Chapter 17
A/N: WOW. It looks like my desperate little speel at the beginning of last chapter really raked the reviews in… THANKYOU! You are all such little champions! Not only did I have some first time reviewer long time readers, but also some first time reviewer first time readers too! So that was quite exciting for little old me. I feel like I should make some sort of commemorative mural in your honour – perhaps an oil painting or scrapbook style memento folder. Hmmm yes, babbling. REVIEWERS:
prinnie, GallopGirl, Marigot Bleu (YAY hello new reviewer!), moo333, soccerchick13, FriendsHolic, Angelfirenze (hello! Thanks for reading, new reviewer!), TNIIT, Chromo26, cazness, a tattered rose (hehe hello another new reviewer!), bostonfan, QT Roo, and RogueButterfly.
FOURTEEN REVIEWERS! I am so proud of you all, my little munchkins! And I love that my Microsoft Word spell check now knows how to spell all your pennames. It makes happy happen in my head. (What song is that from? I know it… and its bugging me… if you know, tell me! Cos it will seriously bug me until I know.) But yes, please keep reviewing, because we are so close to the end I can TASTE it!
How convenient, I must say, that inspiration has struck me right when I have a four day weekend. (Thankyou, God, for creating mid-years and making sure I don't have any). So, even though I am meant to 'catch up with work' over this mini break, I shall write FRANTICALLY (and also do a bit of work), because I know where this story is going, what will happen next, etc. The only thing I don't know is whether it will have a happy or a sad end… (providing, of course, that I can write sad without it becoming over dramatic and soap-opera-ish.) So let me know what you want - ewww I'm going really Big Brother. I swore I'd never go reality...
On that note, I downloaded a classic ep of the Bold and the Beautiful from 1997, and OMG HILARIOUS. I had a good time chuckling to myself – and is it just me, or was Brooke pregnant with Bridget in 97? Because Brooke was looking chunkers, and Bridget is like 27 now… hmmm…
Anyway, that's enough Bold stuff (especially considering that this is the HOUSE category).
ON WITH THE STORY! (and don't forget to review…)
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Cuddy entered her office the following morning with James Wilson hot on her heels. She determinedly pushed open her doors and walked briskly to her desk, putting down her things, bag padding gently on the surface and keys clinking to stillness. As she turned to put her coat on the rack she came face to face with Wilson and jumped a little in surprise.
"Goodness, don't jump out at me like that," she sighed, unbuttoning her red jacket and heading to the coat rack.
"How are you feeling? Your phone line was busy practically all day yesterday, and I couldn't step out to come and see you," he said, following Cuddy as she hung up her jacket and moved back to the desk.
"I'm fine," she replied rather quickly and unemotionally, seating herself behind her desk. Wilson stood on the other side of the wooden barrier and looked and her with a disbelieving face.
"You passed out in my study!" he reasoned.
"I just drank too much wine," she said emphatically, giving Wilson a little glare before reaching for her bag and keys.
"You didn't come to work yesterday! Anna called the hospital to tell me you were 'too hung-over to think straight'! What is going on Lees, this isn't like you," he replied, sitting down in the chair opposite. She gave a sigh and slumped her body, rubbing her forehead.
"What happened with House?" he continued, trying to get some answers out of her.
"It's a long story," she deflected.
"I've got a lot of time," he urged.
"You have to do clinic duty," she averted.
"Lisa, stop it! Stop deflecting everything I ask! I'm not House, you can't push me away with the promise of more clinic duty. Just tell me what happened," he pushed.
"It's none of your business!" she snapped. Silence came over the two of them, both brooding and taking deep quick breaths.
"He left the hospital after lunch," Wilson added more calmly, "I can only assume he went to see you."
"He did," Cuddy sighed.
"Did he say something to… upset you? Because I warned him -"
"- warned him against what?" she interjected suddenly.
