Disclaimer…Don't own House.

Author's Note…What? No reviews? Boo. Please review for this one.

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Cuddy was thoroughly annoyed herself. She would have slapped herself except she did not want to come off as mentally insane. Although that was probably a pretty accurate impression. Why did you have to give him the silent treatment? Are you incompetent or something? All he was was five minutes late and even so; being late isn't a reason to be so upset. Seriously I (you?) am the stupidest stupid that ever stupided. And now here you are, flirting with a faox bartender as revenge. Pathetic. Pitiful. Embarrassing. You should be above this.

"So, what do you do?"

Cuddy looked at the bartender. Is he seriously that oblivious? How can he not realize that he's a tool? She sighed and stirred her soda (need. alcohol.). "You know what? I don't really like you at all. I haven't paid attention to a bit of the conversation you've graciously held up for…" she glanced at her watch. "half an hour. We're both pathetic for that. And you know what? I'm tired of feeling pathetic. Please excuse me." The bartender blinked and debated whether or not to give her a glass of the wine he kept under the sink for particularly bad nights. He still wasn't exactly sure what was going on. Surely she hadn't used him?

Surely.

Cuddy gave a sad look to the crowded dance floor and strode outside onto one of three decks. She needed some time to herself. Cuddy breathed in the fresh air and closed her eyes. Suddenly, a mass was there, pressing up against her body, pinning her up against the stucco wall. And the peculiar thing about this mass was that it was kissing her, and was doing a very square job of it at that. Still not opening her eyes, Cuddy kissed the mass back.

And after several seconds of kissing the first mass that came a hithering, Cuddy opened her eyes to find that the mass was none other than Gregory House.

There had never really been a doubt in her mind.

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He nearly knocked her off the boat.

After the initial kiss, they had groped and fumbled their way to the railing. With each kiss, Cuddy dipped back against the railing, her body almost formed a perfect 90 degree angle. All this bending backwards is bad for you Lisa. You'll fall into the ocean and drown and even if you don't, you back will kill you tomorrow morning. But still, she bent and twisted and it was beautiful. In between passionate kisses, while she came up for air, she somehow managed to initiate a conversation.

"What…we're…doing…here…is…"

"Gonna…be…hard."

"This…is…gonna…be…stupid…everyone's…gonna…get…hurt…"

"I'll…be…fine…"

"Libby…too…"

"We…can…wait…out…on…telling…her…"

"Just…for…a…little…while…"

"Yeah."

They couldn't have stopped if they wanted to.

They didn't want to.

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Libby, exhausted from dancing for two hours straight, left her friends on the dance floor and headed back to their little table alone. She sat down, sipped a glass of water, and in the back of her mind wondered where her dad and Cuddy were this entire time. She had glimpsed them leaving the room earlier; she guessed they were trying to make the captain suicidal. Out of the corner of her blue eye, she spotted her father and Cuddy pressed up against the boat. Finally. And ew.

"Hey."

Libby jumped in her seat and looked towards the voice's origin. It was a he, a very nice looking he Libby thought, with light green eyes and dark brown hair. Libby noticed she was staring. "Oh, hi! I'm Libby. Didn't see you there, I thought I was alone…" Libby bumbled.

The He smiled back. "I'm Josh."

"Oh. Hi, Josh."

They sat in an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes, each trying to figure out why the room had suddenly grown hotter. "Are you in sixth grade?"

Libby blinked. "Um, yeah. Well, not anymore I guess. What about you?"

"Tuesday's the last day of seventh grade for me. We're in the same district. My cousin goes to your school. My aunt dragged me here today."

"Oh."

"I was sick the day of my own…this thing and so my aunt thinks she's giving me an experience. I don't want to be here. Don't know anybody."

Libby stuck out her hand for Josh to shake. "Well now you know me. I'm Libby. House."

Josh smiled and took it. "Very nice to meet you, Libby House."

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Libby and Josh hit it off right away. They talked about everything from music ("3, 6, 9/Damn you're fine…is that a joke or something?"-Libby) to movies ("Deuce Bigalow: Italian Gigolo"? ...do they hate the general viewing audience or something? –Josh).

But all good things must come to an end and eventually Libby's friends came over and interrupted the little where-have-you-been-all-my-life-fest. It seemed they traveled in packs and Josh, sensing the potential danger of packs, walked off somewhere. Libby looked after him and vacantly smiled. Her girlfriends chimed up in a flurry of questions.

