Thanks again for the reviews and the wonderful compliments! I wanted to thank everyone individually, but there are just so many that I couldn't keep up!

Hugs and kisses all around! Enjoy :)

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Cuddy knew she was dreaming. She's never this fortunate. It always helps when you know you're dreaming, so when you wake up, you're not as disillusioned as you would be if it were the other way around. But a part of her was overjoyed to see the emergency seaplane land in the water. The door opened and a pair of brawny arms lifted her into the plane. They didn't say a word to her. Everything was quiet. They offered her water and a warm blanket, which she amiably accepted. She never realized just how much she missed water until it coated her dry, irritated throat like nothing she ever felt before. This was definitely her new favorite drink!

She was so into the wonderful commodities she missed so much that she didn't realize that they never brought House onto the seaplane and just took off. She looked out the window and saw him still floating along the sea, wondering why he was forgotten about. When Cuddy tried telling the pilot and the two others in there that they forgot someone down there, they didn't seem to care. It's as if she were yelling at a wall.

She thought she was dreaming, but now she wasn't so sure. It felt so realistic. Tears came to her eyes and her pulse quickened.

"How can you forget about House?! He was right there!" Cuddy screamed to the faceless rescuers in black clothing who just sat there with their arms folded as they stared at her. "Aren't you listening to me?!"

"Cuddy," one of them said, mouth barely moving.

Cuddy's breath was caught in her throat. Her name was very faint, but one of them definitely said it.

"Cuddy," the other said, following the first.

"What do you want from me?!" Cuddy cried.

"Lisa!" That voice belonged to House.

Cuddy's eyes snapped opened to a brightly lit morning with not a single cloud in the sky. She picked her head up off House's chest with a sharp gasp and turned to look at him.

"You didn't have to scream at me," she mumbled, sliding away from him.

"I beg to differ. You were the one yelling at me," he said.

"I was not."

"Oh you so were. It was enough to wake the dead."

"Liar." Cuddy sat up and stretched her legs.

"What were you dreaming about?" he asked, sitting up halfway and reaching into his pocket for his Vicodin.

"What do you care?"

"Anything that gets you panting like some twelve year old boy with asthma trying to do the hundred meter dash is definitely worth knowing about," he said, popping two Vicodin in his mouth and swallowing them dry, which felt very uncomfortable and almost impossible. It took a couple of attempts to swallow them without choking.

"Are you okay?" Cuddy asked, watching his vain attempt at trying to swallow the pills.

"Don't change the subject," he said, shoving the pills back into his pocket and zipping it up for good measure.

Cuddy rolled her eyes with the shake of her head, unbuttoning her top. "I had a dream that we were rescued, okay? It didn't go so well."

"Why? They leave you behind and rescue me?" he joked with a lopsided grin.

"No, they rescued me and left you," she corrected, wearing a fake grin of her own as she looked back at him.

The conversation was quickly dropped when Cuddy peeled off her white-collared shirt and exposed some skin at her side when her spaghetti-strapped shirt lifted slightly. House's eyes immediately dropped to the exposed flesh he saw before the shirt straightened itself out.

"Lift up your shirt," he said, pointing to her side.

"What?" she asked, bearing a frown. "Why?"

House didn't bother asking again or explaining why he wanted it done. He did it himself. Cuddy didn't try to stop him. He lifted up her shirt at the side to reveal the most sickening bruise he had ever seen. It was so dark that it was almost black and there were some popped blood vessels clearly visible. The bruise had House in awe. It wasn't in just one place either; it covered much of her flesh in an amorphous shape, as if someone came by and splashed paint on her.

"Jesus, Cuddy," he murmured, eyes widened slightly.

"I told you I landed wrong," she said in a small voice, feeling uncomfortable with him looking at the bruise. She drew his hand away and pulled her shirt over the hem of her pants so he couldn't see it anymore.

"Yeah, but for it to look like that?"

"House, what do you expect? I've never jumped from a plane before. Or rather, I should say…I've never been sucked from a plane before. You may have it down to an art, but it's a little new to me."

Cuddy was snapping at him.

"You're angry…" he dumbly pointed out.

