Rediscovery

By Ellie

Disclaimer: Not mine. Just playing. If they were, then Stacy would have been out of there a long time ago and Cuddy and Wilson would get much more screen time.

A/N1: Thanks for the reviews. They were fabulous and much appreciated. I would especially like to thank Roo from the House-Cuddy archive. Your comment about being worried about House's reaction to Cuddy's sweatshirt sparked my muse and helped me get to where I wanted to be by the end of this chapter.

Chapter 5

"I hope you put the seat back up when you were done," Cuddy heard House yell as she made her way to his kitchen. "I refuse to live with fascist feminine rules concerning toilet seats when no woman lives here." He glanced at her briefly and smirked. "I am man. Hear me roar. And I prefer my toilet seats up."

Cuddy ignored him in favor of the delicious aromas that filled the kitchen. "Smells good," she said.

"We've got your Kung Pao Chicken, Shrimp in Garlic Sauce, General Tso's Chicken all with fried rice and egg rolls. I left two pain pills there on the table with some water. I didn't think you were skilled enough to take 'em dry."

"What kind of pain pills?" she asked him.

"None of the good stuff," he told her. "I don't know how long we're going to be stuck here, and I'm not wasting my beauties on you. Those won't take care of all of the pain, but they should take the edge off a bit."

She smiled as she took the pills and swallowed them, ignoring the glass of water. House just grinned as he continued to re-heat the food. She eyed the multiple cartons of food laid out on the table. "You ordered that much food just last night? Were you having some sort of party?"

"That's what you do with Chinese food," he explained as if Cuddy was a child. "You order tons of it and live off the leftovers for the next week. Oh, I forgot. You prepare your own gourmet dinner every night after you get home from your eighteen hour workday at the hospital."

Cuddy let out a tiny bark of laughter. "I'm lucky to get the stuff that the cafeteria's about ready to throw away at the end of the day."

House looked up at Cuddy, about to say something, when he finally noticed the sweatshirt she was wearing and felt a little jolt. The entire reason he was putting so much energy into bantering with her was to avoid any deep thoughts about their previous …closeness, and she comes out wearing an article of clothing that forced him to remember. He turned away without saying anything and opened the refrigerator to get a bottle of soy sauce. He placed it on the table and sat down.

"Dig in," he told her.

Cuddy was immediately aware of his change in mood and of its cause, but offered no comment. What could she say? 'Sorry for accidentally bringing a sweatshirt guaranteed to make us both uncomfortable.' He would probably just grumble and say the sweatshirt had nothing to do with his mood and that he was grumpy because he had suddenly remembered that he had forgotten to tape 'Judge Judy' this morning. She sat down opposite from him, served herself some Kung Pao Chicken and an egg roll and joined him in silent eating.

It was one of the most uncomfortable meals she'd ever shared with House. It wasn't as bad as the time where they had been at a hospital fundraiser and he had "accidentally" mistaken the wife of a prominent donor for a high-class call girl, but it was a close second.

Cuddy mechanically ate her food as she surreptitiously watched him eat his. He was lost in his own thoughts, and from the look on his face they weren't pleasant ones. She reflected on all of the things that had happened to him recently and uncomfortably acknowledged that her presence was probably not helping.

Stacy had just left his life once again. Cuddy didn't know all of the details – just Wilson saying that House loved being self-destructive and miserable – but she did know that he felt bad enough that he took a vacation to lick his wounds in private. And here she was intruding on that privacy. Not on purpose, certainly. But that didn't stop her from feeling a little guilty about their whole situation.

House absently reached into a paper bag that he had on the table and pulled out a couple of fortune cookies and threw one at her. She caught it deftly and stared at it a moment before turning her eyes towards him.

He caught her questioning gaze and answered, "You can't eat Chinese food without having a fortune cookie. It's the law." His words were light, but his tone still distant.

She gave him a small smile and opened up the wrapper. She broke the cookie in half and pulled out the little piece of paper. Cuddy's eyes widened in surprise as she read the fortune, and then she began to giggle. Her giggles soon turned into full-fledged laughter as she gaped at the paper in her hand.

