Okies, I know i haven't written anything in aaaaaages, but i hope this was worth the wait. This was very difficult to get right at the start, i felt like i'd kind of written myself into a corner with the end of the last chapter. A lot of things aren't going right lately and it seems to be the same for my writing as well. Then there was the computer mind-wipe and i lost all my fanfictions, future, past and present, so that knocked the wind out of me sort of.

So, i've been up for about twenty four and a bit hours now and i just had to kick myself into writing this in about forty minutes or so. All done in the one go so i don't know how good the quality is, i hope i can be forgiven the odd mistook here and there.

Also, if anyone has any copies of my Harry Potter fictions (a long shot here i know) i would greatly appreciate them being emailed back to me as the only fics and pics i have now are the ones that had already been posted before the Great Wipe of '08.

Thanks muchly.

Prank 2 Far, House Breaking and all your other favourites will be updated as soon as i can manage it. As always, lovely reviews get those lovely creative juices flowing.

Chapter 4: Atypical

Cuddy squirmed in her sleep and dreamed good dreams.

She was dreaming of hot kisses in secret places and warm hands on soft skin. It had been so long since she'd had a good erotic dream. Complete fantasy that allowed her anything and everything she wanted. Sure, she'd wake up wanting in the morning, but that was what B.O.B.s were for. A soft smile tugged her full mouth and she arched, baring her throat to her phantom lover's mouth.

Oh Lord, did he know how to use it.

His hands spanned her thighs, pulling them apart, stroking, easing, teasing her mercilessly. She could feel the weight of him hovering just above her. She wanted him closer. Wanted his skin against hers. She wanted his hands in her hair. She wanted her tongue in his mouth. She wanted his cock deep and hard inside her.

She just wanted.

His teeth nipped sharp but soft up over her neck. He nibbled her jaw, suckled her ear lobe, chuckling husky there when she mewled for more. Then soft little licks tracing the shape of her jawline, he dropped a kiss on her chin and then finally took her mouth. Cuddy just about came from the kiss alone. He lowered his body flush against hers, her nightdress riding up over her hips and the hot brand of his cock sliding against her wet folds. She squirmed and moaned, desperate for more. His long fingers speared through her hair, angling her head to his liking. His tongue slid against hers, dominating her mouth, taking what he wanted and giving her everything for it. He tasted of...musk, something cool but with a spice under that. Something she wanted more of.

She cupped his cheek and was faintly surprised to feel the rasp of stubble there. Usually her dream lovers were the clean shaven all muscles no brains type. This long, lean wolf of a man was not the norm. In fact...it was a little too much like real life.

His hands spreading her thighs distracted her. His lifting her leg and hooking it over his wide shoulder had her eyes fluttering open to frown up at his shadow looming over her. There was something wrong with this picture, something off about his silhouette. He shifted over her, his red hot erection sliding over her, making her gasp, and she saw why.

She almost laughed at the perky dog ears sticking up through scruffy steel/black hair. Her eyes caught against an opposing blue pair and she swallowed her gasp of air in a hurry when she recognised the face inches from hers.

“House...?”

inister cribe

Cuddy bolted upright, chest heaving under her thin nightshirt and stared wildly about her room. Fingers of sunlight crept through her curtains and filtered gold over her bed covers. Sliding through the fur of the hulking mass of Scruff at the end of the bed. He snored softly in his sleep, ears drooped in relaxation and his chin resting on his paws. Cuddy swallowed hard and ran her hands through her rumpled hair. Her throat hurt, like she had been screaming last night and the only screaming she remembered doing had been in that dream when House-with-dog-ears had done that thing with his tongue and trailed his tail up over her leg to...Cuddy's cheeks were scored with a rampant heat and she threw off the coverlet and swung her legs over the edge of the mattress. She hurled her body after them and gasped when everything protested at once.

Muscles she hadn't used in far too long suddenly cried out at apparent ill treatment and Cuddy had to catch herself on the bedside table to prevent herself from doing a face-plant right there on her bedroom carpet. She staggered once and then managed to catch herself.

