Chapter 55: Moving On

House sat on the couch with a pocket knife in his hand as he ripped through the tape on the box before him. It was beginning to get very late, around one in the morning, but he had to get this done. At the moment he was sitting in what would be his new house. The house was officially his on Friday, but that was the day that Cuddy got out of the hospital and he wanted to surprise her that day, but, slipping in a couple days early was not a problem since the original owners were gone.

He had left Rachel with Wilson for the night, so there really was no rush for him to leave. The only thing that he had to consider was that he had to be back at the hospital at ten in the morning to go get Cuddy.

He had spent Wednesday night on the upstairs rooms, mainly their bedroom. There were three other rooms, which worked out perfectly, they weren't that big, but they worked. The only way he could have gotten as much done as he did, was he told Cuddy that he had a case to work on and then had his team come out and help move furniture into the house.

"Dishes," he mumbled himself. He hadn't labeled any of the boxes so everyone was a surprise to him. Sighing, he stood up and carried the box to the kitchen and set it down on the table. "I should have kept everyone later. Told them their paycheck was at risk if they left," he rambled off in the silence.

Once the dishes were put away, he went back out into the living room. Still there were scattered boxes. "Why did I bring so many things?" he complained to himself.


House entered Cuddy's room, he was late, but he got there. "Hey, you ready?"

Cuddy quickly turned from the window. "Yeah." She went and grabbed her bag, but House took it from her. "Thank you," she was a little surprised.

This was his chance to really surprise her, and he didn't want something little to ruin it. He kept his arm around her and then got the car door for her. "You know, most people tell their passengers where they're driving." House stopped for a moment with his hands gripped on the steering wheel and then looked to her. "But I'm not most people."

Cuddy widened her eyes as he started the car and pulled out of the parking space. "Greg, I know this might strike you as strange, but I just got out of the hospital and I want to go home."

House just smiled as he drove out of the garage. "Now what would life be without risks?"

Cuddy sat back and closed her eyes. "Where are you taking me?" she asked, even if she did know that he would never answer that.

House shrugged. "I don't know. I just thinking that maybe I could just drive until the gas runs out."

Cuddy just sat there and rolled her eyes. She really had no idea as to what to expect, so she just went with it.

There was about fifteen minutes of silence as they drove to their new house. Cuddy turned to House as soon as they pulled into the driveway. "Why are we here?"

House just got out and went around to her side to open the door. She was cautious about the situation, but just followed his lead as he walked her to the front porch. He stopped and pulled the key out of his pocket to jingle it in front of her face before unlocking the door. "Welcome home Lisa."

Cuddy's face lit up as her eyes filled with tears. He had actually gone out and taken a huge step for her.

House just looked up towards the house. "I thought the apartment was a bit small for six people."

Cuddy smiled as she slowly moved closer to him. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him. "Thank you," she said still keeping her arms around him.

House just smiled down at her and then lead her into their new house.

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Gabrielle, Marcy and Doug were gathered around the picnic table on the back porch. They were watching the sunset as they waited for Heather to get back so that they could all go out to eat. Marcy had noticed Gabrielle playing with her phone all night and finally decided to ask. "Are you waiting for something important there?" she asked while starting to laugh.

Gabrielle wasn't really paying attention to anyone. "Cuddy's going home today." She was somewhat oblivious to the fact that no one else around her knew what she was talking about. She didn't care about that at the moment though. What she did care about was how everything went with the house and how Cuddy was doing.

"Duh Marcy," Doug joked. "Jeeze, don't you keep up on anything?"

Gabrielle sighed and looked up. She knew it would take a minute for Marcy to think, so she just went ahead and jumped in. "I heard your girlfriend asks the same question after you try to last longer than ten seconds."

Doug gave her the finger. "Leave Annie out of this."

A moment of silence passed as Gabrielle went back to looking at her phone. "You two really want to know what's going on?" she asked. It was starting to feel like maybe she should tell her friends, they've trusted her with enough stuff, why not give them a chance. "Go ahead and ask any questions you want."

Marcy was the first to go. "Why were you out in New Jersey for so long?"

Gabrielle sat back and sighed. That was the big one to start everything. "Custody battle. My dad's fiancée versus my Aunt Eloise." There was no doubt in her head that this was going to bring about a lot of questions, the ones that she had never really wanted to talk about in the first place.

"Your dad's fiancée and your aunt?" Marcy asked. She and Doug were now interested.

"Yep." Gabrielle sighed. "My Aunt Eloise was supposed to have legal custody of me, but she abused me and I hated her and my dad wanted to take me in. The only problem with that, is that he has been on trial for drug use before, narcotics, which lowered his chances, so Cuddy stepped up and fought for me."

"Wow Zbin, do you have like two separate lives going on?" Doug asked.

"I guess." She shrugged and glanced between the two. "Fun out here, and then hell in Maine. Now, I have a family to move in with back in New Jersey."

Marcy laid her head on her hands. "So, what are they like?"

Gabrielle shrugged. "My Dad seems to have problems with the entire human race, he never candy coats anything, just tells you the straight truth. He's a smart ass. He notices everything. Stubborn, arrogant. He's a doctor."

"Gee, I wonder how you noticed he was your father?" Marcy sarcastically asked.

"Rich?" Doug asked. He received a nod from her and then held his hand up for a high five. "Alright, going into money!"

Gabrielle just laughed as she gave him a high five. "Then there's Cuddy, well, her name's Lisa, but she's also a doctor and they all use last names. She I think like owns the place, the most I know is that she's the boss of my dad and that they pretty much get hot when ever they would fight. Anyways, she's nice, obviously, she went against Eloise for me. She's stubborn to, perfectionist, workaholic." Gabrielle paused for a moment and pursed her lips. "And she's pregnant with twins and she has a baby girl that she adopted a little while ago."

"Well, you just went from a family of two people to a family of six," Marcy said. She leaned over and patted her friend on the shoulder. "Good luck with that."

"It's not bad." Gabrielle shrugged. "Rachel's cute, and I'm sure that the twins will be. Best part yet, I'm a heavy sleeper."

"I'll vouch for that," Doug said. He widened his eyes as he turned to Marcy. "I hit her seven times, the only response I got was when she kicked me in her sleep." He bitterly turned to Gabrielle. "Bitch got me between the legs."

Gabrielle teasing turned to him with a pouty face. "Aw, I'm sorry. You want me to kiss it and make it better?"

Doug just started to laugh. "You're such a pervert."

Gabrielle laughed. "I know," she said. After a moment she stopped and looked to him. "I'm sorry about that. Are we cool?"

"Yeah, I think somewhere in my life, I've deserved that," he said.

"Well, I won't punish you tomorrow. Andy said he'll be the one to take me shopping for gifts for all of them," Gabrielle said.

They were all about to leave the table, but Gabrielle's phone rang. "Hello?" she calmly answered after she rather quickly grabbed the phone. She sat there and listened for a minute. "That's great…….What did she think of the house?" Gabrielle sat there and smiled, but suddenly her face dropped. "Oh God," said starting to get nervous.