"Greg, what's on your mind?" Nolan asked cautiously.
"What makes you think anything is on my mind?"
"The more that is, the more withdrawn you get. We've been here," Nolan glanced away from House to look at the clock on the wall, "for twenty minutes and you've barely made a sound let alone say anything."
"Maybe I don't want to talk about it."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Okay," Nolan sat back and grabbed a book and opened it.
"I hate when you do that."
"Do what?"
"You start doing something you can do when I leave."
Nolan closed the book, "does that mean you want to talk?"
House scowled at Nolan, knowing this was his plan from the beginning. "Things were going good with Cuddy. Then, she gave me this patient." House paused, and Nolan stayed silent waiting for him to continue on his own. "An infarction. I had to deal with what happened to me all over again to convince this idiot out of the decision that I made years ago, which he was leaning towards."
"Did you do it?"
"Yeah, he went in for the surgery yesterday, I think."
"You think?" Nolan showed concern in his question.
"I didn't go in today. Didn't even call to say I wasn't I just...stayed home."
"Is that what you meant when you said things with Cuddy 'were' going good?"
House hesitated in answering because he knew he might get the third degree from Nolan if he did, but at this point, it was unavoidable. "I have been back on Vicodin for a month now. The pain is just getting too bad, Ibuprofen isn't cutting it anymore. That's what tore us apart last time, so, I kept it from her, until yesterday. I had to show the kid that's what I was taking to try and dull the pain, and she was there to see it," House looked down ashamed with himself, and to not look at the disapproving look from Nolan he didn't see but knew was there.
"And she's mad at you for it?"
House looked up in shock. "You mean you're not?"
"I trust that you know how much to take responsibly. The last place you want to be is back at Mayfield, so, I think you're smart enough to know your limits. However, I do want to run regular tests on you. To make sure you aren't lying about it," he pointed his right pointer finger at House and narrowed his eyes. "As smart as you are to know those limits, you are also equally smart to know how to act to hide the fact that you are taking more. So, the amount remains questionable. So, once a month, I'm not going to tell you when I require you tested, it won't be today, and I'll leave you in question if it will be this month at all as to when I plan on starting them, just that it will be soon. Knowing that, it should keep you at a pace to only take it for pain and not for the high, because if I'm not comfortable with the amount I see in your system, you're going back." House knew he should be angry and lash out, but he wasn't. He was grateful that Nolan didn't get on his case about it. "So, back to Cuddy, is she mad at you?"
House shook his head, "I don't know."
"You haven't talked to her about it yet. Don't you think that will make her mad, if you are shutting her out?"
"Probably."
"You see what you're doing here, don't you? You're trying to get out once things are good. You think because of how she reacted in the past, you have her all figured out as to how she will react now. You think she hasn't changed?"
"People don't change," House retorted annoyed.
"You did. I watched it happen," Nolan sighed and took a second before going on. "Talk to her, ask her how she feels. She may surprise you."
House sighed and glanced at his wrist watch, "oh look at that, times up already. Time just flies when I'm with you," he said sarcastically and grabbed his cane to stand.
"Think about what I said about talking to her," Nolan called out to House as he watched him make his way to the door to leave.
House shifted, "yeah, I will...think about it." House opened the door and let himself out.
He got home and stirred in his apartment. What if things were different and her opinion has changed of his use of Vicodin? What if she now understands the way Nolan surprisingly was more understanding? He admitted to not trusting him completely by having tests done, but, it was a lot less painful then he imagined the conversation going. Maybe she would be the same.
He made his way to his piano and thought over if he should have that talk with her or not as he started to play. A few seconds into playing around with the keys, still undecided as to what song, his cell phone caught his eye. He knew he should call her. He sighed and grabbed his cane, made his way to his phone and scrolled down to her number and hit the call button.
"House!" Cuddy exclaimed into the phone.
"Yeah," he answered. The second he heard her voice he wanted her close. He wanted her there with him.
"Are you alright? Is there anything you need?"
