Believe it or not, I didn't forget about this one. :D As usual, don't own House or Cuddy, just the O/Cs.

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When Jason returned to the apartment building, he easily found the extra key and let himself in. As House had told him, the backpack was just inside, casually tossed on the floor next to the door.

He almost simply picked the thing up and left until he got a good look at the place. While it didn't exactly seem dirty, it could use a good picking up. And then there was the matter of the bathroom. Jason was sure that the shattered bits of the mirror were still scattered in the bathtub and surrounding floor.

Jason decided to leave the rest of the place alone. He was pretty sure House wouldn't appreciate him touching his stuff. The bathroom was a different matter. All that broken glass could present a real danger, not to mention an unwelcome reminder of all the man had gone through over the last day or so.

Decision made, Jason went off in search of a broom and other cleaning supplies before entering the bathroom. He shuddered a little at the sight. It still resembled a war zone, with shattered glass everywhere and a light coating of dirt and dust on the side of the tub and the floor. Oddly appropriate, Jason thought. House had fought one hell of a mental and physical battle here. Even though he had broken down and taken the Vicodin, Jason couldn't say that House had lost the battle. He was still alive, after all. He certainly could have taken more of the pills than he had if he had wanted to do so. Perhaps he would have had Jason not shown up.

Jason shook off the thought and got down to work. He was so absorbed in the task that he didn't hear anything else.

"Excuse me." The soft, yet firm voice nearly made Jason jump out of his skin. "Where's House? And who are you?"

Jason turned around to see a petite brunette standing in the bathroom doorway, dressed in a low-cut blouse, pencil skirt, and high heels. The look was professional, yet slightly provocative, and Jason couldn't help but admire the view, just a little. He brushed his hand off on his jeans and crossed the small room to extend it toward her.

"Jason Sanders. I'm Greg's neighbor from across the hall."

"Doctor Lisa Cuddy." The brunette smiled warmly and shook his hand in a surprisingly firm grip. "Nice to meet you. Now where's House?"

Jason wasn't sure how much he should tell this woman. "He's…not here."

Cuddy pressed her lips together and folded her arms over her chest. "I can see that." She glanced away briefly. "He didn't come into work today, and he didn't call, either. I was concerned, so…I thought I'd check in on him."

Jason took a deep breath before answering. "He was taken to Princeton General last night. Well…more like early this morning."

Cuddy's eyes widened. "Why? What happened?"

"He was in a lot of pain." Jason explained. "Guess he'd been working that crane disaster in Trenton all night, and…I don't know. Seems like there was more going on, but he wasn't saying much. He was almost unconscious when I found him."

"My God." Cuddy gasped softly. Her eyes flicked to the open spot in the wall, the one that had been covered up by the now-shattered mirror before seeming to survey the rest of the room. "I don't quite know how to ask this, but…" She laughed nervously. "Did he…take something? Maybe something that would have knocked him out?"

Something clutched in Jason's chest at the question. "Ma'am, I have no idea. All I did was call the ambulance and make sure he was still alive when they got here."

Cuddy arched an eyebrow at him, as if she were studying him. She seemed like someone who could sniff out a lie in nothing flat, and Jason suddenly got nervous.

"House took Vicodin by the truckload for years. He's an addict." Cuddy told him, her steady gaze never wavering. "As his boss, I need to know if he's using again."

Jason was pretty sure that popping a couple of pills in a time of extreme need didn't qualify as 'using'. Of course, he wasn't an addict himself, so what did he know? Finally he shook his head. "I don't know how to answer that. I don't know him that well."

Cuddy nodded and backed away slightly, uncrossing her arms. "I suppose I'll track him down at General." She tilted her head, a slight frown crossing her delicate features. "You did say General, right?"

"Right." Jason was still nervous. If House's boss found out he had taken the Vicodin, would she fire him? That seemed unfair, but it was a question that wouldn't leave his mind. "Hey, uh…Doctor Cuddy?"

"Yes?"

"What if Greg took a little Vicodin?" He asked her. "What if he was in so much pain that nothing else touched it? Would you fire him?"

