THE NIGHT VISITOR

"Oh my god, would you look at the time." Lo looked at her watch with an exclamation. "I can't go home now."

"No. You're staying right here." Cuddy slurred her words slightly. "The guest room should be okay."

"Well, if it's not, I can snuggle up with you," Lo teased.

"Not a chance. You snore like a hibernating grizzly."

"Do bears snore, when they're hibernating? I often wonder about that."

"No you don't." Cuddy shook her head.

"Well, I would, if, like, I did." Both women burst into uncontrollable giggles.

"I'm glad you came." Cuddy hugged her dear friend.

"So am I." Lo kissed her on the cheek. "If I didn't, I'd probably be under a guy who smelled like breath spray and cigarettes and whose arms were hairier than your snoring grizzly."

"Oh Lo." Cuddy sighed.

"Don't give me that." Lo crashed into the doorway as the two friends tried to push threw it at the same time. More laughter ensued. "You had quite the reputation in high school, remember?"

"Vividly. But I was a stupid teenager then." Cuddy had managed to keep her reputation under the covers now.

"Well, I'm a stupid forty year old now."

"Just don't be too stupid, okay love?"

"Yes mother."

"And don't ever call me mother!" Cuddy gave her friend a playful push, but Lo's inebriated state caused her to easily lose her balance and crash onto the couch.

"I think I'll sleep here," Lo mumbled as she felt herself pass out.

"You'd be more comfortable in the guest room." Cuddy tugged at her arm, but gave up and threw the blanket that had been draped across the back of the couch over her. "Night."

"Night Lisa," Lo called out after her pal. "Try not to get sick."

"You too. That's a very expensive couch."

"Of course it is." Lo faked a puking noise, which caused Cuddy to rush back to her side.

"Don't do that!"

Lo snickered. "Better get me a bucket, just in case."

Cuddy sighed and went to the kitchen for a pot. She put it on the table beside Lo and headed off to bed.

It was sometime later when a key slipped into the lock and the front door slowly opened. House took one step in and saw a blonde head pop up over the sofa. "It's you!" Lo smiled lopsidedly. "Lisa owes me twenty bucks."

House closed the door behind him. "So she called for reinforcements?"

"She did indeed." Lo slurred.

"Did she tell you what happened?"

Lo nodded her head, felt dizzy, then vomited into the pot.

House walked past her and into the kitchen. He came back a minute later and handed Lo a glass. "Drink it. You'll feel better."

"Are you here to do what I think you're here to do?" Lo said cryptically, sitting up and drinking House's horrible concoction with a face of utter disgust.

"I am."

"She's just scared G. Go in there and tell her to get her head out of her ass and marry you already."

"Is she as wasted as you?" House didn't want to waste an apology on someone who wouldn't remember it in the morning.

"You know Lisa. That girl can drink like a sailor on whore leave...no, wait...a whore on a sailor...no, that's not it either..."

"Don't strain yourself." House got up and looked down the dark hall toward Cuddy's bedroom.

"Go get her tiger!" Lo tried punching him in the arm encouragingly, but slipped and got him in the jaw.

"You're lucky you're drunk." House narrowed his eyes at her. Luckily she hadn't hit him hard or she'd have a cane shaped line on the side of her head.

"Yes, I am." Lo slid off to the side and started snoring, much like a hibernating grizzly, if indeed hibernating grizzlies do snore.

House covered her back up and headed down the dark hall, his cane swishing back and forth to lead the way, and check for debris. Nothing worse than sneaking up on someone only to trip over something and cause a racket.

He slowly pushed open the door. He took two shuffling steps in and shut the door behind him, locking it, just in case. And people said he wasn't optimistic? What did they know?

As his eyes adjusted to the light, he slowly began to make out her familiar form, the curve of her hip, the long line of her arm, the graceful tapering of her legs. She was lying on her side of the bed.

He leaned over and brushed the hair out of her face. A glint of light caught his eye and he saw the ring, sitting on the bedside table. He frowned as he picked it up and shoved it in his pocket.

"Cuddy," he leaned over her and whispered in her ear. "Wake up; I want to talk to you."

She didn't respond. He let his lips gently press against her hair. She was breathing heavily, her mouth open. Her breath smelled of alcohol. For some reason he found that sexy as hell. Or maybe it was just that he found her sexy as hell, laying there in the darkness, her hand stretched over the spot where he usually slept.

House slowly got undressed. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, but he couldn't help himself. In nothing but his boxers, he slipped into bed beside her, slowly lifting her hand and then placing it on his shoulder, where she usually kept it. He felt her body instantly mould itself to his, one leg snaking around his own, her head nuzzling into his neck. Now her sweet alcoholic breath fell against his shoulder.

He was surprised by how much it pleased him to feel her lying there beside him. Some small part of his mind hoped that she would wake up, kiss him, and forget that they'd ever fought. He told himself that was absurd, that she would probably break up with him for good, but he needed to hold her right now. He needed her.

Cuddy heard his heart beating before she knew he was there. It reminded her of home. Not the home she was raised in, not home in the sense of a place you lived, but home as in the place where she was safe from all the evils of the world. Home as in her own private paradise where nothing else mattered, and she could lay in the arms of her lover, listening to his heart beat and not think about work, or her mother, or the fight they'd had only hours...before...

"HOUSE!" She pulled herself out of his arms and sat up quickly, staring down at his bare torso. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"You invited me." He slid his hand slowly up her arm, comfortingly, confidently. It just might work.

