Chapter 22
A/N: So, I've been unfortunately slow in updating this time. I knew I would slow once I got back into house fanworld… there's just too many fics to read, icons to see and clips to watch! I get easily distracted.
Anyway, many thanks to anon, glicine, Nicole, MiaFr, bostonfan, SAVANNAH, confusedsarcasm, jassy2009, HuddyTheUltimate and violetbeetles29 for your lovely reviews!! I really appreciate your feedback, as always. You keep me happy! I always get excited when I see I have a new review, so thanks for putting that little ray of sunshine into my day :)
Now my aim is to finish this fic before I go away on 21st December, so feel free to push me. lol! There's about 3 chapters left, and 3 weeks to post them in. Must commit.
As for the end of this chapter, I've done some research, but I'm not a doctor, so apologies for any medical inaccuracies. I did the best I could!
On with the story!
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Cuddy wandered around the room, still looking suspiciously behind things, whilst Emily fished some clothes out of her wardrobe. She crossed her arms, deep in thought.
"Is Anna home?" Cuddy asked.
"Nope," Emily replied, slipping a light cream dress over her head then lifting her hair loose from under the fabric. "She left early this morning. I don't know where she went."
"Hmm," Cuddy pondered, casually peaking out Emily's window, still looking for traces of any males that may have been pushed out of the room in a hurry. "Did you see her before she left?"
Emily gave her a sympathetic look. "I'm sure she's fine, mom. A little shook up, maybe, but ultimately she'll be fine."
"And what about you?" Cuddy asked, walking over and touching her daughter's arm lightly.
Emily's mind immediately went to the overwhelming thoughts of her father. "I'm okay."
"Are you sure?"
Despite herself, Emily nodded. "I just can't believe how mean Linda was to you. And you let Anna believe it was the other way around for all those years."
Cuddy was quiet for a moment, her hand still resting on Emily's arm.
"I better get back to work," she sighed. "You should too."
Emily gave a gesture of agreement, mind suddenly focusing on the half naked man hiding outside, and how to safely sneak him out.
00
The minute Cuddy got out of her car in the PPTH parking lot, Wilson was by her side.
"I saw you driving down the road from my office window," he explained, sympathy in his eyes.
Cuddy closed the car door before locking it behind her. "House tell you?"
"Emily called this morning. Why didn't you tell me, Lees? You normally tell me big things like this."
Lisa knocked fervently on the front door until a skinny, boyish James Wilson opened the door in basketball shorts and a t-shirt that was at least a size too big for him.
"You're lucky mom and dad aren't home to hear you trying to bust down the door," he said dryly.
"I need to talk to you," Lisa urged.
"Can it wait?" James said with a little sigh, rubbing his forehead, "I'm meant to be studying for finals. I know they're months away, but mom's convinced that if I don't start studying for them now I'll never get into a good college. Which is stupid, really, considering -"
"James!" she interrupted, holding a hand up to quiet him, an annoyed look on her face. She pushed past him into the house, pacing back and forth.
He suddenly looked at her with a puzzled expression. "Aren't you meant to be at school?"
She stopped and gave a sigh. "I think I might be pregnant."
"Oh."
"Well give me some time," she rebutted, "it only happened last night."
"That's not what I'm talking about and you know it," he replied, tailing her as she walked briskly towards the hospital.
"And why did you let Anna believe it was you that was in the wrong for so long?" he persisted, and she tried to ignore him and be flippant about it.
"I didn't want her to hate her aunt."
"You'd rather she hate you?"
Cuddy didn't reply.
"Lisa, look -"
"I don't want an interrogation right now. I just wanna get to my office and get back to work. I don't want to think about it," she said coldly.
Wilson grabbed her arm, stopping her and turning her around just before they reached the entrance. "You can't keep bottling it up. We have to talk about it eventually, and when you're ready, I'm here."
She looked into his eyes and paused. Giving a small nod, she slipped out of his grip and went inside.
00
Cuddy pushed through her office doors, still hungry after a lunchless lunch break.
"Salad or sandwich?" came House's voice from the couch, and Cuddy nearly jumped out of her skin.
"I wish you would stop doing that," she groaned, hanging her jacket on her chair and placing her purse on her desk.
"I like to think of it as optimum service," he replied, both legs on the couch.
She narrowed her eyes as she approached him. "I'll take the salad."
He handed it to her and she pushed his legs off the couch, sitting down where they had been. Opening the lid she speared a lettuce leaf with her fork.
House took a bite of the sandwich.
"Busy?" he asked with his mouth full.
She turned to him suspiciously and was made suddenly aware of just how close she had sat down next to him.
Putting her salad down, she crossed her arms. "Alright, let's have it."
"Have what?" House asked innocently.
"You know what. All the little comments and questions you've been saving up about what happened yesterday. Go on."
