ELEVEN

The day had been long and stressful and Cuddy was glad to finally be heading home. At least the team finally solved the case, she thought to herself. She laughed as she realized House had once again been right; putting Cameron in charge had worked out perfectly. Of course, Foreman was pretty pissed, but at least Chase had seemed genuinely happy for his coworker. She checked on their patient one last time to make sure he was stable, and then she headed home.

Twenty minutes later, she was back at her house and ready for a good night's rest. She opened her door, flicked on the lights, and screamed when she saw there was a man lying on her couch. He looked up briefly when he heard the scream, allowing her to see whom it was, and then he put his head back down on the pillow. She let out a noise of frustration as she watched him there, spinning his cane in his hand, looking completely at home.

"You broke into my house?" she shouted angrily at him. He immediately regretted coming over unannounced and really wasn't in the mood to listen to her get angry so he just closed his eyes and said nothing. As soon as he relaxed again, she walked over to him and shoved his feet off of her couch.

"You could at least have the decency to take your shoes off before breaking in to my house and ruining my furniture," she said, livid with anger.

"I thought you were going to hire guards," he snapped back, with a glint of humor in his eyes that made her even more frustrated.

"I didn't think you'd actually break into my house!"

"Well, I guess you don't know me very well than," he replied bluntly, sitting up straight to make room for her to sit beside him on the couch. She just stood over him and glared at him, refusing to sit down.

"This isn't a game, House," she said coolly, the anger boiling up in her when she noticed the corner of his mouth lift up in an almost-smile.

"Really? Because I thought it was, remember? You do something to make me miserable and then I do something to make you miserable. It sounds like a game to me. But see, you thought you were definitely winning, but now, judging by the look on your face right now, I'd say I'm getting a pretty good lead."

"You're unbelievable," she said, letting out a loud sigh of disbelief.

"Well that's what my hookers tell me all the time, but I thought that was just part of their job or something. I guess not," he retorted sarcastically, but she had had enough of their bantering for now and decided to get back to the point.

"Why are you here, House?"

"To make you miserable. I thought we already established that."

"House," she said sternly, like he was a dog that refused to come when he was called.

"Okay fine. I just wanted to see if you could pick me up some more vicodin." He knew it was a pretty lame excuse, but he couldn't think of anything else to say to her at the moment.

"House," she said even more sternly, glaring at him through her icy, blue eyes.

"Okay, okay fine," he said standing up so that their faces were only millimeters apart. He pulled her close and pressed his lips to hers in a gentle, but passionate kiss. She let the anger she was feeling melt away completely and she leaned in to him, deepening the kiss. He brought his lips to her ear, ending the kiss and whispered in her ear.

"Was that a better answer?"

She couldn't help but laugh at his comment and she pulled away from him, looking up to meet his eyes. She crossed her arms over her chest, like she always did when she was determined to win an argument.

"Not quite," she replied with a grin, letting her eyes sparkle at him.