Disclaimer: I do not own House

A/N: Alright special thanks to Southern Cowgirl and not - lupus . everybody - lies for reading over the chapter after I spent an hour editing XD haha. I am so slow when it comes to MY stories. XD Thanks to everyone who reviewed to the last chapter for the all the encouragement. I'd also like to thank everyone who added me or my story to their favorites and/or alerts. I encourage you guys to review too :D If you don't read ML or haven't read the news on my profile I'll be trying to update EVERYDAY for my week break. I tried to update this sooner but well I couldn't find a beta so I tried myself lol. Sorry for any OOCness, and there is a little in here, and I hope you all like it!


House leaned back in his chair as he waited for the last of his employees to come in. He had his girlfriend, Sarah, on his lap as she giggled and got several incredulous looks from some employees, not believing that he was actually dating someone who looked like Sarah.

Sarah had a well built body. She worked out everyday for at least an hour at the hospital gym. She was in her mid thirties and looked like she was only in her late twenties. Her body was slim and slender, had long arms and legs and whenever she walked it looked more graceful than Ms. Universe herself. She had soft curls of chocolate-milky hair that shined like gold in the sunlight and had deep azure eyes that even out-blued the sky. Her face was blemish-free and looked like a pool of smooth cream with a strawberry toned pair of lips. She was cheerful, kind, loving and almost the complete opposite of House to most people. The only person who House even thought of could compete with the young nurse was currently not in the room.

Finally he saw his last employee as she sashayed in and skipped past her desk as she headed straight for his. Cuddy tossed the container onto the desk and didn't bother to even glance over at House. Though he could now clearly see her paling, weak skin, Sarah didn't seem to compare. There was just something about Cuddy that House couldn't move past but the cryptic thought had disappeared once Sarah looked at him with a cocked brow.

"Oh, are these your mommy's infamous double chocolate chip cookies. Awe, I knew she cared." House stated as he opened the container and completely ignored his girlfriend. "Hey you greedy cookie monster, I know your mother loves me more than this. You stole some."

Cuddy rolled her eyes unenergetically as she rested her head in her hands feeling bored. "She wants you to call her later. She wants to make sure I didn't put any arsenic in them," She stated dully as she ignored his accusation.

House returned her signature eye roll and sent a small playful look as he challenged her. "Please you don't have the guts to poison me." He said as he threw a cookie into his mouth. He took a few small bites before he spitted it into the trash. "What the hell did you put in that thing?" He asked her in disbelief.

"Me," Cuddy asked in mock shock. "Why Dr. House, I would never have the guts to poison you. That is my mother's cookies pure and sure." She stated with sarcasm as she smirked her quirky little grin. "If you don't want them, I'd be happy to take them off your hands but my mother would be so disappointed. She remembered how much you loved those thirty years go. She might get so offended she might actually hate you and for once take my side." She spat vengefully.

"Now Cuddy, you should play nice. Especially with me, I am your boss." He saw her roll her eyes and suddenly saw that the tiny spark of energy in her eyes had suddenly disappeared. When he last saw her as his boss he remembered her eyes practically glowed as the energy passed though them. How hadn't he noticed that they lost their spark, their flare, the liveliness that seemed to dance so freely and beautifully in her eyes?

"House," Sarah called for the fifth time which caused his train of thought to crash into a brick wall. He looked over at her and she held in her anger. "I have to get to work. I'll see you at lunch." She leaned down and kissed him feverishly. She then began to walk out as she sent Cuddy a cold, hard glare.

Cuddy ignored it and kept her eyes on the board and away from her boss. House began and explained the next case before he received several diagnoses. He listed them on the board and saw that Cuddy just sat there uninterested, and House had the sudden urge to make her interested. He wanted to do something, anything, to get her to show him any energy at all, even if it was just a tiny glow on the fire.

After several hours and three tests later, House finally let one of the idiots he kept run diabetes test and told everyone to go to lunch as the only idiot works his ass off. He watched as the brunette hurried out before anyone else and he followed her quickly. He stopped when he saw that she had run into someone and thought that they were being a little too nice but he stayed and watched their interactions.

