Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Mind or House MD. All original characters belong to me. Any similarities to real life persons, in name or description, are strictly coincidental.

13.

House wasted no time in making his way to his patient's room, although he was a bit disheartened as he saw the amount of people in there. It looked as if she had crammed the whole FBI unit she worked with in there, which did turn out to be true. Once the men had returned from their coffee break, they had all gathered into Emily's room with the girls. And once House and his own team squeezed into there, it would definitely constitute as a fire hazard. But since when had House been a stickler for rules?

He met Foreman, Chase, Taub, and Thirteen outside the sliding glass door. He could feel the prying eyes of the agents as they strode into the room.

"Unless you can tell us what's wrong, get out," hissed Hotch, aiming a piercing glare at the older doctor.

"Then you're in luck," House retorted, dragging a chair over so he was directly facing Emily. She looked by far weaker than she had when he'd first admitted her. Instead of that strong, defiant FBI agent he'd briefly met, she looked frail, as if she took one step she'd break. And although he hadn't spent much time with her, he'd heard from both Wilson and his team of doctors that she was quite an impressive woman.

She crossed her arms. "So, are you just going to sit there, or are you going to tell me?" He almost laughed. Even in her sickness, she was bold.

He tapped his cane against the floor. "You have disseminated nocardiosis." Simultaneously, his doctors took in a sharp intake of breath; a gasp of surprise.

"It's so rare," murmured Thirteen.

"Which is why we never considered it," Foreman shot back.

"And the tests are pretty inconclusive unless you know exactly what you're looking for," added in Chase.

"It'd be helpful if you could explain what it is," snorted Rossi from his spot in the corner.

"I was getting to that." House again turned back to face Emily. "It's an infectious disease. You were in a car accident recently, in which you received a laceration to your arm, right?"

"Yes." Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. Hotch placed a comforting hand on her arm for support.

"Did your wound come in contact with any soil?" She briefly flashed back to that night, when she'd crawled out of the mangled corpse of the car and crawled through the dirt in an attempt to chase down Shrader and his partner.

"Yes." A smug grin appeared on House's face.

"The infection got into your body when contaminated soil came in contact with your wound."

"And even with those circumstances, you never thought to test for this?" There was Rossi again, always extremely opinionated.

"As Dr. Hadley mentioned before, the disease is incredibly rare," he replied, annoyed.

"Is it treatable?" Emily asked the question it seemed that the rest of them had been too afraid to utter.

"We'll need to do a few more tests, to make sure it really is nocardiosis," he said, disguising his unhappiness about having to share that even this diagnosis wasn't sure, "but with long term antibiotic treatment and a lot of bed rest, Agent Prentiss should be fine."

"Long term?" she squeaked, suddenly more afraid that she'd be missing out on a lot of work, rather than that she'd been this close to dying. "How long is long term?"

"The medicinal therapy should continue for at least six months," interjected Foreman, his hands clasped behind his back.

"Six months?" Now she looked close to passing out. House had already hobbled out of the room, and after exchanging glances between themselves, the rest of the doctors followed him. Rossi decided to speak up and say,

"I'm sure Emily is tired. Why don't we all give her a chance to absorb all this?" With a wink directed towards Hotch, he d herded the rest of the BAU team out of the room. Hotch took his normal seat at her bedside.

"Six months, Hotch," she repeated, looking incredulous. "How am I supposed to stay cooped up inside my apartment for six months?"

"I'll make a deal with you," he said with a grin, sliding his hand into hers. She cocked an eyebrow.

"A deal? I thought you didn't like deals."

He shuddered at the memories her statement brought up, before continuing, "This one will be good for both of us. If you stay at home for the six months and keep yourself busy getting better, I'll keep you informed on all the cases."

"I'd rather be out in the field," she huffed, but seeing a lecture starting to bubble forth from his lips, she said quickly, "but it's a good compromise."

The next morning, they were headed home. The tests had confirmed it: Emily had disseminated nocardiosis, and a six-month round of antibiotics would surely kill all traces of the disease from her system. She was finally able to change from the uncomfortable hospital gown to a t-shirt and a pair of fatigues that hung a bit more loosely on her than normal. Begrudgingly, she allowed Thirteen and Chase to push her out of the hospital in a wheelchair. Hotch followed closely at her side. The rest of the BAU had gone back to the hotel to pack up; they would meet them at the airport.

To everyone's surprise, including the two doctor's, House stood near the exit with his arms crossed. Cuddy sat on the bench next to him, and immediately got up when she saw them heading her way. It seemed that Foreman and Taub hadn't deemed Emily an important enough patient to say goodbye too, or they were too busy.

"I hope your stay was as pleasant as possible, Agent Prentiss" said Cuddy, a fake smile plastered across the lower half of her face. Emily simply nodded, rubbing the sore spot underneath her t-shirt, where the chest tube had been inserted just the day before. She was still having trouble breathing, but she had been assured it would clear up soon.

Hotch stepped up to face House. Everyone watched the moment unfold with amusement. Emily wasn't sure if Hotch would punch out the doctor, because although it would be totally unlike him to do so, that fire in his eyes said otherwise. Instead, he held out his hand. "Thank you."

A little quirk of his lips played on House's face as he grabbed Hotch's hand and shook it. "My pleasure."

"I'm sure it was."

A few days later, once the BAU had returned to Virginia and all hospital procedures had returned to what had been deemed as normal by House's standards, he received a handwritten note from none other than Emily Prentiss.

Dear Dr. House, -it had read-

I'd like to say how thankful I am that you were my doctor. Surely I wouldn't been able to write this if it had not been for you. To repay you, I'd like to invite you for a tour of the FBI Academy, and of the BAU's workplace. Just give me a call when you'd like to visit.

Sincerely,

Supervisory Special Agent Emily Prentiss

Her business card had been stapled to the bottom. She'd known that Hotch wouldn't be happy when House showed up at the BAU, with Emily's written consent to be there. House knew that as well, which was probably the cause of the grin that made its way onto his face.

There was, not surprisingly, a knock at Emily's door one night, about a month after her discharge from Princeton-Plainsborough. Hotch had been coming over almost every night he was in town not working on a case, to see how she was doing, maybe even eat dinner with her or watch television. Once or twice he'd brought Jack over as well, and with the little boy also came much joy for both of them.

It was almost seven at night when this visit from the unit chief came. From reading over the case file he'd slipped her earlier that week, she knew that he must've just arrived back home from Houston, after working on a case in which a serial killer had been drowning his victims.

He looked exhausted, but content when she opened the door, still dressed in his suit. "How'd the case go?" she asked.

He had on a sort of half-grin. "We caught him before he got to another victim."

"Great." It was bittersweet to hear the news, because she wished she had been right there alongside them, chasing down the UNSUB. But judging by the coughing fits and headaches that still plagued her, she certainly wasn't ready to head back into the field.

She stepped aside to let him through the doorway, and he held up two plastic bags. "I hope you haven't had dinner yet, because I brought Chinese food and a movie."

"I was actually waiting to see if you'd show up," she said in reply as she shut the door. "I knew the case wouldn't be a long one."

"I'm flattered." He set the bags down on the countertop. "Have you been taking your meds?"

"Every day." She gestured to the whole of her apartment with outstretched arms. "I think I'm going stir-crazy."

"Five more months," he reminded her.

"How will I survive?" she sighed.

"Don't worry. I'll be here to help you through it."

Author's Note: The end! I hope you guys enjoyed it, because I sure enjoyed writing it. Thank you to everyone who read, reviewed, etc. Don't forget to tell me what you think of the end!