I can't thank you guys enough for all of your support and enthusiasm whilst I've been writing this story. It might not have been to everybody's taste one hundred percent of the time, but I'm still grateful that people made the effort to engage with it.

As promised, here's a little extra. Hope you enjoy! Oh and Happy Thanksgiving to my readers across the pond. To everybody else, Happy Thursday! ;)

Shore was never a fan of possibilities. I am.

Looking bemusedly at his son's face, House lifted Gabe's collar and slung his tie around his neck, starting the process of doing it on his behalf. Having turned eighteen within the last few months, it was as if the young man's body was just catching up with the fact he was reaching adulthood, and after a growth spurt he was now nearing his Father's height. No doubt in the months to come, he'd fill out a little too and stop resembling a toothpick, but all in good time. On one corner of his forehead a neat scar remained: like so much in all their lives it hadn't gone away, it had just faded.

"It amazes me that you can work out equations that would make steam spout out of most of your professor's ears, but you can't figure out how to tie a tie."

Unimpressed, Gabe glowered at the undone tie around House's own neck.

"Pot meet kettle."

"I can do my own tie," he contested defensively. "Your Mom just does it better."

"I don't even understand why I have to wear a tie." Noting that the knot had been tied, the younger man immediately loosened it a little, feigning strangulation.

"It's a wedding. Ties are compulsory… Besides the chicks dig ties and if you're going to impress Helen you need to make an effort." As soon as he mentioned the girl's name, he watched the slight blush bloom in his son's cheeks. They'd met on their first day at Yale, and immediately hit it off. After nearly a month of hanging out as friends, and a pep talk from his Dad on the pitfalls of missed opportunities, Gabe had finally asked her out for a drink. Since then they'd been dating, and this was the first time she was being introduced to everyone aside from the immediate family.

"You think I look smart?"

Gripping the side of his face with both hands, House gave him an overly proud look.

"Oh fruit of my loins! You're look almost as handsome as me." Extracting himself, Gabe rolled his eyes and started to move away when his Dad cleared his throat and began to speak in a low voice. "Speaking of chicks, I put some condoms in your jacket pocket."

This time the colour drained from his son's cheeks.

"You did what?"

"I'm not ready to be a Granddad just yet, kiddo. I want to enjoy the whole 'watching your Mom go mad as she struggles with early retirement' phase a little longer."

"But we're not…" the young man fumbled, struggling to hide his mortification that they were even having this conversation in the middle of the living room in his childhood home.

Needing to take the weight off his leg, House hobbled around the sofa and sat down, Gabe automatically following suit.

"I'm old, but I still remember what being eighteen was like… You expect me to believe that you're going to have a hotel room to yourself tonight, and your girlfriend's not going to be sharing a bunk?"

Well and truly caught out, Gabe glanced at him timidly.

"If Mom finds out…"

"Your Mom's not stupid. She just does a great impression of the Three Wise Monkeys sometimes." Cuddy was well aware of what they were planning too. She didn't have to say anything for him to know that she was flapping over her little boy becoming a man imminently, but then he couldn't exactly tell her to chill out. He'd freaked out just as much when Rachel had started dating. In fact, he'd probably been ten times worse.

"Where are they anyway?" his son asked, looking at the clock on the mantel. "We're supposed to be leaving in five minutes to pick up Helen from the train station."

"I've been married to your Mother for twelve years, and it's still a mystery why she takes so long to get ready. I expect her and Rachel are doing women's things."

"I heard that!"

Spinning his head around, House caught sight of Cuddy slipping her shoes on in the hallway and then heading towards them.

"Then let me tell you radiant you look." As she walked into the room and stood in front of him, he realised that didn't quite cut. In her purple dress and silver heels she managed to look both elegant and sexy, a feat that not many women could pull off. "Actually scratch that, you look seriously hot. You do realise you're not supposed to show up the bride, right?"

"Flattery won't get you out of this one," she responded with a coy smirk, bending down to deal with his tie without being asked.

"So what will?"

"Grovelling. A lot of grovelling."

"Really?"

Feeling his eyes still on her as she concentrated on the task in hand, she eased the material up towards his neck, turned his collar back down and patted him on the cheek.

"Really."

Reluctantly watching his parents do their usual dance around each other, Gabe screwed his nose up.

"For the record, I feel really nauseous right now."

In tandem the pair of them turned on his and scowled.

"Shut up and make yourself useful!" Cuddy insisted. "You can put your Dad's wheelchair in the back of the car."

"Don't bother!"

Snapping her head back around to regard her husband, she frowned.

