The Ride (Part 2)
Dr. James Wilson sat behind his desk with a patient’s chart laid out before him. His office door swung open, rousing him from his concentration.
“You’ll never believe this” House said with a boyish grin on his face.
“Let me guess, there is a marathon of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” on today? Wilson paused knowing full well House’s answer was more than likely far more abstract.
House began speaking as he entered the office and leaned against one of Wilson’s chairs.
“Cuddy practically begged me to help her with the clinic yesterday and.. I agreed to do it.”
“While I find it interesting that you did so I don’t get what is so…”
House interrupted, “because Wilson, I told her I would IF she would ride on my motorcycle”.
Wilson shook his head ever so slightly as if he were clearing his ears in the most ineffective way he could.
“And…she agreed to this?”
House said nothing, he just smiled.
Wilson with his eyes still wide in disbelief said, “When will this madness happen?”
“Today at 5:00pm.” House waited to see a level of approval from Wilson and indeed, Wilson looked amazed and amused.
“I take it you will be letting as many staff know as possible to further her humiliation.”
“Of course, I expect you to do your part too Wilson.” House turned and headed out the door leaving Wilson to wonder why on earth Cuddy had agreed to this.
House headed to his office and watched as Thirteen and Taub raised their heads to watch him walk in. Foreman glanced from behind a file and Chase was balancing on two legs of the chair, staring up at the ceiling.
“I expect all of you to be out in the parking lot at 4:55 tonight.” House looked back at their faces, each with a different, yet similar expression. Since they each remained silent, House decided to leave whatever interest they had in “peak” mode.
“All I am saying, is it would be worth your while to be there.”
Thirteen glanced across at Chase who looked back at her as if to say, “who knows”.
Taub looked just slightly interested and asked, “Does this involve some sort of explosives?”
House gave him a smug look but didn’t answer.
“Ok, if you are done hinting then we do have a couple of cases to look over.” Foreman spoke up with an air of impatience. They had already been there for an hour and a half by the time House had shown up.
House paid attention to the cases, but none of them really captured his thoughts. He was devising a plan instead while they discussed some of the cases before them and the severity of each.
Foreman and Chase had gone to get some lunch, Thirteen was looking over files still and Taub was evidently in the stairwell phoning his wife. House went to his desk, took out his cell phone and made a call.
Cuddy headed to the cafeteria with a backlog of work on her mind, but only one thing in her thoughts. She was grabbing a salad when she nearly ran into Wilson.
“Uh, sorry…I was thinking about something else.” She said apologetically.
Wilson looked at her with a certain amount of sympathy as he moved to sit across from her at a table.
“I understand why you might be distracted..” he gave Cuddy a look that assured her he already knew about her payment for House’s clinic duty.
“I really needed the help.” Cuddy dipped her fork into her salad with an air of carelessness.
“No need to explain it to me. I would assume that if you are willing to put your life in House’s hands, there is no possible explanation other than desperation.” Wilson quickly stuffed his sandwich in his face to conceal a little grin.
Cuddy gave a little sigh of defensiveness.
“Big deal, it’s just a ride around the block. I think I can handle it.”
Wilson looked at her and stopped chewing. He paused and then opted to swallow what was left in his mouth. Doing so made him cough a little and he raised his napkin up to his mouth.
“Honestly, this IS House we are talking about here. You think he’s going to give you a little pony ride around the hospital and that’s all?”
Cuddy stuck her fork in her salad like she was stabbing a small animal, brought it back to her mouth and chewed on in a manner that seemed she was trying to release some sort of tension. She glanced back up at Wilson, and then back down to her salad.
Ever so slightly she felt the butterflies in her stomach start to flinch and flutter. Normally this feeling was upsetting, but she wasn’t even sure that it wasn’t almost a touch pleasant right now.
“Well, I have to get home to Rachel so even House should understand that.” She paused and noted that Wilson didn’t seem moved by this argument.
“It’s not like he is going to kill me or something, he wouldn’t be lucky enough to find another boss who would put up with him.” She let out a little half chuckle.
Wilson nodded with his mouth full, his eyes on Cuddy. “Who was she fooling?” he wondered to himself.
Cuddy hopped up and grabbed her left-over salad.
”Gotta run, I have a ton of stuff to get done.”
“Before 5:00?” Wilson finished her sentence in not the same way she would have.
In her Cuddy style she shook her head and gave him a slight disapproving look, but she took his teasing in stride and headed back to her office.
Nurse Jeffrey looked up from the front desk.
“Dr. Cuddy, your 5:00 called and said to make sure you aren’t late.”
Cuddy looked at him, squinted a little and said, “Thanks.”
Maybe it was the tone in his voice or the nurses that were sneaking glances at her as she turned towards her office door, but suddenly it felt like she had forgotten to zip up her skirt that day.
House was sitting bent over his desk with his chin resting on his hands. His elbows stretched out to the side. His red and gray tennis ball was right in front of him and he was staring it down. Wilson walked through his office door and House followed him with his eyes remaining motionless otherwise.
“It’s 4:40. I thought you would be circling the parking lot with a megaphone by now.”
House sat up and grabbed something behind his chair and then his cane.
“I found a little invention called inter-office email that works just as good as a megaphone Wilson.”
The pair walked to the elevator together and rode down to the lobby. The migration towards the parking lot had already started. House and Wilson exchanged glances and smirks like too school boys who were about to pull of a spectacular prank.
Wilson headed out of the front doors, and House made a turn into Cuddy’s office. He just walked in, as usual, without knocking. He scanned the room and saw no apparent Cuddy, but her bathroom door was closed.
“You can’t hide in there all night you know!” House yelled it to the door.
“I’ll be right out” Cuddy yelled back.
House looked around her office. He looked at her desk and smiled, and then he spotted the picture of Rachel in her book shelf. She was a darling little girl, there was no doubt of that but it still pained him just a little that her presence seemed to be in direct correlation to his lack of being a part of Cuddy’s life.
The door opened and out stepped Cuddy. She was wearing black jeans with black boots with a little heel to them. She was wearing her same dress jacket and lace top underneath it.
“Ok, I’m ready..let’s get this over and done.” She flipped her hair out of her collar as she spoke.
House had nearly forgotten what he had in his hand.
“Here” he handed a garment bag to Cuddy. “You’ll need that.”
Cuddy opened the bag cautiously to reveal a leather motorcycle jacket. It was black with a royal blue stripe on it. It appeared to be exactly her size. She held it up to look at it and he mouth dropped open.
“House, you didn’t have to do this. It’s really beautiful”. She still just held it up and stared.
House took it back from her and held it up for her to put on. She took her suit jacket off and House saw she was wearing a lacey pink tank top underneath. He was glad she had turned her back to him so the moment of his kindness wasn’t ruined by his mouth hanging open in lust.
“I didn’t want to have to explain to your kid why Mommy had a road rash in the event you were to fall off.”
Cuddy slipped the jacket on stretched out her arms in it. House flipped her hair out for her this time.
She turned to face House while looking down at herself.
“Do I look ok?”
He thought of a thousand things he could say, but he opted for, “Very Bikerish”.
She smiled and they both headed out the doors of her office.