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True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation."- George Washington,

.

"Sorry, a bit late with those figures you asked me for, Dr Cuddy. My bad." He smiled insincerely and included the rest of the room in it. "Gosh, did I arrive at a bad time, it looks like a pack of hyenas at the rotten carcass."

"Dr. House, this board meeting is still in session, I'm sure you can give Dr Cuddy your report after this meeting," said the Chairman.

"Oh, no! She asked for them for this meeting, so I'm guessing she needs them now." He plonked an untidy fistful of papers in front of her "Sorry, I haven't typed them up – haven't totalled them either but here's the pledges." His eyes were blazing in anger, she had no idea why, except possibly because she hadn't believed him about Hacker. She hadn't asked for any figures… What trick was House trying to pull? Surely he wasn't escalating the game now? By reflex she started to look at the pages he'd put in front of her. As she was trying to shuffle them into order he glanced over her shoulder.

"Oh, I see you've got the rest of the figures in front of you. I'm just in time then." He snatched the sheet up and made a play of reading through it, then whistled. "Hacker, well done, exceeded your usual quarter totals by what… quadruple? How did you manage given the previous 8 years? Bit of a fluke I suppose, must happen to everyone eventually."

"I don't see that's any of your business Dr. House. As you have given Dr Cuddy your information you can leave now," replied Hacker, dismissively. However, House had never been one to take a hint broad or otherwise.

"She might have questions, my writing's terrible, although she's well practiced with it over the years. And it looks like it's related to the matter at hand. So you'll have to give her a minute just to catch up. Not in a rush are you. Got a nooner planned? Oh no, that somebody else… " he let his eyes glance round the table making sure to make eye contact with one very surprised, and uncomfortable board member, who just happened to be one of Hacker's cronies." He glanced at the sheet again, then pointed to an entry. "Bodger & Fixnowt, oh dear, Hacker, they filed for Chapter 7 this morning, didn't you hear that on the news?"

The board members went from impatient fidgeting to paying more attention. It was well known that Hacker had ambitions, this was not necessarily a bad thing, if this was for the benefit of the hospital. Ambition tended to be motivating but Hacker was not well liked and if he had fudged his figures… Those in favour of Cuddy looked encouragingly at House, those neutral looked interested, and those aligned with Hacker but not his cronies were looking wary, they did not want to be caught on the wrong side.

"That's $20,000 off your total. Shame you didn't get them to pay yesterday, promises are so cheap." His eyes moved down the page, and onto another. "Oh, look you've counted that entry twice. Just because a husband and wife have different surnames -- when they only send one cheque you can only put it down once, not once for each surname. That double-entry bookkeeping is so tricky isn't it? It's why I never do it. $10,000 from Megla pharmaceuticals… that's odd you usually only get a 'donation' from them once a year and you claimed that last quarter."

"I did not," said Hacker, indignantly.

"Yes, you did," said Cuddy, still head down trying to make sense of House's scribble. That was one of the figures she thought was suspect so she was happy to sound confident backing House up. The rest of the board looked at Hacker who was looking hesitant.

"I… I must have missed that when I was checking my figures. However, that doesn't really affect the significance of the overall total." He still had a confidently smug air.

House's air was even smugger. "Oh, look, Quantum Analyticus, I thought Proudie usually got a donation from them…? You pissed them off Proudie?"

"No…I…errm…" Proudie trailed off, looking uncomfortable.

"Oh, I see," said House, "It's some kind of quantum mechanical donation… in two places at once." He smiled, sardonically.

Hacker was beginning to sweat. He had massaged some of his figures not expecting to get called on them because, with the correct timing, Cuddy would not be up to speed. Once he had the job, he should be able to fudge the paperwork so no-one noticed the discrepancy. Normally, no one was interested in the details only the final figures and for House, of all people, to notice -- he never took any interest in the running of the hospital except to circumvent rules, procedures and bureaucracy.

"I think you'll find that is still not significant to the overall total, Dr House. I…" Hacker was not allowed to finish.

