CHAPTER SIX

House grabbed a tray from the pile. It was wet and hot and small driblets of water temporarily stained his pants. "Damn," he cursed under his breath, less at the innocuous tray and more at the mess he'd just made of things with Cuddy.

"Bad day?" Allison Cameron came up behind him and handed him a napkin to wipe away the warm water.

"Every day is a bad day," House grumbled.

"You can come eat with me and Chase." It was an offer she knew he'd refuse, but one she offered anyway, because that's just who she was.

"Okay." House was desperate. Cuddy had just walked in.

As they made their way slowly through the lunch line, Cameron watched House carefully. He was watching Cuddy. He had his head down, and appeared to be focused on the food options in front of him, but Cameron could tell, he was watching Cuddy he just didn't want anyone to know he was.

"What's going on with you two?" She couldn't help herself. It's just who she was.

"None of your business." House handed the cashier a twenty and waited for his change.

"Fine, don't tell me." Cameron didn't much care. It had taken her a long time, and a lot of hard work, and many mind blowing orgasms from resident Aussie Robert Chase, but she had finally gotten over House. It was a nice feeling. Still, she wanted House to find happiness. "But if you want to talk…"

"Do I look like I want to talk?" House glared at her menacingly, then glanced toward Cuddy and rushed to the table Chase was saving. He saw the look first of amusement, then confusion, then downright despair as House walked with Cameron then sat down at their table.

"What are you doing here?" Chase didn't have to hide his disappointment any longer. House had fired him a year ago and he was free to show House how he really felt.

"She invited me." House flicked a thumb toward the pretty blonde.

"Great." Chase made an uncertain face then, when House wasn't looking, stuck his tongue out at his girlfriend. He loved her, but damn she had to stop trying to save House from himself. It was only going to put her in a bad mood and he had plans for this evening that required her being in a good and generous mood.

House sat where he could see the room without really being to noticeable. He was watching Cuddy walk through the lunch line. She was talking to Foreman about something that looked serious until Nurse Davis tapped her on the shoulder and said something that made Cuddy smile.

She had a beautiful smile. House felt himself growing flush. He quickly pulled off his jacket making some random comment about the money she was wasting keeping the heat so high.

"It's not hot," Chase said, shaking his head.

"It's like a furnace," House continued his exaggeration, determined to get them to agree through sheer force of will.

"It's a little warm," Cameron said hesitantly.

"Oh, don't give in to him," Chase scolded her. "He'll just keep going."

"If we don't just agree with him he'll keep going until we do."

House leaned between them. "He's sitting right here and can hear you talking about him."

The young blonde couple laughed. House just knew they were playing footsie under the table. He turned his attention elsewhere.

Cuddy had finished buying her lunch and headed toward a table almost directly across the room from him. House looked down at his plate quickly as sat. They'd almost made eye contact. He wasn't ready for eye contact. Last time had almost been a disaster. One look into those blue eyes of hers and he might say something he'd live to regret even more than the kiss.

Cuddy found a table toward the back of the room. She wasn't in the mood for company. Alas, that didn't stop Ben Thompson from pulling up a seat beside her. "Cuddy," he said her name with more enthusiasm than it warranted.

"Thompson." She nodded politely as she grumbled to herself.

"So, have you given any thought to my proposal?" Dr. Thompson was the head of pediatrics and he had his eye on building a new pediatrics wing at the hospital next year.

"I told you Thompson, I can't make any more cuts. If you can't raise the money yourself, it's not going to happen this year." She didn't know what was wrong with their current pediatrics wing, other than the fact that it wasn't as big as the one at Princeton General, which Thompson's ex-wife ran.

House watched as she discussed business with Dr. Thompson, jealous that she had something to take her mind off their fight.

He wasn't even sure it was a fight, not really. For it to be considered a fight he would have had to participate, and he'd gone out of his way to avoid doing that. He was afraid to get in a fight with her. He was afraid of what might happen.

"She looks bored," Cameron said, following his gaze.

"I'm guessing you have a point?" House made a face at her.

"Maybe you should go rescue her." It was common knowledge amongst the staff at PPTH that Dr. Ben Thompson was the single most boring human being on the face of the Earth. How he worked so well with children was a mystery to them all. He was horrible with adults, unless the adult in question had a serious case of insomnia. Then he was God's Gift.

"I don't rescue people." House pushed his mashed potatoes around on his plate.

"You could start now," Chase added to the conversation.

For a moment they thought he was going to do it. He picked up his tray with steely determination on his face and stood up with bravado. The young doctors watched as he strode away from their table. He was headed the right way when he suddenly took a sharp left and plopped himself down at a table full of wide eyed interns. "This seat isn't taken is it?" He asked, not really asking. They shook their heads in silent horror.

Cuddy watched out of the corner of her eye and for a moment she thought House was headed this way. She held in her breath as she watched him move across the cafeteria.

"Dr. Cuddy? Did you hear me?" Thompson waved a hand in her face blotting House from view for a second, then another as it waved back and forth. She lost track of him for a moment, as if he'd just vanished, or she'd only imagined him coming to her rescue like some knight in a medieval love story.

"No." She shook her head. It wasn't worth pretending she'd been paying the annoyingly twitchy little man any attention.

"I said you could cut the diagnostics budget by half. I don't see why a man who hardly takes one case a month should have a team of highly trained, expensive Fellows working for him. Get rid of one or two of them and that will save you…"

She scanned the room searching for the man she couldn't get off her mind. She saw him sitting at a table full of frightened interns. He couldn't possibly be enjoying that. The thought made her smile. "That's not going to happen."

