Disclaimer: Don't own anything, not getting any money, just borrowing the snarky one, ducklings, Wilson and Cuddy. I'll return them before their next show, even if I'm not finished with this.

Author's Note: Okay, so, I'm having a bit of a problem with 'Bringing Up Baby'. Writer's block sucks ass. I'm taking a hint from my buddy Fen and working on another story. I don't know exactly how this is going to turn out, or what exactly it's going to entail. I just know that, hopefully, you'll all like it.

Three years could really change a place and a person. That's what Allison thought as she drove down the streets of Princeton, New Jersey. It felt like so much more time had passed than just three years. Some of her favorite restaurants were gone, replaced by new ones or new businesses. Even her old apartment complex was different. The outside of the building had changed colors, the parking lot was arranged differently, there was a shed for the cars to park under, even the landscaping was different.

Even the roads looked different, but she knew they were. She'd kept in touch with her friends from PPTH, Foreman, Chase, Wilson, even House, and to a small point, Cuddy. Not much had changed with any of them.

Wilson had married again. Just a month shy of a year, and it seemed like the fourth time was the charm. Allison had tried to get time off to go to the wedding, but she hadn't been able to. From what she'd heard from everyone else, Jessica was everything Wilson needed. She even got along with House as much as anyone could.

Foreman was married too. He and his bride, Melissa, were still on their honeymoon. He'd even left PPTH and gotten a job at another hospital where he'd become the head of the Neurology department.

Chase was in a relationship as well. He and his girlfriend, Alice, were even expecting a baby boy.

Cuddy finally got her baby just over a year ago. She'd adopted a little girl, Maya. From what Allison understood, Maya's mother was a junkie who'd come into the clinic for a pregnancy test. Then she'd set up an appointment to have an abortion. Cuddy had talked her out of it and taken care of everything so that she could adopt the baby when she was born.

And House…well, House was still House. He still walked with a cane, was still snarky, still ditched clinic duty and still made nurses cry. He had, though, gone through rehab one more time about a year ago. He'd undergone a procedure involving cool laser therapy. It hadn't given him back any lost thigh muscle, but it had taken 99 of his pain and lessened his scar. It had also lessened how much he used his cane. For what little pain he did have left, an over-the-counter pain reliever took care of it. Allison knew all of this because they'd gotten closer since she'd moved away.

It was odd how things changed. While she lived in Princeton and tried to get him to see that she loved him, they had nothing. Then when she moved to L.A. and decided to be just his friend, they got along great. Better than great, really.

Even Allison herself had changed. She'd gone to the west coast and had somehow morphed into a new person in very little time. She'd only been there two months when she'd started a whirlwind relationship with the head of the Oncology department at the new hospital. Before the end of the year she'd become Mrs. Dr. Kirk Jenson. She'd found him cheating on her not six months into the marriage and two years later they were still going through the divorce.

Thinking back to the previous year, some sort of conference in Vegas, Allison sighs. Wilson had been single at the time, and they were both drinking heavily while they caught up. His hand on her knee had turned into his hand massaging her thigh and her hand resting on his shoulder had turned into her hand gripping his neck in a fiery kiss. They'd both woken up hung over, but oddly satisfied. She'd told him not to worry about it, that she didn't regret it and he shouldn't either. To this day she didn't think he'd told House what had happened in Vegas that weekend.

After a few turns that take her down a few residential streets, she stops in front of a very good looking home. The front lawn is well manicured and has very green grass and a beautiful dogwood tree near the home itself.

"This is definitely not something I'd have expected for him," she says to herself as she pulls up into the driveway.

Just as she's getting out, she sees the garage starting to open up and smiles, then goes to hug the cane wielding man inside.

"The prodigal duckling returns!" he says, grinning as he hugs her, one hand resting on the small of her back, the other patting it. At that moment she letts herself dare to hope that coming back to Princeton, back to House, wasn't the biggest mistake of her life. No, she almost knew that leaving had been the biggest mistake, but this could wind up being the second biggest.

Author's note: http://users.med.auth.gr/karanik/english/vet/laser1.htm A friend of mine told me about the cool laser therapy one day when we were RPing.