"You'll be tired by the end of the day. You won't want to be on your feet."

"I'm fairly sure even your sister can manage to organise some chairs at the reception… I've got my cane. I can manage."

Irritated, Cuddy sighed and stood back up. For the past couple of years, although pain management had gotten much easier for him with the advent of more effective, non-opiate painkillers, the strength in his thigh had begun to deteriorate, resulting in a couple of falls. For months now they'd had this same battle: she'd insist on him using the chair for his own safety, and he'd point blank refuse to use it.

"Why do you never think about things logically when it comes to your leg?… Nobody cares about you being in a chair."

"I care!" he spat back.

"So am I putting the chair in the car or not?" Gabe inquired, wanting to extricate himself from one of their sporadic blow-ups. Simultaneously his Mom and Dad gave him opposing answers, making him raise an eyebrow. "Well that was helpful."

"While my mind still works, I get to decide what I do with body… If that's too much for you to handle, then I guess I should just stay here and let you three go and enjoy yourselves."

Immediately Cuddy's arms flew in the air in frustration.

"Oh for God's sake!... Why do you always have to dig your heels in over the most stupid things?"

House started to respond, but a voice from behind him interrupted.

"Do you guys really have to do this now?" Rachel walked into the room, past Cuddy and crouched down in front front of House, taking his hand. "Dad, Mom's not trying to embarrass you, or make you do something you don't want to do. She just doesn't want you to be in any more discomfort than you have to be. Neither do I or Gabe… We can take the chair with us, but you don't have to use. It can stay in the car just in case."

Pondering her solution for a moment, he gripped his daughter's hand a little tighter and stared into her blue eyes that matched her dress, eventually finding himself nodding. Most of the time he had trouble saying no to her, and this was just such an occasion. It wasn't that he had favourites. He loved his children equally, but Rachel and he had an easy rapport that went back to the days when he and her Mother had first started dating, and they'd bonded over their nightly cartoon-watching sessions. Along with his own wedding day and the afternoon at the hospital when Gabe had finally called him Dad, getting the notification that the adoption had gone through, and she was legally his daughter was probably one of the proudest and happiest days of his life.

"Alright, but I probably won't need it."

"And that's ok." She smiled warmly at him and then glanced up at her Mom. "You two better play nice today. Joe's already nervous as hell with Aunt Julia breathing down his neck about everything being perfect. The last thing he needs is you two creating an atmosphere if you're fighting."

"I think I prefer them fighting to flirting." Gabe cut in, instantly fielding a look from his big sister that silently told him to keep his mouth shut. Taking the hint, he got to his feet. "I'll go and put that chair in the car."

Awkwardly he ambled out of the house, leaving the three remaining family still bristling a little after the heated exchange.

"We'll behave," House said warmly, kissing the back of Rachel's hand as she got up and glancing at his wife apologetically, before turning his attention back to his daughter. "You look really beautiful, Rach."

"I look distinctly average." Looking down at herself, she grimaced a little and felt her Mom's arm wrap around her shoulder.

"Your Dad's right. Our little girl does look beautiful."

"I'm hardly little anymore," she laughed, shaking her head at both of them and determining to give them some space to clear the air. "I'm going to go out and sit in the car. We need to go in a couple of minutes if we're going to be there on time."

"We'll follow you in a sec."

As she closed the front door behind her, House held his hand out for Cuddy to pull him up and creakily stood up, grinning cheekily and soliciting a smirk from his wife. Affectionately her arms circled him.

"I didn't mean to upset you… I just…"

"Don't like me to be in any more pain than I need to be," he said softly, allowing his eyes to sweep her up and down. Of course she'd aged in the years since they'd been together, fresh lines had started to grace both their faces, but that didn't stop her taking his breath away sometimes when he looked at her. Pushing sixty, Lisa Cuddy could still put most women half her age to shame. "The only thing that's going to make this wedding bearable is having this gorgeous woman by my side all day."

"So the free food and alcohol won't help at all?"

"There are only three things that are going to make this wedding bearable…"

Cuddy snorted and nodded towards the door.

"We'd better get going before they drive off without us."

In slightly disgusted fascination House and Rachel sat side by side at one table, and looked across the reception room to see Gabe veraciously sucking his girlfriend's face off, as the other guests alternated between the dance floor and the bar.

