Good evening, fellow fans and Huddies! Sorry this update has been awhile in coming... I was stuck for a bit on how to handle portions of this chapter, and to be honest, I'm still not sure if I'm completely satisfied with it. But I've been itching to post for days, so here it is. If I decide that I need to add something later on, I'll be sure to mention it on an update :-) It may be just as long before the next one, just to let you know... I try to write at least a chapter ahead of what I post, and I'm breaking my rule for this one simply because I WANT TO POST! EEEE! (Sorry. I think reviews may be replacing coffee as my primary addiction, and I'm having withdrawal.) The next chapter is started, but now that I fixed the issues with this one I think the flow of my must on the upcoming parts will improve. (Hopefully.)

Shout-outs for my fantabulous chapter 5 reviewers: IHeartHouseCuddy, JM, Guest, OldSFan, lin12344, Abby, HuddyGirl, Alex, and lenasti16! :-D

EDIT on 3/28/14- For a few typos and spacing issues that occurred in the format change from MS Word. Hoping to move forward on working on the story today and to update within a week from now. *Fingers Crossed*

Chapter 6- Glee

"Hmm. I think I might go with some Billy Joel," Wilson pondered, searching through the enormous red binder containing songs by artists G-K.

"Oh, that's where the 'J' book is… I need to see that when you're done," Cuddy mentioned from the next table over. She was looking through the L-P book, with Cameron browsing over her shoulder.

"I think you need to review your alphabet, oh Wise Dean of Medicine. You won't find the B-52's in either one of those," mocked House while he hastily slid the G-K binder out from under Wilson so that he could see it better.

Cuddy narrowed her eyes. "Ok, so I like '80's pop… so do most people my age. Doesn't mean I don't know how to sing anything else! And I said I needed to see that next. Gimme," she ordered, trying to snatch it out of House's grasp from across the table.

"Ah, ah, ah! Finders keepers!" he responded childishly, lifting the awkwardly large book up against himself and out of the shorter woman's reach.

"Oh… would you look at that. All of your animalistic male fantasies are finally coming true… now there are girls making out over there," interjected Amber, cocking her head toward the stage disinterestedly from House's left as she leafed through the giant A-F spiral. While all of the men in the group immediately craned their heads in the direction she had indicated, Amber quickly caught Cuddy's eye and sent a not-so-subtle glance toward the oversized volume in his hands. They shared fleetingly cunning smiles, and Cuddy had yanked G-K from the preoccupied doctor's hands before he knew what hit him.

"Thanks, Amber!" Cuddy chirped.

"Not funny. Misleading us about hot women getting nasty? That's just plain treachery," House admonished. "I don't really need the book anyway, though. Already know what I'm doing. Foreman and Chase… follow," he finished, making his way back to their own tables.

"Why?" asked an annoyed Foreman, who was currently trying to make the best of the whole unwelcome situation by checking out Q-U with Kutner. Chase, on the other hand, obediently left his spot by Cameron and the L-P binder to catch up with House.

"Because I need you to run labs for botulism and salmonella on those questionable-looking hot wings sitting on the buffet over there," his boss deadpanned. "My band… my prerogative. Come on."

Although Chase went, he still commented, "I thought you said I didn't have to audition."

"I lied!" House sing-songed with raised eyebrows.

Cuddy found the tune that she was looking for, and she and the other doctors made small talk about the available song choices and the half-drunk frat boy currently on the stage singing a very out-of-tune rendition of "Free Bird." Within a few minutes, House and his former and present fellow walked back over toward the rest of the group. Chase went up to the D.J. to inform him of their choice and took his place back at Cameron's side.

"Did you pick something yet?" he asked her, trying to draw attention away from the clandestine pow-wow that had just taken place.

"Yeah, I think so. And obviously you guys did, too… what's he up to?"

"Apparently it's a surprise," Chase replied by sarcastically waving his hands by his head.

"Hey, can I sing with you guys? I don't really want to go by myself," Kutner inquired.

"Nope. See, it's a 'virgin team' bonding thing," House answered.

"But I was on the… 'virgin team'!" objected Cameron, spitting out the last few words as if they left a bad taste in her mouth.

"Oh, sorry. I should have been more specific… a male 'virgin team' bonding thing."

"So you're going first?" Wilson wondered, surprised.

"Of course we're going first. You think I want to sing after her?" his best friend said, nodding his head toward Cuddy.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she demanded, slamming the binder closed since she was finished with it anyway.

