Disclaimer: I do not own House MD or any of the characters, but I sure as hell wouldn't mind owning Hugh Laurie!

A/N: Hallo … so, firstly, sorry for the huge wait! (and, I do know that it was less than a week, but if I were you, I'd consider that huge and be angry at the writer for not getting to work sooner …) Secondly, thank you all SOOOOO much for your incredible, fantastic, spectacular, amazing, fabulous, and brilliant reviews (and yes, I did run out of adjectives right there … bare in mind that it is 1 am and it's amazing that I got those 6 out at all). I really do apreceate all you guys reading this and telling me what you think. I'm sure you all know (those of you who write), how much more you feel like writing when you know someone's reading … :D so yea, thanks!

Also, I know this chappie's a little shorter … but it is pretty huddyliscious (If I do say so myself :p) … ok, so maybe there may be a little 'negative' note in there … but I think you all know me well enough already to know that it had to come at some point … and that this isn't even all that bad … (Muahahaha) …

So yea, please keep telling me what you think, and I'd also like to know what you guys think/would like to see happen. I have a pretty fixed idea of where I'm going … but one major decision in the story has already been altered due to a couple of reviews (and no, I won't tell you what that decision was … yet) so who knows, your opinion could matter :P

Anyways, Enjoy!

"Greg …" she whispered in between kisses. It felt so good to use his name.

"Hm?" he hummed in reply as he captured her mouth again and again. He had not planned for this to last that long, he hadn't even planned to kiss her in the first place, but when he'd felt her hand on his back, when she'd told him that he was the one she wanted there, there was little else he could do.

Standing by her door with her in his arms, House had to wonder how he'd lived so long without that. Without feeling her perfect body against his, fitting perfectly, even with a pregnant belly. It was really remarkable.

"Greg … uh" she started again as he decided to put her mouth to better use. He loved her, he really did, but if she kept talking, he'd have to get angry.

Cuddy wasn't sure what she wanted to say. Did she want to ask him what was going on? That'd be pretty stupid. Did she want to tell him that her feet were killing her and that moving 'this' somewhere else would be a good idea? Yea, she probably did. But it didn't seem like she needed to. Because just as he moved his kisses to her neck, he began his slow limp forwards and she backed up with him. If it weren't for the incredible amount of romance surrounding it, the image would probably be extremely funny: diagnostician limps forwards, moves head to one side to get better access, administrator limps backwards, pulls him along with her which causes him to limp, again, and the hilarious, odd dance continues until they reach Cuddy's room.

When Cuddy felt the back of her legs hit the mattress, though, she opened her eyes. She was now lying on her back, and House had just settled beside her, one hand wrapped around her growing abdomen, pulling her to him. 'This' couldn't happen. Not because she didn't want it to, oh she did want it to. But because she was 6 months pregnant, it was a risky pregnancy, she had no idea what House was doing, or what any of this meant. She wasn't about to let him take this any further, not again, not after the consequences of the last time. But it felt so good in his arms. The trail of kisses that he left along her neck as he reached her jaw and kissed his way back to her lips was absolutely mind bogglingly fantastic.

"House?" she asked quietly as he began his path back down her jaw line "House … w …"

But House merely looked up at her with a small smile. Not that one-sided grin that made her go insane, no little glint of mischief in his eyes, just a smile, just the simple kind that could melt any woman's heart.

And then House did something she hadn't expected. Every single time, since their college days, that Cuddy had had this man's lips on hers, she'd known what to expect. There had always been some attempt at something more, some had slipping where it shouldn't, some comment that wouldn't be accepted in public. But this, this smiling, caring man who was now pulling her further onto the bed so that they were both leaning/lying against the head board, this she hadn't expected, this was different.

As the kissing slowed from its earlier frenzy, to separate small pecks and they opened their eyes and looked at each other, House pulled Cuddy closer to his chest and kissed the top of her head. For another long while, neither of them spoke.

"Greg?" spoke Cuddy again, not liking the silence anymore "…uh … thanks for staying"

House made no sound in return, and, from her position on his chest, Cuddy couldn't see his face. But she felt the light pressure of his chin on her head, and knew he was grinning.

Minutes later she was asleep. Outside, the sky was dark, covered with clouds, heavy with rain. But neither of them cared, if anything, the bad weather was welcome. It gave House an extra reason to stay, after all, it wouldn't be a very smart move for him to riding his bike in the rain.

