Rediscovery

By Ellie

Disclaimer: Not mine. Don't sue.

A/N: Thanks for all of the reviews I've gotten. They make me very happy. I've worked for or been involved with several non-profits, and Outcomes Reports were the bane of all of their existence. Basically, you're trying to chart long-term effects of your programs using formulas. They suck.

Be warned. This chapter contains the beginnings of Huddiness. It's not overt, but it is there. So if you're strictly House/Cuddy friendship with absolutely no UST, then you may want to pretend that the story ended the last chapter.

Chapter 8

Cuddy sat on the couch staring at the television, but not really watching. After finishing Goldeneye, she and House had continued to watch television, but for the last half an hour her thoughts had been drifting to the hospital. She knew that no news was good news, but she still would have felt better if she were actually there supervising things. Not that she regretted spending the day with House and figuring things out between the two of them, but the hospital was, in a lot of ways, her life.

Cuddy noticed that she was tapping her fingers on her leg and forced herself to stop. That was another thing. She couldn't remember the last time she had basically spent the entire day doing nothing. She felt the excess energy coursing through her veins.

House watched Cuddy pretend to watch television. It didn't take a genius to figure out where her mind was. Someone else might have been insulted by Cuddy's desire to be elsewhere, but he found it kind of amusing. She was who she was. Her hospital was undergoing a 'crisis' without her presence, and it was driving her crazy. She started to absently tap her fingers on her leg again. She had been doing that on and off for at least the last half an hour and it was getting really old, really fast. It was getting to the point where House was about ready to suggest that she put them both out of their misery and call the hospital when a beeping sound came from Cuddy's purse.

She jumped up in surprise at the noise and then winced at how sore her muscles had become from sitting for so long. She went to her purse and pulled the pager out.

"It's the hospital," she said unnecessarily as she grabbed his phone and made her way to the kitchen. She was so busy focusing on contacting the hospital, that she didn't notice House lowering the volume on the television so that he could listen in.

"It's me," she told Wilson when he picked up the phone.

"Thank God," he said, the relief evident in his voice. "Mr. Mueller called, and he wants the Clinic's Outcomes Report from last year, and no one who made it into work today seems to know where to find it."

"And of course he doesn't care that we're in the middle of a weather crisis," she groused.

"No. He says he's checking our efficiency during an emergency, and I got the impression that if he doesn't get the information that his donation to the hospital will drastically decrease."

Cuddy sighed in frustration. Mueller was a wealthy donor who was becoming increasingly irksome. He had made it evident from their first meeting that he found her attractive, but she had managed to keep all of their dealings strictly professional. That was, until he had asked her out. She turned him down as politely as she could, but ever since then he would call during the most inconvenient times and demand information on the hospital, and if that information was not produced forthwith, he threatened to take his money elsewhere. A part of her wished she could tell him exactly what he could do with his money, but the Dean of Medicine in her knew that she needed it. She only hoped that he would get bored with tormenting her and move onto other diversions.

"He's such an annoying cretin," Cuddy complained into the phone, "Unfortunately he's a very wealthy annoying cretin who gives a lot of money to the hospital." Cuddy cracked her neck and began to tell Wilson how he could find the report in her computer.

"Great, I've found it." Wilson exclaimed. There was a slight pause. "I have no idea what any of this means," he admitted.

"Is he wanting to discuss the report with you?" Cuddy asked.

"Yes. I was the person who he ended up talking to and he's going to call back after I've emailed it to him."

"Collins could coach you. Is he there?" she asked.

"Nope."

"Chen?"

"No."

"Yamagato?"

"Nada," Wilson replied, his frustration level obviously rising. "I'm assuming the people who would be able to talk about it would probably have known where the stupid report was in the first place."

"Okay, don't panic. I've got some notes on the report in my BlackBerry. Let me grab it and I'll give you a quick tutorial. Or," she began, still thinking, "We could do a three-way phone call and I could do most of the talking."

"I don't think that would be a good idea," Wilson admitted.

"Why not?"

