Originally, this was going to be one long chapter full of a lot of stuff going on, but I decided to split it up.

Where we left off: Cuddy told House she needed time alone, so he left... Will House and Cuddy be strong enough to move past this and go back to the Huddy we know and love? I sure hope so! Wait and see.

Chapter 73:

"Is that a woman thing? 'I need space'? What's that even mean? She has her 'space' all the time!" House asked, from his place on the couch as he stared at the video game screen.

It was Saturday evening and House, Wilson and John were sitting on Wilson's couch in the living room, munching on Thai take out, drinking beer and playing Madden NFL.

"I wouldn't know," John replied dryly, watching the two men play the widely popular video game as he took a swig of his beer. "You know, seeing as I like balls and not vaginas."

"Your defense blows, Wilson," House told him, as he stared at the screen, controller in his hand, as his fullback was yet again brought down by Wilson's left tackle.

"I think that's your defense," Wilson pointed out, as his Dallas Cowboys offense gained another yard. "Yes! Another yard gained for James!"

"Yeah, I'm letting you win."

"Sure you are, House….And yeah, I do think that it's a 'woman' thing. Juli needed her space all the time," he said, referencing his third wife.

"That ended well, didn't it?" House replied sarcastically. "I was there for that break-up. You moped around my apartment all the time like a little fucking puppy with its tail between its legs!"

Wilson rolled his eyes. "I didn't mope," he replied defensively.

"Oh yes you did," House said matter-a-factly, as he maneuvered his wide receiver past Wilson's defense on the screen, and into the end zone.

"Yes! And Gregory House scores another touchdown for the 49ers!" He leaned back against the couch, grinning as he grabbed his beer.

"You suck at this, Wilson."

"Hence why I went into oncology and not professional video gaming. Although, I have thought about it…," Wilson replied dryly, before taking a sip of his beer after sticking a forkful of rice into his mouth.

John smirked. "Touché."

"You would still suck," House replied.

"And as I recall, you had no problem giving Mrs. Wilson number three her space so then you could go out and sleep with other women," he added, switching back to the topic they were discussing previously.

"Oh shut up, House," Wilson told him. "And I only cheated on her once!"

"Are you forgetting your track record with wives one and two?"

Wilson shook his head. "Oh ha ha…you know, you seem to have perfected the fact of always deflecting your own problems and making them all about me, haven't you?"

"Years of practice," House replied dryly, as he smirked.

Wilson just rolled his eyes as John grinned, and went back to pathetically losing at Madden NFL.

"Are you sleeping on the couch here or do you want me to set up the guest bedroom?" Wilson asked after a few minutes, switching gears as he noticed his friend rubbing his thigh more than usual. He guessed that the physical events of the night before still had an impact on his thigh. That and he knew some of the ongoing pain was physiological, but he knew House would never admit to that.

"Bedroom is fine," House grumbled. "Whatever." He knew he couldn't handle even just one night on the couch. His leg was still aching tremendously from the previous night's events. He really should lay with some more heat on his thigh, but he wasn't going to ask Wilson for a heating pad. Not now anyway.

He smirked as he heard Cuddy's voice suddenly come in his head as she remarked about his pain level. 'I know you know some of your leg pain is psychological. And you know I'm right,' she would say.

Cuddy.

Just the mere thought of her name ripped at him, tormented him.

They hadn't spoken since that afternoon when he left the house, and even then, it was very limited. He knew he fucked up. When was she going tor realize that he was sorry?

He understood why she needed time away from him. He didn't like it but he knew she was extremely stressed, and if by dealing with everything, she had to distance herself from him, he wasn't going to argue with that. He really didn't have a choice in the matter anyway, but to just accept that this was what she needed to do. He also knew that she wasn't taking this lightly and that was what concerned him the most.

"Someone is far away."

John's voice jolted him out of his thoughts and back to the present.

He looked around. Wilson was no longer in the room and John was still sitting in the same spot as before, watching the other man intently.