“Oh God...” She straightened slowly, carefully, and rubbed at her lower belly. Her thighs were tender, her hips too, and her internal muscles felt like she'd done a marathon of Kegals last night. She felt so deliciously...ridden.

A soft questioning whine had her turning to look at the bed. Scruff rose up into a sphinx-like position and his tail thumped against the coverlet, is ears perked.

“I ache.” She grumbled at him and pointed vindictively. “I blame you.”

Scruff's reply was to part his jaws and let his tongue loll in a doggy grin. His tail thumped against the coverlet harder and Cuddy scowled at him. He was completely unrepentant.

She spun away and hobbled to the bathroom, a shower would make her feel better.

Stupid dog. Giving her stupid dreams. About stupid diagnosticians.

Typical

inister cribe

After a shower, Cuddy felt amazingly better. She dressed half-casually in a just-higher-than-knee-length denim skirt and a cobalt blue silk shirt over that with matching steel heeled stilettos. She strung her pearls around her neck and realised that Scruff's eyes hadn't left her the entire time she had been getting ready. He had watched her pick her underwear, had watched her put it on, watched her muse over her skirt and shirt combos. The dog liked to watch. Perhaps he was a guard dog of some kind. The police took on mongrels now, didn't they? He was definitely big enough to be intimidating enough and he had already proved that he could defend someone if need be. Cuddy gave a repressed shudder at the ugly memory of last night. She would have to alert security to the fact that, though she could never say it as Dean of Medicine, she would not rush to object if Abrahams was beaten with a nightstick or twenty if he ever turned up on hospital grounds again.

The police should probably also be informed...Cuddy shook off that thought when a large canine head slid onto her lap. She petted him automatically and listened to his rumble of pleasure. Her dog thought he was a cat.

“Okay, enough sitting around.” She pushed his nose out of her way and rose to her feet. “Breakfast and then we're going out shopping.” Cuddy told him and sauntered past him to go to the kitchen. She heard him snort in disdain. “We're shopping for you.” She amended and there was a snuffle of grudging approval at the revised idea. Cuddy grinned at herself. She must be really desperate for a companion if she thought Scruff was so damn intelligent.

Her heels clicked against the kitchen floor and she looked over the remodelled room with satisfaction. She had lived here for nearly twelve years now and had only just had the kitchen extended to meet her standards. It was twice the size of what it had been when she had bought the house. Earth toned stone tiles covered the floor and matched the counter tops. The basin was deep and of white ceramic with stainless steel fixtures and the cabinets a warm maple wood colour. She opened her retro style refrigerator and peered inside for something in suiting with an animal of Scruff's discerning taste...and size.

“Dog food,” she murmured mostly to herself, “add that to the list.” Scruff wedged himself between her legs and the fridge door and perused the insides with her. He snuffled here and there and grumbled at the mostly vegetarian contents. Cuddy wasn't without the carnivorous gene, sometimes the only thing that can sate a girl is a medium rare sirloin, but those times were few and far between. She decided on eggs for them both and yanked the entire carton from the fridge, finding a pan and setting to work to make scrambled. She kicked the door shut with her heel to prevent un-supervised mooching and rolled her eyes when Scruff jumped up to the counter, huge front paws planted firmly on the polished stone top. She would have shoved him off with a scolding but she didn't think it would make the blind bit of difference.

“So,” she told him brightly. “We have to go to the pet store, get you a license; collar, leash, a bed, some food...a ball? A big tennis ball?” He barked his approval and she reached over to scratch his chin. “Then I suppose we can go to the V-E-T and then to the hospital for a while...Scruff?”

Cuddy frowned and followed after the flash of steely black fur as it disappeared out of her kitchen with a scrabble of claws. She was just in time to see his tail disappearing under her couch with a long drawn out snort of disapproval. Blue eyes glared out at her and Cuddy planted her fists on her hips and tilted her head to the side.