"I don't know, you tell me," he pushed with a flippant smile. It's just too satisfying to push her buttons in front of everyone, House thought to himself.

Cuddy huffed out an exasperated breath and said, "I'm… going to the ladies room. It may be the only space left in this whole buiding that hasn't been invaded by your ego."

After she had sauntered out of hearing range, House turned back to the group and informed, "I would suggest to anyone who doesn't want their figurative vocal booty kicked by their boss… you will probably want to sing before her."

"How exactly is it that you seem to know so much about Cuddy's musical abilities?" Wilson asked, finally voicing the question that had been on the tip of his tongue ever since House's unexpected DDX of her cello-playing skills.

"And since when do you care if any of us are humiliated?" Cameron wondered suspiciously.

"Really. Doesn't your species feed off of crushed dreams?" chimed in Amber.

Pointing at each one respectively as he responded, he said, "To satisfy your unyielding demand for information: you should know enough to figure that out for yourself, I don't, and normally, yes it does. Avidly. But…" he paused, "… in this case, I do want you to get up there before she puts the smack down so I can figure out who the hell can actually sing." Cameron and Amber glanced at each other wordlessly and then made their way up to the D.J. to inform him of their song choices.

H-C-H-C-H-C-H-C- H-C-H-C-H-C-H-C- H-C-H-C-H-C-H-C- H-C-H-C-H-C-H-C- H-C-H-C-H-C-H-C H-C-H-C-H-C-H-C

Cuddy really did have to use the washroom, but she knew that she probably could have afforded to wait a while before it became a real issue. Hating to break the seal after only three drinks, she saw no point in skipping the practical aspects of the trip once she was in there. On a positive note, the facilities were much nicer than in the majority of similar establishments. It was clean, with stylish black and white-tiled walls and fairly new sink fixtures. While the dean washed her hands, though, she glanced at her reflection in the mirror. Her expression unwittingly showed trepidation, and she knew with certainty that the fact had not escaped House's notice. In reality, Cuddy knew exactly why she had gone to the bathroom. Singing in front of House was a can of worms best kept closed, for a number of reasons.

The eye sex, for one. No matter how hard she had tried in the past, if he was in the audience when she was singing, it was inevitable. They could be fighting, angry, ready to tear the others' throats out. But when she sang and he watched, or to turn it around, if he played while she watched, the normally electric air between them reached a charge of a whole new level. More than once, such interactions had led to hasty, erotic encounters almost immediately after one, or sometimes both of them disembarked from the stage. Bathrooms, storage closets, cars… they had never been picky. Back then, their mutual addictions had focused on each other, and the passion of the music only fed their disease.

No matter how she spun it in her head, Cuddy fully appreciated what dangerous territory the present situation fostered for her and House. Also, of equal importance, she knew that he knew what it meant, as well. On some level, the head of PPTH wondered if her brilliantly bad employee hadn't purposely orchestrated this aspect of the project with their former tumultuous, but highly physically satisfying relationship in mind.

There was no doubt that both the heat in their verbal exchanges and the audacity of the pranks and games they often played had escalated considerably since the diagnostician's first team disbanded . She banned his guitar; he refused to hire a new team. House caused mass food poisoning hysteria in the cafeteria; Cuddy swapped his Vicodin for laxatives. In return for providing the coveted red thong he had instructed his team to steal from her, she had used their predicament to barter her underwear for Dr. Cole's vote in the latest installment of the department head's "tribal council."

When House had narrowed it down to his final four candidates and asked for her opinion, she told him the opposite of her true choices because she figured he would do the opposite of what she instructed. Never one to be played, however, House purposely picked Taub and Kutner knowing that Cuddy would never allow him to have a womanless team. Whatever the stakes, the rules remained a convoluted chain of one-up dominoes that seemed to topple continuously into infinity. The unusually nervous brunette regarded herself in the mirror, took a deep breath, and exited the washroom with a renewed confident swagger in her hips. Cuddy had no way of knowing exactly where the line of dominoes would end, but she hoped she could make the best of the top or the bottom either way.

H-C-H-C-H-C-H-C- H-C-H-C-H-C-H-C- H-C-H-C-H-C-H-C- H-C-H-C-H-C-H-C- H-C-H-C-H-C-H-C H-C-H-C-H-C-H-C

While Cuddy attempted to amass her courage behind closed doors to once again face House from the stage, her employees continued their discussion of song choices.