"Yes, about that," said Cuddy, now with a martial light in her eye. "As I now have the Diagnostics department's figures, I can add that further endowments of a million dollars can be added to the quarter's receipts. Two thirds of it is dependent on Dr House being available for consultation. Should Dr House leave the funding will go with him, otherwise it is at the hospital's disposal."

She saw one of the board members lean into his neighbour and whisper something, it rapidly spread round the table. Unbeknownst to her, the day before House had spotted Dr Fautor leaning on the balcony and had engaged him in an apparent casual conversation.

"An excellent view from up here," House said, as his opening gambit.

"Yes, I suppose it is," said Fautor, slightly taken aback at being spoken to by House.

"Suppose? You'd only get a better view of Cuddy's cleavage if you can stand behind her while she's sitting…"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Fautor interrupted.

"Your secret's safe with me." House winked at Fautor. "You wouldn't be a real man if you didn't look. Me, I'm just a lost cause to the ass." Fautor looked startled. "I'd follow it anywhere, even to another hospital -- if she ever left."

"Are you two…?" Fautor started to ask, a little too eagerly.

"God, No!" House looked shocked. "That cleavage has teeth, it's strictly a look but don't touch zone."

"I'm glad to hear it," said a disappointed Fautor. He'd been hoping for a bit of gossip.

"But, its adds something to the work day don't you think? And she so likes to be in charge."

Fautor had nodded, not sure what House was really getting at, just glad he wasn't being confrontational.

Cuddy could see the body language change as the whisper spread, it was definitely swaying away from Hacker. If Cuddy wanted to devolve some of her responsibilities voluntarily then they would be sympathetic and Hacker's offer would have been welcome. However, it would appear that Cuddy did not want to devolve any responsibilities that, despite what Hacker had said, she was on top of her job -- no one even considered the possibility that House might have brought a report or raised funds off his own bat, so the glory went to Cuddy. If they approved Hacker's play for part of Cuddy's job, there was every possibility that she might leave and, for whatever reason, it looked like House was supporting Cuddy. The hospital politics teetered. Basically, many on the board did not want Cuddy leaving the hospital taking her considerable money attracting assets with her. If House left it would be with mixed feelings but right now a million dollars spoke loudly to most board members.

Cuddy looked at the numbers again, she was still short of Hacker's 'updated' total but it was a lot more respectable. She might now possibly be able to talk her way out of this one. She saw House take another breath and she tried to stop him before he undid all his 'good' work.

"Dr House," she tried to get his attention. He looked at her but carried on talking anyway. She cringed expecting the worst.

"This number here, the $100,000 from Inflecto Brothers…" Everybody now dutifully looked at the sheet. "…that can't be right."

"I got that figure from Rackem," Hacker said, defensively

"What, Rackem in accounting? The one who volunteers for that charity? The one that's being investigated for creative accounting, you know the one that seemed to have a surfeit of zeros… added after all the other significant numbers, so $10,000 became $100,000? The one that was walked off site by two plain clothes police officers yesterday after an, apparently, anonymous tip-off? That Rackem?"

The balance tipped. Hacker's support withered on the vine. Cuddy made her move.

"Dr House?"

"Yes, Dr Cuddy?" He turned to look at her, still with residual anger glittering in his eyes.

"Thank you for these figures. That will be all." She prayed and hoped that whatever anger he was feeling towards her right now was still moderated by whatever had goaded him into rescuing her in the first place. Because rescue her he had. She needed him to leave now, before he did any damage and to give that final nail in the coffin to any doubts there might be about how much control she had over her hospital.

"But…" Surely he wasn't going to sabotage his efforts so far. Although having proved he was capable of rescuing her he was just as capable of torpedoing her as well. Just to prove his point.

"I believe you have clinic duty." She let her eyes plead with him, while keeping her face a mask of officiousness. Hopefully, most of the board were watching House for his reaction, rather than her. And if they weren't, hopefully, only he could read her eyes.

