I am REALLY sorry for this taking so long. It seems that my inspiration comes in short bursts and when I should be doing something else like writing essays. I'm hoping to get that out of the way asap so I can spend my time writing this and getting it finished. I've also been writing other fics that I think won't be posted until they're finished or nearly finished because I hate leaving so long between chapters. I hope this chapter makes up for the long wait and hopefully there won't be another wait this long again. Thank you for all your reviews and messages. Alerts and Favourites, they really do make writing this so much better.

I realised there wasn't a disclaimer on the first chapter so here it is...

Disclaimer: I don't House no matter how much I wish I did

"House." Cuddy pulled her head back slightly, their lips no longer touching, and looked up at him questioningly. "What - ?" She stopped as House dropped his hands from her waist and went back to the table, falling into his seat with a soft thump. She stood alone on the dance floor for a few more moments before the funny looks from the other diners began to get to her and she too made her way back into her seat. If she wasn't confused before, she was now. One minute Greg was there for all to see and the next House was back. Like Jekyll and Hyde. Admittedly she had been the one to pull back, she wasn't even sure why herself. She watched him as he ordered another drink, downing the one he still had in front of him and refusing to make eye contact with her. "House," she tried again and frowned as he refused to acknowledge her. Reaching over, she grabbed his hand, giving it a squeeze in the hope to get his attention. As his gaze shifted from his hand playing with his empty bottle to the hand currently underneath hers, she took that as a sign that she had his attention.

"Forget it," he told her, lifting his head and meeting her gaze. He pulled his hand from under hers as a waitress made her way to the table and planted another bottle of beer and a glass of whiskey in front of him.

"Oh no, House. I don't think so." Cuddy reached over and took the whiskey form his loose grasp and emptied the contents down her own throat. She grimaced slightly at the taste and turned her focus back to him. "I'm not going to let you drown in…whatever it is you usually drown in. Self pity, embarrassment…loneliness. Speak to me." She finished softly, ignoring the look he was currently throwing her way.

"There's nothing to talk about," he told her nodding to the waitress signalling for another. God help her if she tried to take this one away from him. "You miss Greg. He's gone. Get over it."

Cuddy pursed her lips as the waitress returned with another glass of whiskey and he grabbed the glass before she could and drank the contents the way she had just a moment ago.

"Would you like the bottle, Sir?" The young blonde spoke up, not wanting to go backwards and forwards from the bar to the table.

"Yes."

"No."

House scowled at Cuddy. "Yes." He said sternly.

"It's really not necessary," Cuddy told her. "If you could just bring the bill…" The young woman nodded and headed off. "What is your problem?" She hissed, once the girl was out of earshot.

"You," he answered sharply, turning his attention back to the bottle of beer as he gulped down a few mouthfuls. "I should never have agreed to this. I don't do weddings and I don't do nostalgia."

The waitress returned with the bill and House placed some notes on the small plate and pushed his chair back. He sculled back the rest of his beer and grabbed his cane, heading towards the exit, Cuddy not far behind him.

___

"I'm glad you asked me out tonight." Lisa said as they left the club and headed for Greg's car. "I'm sorry we couldn't stay longer." She placed her hand on his arm as he went to open the door for her and leaned in to give him a kiss on the cheek.

"It's fine. There's things I should be doing too…" he told her with a smile.

"But you won't," she laughed and got in the car as he closed the door behind her and moved round to the drivers side. "Do you ever read a text book?" She asked him once he was seated and started the engine.

Greg placed his hand over her seat as he looked over his shoulder out the rear window. "Not if I can help it. I read medical journals though. A lot more interesting than text books. Especially when you read about tropical diseases you know you'll never come across in this country."

Lisa smiled in understanding. From the conversations they'd had over the past few weeks, she had discovered all about his passion for the weird and seemingly un-diagnosable, often shaking her head as his ego got the better of him when he exclaimed he would have diagnosed the patient a lot quicker than 'that poor excuse for a doctor' did.