Cuddy had to think about it for a moment. She had been pretty drunk, and she had thought about calling him. Had Lo convinced her to do it? She tried to remember. Lo had thought it was a good idea. "No I didn't!"

"But you wanted to." He could read her like a book.

"I..." Cuddy saw him getting closer. She knew she was supposed to pull away. She felt his hands slid up her arms and reminded herself that she was angry with him. She saw him tilt his head ever so slightly, his mouth barely touching hers and she tried to remember why she'd been so angry. She felt his breath, so close against her skin and she stopped thinking all together.

She threw her arms around his neck and pressed herself against him, her mouth desperate for his taste. Her hands slid across his broad back, feeling him as though it were the first time. Her limbs felt like something not a part of her. They had a mind of their own. Her leg, against her strict orders, climbed across his hips, pinning him beneath her. She pulled his hands up over his head, and leaned down to kiss him, sucking his bottom lip, then slipping her tongue between his moist lips, invading him like a Viking attack.

House lay back, enjoying her taking the lead. It wasn't something that happened often and usually only when she was very drunk, and he was going to enjoy it for as long as he could. He felt her body undulating on top of him. Even through his boxers the sensation drove him wild.

He tried to grab his boxers, pull them down as quickly as he could, but she wouldn't let go of him. She held his arms tightly and kept kissing his neck, his face, his mouth, over and over as though she were starved for him.

She was on autopilot, her body now in control, and refusing to relinquish that power. As soon as her mind tried to think of why she shouldn't be doing this, her body would do something like slipping one hand into his shorts. As soon as she felt his hot, throbbing manhood in her delicate hand, she lost the ability to think at all.

She pulled him quickly inside of her, forcefully, almost painfully, but it was that good kind of pain that House would never admit was something of a turn on. He felt his staff engulfed in her heat, her juices flowing around him. He felt her body pulsating on top of him, moving animalisticly, aggressively, her only thought on her own pleasure.

The idea that she was only using him for sex drove him wild. House let her do what she wanted with him. He felt her teeth nip at his neck and he cried out, but he did not stop her. She was like a wild animal and he was not ready to tame her just yet.

Cuddy felt herself climax with him deep inside her. She tightened her grip on his wrists as the burst of energy shot through her then she went back for more, moving around in a different pattern, forcing him deeper inside her, sending him to new and unexplored realms.

House erupted like a volcano, his hot lava flowing inside her, filling her with his seed. Still she did not let him go. House felt so much desire it hurt. He felt the pressure building up again as she rode him like a stallion. Her mouth sucked hard on his neck. She was leaving her mark on him. She was branding him as her own private stud.

House screamed out as a second explosion quickly followed the first. He cursed his loss of control as she slid off of him, falling to her back and panting hard.

"This doesn't mean I forgive you," she said, breathing heavily.

"I know." House reached over to touch her, but she pushed his hand away.

"Get out!"

"What?" He wasn't expecting that.

"I said get out!" She was quickly becoming sober, and wasn't enjoying the transition at all.

House thought for a moment, then shouted "NO!" knowing it would wreck havoc on her head.

Cuddy cringed as his loud voice cut through her. "Please House, go."

"No. You can't get rid of me that easily." House pulled her to face him. He could see the tears in her eyes, but he didn't let that deter him. He had a job to do. "I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's really going on."

Cuddy closed her eyes and looked away. How could she tell him what was really going on when she didn't know herself? "You shouldn't have told my mother…"

"I know. I messed up. I'm sorry." The words hurt to say. He hated messing up. Only failures messed up. That's what his father used to say.

"It's not just that." She knew in her heart she wasn't this upset over that.

"You don't trust me." As much as he knew he deserved it, the idea that she didn't trust him hurt deeply.

"I want to House. I really want to trust you. But when you do something like this, when you go and do the one thing I told you not to do. You just make it impossible."

"I screwed up. People screw up Cuddy." His voice was growing louder. "That's life and you either have to deal with it, or go hide under a rock, because I can promise you only one thing in life, and that is, that I will screw up again. I will hurt you again. I will disappoint you again. I will betray you again. And if you can't deal with that, if you expect me to be perfect, then we should end this right now."

Cuddy was in tears. His words cut through her with the sharp blade of truth. "I don't want you to be perfect House."

"Then what the hell do you want Cuddy, because I am really struggling to figure that out."

She closed her eyes tight, then opened them and looked deep into his. "I don't want to spend the rest of my life wondering if you only married me because I forced you to." There, the truth was out. She braced herself for the storm to follow.

House stared at her. His mind was playing the words over and over. "Then let's not get married."

"What?" she sniffled, not expecting that reply at all.

"If you don't want me to feel trapped then we'll call the whole thing off."

"But…" she didn't want to lose him.

"We'll go back to the way things were, lots of hot sex and no commitments." That actually didn't sound all that bad to House.

Cuddy burst into tears again.

"I hate weepy drunks."

"I'm not drunk House, and I'm not weepy, other than hearing that the man I love doesn't want to spend his life with me."

"That is not what I said."

"What do you think 'no commitments' means House?"

"It means…" what did it mean? "It means you need to shut up and go to sleep and we'll talk about this when you're sober."

"I told you House, I'm not drunk. And we'll talk about this now." Her eyes blazed. "Is sex all you want from me?"

"Of course not. But I don't want you to spend the rest of our relationship thinking you trapped me into it either. So the engagement is off."

"Fine." She was too mad to fight any further. She turned and pretended to fall asleep.

"Fine." House lay on his back smiling. She hadn't kicked him out.