Cuddy had rushed down the halls, knowing House had been following her, and accidentally ran into another doctor. He had bumped into a nurse and all three were now scrambling to pick up papers. After the nurse got all of her files back in order Cuddy and the familiar man worked on his own. Cuddy laughed softly as she looked at him apologetically and he gave her forgiving smile.

"You're Lisa Cuddy, right?" The man asked. "House told me a bit about you, I'm that doctor from yesterday, William Vinson at your service ma'am." He stated as he offered her a hand off the ground. He pulled her up and shook her hand accordingly. "Why are you in such a rush?" He saw her give him a look and nodded as he said, "House." He heard her chuckle and an idea popped into his head. "Well how about I treat you to some lunch. You look a bit stressed and weak."

Cuddy tried to take the comment as caring instead of an insult and gave him a small smile. She was about to decline he's generous offer but her stomach decided for her and interrupted with a large growl. She saw him extend his arm for her to take and she gave a soft chuckle. "I'd love to grab something to eat." She smiled as he led her to the cafeteria.

From the corner, House watched and gave a low, unexpected growl as he glared at his soon to be ex-friend. He balled his hands into a fist angrily, though he didn't know why. It wasn't as if he had any feelings for Cuddy. He suddenly jumped when he felt a hand on his back. He had startled the person from behind and heard her high pitch squeak of a squeal.

"Sarah, please don't surprise me like that." House told her as he turned and smiled at her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and she wrapped hers around his neck as he gave her a chaste kiss. "Is there anything you need?" He asked as a small smile graced his lips, he almost forgot about his friend and Cuddy walking off arm in arm.

"Sweetie," Sarah looked at him a bit hurt. "We were supposed to meet up for lunch… its lunch." She told him. She noticed that he completely forgot and gave him a small glare. "Is it that woman?" She accused. "I saw how you looked and talked to her! What was that about?" She half yelled jealously.

House sighed as he tried to calm his girlfriend down. "Sarah, its nothing, she is nothing. Just an old friend, acquaintance really, you are all that matters right now." He smiled and lied as he saw a smile replaced the anger on Sarah's face. He leaned down and gave her a soft kiss as she gave a small giggle. "Come on let's go get some lunch maybe that'll make you feel better." Sarah nodded and House led her by the small of her back to the cafeteria.

His mind was suddenly filled with images of Cuddy and Vinson together. Talking, laughing, smiling, being close and now he suddenly wanted to rush down to the cafeteria and rip them apart before they became something more than colleagues. He took a deep breath as he tried to control his unknown anger and walked into the cafeteria. As he and Sarah got in line to get their lunches he immediately saw Vinson sitting and talking to Cuddy, how the sight sickened him.

They grabbed their lunches and sat at a near by booth, House made it as discreet as possible that he was watching Cuddy intently. He noticed Vinson suddenly stand up and give her a small wave goodbye as he joined Sarah and House. There was a smile on his face and House suddenly felt surprisingly suspicious and held himself back from grabbing his friend by the collar and questioning his every move since he ran into Cuddy.

"So that's Cuddy, huh?" Vinson asked House as he saw Sarah cringe in disgust. "She is what you said and more." He emphasized on 'more' and laughed when he saw Sarah's nostrils flare up angrily.

"She is nothing." Sarah stated obviously envious of Cuddy's sudden popularity between the two men. "She has pale skin, is wrinkled and have you seen what she's wearing? Is she some kind of hooker Greg?" She let out in a breath as she began to breathe deeply with anger. "And if you ask me she has an attitude and is so rude, I hate her." She stated out plainly.

"Well no one asked you," Vinson shot. He hated Sarah. Something about her, just rubbed him the wrong way and he could tell she wasn't really the kind of girl his buddy would date. When you were left alone with the woman, you would see that she could be just as mean as the wicked witch of the west. He then turned to Cuddy and back to this friend. "Hey who's that guy who's sitting with Lisa now?"

House looked and saw the idiot who asked to test for diabetes with Cuddy. He balled his hand into a fist once more under the table as he watched the man talk to Cuddy, as if he cared. He saw Cuddy as she tilted her head back and she laughed hardily before she leaned forward to talk to the man. House then realized that she was making plans with him and cursed himself for not knowing how to read lips. He furrowed his brows as his two employees made plans for a date. He found himself hating the man for no apparent reason and decided to conclude that it was just because he was an imbecile.

