A/N: I am really happy that you like the story thus far. I hope Cuddy revelation didn't upset too many people! Here is the next installment, as always, let me know what you think!

Chapter 3: The Man that Won Cuddy

Friday, 6pm

Cuddy was packing up her office about to head home for the night. It was a Friday, three days after her trip with House to the fun house. She has seen very little of House over the last three days. They had ridden back from the fun house in silence and were basically ignoring each other all week. Cuddy felt horrible but she wasn't sure what to say. She thought about telling House more about Richard because she knew he would find out everything there was to know about him anyway. The weird thing was, he hadn't even asked anything about him. Not even his name. No one else at PPTH knew about him so the only conclusion that Cuddy could make is that he no longer cared. He couldn't her relationship if he didn't know anything about whom she was seeing or when she was seeing him.

Her relationship with Richard had all started about a month after House had left for Mayfield. Cuddy was focusing almost all of her attention on Rachel. She enjoyed spending time with Rachel but deep down she knew that it was a means of coping with the loss of House in her daily life. She had decided to attend a mommy and me class with Rachel during lunch time twice a week. It gave her nanny a little break in the day which was really helpful when Cuddy had to ask her to stay late sometimes. The class was made up of mostly of stay-at-home moms which was really helpful for Cuddy because she finally had people to ask all her parenting questions to. Real people, not internet websites. Rich was the only father in the group and he had pretty much ignored Cuddy after the introduction meeting. She found out later that Rich's wife had recently died from acute myeloid leukemia (at Princeton General, thank god) leaving him with a 2 year old son. Needless to say, he was a little upset with Doctors at the moment.

Over the next few sessions, despite himself, Richard found he had more in common with Cuddy then any of the other women in the class. They were both struggling with the balance of being single parents. Over the summer they had started to meet in the park to allow the little ones to play outside. After a few more weeks that lead to dinner at his place, then hers, and finally a kiss. Cuddy found that she really enjoyed Rich's company and he understood a side of Cuddy that she had no one else to share with. At this point in the relationship they knew a lot about each other but outside of some kissing, they hadn't been intimate yet. Neither of them was prepared to jump into the sac with each other after the loss of his wife, and Cuddy's ultimate need to self-sabotage her relationships.

Cuddy had told Richard about House. Well, the facts a least. They had known each other twenty years ago, had been "romantic" for a brief period in college. He started to work for her after his infarction. Most people thought he was an ass, but Cuddy knew it was a cover for all the pain he had in his life (both emotional and physical). He was one of her best friends and he was currently institutionalized for Vicoden induced hallucinations and she was really worried about him. They were all true facts. She just left out a few of the details so that House didn't pose a threat to their budding relationship.

Cuddy was going to see Rich tonight for the first time all week. They were both so busy that they tried to get together one night a week. Rich was coming over for dinner and she was half tempting to explain the missing details in the House saga. She was actually thinking of preparing both of them for House's eventual disruption later that night. Cuddy was certain House couldn't resist tormenting her on her Friday night date.

Cuddy's House – Midnight

House never came.

Cuddy was lying in bed trying to understand why she was disappointed. I had such a lovely evening with Rich. A little dinner, some wine, time with the kids, and a little physical contact at the end of the night. Why would I want House to ruin that. Why do I still want him to want me. If I care about him, why can't I let him go to heal and live his own life. Why am I thinking about him know instead of Richard?

House Apartment – 3AM

She finally seemed happy so why was he in so much pain.

House had spent the week depressed and in hiding. He didn't want to talk to Wilson about this. He didn't want to talk to Dr. Nolan. He was a smart man, he could figure this out for himself. What he had shared with Cuddy was officially over. Of course, he needed to know more about the man that won Cuddy. He drove past her House every evening since their little fun house rendezvous, he even went so far as to drive his actual car. He was worried she would hear the bike and know it was him. Tonight he saw a car in the driveway. He parked a few houses down the street and walked up to the car. He was about to take down the plate and walk away when he noticed the windows were open. Naturally, he helped himself to the man's registration information from his glove box and had most of the information he needed to begin his search.

When he got back to Wilson's later that evening he sat in front of his computer and googled "Richard Watkins, Princeton, New Jersey." Well, he was either 83 years old and was honored at a banquet in 2005 for his services in the armed forces during the Korean War or he was a 39 year old man who lost his wife of 10 years to Leukemia and was a single father of a boy named Alex. He went with the 39 year old widow.

House didn't have a lot of time to process the information when Wilson came home. He didn't want to share his knowledge with Wilson so he stayed relatively quiet on almost all things until Wilson went to bed. Wilson knew something was up but at least had enough sense to leave him the hell alone.

House had been lying on the couch for a good hour now and he couldn't stop thinking about her. Why didn't I tell her how I really felt about her after we kissed? Why didn't I tell her I wanted try a relationship and that I was just scared? Maybe if I was honest about everything then I wouldn't have fallen so far down the rabbit hole that I ended up in Mayfield. Maybe I could have been at my apartment with her right now, making love to her. Can she really love this Richard guy? I mean, come on. Yeah, he has a kid so he can fill the daddy void but Cuddy is competing with the dead wife! Seriously, only Chase is that stupid.

House realized that he needed to figure out a way to spend some time alone with Cuddy. Halloween was next weekend and the hospital was having a fund raiser masquerade ball. He thought about all the options there but what if Cuddy brought this Rich guy. No, he needed to do something soon. It looked like tomorrow was going to be a busy day.