A Prank Too Far

Uumm…yeah. I do have a thing about singing squirrels but that was in the original and was recycled for the ‘Temporary Insanity’ fiction so I suppose I can get away with it.

WOOT!

Watched the first episode of season three! Mwahahahaha. It is ridiculous how happy this program makes me. I’ve been on fanfiction too long though because when I saw Cuddy in the bed I was like; ‘Why isn’t House there too?’

Ack!

Hurry up writer ppl and get with the huddyness! I want it on ma telly!

I don’t think they’re listening.

Anyways, muchas Huddy smut in the chapter after this one. Read and review.

See ya kiddies soon!

Chapter 7: One Reason


“What are we missing?” House growled as he thumped his head against the edge of the whiteboard and resisted the urge to make his team go and suffer some horrible fate. Tempting though it was to blame them for this, he kind of needed them to do his every whim. He turned slowly as a knock sounded at the door and a tall teenage boy walked into the room.

“Hey, I’m looking for Dr McQueen, you guys seen her?” The kid had on odd accent, sounded vaguely French actually with a mixture of…something else completely. He was tall with black hair that hung over long down over one eye and was cut short at the back, flashing green eyes took in the inhabitants of the room in a single sweep and he tossed his head as he waited for an answer in an eerily familiar gesture.

House jerked his head towards the balcony. “Cigarette break.” He answered and watched another familiar scowl settle over the boy’s features as he muttered something dark about cancer sticks and strode out into the balcony with a confidant gait.

“Hey, mum!” He barked at Tawny and she whirled, her cigarillo in one manicured hand. “I thought you were quitting?” The boy demanded and Tawny grinned and muttered something as she stubbed the cigarillo out and walked towards the boy embracing him warmly and speaking rapidly in French to him.

House watched the exchange with interest. He had known she was married but he never would have figured her old enough to have a teenage son, she didn’t look any older than thirty.

“Mum, mum, French!” The boy said and extricated himself from her hold as easily as he could. Pretending to be embarrassed at the obvious affection she had for him.

Tawny switched fluidly to English. “Where’s your father? I thought he was taking you to school.”

“He was, the beer guy showed late though, so I need cash for the school trip that we’re supposed to be going on and you’ve gotta sign the consent form for me tae go.” He said as he trailed her back into the main briefing room, Tawny reached for her purse and pulled out a roll of bills, pulling of three or four and handing them to her son without further thought. She snapped her fingers and gestured to her son.

“Consent form.” She demanded as she pulled a pen from the dumbfounded fingers of Dr Foreman.

“You gonnae introduce us, mum?” The boy elbowed her and Tawny scanned the form as she waved between them and made introductions.

“Doctors Gregory House, Eric Foreman, Robert Chase and Alison Cameron meet my son; Lorcain McQueen.” Tawny said absently and Lorcain nodded a greeting to each of them with a small half wave to House and a wink at Cameron. Tawny caught the last gesture and glared at him.

“Looking very business like today, mum.” Lorcain said on a grin as he shoved his hands in his pockets.

Tawny tossed her head and planted her hands on her hips. She was dressed in a steel grey pant suit with forest green silk shirt and matching stiletto heels, her trademark sunglasses were still perched on her nose but these ones had green lenses and silver frames. “And you look like you haven’t got a home to go to. It really is beyond me why you must pay a hundred dollars to look like you’ve rolled off the street.” Tawny shot back and signed the form before slapping it lightly against her son’s chest. He winced at the blow and she arched a brow at him. He straightened immediately with a charming grin and House felt a small pang for any teenage girls that would be on the receiving end of that grin.

“Fashion, mum. Got to keep the ladies happy.” He bobbed his eyebrows at that and tawny sighed.

“I do not want to have to deal with another irate father when I get home tonight. Do I make myself clear?” Her tone brooked no argument and Lorcain nodded hurriedly.

“Right. Mental note; don’t get caught.” He tapped his temple with a finger and grinned. “Locked in the vault.”

“You’ll be locked in your room if you’re not careful now shoo. Go. Be educated.” Tawny presented her cheek to him which he duly kissed and then ushered him out the office. She turned back to the team and took in their stares. “What?”

House was the first to speak. “I didn’t know you were a teenage mom.” He grinned at her and she tilted her head with a glare at him. “How old is Lorcain?” He demanded.

“Sixteen.” She said shortly.

“And you are…?” Chase asked, looking over her, he wouldn’t have put her at much younger than himself at thirty four.

“It’s rude to ask a lady her age.” Tawny answered smoothly and House grinned again.

“We’ll remember that when we see a lady. How old were you when you got pregnant?”

Tawny sighed, she knew enough about Gregory House by now to know that he wasn’t about to give up on this. The more tightly she held on to the information, the harder he was going to tug until he got what he wanted.

“I’m thirty five, do the math.” She told him and took her seat at the end of the briefing table. “Weren’t we working? I think it has something to do with the protein deficiency.” She said assertively and sat back in her seat.

“Why?” House demanded.

