A/N: Sorry this took so long. Writer's block continues to be a problem. Maybe that means it's tme to wind this story up and start on another one, although I do have some things coming up about the baby, so I haven't decided yet. So, maybe just hitting the fast forward button a little would help. As always, let me know what you think.


Disclaimer: Don't Own, Etc.

Cuddy came back into the room with House.

The tray with the food was on the coffee table in the sitting area.

Cuddy saw her salad. She hadn't really heard what House had ordered for himself, and she was curious. A reuben with fries, of course.

"No beer?" Cuddy asked, surveying the tray.

"Not at nine-fifty a bottle," House replied. "We'd have to take out a second mortgage to afford a bottle of wine, and we'd need to win the lottery for the mixed drinks. We should go to a liquor store tomorrow."

"Not on my account," Cuddy said with her hand over her abdomen. She was secretly pleased that House The Cheapskate had won out over House The Drinker.

"I guess I could limit it to beer," House conceded. "I'll get some when we go to the market."

"Why are we going to the market?" Cuddy inquired. "We can't really cook in here."

"Snacks," House mumbled as he chewed his sandwich.

"Maybe we could get some fruit and keep it in the minibar," Cuddy said, warming to the idea.

"Uh, I was thinking more like some pretzels and chips," House responded, "but you could get a couple of apples, I suppose. As long as there's room for the beer."

"Thanks," Cuddy said sarcastically.

House had finished his sandwich and was close to finishing his fries.

"You eat so fast," Cuddy said, still working on her salad. "It's a wonder you don't get indigestion."

"Force of habit," House admitted. "If you're going to steal someone's fries, you better be quick about eating them. That, plus meals at home weren't exactly fun. The quicker I ate, the quicker I would be excused from the table, which meant less verbal abuse from John. It doesn't sound like much, but five or ten minutes less a day of being told what a loser you are adds up over the course of a year."

"Why was your father's head so far up his ass?" Cuddy asked. She was past expressing sympathy and had moved on to anger. "He had a brilliant, musically talented, multilingual, athletic son. What the hell more was he expecting?"

"I told you," House replied. "He wanted me to be a marine. The fact that I was good at science or languages, or that I could play the piano meant nothing to him. If anything, he disliked it because it took away from what I really should be doing, which was 'toughening' myself up to join the corps."

"By doing what, exactly?" Cuddy asked. "Sticking bamboo under your fingernails?"

"Good thing the bastard didn't think of that, or I'm sure he would have done it," House responded.

"What about your being an athlete?" Cuddy asked. "Surely that was something that he could at least grudgingly respect."

"He thought lacrosse was a game for 'fairies,' or so he told me," House said. "He used to put me down because I was too "skinny' to play a 'real' man's sport, like football."

"All I can say is, it's a good thing he's dead," Cuddy muttered, "Otherwise, I'd kill him myself."

"Hey, can we talk about something a little bit more fun?" House asked. "Like, I don't know, sex on the balcony?"

"I'm going to put the rest of my salad in the refrigerator, and put the tray outside the room," Cuddy stated. "Then I'll be back to arrange the pillows out there."

Cuddy accomplished all three tasks in a matter of minutes. "It's a little cold out here," she told House through the French doors. "I think we are going to need some blankets."

House pulled two blankets off the top shelf of the closet, and the extra pillows, just in case they needed them, too. He went out the French doors. Cuddy was lying across the pillows, naked and shivering. While House didn't want her to be too uncomfortable, he loved what the cold was doing to her nipples. He reluctantly threw her one of the blankets. She quickly covered herself. Cuddy noticed the disappointment cross his face.

"This blanket looks big enough to cover both of us," Cuddy remarked in her most sensuous voice. "Why don't you join me?" As Cuddy said this, she lifted the blanket, showing her naked body and openly inviting House to lay down with her.

House removed whatever was left of his clothing and threw it back into the room. He eased himself on to the pillows and pulled Cuddy closer. House didn't really understand it. He'd been with hot women during his life. He had been sleeping with Cuddy on a regular basis for several years now. She was largely pregnant, her belly interfering with any sex they were going to have. And yet, just lying next to her with their naked bodies touching was such a turn on for him. Why was he still so attracted to her? It was great, but it was a puzzle to him.

"Are you okay?" Cuddy asked, noticing that he was distracted.

"Fine," he answered. "What is it about you?"

"What do you mean?" Cuddy inquired. "Do I have spinach in my teeth?"

"No," House answered, his lips turning upward slightly in a smile. "What is it about you that makes me want you so much? It's like I can never get enough of you, even though we have sex all the time."

"Are you actually complaining because you're not sick of me yet?" Cuddy asked with a smile of her own.

"Not complaining," House responded. "Just puzzled."

"Could it possibly be that you don't just find me attractive, but that you love me, too?" Cuddy ventured.

"I guess," House replied.

"You guess you love me, or you guess it's the combination?" Cuddy attempted to clarify.

