A/N-This story has about two or three more chapters until I'm wrapping it up. I'd like to thank my occasional secret-prompter for prompting one of the themes in this chapter.

Thanks everyone, and thanks to the reviewers: IHeartHouseCuddy, OldSFfan, jaybe61, housebound, the Guest, JLCH, Abby, freeasabird14, HuddyGirl, grouchysnarky, Alex, KiwiClare, ikissedtheLaurie, BabalooBlue, Suzieqlondon, JM, LittleGreg, LoveMyHouse and Mon Fogel.

-Avoiding the Fall-

They set a date and began to make plans over the next several days. Things seemed good until Cuddy mentioned a few places where they could have the wedding. None of the other plans seemed to bother him, but when she started mentioning venues, she felt him draw a defensive curtain. He barely spoke to her. She truly would have preferred an argument to the silence. House threw himself into his case, finding plenty of excuses to avoid home.

When she came home the second day after House's silence had begun, she saw his car in their driveway and felt relief that perhaps his momentary concern or panic, or whatever had been bothering him, had passed. Once inside, she saw him on the floor of the living room with Rachel. A few of her stuffed toys were trapped in a multi-colored block prison. House and Rachel were building something else that looked like a rocket, and Rachel stood, putting her hands on her hips and declaring, "Nuffin will stop us," while she pointed at whatever dastardly device they had built.

As soon as he heard Cuddy in the hall, he sat up quickly and told Rachel, "I gotta go back to the hospital."

"Again?" she whined loudly.

"I have a patient. Just a few more days, OK?"

Rachel tried to keep an angry face, her lips tightly frowning and her eyebrows furrowed while she crossed her arms. "Don't work."

"I like my job. Besides, once this is done, we can do something fun."

"Fine."

House stood to leave and Rachel grabbed him, reaching her hands up, "Wait," she complained. "No g'bye?"

He picked her up, giving her a quick hug. Then Cuddy heard Rachel say, as clear as could be, "Love you too."

House put her down and walked toward the hallway, avoiding Cuddy's eyes as much as possible. "I have to go back in," he mumbled.

"Alright," Cuddy answered.

He grabbed her arm, leaned to her and quickly kissed her, flashing a near-smile before he was out the door.

Of all of the things House had done over the years, Cuddy was more confused by the three minutes she'd just witnessed than she really ever had been by him before. He didn't seem angry or frustrated with her, in fact, he was almost nice, but he couldn't seem to stand being in the same room. Cuddy walked into the living room and started talking with Rachel. Rachel was explaining the latest "invention" she and House had built, but Cuddy could barely pay attention while she tried to figure out if something was critically wrong with her relationship. "Rach?" Cuddy asked.

"Hmm?" Rachel responded, still playing with her toys.

"You love House?"

"Ah course."

"Do you tell him that a lot?"

Rachel looked up with sympathetic pity, standing and patting her mother's shoulder, "I still love you," much like a little adult trying to ease jealousy.

"Oh, sweetie, I'm not upset that you love House. I think it's fantastic. I'm sure he loves you too."

"Well, yea," Rachel answered, plopping back down on the floor with her toys.

"He might not say it, but you should know that."

The little girl stared up at her mother, completely baffled by the conversation. The girl considered her mother and her toys for a second, deciding that she was more interested in the toys than the conversation, so she kept playing.

"You do know that he loves you, right?" Cuddy asked with forced casualness.

"Ah course, you idiot," Rachel answered with perfect Housian intonation.

"Rachel!"

The child looked up, her eyes wide and worried when she realized what she'd said. Rachel was quickly heading for tears while she answered, "Sorry."

Cuddy brought the girl onto her lap, "That's your warning, I don't want to hear it again."

"OK."

"Show me what you guys made."

Rachel jumped off Cuddy's lap, going to her toys and saying things that she was obviously parroting from House.

After Rachel was asleep, Cuddy felt like she'd learned new information but still didn't have any answers.

He was asleep in his lounge chair the next morning when she went to work. She sat down in front of him. Without opening his eyes he said, "Chase, you smell pretty today." When his eyes opened, a smirk flashed across his face, and he whispered, "Hey."

"Hey."

"I couldn't make it home. My patient-"

"You can wait for test results at home just as easily as you can wait for them here. If we're going to talk, let's not start with lies."

"It's not a lie. I was here, working on the case." He closed his eyes so he could go back to sleep and ignore her questions.

"Is this about the wedding? We can postpone."

"I'd rather just get it over with."

"How romantic."

"You know what I mean."

"So what…you want to go to a courthouse for the piece of paper so you don't have to think about it anymore?"