Tawny shrugged.

“Oh well, as long as we go with that towering pile of medical reasoning.” He snarked at her and she flipped him a two fingered salute.

“I said I thought it had something to do with it. I didn’t say I had a reason.” Tawny told him coolly.

House opened his mouth to tell her exactly what he thought of that and stilled as something occurred to him. He looked to the team and issued sharp orders to go and run another battery of tests and begin the treatment anyway. Tawny tapped the edge of her pen against the glass table as she watched the team to scurry and do his bidding. He looked at her expectantly. She arched a brow back at him.

“I am not a minion. I’m a surgeon.” She said distinctly and he scowled at her.

“Fine, go and do my clinic hours then.” He told her and she snorted in amusement.

“How is Cuddy?” She asked instead and House’s shoulders tensed as she hit on the one subject he didn’t want to talk about.

“How am I supposed to know?” He said back on a forced casual shrug.

“Did you tell her about the poisoned whisky?”

“It wasn’t really poisoned…” House attempted to reason but Tawny cut him off.

“An otherwise harmless drink is laced with a foreign substance that, if enough of it is taken into the system, can cause severe harm to the victim. How is that not poisoning?”

“People hate you big picture folks, you know that?” He looked over his shoulder at her and scowled. She only smiled back at him.

“I know.” Her expression grew more serious as she tapped her finger against her lips. “I tracked down the manufacturer of the whisky, it’s a very small and I don’t think very legal business, right here in New Jersey.” House looked over at her expectantly. “The owner wasn’t particularly open to discussion about this particular brand of whisky but I managed to persuade him…she’s going to become ill, House.”

House trained his full attention on the woman across from him as he took the seat opposite her. “How ill?”

“She won’t be able to keep food down, mood swings, sensitivity to light and touch, dehydration and a massive sex drive, apparently.” Tawny told him bluntly.

“There’s a treatment right?” House demanded and Tawny nodded slowly. She didn’t think the dean would be particularly accepting of this particular brand of physical therapy.

She looked up at House and pursed her lips before saying carefully. “That’s where the increased sex drive comes into it, think about it.” She told him and rose to her feet and left the room.

House sat back and watched her go. He had some thinking to do.


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Cuddy rinsed her mouth out with water and then brushed her teeth enthusiastically in the small bathroom just off her office. She felt awful and hungry on top of that. She was starving but couldn’t seem to keep anything down since last night. She splashed water on her face and then fixed her make up for the third time that day. She was beginning to think that she just shouldn’t bother with the damn stuff. Mascara was becoming increasingly difficult to apply when you couldn’t quite seem to get your hand to stop shaking.

Finally looking fit for human consumption, Cuddy gave one last straightening tug to her jacket and then strode out into the main room of her office. She had dimmed the lights and closed the blinds, for some reason the bright light just made her feel worse. She didn’t notice him on the couch until he snagged her wrist and dragged her down next to him on it. She gave a small cry of surprise and swallowed it when a familiar surge of heat went through her at the skin on skin contact of his hand on her pulse.

“House! What are you doing here?” She scrambled backwards on the couch and tried to get as far away from him as she could. The last time she had seen him he had been sprawled on the floor against her office door, and the time before that he had pinned her up against the wall of an elevator.

What the hell was going to happen this time?

“Relax, cuddles, I brought lunch.” He told her cheerfully and held up a box of delicious smelling take out in the container.

Cuddy’s stomach grumbled in hunger even as it roiled at the thought of more food. She tensed as she watched him, he was up to something. She didn’t know what it was but she had a feeling that it wasn’t going to be good for her. “What’d you bring?” She asked to distract herself as much as him.

“Southern fried chicken, potato wedges and gravy, mmm.” He said as he popped the box open and waggled it in front of her nose. “Nummy, and none of that KFC stuff either, this is the real deal.” He informed her and bit into a potato wedge with relish, savouring the spiced taste of the crispy skin.

She was still watching him warily.

“It’s not poisoned.” He told her, a note of offence in his voice. “Would I do that to you?”

“If it benefited you? Of course you would.” She snorted at him and eyed the chicken. She really was hungry…

“Wait, I need to do something first.” He told her and his voice dragged her attention back to him.

She opened her mouth to ask him what when his lips covered her own. She jerked in surprise and her lips parted on a gasp against his mouth. It was all the invitation he needed. His tongue swept over hers as his arm circled around her waist. The kiss was deep and his mouth hard on hers as he took her and hauled her against his hard chest with a low growl of possession.

Cuddy moaned throatily at the delicious contact and angled her body more firmly against his. She arched towards him and slid her leg up over his and hooked it over his thigh. She could feel the hard length of him against her knee and shivered with anticipation, her hand trailed down the front of his shirt and then under the hem to slide over the warm skin of his belly.

He pulled away from her suddenly and sucked in a breath, trying to regain some control. Damn, he’d only had a mouthful of the whisky and he was on a knife edge, she’d drunk half of it, it was a wonder that she hadn’t pinned the nearest man long ago and just worked it clean out of her system.