"I told him, at dinner, not to say anything to you. But he obviously did, and -"
"You had no right to do that," Cuddy snarled quietly, shaking her head.
"Look, you were the one that told me he had ruined your date the other night, and I just didn't want him to completely piss you off. You don't deserve half of what he dishes out."
"But I deserve the other half?" she confronted with a raised eyebrow.
"You know that's not what I meant," Wilson reasoned.
"I would get him to tell me what happened, but I know he wouldn't tell me the truth. Not the whole truth, anyway," he continued.
"Lees, I've known you forever, and I've never seen you like this before. He has done something seriously wrong this time, and I don't want it to destroy whatever fragment of a friendship you two have. Not to mention it would put me in an awkward place," he said honestly.
"Please, just tell me what he did, so I can try to -"
"I kissed him," she blurted out. His eyes widened and jaw dropped so far Cuddy could have sworn it was about to hit the floor.
"When I was drunk," she tried to rectify. "I didn't know what I was doing, obviously."
"Wha – so you kissed him," he asked, still not believing the situation.
"Yes. Before I passed out," she added.
"So… you kissed him… then passed out," he clarified, eyebrow raised.
"No! Well… yes. I didn't pass out on him or anything… not that I remember anyway…" she trailed off.
"But I-I," Wilson stuttered, "I thought you were mad at him?"
"I was. He wrecked my date and said some awful things, and then at dinner he was interrogating Anna, and… he apologized," she sighed.
"House? House apologized?" Wilson questioned disbelievingly.
"Yes. And I was just so… overwhelmed that I… well, you know," she cringed.
"Well, if that isn't incentive for him to apologize more, I don't want is," Wilson mumbled.
"Hey!"
"What about yesterday? You didn't…" Wilson trailed off, insinuating something more.
"No! God no," Cuddy deflected. "But there was a moment, where I thought… I dunno. He spent most of the time teasing me relentlessly about what had happened, and then we just had this moment where he said… but it doesn't matter because Anna came home before it could amount to anything."
"And if she hadn't've?" he posed bluntly. Cuddy took in a deep breath and let it out with a sigh.
"Coulda-woulda-shoulda," she breathed. "It's irrelevant now."
"Is it?"
They sat quietly, Cuddy's eyes glazed over and Wilson's searching his confused sister for a clue. She always knew exactly what she wanted out of her job, but when it came to House and matters of the heart, she was clueless.
"Well, I have a patient," Wilson excused quietly, getting up out of the chair, "if you want to talk… you know where I am."
"Thanks. If you see House remind him he has two hours of clinic to do today," she replied, eyes still glazed over. Wilson let out an inaudible sigh before heading off to comfort another terminal patient.
00
"Ugh, this is so degrading," Emily groaned, as she briefly stood in front of the mirror, touching up her hair and striped uniform before heading out for another day of candy striper work. She'd kept her light brown waves and tied them half back, opting for the 'natural look', as she had told her sister, who she then commented tended to 'do natural too much'. Though she never envied her sisters much darker, curlier and at times fuzzy hair, she was insanely jealous of her vivid blue eyes. Though Emily too had blue eyes, hers were more a dark swirl of blue and hints of green, like her mother's. She had too inherently received her mother's shorter stature whilst Anna towered above them both with long, lean limbs.
A brief touch of lip balm and Emily was out of the staff toilets and into the halls of Princeton-Plainsboro. She had barely taken two steps before a familiar blonde haired man was on her tail.
"Hey sexy," came the voice from behind her, and she turned quickly to find Chase grinning dopily at her.
"I could call that sexual harassment," she quipped, as he wrapped an arm around her waist, not caring about the nurses peering around corners and whispering scandals to each other.
"So sue me," he grinned.
"Oh, very smooth," she chuckled, rolling her eyes at his cheesy sense of humour.
"Where were you yesterday? Busy cleaning bedpans and handing out mints to the elderly?" he asked, nonchalantly brushing Emily's hair over her shoulder.
