Disclaimer…No, I don't own House. Stop asking. Also, the little anecdote I use at the end is inspired by Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper.

Author's Note…I got reviews! Yay!

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There are times in a man's life when he has got to give up the things he loves. It began in the Bible, when Abraham sacrificed Isaac because it was his command to do so. House wondered if Abraham felt guilty as he lowered his son onto the stone, if a montage of memories flashed through his head as he raised the ax. If he complied angrily or helplessly or if he had tried to bargain with G/d. If he knew that no matter how the day ended, neither father nor son would ever be the same.

Although House was just driving Libby up to college, and wasn't about to kill his daughter, he sure felt that way. He felt what he imagined Abraham must have felt; guilty and angry and helpless. And every time he tried to brush those emotions from his mind, all he had to do was look at Libby, sitting next to him, pulling her fingers, and they would all come back.

There were a million things that could go wrong. She would have to buy her own food most of the time and be very careful about what she ate in the cafeteria. The diabetes might act up. She might relapse and not know it. He looked at her, and saw she was staring straight ahead. The campus was coming into view. "You know, we could always find a way to transfer you to Princeton."

Libby's gaze never wavered. "No. I'm going here. I want to go here."

The two got out of the car and began to unload the luggage, which consisted of two duffels, both of which Libby carried. For a small girl, she was pretty strong.

House had to personally remind himself of that fact constantly.

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Four hours later, the duo had unpacked, got the dorm room all set up, and eaten lunch. They both stood awkwardly next to the car, as if waiting for a meteor or something to come crashing down. House crossed his arms nervously, a self-defensive mechanism, and Libby looked around. "I guess it's time to say good-bye now."

"Seeing as we're right next to the car, I guess so."

Libby smiled and hugged him. "I'll call you soon, ok?" And she walked away, refraining from turning back. House envied her.

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A week later she still hadn't called. House and Wilson had seriously thought about alerting the campus police or something, but Cuddy had talked them out of it, assuring them that the first week was always crazy and Libby was probably still settling in. The truth was, she always come close to having a heart attack when the phone rang, terrified that the person on the other line would tell them that something terrible had happened to Libby.

So when one day she was in House's office alone, looking for an extra set of keys, and the phone rang, she approached it cautiously. "He…hello?"

"Aunt Lisa!"

"Libby! How are you? How's college going?"

"Great."

"Which one is great?"

"Both of them."

"That's good. So what's your roommate like?"

"Her name is Susan, and she's a vegetarian. We decided that we would try and stick to each other's diets as well as our own in the dorm so, you know, I won't come home one day and find her eating a chocolate bar and she won't come back from a long class and find me eating a hamburger or something."

"Libby, don't do that. You need the protein."

"Well, I eat it outside the room. That's basically the only rule."

"Ok, what else is new?"

"I got a job."

"Already?"

"Yeah. There's this bakery there and the owner is this little old man and he's the only one who works there all day long by himself and so I told him that I could work here on weekends. At first he didn't want to hire me but then I told him that I was minoring in Culinary Arts. That got him interested and I already started. It's a pretty good job."

"That will look good on your application for a job. So anyway, things have been lonely here without you."

"Awww."

House walked into the room and rolled his eyes at Cuddy gabbing on the phone. "Oh, your dad just walked in. You wanna talk to him?"

"Sure."

House took the phone. "Is this Libby?"

"I don't know, is there anyone else that would call you Dad?"

"Well, Chase does like to call me Big Daddy, so…"

"Ew."

"So anyway, way to not call."

"Well, I knew that if I called too soon, I would have to listen to you make fun of me. Was I correct?"

"Yeah, but that's irrelevant."

"Yeah, how could I forget? It's only relevant when you're right."

"Right. But as we both know, that doesn't matter."

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And so the year progressed until one innocent March night, when House was just watching TV by himself, there was a knock at the door. Groaning, House got up and answered it only to find Libby at the other side. "Hey, kid!"
He had barely gotten the words out when Libby enveloped him in a hug, her arms touching each other across his back. "Hi, Dad."

They moved into the kitchen, where Libby instantly set about making some coffee. House leaned against the counter. Libby had visited before on Thanksgiving during Winter Break, but never unannounced. "So, what are you doing here? I mean, I'm glad to see you, but…"

She turned to him. "Dad, you might want to sit down."

House remained standing and braced himself. He knew this had to be bad news, or she would have called, or something. "Just tell me."

"I'm engaged."

