AN: I know this is an incredibly mean way to leave a story hanging, but I promise I'll have the next part up sometime this weekend. Enjoy!

The Road Home: Blue

I've always been a morning person.

It wasn't until this entire mess started though, that I'd taken up jogging around Princeton. There's just something about the way the morning air feels on your face, as your feet pound down the pavement. I needed the release, these past eight years have been an emotional hell on everyone involved.

It was a giant shock the day House proposed to Allison. I must have made a right idiot of myself, the way my jaw dropped onto the floor. It look a good three days before I could even look at Greg the same way. I was happy for them, I really was. It was nice to be happy about something again. Julie and I had filed divorce papers and were in the process of fighting over who got the house, who got the cars - it was a nightmare. Their wedding was a bright spot in the middle of all that darkness.

My jaw once again hit the floor when I found out that Allison was pregnant. I tried to congratulate House, and assure him (though I wasn't really sure at the time) that he'd be a wonderful father. I don't think it worked, but I knew he'd be all right in the long run...this could be exactly what he needed to get him to grow up and stop hating the world. I had no doubts once Alexandra came along. The way he'd look at her said it all. I'd never seen that look in my friends eyes before, never seen such pride, such happiness.

House and Allison had asked myself and Dr. Cuddy to be her godparents - I was thrilled.

Allie was a gorgeous child. Everyone who came into contact with her, fell all over themselves. As she got older she began to look more and more like Allison - the same complexion and auburn hair. What drew people to her the most though, was the eyes...she had his eyes. I could only imagine the kind of men House would be beating off with his cane when she was older.

When it came down to personality, Dr. Chase once got it right - she was her father's 'mini me'. From the moment she started talking, she was speaking just like House. She appeared to be a little sweet child, but when that mouth opened - boy oh boy. It pleased House intensely, he once said he now knew what children were for! He worshipped her, she was her daddy's girl...anybody could see it.

It literally destroyed their world when she was kidnapped.

We all threw ourselves into the process of searching. I lost track of the number of missing posters I'd put up. Foreman and Chase had friends that worked in television, and they made sure that the kidnapping got the attention it deserved. We never stopped looking. I missed Allie, so much. I missed walking down to the conference room every morning, to be greeted with a loud squeal of "UNCLE JIMMY!" as she flung herself at me. I missed picking her up from daycare every day, trying not to laugh as I'd hear reports of how bad (or as the daycare teacher put it "Houselike") she'd been. I missed hearing the wisecracks House would tell her to make about my choice in ties. I could forget about my failed marriages around her, and just have fun. It made me wish I'd have tried harder with Julie, had children of our own.

House would barely talk to Allison some mornings at work. It was obvious they tried to continue on like nothing had happened, but it was even more obvious that they were failing miserably. Not a day passed that I'd see Allison without red, puffy, tearstained eyes. I even caught House coming down from the roof one day, apparent that he'd actually been crying. Before I could grab his cane to question him though, he'd shot me a look, pushed me aside and hobbled off. I would later find him in his office, drowning his sorrows in a bottle of scotch.

Things hit their lowest point on what would have been Allie's fourteenth birthday. I was paged by Chase that they were en route to the hospital emergency room, and to get down there ASAP. The EMT's wheeled a gurney inside, and I got the first look at Allison's deathly pale face. A pale faced House followed close behind. House then disappeared, later I'd find, out to the waiting room, where he'd been slumped against the wall with his head in his hands.

Allison had swallowed about twenty four of his vicodin. Chase had been sitting with her that day, and had gone to check on her after she'd been in the bathroom for more than fifteen minutes. He'd found her skin pale and her pulse rapid and immediately called 911 once spying the now empty vicodin bottle. The ER doctors were able to pump her stomach in time. They kept her overnight for observation.

House never left her side the entire night.

It was the next day they'd come to myself, Cuddy, Chase and Foreman and let us know about the ceremony they'd planned on having. They'd talked it through and agreed that we all needed to let her go and move on. I took one look at both of them, the weariness that showed through on their faces and knew it was all for the best.

It was a beautiful little ceremony. We'd said our good-byes, laid this tragedy to rest. We'd made the first steps towards moving on.

The next day I'd decided to head back to the park we'd all been to the previous day, for a jog. It had been a tough week, I had energy I needed to let out. I drove to the park early, almost before the sun, that morning. After stretching a bit, I set off. It was a beautiful wooded area, we'd been here a few times prior to the ceremony for get togethers Cuddy insisted on holding. Large, extremely tall trees lined the roads - here and there I'd run pass large gates, that I assumed were entrances to houses (this was a particularly wealthy part of Princeton).

I'd turned a corner and started down a rather long stretch of road, houses on one side, forest on the other when I heard a commotion about 150 yards ahead of me. I heard what sounded to be a cry of 'HELP ME' come from a person running down the road. I picked up the pace and broke into a run. About 50 yards away, a large black SUV came speeding out of a set of gates.

I stepped to the side of the road and ran a little closer. It was obvious the car had seen the girl, any driver would have. To my horror, the SUV sped up. I saw the girl turn around to look. I stopped and froze in horror as the car made impact with the girl. She flew through the air, crashing into a pile of rocks that rested by the side of the road. The black SUV was already gone.

Putting my shock aside, I ran the last couple of feet up to the victim. It was a young girl, by glance I'd estimated her to be in her early teens. I was more concerned with her injuries, but I couldn't help but noticed how familiar this girl looked. She had dark auburn hair and was pale as death.

She was unconscious. I whipped out my cell phone and immediately dialed 911, giving them directions the best I could as to where exactly I was. I put my fingers to her neck, and was instantly glad as I felt a weak pulse - she was alive. I whipped off my sweater and used it to wrap around a particularly nasty wound on her right leg, which was bleeding profusely. Her breathing was shallow, and upon inspection, I noticed large bruises starting to form on her chest and abdomen. It didn't take a doctor to realize she most likely had broken ribs and internal bleeding.

It didn't take long for a full blown mess of police officers to arrive, along with the fire department and the paramedics. Explaining that I was a doctor at the Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital (she'd been taken to their emergency room, we were only a good ten minutes away), and that I had witnessed the accident - they asked me if I'd like to ride in with them. I agreed immediately.

They worked on her the best they could in the ambulance as I just sat there, staring. I couldn't figure it out. I felt like I'd seen this girl someplace before, she looked so eerily like somebody that I knew. I closed my eyes for a moment and tried to think, when I felt something brush against my hand.

I kept them closed as I felt a hand slip into mine. When I opened my eyes I found that the girl was coming to. She opened her eyes and I paled, saying "No...no", causing the paramedic to look at me with some concern.

The only time I've ever seen a set of eyes this blue, was on two people. One of these sets was probably at the hospital this very minute, making somebody feel inferior. The other set, I'd last seen eight years ago - yet here they were, staring at me this very minute.

The girl smiled at me, and I felt her hand go limp in mine. The whine of the heart monitor broke the silence