She had adopted the only dog in Princeton that could spell Vet.

Typical.

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House could not believe this!

He stood on the black rubber topped exam table in the vet's office, ears flat against his skull, limbs trembling in what he was sure was a macho doggy kind of way and his tail firmly between his legs. The cloying sickly sweet smell of antiseptic and frightened animal was stuffing up his nose and ringing in his head like an insistent bell. The urge to be anywhere but here was overpowering. He couldn't believe he'd been bribed into this for Oreos of all things!

Well, his mother had always warned him: never trust a woman offering cookies...or sex without knowing his name...it had been one or the other.

He growled and glared up at Cuddy, his head lower than hers since he was in a half-crouch, ready to bound away given the slightest opportunity. His new collar felt too tight around his furry neck and the license with his new name and Cuddy's address caught the fluorescent lights and flashed off the stainless steel counters and cabinets in a blind of reflections. He trembled and growled again. The maddening urge to be not here getting stronger. He was bigger than Cuddy, she only had one slim hand through the dark blue leather of his studded collar. He could jump away and get through the door and there wouldn't be much a little thing like her could do about it...but then she might get hurt.

And that was what was really bothering him. Not that he was in a vet's office, about to be on the wrong side of the latex glove, but that he couldn't freaking leave because he didn't want to hurt the woman running her fingers through the thick fur over his shoulders and neck, murmuring soothing nonsense in his flattened ears like that would beat back the smell raging through his senses and the hammering of his heart in his chest.

“Hi there, sorry to keep you waiting, Miss Cuddy and...Scruff.”

House and Cuddy turned to look at the owner of the deep baritone. A tall man had entered the room and was smiling at Cuddy with far too many shiny white teeth in House's opinion. He growled low and rough in his chest again and Cuddy soothed him with more ear scrunches while excusing him to Mr Tall-Gorgeous and Colgate over there.

“His first time in the vets.” She said with a smile, a genuine smile. She didn't correct Mr My-teeth-are-over-insured on the 'Miss Cuddy' part either. She was 'Doctor Cuddy' to everyone else. She didn't smile at him like that. House's instant dislike for the vet intensified exponentially. His growl was so violent that he had to bare his teeth at the vet to let it all out and his were bigger.

“Scruff!” The growl died pathetically at the disapproval in her tone and House sidled closer to her, torn between begging forgiveness with the puppy eyes and launching himself at the vet and getting himself some underwear to chew on.

“It's alright, I'm Doctor Lloyd. You just hold his head and I'll make sure he's okay.”

Ooooh, a 'Doctor'! House snorted and glared at Lloyd, twisting his neck to follow the man when Lloyd circled the table to stand far too close to Cuddy. House shuffled away, bringing his 'owner' with him. That slim ball wasn't getting anywhere near his Cuddy and that was it.

“He sure is big.” Lloyd noted and House wished for a human tongue to tear a strip out of the idiot with. The thing he missed most about his human shape was the ability to stop an idiot in their bumbling tracks from fifty yards off with just the right verbal incentive. Lloyd's gloved hand came down on House's right flank and he whirled faster than even he could track and snapped at the hand with a savage bark. If Lloyd hadn't been so quick in removing the limb, he would have been missing several fingers by now. House was a little surprised at his own ferocity, but he did not like to be touched without his consent and he wasn't sorry either.

A slim hand closed around his muzzle and yanked him sternly back around, eyes front.

“You will not snap at Lloyd again.” Cuddy ordered him, nose to nose with him. House blinked first and dipped his head on a whine.

He started it.

“I know. Come here.” Cuddy wrapped her arms around his neck and House buried his face against her shirt, inhaling the soothing scent of her coconut oil moisturiser, the heat of her body mixing the scent with the vanilla musk she had sprayed on before leaving her bedroom that morning. His broad forehead was pillowed against her breasts, his nose buried between them. There were definitely worse places for a hound to be, that was for sure.