“Oh my…you!” She scowled at him and slapped his shoulder hard before hauling herself away from him and up of the couch. “Why would you do that?!” She demanded, angry at him now.

“Do you feel better?” He panted and squirmed on the couch, in no position to stand.

“What?” She was rubbing at her temple and trying to shove the lust in her system back from a twelve to a more manageable number. She swallowed in her dry throat and succeeded only partially to a ten. Her blood felt hot and heavy in her veins and she wanted nothing more to get back on that couch and finish what he’d started but she held herself back stubbornly.

She would not give in to Gregory House.

“Do you feel better? Do you still want to hurl?” He asked her more insistently and she scowled at him. How had he even…? She stilled, actually she did feel better.

“How did you…?” She shook her head rapidly and snatched up her lunch instead. “Forget it, I don’t want to know. It’s bad enough that you were just doing it to satisfy your curiosity.” She grumbled and bit into the warm crunchy chicken. It tasted so good.

“Trust me, it wasn’t my curiosity I was satisfying.” He readjusted his jeans and she felt a brief pang for how uncomfortable he was. Then she scowled. It was his own damn fault and she wasn’t inclined to be very compassionate towards him at the moment. She ate a potato wedge before she opened her mouth and forgave him.

He watched her a moment as she ate while she was fairly confidant she could keep it down. “Why did you leave last night? Things were just getting interesting.”

She stilled and looked at him before finishing what she was eating. Her eyes dropped to his lap and did nothing to help him subside as her cheeks flamed. He found himself wondering if she would blush all over when he fucked her.

“I…I didn’t like what was happening to me.” She said it slowly, without looking at him and finished her lunch. She picked up her soda and pressed the cold cup to her throat in an effort to cool the fever that she was running.

“Well, I definitely liked what was happening to me. Now, was it the lust that you didn’t like, or the lack of control?”

She looked at him finally and pressed her lips together before answering. “Isn’t it funny how you always want the one thing you can’t have?” She said and he frowned at that.

“What? You think I’m unwilling?” He snorted in disbelief at that. She couldn’t possibly think that.

“No…I just…there are a million and one reasons why I shouldn’t be even having this conversation with you.” She stood and paced restlessly. He rose and stopped her with a hand on her wrist. Her pulse raced under his fingers and it struck him exactly how ill she looked. Her skin flushed and glistening and that glassy look over her eyes. He was used to saying to hell with the rules and treating his patients anyway. He pulled her closer to him and she came willingly, the pheromones running riot through her system and her pupils dilating.

“Cuddy…Lisa, you only need one reason to go through with this. We both know there’s only one outcome to this and the longer you put it off the worse we both feel. So, you decide you’re going to be a grown up about this and take your damn medicine just give me a call.” He smirked at her lowered his mouth to her neck, she made a small sound as his lips traced the shell of her ear and he inhaled the soft scent of her hair.

“I mean it, just say the word, and I’ll be there.” He told her and she trembled in his arms before quickly pulling away. She looked up at him, suddenly vulnerable and backed away. For the second time in as many days, she snatched up her purse and jacket, opened her office door and walked out on him.

He gritted his teeth in more than one kind of frustration as he watched her go.


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Cuddy tried to breathe in a more regular and calming rhythm as she paced up and down her hallway. Her skin felt three sizes too small, her head was pounding and she felt she needed sex like she needed to breathe.

Not just any sex though, noooo, it had to be House. She didn’t know why but she wanted him to pin her up against the wall again and pound into her until they were both screaming. She shivered and steadied herself with a hand against the wall as a vicious cramp tugged at her stomach. She bit her lip and scrubbed a hand over her face. She felt like she was burning.

She wore no clothes, the feel of even silk fabric against her skin was too much to bear and she’d had to tie her hair up in a knot to keep it from brushing against her sensitized skin. She gritted her teeth and thought about her options.

One; continue to try and ride it out and stay a little while longer in hell.

Two; go to her medical kit and sedate herself.

Three; call House and say the word.

She cringed at the last and most tempting of her options. She didn’t even know what the ‘word’ was and she wanted to climb up on the roof and scream it to the world. She stopped her pacing long enough to press her back against the cool plaster of the wall. In a moment it would become too much to even tolerate that smooth coolness against her back but she took the minute relief where she could get it.

She couldn’t call him. She knew that she would never be able to actually pick up the phone, dial the number that she knew by heart, and ask him to come over. She would choke on the words, falter with the buttons and hang up without saying anything.

Cuddy hauled herself away from the wall. She had to do something. She stalked to the door, snatched up her keys and tugged on her cashmere overcoat, belting it tightly at her waist. Pushing her feet into her heels almost as an afterthought, she stalked out of the front door and locked it hurriedly behind herself before she could think of something better to do.

The expensive wool felt erotic against her skin for the moment as she slung herself into the Lexus and turned the engine over with a snarl from under the hood.

She knew she’d never be able to ask House to come to her but that didn’t mean she couldn’t damn well go to him.


TBC...