"Who was he?"

"Where's he going?"

"He's cute."

"What's up with that smile, Libs? You look like you're in looove."

The last comment earned a large amount of shrieks from the table. Libby's non-response only fueled the fire.

"Oh my gosh, she is in love!"

Libby rolled her eyes. "No I'm not. We just have a lot in common."

"Yeah, two hours worth of stuff in common!"

"How old is that guy anyway?"

"He's a year older than us."

"That means he's like, two years older than you."

Libby sighed. "He's in seventh grade."

"Starting it, or finishing it?"

"Finishing."

"So when you'll be in seventh grade next year…he'll be in eighth grade."

"You should be a detective."

"She's definitely in love. People in love are very snappy."

"Shut up, Katie."

"Sorry."

"What's his name?"

"Josh."

"He doesn't have a last name?"

"He's about to enter the Witness Protection Program, so no."

"Huh?"

"Yes, he has a last name."

"Oh. Do you like him?"

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Outside, House and Cuddy were still…getting acquainted. Cuddy looked at the sunset.

"It's starting to get dark."

"People do dirty things in the dark."

"Like your daughter?"

House's cane fell to the floor with a clatter. "What!"

"She's was talking to some boy for two hours."

"Well…talking isn't dirty."

"Two hours! What do you think they were talking about?"

"I…don't know. Wait a minute…were they as…lingual as we were?"

"No, but it looked like they were having a hard time not being lingual."

House gasped for air.

"He's going back over to her…"

"What's he doing?"

"I can't tell…she's sitting down, he's standing up…now they're both standing up…now they're walking away…"

"Not to the coatroom right?"

"Pft. Don't think so…ok, they stopped walking…and started dancing! Aww, they're slow dancing. He asked her to dance! How cute is that?"

While Cuddy oohed and awwed at them, House watched them with intensity. Cuddy had to physically restrain him when the boy pulled Libby ever-so-slightly-closer to him. It was like watching a scene from a movie. A horror movie…if he does anything…suggestive (House's head nearly exploded at the thought) to her I swear I'll…

Libby tilted her head back a bit, as if to let nature wipe her locks away from her face, then raised it back to normal level, so she was gazing into Josh's eyes.

Cuddy smiled. "Where did she get that much aplomb?

In the half second it took for Josh's hands to move from Libby's shoulders down to her lower-waist, House, paralyzed with shock and fear, realized that his little girl wasn't so little anymore.

It was going to be a very long summer.

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The passengers slowly dripped out of the boat. They were still under the influence of the calm of waves below their feet and none of them wanted to let go of that quickly. None more so than Cuddy. She stood at that the edge of that little synapse between the boat and the dock, her heart heavy with the knowledge that once she crossed it, everything would change.

House nudged her forward. She elbowed him in the stomach. "You nearly made me fall."

"There's a whole line of people behind me. They're all talking to me. It's an emergency. I had to take the risk."

And we're back in reality. Cuddy stepped onto the dock. Libby ran up to her and House (she had already exited with a friend of hers.) She gave him a hug. "Bye Dad, see you tomorrow!"

She turned to run off when House grabbed her by the shoulder, nearly knocking her over. Libby groaned. "Yes Dad, I have the list you gave me of stuff I can and can't eat and I have the shots."

"But where are you going?"

"I'm sleeping over Kristy's house tonight. Remember, we arranged it weeks ago?"

House blinked as the remaining sunlight streamed into his eyes. Libby, realizing her father still wasn't catching on, nudged him, hard. "Remember, Dad? We knew that you would want to have the apartment to yourself because you would be annoyed by all the people you saw tonight. Do you remember now?"

House finally caught her gist and ruffled her hair. "Oh, yeah. Thanks for reminding me." He kissed her on top of her head and let her run off, still clutching onto the bag of needles full of life-saving insulin and anti-rejection pills for her heart and a blood-sugar tester.

He walked over to Cuddy, who was already waiting in the car, listening to the radio. House sat down in the drivers seat. "You know, Libby's sleeping at a friend's house tonight."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. So I guess I'll be all alone tonight. I'm not going to keep it that way."

Cuddy mock-batted her eyelashes as House drove. "I see. Why, are you asking me to spend the night?"

"Well, it's either you, the bartender that you liked, or Bambi."

"Bambi?"

"Yes, remember her? We saw her on a corner on the way here."

