(no subject)

[mmkaternater]

It had been a month since Don Herrot had smoothed a ballcap over his surgically-deepened hairline and left to go back to his fourteen-states-spread auto maintenance routine -- albeit at a slightly reduced speed limit. In a month's time, things around Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital had gone back to normal gear, too. House had returned to work the day after her visit and had seemed to favour his leg only slightly more than usual. He had agreed to an MRI, but neither Cuddy nor Wilson had been able to catch him long enough to wrangle him out of his distressed jeans and into a hospital gown -- even though Wilson had commented that Cuddy was now in a better position to do so. Clinic duty was shirked, patient rights were violated, and there was always a nurse on duty to watch the status of any expensive equipment that might meet with House's "special attention."

In other words, it was business as usual.

Outside of business was a trickier, cagier creature. It had been an unspoken agreement from the onset of this Unnamed Thing between the two of them that House's apartment should be the command center of things to be consumated. It had just seemed more practical. His place was on a leyline between the hospital and her home and driving from one to the other was a three-point process that Cuddy undertook both before and afterhours. House had couched himself in her home only a few times -- once for breaking and entering, another for a midnight panty raid that produced no goods but allowed him to cop a feel -- and it was a kind of Mecca environment to the both of them that forced all conversation surrounding it to be conducted in whispers.

So when she had formally invited him (as formal as an invitation could get when you were slung half across your invitee with your skirt bunched up around your hips) and he'd accepted, it changed the dymanic. A sort of exposure of those parts of Lisa Cuddy that she strived to keep as hidden as possible: bookshelves stuffed with titles she didn't reveal to anyone else; how her closets were organized; the new paint on the walls and why she chose the colour. It was a nest of intrigue and inquiry and House's natural curiosity compass would go mad trying to dissect it all.

She had lit a fire -- the last of the year -- and had ordained herself in casual clothes. Wine had been opened and tannins allowed to mellow. He was due at 7:00.

It was 7:12.

Comments

[betteroffdean.livejournal.com]

As a rule, women didn't like having a man -- significant, insignificant, or House -- pigeon hole them into a set routine. The feminine mystique disallowed absolute understsanding. He might have had a bead on some aspects of her (her drive for her work, her charitable guilt, to name but two) but there were onionskin layers to Lisa Cuddy that he hadn't glimpsed. Maybe wouldn't ever fully cull to the surface.

-- Her couch was one of them.

She roped her wine glass in for another drink, giving him her stern regard over the rim. "It wasn't every day. And your legs weren't that impressive."

[addxcted.livejournal.com]

There was a long moment in which he considered her words, and while the amusement of the conversation at hand did still continue to hang in place, an odd sort of expression crept into place; not as if he'd taken offense at her statement, but it had turned his thoughts inward temporarily which was a dangerousr region.

Draining the remaining contents of his glass, he sat up and pushed himself forward to set the glass on the nearest stand alongside the couch.

"Maybe not every day, but you did transfer int Intermediate Diagnostic Medicine my last year there after the TA lists were out." House had never pointed out the fact that he was aware of that fact; she'd been transferred into the class well before the first day, but being the nosey sort that he was, he'd looked into it once a perusal of the student list had popped up her name among the 'familiar' ones.

Perhaps Cuddy had wanted a taste of House in a class that he actually found interesting vs. Practical Anatomy.

[betteroffdean.livejournal.com]

She followed the long reach of his arm with her eyes, half his face cloaked off when he shifted to settle his glass. Her lips flared up briefly, trying for combative amusement, though there were subtler tones to her voice when she spoke:

"Are you insinuating that I've spent the last twenty years carrying a torch for you? House..." she turned her lips to her glass and took some time there "..there are egoes and then there are egoes and then there's you."

[betteroffdean.livejournal.com]

(Good morning! I'm taking a personal day from work today to decompress. 'Wanted to know if, given our new information, whether or not you'd like to start a new scene. This one's sort of...antiquated, lol.)

[addxcted.livejournal.com]

( Good morning. /yawn. Wish I could say the same about a day off, but I get tomorrow off so I suppose it all works out. I just have to push through today. Lol.

What did you have in mind? )

[betteroffdean.livejournal.com]

(Oh, you'll be fine. This time tomorrow, my fingers'll be worn to bones and you'll be lounging about like a big lounging...thing.

I don't think that the fact that they've slept together before has to change what we have too much. It's more just tweaking perception. As to the exact nature of a new scene -- I don't know. Cuddy's parents could come visiting. And she would be keen to keep it as quiet as possible -- maybe pulling Hosue aside in a hallway ten minutes before they get there -- but it would open up avenues for some interesting tableside conversations.)

[addxcted.livejournal.com]

( She'd be so afraid of him misbehaving. I think that would be very interesting, actually. I'm sure she'd have the dilemmia of wondering if she should even tell him at first, then telling him because he'd find out even if she didn't.

Almost halfway done with the day. x.x;; Still have lunch, too, so huzzah. )

[betteroffdean.livejournal.com]

(Excellent. I'll start then, eh?

And I hope you got a chance to snag some lunch. How're you feeling of late? Still under a cloud?)

[addxcted.livejournal.com]

( I'll be looking for the post, as I'm back at the office now. The antibiotics helped a lot of it but I'm still in that fuzzy cold-like state and will probably continue to be like that until it gets entirely out of my system. It was so bad there for a few days that I could hardly take more than a shallow breath without hacking up a lung. It was terrible. )

[betteroffdean.livejournal.com]

(I'm popping off to dinner, so I won't have anything for you for -- oh, I don't know, I'm being treated to a steak, so it might be a bit. But if you'd like to post in the interim, you're more than welcome. 'Else I'll sit my chops down and write something soon after I get back.

'Glad to hear you're on the up, at least. Terrible, terrible strains going around. I hope you rested.)