"Yeah, I'm angry!" Cuddy yelled, filling up the skies with her roar. "I'm tired, I'm sore, I'm dehydrated, I have the hugest headache known to man right now and I just want to go home!"

"Okay, screaming isn't going to counterbalance for my headache, so can you calm your shrieking voice?" he asked, dramatically placing his hand over his head.

Cuddy wanted to blame someone for them being out there this long. She was past the logical thinking stage and moved right into being completely frustrated and used House as her target.

"You're such an ass. I hate you," she spat.

House feigned shock. "You do not!"

"Oh, yes I do." She grasped her button-up shirt and harshly folded into a tiny square. "I've spent way too much time with you in the past…I don't know how many hours, and it's getting on my nerves."

"Well what the hell did you think this was going to be, Cuddy? Lounging on a sofa? We're stuck in the middle of the damn ocean!" he yelled back. "What do you want from me?!"

Cuddy couldn't answer that. In fact, she was surprised that he yelled back. She turned her head away from him with a small sigh. She couldn't stop the tears that came to her eyes. Trying to be strong just wasn't working for her anymore. They've been floating for hours. She didn't know how many hours, but it must almost be an entire day if they were floating since noon yesterday and it was now morning.

Shouldn't help be coming by now? Someone had to have known there was a missing plane when it didn't arrive as scheduled in Japan yesterday. Even if they didn't know where the crash site was, they could still travel the same path the plane did when it crossed the ocean from LA to Tokyo, right? Someone has to be doing something! Acting beside herself, Cuddy started sobbing. It was too early to start panicking about not being rescued, but Cuddy's gut told her it wasn't going to happen. With almost an entire day's worth of floating, they were miles from the site. Who would think to look for them this far out? The rescue team would stay in the domestic area, not branch out a hundred miles off course if they didn't suspect there were survivors out there.

House sat up as best he could and lightly placed his hand over Cuddy's bare arm. "Hey…come on…don't do that."

"We're going to die out here." She still couldn't meet his eyes.

"No we're not. After five days have passed, you can say it then. You're giving up too soon. That's supposed to be reserved for me."

He figured a light joke would loosen up the mood. It didn't.

"Without water, we'd be dead in two days from now."

"Well then in two days from now, assume the worst."

Cuddy threw both hands over her face. "I can't stay here for another two days! I don't even want to be on this fucking door for another two seconds!"

House's eyes went wide as she swung her legs over the side of the door. His head perked right up, fully alert.

"What the hell are you doing?" he asked, afraid she was going to jump into the water.

"I don't know…"

"You're scared we're going to die, but yet you plan to jump into the ocean where god knows what lives in there without regards for your life?"

"If we're going to die, what difference does it make if it's now or in two days from now?"

"Cuddy…don't do anything stupid," House murmured, knowing that if she jumped in there, he couldn't jump in after her. If she was as weak as he was, there's no way she would be able to swim for very long. She'd be flopping around like a fish out of water, especially with her side being the way it was from the fall. The pain would certainly make it harder to swim.

"It hurts to breathe," she whispered, looking down at the ocean lightly rushing against her legs.

Cuddy was panicking. She wasn't thinking clearly. The sane Cuddy would never let herself get this far. If anything, she would be repeating to herself over and over again that a rescue plane would be coming over the horizon at any second. Even though it was a lost hope, she would continue to think that help was right around the corner. Never would she resort to giving up. Not Cuddy. Something must be wrong.

House knew from experience that he was depressed, angry and mean the most when he was in pain from his leg. If he didn't have pills, he was a regular ogre at times. Maybe there was something Cuddy wasn't telling him. Maybe it was something other than her side that bothered her and it was too great of a pain to think logically. But Cuddy wouldn't let it get to her like this. Being stranded makes people do funny things, but this?

Suddenly, something caught the corner of House's eye. It was something so intimidating that it even brought the great Dr. House down in trepidation, if only for a second. It was a shark's fin and it was slowly making its way to them, specifically Cuddy's legs.

"Cuddy…get up here…now," he said, sounding firm, despite what he saw. His eyes were fixed on the shark's fin rather than Cuddy. He didn't feel that threatened for himself. He was worried about Cuddy.

