Sorry guys for the long update! For that small percentage that actually like Cuddy x Thirteen pairings, you've kept this story alive! Thanks so much! Enjoy :)

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The vodka burned on the way down to Thirteen's stomach. It felt wonderful. The first few shots were like this up until she reached half a bottle in less than five minutes. Getting drunk was her way of dealing with things. She needed escape and couldn't rationalize it logically, so she had alcohol to help her. Lexi drove her to the bottle one too many times, and now it was Cuddy's turn. It wasn't anything new.

When Thirteen drank, her problems went away. That's why she did it so frequently. Her issues seemed to just melt away from her mind and everything was great again. It didn't work this time. The more Thirteen drank, the more depressed she became. She was convinced that because of Lexi, Cuddy didn't want to continue. If Lexi didn't call, they would've went all the way! Didn't Lisa want that? Thirteen spoke up in her mind. Didn't she just get done spending the entire night trying to get me to see how she felt? Why the hell take it that far and just pull the plug in the middle of a make-out session? Her being scared is complete bullshit!

For whatever reason that Cuddy decided to break her heart, it was showing. A heaviness unlike anything she had ever felt before came to her chest. It wasn't because of the alcohol. For the first time, Thirteen experienced a feeling of rejection. No one had discarded her before. Back in her picking up girls at bars phase, no one had ever said no to her. Either she went to their place, or she took them back to hers. It was the same when she picked up guys. Thirteen would never let herself get attached because of the fear of being rejected. She would always have one-night stands and that was it. Use 'em and lose 'em. Finally, it was her chance to be used. She fell deeply involved with Lexi and if it weren't for her actually loving Lexi in a way, she would've thrown her out a long time ago. And now she felt feelings for Cuddy. It's just so much easier to perform loveless one-night stands. If she continued to do that, this feeling of horrific dread wouldn't have taken over!

Thirteen tilted her head all the way back and chugged a good chunk of what was left of the vodka.

"Fuck!" she cussed aloud when dizziness overwhelmed her. She had to put the bottle down and press in at her temples to fate the dizziness. It was too much to handle. The room felt it was flopping, even with her eyes closed. Her eyeballs started to move on their own, not helping the situation.

Suddenly, her stomach felt as if someone reached inside and started to squeeze the contents of her organs, making her feel ill. She had just enough time to run to the bathroom and get sick. Thirteen dropped to her knees and emptied her stomach's contents into the toilet. Her throat burned incredibly from the vodka coming back up. It didn't help her head much either, for now the walls started to close in on her. Thirteen didn't have much time to react to almost being flattened by moving walls, for her vision grew fuzzy and it remained that way until everything went black.

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Cuddy tried to go back to her speech. She was more than half way done now once she was able to somewhat concentrate. The time was going on midnight. The clock on the wall confirmed it. She tapped the pen lightly on the desk beside the speech papers and spaced out. Did Thirteen leave? Cuddy didn't have the heart to call her after what happened. It's a wonder Cuddy could even concentrate on the speech! She was too busy berating herself on how she acted. What really helped her to be able let Thirteen walk out of there was the phone call. Or at least that's what Cuddy kept telling herself. It seemed like a good excuse at the time, but it wasn't working anymore. Cuddy was a little jealous that Thirteen had an ex girlfriend that continued to talk to her and call her, but that wasn't her reason for stopping. As much as Cuddy wanted a relationship with Thirteen, she was scared. Thirteen had been with other women before. This was normal to her. Cuddy had never, in her life, been attracted to another woman or had these feelings covering every inch of her body. She figured she would be okay if the time were to come that they started becoming intimate. She started out fine, but when the phone call came, she had time to rethink this. That's when she got it across to Thirteen that she didn't want her. It was a huge lie. Just sitting there and thinking about the way Thirteen kissed her and touched her with so much passion made her want to go back to Thirteen and finish the job. No man had ever made her feel that good. They knew how to get the job done, but Thirteen made sure to show Cuddy her love with every touch and every kiss.