House just stared at her, wondering what could be written that could cause such hilarity. "Don't tell me your fortune says that you're going to be stuck in a blizzard with a cripple?" he asked her.

Cuddy laughed harder. "No," she finally was able to gasp out. "I think that the Fortune Writer was having a bad day when he wrote this," she said as she offered the little piece of paper to House. He took it, his curiosity growing as to what could make Cuddy lose control like this. He read the fortune and immediately understood.

"You like Chinese food," he read aloud and watched as Cuddy burst into laughter yet again. House felt the chuckles rise in his own chest, and before he could stop it, he was laughing just as hard as Cuddy.

"Maybe he was afraid of getting sued for giving out a false fortune," Cuddy suggested as she enjoyed the sight of seeing House really laugh. He didn't do that often anymore.

"You may be right," House replied. "This fortune definitely seems like the ultimate consequence of a litigious society. Soon we're going to have fortunes that say, 'You breathe oxygen' or 'You drink liquids'."

"Don't forget your personal favorite, 'You are a liar'," Cuddy told him.

"Yeah, well I've found out that particular truism gets you sued for entirely different reasons," House said dryly and Cuddy started laughing again.

"Don't I know it," she replied.

Their laughter slowly died down, and they once again fell into silence, albeit a much more comfortable one than the last. Cuddy again studied House through lowered eyes as he looked at the fortune again and smiled to himself. He caught her looking at him and his smile faded a bit. He put the fortune down and concentrated on his food.

She once more felt the guilt snake its way through her stomach. She knew that he would never accept an apology from her, but she didn't want to ignore the fact that her being stuck at his apartment at this particular time was very awkward to say the least.

"House …" she began.

He looked up and met her gaze. He could see her feelings written there.

"Cuddy, it's not your fault that you're stuck here," he told her shortly.

"I'm the one that decided to drive in a blizzard."

He half-laughed and half-groaned. "You can't be anything other than what you are, Cuddy. I know that better than most."

She sighed and looked away. "I know that me being here is an imposition … especially now. I just … I don't want you to think that you have to be nice to me."

House laughed in surprise. "Have you forgotten who you're talking to? I'm not nice."

"Not normal person nice. I mean nice for you. You've been much more courteous than I thought you would be when I first showed up." He snorted at her statement. "You have," she insisted. You were adamant about treating my injuries."

"A little thing called the Hippocratic Oath," he reminded her.

"Which you ignore when it suits you. You're feeding me."

"Well I guess I could let you starve. Or if it makes you feel any better, then you can do the dishes," he told her in an exasperated voice.

"We're eating on paper plates with plastic forks," she pointed out.

"Look Cuddy, I get what you're saying…" he began, but she put her hand up as she interrupted him.

"I'm just saying that I know my being here is interrupting your …" she paused as she carefully chose her words, "processing of recent events."

"Processing," he smiled sardonically at her tact. "Good word there." He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. Her guilt was going to drive him crazy if he didn't do something about it soon. A plan began to form in his mind. House didn't think that he'd normally be able to pull it off, but she was off of her game just enough that he thought he could get away with it. He carefully schooled his features as he looked over to Cuddy. "Look, if it will make you feel any better I'll go and do what I planned on doing today as if you never showed up."

"Yes, by all means. I won't be in your way too much?"

"Oh no. In fact, your being here may add a certain zest to the whole thing," he told her in as neutral a voice as he could manage. "Are you done confessing?" he asked.

She nodded as she gave him a tiny glare.

"Good, let's clean up and get you settled on the couch," he told her as he started to put the food away. "You're going to want to be in a comfortable position once those muscles start to get really sore and can't move around as much." Cuddy was a little suspicious of his solicitousness, but the idea of resting on the couch sounded so good that she didn't say anything.

They soon cleaned up the mess, and House helped her get settled on the couch. He even brought her some books and magazines to look through. He went to the television, turned it on and put a movie into the DVD player. It was at this point that she discovered that she had every reason to be wary of his motives.

He was watching porn.

She looked over at him with incredulous eyes and found him gazing at her with a mock innocent expression on his face.

