Hi ! :)

This one-shot is -already the fifth in the series, five more to go! I hope you'll like it as well! It's to set somewhere in the beginning of season 6.

I was going to use Hugh's music but a dear friend of mine asked me if I could make it Bruce Springsteen's so Bruce it is. I really hope I did a good job, thanks for allowing me to do so, Babe.

Check out his songs, he's, and for the least I know him, great! You can read this with listening to 'Tougher Than The Rest' it'll help you understand some things more easily.

A little wink to Lisa, you like diversity ;) and thanks for correcting me!

I hope you'll like it!

5. Listen to nice music.

The road was dark and almost empty. Only a few late workers were regaining their homes. Workaholics like her. She wondered if working late was their refuge too. Work and music. An orange traffic light made her slow the car and she realized how fast she was actually driving. A sigh escaped her dry mouth.

She stopped the vehicle as the light became red, she hated the time the pause gave her to think about it again. She swallowed the tears that filled her blue-gray eyes at the memory and drove again when the light turned to green.

Bypassing the car in front of her, Cuddy turned the CD player on and put a specific CD as she drove even faster. The fresh air of the evening dried her humid eyes and the music calmed her a bit; closing the car window, she sighed as she slowed the car again to let a couple cross the road. The two women smiled at her and she managed to smile back. A bitter smile replaced it when she saw them holding hands. She felt lonely.

A shake of her head later, Cuddy ran the engine again as she closed the window. She focused on the music playing gently into her car and found herself enjoying the speed. She felt like she was on a bubble that only she was allowed to enter; it made her feel better.

Anger overwhelmed her again when she saw his silhouette a few meters away. She didn't often let this emotion take control over her, especially when he was concerned, but it was too much. He was walking, his limp slightly more accentuated than usual, which meant he was in pain. She wondered why he wasn't using his bike or car.

Without knowing the exact reason that pushed her to do so and swallowing her clearly unjustified pride and resentment, she parked the car at his height by the sidewalk and leaned over to open the car door after she honked to catch his attention. She said no word, just waited until he made up his mind and sat beside her. Cuddy even ignored the quizzical and confused look he cast her.

Ten seconds passed before she leaned toward him and closed the car door by herself. Still without a word, she regained the road, only the music playing loud filling the atmosphere.

"Your place?" she asked as she accelerated. Her tone was mechanical and casual, as if she was mentally absent.

"Sullivan's," he told her.

He kept silent afterward, following the rhythm of the music, patting his fingertips onto his good thigh. The song was relaxing and pleasing; he liked its slow rhythm, unlike her fast driving. It surprised him how he didn't recognize her.

"Slow down, coyote," he said when she shifted up a gear and dangerously drove into a turn. She didn't seem to notice him.

"I thought you liked the speed." And she rushed even more.

"When I am driving," he pointed out.

He looked at her but she didn't react, focusing on the barely lightened road. "Okay. Pull over, ma'am," he ordered firmly as she honked for the fifth time to urge the vehicle in front of them to get aside.

This time, Cuddy obeyed, parking the car by the sidewalk as she lowered the music volume. She resolutely looked in front of herself.

"Are you high?" House shouted as soon as the car stopped as he reached for her keys and took them.

"I didn't push you to come," Cuddy said calmly.

"I didn't know you'd try to kill us."

She sighed and her sigh melted with the last fading notes of the music. "I'm sorry, okay?" she said, almost yelling. "Now if you want to go, the doors are open. You may want to give me my keys back before."

"Here it goes! It's not because your boy toy upsets you that you have to let loose on me!"

"Who told you it's him? You'd be pleased, wouldn't you?"

He closed his eyes for a second, considered his want to go further with that discussion and opened them again, meeting her gaze as the first notes of 'Tougher Than The Rest' started. He looked at her blue dress and inwardly smiled at the irony. "Because I didn't do anything to upset you and since he's an absolute idiot –

"Even when you don't do anything, you manage to ruin my happiness," she cut him off before he said anything else.

"Seems logical."

He watched her as she raised the volume of the music. Two cars drove past them, she followed them with her gaze until they were far in the horizon. House kept silent, the music enveloping the car again.

He knew that song but couldn't put a name on it yet. The man kept singing and he saw her relax as the time passed. Her features softened and he could swear that, for a brief moment, her eyes moistened.

"What did he do again?" he asked, waiting for a reaction.

"Again? Why? Did he ever do anything?" she countered when she recollected herself. "This sounds more like you, House."

"You're comparing me to him?"

"You're right. You didn't run away, you," she sighed.

"He…"

"I didn't see anything coming," she laughed bitterly.

"He's an idiot," House repeated, looking away for a while.

"I thought he was more resistant."

House looked at her again, confused. "They all freak out the second they meet you –you meet them," she added after a sigh. "But he didn't, not immediately. But even when you quit messing with my life, House, you manage to ruin it …"

"I'm not sure I am following …" House said, inciting her to explain more.

"Remember my Valentine's day date?" He nodded. "He left right after you dropped by, he heard us." House kept silent, waiting for her to continue. She took a deep breath that made him ache for an unknown reason. "He said… He told me that I was different when I was with you, that I was… me," she finally said, and shook her head, as to negate her statement.

"Well, the real you is pretty much savage," he tried to tease her. She gave him a desperate look, but her mouth curled into a half-smile before it disappeared.

"Lucas never saw you as the problem, but he left anyway, saying that he couldn't be with someone who loved someone else. I know he meant you but he didn't say it aloud."

House looked in front of himself, unable to lock his gaze with hers and see the words her eyes were screaming.

"And you're upset because of this? Of him?" he asked, not looking at her.

"I'm upset because he's right." He watched her for a while, the music's rhythm still rocking them. "I have feelings for you, and I hate that."

"There is at least something positive in it," he quipped, trying not to show her how destabilizing that conversation was for him. He understood her fears and knew that he wasn't the safest choice but… "I'm tougher than the rest," he whispered, daring to look at her as he did.

"And I'm rough," she added, incapable of holding back a smile. "But I'm not ready."

"And we're being a little cliché," House said as the next track began. "I'll wait," he assured her nonchalantly.

"Thank you," Cuddy smiled. "Can I have my keys back, officer?"

"No homicide attempts?"

"I promise," she laughed as he handed her the keys and drove them to the bar, more slowly this time.

"I like this guy," he said, a few minutes later, gesturing to the CD player as Bruce sang 'Drive All Night'.

She only smiled, looking at the road in front of her as he raised the volume of the music.

"Come on, we'll see if they have some lesbian cocktails for you," House offered when she parked the car in front of said bar.

She cast him a dark look but got out of the car and followed him.

"Cuddy?" he called as they sat.

"Hum?"

"Next time, you pay."

The end.

N/A :"If you are rough and ready for love, honey I'm tougher than the rest" inspired me the lines "I'm tougher than the rest" "And I'm rough, but not ready".

The songs I used for this OS belongs to the great Bruce Springsteen.

Thanks a lot for reading :D