The ride home was fairly quiet but there were no signs of awkwardness. They were both content with being in the other's presence and when they arrived at Lisa's dorm building, they were both slightly disappointed. Greg parked the car and turned to face her. She blushed under the intensity of his gaze before speaking up and breaking the silence.

"Thank you for tonight. I had fun." She leaned closer to him and placed a gentle kiss to his lips. "Call me tomorrow." She gave him one more kiss and he nodded as she got out the car and headed to the building. Greg watched her go, thankful that the night had gone the way he wanted.

__

This was not how the night was supposed to end, House decided as he hailed a cab and waited for Cuddy to catch up to him. The plan was to 'seduce' her and then, take her back to the hotel where he could jump her and they could both get what they wanted. But she had to pull back.

Why did she pull back?

House mentally ran through the evening as a car pulled up and he yanked the door open and climbed in. He ignored the scowl Cuddy threw at him as she got in after him and slammed the door shut. He absently gave the driver the name of the hotel and turned to look out of the window. As far as he could tell, he did nothing wrong. He danced with her for fuck's sake. He hated dancing. Even back then he did it because that's what the moment asked for. So why did she pull back? He ran through the part where he opened up to her, telling her how he missed Greg too and cursed himself for being weak and pathetic. But sometimes, it was true. Greg and House seemed to be two separate people but then the same went for her. Lisa was the girl he had dated in college, Cuddy was his annoying, pain in the ass boss.

When did things become different?

"House?"

House lazily turned his head to look at her as the alcohol took hold of his reactions. "Huh?"

"When did things become different?" House had to mentally check that he hadn't been speaking out loud. "What happened to Lisa and Greg?" He couldn't take the way Cuddy was looking at him and dropped his gaze to his hands fidgeting with his cane. She had been thinking the same thing. And it was expected. He couldn't bring them to the same jazz club he had when they were students and not expect some memories of the way they used to be. He just didn't expect the good memories to show him up.

He turned to look back out of the window as the car began to slow until it stopped outside the hotel. "I don't know," he muttered as he left the cab and started towards the building, leaving Cuddy to pay.

"Some guy you have there," the cab driver snorted, his words laden with sarcasm. "Leave you to pay often?" He asked.

Cuddy didn't answer, instead handing him the cash and telling him to keep the change as she hurried after House into the lobby. She looked towards the elevator, noticing an old couple waiting for it to arrive, but no House. She headed to the bar and found him sat in a stool, waving the bartender over. She sat next to him and ordered herself an orange juice when the barman came over.

"You should hold back on those. You don't want to go to the wedding hung over." She watched his profile as he did his best to ignore her. Of all the ways she saw this night ending, it wasn't looking after House as he drank himself into oblivion. "Talk to me, House. What did I do wrong?" He snorted at her question but didn't turn to look at her, instead taking a sip of the scotch in front of him. Deep down she knew what she did wrong. She pulled back and that was obviously going to dent his ego. She pulled back once she realised what was going on. The kiss had surprised her and brought all her feeling for him to the surface. Her ending the kiss had been a self-defence mechanism. She gave a sigh as he finished his drink and ordered another with instructions to be left the bottle. "At least bring it upstairs so we can talk," she offered, knowing he wasn't going to stop until he had reached the state of drunkenness he was after.

"There's nothing to talk about." He said simply, handing over the key card to their room to pay for their drinks. Even though, he didn't want to talk, he did want to put his leg up. Despite the alcohol, it was still bothering him. He picked up the bottle and stood up, limping in the direction of the elevator. House pressed the button to call the elevator back down to the lobby, ignoring Cuddy hovering by his elbow and his grip tightening on the bottle in his hand. As the doors opened, he fumbled for the card in his pocket to remember which floor he was on and shrugged when Cuddy pressed the fifth floor button before he could even slip the card from his back pocket. He frowned at himself. He was being so God-damned pathetic. He lifted the bottle and removed the lid and took a few quick gulps of the expensive amber liquid. As the doors opened, he followed Cuddy from the lift and down the corridor and reached in his pocket again to retrieve the key card and placed it in Cuddy's outstretched hand, heading towards the small mini bar to fetch a glass once he was inside. He took note of the alcoholic contents before taking the glass to the sofa and flicking on the television.

