N/A: at the end of season 2 house got a ketamine treatment that only lasted two episodes, I didn't personally feel like he was given enough time without a cane, so in this fic we explore what more time free of his cane could have been like for him. this story takes place in Season 3, right after episode 1, and it loosely follows the rest of the season. I hope there's still an audience out there for House fic! Please let me know what you think! Also, in no way am I a medical expert, all my expertise comes from google and Wikipedia, so please keep that in mind as you read this! Thanks!

You Only Live Twice

- 1

There was a wind that swept past Lisa Cuddy, when the front door to her office was slammed open and shut with a great force. She didn't bother looking up, because she already knew just who was disturbing her, on that lovely Monday morning.

With a sigh, she thumbed through papers, speaking up before giving him a chance, "Whatever insane, unethical, experimental operation you're thinking about doing- it's no."

"What? No, it's Monday morning. I came down for a quickie," House stated it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

She looked up for a second, about to roll her eyes, but was struck for a second and reminded of the absent cane. It had been a whole three months since the Ketamine treatment, and watching him walk around without it, was still as pleasantly surprising as the first time she'd seen him back at Princeton.

Noting her silence, House tilted his head to the side, and frowned, "Is my fly open or something?"

Cuddy's mouth parted slightly, trying to recover from her momentary shock, and then she looked back down pretending to immerse herself in a paper, "What do you want House?"

"As Dean of Medicine, I want you to stop this outrageous injustice that's happening to your hospital."

That caught Cuddy's attention, and she looked up again, taking notice of a letter he was holding between his fingers, with an annoyed expression.

He handed it to her, and she opened to read what it was about, and laughed when she realized what he was so upset about.

"Did you know about this?" He asked, falling dramatically on to her couch.

Cuddy nodded, "I had Cameron respond to their request to have you give a speech at the Infectious Disease Summit this year. She's gotten pretty good at forging your signature, don't you think?"

House ran a hand through his untidy hair and shrugged, "Well I can't go. I've now planned on being busy that week, with- saving people and stuff."

Cuddy frowned, "House, you're going. It's your responsibility as a doctor to this hospital to do what you can to contribute. You know what things like these do for our hospital funding."

He was silent, only paying attention to the rubber ball he kept bouncing off the ceiling. She couldn't help at take notice of how healthy he looked. He'd tanned slightly from his daily morning runs, and every time he threw the ball into the air, she could see the outline of his biceps through the material of his blazer.

He turned, caught her staring at him, and raised a brow, "I know you're hormonal and everything, but you do know I was kidding about that quickie, right? Or not? I have about-fifteen minutes-"

Cuddy rolled her eyes, and breathed deeply, "You're going, and that's final."

"Do you really think it's wise to send your best doctor away? Your hospital will fall apart without moi."

He was right to an extent, he was the best doctor she had at the hospital, but the conference was only four days, and House usually only had one patient a week.

"You're going, your lackeys can take orders over the speaker phone while you're gone- it won't be any different than being here."

He stared at her intently for a moment, without an expression, then blinked, "Ok."

She was struck by how easily he'd given in, and thought maybe his behavior was due to the fact that now he was pain free. Cuddy watched as he got up from her couch, pocketed his bouncy ball and pulled out a lollipop, and started walking out of her office, when something else occurred to her.

"Oh- and just to make sure you don't get lost on your way to the Summit, I'll be coming along."

House stopped in his tracks and slowly turned around with a slowly growing smirk on his face, "If you wanted some alone time with me, all you have to do is say so- not make up some elaborate lie about a conference. So...where are we going?"

She looked at him intently and bit down on her lip attempting to suppress a smile, "Vegas."

House sucked on the red lollipop, and half laughed, half guffawed, "You're right Dr Cuddy, I really should pull my weight around here- this conference thing sounds totally important."

Just as she was about to say something, his beeper went off, he looked down to check it and sighed, while sucking on his lollipop again.

"What's wrong?" She asked frowning.

House turned to leave, "looks like my patient got abducted by aliens again. They're probably probing him as we speak, and I'm being beckoned into an intergalactic search."

And without any further explanation, he was gone and Lisa Cuddy smiled.