Hi everyone! Well hopefully some of you are still reading this story and I apologize for the delay in the chapters, but real life keeps getting busier. Anyway here's another chapter and I hope you all enjoy it ;)
Chapter 37
On Monday morning, Lisa Cuddy had found herself running from one meeting to the next as the sun rose high in the sky over Princeton. The morning, slipping away from her minute by minute until she finally found herself back inside of her own office just a little past twelve thirty.
Seated behind her desk, she had just started to call Kevin's cell phone when there was a knock at her door.
It was House, and at seeing him, Cuddy placed her office phone back down on its receiver as she motioned for him to come in.
"You're a busy woman." House commented over to her as he walked inside of the office.
"Do you need something?" Cuddy asked him while leaning back in her chair.
"Just wondering if you felt up to buying me lunch today?" House asked, now standing before her.
'I'm sorry I can't…" She started to say.
"Lunch plans with Kevin?" House interrupted nonchalantly, while of course watching her every move to see if things with the boy toy were still going ok.
Cuddy did seem a little bit nervous, but about what he didn't know.
"No, it's not that." Cuddy replied, watching as House looked back at her with even greater interest, now waiting for an explanation.
"It's just…" She started up once more as her mind thumbed through the conversation she had with Kevin last Friday night, the turning point in her life that was long overdue now literally standing before her.
"It's just what?" House questioned, sensing a hint of something unsettling in her demeanor as she looked back at him.
Letting a small breath escaped from her lips, Cuddy decided now was as good a time as any to say what needed to be said to House, to take that long overdue step forward in her life now that she had found the man of her dreams.
"House, I've decided that we need to keep things strictly professional between us. That means no lunches together." She said, finding a small bit of triumph in the fact that those words were no longer followed by a that old familiar tug on her heart which had once been reserved for him.
She watched as his face hardened a bit.
"So I take it Kevin didn't like the idea of the two of us remaining friends?" He questioned back to her in a low voice, his blue eyes now searing into her cool gray ones.
"This isn't about, Kevin." Cuddy replied.
"Like hell it isn't." House responded, leaning heavy upon his cane as he allowed the anger within him to show its face a bit.
Cuddy got up from her chair, looking back at him without an ounce of guilt or the familiar hurt he had so often caused to her.
"Fine House, you're right….this is about Kevin, and about Rachel, and about me finally moving on in my personal life without you." She replied back to him.
For a moment he stared back at her and said nothing.
"If I recall, you tried moving on before with Lucas and wound up in my bed instead." He reminded her with a cool tone of confidence.
He wasn't buying any of this…not for one moment.
Cuddy let out a short breath of air through her nose, shaking her head slightly before she spoke.
"I known you think that I'll never be able to get over you because of the history that we share….but you're wrong, House. I love Kevin and I'm not going to jeopardize what I have with him by continuing to play these games with you. It's over between us…it has been for quite some time now." She stated as their eyes remained locked on one another.
"So that's it then?" House questioned back her in an instant, calling her bluff.
"That's it." Cuddy confirmed without hesitation while crossing her arms in front of her.
House set his jaw, his lips parting slowly as he spoke to her.
"I quit." He announced to her from out of the blue as his eyes searched her own one last time before he turned, limping out of her office and slamming the door behind him.
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A few minutes after House had left her office, Cuddy reached for the phone on her desk once more, dialing Kevin's number.
"Hey babe, what's up?" Kevin answered while standing on top of a hill and looking down at the buzzing construction site below him.
Cuddy couldn't help but smile at the sound of his voice, wishing he could be with her now.
"I just got done talking to House about keeping things strictly professional between us." She informed him, turning in her seat a bit to look at out the beautiful day before her.
"How'd he take it?" Kevin asked with interest as his eyes scanned over the landscape and his heart waited on her answer.
Cuddy let out a sigh. "He quit." She told him while turning back around in her chair.
"House quit?" Kevin repeated back to her with surprise.
"Yep." Cuddy said, adding a small pop to the letter "p" at the end of the word.
Kevin rubbed his jaw, wishing he could be with her inside of her office now instead of being miles away at his newest job site.
"How do you feel about that?" He asked her, hoping she knew that she was safe in confiding whatever she was feeling to him.
