A/N: Thank you for the reviews!

House woke up on Monday at 6 am, he hadn't been up that early in years. As he walked in the kitchen he noticed the rose in the vase. House had forgotten to give it to her, he should take it with him to work.

He was ready to go to work on time. The faces he would get from his team if he showed up on time were going to be priceless, he was looking forward to it. Also if he did his clinic hours early he would get Cuddy of his back, which meant he could have a long lunch with Annette.

Wilson met him at the elevators, he had already been at work for two hours as a patient needed him.

"Wow, I don't think I've ever seen you here so early."

"I know. Did you see the face of Nurse Brenda? It's the first time I've ever seen her being shocked."

"So what are you doing here so early?" They stepped onto elevator together.

"I'm meeting Annette for lunch. And I thought if I did my clinic hours early I could make it a long lunch."

"You really like her, huh?"

House just nodded, he wanted to get of the elevator before Wilson was going to start with his lecture. And luckily for him only seconds later the doors opened and House limped as fast as he could to his office.

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"Good morning. Do we have a case?" He threw his backpack in his office and limped to the coffee machine. House knew that if they didn't answer him right away meant that he had done his job and surprised the hell out of them. As he turned around to look at his team, they were indeed looking at him with mouths wide open, except for Thirteen. Damn he had forgotten that she had listened to him when he talked to Annette the other day, she had obviously put two and two together.

"I said, do. We. Have. A. Case?"

"Am I hallucinating?" Taub asked.

"What are you doing here? Usually you're still in a coma at this time of the day." Foreman said, he had recovered quickly and was back at reading his medical journal again. Chase was still staring at him though.

"I hate repeating myself, but do we have a case or not?" House was beginning to think that it was a bad idea showing up early.

"No we don't." Thirteen said she still had that smile on her face.

"Okay I'll be in the clinic if you need me." He left the team alone again, but he could still hear Taub saying:

"Does he even know where that is?"

House soon discovered that there was an advantage of being in the clinic early. First of all the nut jobs seemed to come to the clinic after 12 o'clock. The patients this early were mostly kids with their mothers. He had always liked to treat kids, they were easy to talk to and he could be silly with them. And once you got the mother to calm down, it really was a piece of cake for him.

He finished his hours at 11:30. Now he just had to sneak out of the clinic before Cuddy noticed him and then he could wait for Annette in his office.

"I heard a rumor you were down here, doing your hours voluntarily." Dammit, who told her he was down here?

"I'm actually done, but I'll be back same time tomorrow."

"You can't just come and go as you like. Who is gonna take your original hours from 1 to 4 today?" She said coldly. He hated that their relationship was like this at the moment, she was one of his longest friends and it would be shame if they lost it.

"Listen, I did my hours, that's more than you usually get from me. See ya!" House limped to the elevator without looking back. But he still needed to talk to her about their problems.

At 1 his office phone was ringing.

"House."

"Dr. House we have a Miss Annette Nielsen asking for you?" The receptionist at the front desk asked him in a surprisingly kind voice.

"Send her up." He hung up before she could answer him, he hadn't lost that habit yet. He also fished the rose out of his backpack.

"So this is your office?" He looked up and was startled by her beauty again. She was wearing a thin black jacket with a black skirt and a red pair of do-me-pumps.

"Yeah," He smiled "This is where the magic happens."

"And the 3 people staring at us?" He looked to his right and sure enough three sets of eyes were staring at them. Two had their mouth wide open and Thirteen was back to her knowing smile again, God he hated when she did that.

"Yeah these are the idiots that work for me."

"Get back to work!" He shouted at them.

She laughed and closed the distance a little bit between them. "What do you say to really giving them something to stare at?"

"What do you have in mind?" He took a step closer to her.

"Well," She had closed the distance completely. She reached out and took his hand. He pulled her into him, it felt really nice to have her body pressed up at him again. "I was thinking something like this." She kissed him hungrily. It was as if they hadn't seen each other in weeks. House ended the kiss first, as he didn't have any air left in his lungs. He still had his eyes closed when he heard her say: "So are you ready to go?"

"Yeah" He opened his eyes and she was smiling at him, so he gave her one last peck on the cheek, and then went for his leather jacket and the rose. He picked it up and said:

"You forgot something." He held the rose up so that she could see it. The smile that greeted him was amazing. It was worth every minute of getting up in the morning and working that beloved clinic just to leave with her on a long lunch date.

