Chapter 15

Princeton, December

Cuddy had had a tiresome day at work. House had been skipping on his clinic hours the whole week and his team was wreaking havoc with the patient's family by breaking into the poor man's house and managing to catch his cheating spouse in the act with the sister in law. House had laughed a great deal when he told Cuddy about it, but she had to stay as professional as her job demanded. That didn't stop her from bursting into laughter the moment the patient's cheating wife had left her office.

After taking her coat and scarf off, she noticed the soft light coming from her bedroom. Smiling, she followed the path the light gave. On her way home, Cuddy had wondered if House was going to show up at her place like usual. It was their thing whenever House had solved the case before the end of her work day and as of lately, he seemed to take less and less time ending each case. This meant that House would already be in her house before her most of the time. And Cuddy couldn't be happier. It was great not to come home to an empty house.

When she opened the door, House was snoring on her bed. He was lying on his back, still completely dressed except for his shoes. Cuddy took her own shoes off and slowly walked towards him, lying next to him. Propped on one elbow, she leaned down to peck him on the lips.

"Mmmm"

"Wakey wakey..."

"Wilson, go away. I was making a rather nice erotic dream starring that British surgeon from TV..." House mumbled in his sleep.

"You better be lying. You should only dream about me." Cuddy replied, smacking him on the chest.

"Like you never have erotic dreams starring George Clooney." he mumbled, keeping his eyes closed.

"Well, usually I include you too... And the actress who plays Veronica Mars.." she replied, smirking against his mouth.

"Uh... Me likey."

"Shut up and make me dinner..." Cuddy said, poking him in the ribs before lying down completely.

"No way..."

"Come on!"

" There's no way in hell I'm cooking tonight. Can't we just order in?"

"We have been ordering in for a week now..." Cuddy complained.

"But it's going to take more time..."

"Stop whining and go to the kitchen..."

House sat up from the bed and looked down at her. Cuddy had finally gone back to normal. She had been completely obsessed over Celeste for the past few months, but lately she had kind of given up. If the girl wanted to talk to her, Celeste would call. She didn't need to stress over it. Cuddy hadn't completely given up but had loosened up a little. They had spent hours talking about the girl, trying to find a solution to their situation. She was their daughter, but as much as Cuddy would like her back into her life, the decision was ultimately Celeste's.

Sighing once more, House left Cuddy in the bedroom to relax while he moved to the kitchen. Rummaging through the cupboards to find some pasta, he thought about their girl. This topic seemed to be something he found himself constantly thinking about. She was his daughter and she didn't know about that particular detail. What would she think of him as her father? She had talked to him only a handful of times, and she probably already had an opinion of him. Maybe that's what was stopping her from coming back to Princeton. Shaking his head and deeming these ideas utter bullshit, he went on with chopping onions and garlic. He threw them in a pan with some olive oil and started to work on the zucchini and smoked salmon.

He should do something, something practical, he thought as he poured some white wine in a glass. Celeste had never replied to any of Cuddy's phone calls, texts or e-mails. She didn't even reply to the few ones he had sent her. At that, he smiled. His were stupid ones, mostly silly stories about things at the hospital, cases, Cuddy's neat freak attitude or embarrassing pictures of her. He was trying everything in his power to elicit some sort of response from the girl, but all his attempts seemed to be completely futile.

He chopped the zucchini in tiny pieces before throwing them in the pan, adding some white wine and stirring.

House didn't hear Cuddy coming into the kitchen, too deeply lost in his thoughts. She sneaked her arms around his waist, resting her head on his back. Inhaling both his scent and the food's, Cuddy sighed.

"Smells wonderful. How long will it take?" she asked, moving to stay on his side.

"Half an hour, forty-five minutes top." he informed her, offering her some wine from the glass he was drinking from. She took it with a grateful smile and sipped at it.

"I'm going to take a quick shower then..." she said, giving back the glass.

It felt so domestic and surprisingly House didn't feel weird. They had been together for about 6 months now. They weren't in the moving-in stage, but they were surely spending a lot of time together, mostly at her place. His apartment would've turned into a wasteland if it wasn't for the lady he had hired a long time ago. It seemed pointless to have someone cleaning a place he hardly ever went to, but Wilson had known better and had told House not to get rid of the old woman. They didn't usually meet, even though she lived in the apartment above him, but the previous week House had had to go back to his place for something he needed for the case and old Mrs. Haertel had been there, scrubbing his bathroom clean. She had smiled at House and told him to keep that Saint of a woman close. "If she's willing to put up with your shabbiness, then she must be pure gold" she had told him with a laugh.

House stirred the vegetables in the pot and checked if the water had started to boil. He threw a dash of salt in it before weighting the pasta. When Cuddy had found out he could actually cook, she had decided that he was the one entitled to cook in the house. She had even made him seal the deal in a way House still couldn't believe. He had thanked all the gods of yoga for that night. He smirked, put the pasta in the water and sipped the remaining wine. Cooking for her was totally worth it.

He was happy. Really happy. He was aware of it. What he couldn't shake away though, was the feeling that something bad was going to happen. And that terrorized him.

After everything that had happened, no one in his family could endure more.

It was 2 AM when the phone rang in the house, breaking the silence with its mechanical wail.

House groaned and unconsciously tightened his grip on Cuddy's waist. She groaned too, blinking slowly, her eyes trying to adapt to the lack of light. When she finally noticed where the phone was, her hand darted out of the covers to grab it.

"Lisa Cuddy."

"I'm so sorry... I'm so so sorry..."

After that, the only sound Cuddy could hear was a click.

Then, dead air.