"We give him a syringe full of morphine." Chase said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world earning him some odd looks from his co-fellows.

They had just done a long and full stress test on their patient Ezra Powell and in doing so almost killed him, which he'd expressed no objection what so ever. In fact the old man was all for it.

"Every doctor I've ever practiced with has done it." The Australian continued. "They don't want to, they don't like to, but that's the way it is."

"I haven't, I won't." Foreman said definitely shaking his head.

"I couldn't do it either." Cameron agreed in a timid voice.

House continued mixing his coffee listening intently to the conversation of his underlings but staying out of it for now.

"You just said we should respect his decision." Chase exclaimed incredulous.

"Respect it doesn't necessarily mean we honour it." She replied diplomatically.

"Right. Just means we talk about it." he snarked not unlike his boss would have. He paused for a moment, "At some point, do no harm has to mean allowing nature to take its course, not stubbornly standing in the way of it."

"Sticking a metal syringe into a plastic I.V. line and pumping in a lethal dose of morphine is not letting nature take its course. Not according to the state of New Jersey." Forman argued.

"So its better we allow him to slowly suffocate in his own plasma?" Cameron countered.

"Whose side are you on, senator?" Foreman snapped. "First respect his wishes, then invade Iraq, then get the troops home. Make up your mind."

"Wow." House said in a distinctly unimpressed tone. "Certainly a lot of interesting things to consider. Stress EKG rules out the heart, which means something's gotta be attacking his lungs. Mycoplasmas or strep pneumo, which probably means it's too late to do anything about it. We could try levofloxacin."

"Coming up with a new treatment isn't gonna do us any good unless we convince him it's worth trying." Cameron stated.

"Oh, come on. He's old, and sick, and tiny. We can do whatever we want to him." House said almost evilly.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

"Well go check on the little old man and find out if your moral dilemma has solved itself." House said shooing them out.

House sighed and disappeared back into his office coffee cup still in hand. This case was going to be a bitch even with out the moral crap of the patient wanting to die even his ducklings were already twittering on about whether it was right or wrong. The truth was even he didn't know. Did anyone? He sympathised with Cameron somewhat as she struggled to follow her own morals and help the patient and torn between the strong opinions of her colleagues. He sighed softly and slumped into his chair then closed his eyes in deep thought. It might strike most people and even he as odd but he wanted to help her for an instant. But how could he? He needed help himself.

"Hello Gregory."

House's eyes sprung open and he frowned deeply. "Who are you and how the hell did you get in here?" He asked as his eyes moved warily over the tallish African American man in a grey suit and overcoat, a smiliarly colored hat turning in his hands.

"How in the heaven you might say." The dark man said with a wide smile.

"Okay bucko back to the phsyc ward with you."

"Oh I'm not a patient. I'm an angel." He said with that smile still on his face.

"Riiight." House said disbelieving as he stood. "NURSE!" he shouted standing.

"Don't do this Gregory." the angel warned.

"NURSE! Get this mentalist out of my office!" He shouted as he saw a short woman in pink scrubs approaching his door.

"Gregory only you can see and hear me." the angel stated.

"Unless you've finally decided to have yourself committed Dr House I'll leave and ask you to stop wasting my time." she growled and left stomping her feet slightly.

House felt shocked and horrified.

"Oh shit... I'm insane." He murmured pressing his hand to his forehead.

"Gregory you're not insane. I told you I'm an angel." The grey clothed figure said as he approached. "My name is Dudley." He said extending his hand.

"How am I supposed to shake your hand if you're not real?"

"I am real. I am real to you and those whom I've been charged to protect on this visit but it all comes down to you Gregory. They might not be able to see me... but they'll know the affects of me being here through you."

House sighed. "We'll you certainly don't sound like any part of my sub-conscious. I'd never say anything that sappy." he said reluctantly reaching for the angel's hand.

The dark warm hand wrapped around his.

House frowned staring down at their joined hands; it felt like his whole body was singing. Heavenly singing.

He pulled his hand away. " Dudley?"

"Yes, that is my name." He said with a kind smile.

"You said you were an angel?"

"That's correct."

"Why are you here?" House asked nervously.

The angel's smile fell slightly and he became very serious. "You have an important decision to make. I'm here to aid you."

"It's about Powell isn't it?" House said perceptively.

"Perhaps." Dudley said vaguely.

House sighed and hobbled out of his office towards his patient's room. Dudley followed him stepping through the glass.


House struggled, trying to force the tube into his patient's mouth. One more law suit wasn't going to hurt.

"Stop!" Foreman shouted rushing over his voice merging with the cry if his guardian angel.

"House, you're hurting him." Cameron said with her hands on his shoulder trying to pull him away.