"Thank you."

They left the office together, leaving a shocked team behind, even Thirteen looked like she was surprised.

When they waited for the elevator, she reached out and took his hand and even though he would look like a romantic fool to the rest of the staff he didn't care. He even liked that she didn't seem to mind showing everybody that she was with him, Stacy had never held his hand.

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House hadn't said much since they arrived at the diner across the hospital. He was deep in thought about Cuddy who had seen Annette and him leaving the hospital together. She was shocked to see him leaving hand in hand with a woman. But what struck him was that he didn't care what her reaction was, did that mean that he was over Cuddy? That he was ready to take his relationship with Annette to the next level?

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah sorry. So did you finish reading all of the papers?" House knew he had to tell her about Cuddy, but right now he just wanted to have a pleasant lunch with her.

"Oh don't remind of that. I went to bed very late again last night, because I had to finish them." Now that he looked very closely at her she did look very tired.

"Well at least you're finished now."

"Yeah" she patted his thigh. They were sitting next to each other in a corner.

"So what are you getting?" She held the menu up, so that he could take a look. Her hand never left his right thigh, massaging it gently. It felt really good.

"I think I'll go for the burger. What about you?" He placed his arm around her, stroking her shoulder with his thump.

"I'll take the burger as well." He smiled, it was good that she didn't mind eating junk food, because he does eat it a lot. Not as much as he used to, since he went to that cooking class with Wilson, but it was still nice that he had found something to share with her.

After placing their orders, they didn't talk much. They just enjoyed sitting close together. She seemed to enjoy the silence which was another thing they had in common.

"Do you have a case at the moment?" She asked after a while.

"No. Why?"

"Well I wanted to invite you over for dinner tomorrow." She stopped massaging his thigh, as if she was nervous of what his answer was going to be.

"Oh, I'd love to."

"Great."

"But if I get a case then I have to cancel." He looked down at the table, for some reason it bothered him that he often had to work late. It hadn't bothered him before.

"Hey" She squeezed his thigh gently, "I understand that you often have to work at weird hours."

"Sorry" He whispered "it's just Stacy always complained that I was never home." He couldn't stop comparing his relationship to Annette to his relationship with Stacy.

"It's okay. As long as you remember to call." He nodded. He had always called Stacy to tell her when he would make it home. Turned out it still wasn't enough to please her.

The waitress placed their burgers in front of them and he reluctantly had to let go of her shoulder.

He ate his burger in record time, just so he could put his arm around her again. Normally he wasn't much of a touchy person, but for some reason he couldn't keep his hands off of Annette.

He looked at her eating, she wasn't even half way through her meal. So he reached out with cat like reflexes and stole one of her French fries.

"Hey you had your own!" She scolded, but he could see the smile in her eyes. He grabbed some more.

"Here just take some, I'm not gonna finish all of it." She pushed the plate a little closer to him.

"Nah, it's not fun anymore. And stolen food tasted better." She just laughed, but she left the plate between them. So they finished her meal together.

He paid for their lunch and they left the diner together hand in hand.

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"Well this is me." She pointed to the big entrance hall of the university.

He nodded and pulled her into him, embracing her tightly inhaling her scent of her neck.

"I really have to go. I'm teaching a class in ten minutes."

"Okay." But he didn't let her go, instead he tightened his hold on her.

"You're not helping." She giggled which turned into moan as he kissed her neck.

They were rudely interrupted when his pager beeped. He stopped kissing her to take a look. He groaned when he saw who it was.

"Looks like I have a new patient."

"Does that mean you can't come tomorrow?" He looked up at her and didn't see disappointment, which meant that she had been telling the truth earlier.

"I don't know yet, maybe my team can handle it. I'll call you later, okay?"

She nodded and cupped his cheek, he closed his eyes and leaned into her touch. Then he felt her lips on his, she gave him a tender kiss that made him a little weak in the knees.

"I'll hear from you later then." All he could do was nod, he didn't trust his voice just yet. As she walked away, he was mesmerized by her backside. How did he get so lucky?

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"Hey judging from the smile on your face and the glint in your eyes, the lunch went well, I take it?" Wilson caught up with him at the elevator.

House didn't answer him though, he stepped into the elevator and left a smirking Wilson behind.