With a sigh, Cuddy snapped herself out of thought and picked up the phone at the desk to call the front desk to ask if Thirteen had checked out. When the front desk said she didn't, Cuddy's eyebrows rose. Maybe she changed her mind. Cuddy hung up the phone and, dressed in a two-piece negligee and housecoat, she left her room to head to Thirteen's. Thirteen probably finished off the entire bottle of vodka and was too wasted to fly home. They wouldn't even let her through the gates of the airport if she was wasted.

Cuddy held her breath when she got to room 119 and knocked lightly. At first, she thought it was too light, for she didn't hear anything going on inside, so she knocked louder. When Thirteen still didn't answer, Cuddy knew something was wrong. With minor trouble, she was able to acquire the room key at the front desk, but with supervision while she used it. Cuddy didn't care who went with her, as long as she was able to get into the room and see if Thirteen was okay.

When the supervisor opened the door, Cuddy flew in first. The first room she went by was the bathroom. There, she saw Thirteen unconscious on her back by the toilet, head lolled to the side.

"Should I call an ambulance?" the supervisor asked, surprised at what she saw.

"No, she'll be okay. I'm a doctor," Cuddy said, kneeling to the floor and taking Thirteen's upper half into her lap. Thirteen smelt heavily of vodka. Cuddy sighed with relief. It wasn't anything serious. She was just passed out.

The supervisor continued to gawk by the door. Cuddy looked over her shoulder at the woman. She dismissed her after that, ushering her out of there quickly, but thanking her. The supervisor left reluctantly, closing the door behind her.

Cuddy let out the breath of air that she was holding before running the backs of her fingers lightly across Thirteen's cheek. A small part of her knew that Thirteen drank herself into this because of her. It made her feel incredibly guilty. She should've stopped her when she took the vodka from the bag in the first place!

"Remy…" Cuddy whispered, brushing the hair free from the young doctor's face. Tears welled up in her eyes. It was heartbreaking to know that she was the main cause of this.

She lightly rubbed her upper arm to gently coax her awake, if she could. "Remy, it's Lisa; I'm here with you…"

Lisa looked at the toilet in front of her, heart sinking. Thirteen overindulged on the vodka. That was obvious, for it now resided in the toilet in front of her in a mostly clear liquid, but also contained traces of an an off-white color. She wanted to forget about her and this was the only way that was fast and easy. She drank enough to the point where she knew she would pass out on an empty stomach. It was easier to deal with things when you weren't awake to deal with them.

Two tears slid evenly down Cuddy's cheeks as this realization played out in her head. She made Thirteen feel like she wasn't loved and made her turn to the bottle.

Carefully, Cuddy stood and took Thirteen up in her arms in a cradling position. She needed to get her out of the bathroom. Cuddy took her to the double bed and gently laid her on top of the blankets. Taking a moist cloth, Cuddy gently cleaned the area around Thirteen's mouth free of any vodka that may be lingering there. After, she took a blanket from the closet and covered Thirteen up. Now, it looked as if she were merely sleeping and could safely be left alone. Be that as it may, Cuddy couldn't find the heart to leave, but if Thirteen woke up and saw her there, who knows what she'll do. They might pick up where they left off just before Thirteen stormed out with the vodka earlier. Cuddy didn't want another argument. She had every reason to leave Thirteen's room and now.

But she didn't.

Instead, Cuddy removed her housecoat and got into bed beside Thirteen, sharing the blanket that she covered her with. She quickly forgot about the unfinished speech waiting for her in her room. Being with Thirteen was more important to her than any MRI scanner, no matter how imperative it was to the hospital.

