A/N: Hi everyone. First of all I feel like I have some explaining to do. The thing is that I posted the first chapter as a one-shot, and when I decided to continue I had to make a few changes in the first chapter, and being tired and irritated I accidentally deleted the entire story instead of the chapter. So I had to post the first chapter and the second chapter as a new story. So I feel horrible about those who took their time to review the first chapter. Thanks to your encouragement I decided to continue. So big thank you to:
IHeartHouseCuddy, lin12344, huddysmyvicodin, Alex, Asia, Abby, HuddyGirl, JLCH, red blood, bigboss, berenice, minkia, newdayz.
You guys rock.
I'm sorry if I'm forgetting anyone. If I am please let me know!
Also I want to add to those who liked the mystery of the one-shot and don't like me continuing with this don't feel obligated to continue to read if you don't want to. I'm not only writing it for those who asked for more because I already had an idea in my head what would happen, so I'm not forced to write this just because people requested more.
I wish I could have made this chapter longer, but I had my wisdom teeth taken out, so I've been staying in bed with a swollen cheek, but I hope that I can update the next chapter sooner.
This author's note is way too long, but I wanted to give my thanks. And as always thank you to those who have reviewed, favorited, and alerted this story.
"Dr. Cuddy? Are you listening to me?"
Cuddy blinked and looked at the man sitting before her. Her mind had been elsewhere the entire day, and the long hour meetings with plausible donors for the pediatric wing made her already ill mood worse.
Her current meeting was with Mr. James Brightman, the owner of a medical equipment company. Mr. Brightman was a serious, brooding man who was easily displeased, and he was absolutely the last person she wanted to talk to in the condition she was in. She was actually starting to wish that she had listened to House and stayed home, but it was too late and she had to close the deal.
"Of course." She said fleetingly and tried to focus on what the man had to say.
He looked at her displeasingly but didn't say anything and continued to discuss the potential profit he had in donating to the hospital.
She leaned in her seat and tried to think of anything else than her discomfort.
"So it begs the question why should I donate to you rather than a hospital like Princeton General? I hear that you get more donors a year than they do in several years."
He clasped his hands together and studied her under his critical gaze. She avoided the queasy feeling in her throat and started to explain the sheer quality they had to offer than Princeton General. She was explaining their research work, and the importance the new wing would have as a teaching base as much as providing the best quality for the patients, when she suddenly felt like the room was spinning. She stopped talking and closed her eyes briefly so the spinning would stop.
"Dr. Cuuuuu…" Mr. Brightman's voice became discarded, and the tiny dots before her eyes were turning to darkness. Then a tiny voice in her head reminded her of the importance of the meeting and she managed somehow to hold consciousness.
"I'm sorry Mr. Brightman." She muttered faintly. Her vision had cleared and she tried to take a deep breath.
"Am I boring you?" He said aggravated. "Because I'm about to walk out of this office and never come back if you keep this charade on."
Cuddy wanted to scream at that man's endless stupidity. Couldn't he see that she was about to pass out? She could only imagine how she looked like, but by her appearance that morning she was sure that it was not a good sight to behold.
But she managed to hold her tongue and tried to smile pleasantly.
"I'm sorry Mr. Brightman I'm not at my best right now. I was sick this weekend so you must excuse me."
He didn't answer her and looked at her almost boringly.
She tried to count to ten in her mind and gave him a confident smile.
"Why wont we take a tour of the wing?"
"I wouldn't expect anything else." He said gruffly and stood up.
She stood up from the chair and could feel the room spin around her. She grasped the edge of the table to hold balance and when she opened her eyes again she could see his frozen gaze on her. Timidly she walked past him, as confidently as she could muster, and led him to the pediatric wing.
She introduced him to the staff, and told him about their plans for the wing. Finally when the tour was over she managed to convince him to make his donation and with one last firm handshake he walked out of the hospital.
She breathed a sigh of relief and walked into her office and sat down tiredly. She could feel her stomach grumble but she knew that she would only throw it all up and she was not going to make a scene at her hospital. Instead she ignored it and continued her work. After about thirty minutes of no concentration she heard the door to her office open.
In walked her newest assistant, a horribly green but nice girl named Amanda. Unfortunately she was not persistent enough to challenge House, which was a necessary quality when it came to being the Dean's assistant, but she was sweet and did her work well. Too bad House had too much fun in scaring her out of her job.
She walked shakily into the office and handed her few notes.