"I need you. Can you come over? Can you get a sitter for Rachel?"
"Of course, House. Give me some time. I'll be there as soon as I can." She heard him end the conversation and she frantically scrolled down to her sisters number to get her to watch Rachel.
House opened the door an hour later, when Cuddy knocked and without speaking, he took a step back to let her walk through and closed it when she was all the way inside. He took her right hand into his left and guided her towards his bedroom. "House, do you want to talk at all about what had happened in the last couple of days?"
He continued towards his room without answering. He positioned her next to his bed and let his eyes roam all around her face and traveled down. "I don't want to talk about anything right now," his eyes met hers. "I just want this," his hands found the bottom of her blouse and started to lift it while Cuddy cooperatively raised her arms for him to successfully take it off.
He nudged her softly with his left leg and she dropped to the bed. He stared at her when he reached for his own shirt and lifted it off. He let his eyes linger on her breasts while he grabbed hold of the sides of her skirt and started to work it down. He met eye contact with her when Cuddy felt it fall around her ankles and she lifted one foot at a time to step out of it.
He leaned down to kiss her while having his right hand on the mattress next to her head to hold him steady while he unbuttoned and unzipped his jeans. He pulled his underwear down and grabbed hers and she lifted herself slightly to help him as he lowered them down. House put both hands on her hips and slid her further onto the bed and laid on top of her.
She opened her legs to allow him in between her and he raised her right leg and she hooked it around his waist, with her left leg mirroring her right. He smirked at her having gotten so close to what they have been trying to do again since the night of the dinner she invited him to and haven't been interrupted yet. She scooted her body lower, wanting him inside of her and he thrust into her as she let out a moan.
House exhaled, feeling her around him as he started to move his hips slowly, enjoying the need that built up inside of him and by the look of her as she stared at him, he knew she was feeling it too. He started to go in deeper and harder, both of their breath becoming unsteady as her hips smashed into him, taking him in even further than he was going. His head dropped to her breasts and sucked on her cleavage that was sticking out above her bra that he was irritated to see was still on and didn't have full access to what he wanted. His hands scooped under her and unhooked her bra and watched it loosen and took hold of both straps, and slid them off of her shoulders and arms and tossed it behind him. He grinned at her breasts that were now facing him, he cupped them both with both his hands and dove his head in and greedily took her right one into his mouth, and heard her scream out and took hold of his head, her fingers tangled in his hair, with both her hands to keep him there.
He took his right hand off her left breast and placed it on the mattress next to her and did the same with his left to steady himself and started moving at a faster pace inside of her. He groaned when he heard her scream out his name and she took her hips and used them to turn him over to the bottom and she sat up which caused his mouth to leave her and he grabbed her hips as he took in the sight of her bouncing on him, and threw her head back with her eyes closed as she called his name over and over. He squeezed his eyes when he felt himself getting closer to climax and exhaled a groan when he did and her bounce got more intense and moaned herself having gotten there three thrusts later. Her body dropped down onto his, her head resting right above his right shoulder facing him, and his arms folded around her as they caught their breath.
She let out a laugh when her breath became more steady and shifted herself so she was face to face with him and bent down to kiss him. Their tongues intertwined and fought against one another as his hands rubbed her back. She broke the kiss when she needed air and fell to the side of him, and they both let out one last little moan as her shift forced him to slide out of her.
They held each others gaze without speaking and she pushed her right hand against his chest to turn herself for his glass of water that she saw sitting on his nightstand when they entered his room. As she reached for it, she saw a bottle of Vicodin and picked that up instead.
House heard the noise of pills rattling against each other and became frustrated for not moving it before she came over.
"House," she started, keeping her eye on the bottle, "have you been taking these the whole time since we moved onto the next step with us? Or, do you still just take them when the pain is bad?" He slowly looked over, his eyes telling her he was afraid to answer. She dropped the bottle and pulled at the end of his blankets that hung over his bed to cover herself. "House?"...
