( continues...) up the corpses every day."

"You know, people say that to me all the time. Well, usually not twice, but you can get by with it because you knew me before I had hair on my dick...okay, I still don't get it. If that's the way I experience what I do, how am I glorifying it?"

"Maybe you should rest now, Ari.Try to sleep. I understand transcendent experiences take a lot out of a person."

More of my fic:
Cuddy couldn't believe her ears when she heard Gold sound so chastened on the phone "Baby, it's me. No, I won't be home till tomrrow. I'm sick. What do you mean, you know? What kind of thing is that to say...what do you think Doctor GrossmanETA: I decided he was Grossman before...will fix. ED) would say if he knew you said that? We both signed that agreement about not poisoning the well, remember? No, of course I won't tell him, but I'm just saying, darling. Tell Sarah Vince is also fine. Yes, he went back to work this morning. But I could get comlplications if I fly and it could be hard to pay for weeks in the South of France if I'm suddenly deaf. Although it might be an advantage with some of my clients, ha, ha. Oh, I'm sure the doctors will be absolutely thrilled to know about the doctors your dad knows at Sloan-Kettering, although those are oncologists, darling and I'm like, 90% sure I don't have throat cancer...of course I'll pass along their names anyway. Just in case. Sure. Yes, I know your dad could never do enough for me. When I'm flat on my fuckin' back...no, there was no tone. I just sound funny from all the medication. Love and kisses." And then Ari made kissing noises in the phone, and for a moment he looked like that boy that couldn't name the parts of a cell all over again.

"I'll handle it," House said, when Cuddy told him.

"You? Sure, because when I have a ticklish interpersonal situation I always ask myself what you would do. But mostly so I can do the opposite."

"Well, that explains the blouse."

"With the two of you around, a polo shirt seemed right for some reason." Cuddy's cheeks were pink. "Don't be obnoxious."

"But how would you recognize me? Apart from the bitchin' cane."

"No, on the phone. They are funding my women's clinic, House. Pretend to be a normal person...promise me."

"For a woman like Mrs. Gold, I'm better than a normal person. I'm a doctor."

And he took the phone from the downcast agent's hand. Ari being too upset to pay attention to the fact that House wiped it down before he used it.

House played the odds and hit one on the agent's speed-dial.

"Shalom, Mrs. Gold, yes, I have your husband here. He's very upset not to be flying to see you tonight, but I told him he couldn't...uh huh.What? Nephrology and infectious disease...no, I'm absolutely not trying to soft-pedal that something is wrong with your husband's kidneys. Not at all...Johns Hopkins. Mostly cause I didn't get in at the University of Chicago like your oh-so-clever spouse. Oh, somebody's quite a fast hand with the Google isn't she? Well, what can I say, Mrs. Gold? As the philosopher says, I fight authority, authority always wins. See, it's not every talented man, if I may say so, who has the kind of civilizing influence someone like you provides."

House said goodbye and clicked END.

"You're sending flowers,"

"You don't have to do that, man. Although I love you for offering."

"I'm not; Dr.Wilson is."

"House," Cuddy warned him. "You have to stop stealing from Wilson."

"It wouldn't be a month for Wilson without my unauthorized charges, Cuddy."

"I would say I'd erect a statue to you,doctor, But I wouldn't want you getting excited." Gold replied.

"Just never try to hug me again and we're fine. I'd hate to have you slip on my cane again."

is slain

In a good way, I hope. Because I wasn't sure I got it that time, although I know one thing for sure...Greg House doesn't "hug it out" ever. But I thought it'd be funny for House to be able to charm Ari's wife. Just to prove that he could do it, if nothing else. And you never really know when House will take an interest in somebody.

A little bit more, but I'm concerned...is House unsympathetic?
"How does this affect your diagnosis, doctor?" Turtle laid out some green, leafy wares in front of House, who considered it at length."I wanted to get to you first since I owe you one."

