[CLOSED TO HOUSE] Breaching the gap

[dean_ofmedicine]

Cuddy stood at the closed door of House's resort room. Her fingers curled uncertainly around the hem of her business jacket as she glanced up the hall, wondering whether she should knock or not. The gift had been a shock, and anonymous. Cuddy wanted it to be House, but she didn't know if that was his style or not. It could be that cop, who, granted

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[c18_h21_no3]

It was the second round of knocks that got House up from his spot sitting in his pajamas in front of the television. Not bothering to grab his cane, he braced his thigh with his hand as he limped over to the door. Hopefully, it was Chase coming to yell at him for leaving the clinic early that day, and not a certain resort administrator who he uncharacteristically, under Wilson's advice, sent flowers and a six hundred dollar pair of sandals to. Granted, the shoes were his idea, but that was beside the point.

His stomach flipped at a third, short set of knocks. Chase would have no qualms about banging on House's door hard enough for House to hear four blocks away. These were... tentative. Crisp. Anxious. If it really was Cuddy, what the hell was he supposed to say? 'Your welcome, now please let me in your pants?'House really couldn't kid himself at this point. Wilson said send flowers, so he sent flowers. He was never one for romantics, and he threw himself for a loop by treading into unfamiliar territory. He had turned it into a one-

[dean_ofmedicine]

Cuddy took in the pyjamas and lack of cane, and his disheveled appearance in general. A small frown of concered appeared on her features. "Are you ill?" she asked him reflexively. "I wasn't sure if you would be here or at the Medical Center. I just thought I would, um..." She trailed off for a moment, realising she didn't actually have a way to end that sentence and maybe should have forethought it before the words came out of her mouth. The question was, how to try and raise the subject of the flowers and the gift subtely because it he didn't send them, it would be awkward and likely lead to interrogations of who she got them from and then potential stalking of said culprit.

Then, if he did send them, it would look pretty stupid if she showed up here without mentioning them at all. He would wonder if she got them or what she thought of them. The only question that seemed to want to filter around her brain though was how did he know about the white roses? "I got the elevators fixed."

[c18_h21_no3]

House took a minute to process the situation. "If being sick of treating every clinic case's seeping gonorrhea counts as actually being sick, then I might as well be on my death bed."

Cuddy was as anxious as her knocks sounded. Flustered, even, which was a sort of comforting parallel to his own uneasiness. The only reason she wouldn't come out and bluntly throw the whole thing back in his face was probably uncertainty. She didn't know if they were from him or not, which House supposed was the point. Still, he found himself sort of wishing she would up and say it. From her unbalanced posture, he could tell that she was weighing her options: Take the chance that it was from him, risk opening up a whole can of worms and looking like an idiot if it wasn't, or default to a lame excuse that will hopefully provide just enough closure for House to either shrug off or prod deeper.

He couldn't tell if it was a good thing that she chose option B. Now he had a choice. Deflect, ignore, or acknowledge

[dean_ofmedicine]

Cuddy held her hand out in emphasis of her comment that was about to follow. "You could always offer to fill a more important role at the hospital for him. A consultant. An ER doctor. I hear he's even looking for a 2IC," she added.

"You came all the way down to tell me they were broken," she pointed out, deflecting at it's absolute best. "I thought I would return the favour." At least it bought some time to try and wrap her head around it. The way he was acting, she was leaning more towards it being the cop who sent her the gift. But then, how was House supposed to act in the wake of giving her something thoughtful? The only answer she could come up with was... 'like House'. Which didn't budge her analysis further either way at all.