondly.

"When she refuses to put on her clothes, she's YOUR daughter," Chase joked.

After placing Zach in his crib and putting the red and grey tennis ball back on his dresser, Chase and Cuddy went back to their bedroom.

As Chase slipped out of his board shorts and t- shirt, Cuddy watched Zach through the video baby monitor on her dresser with a melancholy expression.

"I feel like I hardly ever see him," she said sadly.

"That's why we set up the web cam in your office," Chase reminded her. "And you don't work weekends."

Cuddy exhaled, Chase's words doing little to comfort her.

"…Maybe I shouldn't have gone back to work this soon…" she mumbled as she unzipped her skirt.

"What did House say about your arse today?" Chase interrupted her knowingly.

Cuddy tsked. "Nothing," she lied as she stepped out of her skirt and draped it over the chair in the corner of their bedroom.

Chase raised his eyebrows, not believing her at all. Cuddy rolled her eyes at her husband and began to unbutton her short- sleeved silk blouse.

"Apparently there's a pool going about long it's gonna take me to lose all the baby weight," she muttered, slipping her blouse off her shoulders.

"I know. I put in five- hundred for four months," Chase told her, fighting off a grin as his eyes traced over her delectable curvy body, her demi bra and scrap of panties barely covering her.

Cuddy's jaw dropped in shock, her blouse only mid- way off her arms.

"You bet against your own WIFE?! You don't even work there anymore!" she exclaimed.

Chase, now clad only in his black cotton boxers, crossed the room to her, took her blouse the rest of the way off her arms and pulled her close to him, wrapping his own arms around her waist.

"We're gonna clean up, baby. I've got inside information," he told her, sliding his hands over the lace band of her thong down to her supple ass, giving it a generous squeeze, loving the feeling of her almost naked body pressed against him.

His erection in his boxers seemed to like it, too.

"You're lucky I love you," she told him.

"I know."

He kissed her, his tongue delicately teasing hers. She moaned into his mouth, putting her arms about his shoulders. He then trailed his lips down her neck as he reached up to cup her breast over her demi- bra.

"Besides in a few months… I'll be going back to work, too," he murmured against her neck, stroking her nipple over the fabric of her bra with his thumb.

Cuddy gasped excitedly. "You got the space?!"

"Yep," he said with a huge smile.

"That's fantastic!" she said, wrapping her arms around his neck.

Chase lifted her off her feet and spun her around, thrilled that he had been able to hold off the surprise as long as he did.

"After some major renovations, I'll officially be a family doctor in private practice," he stated proudly.

"So are you gonna start interviewing PA's?" she asked him, her eyes dancing.

"Not until all the renovations are done. Right now the place looks like it should be condemned," he told her.

"I guess we'll have to hire Rosalind full time, then," she mused.

"We can put Zach in Rachel's day care for part of the day. They're excellent," Chase said.

"You really want him exposed to all those germs that soon?" she asked.

"I take him everywhere. He's already exposed. And Rachel's all over him."

"Yeah, but it's the summer," Cuddy reminded him. "Once cold and flu season starts—"

"Rachel's gonna be bringing home the same germs," Chase interrupted her.

"And we've got less than four hours before Zach wakes up again. You really want to waste it arguing the hygiene hypothesis?" he added, flashing her a sexy grin.

"… No," she admitted, returning his smile.

Cuddy arched back on their bed, her legs wrapped around Chase's hips, moaning in time with each of Chase's deep, decadent thrusts.

He lifted up slightly off her, hooking his hand underneath her thigh, lifting her leg higher to give her even more friction against her tingling clit where she needed it most.

"Oh god…" she squealed desperately at the incredibly intense sensation between her legs, her breasts bouncing with each movement, almost about to tip over the edge.

"Shhh… you'll wake both of them," he managed to say through gasps of breath as he continued to thrust into her.

She bit her lip to hold back from crying out, as she went over, the electricity spreading through her entire body overtaking her. Chase shuddered as the force of his own orgasm ripped through him, burying his face in her neck to keep quiet.

He collapsed on the bed next to her, utterly exhausted, taking deep breaths.

"You ok?" she asked, trying to catch her own breath.

"Uh huh…" he managed to say.

Chase let out one more deep exhale before closing his eyes, heavily draping his arm across Cuddy's naked frame. She did the same, nuzzling next to him, both their bodies covered with a thin film of sweat.

They shared a wonderful silence for a few moments in the darkness of their bedroom.

Cuddy glanced at the clock, silently calculating that they now had less than three hours before Zach woke up for his next feeding.

"House misses you," Cuddy mentioned.

"Does he now?" Chase said, his voice muffled by the pillow.

She nodded. "He still blames me for why you left."

"He should blame ME. I'm the one who didn't want to be bossed around all day by my wife. I get that enough at home," he retorted.

She laughed lazily. "He told me that he called you."

"Mhm," he mumbled as he began to drift off.

Cuddy felt an anxious twinge inside her as she braced herself to ask him her next question.

"…Did you really mean it when you told him that you were happy where you are?" she asked him.

"Mhm," he said, rubbing the outside of her thigh and ass, despite the sleep that began to overtake him.

She smiled, remembering the question that House had forced her to ask herself a year ago in her office.

"… Then it was worth it," she said.

"What was worth it?" Chase asked, almost incoherently.

She laughed softly, kissing his bare chest.

"Nothing. Get some sleep," she told him.

"Mmph," was all Chase said before falling into a deep sleep next to her.

THE END.

Again, thank you so much for reading.

Please let me know if you're interested in a sequel. :D