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House blinked. No, his eighteen year old did not just tell him she was getting married. Mm-mm. No way. Libby, seeing the look on his face, quickly spoke. "Yes we are. Josh and I are getting married. We decided that we would definitely wait until we've both graduated, because otherwise we are much too young, so you've got at least four yours to, you know, regain the power of speech and stuff."

How can she read my mind like that? "I…married!"

"Yes."

"But…but…you've only been dating for…"

"Almost seven years."

"Well, that's not so long considering…"

"Dad, it's plenty long. And when we do get married, it will have been more than ten years."

Somewhere near the front of the apartment, the door swung open and Cuddy and Wilson entered. Before they even registered that Libby was there, House blurted out that she was getting married.

It took Wilson only a quick moment to answer. "No."

Cuddy slowly sat herself down. "What?"

Libby looked around. "Josh and I. We're getting married."

"Greg?"

House looked up to see Cuddy peering at him as if he had three heads or something. Apparently, he would be passing the final judgment on this. "They've got a good plan."

"No they don't." It was Wilson again.

"Yes, they do. And…not for four years."

Cuddy's jaw slammed into the floor. "Are you seriously supporting this?"

"Yes. On one condition." Everyone waited. "You have to wait until you've both graduated and have started your careers, not jobs, careers, until you even begin planning this wedding. AND…when you do get married, you have to stay within a…thirty minutes TOPS radius of here."

There was a moment of silence. Finally, Libby ran into her dad's arms, crazy thanking him with moist eyes. Much like the three other pairs in the room.

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And so the year marched on. Winter turned into spring and then June rolled around. Libby had had a cough for month now, and although she thought for sure it was just lack of sleep combined with allergies (she had always had them) Josh had insisted she visit the clinic that was near the campus.

The young doctor had prescribed some allergy medication and whatnot, but had done an X-Ray, only because of her medical history. That had been a week ago. This week was finals and Libby hadn't given the visit a second thought.

That is, until the phone rang at 5:30 one evening asking for Libby to come back down to the hospital and meet with a Dr. Laurence. From Oncology.

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Josh and Libby had been sitting down in the oncologist's office for half an hour when the doctor finally came in. "I'm so sorry, it's my wife, we had a big fight…Let me introduce myself. I'm Dr. Laurence, and you must be Ms. House. And this is…"

Do all oncologists have marital problems? "I'm Libby, and this is my fiancé, Josh."

"Well, hello. I've reviewed your X-Ray and…" Suddenly, he couldn't look Libby in the eye anymore. "It seems your cancer has returned and you've relapsed. I'm so sorry. Unfortunately, we'll need to determine this with what's called an open lung biopsy. You will be under general anesthesia and we will cut out a small piece of your lung and examine it for cancer. We'll need to do the test as soon as possible. Tomorrow morning."

Libby had begun crying into but nodded quickly and signed whatever needed to be signed. She was moved into a room and had just been lying in the hospital bed with Josh, with her head in his chest, when she realized she had forgotten something. "Josh?" She spoke quietly; she wasn't sure if he had fallen asleep.

He hadn't. "Yeah?"

"We need to tell my dad."

Josh glanced at the clock and sat up. It was 12:30. "Do you want to wait for tomorrow morning or to tell him in person or…?"

"Now. I have to tell him now. I can't keep this from him." Josh nodded and handed her the phone. Slowly but surely, she began to dial.

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The next morning right after Libby's surgery…

When House was going into ninth grade, his parents had sent him into some kind of boot camp in upstate New York. It was a random action-adventure camp, but for "troubled" kids. The camp was on a farm, and every morning, one boy had to do herd the sheep and follow about a hundred of them around. Inevitably, House got that job one morning. It was then he learned that a sheep is the absolute stupidest animal alive. But anyway, there he was, sweating and smelling as it was hot and there was absolutely no shade to speak of, when he heard an ear-shattering scream. House had run to the source, thinking that someone had been trampled or some other horrific event, but he found one of the sheep giving birth.

This was obviously before he was a doctor, and by no stretch was he vet, nor did he know anything about animals, but he wasn't stupid and realized that that's not how it's supposed to sound. So he got down on his knees to see what he would later know as a breach birth. Gagging the whole way through, he pulled the baby sheep out of his mother.

And when it came out, it had a certain look in his eye, like he had seen the other side and seen it long enough to know just what he was missing.

He remembered this now as he walked into Libby's post-op room, knowing full well that she had already been pronounced terminal and probably wouldn't be alive to see the fall semester, because that's what Libby looked like as she woke up.

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Author's Note…Ducks rotten fruit…please review, even though I guess you can figure out how it's going to end…tear…BTW…starting to notice any parallels between Josh and Cameron?