"No…I want to check on my patient so I don't have to think about it anymore," he replied before he walked out of his office and down the hall.

He came to her office an hour later. "I'm going to go home to get some sleep. Everything is fine, there's nothing to worry about," he stated.

"Probably a great time to be there…since I'm here. Then you can come back to work as soon as I come home. With any luck, we can avoid seeing each other for several years."

"I'm not avoiding you."

"Call it what you want."

"Not avoiding you…I'm avoiding fights. So far it's not working out very well."

"You're avoiding fights?"

"I have to go," he said as he left.

She worked late that night, discovering that he never actually went home. When she was ready to leave, he was sleeping up in his office again. She sat on his foot stool in front of his chair and nudged his leg. "Talk to me," she said when he peeked through his eyelids at her.

Keeping his head back and eyes closed, he answered, "You've always looked great in security lights."

"Thanks. You've always looked great passed out in that chair. I've fantasized about ways to wake you up here."

"Really?" his eyes popped open. "When did these thoughts start?"

"Years ago. Before we were dating."

"I'll close my eyes, pretend to be asleep and you can show me what you mean."

"A few hours ago you didn't even want to talk to me and now you want to have sex with me?"

"Works for me."

"I tend to appreciate it when we're on speaking terms."

"You're forgetting that night after I made your sister cry. You and I

had angry sex. Phenomenal angry sex."

"I like angry sex. I actually, on occasion, love angry sex, but we were still talking."

"You argued with me the entire way home."

"Arguing is still talking. I can deal with the things you say, I can't deal with the things you don't. I don't know what is really going on when you won't say anything."

"It doesn't matter what I want."

"It doesn't matter to me or in general? I don't understand what brought this on."

"My entire life is what brought it on. I've learned what to expect. I know it's going to go wrong, I just don't know when."

She looked on somberly and answered, "Life has taught me to never, ever let down my guard, but if I stay guarded at all times, I'll lose you. Your expectation that things will go wrong can poison this. I don't want that for us. I don't want distrust and silence. I don't know what's going on in your head."

"I can't see in your head either."

Cuddy picked up her phone as a victorious expression emerged, "Hang on."

"What are you doing?"

"Checking the scheduler."

"What scheduler?"

"If you would have gone to the staff meeting yesterday, you'd know about our new mobile scheduler." She nodded and held out her hand.

"You need change for the vending machine?" he asked.

"Come with me."

He stood up and trudged along, "Whatever it is, forget it. Go home."

She didn't respond, taking him down to the MRI room.

"Are you trying to convince me with workplace sex?" he asked.

"Better," she said before she went to the computer at the MRI station and started making selections, "I'm going to let you see inside my head."

She could have had sex with him, and it would have helped for the moment. It always did for a little while. Sex could help distract him from pain, stress or sadness, it could help him feel connected with her, it almost always improved his mood at least a little. She didn't want to improve his mood. She wanted to give him power, proof that would last longer than a few hours. With House, she guessed, if there was proof, it would have to be scientific.

"This is the new fMRI software. We're one of the test sites. Check it out, I'll be back," she said.

When Cuddy returned, her jewelry was gone and she was in a gown, hopping up on the MRI bed.

"How is scanning your brain going to help?" House asked.

"Did you check out the fMRI stuff?"

"Yes, it's very exciting."

"Psych is doing some research on different conditions and the perception of lying."

"So they're using your MRI to research crazy people's perceptions of morality?"

"No. They're using my MRI to see how different brains process lies. Are the lies believed to be truth, does the subject know they are lying, do certain neurological conditions or structural abnormalities impact these perceptions? Things like that."

"Nifty," he yawned.

"You have ten minutes. You need to establish some control questions, you can ask anything, provided that you can accept the answer."

"You're going to let me polygraph you?"

"It might not be as precise as that, it's new science. It's the best I can do in the middle of the night."

His eyes widened with complete surprise, "You're joking."

"I'm not."

"This isn't an approved use of hospital equipment."

"Further proof of what you mean to me. Like I said, you only have ten minutes before the next appointment is scheduled. Do you want to keep analyzing my motivations or do you want to get started?"

He spoke to her through a speaker, "And I can ask you anything?"

"Yes as long as you're sure you want the answer."

"What's your kid's name?"

"Rachel."

"Who's the most amazing diagnostician?"

"You are," she sighed.

"I think I just captured the first fMRI image of an eye roll. Printing that one for the photo album."

"Fantastic."

"Does this illicit use of the MRI make you uncomfortable?"

"Yes."

"So what will you do if I decide to spend the next ten minutes asking about your hidden desires and previous sexual experiences?"

"If that's what you want to know, House," she replied, disappointedly. "The ten minutes are yours, so ask whatever you want."

