Hi everyone!

Still reading this? I hope I haven't lost too many of you. I miss you! and I truly hope you're still enjoying this…

I tried to add this new part as fast as I could after the previous one, considering the crazy busy month I just had, but still, I know it was a long period of time, and then, I don't think you really paid attention, because you were all busy drinking happy cocktails of bliss in Huddy Heaven… Am I right? :-)

Well, if you were not, can I just say that I was! because personally, I'm on cloud nine since May, 17th and if it means anything positive at all, I think it gave me inspiration to write some new stories (one shots mostly)…

So, expect to hear from me in the next few weeks!

Now on to the NEW CHAPTER, where something about Wilson is revealed… And, we get to have a first glimpse at how things are going to be now that our "no longer secret couple" is back in PPTH full time…

** CHAPTER 67 **

"So, apart from the sex, did you at least do something, or did you and Yoko Ono just stay in bed the whole time?"

House shook his head disapprovingly and pushed the two French fries soaked with ketchup inside his mouth.

"I wouldn't want to sound like I'm teaching you anything, ladies' man," he mumbled, with his mouth full, "but you know you don't necessarily need to be in a bed to…"

"Fine. Stop! I get it!" Wilson exclaimed, waving his hands frantically in front of him, to brush House's graphic allusions away.

"Hey! You started it. I think it's time for you to face it."

"What?"

"You need to go out there and get some, too! I can't be your Kama Sutra substitute for the rest of your life. It would guarantee you great orgasms, though, but sadly they'd only be unreal… not that it's something you aren't familiar with already."

Wilson burst into a loud extravagant laughter, which stopped just after a few seconds, as abruptly as it had started. From the nearest tables, some heads turned in their direction and Wilson gave a quick, discomfited glance around him, as if he was apologizing for his unexpected outburst that seemed to have surprised even himself. House froze for a short moment, and studied his friend's face, a little bit startled.

"What's her name?" he suddenly inquired out of the blue.

"Whoa… What? What's whose name?" Wilson stuttered, taken aback.

"Come on! Don't be intentionally thick: the name of your new girlfriend of course!"

"I have no new girlfriend!"

"You have that dumb look on your face."

"Thank you!"

"And you just laughed at my joke."

"Usually, that's what people do…"

"No. Not at my jokes. And certainly not hysterically like you just did. People usually make a face. Shocked, disgusted, appalled-"

"Because you have an appalling sense of humor. But, strangely, I'm fine with it!"

"No. It wasn't even a good one."

"Ok. So what? Now you're gonna follow me everywhere I go until you find out who I'm secretly seeing in the janitor's closet, just because I laughed at one of your lousy jokes?"

"Ooh!" House exclaimed, pointing his finger at Wilson. "So, it's someone from the hospital!"

Wilson looked down and shifted uncomfortably on his chair.

"House!" he protested feebly.

"You said 'janitor's closet', while you could have said hotel room or, your car backseat or, I don't know, but no, you mentioned the janitor's closet instead-"

"I'm secretly seeing no one in the janitor's closet," Wilson emphasized with the energy of despair. "I have an apartment. I have a bed, or… or a couch."

"Ooh, look who's being exotic now!" House mocked, a wicked grin illuminating his face.

"Why do you care anyway? You're with Cuddy now. Why couldn't I be in a relationship?"

"Ha! So, you're admitting there is someone!"

Wilson heaved a deep, defeated sigh and lowered his head down to his plate.

"Ok, maybe I'm-"

"Who is she?" House interrupted with eagerness.

"That's not important-"

"You don't want to tell?" House's eyes widened in shock. "Oh my God, this is serious!"

Wilson puffed with annoyance.

"We just met. I, we… I mean, we only had one date so far-"

"Is she a nurse? Which department?"

"House!"

"Come on! Just one clue! Give me the floor, at least!"

Wilson couldn't suppress the smile on his face.

"Second floor," he challenged.

"I was right! She's a nurse."

"Nope!"

"Well, ok, nursery nurse, but that's the same! It's just that there's this little extra smoothness to her, right? Coz her skin smells like baby shampoo, instead of old bandages. God, you're so predictable-"

"Except you're wrong because she's not a nurse. Of any kind."

House frowned and rubbed his chin skeptically.

