Please ignore grammar and spelling mistakes, English is not my native language.

House spent the entire evening drinking whiskey, spread on his couch, wearing nothing but a black plain cotton shorts. Every cent that House paid to that relative of Dominika was worth it. The guy's uneasiness to violate the personal space of someone else disappeared when House showed him the cash. After all he didn't succeed much being an honored teacher and the guy had a family to support.

Nothing was impossible these days. Without Cuddy's knowledge, House was completely able to connect to her laptop. Remote control was allowed without the permission on the other side. When she was online – her camera was working, without her noticing. House had an access to control everything – but so far his plan was only observation, or at least for now. Otherwise he was not planning to involve himself in the case. He was curious how she was handling the diagnostic part. House knew that Cuddy was good in estimating his ideas and methods of treatment. Saying "No, that's not going to happen" was in fact an easy job. The hard one was to actually have an idea, a diagnosis that fits, a diagnosis that will be approved and will work. From a realistic point of view House was not hoping that he will have a chance to interfere, until the moment when House saw Cuddy's eyes closing. She was asleep.

He was observing her actions from a few hours, but she was spending more time on the phone and far away from the laptop, his first view of her was when whimpering Rachel dragged her on the couch and wrapped herself around Cuddy. When Cuddy fell asleep, strange feelings overcome him seeing her like that. The picture in front of him was priceless. Black curls were falling on her face. She was wearing a white and a bit transparent top. House's eyes were fixed on the screen. Rachel moved from Cuddy's chest, the fabric of Cuddy's top was soft and see-through and right now was the best piece of cloth House could imagine, he could see her nipples. Her legs were exposed, her gray shorts barely covering anything. House felt a bit dizzy, in a good way. Despite the fact that Cuddy looked exhausted, she was more beautiful than ever.

Now what? For a second he thought that the whole idea of sneaking into Cuddy's life was not a good idea. Nostalgia hit him. Suddenly Cuddy's communicator started to blink. It was her team. Their last test turned negative and they were asking how to proceed further. House asked himself - is it a good idea to involve. He did have second thoughts.

"Hell, this time she is gonna kill me"

House's brain was in a high speed mode. Was it the alcohol, or the case, or just the fear that Cuddy could wake up and figure out what was going on. He felt like a man on a ledge. He was afraid of her reaction and he had the right to be.

[H][H][H][H][H]

Cuddy woke up in the morning. She slept straight for 8 hours. Rachel was still asleep. Cuddy jumped immediately. She started to panic when she saw the sunlight outside. She couldn't believe it. Her heart was beating so fast, she wasn't able to breath. When she jumped from the couch she almost woke up Rachel, but she only shifted and continue to sleep. Cuddy grabbed the laptop and started looking for her cell phone.

"Oh My God, I'm so fired"

Her hands were shaking when she started to dial the number of her boss. She tried to figure out what to say, to work out an explanation. Cuddy opened the laptop, her hand still shaking while waiting the response on the other side of the line.

"Dr. Cuddy!"

"I'm so, so sorry, I.. I have no idea what happened with me, I just.." – Cuddy's voice was shaking.

"Can you please hold on for a second.." Her boss was explaining something to one of the nurses when Cuddy's gaze stopped at the last few messages in her communicator.

"Test results confirmed! You were right Dr. Cuddy! The treatment is working"

And the next message was a response from… "her"

"Of course it's working, otherwise the test would have been negative. Stating the obvious is equal to wasting my time. Case is closed! I'm taking the day off!"

Cuddy was staring at her screen with open mouth. She couldn't comprehend!

"Dr. Cuddy, I'm so sorry that I've put you on hold. I'm so grateful for what you had done, the last few hours we completely lost hope, until you interfere! Your reactions last night put the team off guard. Well it's completely understandable, we've put you through some serious stress! The old habits die hard, being a bit bossy with the team last night is not such a big problem. We have no idea how you did it, but we will be grateful forever and of course you can take the day off, as you requested! And….."

Cuddy was just holding the phone, unable to process, unable to think.

"But I'll leave you to rest, you are probably very exhausted after last night's fiasco."

During the middle of the previous night

On a first reading Cuddy's case didn't seem to be a challenge. But as soon as House joined her communicator and followed the history of her conversation with the team he realized that the case was anything but boring and far more complicated. He smiled widely. Minutes later his entire team was all up in a conference call, wearing pyjamas and cranky faces.

"Dear child of mine, daddy has a case for you"

"We are so grateful for your generosity to share it with us, even though it's the middle of the night" – Adams said.

"Appreciation appreciated!" House said back. He sent them files with the case that he previously downloaded from Cuddy's personal email.

"Cuddy's case House? Really" – Chase said annoyed.

"Guess what, it's our case now. Cuddy had the feeling that I owe her at some point.. for some reason I'm not familiar with, not sure for what exactly, hmmm…" House said.

"There is no chance to be related with You driving your car straight to her house?" – Park said.

"Oh, Snap! But the goodie is that we have the chance to prove that the team she picked is formed by idiots. Too bad that we can't announce it publicly, Cuddy prefers things privately you know..."

House was planning to put some pressure on her team. They were going to see how real diagnostician works and thinks.

Few hours discussing and everything leaded them to cure based on experimental treatment , which was not working for the kid regarding his age, it was not allowed for minors. The following hour was spent in silence. Both teams were waiting for a final call. Coffee was not working anymore. House released his team. He needed to think alone.

