rp for l_cuddy_md; and, eventually, harvard_law

[rubicks_complex]

House stood in front of the bathroom mirror, frowning at his reflection as he attempted to knot his necktie into some kind of neat looking knot. This was his fourth attempt and he was getting annoyed on top of already feeling agitated from nerves. Stupid that he was feeling nervous about having dinner with Cuddy because it was Cuddy he was having

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[rubicks_complex]

He grinned at her laughter, stepping into the dining room after her when he held the door open. "I'm not worried about dessert," he said, moving to the side to let the door swing shut behind him. He glanced down at her hand on his chest, then back up to her face. "I'm pretty sure there are a few tasty things in the menu. Cherry Pie Surprise, maybe. Or Banana Split. See, if I pick the dish, then I'll know what's coming." He paused and smirked in amusement. "Well, I pretty sure I'll be coming..."

He grinned at her again, reaching up to her hand still pressed against his chest. He took her hand away, lightly threading their fingers together as he dropped their joined hands to his side. This whole running cooking metaphor was amusing him. He liked that Cuddy spoke his language enough to play along with him.

He turned his eyes to the dining room; there were a few people seated at various tables, but it was otherwise fairly quiet. Spying a table over near the corner, he tugged Cuddy's hand and led her across the dining room, weaving around tables. He let her hand go to reach for one of the chairs when they reached the table, and he pulled it out for her. He took a seat opposite Cuddy, cane hooked on the back of his chair.

He was just about to make a comment about the tackiness of getting dressed up to go out for dinner, only to have to serve yourself at the buffet, when he noticed a guy in a tuxedo, clutching a notepad and pen, approaching; a maǐtre d' to serve them exclusively at the table. Looking nonplussed, he nodded towards him and murmured to Cuddy, "If they break out the string quartet, or Flamenco guitarists wearing sombreros, I'm outta here."

[l_cuddy_md]

"We know who will be coming, but the question is do you want to know what will be coming? Maybe you should let the chef surprise you. I'm sure I could whip up something both hot and sweet."

Cuddy allowed House to lead the way across the room, murmuring a quiet "thank you" when he pulled out her chair for her. It might be silly of her but she was pleased that he was being such a gentleman, risque banter aside. Certainly she knew it wasn't important that he offer his arm or pull out her chair but the fact that he was doing it voluntarily and without complaining made for a nice change.

Catching the odd expression on House's face she turned to see the tuxedoed drone approach their table. She gave her order quickly, wanting the man gone as soon as possible. It was one thing she couldn't get used to, the silent, mind-reading servants of the hotel.

As soon as he left the table, she turned her gaze back to House. "I haven't noticed the drones being particularly musically inclined, so I think we're safe." That reminded her of her recent conversation with Lilo, because House knew more about music than anyone Cuddy knew. He might've paid more attention to any musical opportunities the hotel might offer.

"Although," she added. "If you come across any Hawaiian music, or someone who can play it, I know someone who's looking for a little music to hula by."

[rubicks_complex]

House watched the guy walk off. God, the people who ran this hotel were freaks. The way they barely spoke a word and barely expressed any form of human emotion on their creepy faces, they reminded House of zombies - just more coordinated, and with less brain-biting and no rotten flesh.

He turned his attention back to Cuddy when she mentioned someone wanting music to hula to. He gave her a questioning look. "What, you mean there are hot Hawaiian hula babes in the hotel? How come you never told me that?"

He sat forward, giving the knot of his tie a quick yank. He was looking forward to getting this thing off at the end of this dinner. "If there are hot Hawaiian hula babes in here, find me a ukulele and I'll happily provide a mele or two for their hula'ing."

[l_cuddy_md]

"If you think Lilo's hot, then we seriously need to have a conversation. She'd only about six years old."

Every time Cuddy thought about that it made her sick. It made her angry. Lilo might be a bright, confident, even precocious child but she was just a child. She shouldn't be here.

But there was nothing she could do about it and she didn't want to bring the mood down so she deliberately set her anger aside for the moment. She gave House a smile that wasn't quite as easy as it had been earlier, but she kept her mind on the positive aspects of having met Lilo and the smile was at least genuine.