"Not a nurse… interesting… oh, my God!" he suddenly exclaimed. "Don't tell me she's a patient here!"

Wilson shook in head, dismayed.

"Why the hell would you think-"

"Like it never happened before! ICU is on the second floor, and you have a sort of sick liking for dying people."

"I don't have a liking for dying people!" Wilson strongly objected.

"Yeah, you forgot about that cancer girl you shamelessly banged between her chemo sessions a few years ago."

Wilson puffed, visibly disturbed at the memory.

"That was a mistake, ok? You think you were doing better with your hookers?"

"At least, they were healthy," House countered, not in the least embarrassed.

"She's a gynecologist!" Wilson practically shouted, almost angrily. "Happy, now?"

An awkward silence ensued, and House's eyes widened in disbelief, since the only female gynecologist in the hospital he could remember of was Dr. Kendra Wood, a nearly sixty-year-old, little pest, who was the absolute opposite of any concept of sexiness, not even by a long stretch. Wilson was no fool, and it didn't take him long to read through House's perplexed face.

"I'm really touched by your concern, but I'm not that desperate," he said. "Dr. Wood is not the only female gynecologist in the hospital. At least, not anymore. Erin has joined the OB Gyn department almost six months ago, which you'd know if you cared to wander round farther than the ground floor and Cuddy's office sometimes."

House narrowed his eyes and smiled.

"She's thirty-six, divorced. No kid," Wilson added "She's witty. She's funny."

"What's her name?"

"Samberg, why?"

"And she's Jew! Wow, you almost hit the jack pot. Too bad she's lousy in bed."

"Whoa… What? What makes you think that?"

"Because you crave details about my sex life too much. You're obviously frustrated."

"I'm not frustrated, Erin and I, we-"

"Oh, you mean, you haven't scored yet!"

"House! This is not about scoring. We're not in High School anymore. And I kinda like her… She's the first woman I'm interested in since Amber. I don't want to rush things."

House theatrically nodded.

"Man, I'm impressed!" he said, snatching some fries from Wilson's plate and dipping them in ketchup. "When are you two planning on getting it on?"

"I don't know. That's not something I usually plan," Wilson said defensively.

"Can I go to the second floor and ask her then?"

"She isn't going to give you an answer because she doesn't plan it, either."

"Pfft, if that's what you think then you're stupid. Why do you think women always wear the perfectly sexy underwear the moment it happens?" House asked, waggling his eyebrows playfully.

"What is the purpose of this conversation anyway?" Wilson puffed, growing upset.

"Annoy you and make you feel uncomfortable, obviously!" House said, holding back a chuckle. "I missed doing that in Boston, you know, even if I annoy Cuddy, too sometimes, but I certainly don't make her feel uncomfortable, if you know what I mean."

Wilson sighed resignedly and shook his head.

"Yeah, that'd be hard for me not to know that now."

House grabbed his soda and drank a few sips out of the can. Wilson seized this short moment of silence as an opportunity to regain control over a situation he was beginning to find a little bit too slippery for his taste.

"How's Russell?" he said with poise.

"What do you mean, how's Russell?" House asked, putting the can back on the tray and hardly managing to hide his surprise.

"Well, the guy that took care of Cuddy, isn't his name Russell?"

House briefly looked away and clenched his jaw at the memory of the annoying doctor that had upset him so much.

"Yeah," he groaned through clenched teeth. "But he didn't take care of Cuddy. He handled her case, that's all-"

"Oh-oh!" Wilson chuckled jubilantly. "The competition… that was him!"

House turned his head back in his direction and glowered at him.

"Tss, give me a break!" he protested, rolling his eyes. "That guy was hardly threatening."

Wilson's eyes opened wide in astonishment, and he stared at House quizzically.

"Wow! So, this is serious. What happened?" he said, looking suddenly genuinely concerned.

"Nothing. Nothing happened. End of story."

"No, no, no! Something happened. Something that got you pissed and… Oh!" Wilson stopped in the middle of his sentence and stared at House, flabbergasted.

House straightened up in his chair, challengingly, visibly waiting to hear his friend's epiphany. Wilson's mouth was still opened, his lips shaped in the "O" of surprise.

"Did they," he started, really fighting to find his words, "sleep together? I mean, have s-"

House shot daggers at him.