"Where'd you go?" John asked quietly, although he was pretty sure he knew the answer.

House shrugged and said nothing.

John leaned forward. "Listen," he began quietly. "I think you already know this – in fact, I am sure you already know this, but Thursday is not going to be easy. I know you both are prepared, but still, it's not going to be a walk in the park."

House didn't reply.

"She needs you there," the lawyer continued quietly, when he knew House wasn't going to respond.

"I know," House replied quietly, as he stared at the edge of the coffee table.

"And I think you know that as well." Failing to get any response, John continued, but proceeded with caution.

"…Lisa's strong enough to do this. She's overcome a lot. You both have. But…she needs you to support her on this. What you both went through last November wasn't easy….even if this little 'fight' thing hasn't been amended by then, promise me you'll be there on Thursday."

Finally picking his head up in acknowledgement, House looked over at the lawyer, narrowing his eyes.

"I tend not to keep the promises I make," he replied coldly, before picking himself up off the couch and limping down the hallway towards the bathroom.

On Sunday, House received no word from Cuddy while he was staying at Wilsons with him and John. He thought about driving over to her house, but then thought better of it, although the amount of self control he had to exert to stop himself from doing so was extremely difficult to achieve.

He thought about what John had said. Yes, he was absolutely going to support her through this ordeal. He would be crazy not to. He was a part of this as much as she was. They both lost an unborn child, for Christ's sake! And it was all because Chase was drunk and got behind the wheel of a car.

House was still extremely angry at Chase for what he did, and he wondered whether he would lose control in the courtroom if he set eyes on his former employee. She would stop me, he thought, referring to Cuddy. She always does.

Cuddy. While part of him knew she was in fact strong enough to go through what awaited her at the trial on Thursday, he also found himself wondering if it was all an act on her part. The calm demeanor – the composed emotions - the wall that she built up, telling everyone she was fine…was she really okay? And will she be okay to face everything on Thursday? He HAD to support her through this. But could he? After what had happened this weekend? ... Would she even want me there? he thought bitterly to himself.

And that's why he told John that he wouldn't promise the lawyer anything.

Because if he didn't show up for Cuddy on Thursday after promising John that he would – that would destroy him.

So, with every intention of showing up on Thursday, House was still afraid that at the last minute, he wouldn't bring himself to do it – to go to the trial – if he and Cuddy were still not speaking with each other.

Part of him knew she would come around, eventually. As to how long that was going to take, he didn't know. They were doing so well before Friday night. And then he had to screw everything up. House chuckled, disgusted at himself. He knew better than to get her more stressed out than she already was, but yet, he did anyway.

And so, he wouldn't make that promise to the lawyer. Not yet, anyway.

Monday morning, House was in the conference room of the hospital with his team, discussing their new patient, who was admitted to the E.R. the night before.

Cameron and Foreman both noticed that throughout the differential, their boss was more irritable and crankier than usual, but they chose not to comment, thinking that the irritableness was due to his leg pain.

"We need to foam the lung," House finally said, as he stared at the whiteboard, contemplating his patient's symptoms listed. "This is definitely emphysema. She keeps coughing up blood. Her O2 stats are not even -"

"Lung foaming is in its infancy!" Foreman interjected, "A year at the most. Criner at Temple just recently studied the effects. And it's not even 100% accurate yet! If we foam her lung, we would be doing so with being uncertain of the risks involved -"

"We take risks every day!" House interrupted aggressively as he rounded on his employee. "Almost all of what we do as doctors is risk. It's all risks! Why not keep it up with this kid? She could die if we don't take this risk or she could die if we do take it. Either way, it buys us time if we foam the lung…"

"We're going to need approval from Cuddy," Foreman replied.

House turned to face the whiteboard once more, studying the symptoms, as he twirled the red marker between his fingers. He knew that they needed approval, but he was unsure if she would even give it to him, let alone want to be in the same room as him.