"Of course not," Thompson sulked. Everyone knew it was a pointless battle trying to take anything away from Dr. Gregory House. Cuddy might be in charge, but it was House who was running things in this hospital. "But be assured the Board is going to hear about this." It was an empty threat, not because Thompson wouldn't go to the Board of Directors with his complaint, but because the Board appreciated the fact that Cuddy had taken them from twelfth to third on the national teaching hospital rankings. She could pretty much do whatever she wanted so long as they didn't drop down on the list.

Cuddy quickly looked down at her napkin. House had looked over at her. She felt like an idiot, like a fourteen year old idiot with a crush on the high school quarterback. She could feel her cheeks turning a light shade of pink, but she didn't dare reach up to touch them. That would only draw attention to the fact. "Excuse me." She got up and left quickly.

House watched her leave with a frown. Then he got up without having said a word to his table mates, who also hadn't said a word as they sat and watched the notorious doctor dissect his meatloaf methodically.

Chase nudged his girlfriend and pointed out House's hasty retreat. "Nooner," he smirked, thinking he'd solved the riddle of House and Cuddy.

"I don't think so." Cameron made a face. In theory she did want House to be happy, to move on and find somebody, but she didn't like thinking about it in practice, and was now mad at Chase for putting the image of a naked House and Cuddy doing it in the lab into her mind.

"Well then, maybe we should show them how it's done." With a glint in his eye Chase took her by the hand and pulled her out of her seat. They ran off to some dark corner of the hospital to relive the crazy days of their early 'non' relationship.

House shuffled down the hallway. He paused for a moment to watch his two horny ex-employees vanish into an unused recovery room. He also noticed Cuddy standing by the Nurse's Station talking to Evil Nurse Brenda. He lingered, just far enough around the corner not to be seen, but just close enough to catch a few words here and there.

Brenda was asking about Cuddy's office, about the health hazards of keeping the hospital open while there was an infestation of fire ants. House grinned proudly as Cuddy tried to explain that it wasn't an issue while trying not to explain what was really going on. Her success at this task just proved how good she was at her job.

Brenda seemed satisfied with whatever answer Cuddy had given. House hadn't caught most of it as the general noise of a busy hospital atrium kept burying their words in a mindless, droning buzz of voices. It didn't matter. They weren't talking about him.

House headed toward the elevators. He was accosted by his team.

Cuddy glanced around the open atrium. She could hear that familiar step, step, thump of House and his cane. House was walking toward the elevators. She stood and waited, pretending to be checking what she hoped was a patients chart. She didn't bother looking down to see, just grabbed the first thing she could reach and pretended to be interested in what it said. What she was really interested in was what House was saying to his team.

She couldn't make out the words, but Hadley seemed irritated about something. Taub was stoic, though his face as he glared at Hadley looked slightly annoyed. Kutner was fidgeting. They were probably just talking about his patient. Carly Peterson, daughter of Lowell Peterson, district attorney and local celebrity. If he ever found out about House's little 'game'…she didn't want to think how quickly the hospital would be shut down.

She took a deep breath and went to confront him.

House turned, as if he could feel her coming.

"Did you tell them?" She glared at him, waiting to catch him in a lie.

"Nope."

"Tell us what?" Taub asked. He had been married long enough to recognize the physical signs of a marital spat, and he saw all those signs in the two people before him. Cuddy's combative stance, one hand on her hip, the other ridged at her side; House staring directly into her eyes, not down into her blouse like usual; he wasn't leaning on his cane, but rather held it tightly, forcing all his tension into the handle.

House waited to see if Cuddy would speak for him. She didn't. "I put the patient on thiamine yesterday. That's why she's improving. She has Wernicke's."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Taub asked matter of factly.

Cuddy was tapping her foot impatiently. Her arms were now folded tightly across her chest.

"I wanted to see how long it would take you to figure it out." House told the truth.

"You can't do that!" Hadley protested the loudest and therefore the other two backed off. "You're playing with people's lives." She looked at Cuddy, expecting support.

"She knew all about it," House told his underling, much to her dismay.

"How can you let him do this?" Hadley looked to be on the verge of quitting she was so angry.

"Have you figured out what caused the rash?" Cuddy avoided the subject of enabling House all together.

"It's probably an allergic reaction to the thiamine." Taub wasn't as incensed as Hadley. He expected this kind of thing from House and took it in stride.

"She had the rash before I gave her the drugs." House shot that balloon out of the air.

"We ran all the allergy tests. It's not an allergic reaction to anything normal." Kutner had her file, and was flipping through it, trying to find something that was missing.

The elevator dinged and a group of people pushed past them on their way out. House entered first, and tried to hit the button before anyone could join him, but Cuddy stuck her arm out, holding the door and letting the Fellows enter. Then she followed and pressed the second floor key. House glared at her.

"Maybe she's allergic to something abnormal." Cuddy figured she might as well join in.

"Abnormal? Like what?" Kutner was intrigued by the idea.

"You're the diagnosticians. Figure it out." They had reached the second floor quickly. Cuddy was the first to leave. Unfortunately, they were all going to the same place, or at least approximately the same place, since she was headed to her temporary office which was attached to where they would continue their conversation in the Diagnostics Meeting Room.

House wrinkled his nose and wobbled his head as he imitated her "you figure it out," he said in a high pitched, girly voice. Kutner chuckled. "You heard her, go figure it out."