"Are you goddamn stupid?" he barked.

"Well, I don't know," Wilson defended himself. "You said you beat competition-"

"Precisely. I said I beat competition. I didn't say anything about murdering it."

House stopped and stared at his friend. He'd just acknowledged how territorial he was about Cuddy and how jealous he could get if another man came too close to her. They both smiled at the significance of the innuendo, knowing that it went beyond the simple appearances of the joke.

"So how many ribs did he lose in the fight?" Wilson asked, amused.

"Who said we had to fight?"

"Oh, so you only had to pee around Cuddy to mark your territory and that was enough to deter him from coming close to your female!" Wilson teased with a broad grin.

"Haha, very funny. I told you: nothing happened!"

"Then I don't get where there is competition at all!" Wilson said, baffled. "Unless you consider being a male enough a competition to begin with…"

"I don't know, introduce me to your girlfriend and you may find out."

"Don't change the subject! I'm sure that Russell guy did more than what you care to admit. We had a deal. And I paid for your lunch, so now you're not going anywhere until you say what it is."

House raised his chin up and looked over Wilson's shoulder, a mischievous smile forming on the corner of his lips.

"STD panel is clean," Kutner said, approaching the table swiftly. He stopped and stood just beside Wilson, facing House. "But Epstein Barr tests positive…"

House promptly got off his chair and looked at Wilson, smiling victoriously.

"Oops, sorry, have to go!" he said, with obvious bliss.

Wilson didn't even raise his head while House strode away, following Kutner, with a big smile on his face. After a few seconds, he looked at House's tray and grabbed his dessert, an appetizing Chocolate fondant he hadn't even touched. He took one bite and couldn't repress a slight moan of pleasure. Realizing that a young nurse seated at the next table was staring at him, he held his spoon up to her and smiled confidently at her, before he pushed down another bite through his lips. After all, there was no reason why he couldn't enjoy a good dessert or that look of mischief on the young woman's face.

# # # # # # # # #

The day went by slowly. House's patient wasn't in a really serious condition, which was something he perfectly already knew, Epstein Barr being more a pretext to escape Wilson's annoying questions than anything else, since it was just a confirmation that she had mononucleosis, a benign viral infection that explained her latest fatigue. So far, she was holding up great and House was practically certain she had absolutely nothing except an understandable minor baby blues. But, as he was in an exceptionally good mood, he was ready to grant her a well-deserved rest by keeping her a little longer in her hospital bed, testing her for completely unnecessary medical reasons, while she would let the nurses pamper her.

However, around six in the evening, he realized he had exhausted every valid pretext to stay in the hospital and decided to talk Cuddy into leaving her work behind and follow him to his place. She would never admit it, but he knew she had probably unconsciously persuaded herself that she had to do all the paperwork for a whole month ahead, to make up for her absence during the past week. House was of course convinced that it was stupid, not to mention pointless, and he strongly intended to make her agree with him.

She resisted at first, of course, and House knew she would. That was almost like a game for him. A game he was sure to win. Cuddy told him to leave and that she would join him at his place, later in the evening, right after she'd have finished one or two minor things she had to deal with. Minor things… House smiled and stubbornly stood right in front of her, conspicuously tapping his cane on the floor. She sighed and tilted her head up to look at him.

"You're not going to leave, are you?" she asked resignedly.

"Nope!"

"House! I have a report to-"

"Yeah, a report, a memo, a phone call. It never ends! And as long as you stay here, I'm pretty sure you'll find something to do. So, just stop and come home with me now."

"But…"

She tried to keep a serious face and a firm voice, but deep inside her, she was already giving up, hearing him say the word 'home' making her irrepressibly melt. House saw her resistance weaken and he took advantage of it to grab her coat on the coat rack and then he swiftly walked round her desk, and stared down compellingly at her, his hips almost pressed again her shoulder.

"Get up!" he commanded, smiling and holding out the coat for her.

She helplessly pointed down to a file and looked up at him again, already defeated, but trying to resist a little longer nonetheless, just for the sake of it.

"Forget about Campbell," House added, confidently pushing the file away from her grab on one side of her desk. "He doesn't deserve the time you spend dealing with his shit. Tomorrow's another day. You'll have plenty of time to kick his ass then."

Cuddy widened her eyes, baffled.