"Didn't hear? The Dean actually took a day off work for once," she replied, playing with the lapel of Chase's lab coat.
"I did, I thought you might be coming in though," he commented with a hint of disappointment in his voice.
"Hey," she laughed, "I have to get every day off this crap job that I can. Seeing you, however, has become an unexpected perk."
"Nice to know I have that effect," he smirked, leaning in to brush her cheek with his lips, hand cupping her neck. Suddenly she noticed the gossiping flock of purple scrubs and stocky women, and pulled back.
"Ah, Rob," she protested, removing his hands from her body, "do you think we should be like this… here? I mean take a look at these people, word could get back to the Dean."
"So?" he said, stroking her arm, only to have her pull away.
"So, if mom finds out she's going to kill us both," Emily defended, now looking around anxiously. Chase reluctantly took a step back and sighed.
"I guess," he muttered.
"But that doesn't mean I can't kiss you when no one's around, right?" he added with a smirk. Emily's face slowly stretched into a grin.
"Well I never said anything about that," she cooed, discreetly taking Chase's hand and creeping down the hall, glancing around mischievously.
From around the corner Cameron peered at Chase and Emily canoodling, eyes narrowed. She crossed her arms in a huff as Chase nonchalantly played with her hair. That Emily Cuddy was going to be nothing but trouble, she knew it, and Chase was going to end up making a fool of himself, and possibly even losing his job over it. She had to do something about it, before he sabotaged his own future.
"Chase," Cameron said boldly, stepping out from her hidey-hole as Emily and Chase crept down the corridor. They both stopped in their tracks, hands still clasped between them.
"House is looking for you," she lied.
"What does he want?" Chase groaned, looking forward to the possibility of some secret storage cupboard time with Emily.
"He needs you to MRI the patient," she continued, hands in fists behind her back.
"Can't you just do it?" he whined.
"Chase," she scolded, "you have responsibilities at this hospital too. You can't just spend all your time goofing off," she looked pointedly at Emily, "and fooling around with the Dean of Medicine's daughter."
"Hey! I resent that," Emily retorted angrily.
"Em," Chase reasoned, "she's right. I better get to work. We'll do lunch, right?"
"Mkay," she replied with disappointed eyes, squeezing his hand lightly. She gave Cameron a Cuddy glare before heading off, head held high.
Chase, too in turn gave Cameron a fed up glare, "you don't have to be so rude," he commented.
"Chase, you are paid to work. I don't think Dr Cuddy would be too happy if she found out what you were really up to," she imposed.
"Are you threatening me?" he recoiled. Cameron rolled her eyes and crossed her skinny arms.
"I'm just saying, it won't go down well if you're seen to be messing around when you should be taking care of patients," she continued.
"You're not my boss, Cameron. If I remember correctly, we're doing the same fellowship, and House didn't put you in charge of me. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were jealous," he suggested, arms crossed.
"Don't be ridiculous," she scoffed, shifting her weight. Chase just raised his eyebrows and uncrossed his arms with a fed up sigh.
"I'm going to find House," he huffed, walking past her.
"Good," she pushed, her stance strong and body rigid, as she watched him walk away, head shaking.
00
"You… are unbelievable," Wilson said as he entered House's office, where he sat at his desk, feet up and oversized tennis ball in hand.
"So people keep telling me," he answered cockily, lightly throwing the ball up and catching it.
"How does pissing off women make them attracted to you? I don't understand it," he mused, agape, sitting himself down in the chair opposite to his older counterpart.
"I keep telling you Jimmy, nice guys finish last. Ladies love a bad boy," he teased.
"She hates you… and she kissed you," Wilson said, hands out in disbelief. House's ears perked up.
"So, I see she can't keep it a secret. No woman who's had a taste of Gregory House ever can," he gloated, reclining further in his chair.
"Oh shut up," Wilson silenced. "Stop being such an ass."
"Sorry, can't stop now, it's who I am."
