Hi guys!
Here is the 50th 'drabble' - we are now officially halfway through!
Thank you for your support. I hope you'll enjoy this one as well. It's vaguely set in season 7 and it was inspired by that scene in 7.06 when Cuddy has House signing paperwork and he asks her if she's 'hanging out' and I had this image in mind and here we are!
50. I'll help you study.
It was past 7pm, and House was still sitting in his office. His current patient was stable, hence his team being gone for the night – but still undiagnosed, hence his presence there. Although the sense of urgency he felt had plummeted after the electrical activity of his patient's heart had ceased riding a rollercoaster, the missing diagnosis felt like an idle tickle at the base of his spine and a quiet restlessness in his toes. This was why he was currently taking the time to read an article that had piqued his interest a few years back and might be relevant today – he'd carefully dog-eared the page, and the journal had joined the never-ending pile of medical literature that he stashed in his office and in his apartment 'just in case'.
The glass door of his office swung open. "Hey," Cuddy greeted him as she walked up to him, handing him a sheet of paper. "A terrified resident gave me your patient's labs. I don't know what you tell them, but they're supposed to be more intimated by the dean than by a department's head."
"Can't be intimidated if we're busy staring down that cleavage of yours," he quipped, seizing the occasion to look down her shirt as he took the paper from her hand. "Thanks. 'You gonna hang out?"
"Yeah," she said as she sat down across from him. "I'm done for the day. Whatcha doing?"
"Just reading," he shrugged. He turned back to the article, pushing his reading glasses further up his nose. Cuddy leaned back in the chair and let her arms go limp as she watched him quietly.
Without really looking away from the article, he turned around and grabbed a textbook from the shelf behind him, flipping through it expertly until he found the page he was looking for.
"Gimme," she said, motioning towards the book. "I'll help you study."
He smirked and scribbled some notes next to the article before he handed her the book – cardiac physiology. She idly flipped through it, not really paying attention to what it said – cardiology had never been her thing – and kicked off her heels before crossing her ankles on House's desk.
"You're distracting," he said, staring at her legs out of the tail of his eye.
"Maybe I'm trying to get you to come home with me."
He hesitated for a second. "Let me just finish this."
"No rush." She sighed contentedly, enjoying those silent moments with him more than she was ready to admit.