The man suddenly came towards House and showed him the patient files. House apologized to Sarah as he stood up and called for all his employees to go back to the lecture hall. He watched Cuddy and that unknown doctor attentively and smirked at the chance to publicly humiliate the man that had just sealed his faith by asking out the one other woman House couldn't careless and at the same time couldn't care more about, Cuddy. He followed his employees back to the lecture room and stood in front of them before slamming his cane into the ground.

"Alright everyone, thanks to Dr. Idiot over here," He said pointing to the man. "Your time to cure the patient before he dies has been dramatically cut because he wanted to test for diabetes we knew he didn't have." He announced which made the man avert his eyes regretfully. House smirked, if the man couldn't take a little humiliation he'd never stand more than two dates with Cuddy. Not that he really cared though.

"Yes but because of the test Dr. Andrews ran he found out that the patient had high cholesterol which eliminates half the remaining diagnoses from the list. So now we only have three possible choices and they aren't that hard to test for." Cuddy interjected as she came to her colleague's rescue.

"Awe Cuddy, are you sticking up for your new boyfriend?" House asked her in mock adoration. "You know it is very unprofessional to date the people you work with. Remember what happened to your favorite people Cameron and Chase, oh and let's not forget Fore-teen, they might get hurt if we do." House stated.

Cuddy laughed and was about to object to his accusation but a smirk suddenly appeared on her face. "Why do you care? Are you jealous… again?" She asked with a speck of excitement that appeared in her eyes. "You really need to learn to get over me. You have a witch—I mean girlfriend for crying out loud." She said not missing a beat.

House smirked as he masked a smile seeing that he was able to bring even just the tiniest atoms of animation into her beautiful bluish-gray eyes. "Why would I be jealous? I'm not the one single and likely to die old and alone." He stated coldly trying to see if he could bring the color that had enchanted Cuddy's beautiful face back as well. "And I'm sure when you let him in your pants after the first date that he wouldn't mind you screaming my name like you did with your other, how many was it after me, two boyfriends?"

Cuddy scoffed in disbelief as she thought of something that would hurt House twice as bad. "I never screamed your name. You were just practice and really, that one night stand felt like a five minute stand." She told him. "And if you don't believe me ask Lucas. I screamed his name everytime." She bragged as she knew that that memory would sting House like a bee.

His face suddenly became serious as he began to remember the one time he almost actually lost her and to his friend nonetheless. He only got lucky that time. He knew that if she really wanted to Cuddy and Lucas could have gone all the way and could have had a family together. They could be married by now, have two kids and even a dog if Cuddy hadn't broken things off for reasons that were still unknown to him.

"Well you know I had a crappy ass family," House stated which caused Cuddy to cock her brow. "But at least I had a mother that cared." He stated referring to the one insult he could hold over her as long as he wanted.

Cuddy's eyes got a bit teary as she regretted her comment to him and wished she would have just shut up then. "Well you know what they say," Cuddy paused as she as she furrowed her brows angrily. "Like father, like son." She stated causing House to look at her with more hurt.

House kept his eyes looked on Cuddy's watery eyes as he called out his command. "Go test the patient for the final three diagnoses. If they are all wrong then come back here and page me, if one of them is correct you can go home." House stated dully as kept his eyes on Cuddy.

His employees all dispatched to run their test and after another moment Cuddy turned away as well. She wiped away the water in her eyes that seemed to be too strong to hold back. House watched as she joined Dr. Andrews who put a comforting arm around her and shot him a threatening glare as they walked out of the room together. After they all left House followed and went to his office.

As they sat in the lab and waited for the results from their colleague Andrews put a hand over Cuddy's making her look up with teary eyes. She was good at hiding her emotions, but she couldn't hold them forever. He sighed as he gently caressed Lisa's hand and looked at her sympathetically.

"Lisa," He asked after a moment. "What happened to you and House? I mean in your letters from a few years ago all you could do was rave on about him and how great he is. Now it's like you hate him. Aunt Lauren thinks he's amazing, what did he do to you? Do you need me to kick his ass?" He said jokily making his younger cousin crack a smile. He then notice her eyes avert to the ground in sadness.