He grimaced. "Your wish is my command, O magnificence," he bowed, doing some complicated hand gesture, which, if seen from a certain angle, might have involved a certain finger gesture in Hacker's direction, and shuffled backwards out of the door. A couple of people tsked in disdain, most smirked. Cuddy kept her face set on serious, promising herself a smirk in private. She was about to address Hacker, but the chairman got in before her and proceeded to wrap up the meeting attempting to quash further discussion.

"Well, Dr Cuddy seems to have everything under control. The quarterly presentation is scheduled for next month by which time we will have confirmed figures. I think that about wraps it up for today. Thank you everybody."

There was a quick movement of chairs backwards, and several tried for swift exits before Dr Hacker could speak. Unfortunately, he did manage to get himself heard.

"There is just one further point. Can Dr Cuddy confirm that Dr House will be speaking at the charity dinner next month?"

Which/ what/ where charity dinner? she thought. She glanced at Wilson who looked sheepish.

"Absolutely. No problem," she replied, giving Wilson a menacing look just as he escaped through the door.

It took her twenty minutes to get down to Wilson's office, by the time a couple of department heads had had a 'quick' word. House was just leaving Wilson's office, he opened the door to be confronted by Cuddy. She was ready to make nice. House wanted none of it.

"Oh, look Wilson, your eleven o'clock's here. She's got a cancerous growth, running around with its own independent life support. It still drains all the life out of you though and makes you stupid." Then barged his way passed her. He could feel the stare of death hitting him in the back as he retreated down the hall. However, Cuddy had more immediate words to despatch, she beard House in his lair later.

She turned to Wilson, with a look that had his knees quivering such that he was glad he was sitting down. "What speech for what charity dinner?"

"It's in last month's minutes. It was Dr. Heggerty's request." He answered, watching her warily.

"Request?" How could she say that and make him feel like she had a scalpel at his throat?

"Yes. She represents the polio charity giving the event, and they promised PPTH 10% of the proceeds if a representative from PPTH gave a speech. They requested House because of that post-polio syndrome case he identified."

"And you thought this was a good idea?" she asked, incredulously.

"The rest of the board all voted to approve the request, I would have been the only dissenting voice and they only needed a majority for that vote anyway." Wilson squirmed. This wasn't his fault, but mentioning that at the moment would not help his cause.

"Getting House to give a speech that's he's contractually obliged to give is a Herculean task. He'd never agree to this one. What were you thinking? And why haven't you mentioned it before now?" She was in irate disbelief.

"Well, everyone else thought it was a good idea. You and House seemed to be getting on well. I thought you'd be able to talk him into it. As for the latter, it never occurred to me that you wouldn't be up to date."

"Talk him into it! Even if we were speaking that would have been an impossible task." She paced backwards and forwards across his office in agitation.

"I thought you said you weren't not speaking… that's a double negative but it comes out meaning the same thing." He was hoping to deflect her thought processes away from him.

"We aren't not speaking… we're just… not meeting," she said, as if that clarified the matter. "You'll have to ask him to give the speech."

"That's not going to work." He tried to sidestep, his mood rising towards panic.

"Well, I can't ask him, he's already going to be gloating about today."

"Can't blame him, he did warn you."

"I know!" she barked out at him. Okay mentioning the board meeting was a worse minefield than mentioning the speech. Where was House when you needed him? He was much better at deflecting her.

"Now's probably a good time to ask him. You might catch him off guard while he's feeling smug. Polish his ego, appeal to his intellect," Wilson wheedled. She looked exasperated. "You'll never know if you don't ask. What are you afraid of? His gloating?"

"I'm not afraid. Okay, maybe I am. He's going to… belittle me." Wilson just looked at her. "Okay, so I missed it but he doesn't have to rub my nose in it."

"What makes you think he'll do that?"

"Because… that's what he does. He's going to have a field day." At least she had stopped pacing. However, she was stood in the middle of his office arms crossed, glaring at him.

"Hmmm," mused Wilson.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"If he was going to do that, you'd think he would have done that just now, while he had me as an audience…"

Cuddy thought about that for a moment. "His parting shot wasn't him gloating, was it?" she concluded.

"No," agreed Wilson.

"He's angry?" she suggested.

