The final chapter. Thanks for the reviews, and thanks for reading!
Cuddy glanced at her watch. 2:50 pm. She still had ten minutes before a potential benefactor was going to arrive and offer a hefty check to the hospital.
It had been a month since the accident. She was grateful that Wilson had kept an eye on the hospital while she was on sick leave recovering from her injuries. The scrapes on her face were barely visible. Almost everything had returned to normal. Almost everything.
Cuddy smiled to herself as she got out of her office chair and walked to the front of her desk. She let her left hand graze the underside of the top piece until she felt the familiar cool strip of brass. She knew the engraved words by heart.
The phone rang. Cuddy picked up the receiver. "Okay, thanks. Show Mr. Walsh in." She walked back to her chair and sat down with her legs crossed. Her smile was replaced by her game face … business as usual.
House flung open Wilson's office door and walked to the black couch. Wilson glanced up for a brief moment but continued writing.
"House, aren't you supposed to be babysitting?"
"I left the squirmy leaky thing at Cuddy's. It won't need food or a diaper change for a couple of hours."
Wilson threw down his pen. "House! You can't leave a baby at home alone!"
House rolled his eyes and got up. He walked to the door muttering, "Fine, be a party pooper."
He turned to Wilson and asked in his most snippy, sarcastic tone, "Can't two men just have quality bonding time without annoying little tots coming between them?" Pretending to bat his eyelashes, he added, "I miss you, you know."
Wilson sat in disapproving silence. House walked to the open door and bent down, reaching for something in the hallway. With his cane in one hand and a baby car seat in the other, he turned back around with an annoyed look on his face. "Happy now?" he asked bitterly.
Wilson attempted to suppress a smile. Rachel looked at him with her bright blue eyes, completely oblivious to the irony that a reformed misanthrope was carrying her in her car seat.
House narrowed his eyes and looked down his nose at his friend. He walked to the desk and dumped the car seat on top of Wilson's paperwork. He then walked back to the couch.
"The life of a kept man," Wilson said as he unbuckled Rachel from the seat and picked her up.
In a cheery voice, House responded, "Can't complain! Cuddy has a nicer TV, 800 count sheets, and a well-stocked fridge. She lets me watch whatever I want, including the naughty channels."
Wilson raised an eyebrow.
"She may not continue to let me watch them after this month's bill, but she should, with the amount she's saving by not having a nanny around. She also lets me do whatever I want to her in the bedroom. It's one of the perks of being the help."
Wilson tried to focus on the baby.
"You name the fantasy: we've probably done it. Her favorite is having me pretend to be her cabana boy. She bought me this turquoise, or was it teal, sequined banana hammock …"
Wilson shook his head. "Okay, I get it! You two have a lot of sex. Do you have to remind me of this everyday?"
"Jimmy," House muttered under his breath jokingly. "You can't say S-E-X in front of the squirmy thing. I'll get in trouble if it ends up being her first word. Although after we played out the dominatrix fantasy, which really isn't a fantasy because Cuddy is in fact …"
"House!"
"Ruh-roh!" House said as he looked towards the office door.
Standing in the doorway was Cuddy in her black power suit, feigning anger. She gave him her best death glare and turned to Wilson and Rachel.
"How is she?" she cooed as she approached her daughter.
"Great! I'm doing fine! Thanks for asking!" House shouted. Cuddy took her into her arms and smiled. She then walked over to House and perched on the arm of the sofa.
"So what is this? You visit Wilson randomly now? Oh, wait, are you two lonely without me here?" House, putting on a puppy-dog face, asked Cuddy, who was giving Rachel a kiss on the forehead.
"We've always hung out at the hospital. If you hadn't spent the past several years trying to avoid me and clinic duty, you would have known," she quipped.
"How did that meeting go?" Wilson asked rather loudly, not wanting his friends to forget that they were in his office.
"Walsh wrote a check for two hundred and fifty grand. We could definitely use that money for more PCR machines."
"Sure the check won't bounce?" House asked. "If I write you a check for two hundred and fifty G's, will you come home and let out the panty hamster? The check … may bounce, but that's beside the point."
House watched Cuddy hand Rachel back to Wilson and walk saucily towards the door. For a second, she turned around and gave House a come hither look that caused him to swallow hard. She then smirked to herself as she left the two men alone.
"Do you need a moment?" Wilson asked in a mocking tone.
House continued to stare at the doorway.
"House? Helloooo … are you there?"
House shook his head and blinked hard. He then inhaled through his teeth. "Damn that woman."
"She always had you figured out."
"Not always," House protested. Taking a deep breath, he changed the subject. "So! There's a monster truck rally this Friday. I have two VIP passes …"
"Shouldn't you be having a date night with the Mrs.?"
"She's not a Mrs., and every night is a date night, if you know what I mean."
Wilson sighed and put Rachel back in the car seat. "Has Cuddy told you when you're coming back to work?"
"No, she said I would have to be evaluated by a psychiatrist before coming back, so that will be never because shrinks are useless."
"House, you can't avoid work forever."
In a more serious tone, House said, "I passed my psych eval. I'm coming back next week."
Wilson nodded. "It's about time. Foreman is getting cocky."
House smirked to himself as different pranks to play on his team popped into his head.
"Undoubtedly, you're thinking of ways to mess with everyone when you get back."
"Undoubtedly. So! Friday? The Grave Digger will be making an appearance."
"Ooooh! A classic truck! Buy me a turkey leg, and I'm there …"
Later that evening, soft piano playing filled Cuddy's living room, the notes of Van Morrison in F major warming up the dimly lit space.
