Rediscovery

By Ellie

Disclaimer: House and Company don't belong to me. If they did I would be much richer than I am now. Seriously, it's not worth suing me.

A/N: Sorry it's been so long. My muse went off to Honolulu and didn't invite me along. Bitch. But she's back for now.

Chapter 13

House entered the hospital with a bag of food and looked around carefully to make sure that no one saw him. It was extremely unusual for him in the hospital this late when he didn't have a patient, and he had no desire to cause any hospital speculation. At least at this point.

Satisfied that there was no one paying attention to him, he nonchalantly made his way to Cuddy's office. She usually worked late on Tuesdays and Thursdays and it had become his practice to bring her something to eat. He scowled at the thought that he was becoming pussy whipped before he had even had gotten any pussy, but consoled himself with the fact that he and Cuddy bickered as much as ever.

He quickly opened her office door and let himself in. She was talking on the phone. Her eyes lit up when she saw him and she gestured for him to sit down.

"Yes, I'll see you tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it," she said as she hung up the phone. "So what did you bring tonight?" she asked House.

"For you – a cobb salad. For me – a double bacon cheeseburger with extra fries." Cuddy groaned at his choice. "Just to remind you, I don't think the transplant committee would approve you for a new heart."

House gave her a dirty look. "Are you saying that you wouldn't pull any strings to help me?"

"Do you have any idea how many members of that committee you've mortally insulted? There aren't enough strings in the world."

"Hmph. I don't know what good it's going to do me to be screwing the boss, if it's not going to get me things like new organs when mine fail."

"You'll just have to take care of the ones you've already got," Cuddy told him pointedly.

"Where's the fun in that?"

Cuddy ignored him and began to eat her salad. "So what's going on with Wilson?" she asked, changing the subject.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"He's been walking the halls with an extremely tense look for the past week." Cuddy looked up in time to see a self-satisfied smirk cross House's face. "House, what are you doing to Dr. Wilson?" she asked in a dark tone.

"Nothing," he said loftily.

"House…"

"Cuddy, I'm seriously doing nothing to him. That's the genius behind my plan. He comes near me and I give him a little smile and he gets all nervous. His own imagination is getting to him far better than I ever could."

"I'm sure, but he's driving me crazy. He's been acting twitchy during the Board meetings this week. Either do something to him or let him off the hook."

"Wow, I have you permission to play a practical joke in the hospital," House stated in an amazed voice.

Cuddy snorted. "Like you would stop if I asked you to. I assume you won't damage him too badly. He is your only male friend." House raised his eyebrow and dived into his fries. Cuddy looked at him speculatively.

"Have you told him about us yet?" she asked after a while. House met her gaze, trying to figure out what she was thinking, but her face was a mask.

"If I had, then Wilson would have come and talked to you about it by now," he said. "I thought you wanted me to wait a little bit."

"I said a day or two. It's been over a week."

"Why are you so interested in when I tell Wilson?" he asked.

Cuddy looked down and stabbed her salad with her fork, angry at herself for even bringing it up in the first place.

"I have to tell you," he said when it became obvious that she didn't plan on answering, "that I'm going to have to say no if you're thinking about having a threesome." She still didn't answer. "That is, unless it's a threesome with you and another hot chick. Hmmm… I wonder if Cameron swings that way?" he pretended to muse to himself as he carefully watched her expression. He saw her mouth twitch in annoyance and knew that he almost had her. "Of course, if she doesn't, I'm sure that we can find some nubile young thing to take her place."

Cuddy glared at him and silently picked up a tomato from her salad and threw it at his head.

"Hey!" House said in an offended voice. "You're the one who was interested in a threesome in the first place."

"I am not interested in a threesome with you and Wilson," she told him. "I was just wondering …" she closed her eyes and exhaled sharply as she forced herself to continue. "I was just wondering if you were starting to have second thoughts," she finished quietly.

House looked at her in surprise. "No," he said. "The reason I haven't told him is that I realized I don't want to deal with the lectures that he'd give both of us about starting something."

"Lectures?"

"Yes lectures. He would come to me and say, 'House, she's our boss. Are you insane? This is the worst idea you've had in a long time,'" House said in a fair imitation of Wilson. "Then he would come to you and say, 'Cuddy, are you insane? This is House! What are you thinking about? Besides the really hot sex, that is. Let me tell you, I don't want to deal with picking up the pieces of his delicate little heart if you're just using him for body.'"

