Cheese Alert! For a rather intense story, I'm afraid it's ending with quite a bit of fluff. Maybe that's a good thing; maybe not. But after the crap TPTB put us through, I think we're due for a happy ending.

Disclaimer: It is soooo obvious I'm not connected with the show.

Last Chance – Epilogue

She was there. He'd seen her and Rachel on the playground while he was running the track.

House guzzled the last of the water, tossed the bottle in the trash and went to sit down in the grass between the lake and the walking path.

It had been three weeks since he'd seen her. Three weeks since he'd kissed her goodbye, since he'd let himself hope.

"Be happy," she'd said.

Was that even possible for a man like him? Was it possible after all he'd done?

He'd begun to accept his fate. Over the years he'd come to realize he was more adaptable than he'd thought, which was ironic considering how many years he'd fought any kind of change in his life. But there was just so much he couldn't control. As much as he tried to fight it and manipulate his way around it, some storms were just going to rip through his life, through him. He'd finally begun to accept that. He'd even started to think he could be content in the restlessness, comfortable in the discomfort. Until he'd seen her again.

She had a way of occupying him. Not just his thoughts, but his entire being. She made him want more. She made him want to be more.

House stretched out on the grass, resting his hands on his stomach as he looked up at the clouds. He did this as a child. He used to spend hours looking up at the sky, thinking, analyzing, searching for answers. He could still identify the types of clouds; classify them as cumulus, stratus, cirrus or nimbus. He could still make out shapes in those clouds, see the art within the science. He could also still imagine other worlds beyond those clouds. Even after all these years, he could still dream. Sometimes he even managed not to hate himself for those dreams.

"That one looks like an elephant."

She was there.

He'd heard her, felt her presence in the distance. He'd smelled her distinct fragrance in the air around him as she'd approached. He'd felt that emotional duplicity of anxiety and arousal that existed in her presence.

"Like the elephant in the room?" he asked as she sat down beside him.

"If it's in the park is it harder to ignore?"

She lay down next to him and he felt his heart skip a beat.

"Impossible to ignore," he said. "Like your ass."

She closed her eyes and tried not to respond, but he saw the smirk she was fighting.

"You've been stalking me for two weeks."

"Three weeks," she corrected. "I've planned our park visits around your run since the weekend after you left the hospital."

He turned his head to look at her. "Why?"

"I was considering my options."

"It took three weeks to pick an option?"

"Unlike you, I don't have balls to play with that help me decide."

"You could play with mine anytime."

She gave him a crooked grin and looked back up at the sky.

He followed her lead. It was probably safer than looking at her. She was like a drug to him. Even in her yoga pants and t-shirt, with her hair curling wild around her face, she was stunning. It was just her way. He felt himself getting high just being with her.

"Anything?" she suddenly asked. "Anytime?"

He looked at her again, understanding she was quoting his note. "Always."

She bit on her lower lip. She was nervous.

"Why are you here, Cuddy?"

Why?

There was the opening. She'd hoped there'd be one, worried over creating one. She wanted tell him what he so desperately needed to hear, even though she suspected he had long ago buried the desire, filing it away as an impossible dream.

"Because when you opened your eyes in that emergency room, I came to life," she said.

He stared at her, surprised and uncertain.

She was staring up at the sky, but she wasn't seeing. Her mind was slipping into a memory. He could see it, feel it.

"You destroyed me that day," she said. "You didn't just crash into my home; you crushed every belief I had in myself, everything I thought I knew about you, about us. It was all destroyed. I couldn't trust myself. I couldn't trust my heart."

House looked away. He didn't want to hear this, didn't want to feel the blows to his heart as she remembered what he'd done. He was already beaten, broken. He'd only just started to rebuild; he didn't want to go through this again, to relive the pain. But he knew he needed to hear it. He needed to hear her out, let her release the demons and pummel him if she needed. He owed her that.

"I'm here because I think you need to know something," she said.

He braced himself, looking for a cloud to hold his focus, a metaphorical pillow to soften the blow.

"You make me insane," she said. "From the first day I met you in that college bookstore you've kept me off balance. I feel insecure and afraid, out of my element. I question everything. I doubt everything…and yet I am more myself with you than anyone else in this world."

He jerked his head around to look at her again. He couldn't have heard her right.

"You make me look at things in ways I would never consider, evaluate what's real and imagine what's not. You make me laugh and hope and dream. You help me not take life so seriously."

She turned to look at him then and their eyes locked.

"You were my hero," she said with a sincerity that surprised him. "You were always protective of me. You kept my secrets and defended me, even if it was in the most unorthodox ways possible I felt safe with you and depended on you. I always found comfort in that."