"I definitely love you," House stated. That he could be so completely sure and state it so matter-of-factly was a surprise to them both. "I'm just not sure it's the combination."

"Well, then what is it?" Cuddy questioned.

"How the hell should I know?" House replied with his own question. "This isn't about scientific facts. It's not like you can do a differential on emotions and come up with a diagnosis. Damn, where's Cameron when you need her?"

"You really think Cameron has more insight into your feelings and your libido than I do?" Cuddy asked. "If so, you've been sleeping with the wrong woman for several years. And you got the wrong one pregnant, too."

"No, it's just that she's my go-to person when emotional things confuse me," House admitted.

"I'm not your 'go-to' person?" Cuddy asked, barely able to contain the hurt in her voice.

"Cuddy," House said in exasperation, "I refuse to let you make an issue out of this! We've been together for almost five years, you're going to have my child and we just got married. And we're on our honeymoon. All I meant was, when I'm puzzled about something emotional, she's helpful because she's emotional and she knows my process."

"Sorry," Cuddy said, realizing she was over-reacting. "It's just that Cameron liked you, and you dated her, and she's young and pretty. I'm sorry if my fat, pregnant self needed some reassurance."

"Please," House responded. "She thought she liked me, we went on one date because that was the only way I could get her to come back to work for me, ten years ago. Now, she's married to someone else and is about to have his second kid. At least I think it's his kid. She could be doing some blond pool boy and we'd never know. But, still, not my problem. As far as your 'fat' pregnant self, I just told you I want you 24-7."

"Okay," Cuddy said. "I really don't want to spend my honeymoon talking about you and another woman, even if it was insignificant and ancient history. I'm not sure I can help you with your puzzle more than saying what I did. Sometimes, feelings just can't be explained."

"That's what makes them yucky," House stated.

"Why does everything have to be explained?" Cuddy asked.

"If you can explain it, then it's rational." House replied. "It can't come after you for no reason. It can't hurt you or haunt you in your sleep or . . . "

At this point, Cuddy knew enough not to respond directly to what he was saying. She simply pulled House closer. "Just be with me, please?" she asked, letting him be the strong one who was giving her comfort.

House rested his face against hers. She must have known that he could stay with her like this and never move for the rest of his life and be completely content.

They were quiet for the first time. The sound of the ocean was below them. The waves moving in and out were soothing. Cuddy's hand made its way to House's cheek His hand reciprocated against her cheek. They began to kiss. Each kiss had more depth than the last.

House's hands left her face and traveled all over Cuddy's body. He decided right there that the puzzle was meaningless; he was just going to enjoy her. It had to be one of the very few puzzles he had decided to let go of in his entire life. She was that intoxicating and he was that close to actually being happy.

Cuddy's hands were roaming House's body as well. She realized how silly she had been about Cameron. She knew House never loved Cameron. She was even pretty sure that House had not loved Stacey as much as he loved her. She pushed all of that out of her mind and focused on him. If she was at all honest with herself, it was also a puzzle to her why she wanted him so much after all this time. There was just something about him that got her heart racing, and parts farther south, well, excited. The way he looked, the way he sounded, the way he felt, the way he smelled, and, even the way he tasted.

House must have been thinking something similar (if he was thinking at all) because they began attacking each other's throats with their mouths at about the same time. Did her sweat taste as musky and salty to him as his did to her?

Cuddy was pretty wet when she felt House's erection. He kept it close to her opening, but he didn't insert it right away.

"Please, Greg," she asked. She felt comfortable enough by now that she let him see and hear all of her need for him.

"Lisa," House said softly as he found his way into her.

His thrusts began slowly. He picked up the pace and she responded, doing her best with her largely pregnant self to meet him.

Cuddy continued to be amazed that, even with her current state, House still managed to hit the right spot, again and again. She could feel her orgasm overtaking her.

House released soon after, his body reacting to her coming all around him.

House began to pull out.

"Not yet," Cuddy asked. "Can I feel you inside me a little longer?"

House nodded. And smiled.

After a while, House lost his erection completely and slipped out of her.

A few moments later House asked, "Do you always want me, too?"

"Not all the time," Cuddy admitted. "That time I had the flu with the 104 fever and the projectile vomiting, there were a few hours when I didn't want anything, I think . . . "

"Not your sexiest moment," House agreed. "But, you were a little hot leaning over the toilet with your sweaty hair plastered against your face. Of course, your breath would have been an atrocity . . . "

Cuddy couldn't help but smile. "Thanks."

"For what?" House asked

"For saying at least some parts of me were sexy even during the flu," Cuddy replied. "I think we need to go back inside and use the real bed for the rest of the night. My back won't work tomorrow if we don't."

House wasn't sure if it was Cuddy's back or her concern for his leg, but he was pleased that she didn't make an issue out of it. She had learned that he still had a hard time being taken care of. The interesting thing was that she had figured out how to take care of him, sometimes without him even realizing it.

They gathered the pillows, brought them inside and put them near the bed. They climbed in and reached for each other, pretty much out of habit. And what a lovely habit it was.