The characters are the property of Fox and David Shore.

Premise: Season six. Thanksgiving time. House is back at work and most things have returned to normal, except House's relationship with Cuddy. Please let me know what you think.

Chapter 1: Anger Management

6pm

Cuddy used to dread the eve of Thanksgiving as it marked the beginning of the Holiday season. It used to always remind her of how alone she really was in this world. She had plenty of friends and for the most part, she liked her family, but this was the time of year where she really missed having a man in her this year it would be different, she had Rachel. Therefore, when 6pm came on the Wednesday before thanksgiving Cuddy packed up her office with a bit of a smile and headed towards the exit of PPTH.

As Cuddy turned to lock her office she was actually really smiling until she heard the repetitive sound of a hard piece of wood hitting the floor. That sound could only mean one thing…House. Before turning to face him, Cuddy immediately took up a defensive pose. House had either ignored her or been a jerk to her since his return and she wasn't about to let him make some snarky remark to ruin her evening and her four day weekend.

"You seem to be awfully pleased with yourself…blind date waiting at mommy and daddy's tomorrow". House said from his propped up position against the wall across from the nurse's station.

Cuddy had tried for two months to engage him in normal conversation or even banter with him like old times but House was different now. He treated Cuddy with the same disrespect that he treated everyone else and she was tired of it. Cuddy responded by turning her back to him, locking the door, and walking right past him with her head held high. Well, almost right past him. At the last minute House raised his cane and laid it on top of the nurse's station creating a blockade for Cuddy.

This was really the last straw for Cuddy. She used to love his little games when they were games. When the games were really about teasing one another other, sexual innuendos, and "eye sex". Now the only vibe she got from House was anger and resentment. She grabbed the tip of the cane the laid on the nurse's station, and lifted it up and brought it up to House's face, and said the most hurtful thing she could think off.

"Unlike you House, I have someone who loves me waiting for me to come home. I no longer care what your opinions on my life, my ass, or anything else are and I don't care if you have a miserable or a wonderful thanksgiving. With that, she walked straight to the exit and out the door without even a backward glance.

9pm.

House stared at the empty bourbon glass on the piano and he started recapping the last two months of his life. After Mayfield he couldn't face Cuddy. Every time he looked at her, all those memories from the delusion and the morning after came flooding back. He was hurt all over again. The pain of standing in her office that day when the realization hit him that the hot, passionate sex he shared with Cuddy was all in his head. He had actually asked her to move in with him! How can he ever look at her again and not feel all the pain all over again.

So he deflected.

And was an a$$

And made her feel like she was responsible

Since the day he got back he was leading Cuddy to this moment. When she would finally break and really never want to see him again. He just didn't expect that it would hurt him so much. It was supposed to stop the pain in his chest, not make it worse. Of Course, he probably wasn't helping matters by playing the serenade he wrote for Cuddy. Instead, he stopped playing and filled up his Bourbon glass one more time. At least he still had alcohol.

As the evening progressed House drowned his thoughts and feelings about Cuddy into bourbon after bourbon. When he played the piano, he thought of cuddy, when he watched porn, he REALLY thought of Cuddy, so he stretched himself on the couch and tried to pass out…but he thought of Cuddy some more. Well, there was only one more thing left to do.

11pm.

Cuddy had just crawled into bed after a really pleasant evening. She played with Rachel till almost 10pm. It was well past her bedtime but Cuddy would be home for four straight days so it was okay if Rachel got a little off schedule. She had just changed into her PJs which consisted of a tight fitting white tank top and a pair of navy blue cotton shorts, and crawled into bed thinking about what sort of baby food constituted a thanksgiving dinner.

Then there was a knock at the door.

It wasn't really a knock, as in someone's hand gently tapping the door, but more of a hard cane being pounded very loudly on the door. Cuddy's immediate thoughts were torn between being seriously pissed at House and wanted to ignore him until he left to being worried that he would wake Rachel and then it would be midnight before she got her settled back down for the night. Using Rachel as her excuse to run to House's knock, she flung off the covers and made her way to the front door.

He has started a second round of knocking just as she swung open the door and House came within an inch of clocking her in the face with her cane. Cuddy grabbed the cane out of instinct when House responded "you have been grabbing my stick a lot this evening, I might start to get the wrong idea about your intentions Dr. Cuddy".

Cuddy was about to launch into a long diatribe about House and his assine behaviors and how these random nightly visits were now banned from his arsenal when she instead was speechless for a moment, stymied by his first use of a sexual innuendo, in reference to her, since his return from Mayfield. For a second, it was like the old House was standing before her.

House looked a little confused by it too, almost as if it slipped out subconsciously.

Cuddy recovered first and simply said "House, why are you here?"

"I'm here, because I want to know why 6 months ago I was a part of your life 'for better or worse' and now you care nothing about my opinions or whether I have a miserable or wonderful existence" he responded.

"At 11pm House! Somehow I think your ulterior motive involves pissing me off".

Instead of responded, House just stared at her. It wasn't a hurtful stare like he has been giving her these past few months it was more of a blank stare, as if House was lost in space. The truth was, he had no idea why he was there. After all the jerking around and Cuddy finally drawing the line, House's anger and the need to distance himself from her had somehow melted away. All he could think about now was seeing her, bantering with her, and getting the chance to touch her, even if only a fleeting brush of the hand. In truth, he hadn't really thought about what he was going to say beyond his opening line.

Finally, when he realized it was his turn to speech, he turned his gaze away from her and said "I'm not here to piss you off, that just comes as a natural side effect of my presence to most people". House had said it in a very defeatist voice and it was his tone and not his words that caused Cuddy to open the door wide and invite him in.

When House walked past her, Cuddy could smell the Bourbon oozing out of his pours and glanced outside to see if House had arrived by taxi. As she shut the door she strained her neck up and down the block, and saw House's bike parked across the street. Before allowing inside any further, she stuck her hand in front of him, palm towards the ceiling, and said one word. "Keys!"

House rolled his eyes slightly but obediently placed his keys in her hand. As he did so, his fingers did get the fleeting brush of her hand that he so desperately craved. If it affected Cuddy, she showed no outward signs.

"It's a taxi or the sofa until you sober up".

House raised his eyebrows up and down a few times and said with a twinkle in his eye "I'll take the sofa!" and he started limping his way in that direction.