Thank you all for your kind reviews! They help motivate me to keep the story moving. I was able to get this next chapter out a bit quicker but I can't promise that with every one. ENJOY!

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He stared into the darkness, his mind wandering through his past and into his future. He leaned over her, watching her chest and belly rise and fall. He looked down at her, seeing her curls spilling out around her head and her lips slightly parted. She looked innocent and relaxed and at peace with the world. He leaned on his elbow and admired her, she was absolutely beautiful. He'd never met anyone like her, so confident, so feisty, so smart, so fearless and so stunning. She made him feel young and masculine. The way she looked at him just drove him nuts and he never wanted her more than when she looked like she could kill him. Everything about her attracted him and pulled him in and pushed him away all at the same time and he couldn't get enough of it.

He scooted himself up against her, feeling her warmth, worshipping her body against his.

In his mind she deserved someone so much better, someone that wouldn't cause her blood pressure to rise every five minutes. Someone that didn't make her yell and someone that could say all the things that she deserved to hear. He wanted it to be him, he felt a certain way and he wanted to tell her but he didn't know how, it just didn't seem right. The words just didn't come to him. He wrapped his arm around her, slid his hand up her top and placed his hand on her belly, again letting his long fingers cover it. Her head turned slightly, she sighed and nuzzled into him. His heart filled with a warm satisfying feeling. A smile spread across his face and then he realized what he was feeling. It was love. He loved her. He was in love with her. His breath caught in his throat.

He didn't realize what he was experiencing at first but staring into the darkness, feeling his heart stop at the realization of his own feelings, he felt a weird sensation beneath his hand. Something fluttered against his palm. He flattened his hand against her stomach and waited. After several seconds he felt it again, a little thump against his skin. He leaned down further, pushing his palm against her abdomen. Several more thumps answered him back. His chest swelled with pride and a smile spread across his lips. Suddenly there was a third person in the room making their presence known. It was if she sensed the fear rising in him and she knew just when to pull him back.

He shook his head and chuckled. He was an idiot. It was too late he had jumped and he was free falling into the unknown. He was invested. He laughed to himself again as he continued to feel his child move beneath his hand.

He leaned his head down to her belly and whispered, "I hear ya kid loud and clear."

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At 8:00am the next morning Wilson was shocked to see House come busting into his office. He looked down at his watch, making sure that it was in fact 8:00 in the morning and not 8:00 at night. Of course the sun peeping in through the blinds only helped to confirm that this was in fact a rare and unusual occurrence.

Without speaking, House plopped down in the chair across from Wilson's desk, sighing heavily as he did. He looked down to his feet, and bounced his cane on the carpet as if he was deep in thought and Wilson wasn't even there.

"Okay I'll bite" It was obvious House wanted to talk about something that was bothering him but he was rarely one to bring anything up if it was too personal, it had to be pried out of him.

House merely looked up at him with a sullen look.

"Okay let's start with why you're here at 8am when it's obvious you're not working and I know you don't have a patient."

"I couldn't sleep."

"And..?"

"She asked me to move in." He blurted.

"So?"

"So….didn't you hear me she asked me to move in with her, like give up my apartment and play happy family."

"What's so bad about that?"

"What if I don't want to give it all up, I like my life, I like my stuff where it is."

"You're practically living there now."

"I know and my stuff already misses me."

"So move it to her place."

House glared at him, this wasn't the conversation he was looking for.

"What do you want me to tell you? Do you really want to live somewhere else once the baby comes?"

"If it means getting me out of 3am feedings and poopy diapers then YEAH." he gave Wilson as look as if to say DUH!

Now it was Wilson's turn to scowl at House.

"My stuff won't even fit in her place, I'd have to get rid of it and I'm not parting with one tiny fiber, dust mite or molecule of my sh!t."

Wilson just looked at him, as he grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair and stood up to put it on, "Then get a bigger place for all of you." He put on his jacket and grabbed his keys off his desk.

"What?,..wait where are you going?"

"I'm taking Peyton home."

"You're leaving your best friend in crisis to give someone a ride?"

"House, you always do this, you come to me whining and complaining while I pretend to convince you to do something you don't want to but you know you'll do anyway. And then you pretend to kick and scream while doing it. So let's just skip to the end. You should move in with her, be with your kid and buy a big house with all the things you want."

"And who's going to pay for this big house?"

"House, I really don't have time for this, why don't you talk to Cuddy?" Wilson opened the door and gave House one last look indicating that the conversation was over and he was taking pleasure in the fact that he was leaving.

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Peyton was dressed and packing her duffle bag when Wilson walked into her room. She stood by the bed shoving various items into the bag. She looked up as he walked in but her face was expressionless.

"Do you need any help?" He offered.

"I'm fine." She put a few more items in the bag and zipped it up. "I don't really need you to do this."

"I know."

She threw the strap over her shoulder and looked the room over again. "I'll be leaving tonight anyway." She didn't understand why she even told him.

He looked at her confused and then he realized where she was going, "You're going to the funeral?"

She nodded.

He extended his arm to take the bag from her, but she ignored it. "You just came back from the brink of death and now you want to go to the very thing that sent you over the edge?" He looked at her like she was insane.

They both walked out of the room and continued down the hall.

"It's something I have to do."

He stopped and looked her directly in the eye, "I don't think you should."

"I'm not sure why I have to keep reminding you, but it doesn't matter what you think."

"I'm concerned."

"Again not really influential here."

"Are you just trying to torture yourself?"

Peyton puffed up her cheeks and blew air out from them; she was obviously trying very hard not to get upset, "No! But I need to say goodbye, I need to take care of things. If I don't then I'll regret it for the rest of my life and I can't live with that. And LIVE is the key word there."