"There's a serious danger of him getting brain damage if he doesn't come up for air soon. We might have to stage an intervention, and crowbar them apart." Glancing to his left, House saw the slight smirk on his daughter's face and frowned. Usually she'd guffaw if he made a joke at her brother's expense, but no such luck this time. She hadn't been herself for days now, and it pained him to see her in such distress. "You don't have to sit here with me." He pointed towards Cuddy, who was happily dancing with one of the bride's elderly, male relatives. "Even your Mom's ditched me, and found a replacement. Go and enjoy yourself!"

"In the last two weeks I got rejected from vet school, and I found out my boyfriend was cheating on me," she retorted dryly. "I'm not really in the mood to go and enjoy myself right now, Dad."

"The offer's still there for me to go and kneecap that bastard." Regarding her with a raised eyebrow, he patted the arm rest on his wheelchair that he'd been begrudgingly forced to rely on after the service. He was half serious. When she'd first come home and told them in floods of tears about walking in on her ex with someone else, he'd been all for tearing him apart limb by limb, but then common sense had prevailed. That didn't stop the flashes of anger though. "Or I could do a hit and run in this thing. Just tie him at the bottom of a steep slope, and I'll get some speed up from the top. Disabled people may look harmless, but under the right circumstances…"

Much to his relief, this time she did laugh; the same delightful sound leaving her mouth as when she was ten and her, Gabe and House used to have three-way staring competitions at the dining table. Every single time she was the first one to crack, her body doubling over in laughter as the other two continued the battle of wills.

"As great as that sounds right now, I'd prefer to forget Paul ever existed."

"I never thought he was good enough for you anyway."

Rachel chuckled.

"You'll never think anybody is good enough for me. Mom's the same with Gabe… Every time she looks at Helen she goes into dragon mode, because she thinks she's leading her little boy astray, In reality it's probably the other way round… Neither of us are kids anymore."

"There are worse things than being protective."

Sensing he was a little hurt, she placed her hand on top of his and smiled at him knowingly. As she'd gotten older they'd talked more and more. Pieces of his past came together like a patchwork quilt until one night, when she was home from college, he'd told her about the abuse he'd suffered at the hands of the man he'd regarded as his Father. Appalled that anyone was capable of that, it had made her appreciate her parents all the more, because no matter how much her Mom nagged her, or House tried to embarrass her in front of her friends, there was no question in her mind that she was loved regardless of the lack of a biological connection.

"I know, Dad."

"There are other vet schools you can apply to."

"My grades aren't good enough."

"You can go back and retake exams."

"I was working flat out," she sighed, remembering all the nights of fruitless revision. "I'm not Gabe. I can't just sail through exams without even trying… I'm not even sure it's what I want to do anymore anyway. I don't want to always be the one playing catch-up while everybody else gets things straight away, and I sure as hell don't enjoy feeling like an idiot all the time… Maybe I should just settle for a job in an office like everybody else."

"I don't like the idea of my daughter settling for anything."

She shrugged.

"People do."

Still not happy with her answer, House pursed his lips thoughtfully.

"If you could do anything, what would you do?"

Pondering his question, she stayed silent for moment or two and then looked at him a little nervously.

"One of my friends majored in psychology. I used to read her textbooks all the time, and they made way more sense to me than my biology and math ones… I guess if I could do anything I wanted, I'd hop back in a time machine and do a different course."

"What about after that? If you'd majored in psychology?"

"I guess I'd have started to look into graduate courses to train to be a therapist."

In spite of himself, House snorted.

"Did your Mom and I do that to you?"

"See!" she exclaimed. "Not even you take me seriously… It's stupid!"

"I was joking!... I've been to some therapists in my time, and you'd kick all their asses."

"You have to say that. You're my Dad."

With her unease plain to see, House squeezed her hand tightly. If Rachel had one fault, it was her lack of belief in herself. Time and time again she underestimated her talents, much to his and Cuddy's annoyance and distress. She was every bit as gifted as the other members of her family, but her skills necessarily weren't academic in the traditional sense.

"It's the truth… Your brother might be able to sail through exams, but most of the time he's oblivious to everybody else. He doesn't do it on purpose. He just gets so wrapped up in his own problems that he forgets everybody else exists. I've been there, done that… You, on the other hand, are like your Mom. You worry about everyone and everything, and you can read people better than I can…. You're also the best listener I have ever met. You'd make an amazing therapist."

"Even if I would be good at it, it's all irrelevant now. I've done my four years at college, and I can't afford to go back again."

"We'd help out," he countered without giving it a second thought. Between his consultancy work and Cuddy's Deanship at PPTH, they'd amassed a healthy amount of rainy day money.

"You guys have already done enough."

