Ch 26: Typical House Party

"You have to tell her about the pills, House," Wilson declared over lunch. He had been going on and on about House having taken 2 pills for nearly two days and House was becoming quite fed up with it. He glared at his best friend as though daring him to continue talking. "I'm serious…this rant is about getting Cuddy back. If she finds out in some way other than you telling her flat out she won't be as happy to take you back into her bedroom."

"That's not what I want to get back into," House threw back at him. "Ok…I do want back there, but that's not the only thing I want back into." He sighed and Wilson felt bad for all his nagging. "I even miss that little urchin," House admitted, his head in his hands.

"Tell her that," Wilson suggested.

"Tell me what?" a feminine voice asked from behind the oncologist. House sat up straight and looked incredulously at the woman he loved.

"Cuddy," he breathed.

"Hey," there was a slight edge in her voice and he couldn't tell if it was because she was aroused by his disheveled looks or because it hurt to be around him. Considering what he had said, he assumed it was the latter.

"I'll just let you two catch up," Wilson announced, standing up. He walked away, leaving House and Cuddy alone to talk. She took Wilson's vacant seat and looked at him very carefully.

"I didn't think I could see you again so soon," she told him quietly. "I missed you though."

"I've missed you too. SO much."

"And I know that what you said was done without thinking, but it hurt me, House."

"And I'm so very sorry," he said, taking her small hands in his own. "You have to believe me."

"I do. But that doesn't change the fact that you would or could say something so cruel in the future simply because you were mad at me. I don't think I could take a repeat of this."

"It won't happen ever again," he promised.

"You can't make that promise," she said sadly. "And I don't think we should continue…"

House cut her off with a half cry that stole her breath. "Please don't do this…don't tell me it's over."

"You'll just keep hurting me, even if you do care," she pointed out.

"I would never hurt you intentionally," he told her, desperate for some kind of rescue. Some sign that she would give him another chance.
"It's the unintentional that I can't deal with," she said, looking at the table. House's breath caught in his throat and he tried to roughly swallow the lump that was forming there. She looked back up at him with a fierce determination in her gray eyes. "I'm sorry."

House looked more vulnerable then than she had ever seen him in their twenty odd years of mutual acquaintance. He just kept looking at her with his piercing blue eyes and she felt it when he crumbled. She stood, unable to be around him any longer, and walked out of the cafeteria. Wilson had been at a table in the corner awaiting the verdict and rushed over as he saw his best friend fall apart at that table.

House went numb when she walked away and barely felt Wilson guiding him up to his office. He lay down on Wilson's couch not knowing what to do about his life. "I'm sorry," Wilson kept telling him over and over again. It didn't make him feel any better of course. He simply lay there staring out into space and blinking rapidly.

"How could you do that to him?" Wilson raged at his boss. He had left House lying on the couch and stormed down to Cuddy's office, furious and in utter disbelief that she would give up on their relationship so easily. The dark haired woman looked at him like he had gone mad. She was on the phone with a benefactor and politely offered to call them back as Wilson seethed in front of her, waiting on an answer she didn't have.

"He hurt me," she told him. "I know you'll forgive him anything, but he'll just keep hurting me until I call it off. We might as well end it here."
"He's destroyed in my office. Can't talk or do anything but stare at the wall. You've succeeded where Stacy failed. Congratulations! House will never be the same again."

"Good. Maybe he'll learn a lesson!" she threw back at him. "He can't just go on doing what he wants if he wants me. He couldn't keep his mouth shut for even 8 months. How can I expect him to deal with problems that come along if he can't be civil to me over a disagreement?"

"You're a bitch…a cold, heartless bitch!" Wilson snapped and walked out of her office, leaving her staring after him.