"She's a cute kid. She promised to teach me how to hula, so if you've got a hankering for a hot hula babe, I guess you'll have to settle for the next best thing--me." She tilted her head, curious. "Do you actually know how to play the ukulele?"

[rubicks_complex]

House's face dropped when informed that the hot hula babe in question was actually a kid. Oh. He felt momentarily dirty for cracking a joke about hot hula babes, though pushed it aside quickly - he hadn't known the person was a kid, so he had no reason to be irked by what he'd said. Still. A six-year old girl. If Cuddy had told him who the someone was, then he wouldn't have stuck his foot in his mouth like that.

The smile Cuddy gave him made him give her another mildly questioning look. His look turned equal parts puzzled and amused when she said this kid had promised to teach Cuddy. "You like dancing?" he asked incredulously.

Diverted by the question she asked him, he shrugged. "Sure, why not," he replied. "Different chord structure in a classical ukulele to a guitar, but works on the same principle. Easy to figure out if you're already familiar with playing the guitar or banjo. In fact, it's not much different to a four-stringed banjo - just shorter and tuned at a much higher pitch."

He wasn't familiar with playing the ukulele, but tinkering around with one would change that. He pursed his lips at that thought. He loved playing music, but he wasn't sure he was keen on providing hula music. "Not sure I want to be the Tiny Tim to your Tiptoeing Through The Tulips, though."

[l_cuddy_md]

"I love to dance," Cuddy said. She loved music but she wasn't very musical. She never got much past the beginner level with her piano lessons and her singing voice was one best kept strictly in the shower. But she could move. She was reasonably graceful and dancing was her way of connecting to the music. It also happened to be great exercise and, if done well, sexy as hell.

"I've never tried hula, but Lilo says there's only four basic moves. I figure I can handle that." She shook her head in disbelief when it turned out House knew a little something about a ukulele. She shouldn't have been surprised. House was always full of weird and obscure information. Sometimes she wondered how he had enough room in his brain for the important stuff.

"You could be Don Ho," she suggested, and nearly sniggered at the idea of House strumming a ukulele and singing Tiny Bubbles. She wiped the smirk from her lips and reached across the table, laying her hand on top of his. "Help us wannabe hula babes out and I promise there'll be a nice lei in it for you."

[rubicks_complex]

House gave Cuddy another curious look when she said she loved to dance. He knew she liked to exercise but he never knew she liked dancing. Not for the first time, he was struck with the realisation that there were a lot of things about Cuddy he had no clue about.

He smiled wryly at her suggestion that he could be Don Ho. "What, and sing songs about seeing the world through the eyes of a person drunk on champagne? You know, the person he claimed to love in Tiny Bubbles could've been some fat, sweaty midget, but the point of his song was that everybody is good-looking and everything is wonderful when your brain is addled with alcohol."

He dropped his eyes to her hand resting on his, then glanced back up at her suspiciously. "You're kidding, right?"

He paused, realising she probably wasn't kidding. "You know, you can imitate Hawaiian music by making whiny noises at the back of your throat and plucking your nose rhythmically with your thumb and fingers. You don't need me to be your uke monkey." He paused again. "Otherwise, that's going to have to be one impressively nice, mindblowing lay-i that you're promising there."

[l_cuddy_md]

Cuddy couldn't entirely disagree--things often seemed better through a haze of alcohol. Heaven knew a few of her dates would've been far more attractive with the benefit of a few pre-date shots of whiskey. The effect, though, was only temporary, and she'd learned back in college that those dates always looked much worse by morning light and with a hangover.

Still, leave it to House to find the most cynical explanation.

"You could make a little girl happy. You could make a big girl happy," she said, stroking the back of his hand with her thumb. She gave an exaggerated roll of her eyes, as if she'd just now remembered to whom she was talking.

"Oh, right--Dr. Gregory House doesn't believe in happiness. Well, fine. We'll make our own music." Her tone was mild because she didn't really expect House to become some ukulele-playing hula accompanist. She wasn't sure she'd want him to either, because she could only imagine the sarcastic running commentary he'd make during the hula lessons. He'd be more of a disruption than a help. Even so, she was going to tease him about it.

