Hi everyone!

This is an AU end of Joy, aka one of the episodes of the Holy Trinity (along with Help Me and Now What, obvs). This episode is already perfect to me, but even when I'd seen it for the first time, I had imagined that House had stayed. (I wasn't entirely sure that I'd heard the door close at the end of the episode. Didn't sleep much that night. :o) And of course, back then, I was an innocent soul who waited to see the episodes on French TV every Tuesday nights!)

Also, I had to look up how tall and heavy Hugh Laurie was ("How much does Hugh Laurie weigh" isn't even in the Top 5 of My Weirdest Google Searches, though.) Of course, you shouldn't believe everything that you see on the Internet, but I thought it should give me a pretty good idea of the guys' stature.

Thank you for the reviews you left last time! I hope you will enjoy this one as well.

28. Stay over.

"Goodnight," he whispered, his lips pink and swollen from their kiss, before turning away and heading to her front door.

It took her a few seconds to be aware of her surroundings again, but she still had time to call out his name before he could open the door and leave. "Stay over."

His shoulders slumped. Although he didn't turn around to face her, he didn't leave, either.

"I'm not asking you to do or say anything," Cuddy said, understanding that comforting her would be no easy task for him. "Just to stay over for the night and sleep with me." She half expected him to look at her with a lecherous smirk or throw a sarcastic comment, but he didn't, so she pretended he did. "I mean really sleep. I can't be alone tonight."

Joy had slipped out of her mind the second he'd dived for her lips, his eyes still riveted to hers. She'd held onto his mouth as though it were her lifeline.

At last, he turned to her, and it was the only answer she needed.

She walked down the hallway, the uneven cadence of his footfalls following her. "I have pajamas and an extra toothbrush for you," she said, which she handed to him before she slipped into the bathroom to brush her teeth and change into her flannel pajamas.

He didn't ask where the pajamas came from, or how come she had an extra toothbrush, and she wasn't going to ask anything from him.

She settled in bed while he used the bathroom, and turned the lights off once he was lying next to her. He smelled of her soap and her detergent.

She was suddenly aware of how much room he took in her bed – all six feet and two inches, and one hundred and eighty seven pounds of him. Suddenly, she couldn't roll around as much as she wanted, or move to the other side when the covers got too warm. And he moved, too. The bed had creaked when he'd climbed in. She hadn't heard that noise in years.

However, as abnormal and weird his presence was, it was also comforting. They'd known each other long enough for the situation not to feel awkward. House laying in her bed was somehow as normal as them bickering in her office or riding the elevator together. And she liked the idea of anchoring herself to the rock that was his massive body, just for that night. She needed the reprieve, before she could stand on her own and face the world again.

She curled up against him, content with the idea that she would sleep with her forehead pressed against his shoulder. However, much to her surprise, he rolled onto his flank and, without questioning it, held her tightly, the same way he'd kissed her; from the bottom of his heart.

It was easier to pretend this wasn't happening if they couldn't see each other, and it would make it even easier to deny it to themselves, and to each other, the morning after at work.

Just like when he'd wrapped an arm around her and pulled her up to him a few minutes earlier, she couldn't remember a time when she'd felt more safe and protected.

She held him back with her free arm, buried her face in his chest, and drifted off to sleep in a few minutes.