Cuddy turned off one of the two lamps that were on above the bed and turned over onto her side so she faced Thirteen, who lay comfortingly on her back. Cuddy reached her hand out to lightly graze the surface of Thirteen's hair with her fingertips. Who knew that her Boston trip would turn into this? She would never have even guessed in her wildest dreams that it would come to Thirteen showing up here out of the blue to surprise her and admit she had feelings for her. Cuddy didn't think it would get as far as it did in that area either. Cuddy let her mind go back to that moment up in her room. She had many partners in the past, but never someone like Thirteen. It was wrong for her to overreact the way she did, especially when she was the one who approached her first! This is how Cuddy would make it up to the young woman. She would be by her side tonight, protecting her, as if something bad was after her. Cuddy felt complete when she was with Thirteen and she wished it didn't take what it took for her to realize that. Something lit up in her heart when she looked at Thirteen's face. It wasn't a feeling she's experienced often.

At that point, she knew what she felt for Thirteen was real. Whether their relationship went somewhere or not, Cuddy was just relieved to not be confused or afraid anymore. She smiled as she traced her finger along the outside of Thirteen's face before taking her hand and enlacing their fingers together.

"Goodnight, Remy," she said in a low voice and then kissed the roof of her hand.

She fell asleep shortly after that.

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Thirteen awoke first early the next morning. Along with a sudden headache that gripped her head, she was a little startled by not remembering where she was when she got up. Being in her bed had threw her mind off. The last thing she remembered was going into the bathroom and getting sick. Did she sleepwalk back to her bed?

Maybe not.

Thirteen looked over to see Cuddy laying on her side beside her, facing her direction. Thirteen also took notice that their hands were joined together.

When did Cuddy get in here? How did she get in here? Why did she come in here? Thirteen wasn't really in the best shape mentally to start thinking now. It would only make her headache worse. For what she could remember, Cuddy definitely wasn't in here when she started drinking and her door was certainly locked. So how is it Cuddy came to her, dressed in night clothes, and looking as if she were here for a sleepover? Maybe she came up to apologize or something and when she didn't answer the door, Cuddy found a way in. Thirteen found that answer to be the most plausible right now. Either way, the love of her life was laying beside her, in her bed, holding her hand.

Thirteen tried her best to turn onto her side to face Cuddy without awaking her. Cuddy didn't so much as stir in her sleep, which was good. Thirteen forgot about her headache and focused on Cuddy. She smiled. Her disappointment and sudden dislike for Cuddy that happened the night before melted away with her lying next to her. She figured Cuddy would only be here right now if she cared for her. Maybe it was her way of apologizing. Thirteen didn't know. What she did know is that no matter who you are, when you're with the person that you love, there's no other emotion like it. You feel like you're on a cloud. That's how Thirteen felt. She wished this moment would never end. She wanted to stay like this forever, just staring at Cuddy's beautiful sleeping face. Since it was too late to go back to sleep now, for Cuddy's internal clock would be waking her up soon, Thirteen used the time to take in this moment. She listened to Cuddy's slow, steady breathing through her nose for about five minutes. The time was going on eight when Thirteen knew this moment had to end. She lightly brushed the backs of her fingers down Cuddy's cheek. Even in the morning, her skin was soft and smooth and the rays from the sun that peered through the window illuminated her face so beautifully. Thirteen hated to wake her. She just wanted this moment to go on forever, laying beside Cuddy.

"Lisa…" she whispered so she wouldn't startle Cuddy.

Cuddy's eyes fluttered open after that. A smile came to her face immediately while she worked on keeping her eyes open. It always took her a moment to wake up.

"Hey…" she said tiredly. "Did you sleep okay?"

"I think so. I was unconscious, so maybe."

Lisa chuckled, but it was mostly made up of air. She propped herself up onto her elbow. "Well, I'm glad. I hope you don't mind that I slept here last night. I didn't want to leave you." Cuddy's eyes were now open fully without stinging, but her voice was still a little tired.

"A part of me was hoping you would come to me. I knew you would in your own time."

"I'm glad you didn't go back home last night."