--

Flashback

Cuddy walked into the hospital and signed in. It was a regular day, and she was a bit late because Rachel refused to wake up that day. That was, until she found out she would be seeing her 'father' that day. She walked to her room, with a normal long, confident stride. She walked in, and was oddly unsurprised to see her employee, House, sitting on her couch waiting for her.

"Where's your precious angel?" She heard him ask her as she put her stuff down. She wasn't surprised that he asked. She had taken Rachel to work with her everyday since Rachel turned 4 and became extremely attached to her 'father.'

"Daddy," She heard her daughter yell as she ran into the room and jumped up into House's lap after hugging his leg. She caught a quick smile on his face and couldn't help but return it. She noticed that he had stopped paying attention to her and was now paying attention to the angel on his lap.

"Where's your daddy?" House asked. Cuddy had grown used to him asking that, it was a joke he liked to play with her. Some how he always knew where she'd grabbed onto him before he even saw them that day.

She heard Rachel giggle and reply, "Right here," While grabbing his nose. Her eyes grew wide as she saw her daughter holding a nose and House holding his face. She then realized it was another trick when she heard her daughter giggling.

"Why don't you go get me a lollipop, you know the kind I like." She saw him wink at her daughter. Rachel nodded enthusiastically and jumped off his lap. She ran out of the room to get her favorite doctor, well second favorite doctor, a lolli.

She held her head in her hands and her elbows prompted on her desk as she smiled admirably at House. She had dreamy look on her face, she knew it, and she didn't care if he caught it. She suddenly saw House look down and panic began to flow through her veins.

"I quit," She heard him say bluntly. She looked at him in shock and sadness. Sure they fought everyday, but she wanted him to go just as much as Rachel wanted to stay away from him. She looked at him to continue. "I'm sick of playing daddy for your little brat." He told her bluntly.

Cuddy gasped and looked at him in hurt and anger. "House, don't do this…" She shook her head and House averted his gaze. She caught a glimpse of sorrow in his eyes. "Rachel has fallen in love with you, you can't just leave her… leave me…" She said the last part quietly to herself.

"I told you," He repeated. "I am sick of playing that brats daughter." He said with anger and more feeling, obviously missing the last part of her sentence. Cuddy glared at him and held back her tears. Her eyes were already red and she had nothing but anger to let out.

"Just leave then," She screamed. "Get the hell out of here." She turned away and let a few tears fell down her face. She heard him limp off and close the doors. She sat on her couch and held her head in her hands as she began to sob. Her doors reopened, thinking it was him she looked up to see her daughter, looking at her with sadness. Rachel came up to her mother and hugged her as Cuddy continued to cry.

--

"It's nothing, Jacob" Cuddy sighed. "We just," She shrugged. "Went our different ways, after seeing his true, true colors I guess what I saw in the limelight wasn't as… amazing." She stated vaguely.

Andrews knew better than to pry when it came to his cousin's innermost secrets, but he was worried about her. He hadn't noticed it before, but his cousin seemed different. As if she wasn't the energetic, funny, sarcastic cousin he used to know and love. She seemed almost lifeless like a puppet and House was the puppet master.

"Got it," They heard their colleague – who had inconspicuously listened in on the conversation – say. "The patient has Lobstein syndrome," He announced. "I'll start the treatment." He told them. "You guys can go home, seems like you need some rest," He told Cuddy subtly caringly before he ran off.

Cuddy gave her cousin a small smile and a cheek-to-cheek kiss before getting up to get her things. Jacob watched as his dear, favorite cousin ran off to go home and take care of her little seven years old. After he couldn't see Lisa in sight he stood up with determination in his eyes. He knew better than to pry Lisa for information she wanted private, but that didn't mean there were other people that couldn't give him the info he wanted and needed.


A/N: Hehe so I know I said I'd go on about Vinson but hey we learned a little about him didn't we? lol I'd like to get your opinions and thoughts about Vinson, Sarah and Jacob. Who do you guy wanna hear more or less about hehe. All your reviews count and are all put into consideration while i write each and every chapter. I hope you all liked this story and please review!

-Jessica