A/N: Thank you for reading and putting this story on your alerts.

It was a month later when House sat in his office. He had just sent his team off to get a MRI for the patient, it was the first quite moment he had all to himself that day.

The past month had been great House and Annette had been moving forward together. He had been spending more time at her apartment and more of half his stuff seemed to find their way over there too. He had been helping her finding a new apartment, she had finally saved enough money to rent a new place and some furniture.

And last week they had found the really perfect apartment it was a two-bedroom apartment with seaside view and it was close to work, it really was just perfect, but the problem was that the apartment wasn't up for rent only buy. And Annette didn't have enough money for that. So he had been toying with the idea of buying it together, but he knew that it probably was too soon.

But he had realized that he wanted to live with this woman, he was head over heels in love with her and seemed to crave her company like no one else he had ever met.

House figured he should probably talk to somebody about this, he needed an outsiders view, but he had no idea who to ask.

Wilson was out of the picture he rarely had time for him, because some weeks ago he had started dating his first ex-wife, a relationship House already had deemed to fail.

The other person he could ask was Cuddy, but she had kept their relationship strictly professional. He had tried to break her but it seemed nothing of his insaneness did work, she just ignored him.

He could ask Nolan, but he found that he would much rather ask somebody who knew him a little longer than a year.

House was snapped out of his musings, when he heard a pair of heals click their way towards him.

"House I need to talk to you." Cuddy said and looked at him with a cold expression, which he hated.

"Whatever it is, I didn't do it."

"I need you to speak at a conference in LA they wanna open a diagnostic department, so you need to talk about what it is you do."

House groaned he hated public speaking. He wasn't good at it and after his speech people always had annoying questions.

"Why? Can't I just send them a mail and explain."

"No, you're going whether you like it or not." Cuddy turned and was about to walk out of his office.

"Why are you acting like a cold bitch towards me?" He said getting straight to the point.

"What?"

"Ever since I found out about you and Lucas you've been acting like this coldhearted bitch that doesn't give a crap about the people who once were closest to her." He stared at her hoping that he had cracked some of the hard shell he knew she had around her.

"No I haven't." Apparently getting straight to the point wasn't enough.

"Yes you have! It's like you're this hormonal energizer bunny… God, you're not pregnant, are you?"

Cuddy's eyes went wide and for a minute there he actually thought that she really was pregnant, but then he saw the anger flashing across her face and he knew, he was in for some yelling and screaming.

"Screw you House. Not everything is about you! I'm fed up with you trying to figure everything out and then throwing it in other people's faces. Why can't you just let this go and let me get through this alone! I don't need you or Wilson to fix this!" By now her face was bright red with anger and there were unshed tears in her eyes.

And House was just confused, what the hell was she talking about? He hadn't been trying to fix anything.

"Okay Cuddles I think we've a major problem here, because I've no idea what the hell you're talking about and I told you I didn't do anything." He stepped closer to her looking her in the eyes hoping she would see that he was telling the truth.

She seemed to get it as she was shaking slightly and began to sob and bury her head in her hands.

"Come on sit down, I can't catch you if you fall." He led her to his Eames chair and pushed her gently into it and this time he sat on the footstool.

"Now what's wrong?"

Cuddy fiddled with her fingers in her lap and he let her think about how to tell him, he knew eventually she would talk to him.

"Well um I…" Finally she looked up at him and the sadness in her eyes was heartbreaking "Lucas and I, it's not going so well. He's rarely home and when he is all he does is sleep and he's gone again when I come home. We don't talk to each other anymore. I think the only reason I'm staying with him is, because he is great with Rachel." House nodded, he understood. Rachel looked like she was having a great time with Lucas at the conference two months ago.

"Why would you stay with him, if you're miserable? You'll end up like me." House smiled.

"You're not miserable anymore. I've seen you with Annette, you look happy together." House rolled his eyes which made her smile. She also looked relieved to get some of her worries off her chest.

"You know what I mean. Dump Lucas and enjoy the extra time you have with the munchkin again." Cuddy nodded.

"And do it soon, so that you're just a bossy bitch and not a bossy heartless bitch." House added as an afterthought.

Cuddy chuckled and was about to leave his office when she nearly collided with an out of breath Wilson.

"The cardio wing is downstairs, take your heart attack with you." House said as Wilson tried to breathe normal again so he could talk.

"It's Annette…" House's blood drained from his face "She has been brought to the ER."