"I don't think so." Cuddy told him with a frown, grabbing the remote and turning the box off.

"I am not above wresting you for the remote, Cuddy. Now give it back and leave me alone."

"It's a good job I can outrun you then."

"Nice." He poured some scotch into the glass in his hand and internally cursed himself for cancelling his room. Right now he would give anything to get away from Cuddy and her insane need to talk through everything.

"House, please, for once, can we talk? Properly, without any sarcastic or biting comments. Just you, me and the truth." Cuddy plucked the bottle from his hand, pouring some into the glass she had picked up and set the bottle on the coffee table.

"You want to talk then fine, let's talk. Why?" House was glaring at her and she felt uncomfortable under such scrutiny.

"Why, what? Did I pull back?" She asked, one eyebrow raised in confusion.

"To start." House nodded his confirmation.

She stared at him incredulously. What did he mean 'to start'? There was nothing else to explain. "It was…I…I don't want to get hurt again." She told him, taking a small sip from the glass and immediately turning her face up at the taste. "You coming here with me, doing all this…I've done nothing but think about the past all month and now…I want to know what the future holds."

House squinted at Cuddy in order to focus on her more clearly as the alcohol made its way through his body. He was starting to feel hazy but finished his drink and poured himself another anyway. "The future…" he mumbled as he nursed the glass against his thigh and studied it as though it was an x-ray. "Like that's so easy to see." He lifted his head and looked back at Cuddy. "I'm not some crappy fortune teller that will tell you your future if you cross my palm with silver. I'm a miserable, egotistical cripple – "

"But you never used to be – well a miserable cripple anyway." She said with a soft smile. He snorted in amusement but it didn't reach his eyes. "I'm not asking you to tell me the future, I just want to know if this will work between us. Can we make it work again because I don't want to risk getting hurt."

"You don't want to risk it?" House slammed the glass on the table as he stood, some of the liquid spilling over the edge. "What about me? I got hurt last time too. I'm just as damaged and screwed up as you, more so in fact," he pointed to his right thigh and they both knew he wasn't just talking about the infarction. He was talking about Stacy and every crappy thing that had happened to him over the years.

Cuddy sighed he was right. Just by kissing her, he was opening himself up emotionally and she supposed she had crushed that and potentially ruined any other attempt at getting him to open up. She watched him as he limped over to the bed without his cane and sat down on the edge of it with his head in his hands. She felt bad but not enough to feel sorry for putting her own feelings first. If he didn't insist on staying so emotionally closed off from others then, no doubt, this conversation would be going in a different direction. As it was, he was inept at getting things off his chest emotionally and she wasn't going to apologise for putting herself first.

He looked up at her as she placed her hand on his lower back and he wished this could have gone differently but even if it could, he was too drunk to participate properly. "I'm tired," he told her, pushing himself up and heading towards his duffel bag. He dug through it, aware that she was watching his every move and headed to the bathroom to change. Once away from her, he let out a shaky breath. Why did things have to go this way?

Cuddy continued to watch the door for a few more moments before she also pushed herself up. She went through her suitcase, pulling out a set of pyjamas and her toiletries bag and sat on the edge of the bed, waiting for House to finish.

__

Lisa smiled to herself as a knock on her door sounded. It had been a three months since their first proper date. Angie had gone to see her parents so she had the room to herself and wasted no time in calling Greg to invite him round. They'd been on a lot more dates, ranging from dinner to bowling to college football games to just staying in and each one seemed better than the last. She opened the door to see him leaning against the wall, looking at his watch.