"Well, I could really care less when I go…. I do a pretty mean 'Piano Man,' " Wilson boasted. "The girls are more likely to feel like they're being compared to her, anyway."

House didn't look amused. " 'Piano Man?' Seriously? It's only 9:00, and that's the last call song to end all last call songs. Way too early for that one."

"That's why I'm not going right now," Wilson shrugged, turning to join his girlfriend and Cameron as they returned from speaking to the D.J. and started walking back to the spot on which they had laid claim earlier. Chase and Foreman followed as well, not seeing any reason to stick around looking at songs since they had already been cajoled into their secret trio selection.

"What about you?" House asked Kutner, who was still searching through one of the binders.

"I still can't make up my mind… I mean, I'm all in for the instrumental stuff, but I told you. I'm not really much of a singer. I didn't think that I had to sing just because I came."

"Wrong!"

"So you're gonna make Thirteen and Taub sing if they show up?"

"No."

"But why not? How is that fair?"

"You're asking me about fair? Have we met?" House asked sarcastically. "And they were completely up front with their lack of singing skills. When I asked if you could sing, your answer was 'a little.' So you can get up there with everyone else with a sliver of ability to match pitch and take your best shot." Although hardly excited at the prospect, Kutner looked back down at the Q-U binder again briefly, shrugged, and wordlessly left the group to approach the D.J. Almost simultaneously, Cuddy returned from the washroom.

"Trying to stall because you're losing your nerve?" wondered House.

"No… it's called, 'I had three drinks, and I had to pee,' " Cuddy threw over her shoulder defensively as she passed him to get her name and her song on the list. He kept his eyes on her butt while she walked, eagerly anticipating the moment when she would take the stage and he would have an uninterrupted ogling pass for a good five minutes. Seeing her approach, Kutner scurried back to the safety of their tables quickly, still embarrassed by Amber's unnecessary mention of his oxygen chamber mishap.

By the time Cuddy started back toward him, House made sure his eyes were elsewhere.

When she passed him but he didn't follow, she asked, "Are you coming back to the table, or what?"

"I suppose. So what did you need the 'J' book for? Jay-Z? Jamaraquoi?" he mockingly queried.

"Oh yeah. '99 Problems' and 'Virtual Insanity' sound right up my alley," Cuddy answered sardonically, continuing on her path.

"I'm impressed. You really have broadened your musical horizons beyond the years of big hair, oversized crosses and tight spandex pants."

"It's all your fault," she retorted, sitting down on one of the high stools by her newest gal pals, Cameron and Amber.

"I don't know what you're talking about, but it probably is his fault," Wilson interjected.

"Shut up. So…. Jefferson Airplane? Going to 'grace' us with some Grace Slick?"

"Nice try, House. I'm not telling if you're not. You can wait and see like everyone else," Cuddy smiled tightly, sweeping her hand to indicate the rest of their group. Before the conversation could pick up again, the background music being played between songs stopped.

"And now we have… Brian… here with an old favorite, which I'm sure needs no introduction!" announced the D.J.

"That's never a good sign," House muttered, stealing Wilson's imported microbrew and taking an unapologetic swig.

"Do you mind?" groused Wilson.

"No… not really. It's tasty."

"Then go get your own!"

House started toward the bar, but threw back innocently, "I wanted to take it for a test drive before I committed to a specific beverage."

Right after he walked away, an instantly recognizable Journey piano riff came over the speakers. A fairly enthusiastic cheer sounded from most of the patrons, but the Princeton-Plainsborough tables were instantly divided down the middle.

"Yeah!" yelled Cameron happily, clapping her approval. Wilson's reaction was similar, and the two high-fived excitedly.

"I love this song!" Kutner shouted over the roar of the music just before Steve Perry's voice began with words of "small town girls" and "lonely worlds." Temporarily forgetting his apprehension for singing in front of people, House's youngest fellow joined in with the guy on stage in anything but a bashful tone. "Brian" only seemed to impress the small group from the table where he had been sitting and the smiling woman whose adoration of such a mediocre effort could only be his girlfriend. Kutner, on the other hand, surprised his companions with his pleasantly adequate skills. By the time the refrain repeated, Wilson and Cameron had joined in, and the three were having a grand old time out-performing the awkward guy on the stage.

When the verse came back around, Wilson said to Cuddy over the music, "Come on… I know you have to know this song. Sing!"