"You're hurting me." It was a lie. He doubted if Cameron's beautiful hands were even capable of hurting someone. He could practically feel Dudley smirking and he wondered if the angel had the ability to read his thoughts. He turned back to Powell and spoke in a threatening tone. "Fine; you don't help us, we don't help you. Your lungs slowly fill with fluid. You gasp to catch every breath but never can. Every breath is petrifying. It'll be slow, painful; torturous."

"We don't choose our birth, and we don't choose our death." the skeletal figure argued back.

"What if you could?" He glanced at the angel wondering it this was the decision. "How 'bout we make a deal? Give me one more day. If I don't find out exactly what's wrong with you by then, I help you die."

"House." Cameron murmured. Her voice cut him slightly. In the corner of his eye he could see his angel smirking before he disappeared.

Was that it? The decision made, his hallucinated angel gone?

"24 hours. Come on, it's not gonna kill you." he said in an almost soft voice to his patient.

Powell laughed heartlessly and nodded making a deal with his executioner.


Greg went home and after tossing a frozen pizza into the oven he slumped into the couch with a large scotch in hand as he thought over the events of the day. It was certainly stranger than most.

Dudley, he thought before laughing slightly, as if a God he didn't believe in would send an angel to help him.

"Who say's I'm here to help you?" Dudley said appearing before him.

"Jesus Christ!" House exclaimed as he jumped slightly at the angel's sudden and unexpected arrival.

"No, not really." Dudley said with a smile as he took off his hat and coat, making it vanish as soon as it left his fingertips before he sat next to House.

"I thought you were gone!"

"I appeared to leave but I'm never really gone."

"Oh great, now you start with the "I can see you when you're sleeping" crap. Go watch a woman strip or something and stop bothering me." House snapped.

"You think we actually bother with clothes in heaven?" Dudley said with a smirk.

"You're kidding?!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah I am but the look on your face!" He said laughing heartily.

Some silence passed between them.

"I thought it was done." House stated as he sipped his scotch. "I managed to get him to agree to tests maybe I can cure him."

"It's not that simple." the angel said with a sigh.

"Can't you tell me what's wrong with him?" House asked.

"No I can't... it's not why I'm here."

"Yeah, yeah you're here to help me make a decision I know." he sighed. "What decision?"

"I'll tell you when the time is right. In the meantime though your pizza is cooked to perfection and I haven't eaten in 2 centuries." Dudley said standing and retrieving the pizza.

House frowned slightly but decided not to question the angel's appetite. "How can I be sure you're really an angel?"

"You mean besides walking through walls and that music when I shake your hand?"

"Yeah, I want ... I want proof."

"How do you know when you're in love?" Dudley said softly as he cut the pizza and then picked at the stray globs of melted cheese that were stuck to the baking tray.

"What?"

"How do you know when you're in love? Do you have proof of that? Do you even understand what love is?" The angel asked.

"But..." House stammered.

"Exactly. Love exists and yet no one can really explain it or quantify it. And yet it's real. You feel its effects when you look into your lovers eyes, when you hold them, watch them sleep and take that first step and say "I love you" for the first time. I'm real. Love is real. Though you'd know little about that." he said as he opened the fridge and retrieved two beers.

"What do you...?" He said confused.

"You've never really been in love so I don't really expect you to believe in me." He said as he sat beside him once more.

"What do you mean never been in love? I loved Stacy."

"But did you give her your whole heart? Did you sacrifice yourself to her entirely? No... That's what love is giving everything you have to give and expecting nothing in return."

House sobered slightly and reached for a slice. After less than half the pizza was gone he lost his appetite and went to bed and tried to sleep, unable to think about anything other than how true Dudley's words were.


24 hours had passed and they had nothing. Sweet fuck all.

Powell was going to die and it would be at his hand. The whole team entered the dead man's room; House glanced to the corner and saw the silent figure that now seemed to haunt his life.

"Whole team. Must…" Powell coughed violently in a way that made it all too easy to wince in sympathy. "…be bad news."

"Nope. Bone marrow biopsy revealed multiple myeloma." House lied fluidly. He needed more time. He wanted to solve his puzzle and he wasn't ready to kill a man yet. "It's not good news, but there are some treatments. We have to draw some blood…."

Cameron stared at House wondering what his plan was.

"What about my breathing?" Powell asked with a glance in Cameron's direction.

"Associated hyperviscosity syndrome; gummed up the blood vessels in your lungs."

"Dr. Chase said my calcium is normal."

"Mm. We call him Dr. Idiot." Behind him he could feel his team shifting.

"There's no M-protein in my urine."

"Odd presentation." He was clutching at straws here. Doctors really did make the worst patients.

