Cuddy woke-up in an unfamiliar setting; it took her a couple of seconds to realise that it was House’s bed she had slept in.

Looking to her right, she expected to see House’s smug face laying on the pillow next to her, but she was alone.

House was already up, in his bathroom, getting ready. Looking into the mirror, he smiled like a man in love. It wasn’t until he noticed his Vicodin bottle on the side of the sink that his smile turned to a more serious look. Like a ghost from his past, the Vicodin represented everything he had become. It was hard to find his true self under the addicted misanthropic lonely man he had turned into since Stacy had left him. Even though he was in love with Cuddy, would he find out the hard way that his love for Vicodin was even stronger?

Cuddy let out a blissful sigh, before she noticed a tall shadow on the hardwood floor. Looking up, she noticed the well dressed, yet signature scruff demeanour of House leaning on the frame of the door. His eyes slowly moving down her bare neck and shoulders until Cuddy picked up the white sheets and wrapped them around her, clearing her throat in an authoritative manner.

“Do you mind?”

House gave a devilish grin as Cuddy grabbed the sheets off the bed with both hands, covering her body, and made her way to the door and shutting it in his face.

House waited patiently, while on the other side of the closed door, Cuddy was getting dressed.

When she had buttoned up the last button on her jacket, she waited for a moment before thinking about what happened last night.

Flashbacks of kissing him, before they were both caught up in the moment. She smiled, before opening the door to find House still standing there.

“Are you just going to stand there?”

House and Cuddy looked into each other’s eyes, the vacuum between them becoming smaller and smaller.

“Why did you come here last night?” House sounded truly intrigued by Cuddy’s unexpected appearance. Cuddy stood her ground, still keeping eye contact with House.

“I’m late…if you’re going to kiss me just…”

House picked her up and kissed her, she felt butterflies in her stomach for the first time in years; for all the sarcasm and dark humour, House made up for it with his romantic and softer side. Something, which was a rare site, and she knew it.

“We…we can’t.” Gasping for breath, Cuddy pushed House away. Even though she wanted to so much, she knew she couldn’t let herself get involved.

House placed her back down, before he let her through. Cuddy placed her hand on the door handle and turned to face House as he stood there, leaning on his cane.

“I’ll see you in work….” After a short pause she regretfully left as House looked on.

*


It was empty in the hospital cafeteria, except for a lone Oncologist playing with a crispy omelette with a hot coffee attached to his hand.

Wilson looked up, as he saw Cuddy walk in with the same outfit she was wearing yesterday. Always the meddler, Wilson left his seat and joined Cuddy in the queue.

“Morning.” Wilson spoke in a cheery mood, whilst Cuddy, even after a long night of passion, was in a foul mood.

“I’m late, can you say whatever you’re going to say quickly?” Cuddy turned away from him, before she smiled politely as the woman behind the counter handed her a plate of scrambled eggs.

“You’re having breakfast! I thought maybe you’d want to join me.” Wilson smiled before he left Cuddy to sit back down. With an inner debate between herself, Cuddy decided to follow him.

“So…did you stay in the hospital overnight?” Wilson began eating his omelette, and watched Cuddy with curiosity.

“I felt like having eggs.” Cuddy smiled sarcastically at Wilson before she drank some of the OJ she picked up from the counter.

“…What’s that on your neck?” Wilson gestured to a red mark on Cuddy’s neck, a rash from where House had nuzzled and kissed her the night before.

Cuddy felt it with her delicate fingers, before she tried to lift her collar up to hide it. “Oh…I probably slept on something…weird.”

With that, Cuddy cleared her throat and left. Wilson watched as she left trying to pick her collar up. He smiled.

*

House swayed into the outer office, his team already sitting on their hands waiting for him. Surprised by his happy demeanour Taub took the hint from everyone else and began talking about the new patient.

“This one’s a lawyer, began impersonating the witness while in court. Had a seizure and a heart attack. At the same time.”

House who would normally jump at the chance to diagnose this mystery, but after popping a Vicodin and sitting down he realised his whole team was looking at him in a peculiar way.

“So. I guess you should check out the heart?” House made his way to his own office with a smile on his face.

House noticed Wilson from the corner of his eye, walking towards his door with two cups of coffee.

“What’s this?” House looked at the cup of coffee Wilson placed down on his desk. With a shrug of his shoulders, Wilson pulled a chair up and sat down. A smile appeared on his face.

“I thought you might need a legal stimulant to start your day.”

House thought nothing about it, and drank the coffee. Only when Wilson refrained from speaking for longer than a minute, which was unusual, did House suspect an ulterior motive.

“I slept with Cuddy.”

Wilson nearly choked on his coffee, with a look of shock on his face with his signature eyebrows raised up to his hairline.

“What?!”

House leant back on his chair, and watched as Wilson’s face went through a range of emotions. Second was happiness.

“Wow. This could be good.”

“Could?”

House then noticed Wilson’s face began to change into an annoyed stare.

“Please. Don’t screw it up, you won’t just be hurting yourself.”

“You’ve spoken to Cuddy? She tell you her deepest darkest feelings about me?”

House gave a sarcastic glance at Wilson, before he noticed Cuddy about to enter but turn away.

“Where you going!?” House shouted, making Wilson look behind and see Cuddy stop dead in her tracks and slowly turn back around and open the door.

“I can see you’re busy.”
“Not as busy as you and I are going to get tonight.” House winked suggestively at Cuddy as Wilson felt like a kid stuck in the middle of two heavyweights.

“Shall I leave you two alone?” attempting to stand up.

“No.” They both spoke in unison.

“We’ll talk later, in my office.”

House watched Cuddy turn and leave, his eyesight dropping before Wilson stood up and left. House smiled with genuine happiness...


TBC