He couldn't just yell to her that there was a shark without the fear that she'd fall in. There wasn't much time to be thinking about what he could do to try to get her to comply. He snaked over a few inches, taking care not to tip them, although come to realize it really isn't that easy to tip the door, so he hurried up the pace. It was an involuntary reflex when he reached both arms around her waist and pulled her back so hard that she fell on top of him. Where he found the strength to do that, he'll never know. At least her legs were out of the water.

Cuddy was still crying. "I'm so sorry," she said, obviously thinking a different reason with why he pulled her back. She didn't see the shark's fin yet. "I wasn't going to jump in. I don't know what I was thinking."

"Forget about that, Cuddy. We have bigger problems."

House held her to him, just in case Cuddy was the type that jumps out of her shoes when she sees something that scares her. He never experienced her scared before. Not like this, anyway.

Turns out that Cuddy paralyzes herself when she's scared. Her eyes were as wide as saucers. She straightened herself out into a sitting position on the door, but leaned her entire upper half over House's, eyes locked on to the fin, not saying a word. Her chest was connected to his and their faces nearly touched. She didn't realize it.

"Gee, Cuddy…I think we should be threatened by sharks more often," he said, eyeing her cleavage.

She dropped her head and gave him her wide-eyed look instead of the shark. "How the hell can you be making jokes right now?!"

"Oh, it's not a joke."

"House, there's a shark out there!"

"I'm aware. I was the one who pulled you back because of it, remember?"

"Then why are you—"

"Sharks smell fear, Cuddy, which is why they went right for you. Your legs in the water helped, but since you have no opened cuts, it didn't come here solely based on that. Granted, if I didn't pull you back when I did, you would have lost both legs and probably your lower torso also."

Cuddy's mouth dropped.

"If you don't calm down, he'll just keep circling us. Agitate him, he'll tip us and turn us into fish food."

"Calm down? You expect me to calm down when there's a shark circling us?!" She glanced up at the fin.

"Stop shouting. That's not helping. However, I am enjoying your body trembling."

Cuddy frowned. His sickening sarcastic tone was making her ill.

"I'm trying to get you to lighten up!" he said. "Do so, the shark goes away."

"You can't ask me to stop feeling fear," she said, craning her neck in the opposite direction, keeping her eye on the fin. "Not when there's something that could swallow us whole a few feet away."

Cuddy wasn't going to relax, no matter how House prepared to coax her into doing so. There was one method, however, he didn't try and it was a guaranteed cure. He didn't give it much thought, just like pulling her back earlier. He went for it.

He placed a hand at the back of her head and pulled her down into a kiss. Cuddy gasped against his mouth and tried to pull away, but all escape attempts were futile against his unyielding hand. House didn't stop. He kissed urgently at her unmoving mouth anyway, poking her lips with the tip of his tongue. She opened her mouth and straight away, his tongue found hers, nudging it to come out to play. When it did, House no longer needed to hold Cuddy's head for any reason other than to deepen the kiss.

His impromptu plan worked. Cuddy forgot about the shark. She wasn't completely into it, but at least the majority of her fear vanished.

The kiss went on for about thirty seconds. House let Cuddy pull her head back, but she didn't go far. Their lips remained inches apart while catching their breath.

"Why did you—"

"Feeling calmer now?" he asked, interrupting her.

Cuddy's mood quickly changed again. Her eyes narrowed. "You kissed me to calm me down?!"

"Well…yeah. It's not written out there for the infamous Dr. House to be eaten by a shark!"

Cuddy grasped the collar of his Hawaiian shirt. "No, it's written out there for you to be killed by me!"

"Relax, Cuddy! Why else would I want to kiss you? Okay, so I admit I kissed you because I wanted to get closer to your funbags. But other than that, I don't kiss people who are annoying, demanding, bitchy, and moody on a regular basis."

Cuddy felt a twinge of disappointment flow through her veins. She didn't know why he kissed her, but hoped he did because he wanted to, not because he had to.

"I didn't want you to kiss me at all, you bastard," she lied, shifting herself off him, wiping her mouth.

She forgot about the shark entirely until she looked at the waving water out ahead of her and didn't see the fin.

"It's gone, right?" House didn't even have to look around him to reach that conclusion.

