Author's Note – Just something I fancied writing last night, sorry if it doesn't make sense – just a small look at the Cuddy/House workplace relationship. No ships/slash. Just a one shot for now – enjoy!
Cuddy sighed as she heard a soft groan come from her sofa. House was slowly regaining consciousness and she watched him bring a hand up to his cheekbone to find bruised flesh. He winced silently and slid himself into a sitting position, taking extra care of his leg and head.
"Please tell me they treated the kid." He asked warily as he looked over to see his boss watching him, "or I may have to reconsider my career as a human punch bag."
"For some insane reason he actually agreed to do it your way…after he knocked you out he felt a lot better about it." She smirked unsympathetically.
"I wouldn't count on this happening every time I need consent you know – I could end up getting hurt." He feigned looking upset by sticking his bottom lip out, which made Cuddy smile.
"If you went through the normal channels like everybody else then you wouldn't have gotten punched in the face."
"True…but my patient would be dead" House stated slowly, his head throbbing, "Where's my cane?"
"I've sent Wilson to get you another."
"Why…has it been kidnapped?"
"Not exactly…" she said as she held up his cane which was now in two pieces; House rolled his eyes in annoyance and sunk back into the sofa; clearly he wouldn't be leaving Cuddy's office any time soon. She continued with her paperwork, not wanting to make too much of a fuss of House, he was a big boy and she was sure it wasn't the first time he'd been knocked out. Plus it was nice to know where he was for a change; at least he was out of trouble for now; no angry relatives threatening to rearrange his face!
"So…how come you're here so late?" House started, clearly bored and keen to pass the time it would take Wilson to find him another cane; his leg hurt after falling on it and he was in no mood to try limping out to his bike, which he was sure he was too dizzy to even ride at the moment.
"My Best Diagnostician was laid out about 20 minutes ago and I thought I'd wait for him to regain consciousness before I left for the night." Cuddy said without looking up from her paperwork.
"You worried about your Brilliant Diagnostician?"
"I never said you were brilliant."
"Oh my – you were talking about me? I thought you were talking about some other Diagnostician" House pretended to be shocked by putting his hand up to his mouth, "you should go – I'm fine."
"If you think I'm crazy enough to leave you in my office unsupervised then you're very much mistaken!" Cuddy scoffed as she started packing paperwork into a briefcase (she was obviously going to have one hell of a wild night at home!), "plus, you look like hell."
"Fair point" House agreed, "how long does it take for Wilson to get a damn cane, does he have no sense of urgency?" he moaned impatiently after a few seconds of silence.
"Hey, he was worried about you and wouldn't leave till you were on that sofa – if it had been the other way round I'm sure you would have left him sprawled out on the floor; but luckily he isn't you...lucky for everyone" She teased lightly, "and he practically dragged the guy off of you!"
"How very heroic…" House said, not quite adding enough sarcasm for Cuddy to believe that he wasn't touched by his friend looking out for him, "what happened anyway?"
"You don't remember?" Cuddy said, looking up from her paperwork at last to wonder if maybe House had a more serious head injury than she had first thought.
"Don't give me that look – I'm fine! I remember shouting and the guy grabbing my arm to stop me leaving…then nothing...so what happened?"
30 minutes earlier…
Cuddy was about to leave her office and head home when her most troublesome department head decided to grace her with his presence.
"Dr Cuddy!" He practically shouted as he barged through her door without knocking, "this idiot won't let me treat his son."
The 'idiot' in question, Cuddy noticed, was the father of the Diagnostic department's newest patient. The man hated House as soon as he met him; it probably had something to do with the fact that House had refused to meet the patient and his family for three days and it took the father over 2 hours to finally track him down only to find him sleeping in his office.
"I'm sure Mr Howard has a perfectly good reason to deny his son treatment" Cuddy began the speech she had perfected over the years she had House working for her, "may I ask why you are refusing treatment Mr Howard?"