"These are from the board, and this is from Dr. Longworth. Oh and Dr. House called, and said it was urgent." She blushed when she mentioned his name.
"Anything else?"
"No." She shook her head and headed out of the office.
She went through some of the papers and decided to go to the fourth floor to see what shenanigans House had gotten himself into now.
When she came up to House's office she noted with relief that it hadn't blown up, or something worse. In fact it was much calmer than usual, he sat in his office working on his computer while the Team sat in the outer office chatting merrily. Actually it was too quiet. Suspiciously she walked into his office and waited for it.
House looked up and frowned.
"God you look horrible."
"Thank you, just what every woman wants to hear."
"Come here." He said and gestured her to come to him.
She folded her arms and sighed tiredly.
"What do you want?"
"Just come here." He said demandingly.
She obliged him and walked over to his office chair, turning her back to the outer office. He rolled his eyes and patted his knee gesturing her to sit. She looked at him skeptically. He didn't like to show off in public, and even such a simple gesture like sitting on his knee would be too cuddly even for him. Sometimes she really didn't understand that man.
"What do you want House? I don't have time for your games." She muttered tiredly.
"I'm not playing any games." He insisted and grabbed her hand and dragged her easily towards him. She looked quickly at the outer office and saw that the Team had their attention elsewhere. She decided to forget public appearances for a few minutes and sat on his good knee, and leaned into his chest.
"My assistant told me that it was urgent."
"This is urgent. I knew you wouldn't come up here unless you had to."
"Hmm I guess you're right." She muttered and closed her eyes briefly, enjoying the quiet of his office. She felt his warm hand touch her forehead momentarily.
"You have a fever." He muttered.
"I'm fine." She insisted lazily.
"You sure don't look fine." He mimicked her voice for emphasis.
"Oh please just shut up. I'm fine."
"Then why are you all pale and sweaty?"
"I'm not sweaty." She felt like she could pass out then and there and she barely managed to mumble out the words. She felt so secure in his strong arms that she didn't care if anyone walked in right now.
She felt his hand stroke her hair from her face, a simple yet loving gesture. House was so rarely like this, and she kind of liked that side of him. It had surprised her, when they first began to date, how caring he actually was able to be.
She realized when she had jumped into the deep end that was their relationship, that she was risking many things, and that their relationship would never be normal, but that was a part of the excitement that followed being with him.
She had kind of expected that it would never last, and she knew that he did too, but for some miracle they were reaching their one-year anniversary, and she only prayed that it would last. The last couple of weeks had nearly destroyed it for them, and they hadn't quite sorted it out, not entirely. But she felt too tired and worn out to deal with it now, so she decided to bury her fears and disappointment in a little shelf in her head and enjoyed the soft feeling of him against her. Other things could wait.
She could feel herself drift off when the sound of the office door opening made her almost jump up from the chair. She was relieved that it was merely Foreman, but he seemed awkward enough.
"Yes?" House asked inquiringly. Cuddy still sitting on his leg tried to stand up but his arms pinned her down so she could barely move, she could feel the heat rise in her cheeks but she decided that it would appear even more awkward if she tried to wriggle herself out of his embrace. Instead she tried to look as neutral as possible, even though she felt like her superiority had decreased considerably these few minutes.
Foreman cleared his throat and addressed House.
"Uh, we have the test results back."
She saw that his eyes had moved to her, and he looked uncomfortably from her to House.
"And?" House snapped. Foreman jumped up, and handed him an x-ray image.
"You see the tumor there?" He tapped with his finger on the corner of the radiograph.
House nodded his head ponderingly.
"Yeah. Notify the patient."
Foreman nodded his head and grabbed the radiograph before heading out of the office. He took a one last glance before he turned around the corner.
Cuddy exhaled and tried to scramble out of his embrace, but he held her in place and kissed her cheek lightly before whispering in her ear.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"I'm trying to leave." She whispered.
"Why?"
"Oh common this must be killing you. I'm fine, really, you don't have to act all worried."
He looked at her oddly then shook his head.
"I'm not acting."
"But…you hate any display of affection…Oh." She suddenly sighed. "You're trying to make up for that week." She sighed and cupped his cheeks with her hands.
"Don't feel obligated to make up for anything. I made a mistake too." She brushed her thumb against his cheek and leaned in for a sweet kiss.
He smiled slightly and grabbed her for a deeper kiss then looked at her straight in the eyes.
"I'm not making up for anything. I'm really worried about you."