"That's a better guess," agreed Wilson, seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, or more to the point, Cuddy's back as she turned for the door.

"I can cope with anger over gloating," she said, as she marched out of his office.

Wilson blew out a huge sigh of relief.

He was in his office, standing in front of his desk, back to the door. He turned as she entered and his eyes narrowed.

"House… I just wanted to thank you…" she started.

"I don't want your gratitude, Dr Cuddy," he snapped.

"Are you just trying to hold an obligation over my head?" She was confused at his attitude.

"No," he said, tersely.

"Then why did you do it?" If he was going to be monosyllabic she might as well go for the direct approach

"Who wants to teach another administrator? It's taken me years to get you trained. You're such a slow learner," he sneered.

"You wouldn't last five minutes with a new administrator." She tried to put a bit of friendliness into her tone. She was grateful to House after all, but, as usual, he was making it difficult.

"What makes you think that? At least I have been doing my job, unlike you." His eyes were hard and glittering.

"You're not doing your job. You're paying lip service to it." She snapped, she had been trying to be nice, but if he wanted an argument, she'd give him one.

"I'm doing my job -- solved loads of cases, all while having to cover your ass." He pointed his cane at her to emphasize his point.

"Those cases are so easy you should have been able to do them three at a time." She took at step towards him, eyes flashing. "And, I didn't need somebody to bail me out."

"If you don't like the cases I'm doing bring me other ones. Right," he scoffed, "you were so well prepared for that meeting. Hacker had you on the ropes." He leaned towards her getting into her personal space, towering over her.

"I don't need an employee telling me how to do my job." She closed the distance between their faces refusing to let him intimidate her. If they were Van de Graf generators there'd be sparks flying by now.

"Well, this employee just saved your ass. I just prostituted myself to twenty geriatrics to raise the funds you should have got had you been doing your job."

"Who?" she asked, momentarily diverted.

"The O'Learys and their various bridge and golf buddies," he answered, evenly.

"Really? How did you manage that?"

"Told Mrs O'Leary I needed to save your ass and she rounded up the sacrificial lambs. She's got a soft spot for me." He said with a smug smile.

"Sounds more like you're the sacrifice, you're now contracted to provide them with free consultation to the end of their life," she said with an evil grin.

"Only, if the admitting doctor or their GP has exhausted all other possibilities."

"The O'Learys are pretty savvy when it comes to contracts. They'll want their money's worth. So don't even think of trying to wriggle your way out of those responsibilities." She pointed a finger at him to emphasize her point.

"Better that than a pound of flesh," he said, viciously. "I'll do my job like I always do it. If you don't like the way I'm doing it fire me," he challenged her.

"That's just typical of you, go all Prima Donna. You're like an eight year old child -- I'm going home if you don't play the game I want to," she mimicked a childish voice. "Toss your toys out of the pram why don't you. What you going to do next? Hold your breath?"

"And you think you're so in charge? Nag, nag, nag, that's all you ever do. I might as well be married to you, you're worse than Wilson."

Her hands went to her hips. "When hell freezes over! That's just typical of a man! Accuse the woman of nagging when all she's trying to do is to get you to do what you're supposed to do."

All semblance of professional discussion was abandoned. They'd certainly forgotten what had started it. They were both leaning towards each other, intent on their argument, eyes flashing, slightly flushed cheeks, an aura of excitement in the air and, strangely, one of relief.

"That's right blame the man. Am I supposed to cave now? Say sorry your right, dear? It was all my fault? Time for the angry make-up sex now? Anybody would think this was a personal argument."

And that was the bucket of icy cold water on the pair – simultaneous recognition -- personal argument. They paused breathing deeply; their faces mirrored each other – shock. They were high, absolutely charged, invigorated and elated by the argument. They thrived off confrontation, nothing new there, but this… with each other… were they… addicted to each other? They blinked, slowly, gathering their wits. Their eyes roamed the other's face, looking for denial, hoping the other could come up with reasons, excuses, anything. They swallowed.

Cuddy had come here to thank him and try to get things back to normal but, by normal, she had not expected the physical response, the emotional and physical relief. How tightly wound up she had been. The sort of thing she thought tennis, massages and even sex relieved. She was terrified. She went for control.

