Thanks everyone for the fantastic reviews! I love each and every one of them!

I'm aware that no one liked where the last chapter ended, but never fear, Cuddy won't stay mad at House for long! Oh, and am I the only one who is reeeally mad that instead of a new episode of House tonight, they have some presidental thingy?! I almost cried...

But anyway, enjoy :)

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"Dr. Wilson, you got a minute?"

Wilson cringed when Feeney poked his head in without knocking.

"Sure. What can I do for you?" he asked, not really caring at all what this guy had to say.

Feeney entered and took it upon himself to sit in the chair across from Wilson's desk. Deep regret filled his face. What was that all about?

"It's come to my attention that some of your cancer researchers are drinking coffee in the lab."

Wilson failed to see how this was a problem. "So?" he said, waiting for the bigger picture to appear. "It's a study lab, not a sterile pathology lab with chemicals. I don't see what the problem is."

"Oh, so you're saying you accept this behavior? There are computers in there that could easily be damaged if coffee is spilt onto the keyboards. Not to mention the very expensive books that could be damaged. I'm sure you don't want the difference coming out of your paycheck, Dr. Wilson."

Did he have a point? "Look, Dr. Feeney, I'm very busy here."

"Dr. Cuddy lets them drink in the lab?"

"Obviously. She lets them eat lunch in there, too, right on top of the expensive Alternative Cures book. They could probably spend the night also if they wanted to, since there are couches in there. Do you mind? I'm behind in my work here."

Feeney looked concerned. "What you're behind on is sleep, Dr. Wilson. You should probably go home and take a nap. I wouldn't want my star Oncologist to bow out when we need him the most."

Wilson raised a brow. His star Oncologist?

Feeney got up and walked to the door. Wilson eyed him, as if trying to move the door with his mind so that it'll hit him on the way out.

"Oh, and one more thing," Feeney said, looking over his shoulder at him. "It's none of your concern, but since you're a department head, you should know that I'm cutting Diagnostics from the budget. The department is useless. I'll be letting the other heads know as well."

Wilson clenched his fists and bit his lip. He so very badly wanted to yell at Feeney until he was blue in the face, but had a feeling it wouldn't really matter. He was going to do it anyway. He needed to find House and Cuddy and he needed to find them now.

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"Look what I got!" House said, holding up a wide stick with a crab stabbed at the end of it. "We're going to eat like royal leaders now."

Cuddy, who was getting seriously sick of bananas since the first time she held one on the island, felt her stomach growl at the sight of the helpless crustacean stabbed into the end of the stick.

"God, House, you're my hero," she said, hunger pains returning.

"Oh, gee, never thought I'd hear that again." He sat onto the makeshift bed and hovered the crab over the fire, like toasting a marshmallow. He wasn't exactly the boondocks king and went all wrong with preparing how to cook up a crab, but with the lack of no other option on how to cook it, this seemed like the most logical way to do so.

Cuddy let his comment slide. She was trying to set boundaries with him, but no matter what she said or how she said it, he would always come back with some sort of sexual euphemism. Their morning was full of them. Avoiding him last night didn't give him a good enough hint that they shouldn't sleep together again. He still wanted to. And he could tell that she wanted it too.

"I need a shower," Cuddy moaned, picking at the stiff ends of her hair.

"Showers sound nice," House admitted. "So does shower sex."

"House," Cuddy said in a warning voice.

"What? It does!" he said innocently. "All my hookers like shower sex. You ever try it?"

"Of course I have," she said, sounding somewhat insulted. "In spite of what you may think, I was very adventurous when I was a teenager."

"How about in a swimming pool?" he asked, peeking at her from the corner of his eye. "Or in the ocean?"

"House, I know where you're going with this, so regardless of how many erotic places you can think of to have sex with me, it's not happening. I'm known as Miss Celibacy, remember? It's going to take a lot more than mental visuals to lay me."

House took a deep, dramatic breath. "Then tell me, Miss Celibacy, what will it take to lay thee? I'll get started on it."

Cuddy played along. She sat up and folded her legs Indian style, wearing a smile. "Well, first it'll take a halfway decent man who doesn't make me want to kill myself every time he opens his mouth. Second, he needs to know what to do with that mouth. Third, he better have some kinky massage oils and edible lubricant," she purred, twitching her eyebrows. "And then, maybe some bondage toys, dressing up like a dominatrix with extra hoops to hold onto when he pulls out the whips. You know, that sort of thing."

House shuddered the moment she mentioned bondage toys and almost completely turned off at the dominatrix comment. "That's not a halfway decent man, Cuddy, that's a killer! Sorry, but I don't intend to beat you for your perverse pleasure. Contrary to popular opinion, it's not my style."