"Like it or not, you and Casanova over there are always going to be our money-draining, annoying, little brats, and we're cool with that… We just want you to be happy, and if that means parting with some more cash then we'll do it."

A couple of minutes ticked by as her brow creased, deep in thought, the possibility making her re-consider her options.

"My friend wants to do her graduate study in England. She's already asked me if I wanted to go with her… I could look into doing a conversion course there."

"England?... They drive on the wrong side of the road there."

She bit her lip pensively.

"It's a bad idea, isn't it?"

"I think it's a great excuse for your Mom and I to hop on a plane and use you as an excuse for a holiday a few times a year."

"Mom would freak out if I moved abroad."

"Just your Mom? I'm freaking out, but we'd both calm down eventually… Let's get tonight out of the way, and we'll talk about it more tomorrow." Spotting his brother-in-law sat on his own at another table, House glanced in the direction of the dance floor and saw Cuddy's sister drunkenly fawning over one of her son's friends. "In the meantime you should ask your Uncle Mike to dance. It looks like your Aunt Julia has kicked him to the kerb in favour of someone half his age."

Not exactly enthusiastic about the idea, Rachel grimaced at him.

"Do I have to?"

"It's a wedding. Get drunk and dance like a maniac!"

"Are you sure you'll be ok on your own?"

"I'm a big boy," he responded with a glint in his eye. "In fact if you ask your Mom…"

Instantly she got to her feet, and held her hands up indicating for him to stop.

"Ok! Ok! I'm going!" Quickly her disdain dissipated, and her features softened. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Bending down to peck him on the cheek, his daughter grinned at him, and then walked away, soon leading her Uncle to where the other guests were dancing. Grabbing his beer from the table, House eyed the people around him for a couple of minutes and then saw his wife excuse herself at the end of a song and wander back towards him, her unusually unsteady gait signalling that she was a little worse for wear. As she slumped down in the chair next to him, he grinned at her like the cat that had got the cream.

"Hey, handsome!" Attempting to rest her chin in the palm of her hand, she missed the first time, but quickly recovered.

"Oh drunk Cuddy is my favourite Cuddy!"

Genuinely confused, she raised an eyebrow at him.

"I thought slightly angry and aroused Cuddy was your favourite."

He shrugged, more than a little amused that she was being so pedantic over something so trivial.

"It varies. I guess you could say I'm fickle."

Her train of thought quickly moving elsewhere, she looked him up and down and licked her lips.

"You really do look good today."

"Even I can scrub up well if I make the effort."

"You looked amazing on our wedding day too. Even my Mom was impressed."

"To be honest, I was surprised your Mom didn't make a pass at me back then," he threw back glibly. "There was a lot of sexual tension between us that day."

Fending off a playful tap from his wife, House realised how much he actually missed the old battle axe. A heart attack had seen her off the year before, and amongst other things he missed his mean poker adversary.

"She liked you. A lot in the end… She knew how happy you made me and the kids."

"Mine felt the same about you too… I'm glad Rachel and Gabe got that time with her." The kids had grown to love her, and his misgivings about her as a grandparent had turned out to be unfounded. She'd doted on them, and he'd been thankful for that.

"I'm glad you got that time too," Cuddy said softly, lacing her fingers through his and watching him try in vain to disguise his fleeting sadness.

Blythe had died in her sleep roughly four years after moving to Princeton. In the first few days after it had happened he'd appeared to take it in his stride, focusing on the kids and making all the necessary arrangements, but then he'd insisted on going to clear out her apartment on his own. Hours later he's walked into back into their home, and woke Cuddy up. Immediately she knew something was wrong. He was shaking and there was that tell-tale, glazed over look in his eyes. When she finally managed to prize his hand open, her worst fears were confirmed, and there in his palm was a prescription bottle of Vicodin he'd taken from his Mom's apartment. The fear emanating from him had made her spring into action, and grabbing the bottle, she'd quickly flushed the remaining pills down the toilet; then pulled him into bed next to her and held him tightly as he apologised over and over again.

That had been the one and only time he'd relapsed. Oddly, it had helped them both put the threat of him going back on the drug into perspective. No longer was it the wolf at the door threatening to attack and ruin what they had. Together, they were bigger and better than the sum of their faults, and that one solitary blip was confirmation of that fact. He'd always be an addict, but first and foremost he was a husband and father. Never again would they allow themselves to lose sight of that.

"I think we're nearly the oldest ones here," House mused, deliberately changing the subject.

"Speak for yourself!"

"Face it, Grandma! We got old."