"I wasn't planning to. I only said it because I was mad. I was going to go home with you, whether you liked it or not," Thirteen said, following a smile.

Cuddy smiled, reaching her hand out to touch Thirteen's face. Thirteen covered Cuddy's hand at her face with her own and then brought it to her mouth and kissed it.

"We should get up," Thirteen said.

"Why?" Cuddy asked, not moving. "We have all morning. The speech in the conference hall doesn't start until noon and then after that, I have a flight scheduled to go home at two. This is the only chance we'll have to be alone without House or someone interfering."

Thirteen smiled. "You're right, as always. Hungry?" she asked, getting out of bed a little too fast, for her head started spinning, causing her to lose her balance a bit. She groaned and threw her hand to her forehead. This caused a concerned look from Cuddy.

"Are you okay?" she asked, sitting up.

Thirteen, sighing, nodded. "Yeah. Nothing a warm shower won't cure. Hangovers are a bitch. Suddenly I don't feel so hungry."

Cuddy smiled a smile of sympathy as Thirteen groaned all the way to the bathroom. She guessed Thirteen would most likely be getting sick again and felt bad for her. At least she would be okay. This was normal after a night of binging.

When she heard the shower start up, Cuddy left the room to head back to hers. She would only be there to take a shower of her own and get dressed into clean clothes. After, she planned to go back down to Thirteen's room for the morning. Maybe she could help her write the rest of her speech. It's a good credible excuse to spend time with her.

When she was done doing what she had to do in the bathroom, she stepped out into the room to grab the speech that was still laying on the desk, as well as her cell phone. She flipped it open to see if she had any messages. To her surprise, she had five missed calls. Not to her surprise, they were all from House.

"What is he doing up so early?" Cuddy muttered to herself and pushed the send button to call him back. The calls ranged from 8:00 to 8:02 this morning, no more than ten minutes ago.

House picked up two rings later, speaking in a bleary, tired voice.

"Whoever this is, how dare you call me so early in the morning." House sounded pleasant, as always.

"You called me first, moron," Cuddy said, suddenly wishing she didn't call him back. It was probably just a pointless reason for calling anyway. It happens a lot when he's bored.

"Wow…dreams do come true. I had one where I called you five times and you didn't pick up. Who knew."

"House, do you have a point?"

"Yes…I do…somewhere. Why? Did you need to borrow it?"

Cuddy rolled her eyes. "Why did you call me?"

"To ask what you were wearing and then ask you nicely if you'll take it off so we can have phone sex. Something came up this morning."

"House!" Cuddy exclaimed, a tad disgusted, but since it was House, she was used to it and it didn't catch her that much off guard. If it was anyone else, the phone would be hung up right now. She expected something like this from House.

"Cuddyyyy!" House exclaimed back, whining a bit.

"Even this early in the morning, you're a pig," Cuddy groaned, grabbing up the speech on her desk.

"Are you going to start taking off your clothes first or should I?"

"House, I'm not having phone sex with you," she said flatly, grabbing a nearby pen and scratching out a line on the speech to fill it in with something better she thought of suddenly. "If that's the only reason you called, I'm hanging up now."

"But you called me!" House protested childishly.

Cuddy sighed heavily. "Because you called me, five times, and no it wasn't a dream. I find it respectful to return calls, even if the person is a complete ass."

"Why didn't you answer your phone anyway? Did you find some hot guy to shack up with last night?"

"I was sleeping in. And even if I wasn't, my ringer was off," Cuddy said, which wasn't a total lie.

"Cuddy, your ringer is never off because your job is practically around the clock, even out of state. They need a way to contact you. You also never leave it out of your sight. My guess is that you left the phone in your hotel room and slept in another. Now, I wonder who you could've slept with last night."

House noisily pondered while Cuddy slapped her hand over her forehead. She could never hide anything from him, even almost three hundred miles away!