His whiskey bottle was half empty. He was listening slow blues. Sleeping Cuddy was back on his screen. He allowed himself to study her features. Her body he knew very well. He couldn't take his eyes off her. She looked calm, breathing slowly. She moved in her sleep, her top revealing some skin. House loved her skin, it was so soft.

And right then he figured it out. "Skin". His skin, the boy's rash was not caused by internal disease.

House turned on the communicator again and made his final call.

Something was still missing, something was not the way it should be, but right now he was not able to connect the dots, the lack of information from the source turned out to be an obstacle, the picture was not full. Parts of the puzzle were missing, but even if it was a blind shot it worked. House waited till the team confirmed that the treatment is working. He felt drained, a final look at the peacefully sleeping Cuddy and House switched off the remote control. Case was closed. Sun was rising.

[H][H][H][H][H] [H][H][H][H][H] [H][H][H][H][H]

Cuddy was still in shock from the last events. She was holding the phone, gathering strength to dial House's number. He violated her privacy, again. All she's been through, all she did to escape from him and he was still there – messing with her life. Was it worth it. Why? He did save her job, but if he was wrong he could have killed that boy. Mixed feelings were bothering Cuddy. She read the conversations from the previous night hundred times. What he did was a blind shot. Nothing made sense. How did he figure it out. How did he log in to her computer on a first place. She tried to be strong, but sometimes she couldn't. She couldn't understand. She thought that she was going to be OK, but nothing was going to be the same again. It was a hard life that she was going through. Their story was a closed chapter. She was not letting him take a part in her life again. She shouldn't be so scared. Did he do it because he cared about her? There was no comfort in the truth. Was it better this way? She didn't know, but he had to leave her alone. Cuddy dialed his number. Her breathing was heavy. But a female voice was on the other side of the line.

"Hello?"

It was Dominika. Cuddy recognized her voice.

Cuddy hung up the phone without saying a word. He was really living with her…

[H][H][H]

The phone was ringing, but House didn't bother to get up from the bed. He heard the front door opening, Dominika entered the apartment. The phone stopped ringing. He was not in a mood to rationalize why she was back at this time or who was on the phone.

He was looking at the ceiling and thinking. Lack of sleep was getting into him. House was expecting something to happen, he was not going to be surprised if the police knock on his door again. Cuddy should figure that it was him. Who would do something as irrational as what he did. But so far he didn't receive a response from her. The lack of reaction from her side felt even worse that knowing that she is angry.

The noises around the house were not that loud anymore. He returned back in the black hole that his mind was occupied.

For House life got cold many years ago. He was living day by day. People were pretending that everything was going to be ok, but he knew that without Cuddy the last chance for sun on his street was lost. Now it was all a lost forgotten dream. He knew that he was not ready to let her go.

[H][H][H][H][H] [H][H][H][H][H] [H][H][H][H][H]

Cuddy promised herself that she won't try to reach him. Not now, not ever. She spent her day off stuck at home, she didn't know what to think anymore. She needed to be strong, for herself, for Rachel. She entered the hospital a bit afraid of people's reaction. House treated her team worse than his own, being an ass as usual. But when she entered the lobby of the hospital all eyes were staring at her – and she saw nothing but respect. People were talking behind her back as she was walking. When she read House's conversation with her colleagues she was aware that bonding with them is a lost cause now. People were greeting her but with a distance. Obviously not only the team was aware with House's approach during solving the case. People were actually afraid to start a conversation with her. She entered the elevator and got inside. One of the doctors inside gathered courage and spoke to her:

"Dr. Cuddy, brilliant work, you did a great job. I have to admit we were all surprised, we didn't expect you to actually solve the case, because of the lack of diagnostic expir.…." But he stopped the moment when Cuddy looked at him.

Cuddy smiled, and looked at his eyes.

"Really, well too good that I didn't justify everyone's expectations."

Cuddy left the elevator, entered her office that was connected with a small cabinet. She closed the door and collapsed in her chair. She looked at the pile of cases on top of her small desk.

"That's how you feel when people don't like you because you've proven yourself better than them. " She thought.

Among the piles with patient files, Cuddy's desk was heaped up with all sort of invitations for seminars. She was overloaded. She had three times more emails. She separated the cases from the invitations and started looking them one by one.

She was more than surprised that for a day she received more invitations for seminars, diagnostics related, than she was receiving as a dean. She was tired of everything and everyone, she need a vacation. She started to check their location. It was more than clear that 80% of the seminars were just excuses for free vacations. And she just found her free ticket to paradise. Vacation with no expenses.

"Oh yeah"

"Key West, Florida – here I come."

Cuddy crossed her legs on top of the desk, opened the internet explorer and start looking for swimsuits. Only 4 days from now she was going to drink Cuba Libre and enjoy the white sandy shore, the crystal clear blue sea water. She made a quick check of the hotel

"Casa Marina. A Waldorf Astoria Resort" –

"Private beach & Pool - ohhh this is going to be good!"

[H][H][H] [H][H][H] [H][H][H] [H][H][H] [H][H][H]

Third day and no reaction. House was convinced that something was wrong, but not with Cuddy. Something from the case was missing. The boy's organism responded to the treatment, but House didn't have an idea why. His whiteboard was covered with eventual reasons and symptoms. The only thing that he knew was that the boy was still dying. Why the treatment was working since it had nothing to do with his symptoms was a mystery to him.