"We'll make our own music...." She gave a big sigh, as if of regret. "And you'll just have to make your own lei."

[rubicks_complex]

"Happiness is a warm gun," he replied dryly when Cuddy said he didn't believe in happiness. "Anyway, you would be happy about that, but that wouldn't bring you happiness," he then argued.

His belief was that happiness was never a lasting thing, and if people claimed they had lasting happiness, then they were clearly in denial about something. People could be happy about something that had happened, but happiness itself was a myth, as far as House was concerned.

He rolled his eyes dramatically when Cuddy went on to say her and the kid would have to make their own music. "I could make my own lei, but you wouldn't last long before you'd want to lei your hands your hands on me and help me make my own lei."

He upturned his hand and stroked her inner wrist before lightly clasping his fingers around two of Cuddy's. "Seeing you haven't mentioned anything about this kid having parents here, I'm going to guess she's here on her own."

[l_cuddy_md]

"It wouldn't be all rainbows and kittens, but it would bring some happiness," she argued right back. That's how you found happiness, by finding smaller bits of happiness and gathering them in, joining them together until you had enough to withstand the unhappinesses in life. And she knew better than to try and convince House of that.

"I don't know--my hands might be too tired from all that hula-ing to lei you," she said, which was such an obvious lie she didn't even try to make it sound convincing. The real challenge would be to get her to keep her hands off of House. Frankly it was a challenge she had no interest in taking on.

She grimaced slightly when House asked about Lilo's situation. "No parents, although apparently she doesn't have any parents back home either. It's just her and an older sister." She gave House a smile that was slightly sad. She simply couldn't get past how wrong it was for Lilo to be here.

"I think you'll like Lilo. She's a resourceful little girl. She's managed to put together a sort of substitute family. And her dog's an alien."

[rubicks_complex]

"If you need to use your hands more than your hips to hula, then there's a strong possibility that you're doing it wrong," House said with a wry look. "Anyway, I thought yoga and all that new age contortionist crap would be more your thing. All you exercised-obsessed women endorse that kind of stuff; not hula dancing.

"Lap dancing, on the other hand... That's something every woman should endorse." He paused, looking thoughtful; knowing full well his joking comments could land him a slap. "Well, the decent-looking ones, at least."

He sobered when Cuddy told him about Lilo, about how she had no parents - and an alien dog? House blinked and then quirked his brows. "By 'alien', you mean something dog-ugly like a Peruvian Hairless, or E.T. on four legs?"

He paused again, studying her face. He'd noted the sad smile she'd given him a few moments ago. He could already tell, just from how fondly she spoke of this Lilo, that Cuddy was seriously taken by the kid. Which made House think about Cuddy being motherly, which then led him to think about Cuddy being a mother - which then led his thoughts towards the fact that he and Cuddy had had unprotected sex several times now. He pursed his lips and frowned at that thought. Shit.

"You know, if start getting any more cluckier over this kid than you obviously already are, you might want to keep a watch out for any sprouting feathers or eggs you might start laying."

[l_cuddy_md]

"Leave it to you to bring the tone down." Cuddy kicked House's leg under the table at his crack about lap dancing. Actually, it was more of a nudge. And done more out of habit than because she was truly offended. After all these years it would take more than a general comment about lap dancing to really piss her off.

"The dog's not here, but from the picture...it looks like a normal dog. But apparently it's from somewhere other than Earth." Cuddy had to wonder at the fact that she hadn't really questioned Lilo's story. After all, Lilo was at the perfect age to come up with a imaginative story like that. But Cuddy was getting so used to the weirdness that she wasn't questioning things like that any more. She didn't know if that was good or bad...or maybe just necessary to survive in this place.

"I'm not clucking," she insisted. And she was beginning to doubt she had any viable eggs left. She was beginning to think that whatever chance she'd had for having her own children was gone, or would be gone by the time they escaped from the hotel. It was a depressing thought, and one she didn't want to dwell on tonight.