"Then go get approval."

Foreman silently exchanged an equally suspicious look with Cameron behind House's back before speaking. "You usually can get approval from Cuddy by yourself all the time, so why do you need us to get approval this time?"

Turning around to face his employee, House was about to reply with a smart ass answer, but didn't get the chance, as John Greene just walked into the conference room.

"What do you want?" he sneered.

"Whoa there. That greeting was certainly inviting. Someone's a little aggressive this morning," John replied, smirking. "I actually came here to speak to your team. I've talked to you enough all weekend while you and James were playing an obscene amount of Madden."

"Not that I didn't enjoy your company," he added hastily.

Turning to Cameron and Foreman, he said, "If the two of you can come to my office, preferably today or tomorrow, but anytime before Thursday works – I just want to…chat for a bit...separately."

Both doctors' nodded, although they were unsure of what the hospital lawyer wanted of them. Satisfied, John turned back to House. "Good. Are you staying again tonight?"

"I don't know," House mumbled. "It depends…"

John silently understood. "Well if you are, let Wilson win a few rounds of Madden. It'll help boost his ego."

After he walked out, Cameron spoke, although somewhat hesitantly. "House, is everything okay with you and L-"

"We're fine," House interrupted, roughly. "Now go and get approval for the damn lung foaming!"

At the same time that House was in his office discussing foaming their patient's lung, Cuddy was downstairs in her office, going over her notes from her meeting with the hospital's accounting department earlier that morning.
With her office phone constantly ringing off the hook all morning, she had yet to devout the appropriate amount of time to the hospital CFO's proposal of making a public statement regarding the hospital's decline in public funding from the state and government. Cuddy didn't think that was necessary given that they still had the extremely generous support of hospital donors to even out the decease of cut funding.

Exhaling, she laid down her pen and rubbed her temples with her index fingers, placing her elbows on the desk, as another stress headache plagued her once again. Closing her eyes, she leaned back in her chair, trying to cast her thoughts aside about the events that had transpired over the weekend.

After House had left her house on Saturday, Cuddy did everything she could to keep herself busy and occupied so as to not become overwhelmed and ruminate about all that had happened. That lasted a few hours and then becoming exhausted, her mind began to wander. And it wasn't just about what House did either. The trial was just around the corner, and even though she thought that she could handle it, a part of her was absolutely terrified to get on the stand. Terrified at the memories that are presumably going to resurface for her. And she was even more terrified that she would have to do it alone.

"Focus, Lisa," she said aloud, as she opened her eyes two minutes later, and forced herself to focus on her notes.

Not even a minute later, there was a light knock on her office door. Without looking up to see who it was, Cuddy simply waved whoever it was in with her hand.

After marking a note with her pen, Cuddy looked up to see Cameron and Foreman standing in front of her desk.

"House sent us down here to get approval for our patient," Cameron began before the Dean even had a chance to open her mouth.

"He would do that," Cuddy spat out bitterly after two seconds of silence.

Foreman and Cameron exchanged a silent look with each other, but chose not to comment.

If she noticed the silent exchange, Cuddy didn't mention it. "For what?" she asked.

Foreman handed her the file. "House wants to foam her lung."

"Is he crazy?! No!"

"That's what I told him," Foreman replied, "Then he told us to come to you for approval to do it."

Cuddy, who was glancing at the patient file she was just handed, looked up. "There is no way I'm letting you foam the lung. It's too risky in her condition. Right now, just give her Buscopan and increase her oxygen intake."

Knowing that was her final word, Foreman and Cameron turned to leave, but then they heard Cuddy speak, her voice harsh.

"And tell your boss to stop acting like a five year old and using you two as messengers. It's unbecoming and childish. Tell him to grow a pair of balls."

Ouch. Yeah, I thought that was a good place to leave it.

What do you think John wants to discuss with Cameron and Foreman individually? I'll give you a hint: it has to do with the trial coming up.

TBC...