He stood looking at her for a moment. Eventually he started walking again and they both continued on to his car in silence.

He took her bag and put it in the trunk and then waited until they were both buckled in and on the road before he spoke, "I'm going with you."

She turned to him with her mouth open and eyes wide, "No you're…"

He cut her off, "I don't care what you say, I'm not taking no for an answer. You can't do this by yourself. So you can just go with it or I can be exceptionally annoying and call Gladys and get directions and go anyway. It might be more enjoyable to just enjoy my company rather than looking over your shoulder to find me everywhere you go."

She was clearly upset and she looked as if she was going to say something but after weighing his words she closed her mouth and turned her focus back to looking out the window.

Wilson waited for Peyton to pack a bag and phoned Cuddy. She wasn't quick to agree on giving him time off on short notice but he had plenty of vacation time and unlike House Wilson was sensible and didn't make requests unless he really needed it. She hesitated but finally agreed when he told her it was to take Peyton to her grandmother's funeral. She agreed to reschedule his patients and put another doctor on call.

It was almost a six hour drive from her apartment to her grandmother's. The first leg of their journey was long and painfully quiet. Peyton seemed to have a keen interest in watching the landscape pass through the passenger side window. For an hour the car was silent, even the radio didn't seem to provide more than a dull buzz as the car headed further south.

She laid her head back on the seat and welcomed sleep but it never came. She watched as the scenery blurred past her through the window, her head swam with so many different things and she welcomed any distraction. The deafening silence made her anxious. There was an awkwardness to the atmosphere, a coupling of emotional aggravation and her not knowing what to say. She felt the need to say something but she was definitely not going to engage in idle chit chat just to pass the time. She wasn't one to talk about the weather just to fill the silence.

She looked over at Wilson and felt like she wanted to slap him. He sat calmly looking ahead, not at all bothered by the lack of conversation. She shifted in her seat.

"I really hate that you can do that." She finally decided to blurt out glaring at him.

He looked at her confused, "Do what?"

"Be so comfortable, so unaffected by me being here, not wanting you here."

He laughed, "Would it make you feel better if I was, I can grumble and whine, maybe throw out an insult every 50 or 60 miles."

She let herself smile slightly, "No, if I wanted to ride with House I would have invited him."

They both chuckled.

"I'm used to making this trip by myself; it's not really easy having someone else come along."She tried to offer some sort of peace to the ride.

"You aren't use to sharing anything are you?"

She gave him an odd look, one that showed she was trying to figure out exactly what he meant.

"No, I mean you don't like having anyone around."

"You make it sound like I don't like people; it's not that I don't like them. I just don't know what to do with them."

"Did you always feel that way? Or was it after…" He stopped. He didn't know if should bring that up.

"If you want to keep me from ripping your head off the first thing you should do is stop acting like you need to walk on egg shells around me. I'm not a delicate flower. Far from it actually, I had a moment of weakness. That doesn't make me weak and it certainly doesn't make me breakable."

Wilson nodded. He wanted to tread lightly, but maybe it was for his own comfort rather than hers. She seemed so strong, so determined with a very complete and real sense of self. But then again so did House and he knew that underneath that hard exterior there was something vulnerable.

"I just meant…"

She cut him off, "I know what you meant, was I always so reclusive or was it just after Abby."

He nodded.

"I've always felt far away from others, I've always felt different. But after Abby died, I found that people wanted one of two things, they wanted to pretend like they understood or they wanted to feel sorry for me. No one is ever going to understand, no matter how much they try or they want to and I have no room for pity."

"Maybe they just wanted you to know they cared."

"I know they cared, and I felt that. I'm not such a cold hearted person that I didn't see that they wanted to help. But they couldn't and I'm not a moron. I know what it feels like to try to help someone and be incapable of it making a difference. It wears you down and takes away from you the hope that you need for things to be better."

"So who was it that you tried to save?" He asked bravely.

"Wow, it didn't take you long to get over yourself, just go for the jugular why don't you?"

"I'm sorry…"he stammered back tracking.

"No it's okay I asked for it. It was my Dad. He was a drug addict, he died of an overdose. When I was a kid I thought that if I loved him enough and if I tried hard enough that I could save him. It took a long time for me to realize that he didn't want to be saved."

He gave her a sympathetic look.

"So who did you try to save?" She asked.

He looked at her a little surprised, "Who says I tried to save anyone?"

"Oh C'mon Someone gave you the messiah complex, you tried to save someone and failed and now you compensate by playing savior to those you deem needy."

"You sound like House."

"Are you avoiding or just making an observation?"

"Trying to avoid but I don't think you're going to let me." He gave her a smile and large puppy dog eyes.

"Not a chance, I'm not going to spend the next four hours on the shrink's sofa alone."

He had to laugh, not only was she perceptive, she had a truly unique way about her.

"It was my brother. He's schizophrenic and one day he ran away without his meds. It was my fault; I wasn't there for him when he needed me. He was homeless and I didn't see him for years."

"So now you are saving your brother by saving others."

"I wouldn't say I try to save everyone, I would say I like to be there for people."

"You like to be needed."

"Wow, I would swear that I'm having this conversation with House, what has he been telling you?"

She gave him a sly smile, "Nothing that I can't see for myself."

"Right!" He playfully rolled his eyes at her.

The rest of the ride went by quickly. Slowly the awkwardness melted into friendly yet straight forward conversation. As they drove further south she began to feel more relaxed and shared stories about the different places she'd lived. She gave him the history on some of the towns and places they passed. He listened attentively, asking questions here and there. She grew more and more at ease and it wasn't until they entered the small town of Powhatan that she realized for that short amount of time she'd forgotten why she was there. As they passed the sign telling them they had arrived it all flooded back.

To Be Continued

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