Cuddy smiled to herself. She did remember, they had nearly crashed into a tree because of House's rush to put his hand over Libby's eyes. She would have been hysterical laughing if she wasn't at the time so mad at him. "But why the bartender?"

"I really don't know. I mean, he's certainly not the brightest tool in the shed."

Cuddy pretended to gasp. "He's not a tool!"

"Yeah, sure he wasn't. Keep telling that to yourself. I hear doing that is very good for you."

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11:00 the next morning

Libby stepped gingerly into the empty apartment. She was surprised; she had figured that House would at least wait for her to get home before rushing off to tell Wilson about last night. Oh well.

Libby noticed the door to her father's room was open and the bed was very unmade. As per usual, she walked in to make the bed like she did whenever she noticed it…was unmade. In her mind, the little things she did for House…making the bed, doing the laundry, feeding at least herself in the morning (if not making breakfast for him as well) made up for not having her mom around for him.

So, without paying much attention to the familiar surroundings, Libby strolled in.

Only to find House and Cuddy entangled with each other, both naked but asleep, the sheet being the only thing to (barely) cover up their bodies.

Libby screamed. House and Cuddy snapped up, Cuddy barely holding up the sheet. Libby ran from the room in horror. House threw on a pair of boxers and flannel pants and hurried down the hallway to the bathroom and stood outside, only to hear the shower.

"Come on, Libby. Come out. We…we have to talk."

"I'm in the shower!"

"No you're not. Just come out."

"Yes I am! And I don't want to see anything that should be reserved for Health Class!"

Cuddy snickered as she pulled up another of flannels and threw one of House's Rolling Stone tees. House shot her a "don't mess" look but, figuring that Libby wasn't coming out anytime soon, walked back into the bedroom and put on a similar shirt. Cuddy pulled her hair back into a ponytail. "To be fair, that had to have been pretty mortifying for her."

"True that."

"Seriously, that's scarred for life material."

"I know. But with me as her father…actually, that's still pretty bad."

Cuddy smiled. "What time is it?"

House's eyes widened. "11:15."

Cuddy murmured a curse.

"Well, at least you're not crying."

"I was supposed to meet my parents at 11:00."

"You stood up your parents to have sex with me! I am a god."

"This isn't funny."

"No, it's hysterical. Actually, it's probably a good thing that you won't be here when Libby gets out. Whenever that may be."

"Yeah. I'll have to talk to her or something…anyway, bye for now." She gave House a quick peck on the sheet before hurrying off, nearly crashing into a completely dry Libby.

House surveyed his daughter with interest. "I hope you didn't waste any water."

Libby smiled. "Good to know I'll never run out of things to talk about with my therapist."

House smiled too. "Yeah, yeah. Thanks for leaving me the apartment. You know, you're wise beyond your years."

"Well, at least I'm still innocent to…oh wait, nope! Not anymore!

House snickered and began to make some sugar-free cereal. "It hasn't been the best couple of days for you, has it?"

"Well, it's had some benefits."

House started to pour some milk. "Like?"

Libby blushed.

"It's that boy from last night, isn't it? Before you say anything, let me just tell you…"

"Dad, you can stop pouring now." She gestured towards the bowl, which was overflowing with milk.

"Oh. Well then, you can tell how much this disturbs me."

"This?"

House stuttered. The whole topic of Libby and boys unnerved him. "That boys are starting to…like you. Like-like you. I'm not ready for that yet, and neither are you. I know what's best for you and…it's…not best for you yet. Deal?"

"Dad, that's not a deal." Libby walked over to the bookshelf and pulled out a heavy text. She thumbed through the pages.

House continued talking. "And to start with that boy-he was a year older than you!"

"First of all: So what? You were at least seventeen years older than Mom. Second of all: Deal- to take action with respect to someone or something."

House's jaw dropped. "Ok, no way are you ever having the kind of relationship with anybody, especially this boy, that I had with your Mom. At least not until you're thirty-five, have a very successful career, and I'm cold six feet under."

"That's still not a deal."

"Fine. Wilson has to like him."

"Dad…"

"And he has to give you away…"

Libby rolled her eyes. "Do you need me to repeat the definition again?"

"No. I'm pulling the Dad Card. Works every time."

Libby gave him a half-smile. She walked over to him and hugged him, but House kept his arms dangling loosely at his side. "Dad?"

"It's just…it's nice to hear you talk about Mom. Even just for a little."

House closed his eyes, sighed, and hugged her back.

No matter what he did, and to whom, it was always going to be a long haul.