The huge lump of a man known as Mr Howard towered over her desk, he was absolutely fuming; Cuddy hoped that House hadn't started treatment behind his back just to piss him off further – it was the kind of thing she had to deal with on a regular basis.
"He said Andrew had Mono – he cured it and now he thinks it something else completely – he doesn't know and he wants me to consent to him cutting my son open because he's not sure!" Howard spat the words at her is disgust.
"House?"
"He had Autoimmune haemolytic anaemia and Infectious Mononucleosis – which was treated but he's still sick – despite what this moron says." House argued, rolling his eyes at the father, "he won't let me do my job."
"He's not that sick – I'm taking him home, I can't afford to stay here while he invents things that my son does not have just so he can get some cushy grant at the end of the year!" the man fumed back raising his voice at the last part, "he has no fever and his throat is better now – you are not cutting into my son!"
"What's the 'cutting open' his son part about?" Cuddy asked, not really sure if she understood why House was insisting on keeping a patient in the hospital – usually he couldn't wait to ship them out.
"I need to do a biopsy to diagnose non-Hodgkin lymphoma – but if you'd rather I waited for the autopsy results then that's fine, I'm going home!" House said sarcastically as he made to leave the office.
"House!" Cuddy said sternly; she did not want to be stuck with this angry man, "Mr Howard, I trust Dr House knows what's best for your son-"
"The doctors we went to before thought it was Mono and he didn't get better when they treated him-" Mr Howard was pacing the office during his rant which unsettled House who leant over his cane, both hands resting on top of the handle.
"Autoimmune haemolytic anaemia and Infectious Mononucleosis – not your ordinary case of Mono" House said exasperated, "Your son has non-Hodgkin lymphoma-I just need the biopsy to confirm it-"
"Mr Howard, your son needs this treatment, I'll call Dr Wilson to give you a second opinion and hopefully he can explain it a little better..." Cuddy took control of the situation seeing that it was getting out of hand with the two men shouting at each other; she paged Wilson, maybe this guy just hated House and that's why he wouldn't accept his diagnosis – it wasn't an uncommon situation!
"I've explained it so even a monkey could understand it...he just thinks his son's health isn't worth taking time off work for – I agree, let him die just so you can save up for his college fund – oh no, wait! You can't because he'll be dead." House turned to leave again, frustrated and annoyed, but Mr Howard was having none of it and grabbed his arm causing him to turn back.
"You're not leaving." He growled viciously, "You…you don't know anything about my life-"
"I know that your son is malnourished and yet you seem to be at least 60 pounds overweight. I know that while your son came in with clothes that seemed to be three sizes too small for him despite the fact he's underweight; you are wearing an Italian suit that's tailored to fit your pathetically flabby gut-"
House was cut short on his lecture by a strong fist which caught him directly on the left cheekbone causing him to fall backwards, strike his head on the door frame and knock him unconscious. Cuddy, who had been sitting through the entire ordeal so far with her head in her hands, shot up when she saw her employee slump against the frame and heard the sickening thud of House's head against the frame. She looked over to Mr Howard, wondering if he'd do anything stupid if she chanced a call to security, he still looked edgy and very wound up, pretty much the reaction a lecture from House would provoke in any person. Mr Howard simply took House's cane which had fallen from under his grasp and snapped it over his knee, throwing it at House's still form.
Wilson chose that moment to wander into Cuddy's reception area, half engrossed in a patient file; he strode in through her door then stopped short as he took in House laying against the door frame and the two halves of his cane draped over his groin area, "Err, everything ok?" he asked innocently.
Cuddy shot him a 'does everything look ok?' look which Wilson ignored and carried on talking, "I take it he told you the results of the biopsy."
"Results? He hasn't even got my consent yet!" Howard fumed; Cuddy was right, House had just gone behind the guys back as usual – she was annoyed but not surprised at this news.
"That explains why he dragged Mr Howard here then." Cuddy sighed putting her hands up in an 'I give up' motion.