"So odd that Dr. Cameron doesn't believe it either." Powell answered.

House turned and glared at Cameron. She had to care didn't she? She cared so god damned much, he thought angrily.

Out of the corner of his eyes he could see Dudley smiling once more in that almost patronizing but more parental as if watching him grow up. It made House's body tingle and his skin crawl.

"Just give me 12 more hours." He pleaded turning back to Powell. He needed more time.

"We had a deal. No more tests."

"Fair enough. Give me six more hours." House bartered as he watched his patient purse his lips in a manner that screamed he wasn't about to change his mind. "Listen; there is no evidence that you are terminal." He continued.

"You a man of your word or not?"

"No, as a matter of fact, I'm not." He answered in all seriousness. No one could trust him.

"Fine. Then discharge me." Powell demanded.

House sighed softly and glanced at the angel wondering why he couldn't help him.

"My lungs will slowly fill with fluid," Powell continued saying his own words back to him, "I'll gasp to catch every breath, but never can. Every breath will be petrifying. It'll be slow, painful; torturous. You really gonna let me die like that?"

He turned and shot a look at Dudley as if to say "are you?"

The angel stayed silent a small enigmatic smile on his lips.

House left the room filled with anger and frustration at both life and death.


Enough time for talking now was the time for action. He strode into Powell's room and shut the door behind him as he set his cane on the bed and rolled out a small medical kit, glistening needles and a vial of clear liquid staring up at him.

The ducklings followed him into the room loyally.

"Everybody who can walk should get outta here." he said selecting his weapon. Out of the corner of his eyes he could see Dudley looking over him with a dark look in his eyes.

"You can't do that." Cameron said softly.

"Can't do what? Administer a prescription painkiller to a patient who's in pain? Go." he said to her. She didn't need to be implicated in this. "Make sure somebody sees you downstairs in the cafeteria."

Nor did she have to see him become a killer he thought with his eyes pouring into hers.

He turned away from her and began to fill the syringe.

"I can't let you do this." Foreman said defiantly.

"Either I die in pain or I just die; that's what the argument is here." Ezra gasped between words.

"No it's about whether you die or we murder you." Foreman continued in his sure tone.

"What's gonna happen here is that someone's getting a butt-load of morphine." House said waving the syringe around slightly menacingly. "I'm not sure exactly who at this point."

Foreman left in silence after glaring at House one last time.

"I can't be a part of this." Cameron said softly, her eyes scanning him one last time as if memorizing him before he became a murderer.

House held back his sigh as he watched her go before his eyes turned on Chase. He watched as the blonde moved to the door and closed it before shutting the blinds.

An accessory, House thought. He's always been one. But he felt better knowing he wouldn't be doing this alone.

The heat and feel of the angel's glare was anything but comforting. Maybe this wasn't what he was supposed do. Maybe this wasn't his great decision.

"Thank you." The skeletal figure murmured from the bed. House nodded in reply. "I've always wondered exactly what was on the other side."

House looked over at the angel who shook his head. Radiating babies didn't get you into heaven it seems. "Nothing." He answered and then injected the morphine into Powell's IV securing his own passage to hell. Alarms blaze in all there glory announcing the demise of the man before them. House and Chase stand there solemnly for a few moments; Dudley meanwhile is shivering, a tear pouring down his cheek.

"Greg." the anguished angel whispered.

Everything was all wrong; House knew that the instant the angel spoke glancing at his watch he saw there was enough time and instantly moved to the old man's aid pulling the bed from the wall so he could work

"What are you doing?" Chase exclaimed.

"Getting a laryngoscope. Don't just stand there, help." He said a little frantically.

"But you told him…"

"Yeah. A little something I like to call a lie." He lied again. "Bad I know, but its way further down the list than murder." He said already feeling the warmth of the angel's presence once more now that death was gone from the room. "He's unconscious. No more whining. I'm going to keep testing him." House decided feeling at this time it would be the best course of action. "Go get a ventilator, I'm not gonna do this all night." He snapped at the blonde.

Chase shook of his confusion and then slipped out to follow his boss's orders.

House looked over at Dudley fully now that the room was empty but for them. "So, I'm not supposed to kill him then?"

"No."

"And he's not going to heaven?" House asked continuing to pump life into the old ma.

"Lord no… you've read his research? That was only what was published. There was more still after that. No, his sins were too numerous for even the Lord God himself to invite him into heaven."

"So what does it matter if he dies?! God obviously doesn't care about him so what is the problem?"

"The problem is your soul not his; yours and those close to you which is why I am here." Dudley said softly.

"You're saying I'm worse than him? That my soul needs more help?" House asked fearfully as he nodded to Ezra.

"No what I'm saying is that it can still be saved."