"Fine, House, you want the truth? I went to the gym this morning and left my phone behind. Feel better now?"

"Nope," House said simply. "Cause I know it's not true."

"How could you possibly know that?"

"I've known you longer than anyone you know, Cuddy, I can tell when you're lying. Now the more important question is…who did you spend the night with? Was it Thirteen? Did she perform the storybook romance and fly to another state just to be with the love of her life?"

He was going to stay on the phone until she confessed.

"You're fighting a losing battle, House. Even if I did sleep with someone last night, I wouldn't tell you who it was. I at least want to keep some things in my life personal without you knowing about it."

"Wow…all this talk about you sleeping with Thirteen has really gotten me going. Enough foreplay, let's do it."

"No!" Cuddy exclaimed loudly.

House groaned. "Oh well don't make it sound so bad. I'm actually quite good at it."

"Too much information," Cuddy said. She didn't want to know how good House was at phone sex, nor how much money he spends on that sort of thing with his hookers. Although, a smile did tug at the corner of her mouth. She couldn't help it. House was just so persistent sometimes that his determination made her smile. Too bad he couldn't put that determination to good use half the time!

"That's not what you said twenty years ago when I whisked you off to my lair, a.k.a. my dorm room, and had a night of flaming passion."

"You only took me away so I wouldn't make out with Joe what's-his-face at the party. You always had a habit of pulling me away whenever I was talking to someone of the opposite sex."

"You were my girl. I was jealous."

"I was not your girl, House, but yes, you were very jealous."

House chuckled, and fell quiet for a moment. "How come we never got together?" he asked, sounding serious.

"Because you were an arrogant bastard and I was a shy med student," Cuddy said, laughing a little towards the end of the sentence.

House scoffed. "Shy my ass. You were over every guy in school like bees on honey…if that makes sense."

"I was not!" Cuddy exclaimed.

"If I remember correctly, and I know I do, I pulled you away at least three times a day. And those are just the times I knew about."

"House, I really don't want to talk about this right now," she said, not wanting to get into the details of what happened at Michigan.

"Okay then, pick a topic to talk about…unless of course you can't because someone is waiting somewhere for you."

"No one is waiting for me and no I don't want to talk to you anymore. I have a speech to finish for the committee this afternoon."

"You're not hanging up until we have phone sex," he said, and let out a small hum. "What are you wearing?"

"Clothes. Goodbye House, see you when I get back." Cuddy hung up the phone before he could say anything else. She sighed heavily. He was so damn relentless! Does he know that Thirteen flew here? If she doesn't show up for work this morning, House is going to know right away that something was up. His fellows usually came in at nine. If Thirteen left now, she'd never make it back in time. Cuddy wasn't ready to let everyone know about her and Thirteen, especially House. He would have a field day with it! He already was having a field day with it and didn't know if it were true!

Cuddy decided to wait until the time came. She felt a connection to Thirteen to make her feel that this was all worth it.

It been forever since Cuddy had the feeling of being in love swim through her body that she almost forgot what it felt like. She was almost sure that what she felt for Thirteen was love. If not, it was something damn close to it.

Wearing a smile, Cuddy collected her things and went to take a shower.

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Thirteen got out of the shower feeling almost a hundred percent better. Her head still throbbed, but that was expected. At least she wasn't getting sick anymore.

She stepped out into the room to take the turban out of her hair and towel dry her hair when her phone rang in the middle of the process. She managed to towel dry her hair, but didn't brush it, so it stuck up in every direction.

Thirteen reached for her phone and saw it was Lexi. Thirteen disliked her for a different reason now. Thanks to Lexi, Thirteen almost lost Cuddy. What did she want to take this time?

"Hello?" Thirteen asked, definite signs of annoyance in her voice.

"Where are you?" Lexi asked right away.

"None of your business, like I told you yesterday when you called a second time."

"You were drunk then."

"No thanks to you," Thirteen muttered.