"Not bad, Turtle." House said, taking some out and sniffing deeply. "And, bear in mind, I'm not like your usual clientele, who thinks wine coolers in the parking lot the height of sophistication. But it's not great either, and I was expanding my consciousness when you were trying to make your training pants look street."

"Oh, here we go," Turtle rolled his eyes."Another long fuckin' story about toking up with Pink Floyd in one speaker and the Wizard of Oz in the other...dude, if you're going there, I'd, like, almost rather watch Viking Quest with Drama again."

"I would say 'Don't mock what you don't understand', but I'm aware that I'd be sentencing you to elective mutism so I'll let that go."

"Damn straight."

"Did you say "Viking Quest?" "Yeah, so?"

"Well, I liked to get high and watch that one too. Man does not live by "Dark Side of The Moon" alone. If you can get your hands on some episodes for me, I think we can work something out."

"Drama will be thrilled. Maybe not about the wasted part, but he always gets super-stoked to talk to somebody who remembers that fuckin'thing.

"Cuddy's in the hall," Eric said. "And she looks pissed."

"Mr. Chase, I need to talk to you!"

"Um,"Vince said."One second...let me put a shirt on."

"Oh, that's telling her, Vin."

"Turtle, could you chill, please?"

"Yes?" Vince opened the door. Cuddy felt self-conscious about the sleep shirt she was wearing, and blushed.

"In private, please,"

"Guys, go to the restaurant downstairs, get something...I'll just see what Dr. Cuddy wants for a second."

"Ok, but tie a tie on the door if you don't want us back right away."

"That won't be necessary."Cuddy replied.

"Well, you know, if you want to go in a different direction," Turtle leered.,

"Thanks anyway,"

Grumbling all the way, the recovering posse left, and for a moment, Cuddy and Vince looked at each other in the sudden silence."I want to apologize for them...they're good guys. They just like, haven't seen a lot, you know?"

"Yeah, I do. But that doesn't change the fact that you owe me a hundred thousand dollars right now...You broke my doctor, Vince. I've got a brilliant diagnostician down the hall from me who's boning up on his X-Box so he can fight it out with Turtle."

"Excuse me?" Vince's eyes were wide."And I think someone is being awfully careful to let me know she's in her room alone."

"I had no intention of...look, I always knew Dr. House had a slacker side, but don't you think you bear some responsibility for that Judd Apatow Road Show you travel with?"

Vince considered. When he did, his eyes grew dark."I can see you thought a lot about this, and it's upsetting you, and if I spend one more minute in that awful room I'm gonna go apeshit, and I owe you one...would you like a drink?"

Cuddy thought that he was the best-looking person she had seen in real life, and that the attention he paid to every word out of her mouth was novel indeed. "Okay, but I don't suppose we can just go down to the lobby restaurant now?"

"No, that place sucks...let's leave it for the knuckleheads...I know a place...kind of out of the way, but they serve great calamari. Which Man...my ex-girlfriend would never eat."

"No, I love calamari, but it's kind of late for such rich food, isn't it? And I'm hardly dressed for going out."

"But that worked out as a bawling-out outfit, huh?" Cuddy enjoyed his amused look.

"All the same, with that, and my concern about spicy food, I'm feeling like my own grandmother right now. Please let me change."

"You could never not be good-looking, Lisa." Vince told her. "I hope I'm not over-stepping...it's just that going out with someone I only know as "Dr. Cuddy" makes me feel like a mental patient or something.And Ari talks about you a lot."

"He does?" Don't think about the the other part, Lisa, Cuddy warned herself.

"Yeah, and I ought to be mad at you. Because he.gives you a lot of credit for the way he turned out."

"God forbid."

"I know!"

• **
  

In what seemed like no time at all, Vince and Cuddy were getting the flashing-light treatment from disgruntled waiters at a hole-in-the-wall Italian place called Salvatore's. Cuddy noticed immediately that it was a young man's attempt at a cool restaurant, but the food was good, and it was refreshing not having to make a lot of foodie chat to prove that she belonged somewhere.Two hours had passed like nothing and Cuddy had not checked her Palm once.