"Well I kind of suggested that in the first place, and he started going on and on about how his suspicions were right all along and that you were a micromanager who never let anyone else do anything."

Cuddy tightened her grip on the phone in anger. "There are other people who can explain this report! It's just that there's a foot of snow on the ground and they can't get to work! And now this little troll is wasting time and manpower so that he can stick it to me because I wouldn't have dinner with him!"

House raised an eyebrow at this statement.

"You done ranting?" Wilson asked.

Cuddy closed her eyes and forced herself to calm down. "Yes. Sorry. Hold on, I'll grab my notes and walk you through it. You're going to know that report backwards and forwards when I'm done with you," she said in a very determined voice. She walked back into the living room and grabbed her purse to look for the BlackBerry. Not finding it there, she opened her overnight bag and breathed a sigh of relief as she eventually pulled it out of a side pocket. She took it and went back to the kitchen to finish talking to Wilson, forgetting to close and put the bag away.

House's nose twitched a little as he stared at the open overnight bag. He knew that she must be really focused on work for her to have left it open with him in the room. He peeked at her in the kitchen and could hear her explain the finer points of Outcome Models to Wilson. Just thinking about it put him into a coma. Cuddy's bag was far more interesting.

He grabbed the bag and opened it all of the way. He first pulled out the work clothes that she had packed to wear at the hospital. "Hmmm… non-wrinkle fabric. Very smart Dr. Cuddy. Although I'm sure that you have an iron somewhere in your office," he thought to himself. House carefully laid the clothes next to him on the couch and went back to the bag.

Next, he discovered her toiletry bag and opened it with glee. He found her lotion bottle, twisted off the cap, inhaled deeply and smiled. It was a spicy sweet smell that reminded him of a lush garden at night. House jerked the bottle away from his nose and closed it, shaking his head at the turn his thoughts had taken. She smelled nice, and that was as far as he as going to take it. He looked through her makeup and found her lipstick. He opened up the tube and rubbed it on his hand to examine the color for a moment. When he was done, he put the lotion and makeup back in the small bag and placed it next to him.

He reached his hand into the bag and this time pulled out a couple of bras. As bras went, they were pretty normal. They were made with a black silky material with a bit of lace edging the cups. He examined them for a moment and couldn't help but notice that they still smelled faintly of her, even after being washed. He tossed the bras down next to him and stared off into space for a moment before forcing his thoughts back to the bag and its contents.

He rummaged around in the bag and half-groaned/half-chuckled when he found her underwear. "I knew it," he whispered triumphantly to himself as he pulled out a red thong. He stroked the soft material for a moment before twirling it around his finger. He sighed to himself. Being friends with Cuddy definitely had the makings of being way more … complicated than he had originally thought.

He squashed the unwanted thoughts as he checked on Cuddy in the kitchen. She was still droning on about outcomes and long-term patient wellness. He shuddered. This donor must be really big if Wilson was willing to go through the tutorial from hell. "In fact," he thought as an evil grin formed on his face, "Wilson might need a little jolt to get his brain functioning again after absorbing all of this 'interesting' information."

He cleared his throat dramatically as he carefully positioned himself on the couch.

"Cuddy!" he whined as loudly as he could. "Will you please untie me? I promise I'll be good from now on!" House just sat back and waited for the fireworks to begin.

In the kitchen, Cuddy dropped the phone at House's words. She quickly picked it up and pressed it to her ear as she entered the living room to glare at House. She found him sitting on the couch with a huge grin on his face. All of her clothes were spread around him as he played with her red thong. Her eyes narrowed. She was going to kill him.

"Ah … Cuddy?" she heard Wilson say on the phone. She closed her eyes as she tried to control her anger.

"Yes," she replied.

"Umm… that sounded an awful lot like House, and I just noticed that the Caller ID box lists this call as coming from Gregory House. So … um … is there anything you would like to tell me?"

"I was in a car accident this morning –"

"Are you okay?" he interrupted.

"I'm fine," she assured him. "It happened close to House's place. I walked here afterwards and now I'm stranded here with him. Obviously, I left him alone for too long because he got bored and acted out in order to get attention like a five year old."