Cuddy paused before answering.
"Actually, to be honest…I'm kinda of relieved." She confessed to him, feeling a small smile begin to tug at the corners of her mouth.
Kevin furrowed his brow. "Are you sure you're ok, Lisa? You don't have to hide anything from me if you're not ok." He stressed to her with a soft voice, worried that maybe she was trying to shield him a bit from her true feelings.
At hearing the concern in his voice, Cuddy was quick to respond.
"No…it's nothing like that, Kevin…. I swear. Look, I know this may sound totally off base, but when House told me he was quitting just now, for the first time in a long time I couldn't think of one good reason for him to stay. Don't get me wrong, House is a brilliant doctor…but since you and I have been together and you've show me how good things can really be in my life…. I've finally realized that House being a brilliant doctor alone simply isn't good enough for this hospital…not anymore." She stated, feeling the smile continue to grow on her face as a surge of energy ran up her spine, much like the first day Kevin had stepped into her office, bringing out something inside of her she never even knew was missing.
At hearing her response, Kevin smiled, wanting even more to be by her side in that moment just to see her face and bear witness to the amazing and strong woman now talking to him on the other end of the line.
"Good for you, Lisa." He said with pride.
"Well you might not think so when I tell you I have to stay late tonight to work on a plan of action for the board regarding House's resignation and will probably have to stay late for the next few weeks to make sure things work out ok for the hospital." She told him regretfully.
Kevin let out a soft laugh. "It's fine Lisa, whatever you need to do to make things work." He assured her.
Again Cuddy found herself smiling. "So will you be ok with taking Rachel to her riding lessons and staying at my place during the next few weeks instead of me having Marina work overtime?" She questioned, just to be sure.
"Of course babe, don't worry. We'll work it out." Kevin answered immediately as he started to walk back down the hill and towards the job site.
Cuddy closed her eyes for a moment, thankful for all that had happened to her over the past few months, happy beyond belief with the new man in her life who was making each day better then the last for both her and her daughter.
"I love you." She then said softly into the phone, hearing those words repeated back to her by Kevin before she hung up with him and began working on exactly how to get the hospital to move on from House…just like she had finally done.
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"You can't just let him quit!" Wilson announced nearly an hour later as he stormed into Cuddy's office.
Cuddy looked up from her computer unimpressed, her fingers halted from their progress by Wilson's intrusion.
"House is a big boy, if he no longer wishes to be employed by this hospital then so be it." She remarked back to him casually.
Letting out a huff, Wilson put his hands on his hips as he stared down at her.
"You know there's not a hospital within in a hundred miles of here that would hire him." He pointed out to her.
"Not my problem." Cuddy told him curtly before focusing back on her computer screen.
"Not your problem? Jesus Cuddy, what in the hell happened to you?" Wilson blurted out in frustration.
Cuddy shot him glare, getting up from her seat, planting her hands on the desk and leaning forward as she faced him head on.
"You want to know what happened to me, Wilson? I finally realized that putting up with House's crap for all of these years wasn't doing me, or this hospital any good. I've given House more chances than any other employee here and he's pissed away every single one of them. I'm done babysitting House, and if you have a problem with that I suggest you take it up with the board." She told him bluntly, not in the mood to mince words with the oncologist.
Wilson looked back at her stunned. "So that's it then? You're just gonna turn your back on him?" He asked in disbelief.
Cuddy nodded with her head held high. "Yes, that's exactly what I'm doing, Wilson."
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It was a little bit after seven pm when Robert Chase made his way to Lisa Cuddy's office. The news of House quitting, delivered to him by the man himself as his boss had stormed into the conference room hours ago, leaving him and the rest of the team stunned before heading into his office and throwing some personal items into a box and leaving.
Running his hands through his blonde hair, Chase stared at Cuddy through the glass doors of her office before knocking.
Her eyes were focused on her computer, her demeanor poised and her posture confident as she continued to type on the screen. If House's resignation was having any effect on her, Cuddy certainly wasn't showing it through her body language.
Balling his hand into a soft fist, he knocked on the door, being greeted by her smile when Cuddy turned her head in his direction, motioning him to come in.
"Thanks for meeting me so late in the day, Chase. Please take a seat." Cuddy said as she watched him walk up to her.