"What?" Lexi asked, only hearing mumbles.

"Nothing. Look, I'm about to head into work. Do you want something or did you just bother me for the hell of it?" Thirteen grabbed a brush from the desk and ran it easily through her hair. She put her phone on speaker and set it on the desk. She wished she could hang up all together.

"No, I want to talk to you. I said I wanted to talk to you yesterday, but nothing ever gets through to you when you're drunk. You don't get drunk unless something really bothers you. Only someone that loves you would know that."

"What are you saying?" Thirteen asked, rolling her eyes.

"I'm saying I think you treated me unfairly when you broke up with me for no reason."

"No reason?! Lexi, you cheated on me."

"No I didn't! I only went there to hang out. We're still friends! Just because we don't date anymore doesn't mean we can't be friends!"

"It wasn't only that. You only came to me if you wanted sex. I'm sorry but I need more in life than just that."

Lexi scoffed. "Oh great, blame it on the sex. You looked pretty damn into it and never told me no, so stop making this my fault. You only broke up with me because you had a thing for your boss. Yeah, I'm sure she can make all your dreams come true," Lexi said, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"What would you say if I said she already has? Huh? What do you think you interrupted yesterday when you called?"

"You better not have slept with her!" Lexi was furious. It made Thirteen smile on the inside. She was jealous!

"You're just jealous that you could never amount to Lisa. We may have not slept together, but we spent the night in bed together and it was wonderful. I'm sorry Lexi, but it's over between us. Grow up and stop calling me."

Thirteen was about to end the call when Lexi's shouting was so loud that it vibrated the phone while it was in her hand.

"It isn't over!" she yelled. "Mark my words, Remy, it's not over! You know I mean it when I say that. Really, I wouldn't want anything to happen to Lisa because you were too selfish to break up with me. I really don't want this to be in her name."

Thirteen knew that Lexi was crazy enough to do whatever was plotting in her mind. It made her ill to know she could fall in love with someone like that. She fell in love with Lexi knowing she had a record. Lexi had been arrested twice – once for assault and the other for possession of drugs. She was only twenty-nine and of those twenty-nine years, she spent fifteen of them either locked up or on probation. The assault charge was on her ex-girlfriend's new lover. As righteous as Thirteen is, she knew people deserved another chance. That's why she didn't break it off with Lexi, but in the months that followed, Lexi became very motherly of Thirteen and made her choices for her. She also wouldn't take no for an answer when she invited herself over to her apartment every night, looking for some hot action. Basically, Thirteen was smothered and didn't have a way out.

Then comes the phone call she's been waiting for—a chance to start working at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. The first time she saw Cuddy was on the first day of what would be the start of a long interview, standing in the doorway as House wanted to diagnose Buddy Ebsen. All it took was one look at the woman in the doorway to start develop feelings. And now that these feelings have grown stronger, it angered her that Lexi could even have the nerve to threaten her!

"Stay away from Lisa," Thirteen warned, jaw clenched.

"I'll be in touch," Lexi said, hanging up.

Thirteen disconnected her end and lightly drove a fist onto the surface of the desk. If Lexi was crazy enough to go after her ex-girlfriend's new lover, Thirteen knew she would go after Lisa. "Son of a bitch," Thirteen cussed under her breath. How would she be able to tell Cuddy that her psycho ex was after her?

She wasn't. At least not right now. It feels like it took a lifetime to get Cuddy. She wasn't about to drive her away with the knowledge that her ex is psychotic. If the time came when Lexi surfaced in their lives, she would do something then.

Just then, her cell phone rang again. Thirteen cringed, thinking it was Lexi. She was relieved when it wasn't.

It was Cuddy, asking her to breakfast in the hotel restaurant. After what just went on, Thirteen was anything but hungry. She was more high-strung now. But she didn't decline the offer. She wouldn't pass up the chance to be with Cuddy.

Thirteen got dressed and left the room with a smile on her face.