A/N: Hello everybody! I'm back! In case you haven't read The 823nd Try I urge you to do so, because this picks up where my other story ended. Anyway I'd just like to say thanks to all of you who reviewed and put The 832nd Try on their alerts, the positive feedback really meant a lot to me!
"Before we end this meeting, the board-members and I would like to talk about something that was brought to our attention some weeks ago and we can't ignore it anymore."
Cuddy looked at the other board-members, on the outside she appeared calm, but on the inside she was nervous. As far as she was aware of her hospital was running like a well oiled machine, so something must've slipped past her.
"We've noticed," the board member continued. "that Dr. House hasn't done much of his clinic hours. He is in fact so below average that it is going to be impossible for him to catch up with the rest of the doctors."
"So what are you saying?" She stood up and was ready to defend her best doctor in the house, but before she could start defending the board member continued.
"We're saying that maybe he has to find something else he can do to benefit this hospital, like teach for a semester. Otherwise we are forced to lower his pay-check."
"Before you decide can I talk with Dr. House first?" They all agreed, but Cuddy could see there wasn't really that much to decide and House didn't have much of a choice.
The meeting ended and just like every monthly budget-meeting everybody would stay and have lunch together. She usually enjoyed it, but today was different. Today her thoughts were with House and what he was going to say.
Just when everything was going well in his life, something would always come and shatter it into pieces. And this time she would be responsible for it.
Cuddy struggled through the lunch, making unnecessary small-talk with the people sitting next to her. 45 minutes later she was back in her office, keeping herself occupied with signing the budget-reports.
How could she begin to tell him that the board wanted him to teach? Why couldn't they have waited a couple of weeks?
Right now everything was perfect in their lives, they had just moved into the new house and she had just sold her old house to another doctor from Princeton General. The new house was just lovely it had taken a couple of months before they had found the right one, but now they rarely went anywhere. They just enjoyed spending time together in the house they bought together.
With a sigh Cuddy stopped signing the papers and rubbed her temples, willing the fast approaching headache to go away.
House had never had much luck in his life, the last 5 months had probably been one of his happiest, at least she hoped they were. Their relationship was going better than she ever thought it would, sure they had some fights but she had never been happier. And she could see he was happy too, Cuddy had noticed he was smiling more often. And his relationship with Rachel was going better she had ever expected. Rachel simply adored him, every time he walked into the room she was smiling and often demanded to be hugged. So right now his life was probably going better than ever and she was going to ruin it.
With another sigh she stood up and walked to the elevators making her way up to his office. She needed to tell him and in her mind she was preparing herself to a lot of yelling and possibly some items flying around.
She walked into his office, but it was empty. She saw him in the conference room running a DDX with his team. She had always been fascinated by the way he worked with his team. How he would run some of their ideas through his head and only the good ones would land on the famous whiteboard.
She watched as Chase and Thirteen left the room shortly followed by Taub and Foreman. House shook his head all the way back to his office, but he stopped when he noticed her sitting in one of the chairs by his desk.
"What's up?" Oh boy, she thought, he had already noticed something was wrong.
"I was just in a meeting and something came up and you're not gonna like it." By now he had taken a seat in his chair and Cuddy could tell that behind his steady mask he was trying to keep there was some worry in his blue eyes he couldn't hide. "The members of the board want you to teach a class for a semester and if all goes well they want you to continue. This means you won't have to be in the clinic anymore." She was ending with the good part, but she was sure it didn't matter anyway.
First he didn't say anything, he just sat there staring into space. Then he nearly jumped out of his seat when his eyes landed on hers, had he forgotten she was still in the room?
"So what's next they're gonna fire me, cos I don't spend enough money in the cafeteria?" Cuddy looked at him in confusion. "Well if they're gonna point out pointless things so will I."
"You're not helping."
"I know." He mumbled while leaning back in his chair.
If he was honest with himself he actually liked it the last time he taught a class. He liked that he could argue with the students and make fun of them when they made the wrong diagnosis. And he wouldn't have to work in the clinic anymore, which was a huge plus. On the downside though if he agreed there would be a lot more paperwork coming his way on the form of papers he had read.
"How long do I have to decide?"
"Two days. And I think they want you to say yes."
"Right" He stood up and limped so he was standing right next to her. He leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. "I'll see you at home."
And with that he was gone leaving her alone in his office.