Hold On

The Proposal

"You want me to what?" he said, not quite sure he heard her right.

She sighed. "You heard me Dr. House, don't make me repeat it," regretting her decision already.

"Oh, this, this is rich," he says as he lets a big smile come across his face. "You need something from me. Not only that you want me to be your date for a hospital charity fundraiser. And exactly what would I get out of this? Wouldn't you be embarrassed being seen with me? I do have a "big cane" that isn't too subtle as you once ever so kindly pointed out to me."

She took a deep breath to calm all of the comebacks that were rising to her throat. She knew if she did this she was going to have to take some shit from him. "I apologize for that. Sometimes things come out of my mouth before I think about them. And no I wouldn't be embarrassed being seen with you. If that were the case I never would have come up here.

" And you never know, you may end up halfway enjoying yourself for once. As for what you get out of it, how about this. If you come with me, I will let you out of clinic duty

for 2 weeks."

"Make it 2 months," he says. "If I have to wear a tux I should be getting fair compensation out of this." Right then Foreman walked in the room. He took in the scene before him but figured they were fighting over House doing clinic hours again.

"I'm sorry am I interrupting something?"

"Yes, our dear Dr. Cuddy here just asked me out on a date."

She just rolled her eyes. She knew that it was going to be like this but she had no choice. Foreman wasn't the type to gossip so it wouldn't be all over the hospital by the time she left this office.

"Um, I'll just come back later then," he said as he turned and left the room utterly dumbfounded.

She turned back to House waiting for his answer, but he still just sat there smiling at her. "Well, will you come with me or not?"

"I don't know I am a busy man, Dr. Cuddy," he teased her.

Her patience was really wearing thin and he could tell he was pushing it. "No clinic for 2 months?"

"No clinic for 2 months. But you have to wear a tux."

"It would be my pleasure to escort you to the fundraiser Dr. Cuddy,"he said to her with a smile and a nod.

"Okay then, it's February 14, at 8:00pm, so I'll pick you up at about 7:15 if that's okay?" She couldn't believe he'd said yes.Hell, she couldn't believe she'd asked him

"That would be lovely; I'm looking forward to it." He seemed genuine when he said it and it surprised her a little. Maybe it wouldn't be so awful an evening after all.

"Well, so am I, Dr. House." With that she left and headed back down to her office. She spent the rest of the afternoon going through charts and other various paperwork.

She went home that evening and went through the dresses she had in her closet. None of them appealed to her so she decided to keep the plan of going shopping the next afternoon. The auction was less than a week away. She still could not believe she was going with House. He wasn't a bad looking man; he was actually quite attractive. It was just the way he behaved himself that worried her. That and the fact that he gave in a little too easy. "Maybe he just has a softer, more gentlemanly side you didn't know about, Lisa,"she thought to herself.

Either way, in less than a week, she was going to find out.