The woman's face softened. "That's not entirely up to me. The board of directors would have to make that decision." She sighed softly. "He's a brilliant doctor. If it were up to me, no, I wouldn't fire him. The board might feel differently."

"You'd have to tell them, wouldn't you?"

She twisted her mouth, finally shaking her head. "Not necessarily. I suppose it would depend on why he took it."

Jason finally decided to tell the whole story. When he was done, Cuddy's eyes were shiny with unshed tears.

"I had no idea he was in so much pain." She spoke sadly. "I wish he would have said something. Maybe I could have helped him."

"Maybe you still can." Jason suggested. "I have his room information. He doesn't seem to have a whole lot of friends. Seems like he could use a couple more."

She laughed bitterly. "He told me friends was the last thing he wanted to be."

Jason felt a pang of sympathy for the woman. House was a tough nut to crack, no doubt. "It's still worth a shot."

"I suppose you're right." Cuddy fixed him with a warm smile.

Jason searched his pockets, finally coming up with a small notepad and a pen and scribbling out House's room information. "He might not be there when you get there. It sounded like they were getting ready to get him into surgery pretty soon."

Cuddy nodded and accepted the piece of paper, scanning it before tucking it into her purse. She reached out to squeeze his arm. "I'm glad you found him. Thank you."

"No problem." Jason shrugged. "Just seemed like the right thing to do."

Cuddy left with a slight smile, and he couldn't help wondering if there was more behind the woman's behavior beyond a boss's concern for her employee. He shook off the thought and returned to his clean-up. What happened between House and that woman was none of his business anyway.

# # #

House's eyes drifted open, his mind still hazy from the anesthesia. For once, he wasn't feeling pain anywhere. It was a beautiful feeling, except for the fuzzy brain part. He wasn't so crazy about that.

"Ah, you're awake." Doctor Sheldon's voice penetrated the fog. "Good."

House turned toward her in an attempt to focus on her. The attempt was an utter failure, as he saw about three or four of her. Not that he objected. The more of her, the better.

He snickered at the thought, and Doctor Sheldon tilted her head questioningly. "Still feeling the effects of the anesthesia?"

"You could say that." House thought he sounded like he was underwater. "There's, like, four of you trying to talk to me."

Doctor Sheldon let out a tiny laugh and lightly squeezed his shoulder. "I'll come back a little later, then I can give you the rundown on how things went."

"'Kay." House mumbled and closed his eyes. This was how he felt when he had popped those couple of Vicodin just the night before. He couldn't believe how much his tolerance had dropped in the last year. Hell, he had popped the drug like candy for years and never felt this fuzzy. Or maybe he had been that fuzzy and he'd never noticed.

Finally the fog started to lift, and the room started to come into focus. House could feel his leg start to throb again, but it was its normal throbbing, not the sharp, stabbing pain that had begun when the aneurysm developed. He was oddly relieved.

He found the call button and hit it, still fumbling slightly. A nurse soon showed up, fixing him with a soft smile. "Feeling better?"

"Sort of." He croaked. "Leg hurts."

The nurse pulled his chart and scanned over it. "I'll have to get approval from Doctor Sheldon for your pain medication. Shouldn't take me too long."

House huffed irritably and rubbed at his leg absentmindedly. Soon a shadow crossed over his bed, and he looked up to see Doctor Sheldon smiling down at him.

"We're going to move you back to your room." She explained. "Lindsey will get you back on your pain medication and make sure you're comfortable. I'll come back in a little while and update you, okay?"

House nodded, letting his mind wander while the nurse and the aide arranged everything and started to roll him back to his room. Lindsey, the nurse, hooked up his IV and pushed a few buttons on the control panel. "You're all set, Doctor House. Do you need me to explain how the controls work?"

"Nope." House answered.

"Okay." Lindsey met his answer with a warm smile. "If you need anything, hit the button."

Within half an hour, House heard a tap on his open door. He looked over to see Doctor Sheldon again, only one of her this time. "Hello again. Mind if I come in?"

"Guess not." House found the button to raise the head of his bed so that he was mostly sitting up. "So what's the word?"

"Things look pretty good at the aneurysm site." Doctor Sheldon told him as she eased into a nearby chair. "We were able to get right in there and do what we needed to do."

