AN: I'm not happy with the way the last two chapters have turned out. I'm working on the last three right now, so it might be a few days before I can get those up (I want them to be long, better than the last two).

The Road Home - Match

House picked the worst day of all to hide from me.

I was unprepared for the complete shock that came this morning. From his phone call this morning, I just assumed that Wilson had witnessed some type of accident, he was riding in with the victim. Leaving out any specifics, he just told me to meet him at the emergency room in five minutes. Never in my wildest dreams did I even realize what was going to happen.

It was five minutes after they had taken her up to surgery that the story began to fall into place. I had sent Wilson off to change (he was still in his ridiculous jogging outfit), and I went to notify the police. I let them know our suspicions and they had immediately went into action. They'd taken fingerprints quickly, as she was on her way up to the operating room. Alexandra had been fingerprinted at the age of four, we were now just waiting to find out the results. It was barely ten minutes later when an officer approached me.

The fingerprints matched.

The hit and run victim Wilson had encountered this morning was not just any teenager - it was Alexandra Anne House.

As soon as we got word, members of the Princeton Police Department were swarming the hospital. The exits were shut down, for fear that her kidnappers would try to enter the hospital, in hopes to find her. One glance outside showed me that the media had gotten word of everything, the entire entrance to the hospital was swarming with reporters and television news trucks.

There was only one person right now, that I needed to find. There was only so far he could go - especially when one knows how to follow the trail. Look for the crying nurses, follow them and you'll find Gregory House.

I finally found him, peering around the corner on the first floor, looking like he was ready to make a run for it. It was then that he noticed the police officers at the entrance doors, and the media that had gathered. It took me less than a minute to storm up to him and ask him what the hell was his problem, why wasn't he answering any of his phone calls or pages?

I got the classic House excuse ofhim being so famished, he ran out of his office without his cell phone and pager to go on his lunch break. He then wanted to know why the security and the media? "I swear I didn't do anything! I was uhhh, visiting a patient," was the next thing out of his mouth. If the situation hadn't been so deadly serious, the look on his face would have almost been comical.

I just looked at him. It took him less than a second to realize that something was definitely wrong.

He started to get very angry when I asked him where Allison was (on her way to New York, to visit her parents), assuming that there was something wrong with her. How did I tell him? I was at a total loss for words. I gave silent thanks when Wilson appeared. He looked at me in question andasked, "Match?"

I nodded.

Wilson said he'd take House upstairs and explain (House had started to get mad and yell about us keeping things from him), go put in a call to Dr. Cameron.

The last thing I saw upon walking back to my office, was House staring at Wilson as he talked - his cane fell to the floor with a loud thud.