Cuddy laughed. "I've never imagined you with a delicate little heart," she said.

House rolled his eyes. "Wilson thinks he's my mother half of the time, and I decided that I just didn't want to deal with him. Besides, I'm having way too much tormenting him. I even broke into his office and let him 'catch' me leaving. He spent the next two hours tearing his office apart looking for traps."

Cuddy sighed and took a sip of her water. "Why am I considering a relationship with a man who acts like he's fourteen most of the time?" she asked herself.

"Because I'm just so darn charming," he answered with a grin. He held a fry up to her. "Here, take one," he offered.

Cuddy's eyes opened in surprise. "Alert the press. Dr. Gregory House has offered to share food that he bought himself with someone else," she said teasingly as she took the fry and ate it.

"Ha ha," House said and offered her another one.

"I don't think so. If I ate too many of them, then you wouldn't enjoy ogling my ass as much as you do now."

House took the fry away, looking thoughtful. "You could be right. I would hate to deprive myself of one of my favorite things about working here."

"My ass?"

"Oh yeah," he leered as he leaned forward. "I consider myself a connoisseur of the female form and you, my dear Dr. Cuddy, have one of the finest asses on the eastern seaboard."

"Really," she said in an amused voice.

"Yes. I have to fight the urge to applaud every time you leave a room -- especially when you're angry with me. It adds a little something to your walk."

"Thanks for sharing," she said dryly.

House leaned in towards her and wiggled his eyebrows like a dirty old man. "No Dr. Cuddy. Thank you."

Cuddy smiled in response and without even thinking about began to lean in a little closer to him.

Her office door opened, and Wilson entered.

"Cuddy, I was about ready to …" he stopped as he took in the scene before him. Their meals half eaten on her desk. Cuddy's cheeks were turning slightly pink and House was glaring at him.

"Wilson!" House exclaimed as he lost his temper. "Do you have some sort of tracking device installed somewhere on my body that lets you know when I really don't want to be disturbed?"

Wilson found himself incapable of speech. He had teased House about being attracted to Cuddy, but he had never thought that anything would actually ever happen between them, and now they were sharing intimate meals in her office.

"Are the two of you insane?" he asked sharply when he found his voice.

House rolled his eyes and looked at Cuddy who was giving him an amused look. He got up, grabbed Wilson by the arm, and led him to the door. "I'll be right back," he told Cuddy as they left her office and entered the empty clinic. House forced Wilson into one of the exam rooms and closed the door.

Wilson stared at House. "I knew that you were self-destructive, I just never thought it would go this far. She's your boss! Why are the two of you even considering this?"

House gave him a disgusted look. "Well you see, Jimmy, when a boy and a girl like each other."

"But that's just it! You guys don't like each other," Wilson said testily.

"Where did you ever get that idea?" House asked.

"Umm… from the past five years of watching the two of you interact with one another."

"Foreplay."

"Foreplay?"

"Yes, foreplay. Which, by the way, is the only play I've gotten from her so don't screw this up for me," he groused.

"Yes, because I shouldn't care about the emotional well being of two of my closest friends and be worried about them starting something that's doomed to fail from the start. House, Stacy left again less than a month ago. Cuddy deserves more than to be your rebound girl."

"First of all, a relationship between us is not 'doomed to fail' as you so melodramatically put it. And secondly, Cuddy is not my rebound girl. I'm over Stacy," he said. Wilson gave him a disbelieving look and House smacked him in the leg with his cane.

"Ow!"

"I am over Stacy. Yes I loved her, but we would never have been happy together. I've accepted that and moved on. I do, however, think that Cuddy and I have a decent shot at getting things to work. Especially if I can get my supposed best friend to stop interrupting us. And you better not go to Cuddy and point out all of the difficulties that a relationship between us would entail. Believe me; she's aware of the problems. We're working on them."

"You'd have to change," Wilson warned him.

"What? Cuddy doesn't expect me to change."

"Lisa Cuddy, the person who's known you since college, doesn't expect you to change. Dr. Lisa Cuddy M.D., Dean of Medicine, can't have her boyfriend insulting donors and wreaking havoc at the hospital." Wilson sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "Do you have any idea what she goes through in the Board meetings to keep you employed? Half of them already think that she's way too easy on you. If you started seeing each other then there is the possibility that she would lose all credibility where you were concerned and you could both lose your jobs."