"I think we've better get going,"she suggested finally. "We're starting to get the fish-eye."

"Oh, no, really? But I do have an early call tomorrow...this was fun, though."

"Yeah." It was such a relief to say that without faking.
"Look, I never do this, but if you're going to be in this area for a while, you can call me."

"I might just do that." It was so nice to say that without faking.

A nice evening didn't immunize Vince from crap from the guys. "Hey, it's alive..." E. said. "Nice of you to come (continued...)

( continues...) back.Ari left like, five billion messages."

"That's a few billion more than normal," Vince admitted. "I'm sorry about that. You didn't tell him anything did you?"

"How could I?" Eric pointed out. "I don't know anything."

"Nice Sicilian answer, E. Considering you're Irish. But now that we're all paisans in here, how was Dr. Feelgood, Vince?"

"Call her that again and you'll get a beating, Turtle."

OMG, E, I so want Cuddy to shag him. I really do. But that was fun!

(And I hope you realise that henceforth, you will be known as E.)

SPN/Sandman crossover (spoilery for finale of Season 4):

A VIRTUOUS WOMAN

Her name isn't Ruby, of course. Ruby is the blonde girl, the one she will ride to her death. The one she can still hear screaming, deep down in the cellar of her mind. She likes the name, though; hard and bright and precious and the colour of blood.

She may keep it longer than she keeps the flesh it's pinned to. She has had many names, in her time, but only one true one. Ruby will do very well for now.

When she first slides inside the blonde girl and overpowers her, it takes a long moment to get used to the sense of dislocation. She's possessed human shells before, of course – there is nothing she hasn't done at this point. But she still finds it a little distasteful. She peers into the looking glass and watches with horrified fascination as the smooth, pale skin flexes and stretches over meat and bones. She hates the symmetry of these borrowed features, innocent and human in the glass. Clean. Dull. She misses Hell already – but there is nothing she would not do for Lucifer. Nothing. This form is suited to its purpose, and that is more than enough. She loves her own form best, but vanity is not one of her vices and she can endure this disguise for as long as it takes. She has always been pragmatic.

“Sam Winchester,” she says experimentally, and the crisp, clear syllables are alien on her stolen tongue. “Trust me.”

* * *

She is still stalking the Winchester boys, still assessing their characters and pondering her best approach when she is obliged, by their sheer, suicidal incompetence, to intervene. It irritates her, but at the same time she does take a simple delight in being able to plunge into the fray. She has always been a better warrior than a spy.

The other demons recognise her, of course, despite the flimsy mask of flesh. Traitors. Her heart brims with righteous joy as her blade darts through the air and carves them out of existence. 'The Seven Deadly Sins' indeed. She feels nothing but disgust at their hubris, their lack of loyalty. Lucifer is bound, and these creatures can think of nothing but their own petty delights. She sees Sam Winchester's face, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, human and vulnerable and utterly clueless, and she darts him a smile both fierce and gleeful. She could not let them kill this special boy, but she is not yet ready to meet him properly. She has not quite decided which cards to play here. She must be careful, must take no needless risks. Deception has never been her favourite tool.

* * *

She finds Sam Winchester in a diner, the first time. She has given this careful consideration, has pondered his reactions to each of a dozen approaches. She has thought about who he will trust, and has concluded, in the end, that he trusts only Dean. So she plays on that. It is no coincidence that she chose a girl with long blonde hair – there is power in that too, with these boys. But she takes her tone from the elder Winchester boy, plays it cocky and challenging, abrasive and desirable. Gleeful and unapologetic in her appetites. She is bright and sharp and brittle and human and not, at all, herself.

It works like a charm.

He is tall and bland and annoyingly weak in places where he should be strong, but he is still special, this boy. He is the one who can open the door.