"She'd just a kid, alone, and it's normal to want to protect her. Doesn't mean I'm getting 'maternal'." She gave House an exasperated look. From her own observations she knew House didn't dislike kids more than he disliked adults, and sometimes he disliked them less. He was just being an ass, as usual.

"Besides, it doesn't matter what I feel. Lilo's an independent little thing, and she's not looking for any maternal, or paternal, figure."

[rubicks_complex]

"Yeah, but that's not going to stop you, is it?" House argued. "Just because you say 'doesn't mean I'm getting maternal', doesn't mean you won't."

He had to admit: it was pretty bad the kid had no parents, resourceful and independent though Cuddy said she was or not. House wasn't that keen on kids (or at least made out that he wasn't) but that didn't mean he didn't give a crap about a kid's basic welfare. As far as he was concerned, kids could be annoying to the tenth power, but they weren't accountable for their choices and actions like an adult.

Still. He got that a kid without any parents would need some kind of adult supervision and guidance, but he sincerely hoped Cuddy wouldn't seek to take the kid under her wing like a mother hen.

"You're clucking," he insisted back at her. "I know what you're like: you like to take control of everything. You haven't got your hospital, your 'baby', to look after, so you're going to latch onto something else that needs looking after."

He gave her a pointed look, then started quietly making clucking sounds, like a chicken.

[l_cuddy_md]

"Oh...shut up," Cuddy said, scowling at him when he started clucking like a chicken. She pulled her hand away from his and reached for her water glass, taking a slow sip to give herself time to think.

"You make it sound as if I have purely selfish motives. As if I'd only care if I got something out of the deal." She quickly added, "And that's not an admission of impending maternal instincts."

She didn't understand House's objection to her taking care of anyone, other than the fact that he simply loved to irritate her. It wouldn't take anything away from him. She didn't need to take care of him any more. Detox was no longer an issue and as soon as the hotel refilled his Vicodin she wouldn't even be involved with his meds. So...so why did he care if she got maternal? In fact, if she was going to get maternal, who better to get maternal with than a motherless six year old?

"Why do you care whether I get maternal or not?" she asked, because she really wanted to know. Was this just a way to poke a stick at what he saw as a weakness in her or was it merely an expression of his general misanthropy?

[rubicks_complex]

About to triumphantly retort that there obviously was something in it for her when she more or less said she wouldn't care if she got something in return for looking out for the kid, his face dropped into a scowl when Cuddy quickly added onto that before he got a chance to say anything.

He gave his tie another yank, tugging at the knot like it was too tight before dropping his hands into his lap. Why did he care whether she got maternal or not? Because he didn't want to lose her attention to this kid, for a start. If Cuddy started going all maternal, then there was a chance he'd end up coming second to the kid. He didn't like coming second to anybody that mattered to him, didn't matter what the situation was.

Secondly... "Because who knows how much you desire to have kids," House said. "You getting all maternal on a kid might whet those desires into some kind of longing frenzy to fertilise your remaining ovums while you still can. Especially being stuck in here, where there's no way out and you're fast approaching the tail-end of your reproductive cycles. Could be your last chance to do the whole natural mother thing."

[l_cuddy_md]

"Of course I want kids. I've always...." Cuddy pressed her lips into a thin line and looked away. She wasn't going to let House upset her even if she couldn't help being upset by the subject.

There had been two things she'd always known she wanted in life: to be a doctor and to have a family. She'd known she'd have to work hard to become a doctor, and she had. But she'd sort of expected the family thing to just...happen. It hadn't, and she didn't quite know how to make it happen.

"But thanks for the reminder that I'm running out of time. Because being a doctor I wouldn't realize that myself," she said sharply. She was all too aware of her biological clock, and she resented the hotel for stealing the time she had left for childbearing. She was also aware that her relationship with House, even if it lasted, even if they got out of the hotel, it wasn't going to lead to marriage and kids. It was rapidly getting to the point where she'd have to accept that children weren't in the plan for her.

"Do you really think I'd deliberately bring a child into this place?" she asked, looking back at him with a serious expression. She couldn't believe House would think she was so in thrall to her biology that she'd try to get pregnant no matter what the circumstances.

She gave a little shake of her head. "I'm not that selfish."