Cuddy laughed aloud. "I'm kidding, House!" She lightly backhanded him against the arm. "The most I would use is maybe a toy here and there and edible lube, depending on my mood."

"The lube I understand, but why would you need a toy if you already have the real thing?"

Cuddy smirked and raised her eyebrows. "There is more than one place to play with, House."

House's sexual euphemisms rubbed off on her. Either that or she was giving him a taste of his own medicine. His jaw dropping expression cracked her up, filling the entire cave with loud laughter. House completely blanched.

"You…there?" he asked, sounding as if it was completely unheard of. "There's no way you're queen of celibacy, I don't care what anyone says."

Cuddy just continued to laugh, but even harder now as she rendered House completely traumatized.

"I'm seeing you with whole new eyes now," he said, drawing the crab back and examining it.

"Never tried that before on your hookers?" Cuddy asked casually, reaching her legs out and crossing them at the ankle.

"How about we drop the subject before I lose this crab and start ravishing you where you stand."

"Good thing I'm not standing," she countered with a giggle.

He took the crab into his hands, but momentarily forgot about it as he turned to look over at Cuddy. "Okay, seriously, what is up with you? First, you slip me little hints, then you push me away, then you have sex with me, then you push me away again, call it a mistake, make me drop the subject, and now you're making snide remarks about sex and throwing everything back into the pot. Which is it?"

"What, I can't talk about sex without you thinking I want it?" she asked. "It was a joke, House. Do I have to watch what I say around you now?"

"If it's about sex, yes," he said, pulling a leg off the crab and handing it to Cuddy. "You have the first bite. If you die, I know it's poisonous."

She rolled her eyes and took the crab leg. "It won't be poisonous, House."

Cuddy recoiled as she heard the hard snapping of the shell when House pulled it apart. He grunted, followed by a hum.

"What is it?" Cuddy asked.

"It's not done all the way," he said, slipping both halves back onto the stick and hovering them over the fire.

Cuddy didn't really care. She bit down on the leg and extracted a sort of white-ish string cheese-like something or other that tasted like heaven.

"I haven't tasted crab this good in years," she said, flicking the leg into the fire.

"That's because it's fresh from the sea, literally," he said, checking the crab to see if it was done. "It's not frozen first like it is in the restaurants."

He handed her half of the crab when it looked done to him. Cuddy started first by eating the legs. Both of them ate in silence, devouring the crab. It didn't take longer than a minute for the both of them to finish.

"Go find another one," Cuddy demanded, tossing the shell outside into the sand somewhere.

"You go find another one," he said, tossing the stick with the pointed edge at her. "Good luck."

Cuddy didn't argue. She was hungry and didn't think twice. She snatched the stick and left the cave, promising to come back with at least two more.

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"So I don't have a job…just like that," Cameron said as she, Chase, and Foreman gathered in Wilson's office just as the evening fell. They had just found out about Feeney's plan to cut Diagnostics from the budget as they were treating their last, and evidently, their final patient. "He can't do this!"

"I'm afraid he can," Wilson said. "He has the power, he has the right."

"Screw the right!" Foreman exclaimed. "He can't shut down an entire department overnight! He needs to give notice first!"

"Where's Cuddy when you need her?" Chase piped up from the back, arms folded.

Silence fell in the room. Wilson and Cameron's heads hung, Foreman stared off, glaring at the wall, and Chase merely looked bored.

"So I guess we won't be here to know if House and Cuddy return safely," Foreman said.

"I think you already know your answer on that," Chase said, sounding almost bitter.

Cameron and Foreman's heads turned to frown at him. Chase looked surprised, as if he didn't know the reason they were looking back at him.

"What?" he asked with a shrug. "Okay, seriously, how long has it been? Five days, six tomorrow? If they aren't found now, they never will be. I'm sorry to spoil the great ending, but they aren't coming back."

"Why don't you go home," Foreman said, angry Chase said this. "Go put your feet up and enjoy unemployment. We don't need you here."

"Why? Because I can handle the truth and you can't?"

"It may be the truth, but you don't have to be such an ass about it," Cameron said, fuming at him. "You're the only one out of all of us that respects House. Why do you hate him all of a sudden?"

Fair question. Unfortunately, it was one that couldn't be answered.

"Go home, Chase," Foreman said, not waiting for an answer.

"No," he said. "I have just as much right to be here as you guys do."

Just then, Wilson's phone rang. All eyes went to Wilson when he answered it hurriedly, clenching a fist lightly. Before he started shouting, his fist tightened. Neither of them had ever heard him yell before, but that was the least of their worries. He had good reason to.