"Can you just quit being so cocky for one second? This isn't funny, so stop pretending she's some sort of conquest," Wilson scowled.
"Eesh, not happy that lil sis is getting some?" House teased.
"She's not 'getting some'. And she's a year older than me," he corrected.
"Well sorry 'baby bro', if I ruined your nunnery plans for her," House continued to tease. Wilson gritted his teeth and shook his hands in frustration.
"You know you can't keep her a locked up Rapunzel forever. She's taken a look at Ye Olde Gregory, and she likes what she sees. Quite frankly, I can't blame her. There's no objection on my part, with a rack like hers. There's nothing I could do to stop her from throwing herself on me like she did, she just couldn't resist. Raw sex appeal does tend to attract the females. And sure, I love rubbing that in her face, but who wouldn't? She could do with some lovin' to loosen her up, she's far too uptight," he ranted.
"Are you enjoying this, House? Are you getting some sort of perverse pleasure out of making her miserable?"
"Misery loves company," he flicked with a grin.
"You know that's really getting old. I warned you House, to stay away from her, and now she's hurt, and she's confused, and not only is it making her miserable, but it's making me fucking miserable too! So just quit with the Casanova act and be an adult for once! I'm sick of it House, I'm sick of you. Just… take some responsibility," he growled, pushing himself out of his seat and seething out of the room.
House sat up straight in his chair, for once silenced by his friend. He did care about Cuddy, but sometimes he just couldn't stop himself from being a jerk and an ass, and screwing things up. So what? It was who he was. He wasn't in a relationship, he had no desire to be in a relationship – he didn't need anyone. Yet somehow when he was around Cuddy, sparring or otherwise, he forgot all that. He forgot that he was a loner, and almost let himself connect with someone. But he could never go so far as to actually forge a deep connection. No, that would be crossing the line.
Back in college there was no line. Sure, he was still a pain in the ass jerk, but he had such a good time doing it. He was the talk of the campus – everyone had heard about Greg House, the guy who somehow managed to ace everything despite the fact he never worked, and everyone wanted to meet him. He could have any girl at Michigan, and he'd had quite a few, but though most of those girls faded back into a blurred memory of drunken nights, Lisa Cuddy still stayed crystal clear. She was the only one that could give him a run for his money, and the only one who didn't jump straight into bed with him after finding out who he was. No, she in fact did the opposite – and that made him want her all the more. She was elusive, a mystery, and he wanted to solve her. He wanted to know everything there was to know about Lisa Cuddy, and he wanted to know it three times over.
And for a while, he did know her. Not completely, not fully, but enough to know that he wanted to know more, and couldn't stop. But soon the spring came, and as the winter left, so did she. He went from seeing her every day and night, to only catching glimpses of her around campus, bustling from class to class and library to library. He had soon learnt that she wanted to be the best more than she had wanted him.
At the end of the semester she was gone, and the next time he saw her he was lying in a hospital bed, Stacy by his side. It took a while, but they slowly started to get back into a swing. Then she offered him a job, and it was as if time had turned back 15 years. Suddenly they were back at Michigan, and were talking and sparring like old friends. She went back to being his puzzle to solve, and he went back to being her ultimate challenge. Though he longed to put her pieces together, she still kept him at a professional distance, and the closest they ever got was a coffee or lunch between old friends.
But now, he could smell college in the air, and the possibility of having her like he did then hung in the atmosphere, hovering around his ears, nose and throat, drawing him in. He'd found two new puzzle pieces, and he was going to use them to finally solve the riddle of Lisa Cuddy.
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A/N: So there we go, another chappy, in less than a week! Go me! But yes, please take the time to chuck me a review.
Coming up next… House plays with his puzzle, and an unexpected visitor comes to stir up trouble…
PS. Don't worry about "makes happy happen in my head", I just remembered it's from "On This Side" by Clare Bowditch and the Feeding Set. GREAT song! Woooo!