"House," she said, reaching to touch his arm. He saw the movement and sprang back avoiding the touch.

"That's hardly professional conduct, Dr Cuddy." His defences went up. "What's the matter? Total avoidance not working for you? Fancy that, personal and work relationships being intertwined. Life's a bummer when you realise that personal relationships affects how people work together. Still too late now. You've got what you wanted. So, if that's all, I do have a case."

She swallowed, debated with herself but turned and walked away. She needed to think. He'd need to think. It was a two-edged sword letting him think, but if she tried to analyse the situation now, House would just go stubborn… more stubborn. Without the personal connection what control did she have over him? She'd never realised just how often he had responded to her on a personal level. He was always so in her face, lobbying for risky, abnormal procedures, advocating for his patient, circumventing her when he thought it necessary, and the petty power plays ... but without the bets, bribes, body, or the occasional touch to ground him… what did she have?

She could withdraw his authorisation, threaten him with sanctions -- that always worked really well with someone with issues with authority -- threaten to fire him, but that was self defeating and he knew it. There were certain situations where she could hold that above his head and he might take notice but it wouldn't hold him as a general rule. If the patient had something that was sufficiently puzzling, or was of sufficient interest that held him but they didn't always catch his attention straight off. There were the games…

Was this a game? It had none of the hallmarks of a game. If he wasn't playing games…? Her stomach lurched. She hadn't got what she wanted and she certainly hadn't got what she needed. He must have known this would happen. So, was he was keeping the low profile as part of a game or because that's what she asked for? He was certainly taking her literally. Well, whether he was trying to prove a point or doing some passive aggressive power play he'd proved that 'total avoidance' wasn't what was required. Not that she'd actually said total avoidance, but she had said go back to your usual MO and had not corrected him when he'd said complete avoidance.

How did she get it back to something more workable? She'd hurt him when she'd told him to stay out of her life, she'd seen him mask it. Did he hate her? He hated that he'd had to 'prostitute' himself to get the funds. Couldn't blame him for that. But why did he do it? It was almost heretical for House to seek donations. He'd given a perfectly selfish reason and that was probably part of it, but with House there could be more than one reason. So, he hated seeking donations… a lot of donations, less than her not being in charge. She should be gratified.

Perhaps he got Wilson to do it… but, by the look on Wilson's face in the meeting, it had come as a complete surprise to him, too. So, he hadn't ignored it, he hadn't got Wilson to do it, it was all House… for her. That didn't sound right. What a fanciful idea… 'House had done it for her'… she laughed to herself, for her…? That would mean… House had acted to save her, actually done something positive for her. She shook her head as if she could get rid of the faulty logic.

Okay, follow the logic through – House did something nice… more than nice, altruistic, although he denied it. Maybe altruistic was pushing it, because he definitively wouldn't want another administrator. He didn't want her gratitude and he was angry. Okay, he was angry because he'd had to exert himself, so if you take angry out – be nice, deny it, spurn gratitude – yes, that was consistent with House… but why?

On the other hand, it could be argued that House did something selfish, protecting himself, and she was just collaterally saved? Except, it came back to he didn't want her gratitude and he was angry. Even angry she would have expected House to have demanded some sort of recompense for his efforts, starting with a year off clinic duty… but he hadn't. So… he'd been… nice? That was a scary thought.

Meanwhile, how did she get House to do the speech? She had a child now, she couldn't afford to risk her job. For fostering and certainly for adoption she needed to be financially secure, she needed her job, but if she didn't get House to that charity dinner she'd be in real danger of losing her job, especially after she had agreed to get him there. It was just the opening Hacker was looking for. God, what a mess.

She needed to think about it. There had to be a way to get through to him. Must be something he wanted… other than sex. Just imagine going there, not that she'd contemplate it. It would all end horribly, possibly taking her job with it – so many ways to lose her job. And it would be just sex because he didn't want a personal relationship -- although he'd sort of implied… but that was just House messing with her. Think, Lisa, think.