“Okay, big fella, let's have a look at that scar now.” Lloyd's voice was intended to be soothing but House stiffened when the man's hand landed on him anyway. Cuddy shushed him and massaged his ears so much that he even allowed the vet to look over the scar and get quite close to touching it. His leg twitched once or twice and Lloyd took the hint and backed off.

“Well, it's definitely an old wound. Healed completely but it must have been pretty serious when it happened. Something sure took a big chunk out of his leg. He's learned to compensate around it though. Dog's are good that way.”

“Is it hurting him?”

House smiled on the inside. Only his Cuddy would look for another broken soul to look after. His leg did hurt, but as Idiot Vet said, it was easier to compensate on four legs rather than two and, so, wasn't nearly as noticeable.

“If he was in any great deal of pain I think he'd favour it a lot. Does he put any weight on it at all when he walks?”

“Yes, he limps with it, but yesterday he got out of my car and yelped like he was in pain.”

Lloyd shrugged in an open handed gesture. “Probably been lying on it too long. He's an older animal, he's got this to contend with along with other middle age ailments as well. There's not much I can do for him.”

House felt Cuddy nod and heard her sigh over the thump of her heart. She agreed, but she wasn't happy about it. She continued to hold him as the exam went on and House bravely suffered through it. Even allowed his ears to be checked. The only real problem arose when Lloyd pulled a thermometer from one of the drawers. House stiffened anew. Hold it, animals got their temps taken via the...House's tail clamped further between his legs and he promptly sat on it.

No.

Freaking.

Way.

Lloyd approached him all business, but Cuddy could tell that the status was not quite quo any more.

“I don't think you should do any more, Dr Lloyd.” Cuddy's fingers tightened in House's fur in time with the horrific growl working up from his chest. “Scruff's not used to this. I think we'll just go.”

“He's fine. Just this last measurement and we'll be good to go until the next six month check-up.” Lloyd examined the thermometer carefully for any breaks in the mercury and then turned back to House.

House growled savagely once more.

“How about we come back tomorrow?” House could hear a note of desperation in her voice. She knew he'd had enough and that Lloyd was about to lose something if he wasn't careful. Her fingers tightened on his fur once more. “Don't bite.” She murmured in the vain hope that he might listen.

Lloyd's hand landed on the base of House's tail.

No biting. Fine. That still left a bunch of options open.

With a roar, House twisted out of Cuddy's grip and launched himself at one very startled veterinarian.

inister cribe

Cuddy staggered backwards out of the vet's office, hauling Scruff with her and apologising profusely.

“I am so sorry! I didn't know he could do that.” Scruff snarled savagely and lunged as if to have another go at the now bleeding veterinarian. She heaved against the collar and succeeded in dragging huge scrabbling paws a few inches further out into the foyer. Other patients and their owners were staring. “Put some ice on that, trust me, I'm a doctor.”

Scruff barked and it somehow managed to sound suspiciously like 'your mother'.

Cuddy winced at the amount of blood. She always forgot how much a broken nose could haemorrhage. Not to mention the poor man's shirt...

“You should really get that looked at.” Cuddy bit her lip and managed to finally drag the enraged mutt over the threshold of the exam room door. “Sorry.” She apologised once more and then slammed the door shut.

Scruff stilled immediately and then sat at her feet like nothing had happened. His tail thumped against the floor in a gentle wag and his jaws were parted in that grin of his. Cuddy stared at him and threw her hands wide her purse clutched in one of them and knocking gently against the door she'd just shut.

“All this because you didn't want a thermometer up your ass?” She demanded loudly and ignored the glare from a mother of a five year old girl and her flop-eared rabbit. The Goth teenager with his python sniggered with black lips.

Scruff nodded with a snort and then got up, trotting towards the exit, tail swinging jauntily and a spring in his step. Cuddy watched him pad out of the automatic doors like a king sweeping from court and shook her head.

Not only could he spell, but he was bi-polar.

Fucking typical.