Chapter 10

Five years later…

House sighed. The fresh air was not doing him any good. They had a new case of a young girl that came in with a rash and vomiting. Later in the day, she was coughing up blood. House had no idea what was wrong with her and neither do the ducklings.

He sighed again. After Cameron had left, he had the extreme pleasure of interviewing people for her position. He couldn't find anyone. They were all either stuck up or kiss-ups. In the end, Cuddy had to hire someone because House simply wasn't going to do it. Jackson didn't even have half of Cameron's intelligence as a doctor.

As a doctor. She only made smart decisions as a doctor. As a person with feelings, she made stupid ones. Like quitting her job. Like cutting him out of her life. Like moving out of Princeton. How did he know that she moved? Simple. He had dropped by her apartment two weeks after she had quit.

He had stood at her front door knocking for about an hour until the landlord walked by. House asked him if he could open the door so he could come in.The landlordtold House that nobody was living in that apartment. Cameron had moved out one week ago.

That was five years ago. Rather, it was five years and two weeks ago when she walked out of his life. He didn't want her to come in, to make herself at home in his heart, but somehow she managed that. She saw through years of walls that he had carefully built to protect himself. He pushed her away to protect himself.

And it worked. She had left him like Stacey did. They both had left him heartbroken, but this time around it was different. With Stacey, he loved the idea of being loved and of loving someone. With Cameron, however, he loved her.

It had taken him two weeks until he came to the realization that he loved her. And when he finally came to his senses to proclaim his love for her, she had left. So now he is here.

He is at the park where Cameron had taken him to after their night together. Every week he stopped by here in hopes of finding Cameron. He hoped that she would somehow miraculously reappear in his life. For five years he had waited. He had wanted for exactly five years. For you see, the case wasn't the only reason why he stopped by the park. It was exactly five years ago today that she left.

House sighed again. The fresh air that he wanted to get seemed stale to him. He needed to clear his mind of the case, of Cameron. He was about to accomplish that someone interrupted his train of thoughts.

A little boy ran up to him. "Mister, can you help my sister? She falled and I think she breaked her knee," the little boy said. He was about five years old and was hysterical.

House was sitting on the bench thinking, while in the distance, not even twenty feet from him, a little boy and girl were playing. They were racing from trees to trees when the girl fell. The boy didn't know what to do to stop his sister from crying so he looked around for someone. He had saw House and ran up to him for help.

"I can't help you," House replied. "I'm not a doctor."

"You no have to be a doctor. Can you see if she is okay? She no listen to me because she knows me. If someone she not know tell her that it's okay, she'll believe them. Can you help, Mister?" The boy was pleading him.

House wasn't in the mood to talk, much less help anyone, but he just couldn't bring himself to say no the boy. "Alright," House said at last.

House stood up and the boy took him by the hand, leading him to his sister. As the view of the girl slowly got closer, House saw that she was sitting on the ground, bawling her eyes out. The boy dropped House's hand and ran over to his sister with House limping behind him.

"Hey, sis. Alex…Alex, look at me," the boy was saying to his sister as he knelt down. When Alex heard her brother's voice, she looked at him with watery eyes.

"Matt, where were you? Why did you leave me?" The girl started to cry again.

"Shh," the boy said, trying to comfort her. "Look, I bringed someone with me. He is going to tell you your knee is no breaked. Ok?" He pointed to House who was standing behind him. The girl seemed to notice House for the first time.

"Your brother here asked me to come and check your knee. He said that you were afraid to you broke your knee. I don't think you fell that hard," House said as he painfully dropped to the ground to examine her.

She whimpered and drew her leg back when House tried to reach for it. She was afraid of him and especially his cane.

"I won't bite," House sighed. "If you don't want me to check it, I could leave you here with what could possibly be a broken kneecap. Do you want that?"

Alex slowly shook her head no. She gave House her leg and he looked at her wound.

"It's only a scrape. You'll be fine," he said.

"Thanks, Mister," the boy replied smiling at him.

For the first time, House noticed something. They both had clear blue eyes, eyes that were eerily similar to his own. The girl had dark brown hair but the boy…Matt?…had hair that was sandy colored. Like House's.

The children looked at House uneasily. They were uncomfortable under House's scrutiny gaze. The girl slowly frowned as if she had suddenly remembered something.

"Hey Mister, what's your name?" she asked.

"Why do you want to know?" House questioned.

"Well,…it's just…you look like…," she stammered.

"Alex, what are you talking about?" Matt asked. He squinted his eyes, closely examining House.

"Matt, look. He look like."

"Who? He look like" Matt was puzzled.

"Him."

Matt suddenly realized who his sister was talking about. "No, he not"

"Yes, he do. Look again"

He squinted his eyes even closer until all that was visible were two slits for eyes. "He look like a little"

"What are you guys talking about?" House asked. He was becoming irritated and wanted to know who he looked like.

"You do look like him. You do," the boy said eagerly.

"Who?" House asked impatiently.

"Him," the girl said just as excitedly.

"Who's him?" House was starting to yell.

"Him," they both replied enthusiastically.

House sighed for about the tenth time that day. "Where are your parents? You need to be with them. I don't know what kind of parents would leave their children alone like this," House said.

"Mommy went to the car to get our snacks. She telled us to play here 'til she come back."

"Great, just great. Looks like I'm babysitting you guys until your parents come back," House muttered.

A shadow suddenly fell over the trio. The children looked up at the person standing behind House and smiled. They both pointed at House and began talking at the same time.

"Mommy! Mommy look! He look like him!"

"He do! He do look like him! Look!"

House opened his mouth about to say something for leaving the children alone in the park and for them mistaking him for someone else when Alex said something that stopped him. He was rendered speechless.

She had exclaimed, "He look like Daddy! Like Daddy! Look!"

Daddy? Heslowlystood up and turned around.

In front of him there she stood. Her dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail and was, House noticed, several inches longer than the last time he saw her. Her eyes were wide open, revealing two big hazel orbs that were staring at him. They were filled with unshed tears. Her mouth was dropped opened, making a small O. The backpack that was slung over her right shoulder dropped to the ground with a thud.

When she found her voice, she whispered only one word. That little word made his heart stop for what seemed to be eternity.

She had softly whispered, "Greg."

Author's Note: Sorry for the long wait. I had updated this morning but had submitted the wrong document. I immediately deleted the chapter but before I could submit the correct chapter, it was time for school! Anyways, hope you'll like this chapter.

Disclaimer: Not mine.