Once outside the room House is almost knocked down by Niles, who's going through the corridor.

"Dr. House! I was looking for Dr. Cuddy. Is it true that Dr. Wilson is alive?" Niles asks the question so commonly like he could be asking House about the weather.

"Yeah. I thought you were looking for Dr. Cuddy, so can I leave now?" House isn't interested in any longer conversations with the police. It's obviously Cuddy's job. Plus, he wants to go to Wilson as quickly as possible.

"I need to speak with both of you, so please would you accompany me to Dr. Cuddy's office?"

House wonders how this policeman can be so importunate. He sighs and without a word he heads to the Cuddy's office. Niles only shakes his head but then follows.

"I wanted to call you anyway." Niles says to the Cuddy and shakes her hand.

The three of them take their seats. House, like usual, slides into the couch and Cuddy and Niles take a place by the desk.

"When did Dr. Wilson show up at your door?" Niles turns his head to House.

House sighs. He's evidently very bored with the conversation. "About eleven o'clock this...whoops yesterday evening."

Niles scrawls some notes and House wonders how many notebooks he ruins by doing his job.

Cuddy sits calmly in her seat behind the desk. Tonight's events are probably too much for her to cope with easily.

"We were able to take some fingerprints from Dr. Wilson's car. They led us to some guy...," he pauses, looking something up in his notes. "His name is Peter Jones alias Roy."

Neither Cuddy nor House says a word and Niles wonders why these two are so weird tonight.

"He is as silent as a grave and we assume that Dr. Wilson has seen him, so he can testify--" Niles is cut off by House.

"Slow down. He's hardly out of the surgery and you won't speak to him until I'm sure that he's alright."

Cuddy has to smile slightly for the first time in days. House sounds so possessive!

"I'm sorry. I didn't know that he was in a bad state when he showed up." Niles apologizes. "But still, he's our main witness and we'll need his testimony sooner or later. It's in his own interest to help us."

This time Cuddy takes the word. "Of course, Dr. House doesn't mind it. We're just all a little bit shaken."

Niles nods. "We think that there was a mistake and that Dr. Wilson was kidnapped only by a bad coincidence."

He gets only disbelieving glares. "Well, there's no one who would want to hurt Dr. Wilson and this other man was very similar to him. You saw it yourself."

Cuddy is looking sadly at him and House lowers his head.

"The identity of this dead man is still unknown." Niles closes the theme. "Well, you have the contact for me, right?"

Cuddy answers with a nod and stands up to offer her hand to Niles. House doesn't bother with saying goodbye to him.

"House, you should get some sleep, really." Cuddy throws him a sympathetic glare.

"Don't send me away. I'm not going to sleep until this is explained." His eyes are speaking clearly - Cuddy can't stop him from going to Wilson.

"But he's going to be under for at least the next three hours."

"Don't care!" House is shouting from the corridor. Sometimes Cuddy wonders, how he moves quickly when he wants to.

House is staring at his friend in the ICU room. Like the other patients, every little change in his state is monitored and every heart beat echoes in the form of a sharp beep from the machine.

They have stopped his internal bleeding without serious complications. The reconstructive surgery for his right wrist is planned in a few days, because he needs to regain some strength.

When he arrived, he had been severely dehydrated and enfeebled. Due to this fact, there are bags of fluids and IV nutrition hanging politely next to the antibiotics.

Wilson is sleeping calmly and House feels a strange twitching in his stomach by this sight. Memories of a burned body and the feeling of total helplessness are radiating into his mind.

Why did Wilson come to him? And not only that but, why did he disappear? Questions are attacking House's analytical mind. He hopes that Wilson will be able to tell him an answer to all these questions soon, but it's not as necessary as the fact that his friend is lying alive in front of him.

House will give him time. Time to recover and to reveal the truth. Still, there's nothing else what House wants right now, than to hear his friend's voice again, to speak with him, maybe make him laugh or perhaps yell...whatever.

In the last few days House has also realized, that it's not so funny to take the pills when there's nobody behind you to admonish you and that the life really sucks when you don't have any true friend.

He seats himself in a white visitor's chair. It's cold and uncomfortable, but right now, he doesn't care. Everything what matters is lying in front of him.

Wilson stirs and opens his eyes slowly. He seems confused from the lights and from the beeping. At first he probably doesn't realize that he's safe in the hospital. He starts to shift his body restlessly in the bed.

In a second there's a hand on his shoulder and a familiar voice... "Wilson, it's okay, you're in the hospital. Can you hear me?"

House.

He nods and turns his head towards the voice. Blinking a few times he focuses on his friend and then all of the memories come slowly back.

"House?" His voice is weak and rough. He starts to cough immediately.

There's no response but relatively strong hands are lifting him very carefully up, pulling him into a tight embrace.

"I've never had the right reason or time to do this, but now I do." House mumbles with his head on Wilson's left shoulder.

Wilson is stunned at first but then he leans onto his friend and hugs back as though he should never let go.

--

The end.

Yes, it's true. This is the end, but I know that maybe there are some things unfinished in this fic. So I'm not promising anything but if you're interested in a sequel, please let me know. I definitely need a break now but I'm open to new ideas and this story can later continue. You can also suggest what you want to see there! : )

As for this first part I want to say a big 'Thank you' to all of you who have read and followed this! Special thanks to all of you who commented, because comments are like water for the plants and I love and apprecieate all of them. And finally the most special thanks and hugs to spncsifreak, who belive it or not has reviewed every single chapter from the prologue to the end. Yay!