“Hugh…” Lisa breathed as they pulled apart. His eyes were dark as he shook his head slightly at her. Whatever she was about to say… it was a discussion for another time.

~*~*~
    “Now is the time,” Hugh đã đưa ý kiến softly, appearing over Lisa’s shoulder right when she sat down to eat breakfast the tiếp theo day. She nearly spilled her entire plate on the floor.
    “Hugh! What are bạn doing?”
    He pulled out a chair and sat down, looking her in the eye. “We are going to talk.”
    “About what?” Lisa started to reach for her fork, pretending she didn’t know what he meant, but Hugh covered it with hand before she could reach for it. “That’s very mature, sir.”
    “That was… quite a scene yesterday.”
    Lisa raised an eyebrow at him. “Yes?”
    “And… bạn wanted to say something before, but not now? We have nothing to talk about?”
    Swallowing hard, Lisa looked around to make sure no one was nearby, then put her hand over his.
    “We have… quite a lot to talk about. But Hugh, right now we’re just so—inundated with these characters, with these scenes and these lines and—I just want to get through this.” Her eyes glistened slightly at him as she smiled weakly in his direction. “Is that ok?”
    Hugh pointed a finger at her and his gaze never wavered. “You are not getting out of this, ma’am.” He stood, pushing his chair back, and put one hand on her shoulder, squeezing. “I can promise bạn that.”
    Lisa bit her lip and tasted blood.
~*~*~
    Olivia’s voice was muffled behind the glass walls of House’s office while Lisa hovered off camera waiting for her cue. Hugh was positively bouncy inside, making the most of finally getting to act out of the rut he’d had to be in for the last bunch of weeks. Lisa tapped the tips of her fingers together, waiting it out, until she heard…
    “His present symptoms could mean autoimmune disease, nasolacrimal tumor, an infection, hoặc just a cold…” she trailed off as Lisa entered.
    “Good morning, sunshine!” Hugh đã đưa ý kiến brightly, barely glancing up at her from the file in his hands. “We got a brand new toy. bạn wanna play?”
    “We need to talk,” Lisa đã đưa ý kiến to him seriously, her voice unconsciously going scratchy in a reaction to the fabric that felt like it was closing around her throat. She had really hated this wardrobe choice…
    “Great,” Hugh was saying, “I tình yêu euphemisms. bởi euphemism I mean when bạn say something and it means something else.” He tossed the file on the conference table. “Begin eliminating. tìm kiếm the home.” Lisa could practically feel his eyes on her posterior as she led the way through the door into House’s office. She stood near one of the chairs in front of the desk, facing him. “The, uh…” Hugh pointed to her chest, gesturing at the uncharacteristic amount of fabric. “Isn’t that like locking the vựa, chuồng trại, barn door after the horse has put his face between your breasts for an giờ and a half?”
    Lisa gaped slightly at him. “I’m your boss,” she said, incredulous. “You’re an employee.”
    Hugh raised his eyebrows and started walking towards her. “Well, I’m not normally into role playing, but if bạn wanna…”
    Taking an immediate step back, half raising her hand to stave him off, Lisa tried not to look at him, only making eye contact very rarely. “People who get close to bạn get hurt,” she đã đưa ý kiến quietly. “That’s a fact. You’re also a valued doctor in this hospital. That’s another fact. From now on we’re going to focus on the một giây fact.”
    Hugh narrowed his eyes, starting to back off around the corner of the desk. “So this isn’t bạn freaking out about last night.”
    “This… isn’t an emotional decision. I’m just giving bạn the rules. bạn can either accept them hoặc leave.”
    Lisa made exceptional eye contact with Hugh’s chin, refusing to look anywhere else before she đã đưa ý kiến ‘Screw the script’ and climbed over the bàn to get at him. Awkwardly turning away from him, she stalked out of the office, letting the door lung lay, swing closed after her. Looking behind her, she saw Hugh smiling contemplatively to himself, the lipstick in his hand, until the cameras stopped. Their eyes met and he raised an eyebrow at her involuntary fiddling with the high cổ áo of her shirt. The smallest quirk of his eyebrow was enough to convey everything he was thinking—
    I know, bạn hate it too. Believe me, I’d rather bạn were in your normal clothes as well…
    Lisa flashed him a positively scandalous smile before turning to the director for notes before they started again.
~*~*~
    Lisa put her arm around Robert Sean Leonard’s waist as they headed together towards Cuddy’s office a while later. Standing back in a corner, arms crossed, his face cast into shadows, Hugh Laurie watched the two Những người bạn bending their heads together and smiled to himself. The very first time he’d seen them, in the lobby of the hotel in Canada when they were shooting the pilot, he’d made the very erroneous assumption that the two of them were married—a mistake that Lisa had not let him hear the end of for quite a long while.
    As the two of them burst out laughing and Lisa tossed her hair back playfully, Hugh did an internal status check; why was he not jealous of Robert?
    Well that’s easy enough, he thought darkly. Robert’s married. What’s to worry about?
    You are also married, his subconscious pointed out helpfully. Doesn’t that mean bạn shouldn’t be feeling jealous of anyone, whether they are married hoặc not?
    Hugh closed his eyes, leaning his head back against the wall. Ok, fine. He was married. That was true. It was probably not a good sign that he needed to be reminded of that fact… so he quickly got off that train of thought and onto another: Lisa. When had it become inevitable that he was rather dangerously drawn to his flirtatious co-star? What one thing had she done to draw him in to the extent that he found himself waking up in a cold sweat some nights, breathing hard, her image burned onto his retina…
    And it was usually an image that he was sure he would burn in hell for…
    The only thing that kept him grounded, unfortunately, was Lisa herself. Knowing that she was aware of his feelings, knowing that she would flirt back with him as a matter of course, knowing that even after the biggest, most hurtful fight they ever could have had, and the following—
    Hugh sucked in a breath, remembering the feeling of her lips when he kissed her—kissed her for real, not in a scene, not as an act… Her surprise at his spontaneous actions had lasted only a second, and then? There she was, giving as good as she got, drawing him in, cementing his fate. As if there could be any other choice once he’d been down that road. As if he could resist travelling it again.
    So why hadn’t she been acting… weird? Hugh furrowed his brow, watching his co-stars talking softly in Cuddy’s office.
    They had kissed. They had crossed that line, gone where they’d both known they could never go, and then after that kiss, that single moment in time that could only be described as earth-shattering… why had they never spoken of it again? Why hadn’t she asked him to explain himself, to apologize?
    Or had it not affected her at all? Was that it? She was ignoring it? Pretending it never happened and wishing that he hadn’t gone that far?
    No. The hair on the back of his neck stood straight up as he remembered the feeling of her arms around his neck, of her body flush against his own, her tongue playfully tangling with his before she pulled away and, just like always, settled the whole situation with one simple statement.
    Back to normal.
    Now… Hugh started over toward the set to begin the scene, his objective staring him in the face.
    Literally.
    It was time to redefine normal.