"I think I hear a 'but' in there."

Doctor Sheldon nodded. "There seems to be some additional clotting activity. I want to keep you here until we can track down the source."

House huffed irritably. As far as he was concerned, he had already been here long enough. He was good and ready to go home. "Any ideas?"

"I have a couple of theories." Doctor Sheldon answered. "As soon as you recover a bit from this surgery, I want to get you in for some more tests. My theory might lead to some additional surgery, but I don't want to go there unless we absolutely have to." She tilted her head at him. "Sorry I don't have better news for you."

House shrugged. "Kind of used to it by now."

Doctor Sheldon placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed lightly. While initially her obsessive need to touch him had irritated him, House now found himself comforted by her little touches and squeezes. He wondered if she was like that with all her patients. "I'm about to leave for the day, but Doctor Keller will be taking over your care in the meantime. He's tough, but he's a good guy. I think you'll like him."

House let out a 'hmph', and Doctor Sheldon laughed. "Come on, now. I can't be here 24 hours a day. I have a life, too."

"Fine." House rolled his eyes. "I guess I'll let you."

Her hand smoothed across his shoulder as she released him, and she said her good-byes with a smile.

House glanced over at the door when he heard voices. Doctor Sheldon poked her head in once again.

"Looks like you've got company."

House hoped it was Jason returning with his backpack. The oddly familiar click of high heels on linoleum told him otherwise, however.

"House." Cuddy's gentle voice was filled with concern.

Something squeezed in House's chest at the sight of the petite brunette. She was the last person he expected to see. He wasn't sure he wanted to see her. "If you're wondering, yes, I took the Vicodin. I assume Wilson already filled you in."

"I haven't talked to Wilson." Cuddy answered as she entered the room and occupied the same chair Doctor Sheldon had. "I stopped by your apartment. Your neighbor told me what happened."

House growled and rolled his eyes. "Doesn't explain what you're doing here. Don't you have a hospital to run…a man-child to chase after…something?"

"I broke up with Lucas." She blurted out.

The silence stretched out between them at her sudden announcement. Finally House broke it. "What the hell did you do that for?"

Cuddy twisted her hands together. "It just…wasn't right. I couldn't go through with it."

"Smart decision." House nodded. "Better to figure that out now than years later when Rachel decides to go emo because of you and him fighting."

Cuddy nodded, staring down at her hands. "So…about last night."

"Yeah, about that." House studied her, waiting for a response.

"I'm sorry." Cuddy told him softly. "I was…horrible to you. I had no right. I just hope you can forgive me."

House sighed heavily and looked down, fiddling with a thread that had come loose on the sheet. "Maybe. Eventually." He laughed sharply. "I'm not so good at that whole forgiveness thing."

"I know." Cuddy untwisted her hands and stood, reaching out to House with one hand. "And I know the last thing you want is to be friends, but…I'm still offering."

House turned over the idea in his mind. Cuddy's behavior toward him was a pleasant surprise. He was sure she would be much more upset.

Finally he nodded, reaching out to take Cuddy's outstretched hand. "I think…I'd rather be friends than anything else. Just don't expect anything more from me."

A slow smile curved over Cuddy's face. "I can live with that."

There was another tap on the door, and Jason poked his head into the room. He seemed a bit surprised at Cuddy's presence. "Am I interrupting? I mean, I can come back."

"Nope." House waved him in, gesturing for his backpack.

Cuddy squeezed House's hand and released it, nodding to Jason before leaving the room. Jason almost immediately took the chair she had occupied.

"So what's the deal, Greg?" Jason asked. "There a little something going on between you two?"

House smiled a little in response as he found his PSP Go, flipping it open and loading a game. "Nope. She's just a friend."

"Cool." Jason grinned in response. "Friends are good."

House rolled his eyes at the words, but he found himself in complete agreement with the guy. Maybe there was some merit to this whole reaching out thing. It seemed to be working out pretty well so far.

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Fear not, my O/C devotees...I am not developing any sort of Huddy romance here. (Would I do that? I mean, really.) Read and review. :)