"About time," he told her sarcastically, as he swooped down to kiss her, pushing her back as he did so and closing the door behind him.

"Sorry to keep his majesty waiting." Lisa replied dryly as they broke apart.

"Yeah, well, at least you know now not to do it again. Plenty of girls out there would jump at the chance to have me knocking at their door." He smirked as her expression darkened slightly.

"Don't think there aren't any guys who would kill to be in your position," she warned him, grabbing his hand and pulling him to her bed.

Greg scrunched up his face. "Like who?" Lisa ignored him, instead kissing him again. "Like who?" he asked again, jerking his head away.

Lisa sighed. "Does it really matter?" She kissed him again. "They're not here, you are." She sat back in frustration as he continued to frown at her. "What is your problem?" She knew he could get jealous but this was ridiculous.

"I wanna know who's been trying it on with you." He told her, a slight edge to his voice.

"If you're going to be like this, then go. There are plenty of other things I could be doing." She looked over at her desk and the books and papers piled on it. She had a paper she could get started on now if he was going to play the jealous boyfriend all night.

Greg let out a sigh and relaxed his shoulders. He reached for Lisa's hand and caressed the back of it with his thumb. "You can't blame me for reacting that way – "

"You started it. I don't need a constant reminder of the girls you've slept with and all the girls you probably would be sleeping with if we weren't together." Lisa frowned at him. She'd had to deal with the jealousy thing a lot more recently and it was really starting to piss her off. Suddenly she was very much in the mood to write that paper. She didn't tell him that though. She'd broken off their last few dates to do her work and gain extra credit by working in the labs and he had been less than impressed by it. Their last date had started with an argument over whether to stay in or go out and had ended with who got to pick what they did next time. When Tom Bridges sat with her in the library to ask for a little help, Greg had seen them and scared Tom off with threats and promises. She didn't speak to him for days after that.

"Why do you have to be so difficult?" She asked, turning her head to look at him properly. "We argue over stupid things like what take-away to order or what film to watch. You scare away any guy who comes within a ten foot radius of me even if we're in the same class." She could feel herself choking up and tears gathering in her eyes as realisation dawned on her. "I didn't think things would get so difficult so soon." She turned her head to look down at their still joined hands.

"Meaning…you think we should stop seeing each other." Greg looked at her profile as she looked at their hands turning them this and way and that as though it was the last chance she would have in seeing them that way. He could feel himself choking up but refused to show any signs that her words had any effect on him.

"I didn't say that," she argued, lifting her head to meet his steely blue gaze. "It's just that…"

"What? I'm too jealous? Argumentative?" Greg let go of her hand and stood from the bed.

"All of the above and more besides. Like now. We could just talk but you're making an argument about something that you started. How does that even work?" She stood, ignoring the disappointment and sadness that was welling up inside her and instead focussed on the anger that was bubbling away at his attitude. "You make things more difficult than they need to be. Maybe we're just too evenly matched." She finished, her voice lowering to a whisper as he watched her incredulously.

She was right though. Greg knew they were evenly matched which made getting her a challenge and keeping her even more so. Yes, he was jealous, yes, he argued with her but she gave as good as she got. She wasn't one to let things go when that was all he wanted to do. He brought his hand up to his face, rubbing away some of the tension form his head. He could feel something in him explode from the emotions running through him and her words winding round in his head.

Maybe we're just too evenly matched.

He lowered his hand from his face and looked in her eyes, he could see tears forming but there he was nothing he could do about them now that she had spoken her mind. He turned from her and reached out for the door handle. This seemed like a stupid way to end things but…this was how most of their arguments were. Tedious. It just proved they were getting too comfortable with the other for them to argue over things that were completely trivial. The best thing he could do would be to leave. "I'm sorry," he whispered, before pulling the door open fully believing he was doing the right thing.

Lisa watched the door close and sat back onto the bed, defeated. This wasn't how things should have ended. After thirty minutes of allowing the tears to fall, she cleaned herself up and headed over to her desk to work.