To say that she was disappointed that she never saw a cane carrying, sharp-tongued man dominating the free bar at her wedding would be an understatement. The day was about her and Chase, but somehow, his presence would have offered some sort of closure, she could have been reassured if he had been there to see her walk down the aisle to her new life, to her groom, to his former duckling, that he had no problem with her moving beyond everything that had defined her before.
No longer was she the young woman who had given her heart to a dying man, no longer was she the damaged soul who needed to help people to fill in the holes that were still there, no longer was she the hopeless schoolgirl chasing after the boy that everyone knew was bad news. It would be a lie to say that she had no interest in House anymore, because what had drawn her to him in the first place was still there, his brilliance and his insight, was still there, and he was still broken, still damaged, crippled, alone, helpless, and to say that she no longer wanted to help him out of the chasm he had let himself fall into would also be a lie.
She was still inevitably driven by the messiah complex; she worked long and hard to save people because she felt that that was what she needed to do. And yes, part of saving people involved caring about people who didn't want it, and she knew now that that was where her infatuation with him had began. He wasn't there that day though, and to see his arrogant, smirking face as she promised herself to a man for the rest of her life for the second time in her life, would have made the day that much better. She knew he didn't like weddings, or any large gathering of Homo sapiens for that matter, but she felt that somehow, he would have wanted to be there, just to see the event taking place, the union of two people he had worked with for so many years, the cementing of a relationship that had been through a lot.
He wasn't there though, and neither was his 'better half', no jokes during an impromptu toast, no seeing Wilson peel him off of a barstool out of the corner of her eye, just a nice sunny wedding, with nice, sunny guests. And it was the best day of her life, but if there was one thing that she had learned working in the diagnostics fellowship, it was that the worst could always get worst, and in turn, the best could always get better.
But as she laid next to her husband, on that glowing Tuesday morning, the day after the wedding, the morning after an amazing wedding night with her lover, she found herself wondering just why House hadn't been there, and when she did find out, days later, it was with the same husband that she cried, and she knew that even though that old compulsion to help the grumpy old man made her want to drive over to Mayfield and tell him that it was okay, that nothing would change and he would be fine, after everything he had been through, she knew now that he was finally beyond her help, and she was finally beyond her pathetic infatuation. It wasn't her place to worry about him anymore, and so she cried as a friend, not as his savior. As reality reached the final stages of sinking in, she looked across the kitchen table at her husband, and asked him to pass the marmalade.