House had the good grace to look guilty for a moment. He looked down and studied the floor before answering. "I know it will be difficult. For both of us. But this is something that I have to …" House trailed off, unable to finish the sentence.

Wilson came to a realization as he watched his friend's expression. "My God, it's not just about getting laid. You really care about her. A lot," he said in wonderment.

House scowled at Wilson, but didn't contradict him. Wilson was silent as he absorbed this knowledge. "It started during the blizzard, right?" Wilson asked.

"Yeah," House replied as he continued to study the floor. A reluctant smile formed on his face as he remembered her time at his place. "It was a good day," he said simply as he briefly met Wilson's eyes.

Wilson studied his friend. "So you haven't … um…"

"Hit a homerun yet?" House finished for him. "Nope. Cuddy doesn't want to rush it. But I'm working on it," he told Wilson.

"I'm sure you are," he said and then thought for a moment. "So the other day when you stormed out of Cuddy's office without speaking to me, it wasn't because I … uh,"

"Stabbed me in the back and conspired to get me back in the damn clinic?"

Wilson nodded.

"No, you interrupted us. Although I am seriously pissed off about the clinic thing."

"Well if you were a grown-up, then we wouldn't have to resort to such measures," Wilson replied.

House smiled. "That's what Cuddy said too."

"So what are you going to do next?" Wilson asked.

"I'm going to go back in there and finish my supper."

"And then?"

"And then what?" House asked.

"She's your boss. And she's worked very hard to get where she is, and I know deep down you don't want to take that from her."

House frowned as he studied the floor. "It's none of the Board's business what happens between two consenting adults. And Cuddy is not going to give me any special treatment because we're seeing each other. I know that. And as long as nothing else changes between us, then the Board can take their complaints and shove them up their collective ass."

"I hope you're right," Wilson said.

House smiled. "I almost always am … eventually."

Wilson chuckled in response as they left the room. House looked at Cuddy's office and went back in. She looked up from her paperwork and smiled.

"The two of you have a nice little talk?" she asked.

"Wonderful. He explained all about the birds and bees to me. It was great."

"You sure did get him out of here quickly," she told him.

House gave a little shrug. "I knew he was going to go into lecture mode, and I thought I'd spare you."

She laughed. "My knight in shining armor," she said facetiously. House smiled and picked up his soda and took a drink as he thought about Wilson's points.

Cuddy watched him for a moment. She knew that expression. "You're brooding. What did he say to you?" she asked.

"I'm not brooding," House said a little defensively. Cuddy merely raised an eyebrow and waited for an answer to her question. House took a deep breath and gave in. "He just pointed out some of the difficulties of a relationship between the two of us."

"Like what?" she asked.

House shook his head and picked up the letter opener on her desk and began to fiddle with it. "He said that I would have to change to be involved with someone in your position."

Cuddy watched him for a moment and then leaned across her desk to place her hand on his arm. "House, I know that there are lots of potential problems with having a relationship with you." House's mouth quirked at this statement. "But I promise that if we do start something, it will be with my eyes wide open. I know who you are. I know that you're an ass who likes to shock people out of their complacency. I would never expect you to change."

House put down the letter opener and took her hand into his. "Thanks," he said simply.

He spent the rest of the meal regaling her with tales about his most annoying clinic patients. He threw the containers away and put his coat back on as he prepared to head home. "Don't stay too late," he chided.

"Who's the mom now?" she asked. "Just one more report and then home to a nice hot shower."

House gave her a smirk. "Thanks for that mental image. I'm going to have good dreams tonight."

"Go home, House. You have clinic tomorrow."

House stuck his tongue out in reply and headed home. He was whistling a jaunty tune as he entered his apartment. The phone rang.

"Hello," he said.

"Greg …"

House's stomach clenched. "Stacy."

TBC

A/N2: Dum, dum, dum! Don't throw tomatoes at me. I swear Stacy will not be in the story for long. She's just a catalyst for House-angst. But not 'pining for Stacy-angst.' (shudders) I think we got enough of that on the show.

A/N3: One of the reasons that there was such a long time in between updates is that I decided to change the ending a bit. So the story will go on a little bit longer than I originally thought. Not too much longer, but I'm not going to give a number in case my muse has other ideas again.

Please review.