Cuddy looked around a few times, just to be sure she wasn't seeing things. "It is." She looked back at him, mouth dropped. "How did you…"

House propped himself up onto his elbow. "Like I said, sharks smell fear and you were definitely stinking. That, and I think what drew him over was the sight of your sexy legs."

"Oh give me a break," Cuddy mumbled. "I still hate you."

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"Has anyone heard from House or Cuddy?" Wilson asked, popping into House's office to meet the clueless faces of the three inhabitants. It has been an entire day, plus some. The time was going on ten o'clock pm, and if that's the case, it's past noon tomorrow in Japan. The meeting was for noon.

"Did you get a call from Koshidi-Sama?" Cameron asked with worry. They were so focused on House that it took a lot of motivation to actually open up their patient's file and look at it. They would reach a lame diagnosis and go right back to talking about House and Cuddy. They spent all last night doing so while waiting for one of them to call, and picked up where they left off this morning when they came into work. Maybe it was nothing. House wasn't famous for ignoring calls. He proved that easily by answering his phone in court not too long ago. If he was bored, he would answer any calls, even calls from creditors, if he had them breathing down his neck. The three of them knew he only went to Japan to keep Cuddy occupied. He was bored out of his mind, ergo, his phone would be always on. It wasn't. Either was Cuddy's. Both would go straight to voicemail.

Just then, Wilson's phone rang. Cameron, Chase, and Foreman inched their heads closer to Wilson as he flipped open his phone and answered it. The three exchanged glances of surprise when the phone call was anything but pleasant, judging on Wilson's facial expressions. It was about House and Cuddy. Cameron's best guess was the person on the other line being Koshidi-Sama, or someone who works for him. Wilson didn't look happy, nor did he look angry.

The phone call lasted about a minute. Wilson closed his phone and swallowed hard.

"Well?" Cameron prompted.

"That was…Koshidi's assistant. Cuddy wasn't at the meeting."

Cameron shook her head. "There could be many reasons for that…Maybe she got confused or lost or forgot what time the meeting was."

"Cuddy's been excited about expanding the pediatrics wing ever since she got the offer. I'm sure she didn't forget what time it was," Foreman said.

"Then what? Where are they?" Cameron asked, worried about her bosses.

"That's a very good question," Wilson said in a low voice and then left the room.

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House and Cuddy saw their second evening sun. The time didn't seem as nearly long, for they slept most of the day. After the shark incident, as impossible as it sounds, they fell asleep until about high noon, woke up, talked to one another for a couple hours, and fell back to sleep until about ten minutes ago. Cuddy felt so weak that she could easily sleep an entire day if she was given the option.

"How long do you think it'll be before we run into torrential downpours?" Cuddy asked, finding it more difficult to talk with a dry throat.

"Do I look like the weatherman?" House asked, just as worn out as she was. "I don't know."

"I was just asking." Cuddy sat up with a wince. Not only did her side hurt, her entire body ached. "I'm hungry…"

"Bet you're wishing you ate that other half of your sandwich, huh?"

Cuddy hugged her stomach. "Yeah."

House turned over onto his side with a grunt. His strength was depleting and his Vicodin was running dangerously low. His leg started throbbing again, causing him to wince. Cuddy glanced over to ask him if he was okay when her eyes looked past him and widened in shock. House saw this expression and grew worried about it, even though it was starting to become a cliché with her. He turned his head around in the opposite direction and saw what she saw. There, on the horizon, was the most beautiful thing they had ever seen. No, it wasn't the sun. They had enough time to marvel the evening sun and its beauty.

It was an island. It was a huge island, surrounded by a green velvety blanket of trees. Back where they were, it was very small, which is why it was overlooked. Cuddy hadn't looked out to sea in a while. There wasn't any point. This was a wonderful surprise that greeted her once she did start to look around again.

"Well whaddya know," House said, having to blink several times to have the distant island come in clearer. "And we're floating right towards it."

A permanent smile was splashed on Cuddy's face. Anything was better than laying on this door. Even if she had to lay in the bare sand, at least it was better than this!

They reached the island by sundown.

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I'll try to post a new chapter every other day or so. Not having a social life really helps with the updates! I have other stories going at the moment, but this one will be my primary. Oh, and there WILL be smut in this story! Lots of Huddy action for your reading pleasure :)