"I can't believe it's already been twelve years," she shot back honestly. "It seems like yesterday that we were tucking the kids in bed. Now they're grown up and tucking themselves into bed with other people." Distractedly she glanced at her son, who was once again playing tonsil hockey with Helen, and frowned. Noting her dismay, House gently clasped her chin and forced her to look back at him. Straight away she knew something was on his mind. "What's up?"

He took a deep breath and let the air filter out of his lungs slowly.

"I want you to promise me something."

"Anything… Within reason."

"Whatever happens I don't want you to become my nursemaid. I want you to stay as my wife."

"Part of being your wife means I get to look after you."

"That's got to stay two-way traffic," he responded definitively. "When my leg gets really bad, I don't want you to be the one who deals with all the bullshit that comes with it all the time… I know when I get stuck in this chair permanently I'm going to be invisible to everybody else, but I don't want to disappear for you too… I won't let that happen."

"You seriously think you could be invisible to me?" It actually seemed ludicrous to her. From the moment they'd met, if anything she was guilty of tunnel vision when it came to him. Whenever House was in a room with her, whether she was happy, sad, or mad with him, everybody else seemed to melt away and there was only them. His disability worsening definitely wasn't going to change that. Nothing would. "We've been through a lot. More than most… Whatever's thrown at us in the future, we'll cope."

As his eyes burned into hers, she saw the front he put on for other people cracking, and his innate vulnerability peeking through.

"I want twelve more years. At least… I never dreamt I'd want this, but I want to live long enough to see our kids have kids."

"You really think I'd let you go before we share that?" Stroking his cheek, she leant in and kissed him, then rested her head on his shoulder, luxuriating in the feel of him wrapping his arm around her. "You know, you're the reason we're here today."

"I'm pretty sure you were the one who replied to the invitation."

"I meant if you hadn't saved Joe's life all those years ago," she elaborated, making her husband roll his eyes.

"As I've told you about a million times before, Chase would have got there in the end."

"You don't know that for sure… There must hundreds of people out there who got to fall in love and get married because you saved them."

"You really are drunk," he snorted.

"I'm serious… You must think about that sometimes. All the lives you altered, and not just for the people who were sick. Family and friends too."

"Sometimes." He had to admit that he had on occasion. Sometimes the people he couldn't save haunted him too, but he had to weigh that up with the greater good that he had done. There were people out there right now who were able to live their lives because he'd given them that gift, and he couldn't help but feel satisfied with that. He'd done some terrible things, but that had to count for something. It wasn't as if he was solely responsible for that triumph though. Each one of his fellows had contributed in their own way, as had Wilson, often without even realising he had. The woman currently curled into him was responsible in no small part too. "None of that would have happened without you giving me a job in the first place… I also like to think your outrageous work outfits were a constant source of inspiration. We'll never know exactly how many lives Patty and Selma saved."

Craning her neck back to look up at him, she narrowed her eyes and gave him a lop-sided smirk.

"We had our moments. Bad, terrible moments, but most of the time we made a good team."

House nodded, one corner of his own mouth turning upwards.

"Yeah, we did."

"Fancy stealing a bottle of champagne and heading to our room?... You might not want me to be your nursemaid, but I'm guessing massages aren't off the table."

"You guessed right," he responded without missing a beat.

"Think we should tell the kids?"

Looking around the room, Gabe was still in the same place he'd been for most of the night, he and his girlfriend looking at each other all misty-eyed, meanwhile Rachel finally seemed to be enjoying herself with one of her younger cousins, allowing the seventeen year old to twirl her around in time with the music, a beaming grin plastered across her face as they joked and danced.

"I'm not sure they'd even notice that we're gone."

Satisfied with his answer, Cuddy pulled herself out from under his arm and got up a little shakily, steadying herself with the back of his wheelchair, and taking off the brake with her foot.

"You want me drive this thing, or are you going to do the honours?"

"What if a cop comes along and asks if you've been drinking? We'll have to swap places and pretend I was driving all along."

"That's hilarious, House." Leaning his head back to look at her, he fluttered his eyelashes at her angelically, soliciting a snort from her. "Am I doing this or not?"

After a nod from him, she started wheeling him towards the exit and out into the ground floor lobby, then pressed the button on the elevator and waited.

"Now that you're not working anymore, I'm warming to the idea of my own personal wheelchair chauffeur."

"You might want to rethink that when I tip you out of this thing, and face plant you on the bed."

"Is that foreplay?" he asked as they got into the empty elevator, watching her giggle in the mirror at the joke. "That sounds a lot like foreplay."