"How do you know it's about Campbell?"

House gave her his best smartass grin.

"You were all tense this morning when I came to see you. Usually, board meetings don't put you under such pressure, unless some ass doctor suddenly thinks he can plot a little putsch and throw some crappy threat at you to push a request for his department-"

Cuddy stood up and stared at him with a slight impressed look. House smiled and made her turn around to help her put her coat on.

"And I know only two real ass doctors in this hospital," he went on, not letting go of her coat's lapels and keeping her wrapped inside his arms, her back pressed against his chest. He leaned over her shoulder and whispered in her ear. "And since you're sleeping with one of them, which means I clearly don't need to use threat to have whatever I want for my department, I guess it only leaves Campbell."

Cuddy wriggled a little and turned around to face him. She tipped her head up and planted her steel grey eyes in his gaze.

"You know, you're right, you really are an ass," she said with an angry edge to her voice. "And maybe I should sleep with Campbell too, if it saved me the inconvenience of dealing with his crap for this one board meeting, eh? What do you think of that?"

"Whoa, Whoa! Why are you making such a fuss about that board meeting? What is this all about?"

Cuddy bit her lip and pushed with her palms flat on his chest to set herself free. She took a step back and stared at him for some endless seconds. She sighed heavily, closing her eyes, and when she opened them again, a tired smile formed on the corner of her lips.

"Let's go home, ok?" she said, dismissively, making it clear that the subject was closed, and she didn't want to talk about it any longer.

House narrowed his eyes suspiciously but didn't insist. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and brought her close to him.

"Pizza?" he suggested, starting to walk toward the door, pulling her with him.

When he opened the door, Cuddy imperceptibly stiffened, and he felt her holding back, as if she were hesitating to step outside of her office and into the clinic with House's arm conspicuously wrapped around her. House saw it and clenched his jaw but he let go of her, stopping at the threshold and faking to search for something inside his pocket. She stopped, too, and waited but he held his chin up and motioned her to keep walking.

"Go on, I'll catch you up," he told her with a forced smile.

Cuddy bowed her head in shame knowing that, despite her true and sincere will to make her relationship official, she was still feeling uneasy at the idea of being seen with a man inside her hospital, let it alone be House. She knew House had perceived it and it made her felt terrible, but she couldn't help it, so she kept striding along, distancing him within a few steps. He watched her go and when he thought she was far enough to feel comfortable again, he closed the door to her office behind him and started to walk toward the exit too, keeping the pang of hurt that had clutched his chest for himself, not really able to erase it from his face, though. When he joined her at the front door, she gave him a quick side glance and she pushed the door open to step outside. He followed after her and without a warning she turned around to face him, forcing him to stop.

"I'm sorry," she said in a low voice. "It's just that, I'm not used to it yet. I-"

"That's ok," he cut her off, half-lying, trying to smile.

People were walking past them, in and out the hospital: patients' family, employees, men and women, going in every direction. Cuddy looked at them pacing hurriedly toward their cars or the bus station, or inside the hospital lobby, and she realized nobody was paying attention. She felt suddenly stupid, and a mischievous smile flickered on her lips. House raised an eyebrow, intrigued, but when he saw her take a decided step toward him and forcing her way under his arm, so that he wrapped her shoulders with it again, he smiled widely and stuck his chest out, proudly.

Cuddy took a deep breath, and she tilted her head to the side, resting her temple on his shoulder.

"Let's go," she said. "I'm starving."

They walked side by side toward the parking lot, ignoring the very few people who dared to follow them with their eyes.

A/N

I don't have anything to say, really, just that I am HAPPY!

It feels great to be looking forward to a season that, as I envision it, will certainly be a lot lighter, more playful and fun than the gloomy one we've just been through. However, when you look back, season 6 was, in my opinion, extremely powerful and I think it will gain in strength and meaning with time. Anyway, I'm glad I've kept my faith all season because the reward tasted even more delightful…

And btw, if I may add this non-related info, for those who read my Huddy reviews, don't worry, I'll write the review for HELP ME soon! I just need to put my thoughts down on paper! LOL it's there, brewing inside my head since last week and I still haven't had one minute to write. But I will, I promise…

In the meantime, I wrote this chapter, so that kinda makes up for it a bit, right? :-)

Anyway, have a great day! ~ maya