House felt his stomach flip, his chest tighten as the sense of pride and shame battled within him. She'd seen his heart; she had understood. He'd ruined it. He'd screwed it up like he always did.

She sat up and reached out to him, placing her hand on his jaw.

"That day was the anomaly," she said. "Our truth was in all the other days. It's screwed up and crazy and no one understands it because it makes no sense at all, but it's our truth."

Her lips touched his in a kiss so feather light he could have missed it, but his senses were on high alert, his nerves raw. He reached out to touch her, to draw her near. But she was pulling away. Walking away.

She was leaving. She was walking away. Again.

It was expected. The greater surprise was that she'd loved him in the first place, not that she'd realized the error of her ways.

He hurt.

Pain happens when you care.

He looked back up into the sky, staring at the clouds. The elephant cloud. It was breaking up, losing its shape. It was distorted now. How ironic. Acknowledging the elephant doesn't make it go away, it just turns it into something different. Something new.

House sat up suddenly, his eyes shifting back and forth as thoughts in his head began to rearrange and move like puzzle pieces searching for the right fit.

She was walking away.

New image.

She always walked away when she didn't know what to do.

New vision.

She paced, and thought.

New hope.

She tried to reconcile what WAS with what COULD BE.

House looked in the direction she'd been walking, staring at her retreating back.

New dream.

She looked for him.

How do you shift to something new?

Why was she leaving? Why did she come to see him only to leave again? Why did she open her heart only to run away? What was he missing? What did she need?

You can't love someone without making yourself open to their problems…

She accepted him in all his damage, with all his issues and flaws.

Cuddy increased her pace, setting off into a jog.

What you want, you run away from…

"Shit!" he exclaimed. He was never so happy to have his leg function back as now, when he took off running after her.

[H] [H] [H] [H] [H]

Cuddy had barely made it around the bend when she heard the steps pounding up behind her. She started to move to the side of the path so the runner could pass, but then gasped when two arms snaked around her and slung her in the air.

She tried to scream, but the air was knocked out of her as she was dropped on the ground beneath the trees.

Then he was on her.

House.

His body pressed against her, his chest against hers, his hips between her thighs. He kissed her hard on the mouth and quickly pulled away.

"I love you," he said.

And kissed her again, longer this time. Deeper.

"I love you," he said against her lips.

She opened her mouth to respond, but his tongue slipped between her lips and tangled with hers. She couldn't think, couldn't breathe. She could only feel. Feel his heart pounding against her chest, his hands lightly trembling against her skin.

"I love you," he said it again as he tilted his head to the other side and kissed her again. And again. And again.

Her arms wrapped around him; her hands gripped him. She could feel his growing erection as he drove his hips into her and she wrapped her legs around him.

He pulled back from her and she opened her eyes to find him, seek him. He pounded his hips hard into her; the clothes that separated them did nothing to conceal their desire. She felt him at her core.

"I love you," he repeated again.

She felt herself drowning in those clear, blue eyes, so open and vulnerable, searching for hope.

"I'm here with you," he said. "I'm with you."

That was all she wanted wasn't it? Him? That was what she needed, for him to be there with her, to do life with her? Even if he was a complete mess, even if they were a complete mess.

There was a catcall behind them and some giggling in the distance. Cuddy looked away from him, embarrassed and uncomfortable. He could see the unshed tears glistening in her eyes.

"Get off me, you pervert," she said, lightly pushing him to the side.

He watched her as she stood and brushed the dirt off her pants, keeping her eyes averted as she tried to compose herself.

"I need to go check on Rachel," she said. "Meaghan's watching her, but I'm sure they're starting to wonder where I am."

"You're running."

He stood to face her.

"We're not doing this here," she told him in a hushed tone as she turned away.

He couldn't help but watch the sway of her hips. He watched her walk away, and grinned. There was extra swing in those hips.

"But we are doing it?"

"Not if you keep standing there like an idiot," she tossed over her shoulders.

He was by her side in seconds, walking with hope, with his dream.

"Do you think Rachel will remember me?"

"I don't know," she answered honestly, and took his hand.

House smiled as her fingers weaved with his. This was happening. This was really happening.

"She still loves pirates, though."

"How could she not when her mom's got the best booty around?"

Cuddy rolled her eyes and shook her head in feigned tolerance. God, did she know how that turned him on?

"Cursed wench," he said in a bawdy pirates tongue. "Ye can grope me now or grope me later, jes promise you'll draw me plank."

"Save it big guy," she said. "We've got a ways to go before I touch your pirate parts."

House grinned. He didn't care how long it took. He had a chance, his last chance. That was enough.