House merely raised an eyebrow at her comment.

Cuddy decided that beating House with his own cane wasn't nearly painful enough. She wanted to wrap her hands around his neck and strangle that smug expression off of his face. "You might want to start working on House's eulogy, Wilson, because I doubt he's going to survive this blizzard."

House grinned.

"Now Cuddy," Wilson said in a reasonable tone of voice. "I know that murder seems like a viable option now, but think about it. You'd have to hide the body or make it seem like an accident. That kind of thing takes planning."

"Oh, I've been plotting how to kill House and get away with it for years. I'm covered," she assured Wilson.

House made a hurt expression. "You heard that Wilson!" he yelled. "I fully expect you to testify against her at the trial."

"Do you understand the Outcomes Report?" she asked Wilson.

"Yes."

"Good. I'll let you go. Mueller should be calling soon. And Wilson -"

"Yes?" replied.

"If I get back to work and hear any rumors about me shacking up with House during the blizzard, then I will make it look like a lovers' murder-suicide pact."

House looked slightly horrified at that comment.

Cuddy hung up the phone and began to walk slowly to the couch as House eyed her carefully.

Cuddy glanced at her clothing scattered around him. He was still playing with her thong and she had to resist the urge to take it and start beating him with it.

"You're right," he said.

"What?" she asked, confused.

"I probably would enjoy you hitting me with your underwear a little too much for it to be an effective punishment," he said matter-of-factly. "But if it will make you feel better, then by all means go ahead," he said and tossed the thong to her.

Cuddy caught it and just stared at him, shocked - and yet not shocked - that he had read her mind. He raised his hands as if to say, "I'm waiting," and gave her an impish grin. She strove to hold onto her anger, but it was useless.

She threw the underwear back at him. "How do you do this to me?" she asked, completely frustrated.

"Do what?"

"One moment, I'm so mad at you that I can actually feel myself squeezing the life out of your worthless carcass-"

"Hey!" he said, offended.

"And the very next moment it's … all gone," she finished as she moved a pile of clothing and sat down next to him.

House grinned at her disgruntled expression, but after a moment became serious. "It's a good thing that you don't hold onto anger," he told her quietly. She looked at him and smiled. She was going to say something in reply, but something on his hand caught her attention.

"Is that my lipstick?" she asked as she pointed to his hand.

House stared at the telltale red mark, and his normally agile mind could come up with nothing to say. "Yes," he admitted after a moment.

She rolled her eyes. "That's just wrong," she told him as she began to gather her belongings and return them to her bag. She picked up her bras and looked at him suspiciously. "You didn't put these on your head or anything?" she asked.

"What am I, sixteen?"

"More like twelve. Answer the question," she demanded.

"No, I did not put your tit-slings on my head," he said sarcastically.

"Good," Cuddy replied as she put them back in her bag. She reached to take her thong from him, but he pulled his hand out of reach.

"You gave this back to me," he said. "It's mine."

"You are not keeping my underwear," she said as she made another grab for it. He again evaded her attempt.

"Possession is nine-tenths of the law. I gave the thong back to you, and then you, of your own free will, gave it back to me. Ergo, the thong now belongs to me." Cuddy just stared at him for a moment and before deciding that she could steal it back later and zipped up her bag. She stood up, grabbing both the bag and her purse. "Fine. Whatever. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to use your restroom and then I want to call Wilson and find out how the call with Mueller went."

"You need both your bag and your purse to use the restroom?" he asked.

"I'm removing them out of temptation's way," she said as she went into the restroom.

He chuckled as she closed the door. She knew him too well.

TBC

A/N 2: I know it seems like Cuddy is spending a lot of time in the restroom, but it's really been several hours since she was last there in the story.

I was re-reading Enlee's 'Stay or Leave' and noticed that she had Cuddy and House watching a Bond movie when they initially took their relationship to the next level. I did not remember that at all, so I guess you could say it was an unintentional homage.

Please feed my addiction! Read and review.