It was only two hours later that Cuddy awoke again. The sight that met her eyes as she inclined her head a little backwards to look at the face of the man on whom she was sleeping, was absolutely breathtaking. House was asleep, his head tilted, at an angle, against the head board, his mouth slightly opened and, every now and then, a little sound, maybe snoring, escaped his lips. Cuddy had to smile, this was probably as vulnerable as she'd ever get to see him. And she definitely liked what she saw.

As she shifted a little, trying not to wake him, Cuddy felt something hard in his pocket. At first, she thought it'd be his Vicodin bottle, and so, snaking her hand between them, she tried to shift it to another side of the pocket so that it wasn't sticking into her side. But as she touched the small, hard object, she realised that it wasn't a Vicodin bottle, it was actually something rectangular. Long and thin. Pulling it out of House's pocket, Cuddy found herself staring at the man's iPod. She knew House loved music, almost as much as he loved solving puzzles and being right. And she had also learnt, during the twenty odd years that she'd known him, that the music he listened to at a particular moment was very telling about his mood.

So turning another little bit so that she could place an ear bud into the ear that was lying closest to House, Cuddy turned the player on.

This particular iPod, one of three that House owned, had been a birthday present from Wilson; one of the few that House had actually unwrapped and kept. It was a good replacement for his old, severely scratched Shuffle, and it made it much easier to find songs.

Selecting the 'recently listened to' playlist, Cuddy scanned through the titles, and found herself extremely surprised at some of them.

"Baba O'Reiley" – The Who

"Anybody Seen my Baby" – Rolling Stones

"Sympathy for the Devil" – Rolling Stones

"Desecration Smile" – Red Hot Chilli Peppers

"A Banda" – Chico Buarque

"If tomorrow never comes" – Ronan Keating

"And so it goes" – Billy Joel

"Running up that Hill" – Placebo

"Shook me all night long" – ACDC

"Hotel California" – The Eagles

"Mad World" – Gary Jules

"Suicide is Painless" – Johnny Mandel

"Wires" – Athlete

"Can't always get what you want" – Rolling Stones

"Passing Afternoon" – Iron & Wine

"Other side" – Red Hot Chilli Peppers

The Rolling Stones, Cuddy had expected, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, she got, ACDC, made sense too. The Eagles weren't his usual type, but the particular version of 'Hotel California' featured Eric Clapton's guitar playing, so it kinda made sense. Billy Joel was a piano master, House had to like him, The Who was a must in House's iPod, Chico Buarque was understandable seeing as House spoke some Portuguese … but the others? Ronan Keating, Placebo, Gary Jules, Johnny Mandel, Iron & Wine and Athlete? Those were unexpected. Particularly because of the songs that were listed from them. All of them slow, somewhat angst-y songs. All of them portraying House's character, the one that he, apparently, knew he had but never admitted to. The wounded, lost man who had been too hurt in the past to love in the future.

Cuddy smiled. This felt like a little victory for her. She had expected House's iPod to be an interesting source of information, but this told her way more than she'd expected. This told her that he had been thinking about his screwed up lack-of-relationships status. That he had been, in some way, perhaps, trying to evaluate himself, listening to songs that reflected what everyone else saw in him.

But that one song. The one that wasn't so much a reflection of House's character as of … well, of what Cuddy hoped he was thinking and feeling. "If tomorrow never comes". Just the title scared her. If tomorrow never came, would he know how much she loved him? Would he ever doubt the way she felt about him?

It was with these thoughts, and a hand gliding over her stomach, that Cuddy selected that song out of all the others and, looking up at the man still asleep beneath her, closed her eyes and drifted back to sleep.

In a brief moment of consciousness, House heard the words drifting from the lose ear-piece hanging between him and Cuddy. He had lost love once in his life. First against his will, the second time because of his own, stupid desire to be alone; to be miserable. He didn't want to do that again. He wanted to avoid that circumstance, the one he'd been in the first time Stacy had left, where he had no second chance, where he had been in so much pain and so angry at the world, that he just hadn't been able to tell her how he felt. But then his earlier thoughts invaded his mind. He did want to tell Cuddy how he felt, that is, if she hadn't figured it out yet – the woman was smart. But he couldn't. He'd made a decision. And if nothing else, if he never did any other honourable thing in his life, he was going to live up to his decision, to the promise he'd made himself. He wasn't going to put himself in a position where he, she or both, would end up hurt. When that baby that he was growing to love so much was born, he'd bow out gracefully. It was the best. It really was …

TBC

… muahahahahaha

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