The hooded figure moved closer and closer and House wondered if he was finally dying.

Then the creature flipped off its hood. It was Kutner.

Amber burst out laughing at the immaturity of her former coworker. Kutner grinned sheepishly in return and the two spirits met in an embrace.

"I thought you hated each other," House mumbled.

"Contrary to popular belief, I do have a soul," Amber retorted. "I helped him out when he first passed. Really, please do explain the Grim Reaper outfit?"

"Just to watch the expression on House's face," Kutner shrugged.

Amber smiled. "See you later." She turned to House. "See you…hopefully much later." She pirouetted and then she was gone.

While House stared at his feet, Kutner grinned a goofy grin.

"So uh, ready to go?"

"I figure at this point, 'no' is not an option, right?"

"Bingo, Dr. House."

Kutner grabbed House's shoulder forcefully and they were gone in a flash.


"Ow!" House said with a glare towards Kutner. "You really need more practice with this stuff."

"Not my fault. Andie did something like this with her mom, John did it with your mom, and Amber did it with Wilson. This is my first time being a ghost at all. But especially the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. Speaking of which, you'd better come with me."

They were in a graveyard.

Now House was pretty smart. He knew where this was going and obviously he was the one that was dead. Surely Kutner was just there to show him that and that there were like, oh, only three mourners or whatever.

Surprisingly, he was only partially right.


He walked up behind Wilson, delivering a eulogy in front of a good fifty people. There were tears in a lot of eyes, including the eyes of some people that he didn't like and shouldn't have liked him in return.

Wilson's voice was sad and sweet:

"But he was more than just a brilliant diagnostician. It may be hard for some of you to believe, but he was an extremely loyal friend. He would have done just about anything for his friends—he even sacrificed his life on more than one occasion to help me and even his employees. To me, he was irreplaceable, even when I thought I couldn't bear him anymore.

"But perhaps an even greater bond existed between Dr. House and Dr. Cuddy. Friends since college…"

House nudged Kutner in the ribs.

"Where's Cameron? I figured she'd have a front row blubbering seat."

Kutner sighed. "After Chase kicked Cameron out for not being able to let go of you, she went completely missing. She left resignation papers on Cuddy's desk and was gone in the blink of an eye. No one, not even her parents have any idea where she is."

"You must know."

"I'm afraid I don't know."

"Oh."

"But I can show her to you," Kutner said and with his fingers traced a small projection in front of House's eyes.

The projection showed what seemed to be an average living room in an average apartment. House looked for any signs that would point out where the apartment was, but could find none. His eyes traveled to the woman in the projection, a slightly aged version of Cameron reading an obituary.

World Class New Jersey Diagnostician, Dr. Gregory House, Dead at 62

"That's all I live to be, huh?" House mused.

The woman crumples up the obituary and downs a large sip of liquor before collapsing on the couch.

"That's enough," House said quietly, and brought his gaze back to Wilson, who, for some reason, was still talking about him and Cuddy.

"Their friendship was simply so strong, that it seems that one couldn't live without the other," Wilson finished.

House, confused, looked at Kutner. "Take a closer look," the spirit ordered him.

He walked past Wilson, so that he was standing just as any other member of the crowd. For the first time, he realized that the tearstained Wilson was not standing in front of one grave, but two.

"No," House said.

"I'm afraid so," Kutner responded. "By the time you turned sixty, you started to find that your mind wasn't as sharp as it used to be. Four days before this funeral, you lost a patient. The problem was, it was the second patient in a row that died."

"That's never happened to me before," House mused.

"Exactly. I guess it made you snap, because you finally overdosed on the Vicodin."

"I quit Vicodin."

"Because no one ever relapses? Anyway, it was Cuddy that found you. At least, she was the first to find you. The second to find you was Wilson. The poor man—walked into an apartment to find two dead bodies on the floor."

"Why would she kill herself? When I was with Amber, at that party, she said she was going to move on."

Kutner looked at him silently. Shuffling his feet on the ground, he responded icily, "Everybody lies."

That was the statement that broke Gregory House.


Staring at a college picture of a young Lisa and Greg wrapped in a friendly embrace, the tears finally escaped his eyes.

Kutner walked over and patted his back. Too bad Amber isn't here to see this, she'd pay money, he thought to himself.

"So whose life didn't I ruin?" House said, his tears quickly ceasing.

"You didn't really ruin anyone else's life. But isn't that enough, when you can save all of them?"

House nodded. "Hey, what about Thirteen?"

"Oh, she's here," Kutner said sadly.

"I don't see her."

"Turn around," he sighed.

Indeed, Thirteen was there behind him. But not the person. Yet another headstone marked yet another casualty.

"It couldn't be the Huntington's, not this fast. This is only eleven years in the future."

Wincing from his own experience, Kutner replied, "Don't you remember the suicide rate for patients with Huntington's?"

House rubbed his head. "I bet I didn't help with that one, either."

"This one, I wouldn't blame on you."


House turned back towards the current funeral. "So this is how it ends? We both OD?"

"Yeah."

"It can't end like that."

"It shouldn't."

"What am I going to do about it?"

"Let's find out," Kutner said, grabbing his shoulder and taking them away, more gently this time.


Back in his bedroom, House was, quite frankly, dazed. He had never felt this…much? He wanted, no, needed to prevent the scene he just saw, but how could he possibly change it?

"Oh, and by the way, House," the fading vision of Kutner spoke. "Since Andie first arrived here, ten minutes have passed."

"That's not possible."

"Out of all the things that have happened to you, THIS surprises you?" And Kutner was gone.

Okay, so I didn't lose much time. Great. So what?

And then he realized: he needed to get to that party right now.


It's officially Christmas Day-everyone please enjoy the holidays and check back later for the final chapter!