"You son of a-" Howard shouted as he grabbed a handful of House's collar and tried to drag him up; Wilson had to intercept – he couldn't believe that this guy was trying to beat up an unconscious cripple…then again this was House and who knows what he'd said to get him wound up in the first place!
"Mr Howard, your son has non-Hodgkin lymphoma, I suggest you go and sit with him and prepare him for when we tell him." Wilson said in his best intimidating tone while virtually hanging off the guy's huge arm, trying to stop him form striking House again.
"House was right?" Cuddy questioned, immediately kicking herself; of course House was right, he wouldn't have made such a fuss if he didn't know he was right, stubborn ass!
"He was right?" Howard repeated, looking down at House; he let go of his collar, looking as though it had just burnt a hole in his hand, and House dropped back down to the floor with a thud.
"Go and sit with your son." Cuddy ordered, her voice faltering slightly.
The colour drained from Howard's face before he snapped himself out of his stupor and stormed out of Cuddy's office, presumably to find his son.
Cuddy let out the breath she hadn't realised she was holding while Wilson leant down to check on House, who was starting to develop a nasty bruise on his cheek, not the kind of injury to knock a guy out though; he looked at Cuddy questioningly.
"Doorframe" she said as she walked over to help him check House.
"He's gonna have a pretty bad concussion" Wilson warned, "help me get him on the sofa, don't want him waking up on the floor – he won't be able to stand."
They managed to half carry, half drag House's limp form to the sofa after Wilson did a quick check over to make sure there was no serious neck injury to contend with; he found a large lump forming on the back of House's head where he had caught the frame – 'ouch.'
"You should go, he'll be pissed when he wakes up and he'll probably take it out on the first person he sees" Wilson told Cuddy as he did a vitals check; he didn't particularly want to be on the receiving end of House's bad mood, but he was the only person who could brush it off as House being House so it would probably be best for all concerned if he stayed!
"I'll stay – go and get him a cane, I'm sure he keeps a spare in his office." Cuddy insisted much to Wilson's amazement.
"Err, ok – I'd better check on the family too, it's my patient now I guess." Wilson added as he backed out of the room.
"I'll page you when he wakes up"
Back to the Present…
"You haven't paged him" House said flatly; his head was killing him and it hurt to hear the sound of his own voice, especially after hearing Cuddy describe the sound his head made when it connected with her door frame.
"No…" Cuddy stated, still sorting paperwork to take home with her.
"Okay…any particular reason why you've got me trapped here? I mean I've got some pretty wild fantasies that involve me being trapped in your office with you…"
Cuddy smiled and made her way to the coat stand, putting her coat on and turning to face House, "You were right about the father and the kid."
"Yeah…I already knew that though, way to state the obvious."
"I don't encourage my Doctors to distract family members while other Doctors are busy performing biopsy's to prove their crazy theories-"
"Wouldn't recommend it." House interrupted, wincing as he felt the lump on the back of his head.
"But…I'm going to pretend that what you did was for the best of your patient" She looked to House, who nodded slightly in agreement, "so…well done..."
"Huh?" House shot Cuddy a glazed over look, maybe he had hit his head harder than he thought – Cuddy was actually thanking him for breaking the rules, this was unexpected to say the least!
"Next time you may want to sit down when you're going head to head with a giant ape or you could hurt yourself." Cuddy declared, grinning at his confused look.
"I'm guessing that guy wasn't a donor…" House mumbled, frowning to himself.
"You may want to put some ice on that" Cuddy motioned to his cheekbone before holding the door open for Wilson and leaving for the night.
"Hey, how's your head?" Wilson asked airily as he handed House his cane.
"I think there may be serious permanent damage" House said seriously, "I'm pretty sure Cuddy just thanked me…" he finished by trailing off and giving Wilson a questioning look, causing Wilson to grin foolishly and shake his head.
"I'm sure it was just the concussion clouding your perception; she'll be back to yelling at you tomorrow." Wilson assured as he helped House off of the sofa and led him out through the clinic…