She feels a little flash of something almost like fondness at the thought. She isn't sure what to do with this unaccustomed emotion, and she crushes it without a second thought. But some trace of it, some taste of it still lingers in her heart.

* * *

She had hoped, at first, to pass herself off as a human. As a hunter. But she realises very quickly that this will not work, and so her task becomes more difficult: to make them trust her even though they know her for what she is.

She rather relishes the challenge.

They don't trust her, exactly – but they tolerate her. They let her live, let her talk, let her intervene, let her inch her way into their circle, disarmed by her mannerisms, by the shape (continued...)

( continues...) she's inhabiting, by her usefulness. They think they know her. She smirks, she flirts, she struts and snarls, and more than that she dangles the promise of Dean's salvation before Sam to make him do her bidding. Dean must not be saved, of course. Dean is vital to the plan, an instrument as precious and perfect and utterly oblivious as is his little brother. A righteous man, and breakable.

She could almost love them, in a way, these brothers. Messy, noisy, irritating puppets – but they are going to free her Lord, whether they know it or not, and that makes them shine in her eyes. Slowly she grows accustomed to her role, and the banter, the attitude, the brusque flirtation become second nature. She has always been more self-possessed than this Ruby person she has created, has always been ferociously competent and pure of heart. She has always been defined by her devotion and by her efficiency. Still – she finds herself almost enjoying the part. She is a better actor than she had ever suspected.

* * *

It would be easy to feel lonely, so far from Hell, so utterly alone. None of her kindred know the truth, now, not even the other Lilim – only her mother. And she and Lilith have never been friends. In this, they are allies. But still – she is very much alone.

* * *

Dean Winchester pretends not to hope. He fools even himself, for a while. She watches dispassionately as the year is winnowed away, and the cracks gradually appear in his facade. He has enough sense to be afraid, although he does not know just how afraid he should be. He cannot begin to imagine the reality of Hell, and of what he will suffer there. She knows. She thinks about this every time he insults her, and she thinks about the moment when he will finally break, and what this will mean. And, in her own way, she almost loves him.

* * *

Dean Winchester goes to Hell. She sees him there, screaming until the illusory membranes and sinews are sliced clean away and his voice is lost. She watches his bones shatter. She watches his eyeballs burst; watches his ribcage torn open and his heart pulled out of his chest and crushed into a pulp; watches him be remade and torn apart a thousand thousand times; watches him squirm and shudder and twitch; watches his certainty gradually eroding and his sense of self get chipped away until, at last, and so beautifully, he breaks.

Then she watches, entranced, as his green eyes grow black, watches the blood run in rivulets down his forearms as he loses himself in the brutal artistry of Alistair's work. He is unexpectedly lovely like this, with the symmetry of his features marred at last, and the hope and strength and light all leeched out of his heart. Sullied. Scarred. Lost.

Knowing what he has done, knowing what this will lead to, she could almost kiss him.

Instead she returns to the world.

* * *

Sam Winchester is a mess, and when she sees him she finds herself shocked by the changes time and the loss of his brother have made. She has, she realised, misjudged his reactions, and perhaps fatally so. The boy is no use to her like this. She bullies him, charms him, wheedles with him, but soon she realises that she needs a new strategy. It begins with taking on a new body, one with no annoying soul cluttering up the insides and making Sam Winchester uncomfortable. She has to seduce him in increments, and he has still so much compunction over so many stupid things – but it will serve her best to accept this, and work around it.

Ironically, annoyingly, the new body is as unlike Jessica as it could be; still, she tempers Dean's brusqueness and cocksure manner with more of Jessica's warmth, more of her yielding sweetness. This shell has big, cowlike eyes that brim with sincerity, and soft, clutchable curves. Gentleness will be her leverage, this time. Sam needs to feel strong. She experiments, trying to gauge the right balance, trying to figure out which of Sam's buttons to push at which moment. She learns him like a new language, knowing that her expertise is the most important thing in the (continued...)