I hope you all enjoy it!
Reviews are like crack cocaine to me. -hint hint-
"Tell them you're busy."
"I can't, Greg," Cuddy said, carefully folding a blouse.
"Tell them you're sick."
"I'm not sick."
"You're a doctor, Lisa, surely you can think of something," House pressed on. "You can say you have malaria or SARS or a nasty case of the Ebola virus. That always does the trick."
Cuddy rolled her eyes and said, "Greg, you can sit there and whine six ways to Sunday. I'm still going."
An open suitcase lay on top of her bed. Next to it sat House, watching her pack. He glanced inside and saw everything was neat and perfect. Just like her files, just like her desk. Everything was in its place. Her blouses were folded so flat and square the corners looked sharp enough to draw blood.
"It's just a wedding," he grumbled, "hardly a matter of life and death. Well, maybe it means death for the groom..."
"You must have been a riot at Wilson's weddings."
"Wilson...," chuckled House, "At the reception for his first wedding a three hundred pound bridesmaid tried to drag me upstairs to join her in the Jacuzzi. I couldn't make to his second wedding because I had the flu so I sent an espresso machine and my regards. The espresso machine wound up in Argentina and the bride got my regards in the divorce settlement. At his third wedding I made a toast to the newlyweds, called Julie by the wrong name, I don't think she's really liked me ever since."
He eyed the suitcase again, noting the amount of clothing that was being stuffed into it. Enough clothes for nearly a week.
Irritated, he slumped back onto the bed.
"Why does this cousin of yours insist on dragging you hundreds of miles to this event?"
"I'm hardly being dragged anywhere," Cuddy sighed, delicately packing her blue dress for the wedding. "I agreed to this weeks ago, and most people find it easier to get married in the city they actually live in."
"Des Plains isn't a city, it's a speck on a map," said House, sitting back up. "Where's the honeymoon, Dubuque?"
Ignoring the doctor's sarcasm, Cuddy answered, "Hawaii."
"More specks with volcanoes and palm trees." He raised an eyebrow at his lover. "Do you really have to be gone for so long?"
Looking House in the eye, Cuddy could see he was indeed a bit sad that she was going to be out of state for five days. They had grown closer during the last few weeks, but apparently the nagging fear that she would just up and leave him was still hanging onto a ledge in the back of his mind.
"I haven't seen my cousin or aunt and uncle in nearly two years," she said, checking the suitcase and making sure everything was there and in place. "I promised them I would be there for her special day, and I promised my aunt and uncle that I would spend some time with them."
House wondered what Aunt and Uncle would think of their darling niece's boyfriend and literally bit his tongue to keep from voicing the thought out loud.
"And I always try to keep my promises," she reminded him.
Sighing, he rested his chin on the handle of his cane. "I can't argue with that."
"Greg, it's only five days."
"I know."
"I'm not going to the moon or anything."
"You're not," His blue-eyed gaze recaptured hers. "Des Plains is more like the one of the outer rings of hell. If you were going to Fargo then it might be the other side of hell. Or maybe Fargo counts as hell frozen over."
One last check of the suitcase.
"It's still early," she said with a coy smile.
"Is it?" After making an overdone show of looking at his watch, House replied, "Why Dr. Cuddy,
you're absolutely right."
"My plane doesn't leave until tomorrow morning."
"That's very interesting. How are we going to kill all this time between now and tomorrow morning?"
"How about some food first. I'm starving. Is pizza okay with you?"
"No fish or I'm throwing you and your suitcase in the car and driving you to the airport right now."
House glimpsed into the suitcase and saw something black and one hundred percent cotton. He would have bet everything he owned it had a Jack Daniels logo on it.