House looked at her blankly. "I don't have anything to say."
Cuddy laughed bitterly and crossed her arms tighter. "Since when have you had nothing to say on any aspect of my life?"
She looked at him, eyebrow raised, and he became unusually somber.
"I don't need to know anymore, Lisa," he said quietly. She was taken aback by his use of her first name, and she suddenly didn't know what to say.
House took a bite of his sandwich, feeling uncharacteristically guilty about the private moment he had witnessed the previous day. As much as he wanted to know the secrets of Lisa Cuddy, to witness such an emotional confrontation first hand and uninvited, he couldn't help but feel something foreign. Was it compassion? He didn't like the things she was making him feel.
"So… you're suddenly disinterested?" she said, a little affronted. "You've seen all you need to see and you've finally decided to stop? You've seen me when I'm down and actually decided not to kick?"
She wet her lips and continued, her anger swelling. "What was all that pestering for then, House? Why have you been making my life hell these last few weeks? Just for fun? And now your fun's over so you don't care anymore? You're just leaving it alone, the mess you've made be damned?"
"It wasn't my mess," he defended.
"Oh. Right," she scoffed.
Cuddy stood up, taking a few steps away and trying to collect her thoughts.
"I don't know what you want from me," she sighed, turning to face him and hugging herself. "You question me about my daughters, you show up at my dates, you turn up when I'm playing tennis, you kiss me for seemingly no reason, you come to my house uninvited… what is it you want?"
He suddenly stood up purposefully – as though he'd made some kind of decision - taking large strides towards her until they were only a foot apart. He looked her straight in the eye.
"You."
"Wh-what?" she stammered.
"Oh come on Cuddy, you know as well as I do that this thing isn't going to go away." He grabbed her strongly around the waist with his free hand, and she was caught off guard. Her eyes fell to his lips.
"I don't care how screwed up your life is – life's meant to be screwed up. And we should be screwing each other."
Cuddy couldn't help but let out a reluctant laugh. House took her grin as a confirmation.
"Besides, there's too many pairs of your panties at my house for us not to have a thing," he reasoned, and Cuddy narrowed her eyes.
"It's okay," he continued, "I don't wear them. Though Wilson has been known to try them on when he comes over -"
"House," she interrupted, "just shut up and kiss me already."
"Very well, got to follow the boss's orders."
In one swift moment he pulled her to him and bent down to capture her lips with his. Her arms went around his neck and he threw his cane aside, instead deciding that that hand was better suited for Cuddy's ass.
She grinned onto his lips, a laugh murmuring from deep in her throat. Slipping one hand down his side, she pulled back from the kiss and looked him mischievously in the eye as her hand came to rest on his ass.
He raised his eyes and sighed playfully. "Thank you God."
00
Cuddy found herself walking out the front doors of Princeton-Plainsboro a mere half an hour later, with House in toe. In her eagerness to get away from Wilson's prying questions earlier, she had left some files she needed in her car.
"Would you stop following me?" she sniped at House over her shoulder.
"Wherever your ass goes, I shall follow," he replied, gaze held firmly on her behind.
"You have clinic hours to do."
"You have my sexual needs to satisfy."
Cuddy rolled her eyes. She stopped suddenly when her eyes landed on a black Prius.
"Is that Anna's car?" she asked no-one in particular. Walking a little closer – House still following like a lost puppy – she was able to read the license plate.
"It is," she said quietly, walking up to it briskly and knocking on the window when she saw Anna inside. But Anna showed no sign of hearing the knock.
"Anna," Cuddy continued, knocking again. She still didn't respond, and that's when Cuddy noticed her spaced out expression and shaking hands in her lap.
Her stomach dropping, Cuddy threw the door open, and Anna's face turned to her weakly. Her eyes were unfocused, her breathing labored and hands trembling uncontrollably.
"Anna?" she said with panic, trying to get her daughter's attention. She grabbed her wrist, checking her pulse.
"Her heart's racing," she said, turning to tell House, but he was on the other side of the car, opening the passenger door.
"My… my chest," Anna murmured, dizziness confusing her.
House picked up both of the ventolin inhalers on the passenger's chair in turn and shook them. "Both empty," he said, holding one puffer up, and Cuddy looked at him with absolute fear in her eyes. "She's overdosed."
Cuddy swallowed, trying to keep her emotions in check as adrenalin pumped through her, heartbeat deafeningly loud in her ears. She clung to her daughter, medical training long forgotten as she stared into Anna's pained face.
"Cuddy," House said, trying to get her attention, "we've got to get her inside before she goes into cardiac arrest."
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A/N: Uh-oh! Anna's ventolin abuse has caught up with her. Only reviews can save her now!
Coming up next… long awaited words are heard, and Emily gets some important information…