Chapter 2 - Halo-halo

"Gaano na kayo katagal na magkakilala?" She asked him, placing a hand on his shoulder and handing him a paper bag on one of those endless nights.

How long have your been together?

None used to touch him. None used to put their hand on his shoulder. Never. Well, not in his side of the ocean. But there he wasn't in his side of the ocean. He was practically on the other side of the world. 13 hours of time zone. Another world. And in a sense... another life ...

"Ahm... nagkakilala kami noong kami ay nasa kolehiyo" He replied without looking at her, after a moment of hesitation, then looking up at her nod before opening the paper bag, peeking suspiciously into it.

Um... we met in College.

Nurse Helen. A stranger. She had brought him a serving of halo-halo that evening, before starting her night shift. A sort of snow cone. Crushed ice mixed with candies and fruit and covered with evaporated milk. It reminded him of his childhood. That was the taste of his childhood. That tongue was the sound of his childhood.

And she reminded him of Marites... his mother's maid during the years he had lived in the Philippines. How many time he had spent with her as his parents were out!

He couldn't tell her the truth and risk being thrown out of that room. But he didn't know why... in a way he didn't want to lie to her...

Helen had kept him company, stopping in that room from time to time, whenever she could, especially in the long hours of the night.

Twelve long days. Twelve endless nights.

...

"Welcome back ..." a nurse in her East Asian-accent English said, resting a hand on her arm as she tried with difficulty to keep her eyes open... failing in it...

She closed them again, running her tongue on her lips.

Sounds... light... colors.

Where was she? What happened?

"Do you know your name?" She asked her.

She hesitated. She inhaled and exhaled slowly and no other sound came out of her mouth. She felt so weak that she could barely move her lips "... Lisa ..." she whispered, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath still trying to find the strength to articulate at least even her last name in addition to her first name, but failing again...

"Good" She replied, smiling "It's ok. Don't try to talk... just rest. Your husband is here..."

She had no time to reply. And she wouldn't still have the strength to do it.

Husband?

She didn't remember anything. She didn't know where she was. She didn't know why she was there. But... she felt too weak. Too weak even to process that information. She could be there for a minute or days. Months, as far as she knew. The last thing she remembered was... House. No, not him... his voice calling her name... or maybe not... She remembered a voice calling her name... Lisa ... but House never called her by her first name... sometimes she almost thought that if it wasn't for that LISA CUDDY written in capital letters on her office door, he wouldn't even remember her first name.

...

She felt like she was drunk. Very drunk. Her mind was so confused... thousands of thoughts swirling inside her skull... clouded thoughts...

Memories... or dreams... the first ones mixing with the other ones...

A hand on hers made her open her eyes.

"Hey" He said, squeezing her hand slightly and then stroking it with his thumb "How are you feeling?"

She briefly opened her eyes meeting the blue of his, but she didn't answer. She inhaled as if to say something, but she couldn't articulate any words. She just exhaled slowly and that was the only sound that came from her lips, as she closed her eyes again, too weak even to keep her eyes open.

"Don't worry..." he said, still stroking her hand with his thumb "I'm here..."

She didn't open her eyes, just savoring his touch.

It wasn't real. It couldn't be real. And it was all so clouded and hazy...

But she didn't want to open her eyes. If she opened them she would have been alone. In that bed. And there wouldn't have been a man holding her hand and whispering her that reassuring 'I'm here'...

Maybe it was the effect of the drugs. Or perhaps the very reason why she was in that hospital. God! She couldn't remember anything. What she knew was that her mind was completely clouded. She felt like she was perpetually on the line between sleep and wakefulness... The reality mingled with dreams.. She didn't feel pain. She felt nothing. And she wasn't scared. She was too weak even for being scared.

...

She opened her eyes after what again could be only a few minutes or days, as far as she knew...

The room took shape slowly as if the cloud in which it was slowly dissipate. She looked at her own arm. At the needle in her vein. At the drop that slowly went down along the tube. And at the hospital band on her wrist. Not the Princeton-Plainsboro one. She could hear the monitor beeps that monitored her vital functions.

What was that place? An intensive care unit?

She slightly moved her fingers... almost to be sure that they were hers. She could move them but she felt still so weak that she could barely do it.

The hand.

She didn't remember anything. But she remembered that hand.

And there was no more that hand holding hers.

She didn't turn her head to have a proof of that. She didn't need to do it. She didn't turn her head even toward the voice coming from across the room... probably a doctor discussing with someone else on the doorway... in a language she didn't know.

Only one word caught her attention.

"Salamat"

Not that word in itself. She doesn't know the meaning of that word. But she knew that voice.

She slowly turned her head as the world spun and a wave of nausea closed her stomach.

"Hey... it looks like you're looking at a ghost" the same voice said, looking into her eyes as she weakly smiled.

"H-House..." she whispered, then exhaling slowly and trying to moisten her lips with her tongue.

"One point for your neurological test!" He said, smiling and looking into her eyes as he put a glass of water near her lips.

"W-what...?" She whispered as he put the glass back on the bedside table "W-what happened?"

House sat down beside her.

"The flight from Singapore. Do you remember it?" He asked looking at her as she nodded.

"We're in Manila. In the Philippines. I said the pilot to turn around. You've been here for twelve days" he said, looking at her as her eyes opened wide "We have been here for twelve days" he pointed out with a slight smile.

"You're stable now. Peng wasn't as lucky as you" he said, looking as she nodded, closing her eyes for a moment as pieces of memories came back into her mind.

She opened her eyes again and the look on House's face caught her off guard. What was that? Fear?

