A/N: I'm still working on the lengthy multi-chap fic "Confession is good for the soul" but as I said before, sometimes short fics can be a nice break and very inspirational to the writing process.
In the Huddy world, House would've been injured when Lucas tripped him in the cafeteria and when Cuddy found out about it, she would've dropped Lucas like a hot potato.
House and Wilson are in the cafeteria discussing who might be pranking them. As they're walking, House suddenly trips and lands sprawled out on the floor, face down. He shifts and looks behind him and at that moment a guy reading a newspaper at a table nearby turns around to face him.
Lucas.
Oh I'm sorry," he said. "Was my leg sticking out? I'm so distracted lately, trying to think of something funnier than fire sprinklers going off in the middle of the night. Any ideas?"
House struggles to get up, when he does, he holds his cane as if he was going to hit Lucas with it.
"Whoa, easy there, tiger. I know where you live. You know how I know?" He asked with a fake laugh. "Cause my girlfriend and I – we tried to buy that very same condo."
House tries to look innocent. "Why don't you leave me out of this? Wilson was the one who bought the place."
"And you're living there. You... deserve to suffer equally."
"Actually, I suffered more now that you just tripped me."
Wilson interrupts them. "Hey, hey, I..I'm..."
Talking to House, Lucas motions towards Wilson. "His suffering will equal out because he actually feels remorse."
"Why would you out yourself? You can't even imagine the retribution?"
"Oh, there won't be any. I am ceasing all offensive operations. I have both made my point and established my superiority. And if you even get to the planning stages of retaliation, I will tell Cuddy that she lost her dream place to you two. See, she's under this odd impression that you guys are her friends," he said smugly. Then he walked away leaving them stunned in silence.
It was late afternoon on Thursday and Cuddy was standing at the nurse's station in the clinic. She saw House's name on the roster and as usual he was nowhere to be found.
"Great," she muttered. "I've got to chase him down again."
Just as she turned around, she ran into Taub signing in at the reception desk.
"Dr. Cuddy."
"Dr. Taub, I didn't see your name on the roster."
"Wilson asked me to take over for House today."
"And where is House?"
"I have no idea."
"Since when is Dr. Wilson your boss?"
"I have no idea; can I uh...go now? I've got a grandmother with crabs waiting for me."
Taken back by his unusual response, she simply replied,"lovely," as Taub scurried off. Cuddy marched toward the elevator on a mission. She was tired of House having people take up his slack. She reached the fourth floor and entered the Diagnostics Conference room and found it empty as was House's office. She stormed into Wilson's office without knocking.
"What the hell, Wilson?"
"What?" Wilson looked up from his charts.
"You sent Taub to do House's clinic duty? Where is he? His team?"
"Thirteen and Foreman are helping Cameron in the ER."
"And House?"
"He wasn't feeling well today."
"Really. Why didn't he call?" She asked angrily, standing there with her arms crossed, glaring at him.
"He asked me to let you know. I got busy and forgot," he said casually.
"I'm tired of him blowing off his clinic duty."
Wilson laughed. "Cuddy, he's been doing it for years."
"And that makes it okay?"
Wilson sighed. "Cuddy, I'm sure he'll be back in a few days."
"What's wrong with him?"
"He…uh...he hurt his leg."
"What? How?"
"Don't worry about it Cuddy. How is not important. He'll be fine," Wilson assured her.
"Wilson, you don't need to protect him. I know he's been drinking more than usual lately. You really think I don't know that's not coffee in his coffee mug?"
Wilson sat back in his chair and looked up at her. "Cuddy, you've got your own life with Rachel and...Lucas," he said with a tone of disgust. "Why do you care where House is or what he's doing?"
"It's my hospital and I care what goes on around here."
"Oh, that's right, how could I forget?" He asked, rubbing his eyes. "It's always about the hospital with you."
"What's that supposed to mean?" She glared at him.
Wilson hesitated a moment. He wanted to yell at her and tell her how much of an idiot she was and how much she'd hurt House but he knew she'd never believe him, she'd just tell him he was upset because she wouldn't give his best friend the time of day. Instead of engaging Cuddy any further, he just wanted an end to the conversation.
"Cuddy, is there anything else? I'm busy," he motioned towards the papers on his desk.
She sighed and her shoulders slumped. "No. Just...when you talk to House, tell him to get sober and get his ass in here or else." She turned sharply and walked away.
A few hours later, Cuddy was packing up her things to head home when her cell phone rang. She smiled when she saw the name on the caller ID.
"Hi Lucas," she answered.
"Hey Lise, just wanted to let you know I'm working late."
"You coming by later?"
"Maybe. I'll call you."
"Okay."
"Everything alright? You sound stressed."
"Oh it's fine, just the usual."
"Let me guess. House?" Lucas asked with sarcasm.
"He didn't come in today, didn't call and let me know. I should have known he'd revert back to his old ways."
"Well you've known for years he's an ass. He's just getting back at you because you chose me over him." He said smugly.
She frowned at him over the phone. "Lucas, it wasn't a contest," she said.
He just laughed. "Did you really think he'd change?"
"I'd hoped," she said sadly.
"Screw it. Listen, he's not your problem anymore, let Wilson worry about him."
"I care about him, he was my friend." The word was came out before she could think. Is it true? Were they no longer friends? Were we ever even really friends? She wondered to herself.
Lucas interrupted her thoughts. "I don't know why, he treats you like crap. Let him go Lisa. Don't get sucked into whatever crap he's gotten himself into."
"I don't know...I guess," she said hesitantly.
"Atta girl. I'll call you later."
"Bye Lucas."
Cuddy left the hospital thinking back to what Lucas said about House not being her problem anymore. She cared about House, not just as an employee but as a person; though things had cooled off quite a bit since he found out about Lucas. The distance was even more obvious after the prank she'd played on him at Thanksgiving. She still felt guilty about sending him on a wild goose chase, but she was sure that he would find a way to intrude upon her and Lucas and once again, manage to make everyone around him as miserable as he was. For one day she wanted to be free of his asinine behavior. Of course, that prank didn't stop him because that night he'd broken into Lucas's apartment and declared his undying love for her. Since she confronted him the next day, everything had been different. They no longer played the games and engaged in the banter that was the crux of their relationship for so many years, and she missed it dearly.
Did we even have a relationship? She thought to herself. Yes, they did. It was crazy, screwed up, completely inappropriate and dysfunctional and somehow it worked. She knew he was still upset about her relationship with Lucas but she hoped he wouldn't be stupid enough to go back to his self destructive ways. She wanted them to be friends but wasn't sure if House could handle that.
Lost in her thoughts, she hadn't even realized until she'd arrived, that she was on her way to House's apartment instead of her house. She pulled up outside the Newport style apartment building and turned off the ignition. Both his motorcycle and car were parked out front. She'd calmed down since she left the hospital, now she just wanted to know what happened to House. She slowly emerged from the car, took a deep breath and made her way to the front door.
Well, there goes the first chapter. I'd written one extremely long chapter to start and then realized I could divided it up which means there's two more chapters already written, just needing a bit of editing.
Please leave your comments, they are very important to me!