"Listen, you son of a bitch, that's my best friend and my boss out there!" he shouted into the phone a little ways into their conversation.

Cameron threw her hand over her face. She could already guess what happened.

"They called off the search," Wilson told them, slamming his phone down on the desk.

"Why?" Foreman asked.

"Lack of funds." He folded his hands and rested his chin on them, appearing to be deep in thought. "I don't know what I'm going to do."

"What can you do?" Foreman asked.

"Look, can it really be so bad without House and Cuddy here? We're already being laid off, so it's not like we'll ever be back here again," Chase said, evidently not understanding why everyone was making such a fuss about House and Cuddy.

"That's not the point!" Cameron said, looking back at him with tear stained cheeks.

Chase saw them. "Oh, I forgot, your reason is different than everyone else's."

"And what reason is that?" Foreman asked angrily, staring him down.

"You think I'm still in love with House, is that why you're being such a jerk?" Cameron asked. "Why can't you just think of it as me being worried for him without thinking I need to have a reason other than the fact that I see him as a friend?"

Chase scoffed. "House is not a friend."

"He's still a person, a person that we know and respect. And so is Cuddy. I shouldn't have to explain this to you." She slapped her hand to her forehead. "I got a headache."

"Because you haven't had anything decent to eat in days," Foreman said, knowing this was true. Cameron never left the hospital since the incident happened, not once. She stayed here, showered here, used up all her extra clothes, and slept wherever she could, but lately the place of choice was in Wilson's office. He refused to leave also.

"Do you feel faint?" Wilson asked.

Cameron shook her head and sat in the nearest chair. "Probably just tired."

"Well…I guess I'll be off," Foreman said, following a sigh. He gently rubbed Cameron's shoulder. "You going to be okay?"

Cameron nodded, keeping her hand over her face.

Foreman left shortly after that, taking Chase with him. They didn't need the added extra pressures of him being there.

"Are you really okay?" Wilson asked after the two were gone. She could've just said that as a cover up. They've spent enough time together after the incident for him to know when something's grabbing at her.

Cameron shook her head, removing her hand. "I know they're out there. I can't accept the fact they could be dead because I don't feel that they are."

Wilson bit his lower lip before speaking. "I don't think they are either." He swallowed hard. "But…even if they are, they stopped the rescue attempts. They'll never be found."

Cameron felt her body weigh twice as much after being reminded of that. "So what can we do?"

Wilson took a deep breath. "When they exhume the plane from the ocean floor, they're going to check the roster and see who's there and who's not. If House and Cuddy aren't among the plane's inhabitants, I'm taking a leave of absence and going to Hawaii for sure. For one, I will know they're out there once the status comes back, and two, I'm not working for an adolescent like Feeney. I'll probably end up getting fired anyway."

"You don't know that."

"He and I aren't going to see eye to eye. He already came to me and complained about my textbook researchers drinking coffee in the lab, saying something about how spilt coffee could ruin keyboards, I don't know. It's foolish."

Cameron just shook her head in disbelief. "This place is going to fall apart without Cuddy."

Wilson rested his elbows on his desk. "Her parents called today; actually her father did, asking me when her funeral was."

Cameron grimaced heavily. "What?"

"Makes me wonder what kind of relationship she had with her father."

"What did you tell him?"

"I said I didn't know. I'm not exactly in a hurry to bury an empty coffin."

"Are they coming in? Where do they live, anyway?"

Wilson shrugged. "Out west somewhere. They're coming at some point during the next couple of days and plan to stay in Cuddy's house until they make arrangements on what to do."

"So they accepted that their daughter was dead and that's it? No questions asked. They're just willing to give up without starting?" Cameron was horrified. She didn't know the relationship Cuddy had with her parents, but what could be so bad that they could care less what happened to their daughter?

This certainly wasn't going to be a good visit with them.

"What about House's parents?"

"Blythe called me right after she saw the news yesterday. She was in complete hysterics. I could hardly make out the words she was saying."

"Is she coming down?"

He nodded. "I'm hoping to talk to all of them at the same time somewhere. I only want to say it once. Will you be my wingman?"

Cameron nodded. She didn't want to see him going at this alone for various reasons. The main reason is that three out of the four parents looked at this as a chore rather than their child missing and probably dead. The only one who would care is Blythe. John would probably show he cared for a little while, but then probably get bored and want to go home. No one knew Cuddy's parents, but the way her father sounded, he definitely made the preparation of her funeral sound like a chore.

This wasn't going to be fun.

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Please review! Thanks for reading! :)