The images in her mind suddenly became clear while she remembered his hand on her forehead and wrist. That look in his eyes... it wasn't fear. It was terror.

She could remember the sound of his voice. She had never heard his voice to tremble. Never... except on that flight...

Cuddy... breathe!... look at me, Cuddy, look at me...

She had tried not to close her eyes, but suddenly all had became dark...

The blue of his eyes was the last thing she remembered of that flight.

And his voice.

Cuddy, come on... Cuddy, don't do this... you can't do this to me...

... Come on, Lisa...

"Next time you want to get my attention, Cuddy..." he said making her open her eyes again "... Just put on a very low-cut top!" He said with a smile and a mischievous look, watching her while a weak smile appeared on her lips and she bit her lip, then nodding slightly.

...

Cuddy was reconnected to reality by the ring of a phone. The soundtrack of Star Wars could just be from House's phone.

"Jimmy! I'm honored to be your first thought in the morning!" He said into the receiver looking at his watch and standing up, rubbing his leg "I'm sorry to break your heart, but it's not you my last thought at night" he added as he limped toward the door hearing Wilson snort from the other end of the receiver.

Cuddy opened her eyes and looked at House's back as he left the room and disappeared through the door. She turned her head slightly toward the armchair on which he sat until a moment before. A magazine and a couple of books rested on the floor beside the armchair, together with his glasses and what was probably a now-empty paper cup of coffee.

Does the Earth spun backward in this side of the world or was Gregory House really by her bed while she was asleep?

She watched him as he walked back into the room looking at the phone screen and then looking up at her, meeting her eyes just in that moment.

"Sorry..." he said staring at her "Did I wake you?"

Cuddy shook her head slightly and smiled.

"I thought of meeting Obi-Wan Kenobi" she whispered still articulating with a bit of difficulty those words "... but I'll settle for a certain diagnostician" she added, looking at him as he smiled and rested the phone on her nightstand.

Really? No sexual jokes about... I don't know ... a lightsaber? God, she unwittingly had served him that joke on a silver platter ...

He looked at her with a raised eyebrow almost reading her mind.

"Are you a fan of blue-eyed British actors, or were you rather interested in his lightsaber, Cuddy?" He said with a mischievous look.

She smiled and shook her head.

Oh, well, ok! Now I recognize you! She thought, closing her eyes briefly and reopening them, looking at him again.

"Are you feeling better?" He asked looking at her with a completely different look from the one with which he had looked at her just a second before.

"I don't know what's in here" she said in a low voice, smiling and slightly raising the arm where the IV needle was "...whatever it is... it's wonderful" she said, smiling again.

"I take that as a yes" he said looking into her eyes. She still was weak, but the fact that she didn't answer anymore just in monosyllables was already a very good sign.

They were both distracted by a nurse who entered the room.

She said a few words to House. In Tagalog. And then she looked at her smiling.

"Kung ganun, ang suwerte ninyong dalawa... Ikaw ay may mabuting asawa..."

"What did she say?" She asked looking at the nurse as she left the room.

"That..." he shook his head "... I'm not sure you want to know" he said failing to hold back a laugh.

Cuddy looked at him with a questioning look.

"House?" She whispered, staring at him as she generally stared at him in hospital, in her hospital, when she expected something very inappropriate from him.

House laughed, shaking his head.

"That we've been lucky and that... I really have a beautiful wife" he said looking at her as her eyes opened wide.

"W-wife?" She asked, looking into his eyes.

House laughed again.

"Don't worry, you don't have a memory lapse!" He laughed watching the look in her eyes "... she and the other ones here think you're my wife..." he laughed again "Well... actually I told them that you're my wife..." he pointed out watching as she closed her eyes.

That 'your husband is here' ... it wasn't a dream... but... if that wasn't a dream so... not even his hand holding her was...

She opened her eyes again. She was still too weak to argue, but she wouldn't anyway. The look in his eyes caught her of guard again. And even his hand that squeezed hers again, though this time only for a second.

"I'm an asshole, Cuddy ... but not so much to leave you alone in this place" he said seriously looking at her while she bit her lip "And at that time it was the first thing that came to my mind" he added, easing the tension with a short laugh.

"Thank you..." she whispered with the hint of a smile.

"Don't thank me, Cuddy" he said, laughing "I took the opportunity to peek a couple of times under your hospital gown" he added, still laughing and watching her as she shook her head and couldn't help but smile at his way of always playing down everything."

"Just ... a couple?" She asked, smiling and teasing him.

"Make it three" he said laughing "But ..." he looked at her with a very mischievous look.

Cuddy held his gaze, obviously waiting for his next joke.

"I didn't think you were a full-Brazilian type, Cuddy! I was rather thinking to a French wax or... I don't know... something more natural, I'm an old-fashioned guy" he said, laughing, watching her as she smiled and shook her head slightly, though suddenly closing her eyes to the dizziness that movement caused her.

"Hey..." he said touching her arm "Are you ok?" He asked as his voice betrayed his concern.

"Er... yes" she replied with a faint smile opening her eyes to look at him.

"I was joking..." he said smiling slightly.

"Does this mean you never peek under my gown?" She asked looking at him and running her tongue on her lips, raising both eyebrows.

House stared at her passing in turn his tongue on his lips.

"I meant that... you're definitely a full-Brazilian type, Cuddy!" He replied with a mischievous gaze, looking at her as she couldn't hold back a smile and shook her head slightly.

"And... you should let me give me at least a peek" he laughed "These are the kind of thing a husband had to know!" He added, still laughing as she smiled and ran her tongue on her lips again.

"Yeah... sure!" She said, smiling in turn "... dream on, House!" She said patting his hand with hers.