Cuddy, dressed comfortably in jeans and a gray ribbed cotton tank top, stood in the archway of her living room holding a glass of wine and a shot of Bourbon. Completely relaxed after putting Rachel to bed, she smiled as she watched House play, witnessing the fire of his soul flowing out through his fingers.
She crossed the room, treading lightly on the wood floor. When she approached the piano, she placed the Bourbon next to the music stand. House looked at her, his eyes smiling as he finished "Have I Told You Lately."
Cuddy took a sip of wine and joined him on the piano bench. He snaked his left arm around her waist and scooted her closer to him.
"That was a very nice rendition of Van Morrison," Cuddy purred in House's ear.
He brought his face close to hers and said, "It's not the only thing my fingers can play." He moved his fingers down to her left hip and began rubbing it suggestively. His right hand began wandering over the piano keys, playing an unfamiliar melody.
Cuddy stuck her face in her glass, pretending to inhale the wine. She loved the game of seduction they engaged in every night.
She fluttered her eyelashes as she turned to look at House. Not wanting their little dance to end too soon, she smiled and asked, "You're not going to touch your Bourbon?"
"I don't need it when I know I'll have plenty to drink from you." His fingers snuck under the waistline of her jeans and played with the delicate fabric of her thong suggestively. He exhaled lightly on to her neck, causing her to close her eyes and bite her bottom lip.
He took the glass of wine from Cuddy and set it down. He then kissed her right shoulder as he began playing the notes from the song on her belly.
Cuddy smiled. She knew she was his favorite instrument.
Her smile grew wider as she remembered that he had also played a song on her abdomen the morning after their first night together twenty years earlier. Her bliss was short-lived; the flashback of their awkward conversation in the park soon after that night invaded her mind. She turned to look at House, studying the lines on his face that had appeared between that moment in time and now.
Sensing her shift in mood, House looked up at Cuddy. Her eyes were filled with emotion.
"What's wrong?" he asked softly.
"Nothing," she replied, smiling weakly. "Now where were we?" She brought her lips close to his.
House grabbed her face with his hands and stopped her from kissing him. He looked deeply into her eyes, asking her to talk. Her eyes responded with hesitation. She tried to break away from his gaze, but she couldn't move her head. Instead, she closed her eyes.
Sensing Cuddy retreating into herself, he pressed her against him and stroked her hair. She wrapped her arms around him in turn and exhaled against his shoulder.
"Is this about the accident?" he asked quietly.
She pulled away to look at him. "Not exactly." House waited for her to continue. "I'm sorry I pushed you away back in the day."
Confusion overtook House's face.
"I pushed you away the summer after our endocrinology seminar. I thought you were a player. I didn't want to get hurt."
House tried his best to smirk and said, "I don't blame you. All the ladies loved me back then."
Cuddy shook her head and looked away. "Let's forget all of this and go to bed. It's getting late." She stood up and reached for her wine glass. House grabbed her hand and pulled her down next to him again. Once again his eyes beseeched hers to talk. Cuddy sighed and acquiesced.
"When I was unconscious in the ICU, I had a flashback to our conversation in the park in Ann Arbor … when I told you that our night together was a mistake. After nearly dying … I couldn't help but wonder how differently our lives would have turned out if I had given you a chance," Cuddy said softly.
House hung his head and replied, "We can't change the past."
Cuddy nodded and looked up at the ceiling. House looked at her and added, "I was an ass back then, so I would have driven you nuts. It wouldn't have ended well."
She turned to look him in the eye. "WERE an ass?" She smiled.
House smirked back. "You're the crazy one to love me for it."
Cuddy rolled her eyes and sighed again. "Maybe I am crazy."
"So you do love me." House's eyes were fiery with mischief.
Realizing she had walked into a trap, Cuddy panicked before regaining her composure. "You're an ass," she said after a brief moment of stunned silence. She smiled at him coquettishly and picked up the glasses. House watched her sashay away as he began to play the same unfamiliar melody on the piano … it was his own serenade to her.
Cuddy returned to the living room after putting the glasses in the kitchen sink. She leaned on the piano, watching House play again. He looked up at her as he played the last notes of the melody.
"That's beautiful. What is it?" Cuddy asked.
"Something I made up." House stood and approached her slowly. "It's your melody."
Cuddy cocked her head to one side and smiled. "My melody?"
House stepped closer to her.
"It's lovely," she added.
"Uh, yeah, it's supposed to be. I wouldn't write an unpleasant one for my girlfriend."
"Oh, so I'm your girlfriend now," Cuddy said teasingly.
"It's only fair, since you do love me and all."
"By that logic, if Wilson or Foreman loved you, you would have them be your significant other."
"Shut up," House growled as he pulled her against his body.
"Is that how you always talk to your girlfriends?"
"Only the ones nicknamed Party Pants."
"Okay, lover, how about we head to bed now."
"You're bossy."
"I AM your boss. How many times do I have to sit on your face to remind you of that fact?"
"Pretty much … everyday. You might have to do it again once we reach the bedroom."
"I think that can be arranged."
"You're the best boss ever."
"I always knew you loved working for me."
"Who wouldn't want to work for someone with your ample cleavage and …"
Cuddy silenced him with a kiss. When their lips parted, House said, "And there's that."
She stepped away with a seductive smile and turned to lead him away from the piano. House grabbed her hand and pulled her to him again. He looked into her eyes and saw what he needed to see. "The feeling is mutual," he said softly.
They both smiled and held hands as they walked, side by side, to the bedroom.
FIN.