Thanks to all you have reviewed this story and read!!! It's been a pleasure writing it :D I am terribly sorry it took me this long to write and ending but I just couldn't make up my min about how to end it and a boy got me more than distracted by partying :P

They say time heal all wounds. In a way they're right. It heals them but it doesn't make them go away. They scar will always stay on you. What Thomas did was scar my soul. Leaving an imprint of his evil motivations for selfishly taking me away from all I loved and wanted rationalising it as love for me to get what I needed. In the process stripping me of choice. Therapy got me this far but I still look over my shoulder in the car park. And mostly I'll wait till House is going home.

The court case had Thomas live the rest of his natural life in prison as a sex offender, murder and kidnapper. They cut him a deal to be ascertained in a mental institution if he confessed to all his victims and as the list grew a mix of guilt and happiness grew in me. I felt sad so many girls had died in the arms of this man because they didn't live up to his fantasies. Because they gave in, miscarried or died from the beatings.

Thomas couldn't handle if a woman gave up and lied down. He wanted what his mother had been to him and he hated it. Ambivalence had flooded Thomas's life from the moment he was born. His mother had fallen pregnant with a man who left to fend for herself and their child. She was poor, unable to keep a job and often taking her anger out on her child. It was a long and sad story.

I had been surprised at how cold I had been to it. I didn't care that he'd been beaten, left alone for hours, locked in the basement or even when he had been raped by his cousin. All I could see was Norah's face and her body as she had been fighting a fight for her life in the hospital stroking several times. I had stood there next to her, tears in my eyes praying she'd make it.

I had sat with her refusing to give up. I played her music, had House play the piano for her, read her book and watched TV with her.

She was in a coma for almost a month, doctors uncertain she'd ever wake up as she healed. They thought it was the shock or maybe she didn't want to live. No one knew.

House for the first time in his life managed to just be there for me and with me. He never complained and even suggested to have her transferred to PPTH when she was stable enough. If she was going to die she should die in my hospital with the best people around her to catch any hiccup.

But Norah didn't die. One day she woke up. Hazy and confused but she was very much alive and as the months turned into years she grew strong and well. She, like I, had scars always reminding us where we'd been. But she found a humour about it I couldn't. She was much stronger in a way.

The future however turned bright for all of us. I married House about a year after I had first been taken and shortly after I found out I was pregnant. House spent months not being sure if it was the life he wanted; torn between his fears of being as bad a dad as his own father and the want for love and family. It wasn't till our daughter was born he seemed to settle and accept his part as my husband and the father of Grace. He still had days where he didn't want to accept that this was his life but on the overall he was comfortable in the role of father and husband.

As for Norah, she and Wilson eventually found each other and were now married happily with a 1-year-old daughter.

It all seemed like we had a happy ending but it was relative to what had happened to us. If the past wasn't so painful this would be normal. I loved my life as it was but I knew that had Thomas never entered my life House would not be here with me. His inability to commit would have kept us apart never experiencing the most fantastic and wonderful relationship in my whole life.

As I was waking this very morning 4 years after I had been taken, a kiss was placed at the base of my neck followed by a playful bite. I smiled and wrapped my arm around him entangling them in his short messy hair.

We had both come to one conclusion; some times life sucked but if it hadn't sucked for us, we'd never had what we had now, which none of us ever regretted having.

His lips found mine in a lazy loving kiss.

"Morning." He pulled me flush against him mirroring the placement of my hand, entangling them in my hair.

"Hey," I croaked back to him between small kisses. He rolled us onto my back making room for himself between my legs, guiding his way into me with the practice of familiarity. He moaned lowly, more like a growl and I wrapped my legs around him, urging him on. I loved being woken up with sex. It was seldom we did as I was a morning person and House by definition hated being awake before 10.

Long live Sundays! He set a slow rhythm knowing full well he'd drive me crazy.

"House…" He shut me up with a searing kiss, picking up the pace. He knew what I wanted. And he knew time was limited. Grace was at his mum's since last night and wasn't coming back till around lunch.

Pressing on his lower back with my hands as well as pressing my pelvic upwards as I came I pulled him with me over the edge.

He smiled down at me. He smiled more now. He was still House. Sarcastic and alienating but he always pulled me back in. Made sure I never ran too far after a fight. And when we were alone he was a nice and loving. He said he had to be to get some horizontal action but we both knew he'd get it anyway. I couldn't deny him anything. He owned me heart, mind and soul.

He kissed the side of my mount softly, sensing I had a contemplative day.

"I love.." He mumbled. "It when you moan for me early in the morning." I smiled. It was House's way of saying "I love you." He did sometimes. Sometimes he ended a phone call with saying it and sometimes he said it clearly and as if he couldn't hold it back any more.

"I love you, too." He nipped at my throat and up to my ear.

"You know I love you. I married that gigantic ass of yours well knowing about its expansion plans." I giggled at him but slapped him on the arm as well before I pushed him off me.

"You're an ass." As I tried to sit up he simply just held him to me.

"You're not going yet. We finally have time to ourselves. Stay." I lied back down and he showered me in flurry kisses making me giggle as his stubble tickled my skin.

"House stop! Stop." He closed his lips over mine in a possessive kiss. I returned the kiss enjoying being the sole receiver of his attention. It wasn't often I was. Grace loved her dad and wanted his attention most of the time, work pulled him away as much as it always had and Wilson often came around with Norah in tow.

"I was thinking," he mumbled lowly having moved to his side and pulled me to him.

"Yes?"

"Shhh," he hushed me teasingly. "I was thinking," he stopped again only to test me with an arched eyebrow. I waited patiently for him and eventually he continued. "That we should go on a holiday." I looked at him oddly. House preferred to stay home, laze in the sun, play in the pool and drink cold beer most of his holidays. I didn't mind too much. It kept me near the hospital and as long as he was there with Grace it was okay. "Go somewhere where none of us have been." I nodded letting him talk and tell me the whole idea. "We could take Wilson and Norah as well?" I smiled and nodded.

"You already talked to Wilson didn't you?" He tried to look innocent but failed miserably. "It was his idea?" He sighed and smiled as he nodded.

"Yes. But what do you think?" I smiled.

"I'd like that….a lot actually." A rare smile split his face and I kissed him. I kissed him because he was in my life, because he was my husband, because he loved me and I loved him. I kissed him because he was the single most important person in my life. With him by my side I could handle anything.

"I was thinking we'd go to Bulgaria and see if there's anything to that Hostel thing." I rolled my eyes.

"No."

"But Mooooommmm…"

I'm sorry this took me sooooooooo long to write. I hope you liked my ending. I wanted something sweet Let me know what you think, please. I have written the start of my next story, which won't be this scary, but it's still on the idea phase. Anyway, thanks very much for reading and reviewing. You're awesome :D