She braced herself for whatever questions he was about to deliver, and then he said, "If I was on that table, what would you ask me?"

"Doesn't me asking you questions defeat the purpose of this exercise?"

"Nope."

"I'd ask you if you wanted this. If you wanted me and Rachel, and a wedding…so much domesticity."

"Of course I do. I'm with you. If I didn't want to be, I wouldn't."

"You went to see Rachel, but still avoided me. Maybe it isn't family life you're avoiding."

"She's just a kid. I didn't want her to think I left when I finally convinced her that I wasn't going anywhere."

"So you're not unhappy with family life, you're just avoiding me? What about our conversation the other day bothered you? You were fine, and we started talking about the wedding, and then you switched off."

"I'm not avoiding you. I told you. I'm avoiding fights."

"Fights about what?"

"Your wedding venues were nauseating. A stuffy library at an art museum? A winery that's so uptight that I don't think they'll let me in?"

"So where do you want to get married? Funland?"

"Better than the library."

"Why not just say that? You never shy away from confrontation. You're always the first to tell me when you think I'm being an idiot. So much so, that my daughter called me an idiot today, and she sounded exactly like you."

"She is smoking way too much."

"Not her voice, I meant her tone…the way she said it. And why would you avoid an argument about something like that?"

"I just want to get to the wedding, so I decided not to tell you that the places you picked were pretentious and boring. The only way to avoid saying that, because it is painfully true, is to avoid talking altogether."

"You…want to get to the wedding?"

"I want to know what it feels like before it's gone. Like I said, it's going to come crashing down. I'm trying to delay the end long enough to have it for a little longer. My other family was stuck with me, you guys actually chose to include me. I never really thought I'd have it, but now that I can, I want it."

"Why does everything have to get fucked up?"

"It's just life, Cuddy. Empires rise and fall, days start and end, tides ebb and flow. Most things have this great peak moment, and, if you're lucky, a gradual descent. If you aren't lucky it's a sudden fall. What else is supposed to happen once we get there?"

"Who says our peak moment is imminent? Maybe it's not the wedding or something that has already happened. Maybe these are all just stops along the path to that peak moment."

"If you're right, and I can have what I want, what am I supposed to do then? I'm always trying to get what I want. I don't know what to do if I have it."

"You can keep…wanting more. You can decide that what you want is to be there to watch Rachel grow. You can decide that you want to know if I'll still look good naked when I'm sixty-five. You can decide that you want to know what it feels like to celebrate twenty years with a women who you can fight with all day, every day…and know that she'll still love you tomorrow. You can decide that you want to prove to every single person who looks at us with doubt that they are wrong. I have news for you, there are a lot of people who think we will never make it. Enjoy what you have, but don't ever decide that it's enough."

House heard a timer ding and Cuddy said, "Two more minutes."

"Why did Rachel call you an idiot?"

He could hear Cuddy take a very long inhale before she responded, "I asked her if she knew that you loved her."

He was silent for at least twenty seconds before Cuddy said, "You're almost out of time…you don't want to ask me anything else?"

"Do you…know that I love you?"

"Yes, you idiot."

House smirked as he stared at the image.

"I'm going to get up. No final question about my true feelings about something, the things I feel guilty for, my hidden desires and fantasies? One last question before time runs out?"

His voice was low and thoughtful as he answered, "I know all about the things you feel guilty for. You can't hide your feelings from me, and I can always tell when you lie, so I don't need an fMRI. And it is so much more fun for me to figure out your hidden desires and fantasies personally, one night at a time. Wouldn't you agree, Cuddy?" He studied the monitor and then observed, "Hmm…would you look at all those pretty colors."

"What?"

"I mention the idea of sex and decoding your dirty little secrets personally, and suddenly your brain looks like a fucking fireworks display. You might actually be more sex-obsessed than I am."

"Obviously. I'm thinking about having sex with you right now," she answered calmly, waiting one breath before adding, "I wish I could see your scan."

"Well, the fMRI shows blood flow in the brain, so if you looked at mine right now, all you'd see is a massive dark spot since the blood has left for other locations."

House shut down the machine and helped Cuddy down from the table. "Did anyone ever tell you how hot you look in hospital gowns with those little blue flowers on them?"

"I wear these every chance I get. So yeah, they tell me all the time."

"Bring one home," he said while he grabbed her waist and pulled her toward him.

"I guess if you can read me so well, this whole thing was a waste of time."

"It wasn't a waste. You were willing to do it, which tells me more than any fMRI image could. Now what did you say you were just thinking about while you were on the table?"