"Yeah, I know it… but House will give me shit when he comes back if he catches me singing it. And those three already look mortified," she observed, glancing toward the disconcertingly overwhelmed faces of Amber, Foreman and Chase.

"Won't he find something else to give you shit for anyway?"

"Good point," she conceded. By the time the chorus started for the second time, with a not-so-subtle nudge from Wilson, Cuddy joined in reluctantly at first, but her enthusiasm gained as the song continued. "Brian" was quickly forgotten on the stage, as the slightly tipsy group of doctors easily stole the show from their position in the back of the room.

House went unnoticed by the singing buddies when he came back from adding his beer to Wilson's tab, giving him the opportunity to take in the unusual scene before him; the four of them had resorted to the ultimate in cheesy karaoke audience participation, arms around each other's shoulders. Cuddy held her drink in the air with her right hand, with her other around Wilson, while Cameron was sandwiched between him and Kutner on the other end. Predictably, Kutner waved a bright blue lighter in the air with his free hand like he was in an arena with 20,000 people.

They all broke into satisfied giggles when the song ended and the patrons surrounding their tables erupted into spontaneous applause that was clearly not directed at the efforts from the stage. After sharing some quick furtive glances that easily put them on the same page, the four amigos joined hands, raised them over-head and did an ostentatiously show choir-like bow. The group continued to revel in the energy of the moment until it was broken by the mockingly raised eyebrow that House had trained on all of them.

"That… may be the hugest cliché that I have ever personally witnessed," he taunted.

"Oh, come on, House… where's your sense of fun?" Cameron replied lightly.

"Whatever nonsense it is that all of you just displayed… I had surgically removed before I was ten years old," House retorted. And to Cuddy, he chided, "And you clearly haven't been fully reformed from your poppy/bubble gum/arena rock ways, have you? And here I was, thinking you had turned a new musical leaf."

"I happen to have a very eclectic taste in leaves… just because it may not exactly coincide with yours doesn't make it bad. Musical taste is a matter opinion… opinions can't be wrong."

"Says who?"

"Basically… everyone that isn't a crazy religious fundamentalist. Which definitely isn't you," Wilson remarked.

"Ok, well… wrong, right… semantics. Maybe opinions can't be categorically wrong, but they can be inherently stupid," countered House.

"I don't know if what we just saw qualifies as stupid, exactly… but definitely along the lines of embarrassing," Amber jibed from the adjoining table. Wilson and Cuddy just shot her a look, while Kutner and Cameron seemed to have moved on to an animated conversation of their own. "More drinks?" she asked Chase and Forman, shaking the leftover ice in her glass.

"Sure," Chase answered. "The waitress probably won't make it back here for a while with the way the crowd has been filing in." Foreman shrugged his agreement, and the three non-Journey fans headed past their boss, who had finally taken a seat by Wilson at the other table, to obtain their beverages from the bar.

"Now that's an odd group," Wilson commented as they passed.

"Look around you, though. You can say one thing about music, no matter the genre… a person's likes and dislikes can create both instant enemies and instant bedfellows," contemplated House, a strangely straight-laced comment for him that didn't involve someone's life hanging in the balance.

Wilson observed, "Well, there will have to be some compromise and middle ground involved here if this band thing is really going to work."

"But it's my band!" his friend exclaimed. "The final decisions are all up to me. This isn't the hospital… I don't have to defer to Cuddy, or anyone else. I call the shots, beginning to end."

"Yes, because that attitude has served so many well in the music industry. David Lee Roth… Axel Rose… that turned out so well for them, didn't it?" House just shot Wilson a dirty look and took a deep drink of his beer. Never having shared well, he hadn't thought much about the dynamics that could be involved with so many complicated personalities in one group as it pertained to their particular situation.

"Ok… so maybe a little creative input wouldn't kill me," the diagnostician conceded. "Fleetwood Mac… Rolling Stones… a lot of complex, headstrong people in those groups, but they've mostly stayed the course for the last thirty plus years. Creating music is a lot like running a DDX in a way… a series of dissonances leading to resolutions."

"Now that's a better attitude."

"And we need more alcohol… Kutner, my little Steve Perry-loving compadre… go get some more drinks for your boss man and his second!"

A/N: Semi-unrelated aside... has anyone else come across echo_fish's picspams from back in season 7?! Holy Effing Lord, it's like I died and went to Huddy Nerd Heaven this week. (If that's a thing.)