"I'm fine." She assured him.
"Have you looked at yourself in the mirror? You're sick, go home, I'll make sure that no one will burn down the hospital."
"Huh, yeah right." She laughed, and stood up from his embrace. This time he allowed her to go.
"Thank you for the offer but I think I'll pass."
"Fine. But this is a chance I won't be offering again."
She smiled at him and opened the door before she turned around.
"See you later?"
"Yeah."
She actually felt a lot better after the visit, the dizziness being almost gone, so she managed to do some actual work.
Of course her content was easily replaced with frustration when she was paged to exam room 3 where her newest employee had nearly poisoned a 60 year old with too high dosage of Levothyroxine.
Dr. Saunders was a Harvard graduate and had a spotless résumé but it turned out that he was a dysfunctional doctor in every way. He gave wrong dosages, and medicine to patients, plus being a highly arrogant and narcissistic. Even though she was used to that breed she knew talent when she saw it, and that doctor had none. She had tolerated House because he was the best doctor she knew, and his horrible manners and snide remarks towards her were easily ignored when he made some brilliant medical discoveries. But she knew that Dr. Saunders wasn't going to do so.
She barged into the clinic and into exam room 3 where Dr. Saunders stood beside a very alarmed woman. She stormed immediately to her and pointed accusingly at her.
"I demand that you fire that irresponsible doctor he almost killed me."
"Umm. I'm sorry but what exactly is the problem?" She tried to keep calm.
"That…demon doctor prescribed me the wrong dosage. I could have died." She yelled.
"Ma'am I'm asking you to keep calm. Can I see the prescription note?"
The woman opened her purse and handed her the piece of paper. Cuddy scanned it quickly then looked at Dr. Saunders angrily.
"Dr. Saunders go to my office, and wait there for my return."
He looked at her irritably but didn't say anything and stepped out of the exam room.
"I'm so sorry. I will make sure that this will never happen again."
"You better be hon." She said frustratingly and flung her purse on her arm.
"I'll contact another doctor to prescribe your medicine, Dr. Wilson is one of our best."
"I don't get the best?" She piped up.
Cuddy wanted to remark that the best one would not be the best choice but she bit her tongue and tried to conjure up her kindest smile.
"Trust me, you wont be disappointed with Dr. Wilson."
"Fine." The woman sighed and walked out of the exam room.
Cuddy sighed, and tried to control the dizziness that had returned. She stepped out of the room and was about to head to her office when she stopped in he tracks by the sight that appeared in front of her.
Dr. Saunders stood by the nurse station chatting lively with nurse Adams, a chatty little thing that was rumored to have slept with half the doctor's team in the building. She stormed up to them and slammed the file she was holding onto the table.
"Didn't I just tell you to wait in my office? I do not tolerate such indecency towards me or any of your superiors."
Nurse Adams paled up and excused herself. Dr. Saunders however turned towards her angrily and put his hands on his waist.
"That's funny cause last time I checked you've been screwing the guy who's been talking trash about you behind your back."
"My office now." She said lowly. He smirked arrogantly but followed her into her office.
She turned around and tried to remain level headed. She pinched the bridge of her nose and regarded him coolly.
"Dr. Saunders I don't know whether you decipher the severity of your actions." He shrugged his shoulders, and smirked.
"What are you going to do? Fire me?"
"I will do so if you wont rethink your actions and act like a responsible human being. You are a relatively new employee here and I expect that my employees do their jobs and do it well, so far you're not living up to my expectations."
"You wont fire me. My uncle is on the hospital board and if you'll fire me he'll make sure that you wont
She wanted so badly to just fire him right then and there, but she was a professional and personal opinions were not supposed to cloud her mind. Instead she remained cool and sure.
"Dr. Saunders I do not tolerate threats, and just to make it clear it is I not your uncle who decides who stays in or out of this hospital. If you wont do as I say I will make sure that you wont come near this hospital again. Am I understood?"
The smirk fell off his lips; instead it turned into a nasty scowl. He glared at her displeasingly then turned around and left the office.
She let out a sigh of relief. Suddenly she felt a huge wave of dizziness overcome her. Her head was spinning, and she barely managed grip the edge of her desk. Her vision blurred and every sound faded in her ears. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, but this time the spinning didn't cease. Everything turned black and she felt her legs buckle under her. She barely held consciousness when her body hit the floor. The last thing she heard was someone yelling her name before she fell into the pitch-black darkness of unconsciousness.