His mouth was so close to hers when they heard someone at the door and she slipped away from him for the dressing rooms. Some of his team came in, "I told you it was him," Thirteen bragged. "Cuddy's not ordering MRIs at one am. You figured out something with our patient?"

"Does Cuddy know you have her code for the scheduler?" Chase asked. "It was clearly booked under her name."

"More importantly," Taub added, "what other codes or pieces of information that might be useful to us do you have? Can you write it into your vows that she needs to share all of these codes with you?"

"I don't have the code…yet," House answered. "She actually reserved the MRI."

"Right," Taub answered, stalling when Cuddy came out from the back.

She answered, "I did it. Does someone have a problem with that?"

"Is everything OK?" Chase asked.

"I think they were just doing some research on work-life balance. Or maybe it's take your lover to work day," Taub said to himself.

"We were testing out the new fMRI and looking at word association," House said. "Interestingly enough, when I tried to associate the words 'Taub' and 'lover', Cuddy's scan actually showed signs of brain death. I wasn't sure if I could get her back."

"I'm going to go finish a few things," Cuddy told House before she left.

House watched her leave, frustrated that they'd been interrupted. There were things that she'd said, thoughts that were unfinished. Sometimes she could make him feel like there was a chance it wasn't all going to come crashing down. He was just considering following her when Thirteen said impatiently, "House? What do you think?"

Uncertain about what he'd missed while he was thinking, he said, "Yea, do that."

"Do what?" Taub asked. "We just asked what you thought we should do."

"I know," House replied shortly, "that's what I said. I think you should wait until I tell you what I think you should do."

"Right," Chase said, dragging out the word.

"You could let us go home and sleep for a few hours," Taub suggested.

"Go check for the results and meet me in my office," House ordered before he gathered the images he'd printed from Cuddy's scan and limped away.

Later when he went to find Cuddy, she was caught in the middle of an argument in front of her office. House watched while she yelled at two doctors who were squabbling about something. Cuddy was frustrated, her face a little flushed while she dealt with the irritation. She was authoritative and angry. House wondered if anything was hotter than authoritative, angry Cuddy.

She ordered the two fighting doctors into her office and saw House waiting. Pausing for a second, she said to him, "Is it urgent?"

He looked around to make sure they were alone and whispered, "Do you keep wanting? If we have this wedding and honeymoon and come back home, when we return, will you still want more?"

"House, every day I see you with Rachel, every morning when I wake up in our home with you, every single day I see you and I know you are still clean…is one more day than I ever thought I would have. But…I still want a lot more days. I guess what they say is true," she added with a knowing smirk, "Cuddy is never really satisfied."

His somber look became cocky and he said, "At times, Cuddy is very, very satisfied."

"But only temporarily and then she's back and wanting more."

"I like demanding women."

"Then you're in the right place. Which reminds me, I'm leaving here at seven. I rescheduled my whole morning. After Rachel goes to school, we need to have sex, sleep, wake up, and have more sex before I have to come back to work for an afternoon meeting. Stop avoiding and come home."

"I think I'm physically incapable of passing that up."

"Good," she said as she started to step away, "but for now, I need to go sort out a problem that has nothing to do with you. Those are rare, so I'll savor it."

"What are they fighting about?"

"Patel thinks Williams raided his department's supplies and stole a gift basket that he got from his pharm rep in the process. He came in here overnight to gather evidence and ran into Williams. Williams swears he didn't do it."

"Why does Patel think it was Williams?"

"Because two patients told Patel that they saw a doctor take the items, but he said his name was Dr. Williams and his name badge was in plain sight. Patel initially thought it was you, to be honest so did I, but the patients said the doctor didn't have a cane or a limp."

"Clearly it wasn't me then," House answered as he backed away with an innocent grin that made him look very guilty.

"Was it you?" Cuddy asked, following him.

"Did I, personally, go into Patel's office and take those things? Absolutely not. I couldn't! I have both a cane and a limp. So…"

"You sent someone else to steal his stuff! You owe Patel those supplies…and the gift basket."

House limped toward the elevator, "I have to go. I'm doing this for you…for us."

"How's that, exactly?"

"I'm leaving you wanting more so that I, too, can savor the feeling of wanting more. You know how I love to follow your advice. Plus I have to finish up some stuff so I can leave at seven for that sex-sleep-sex thing you want. I just wanted to cuddle, but I know how you are."

Cuddy sighed as she looked at the two doctors still arguing inside her office, and turned back to House just as the elevator doors closed, "See you at seven. Oh, and House?"

He stopped the doors from closing with his cane and asked, "Let me guess, you can't wait until seven?"

"You don't like the places I suggested for the wedding, fine. You come up with a few ideas."

"I'm way ahead of you," he answered while the doors closed in front of him.