Chapter 3

Eric Foreman jumped up, then seeing who was standing in front of him, grabbed the sheets to cover himself.

"Dr House," he said nervously. "How nice of you to visit at this-er-unlikely hour."

"Don't talk to me like that," House growled. "Didn't you hear what I said, you're FIRED!"

"No," Cuddy blurted. "You can't fire him."

House turned on her instead. "Oh really, can't I? What would you do if I did?"

"I'd-I'd fire you," Cuddy said, not quite confidently.

"Fine," House yelled. "Fire me. I don't want to work with back-stabbers anyway!"

He pushed past her and stormed out of the house.

"And don't expect me to be in on Monday either," he called back.

He slammed the door so hard the floor shook.

Cuddy flinched and leant against the doorway.

"Oh great," she sighed.

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It was 9:00am on Monday morning when Cameron walked into the diagnostics room. She wasn't surprised to find she was the first one there.

She put her bag down and stared over to the coffee machine.

"May as well keep the boys happy," she said out loud.

"You know, talking to yourself is the first sign of madness," said Chase, walking in.

"Oh hi Rob, feel like some coffee?" she said gesturing to the coffee machine.

"Oh thanks. I think it'll be a long wait. I just gave Eric a ring. He was supposed to have met me for breakfast. He says he won't be up till 11:00am. Something about a meeting with Cuddy, but I couldn't get any more out of him. He was a bit strange really."

"Hmmm," Cameron pondered. "I suppose we'll find out soon enough."

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Cuddy sat at her desk across from Foreman. The meeting was almost over and they'd made a decision.

"So I can stay?" Foreman asked anxiously.

"Yes," Cuddy said. "What House did was unfair dismissal. You're free to stay."

"That's great, thanks," Foreman smiled and stood up to leave.

"One more thing," he asked.

"Mmm."

"Last night, I mean you know…"

"We never speak of it again, understand," Cuddy said, and her tone had a threatening tone to it.

"I have enough on my plate to deal with, with House leaving here, and me. I don't even know where he is."

"Isn't he at home?"

"I'm not sure. I'm going to talk to Wilson about it.

"See if he can make him come around."

"Well," Foreman said. "He was pretty angry. I think you're going to need all the luck you can get."

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Wilson stood at House's door, knocking continuously.

"House, open the door. I just want to talk!"

"I don't feel like talking," came the reply.

"Fine, just have a drink with me then. I brought beer."

The door opened and House poked his head out. He snatched the six pack off Wilson and went back inside.

Wilson rolled his eyes and followed him. House was sitting on the couch, watching TV.

"Is that 'Bold and the Beautiful'?" Wilson asked disbelievingly.

"Yep. Nothing more exciting than watching a bunch of people spew out their problems. It's the highlight of my day."

Wilson snorted and sat down beside him.

"So, talked to Cuddy recently," he mentioned casually.

"Drop it," House snapped. "You don't think I know why you're over here. Cuddy's been in your ear hasn't she, trying to get me to go back to her."

"Umm, no, I don't-."

"Whatever. It doesn't matter anyway. Once I'm gone you and Cuddy can scheme as much as you want."

"Gone? Where are you going?"

"Away. I'm leaving now, but I thought I'd be nice and give you time to try work your magic charm and make me stay."

"What! You can't just go."

"Hurry, 1 minute left."

He stood up and disappeared into his bedroom, then reappeared with a bag slung over his shoulder.

"House, you can't just pretend like nothing's happened. Leaving won't make it go away."

"Gee thanks. When did you get your degree in psychiatry?"

"I'm just saying that running away won't fix it."

"I'm hardly running away. I just need a break. I've booked into a hotel interstate. I'll be back in a week."

"Everything's going to be exactly the same when you get back, you know."

"Yeah I know, but I'll be different. Don't try and ring me, I'm not turning my mobile on. See you in a week."

He turned and walked out of the door, leaving Wilson standing alone in his lounge room.

"Shut the door behind you," he called back.

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A/N: I'm really sorry about the long gap between chapters. I could give a dozen reasons but they're all lame, so sorry again.

No guarantees on when the next chapter will be either, as I have no idea where this is going.

Also, I've had a few reviews commenting on the OOCness of Cuddy in this story. Well I'd like to point out that the whole idea of fanfic is to MAKE UP our own stories; and anyway, isn't Cuddy actually being with House OOC anyway??