"This is what I planned on doing today to help me in my 'processing'," he informed her as he turned back to the television.

She inwardly writhed in anger at him. She was just trying to be nice, and he had to twist it and turn it into … this! Well, she'd show him. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction of reacting to his little plan.

"No, that's fine," she told him as she grabbed one of the books he had given her and began to read.

House smiled. He'd give her twenty minutes top before she lugged the book at him. He smiled at his foresight of only giving her paperbacks.

Thirty minutes later he was trying to hide his amusement as she valiantly attempted to read her book. House could see her eye twitch every time she heard the moans of ecstasy emanate from the television. He was very impressed when she passed the twenty-minute mark without making any comment, but he knew that she was on the verge of breaking. She just needed that one extra push.

"Wow, look at that acting," he said in a very impressed tone of voice. "That girl and her fun bags are going to go far in this industry. Just look at them jiggle."

Cuddy felt the last thread of control slip away as she took the book she was reading and hurled it at House.

"You son of a bitch!" she yelled at him. "You can't let me be nice. You had no intention of watching porn today. You're just doing it to make me crazy!"

"What will you do if I say yes to that statement?" he asked, not even trying to hide his amusement.

She just stared at him as she imagined what it would be like to beat him with his own cane. "I need the Vatican's phone number because Stacy must be some sort of saint to have put up with your shit for five years!"

"Not really," he said calmly, "I'm just fantastic in bed."

At this, Cuddy grabbed the other books and started hurtling them at him. House raised his arms to deflect them and waited for her to run out of ammunition. He hopped quickly over to her after she tossed the last book but before she could find something else to throw at him and pinned her arms at her side.

"Let go of me!" she demanded.

"Not until I'm sure that you're not going to try and cut off any of my extremities," he replied in a reasonable voice. "Besides, you're really in no condition to be throwing things around. Haven't your muscles been through enough today?" he asked.

She took a deep breath, knowing that he was right. "Are you done with the porn marathon now that you've succeeded in making me lose my temper?" she asked.

"That depends," he replied. "Are you done wallowing in guilt for the day?" She glared at him and he continued. "Cuddy, you're here. There's nothing that we can do to change that so let's just accept it and go on from there."

She looked away from him. "You're right," she told him quietly. Cuddy could feel her cheeks redden with embarrassment at how easily he had gotten her to lose her temper, but then he'd always been good at punching her buttons. She was just usually better at hiding it.

He watched her face turn pink and couldn't stop the little bubble of warmth that passed through him.

"Hey, I didn't think you'd last twenty minutes with the porn," he told her softly. "You're still very impressive for someone in your age group." She looked up at him in surprise and saw that his eyes were filled with what could only be described as affection. She stopped breathing for a moment.

House, at that same instant, realized he had finally broken his cardinal rule with her: don't refer to their previous friendship at all. He may have spent the past year bending the rule almost beyond recognition, but he had never actually broken it. He saw her confused expression and silently cursed himself for breaking it now at a time when he couldn't escape her presence to figure out what he wanted to do. He pulled away from her and got up.

"You might want to go take a shower," he said.

"What?" she asked, puzzled as to where this suggestion was coming from.

"Your muscles are stiff from the accident, and throwing the books during your little temper tantrum probably didn't help matters. A hot shower should help that." The truth was he needed to spend some time away from her as he collected his thoughts. A small part of him enjoyed the irony of Cuddy worrying that her presence was hindering his 'processing' time about Stacy, when, in reality, it was hindering his 'processing' time about her.

"You're probably right," she told him as she slowly stood up. She didn't completely understand what was going on, but he seemed to need to be alone and she would give that to him.

"There are towels in the cabinet above the toilet." She acknowledged him with a nod and made her way to the guest bathroom. House tensely followed her with his eyes and didn't relax again until she had shut the door behind her. He grabbed his cane and headed to the kitchen to find his yo-yo. He had some thinking to do.

A/N2: I set this story during a blizzard after Stacy leaves town. The week after 'Need to Know' airs, the east coast is blanketed in snow. Coincidence?

A/N3: Reviews are like Ritalin for me. They seem to spur me on to write faster.