Author: Yet-Another-Weasley

Title: A Friend

Description: A young woman's attacker is still at large and he won't rest until he finishes what he tried to do, even if it means putting other people's lives on the line.

Disclaimer: I don't own House or its related characters.

Author's Note: Hey, this is my second House fanfic so I'm hoping it will be good. I hope you like it and please review and tell me what you think. Thanks!

I am such an idiot and I posted the first chapter before the prologue…. But you can still read this after you read chapter one because it just explains who Virginia is and what happened to her before she ended up at PPTH. So sorry.. haha.. like I said.. im an idiot! P

Prologue:

Up until a week ago, she had thought that she was in love. Everything wasn't perfect, but she had accepted that and so she was happy. Her and her boyfriend had been living together since the year after they had graduated from highschool. They were high school sweetheart and had dated since their freshman year. Everyone thought they were so cute together and they always got compliments. Together they were so happy, even if they didn't always get to see each other or spend every waking second in each other's arms.

She was an honor student and was always busy studying for the next test. As their junior year came to an end, it was time to start worry about college and scholarships and getting money. She got her license and spent time visiting various universities and schools. It was her dream to go to a great college and end up being married and eventually to have kids. Her boyfriend was also very intelligent, but he was also atheletic. The time that he wasn't out at competitions and games, his parents locked him in his room to make sure his grades were kept high. So, they didn't have much time to see each other and perhaps that made them even closer together. They didn't make out every day and didn't get obsessed and hang onto each other in-between classes. They were much more mature than that.

Both of them wanted to go to college together and let their relationship progress. Now it was two years after they went to high school and she was alone except for her son, Aiden. No, she hadn't made a mistake in having a child with her boyfriend; he didn't leave her. A week ago, he was murdered. She was forced to raise a child on her own now and she didn't have the job to do that. Her dream was to go to college, but her reality was that she worked at a small department store in the middle of town. She hadn't been back to work since her boyfriend's death a week ago.

However, it wasn't only that she was depressed about his death and worried about what had now become of her life, but lately she had been receiving disturbing phone calls in the middle of the night. She would put Aiden to sleep and then go lay in bed, most of the time she ending up sitting there watching some late show on TV. At one or two in the morning her house phone would ring and she'd go pick it up. "Hello?" she would ask, but most of the time she wouldn't receive an answer. Sometimes, though, she'd hear someone breathing heavily on the other end of the line. Sure, if this had been any other time, she'd just figure it was some immature kids playing a prank. With her husband's murder, though, she couldn't help but feel nervous and afraid. She received calls like this almost every night and she was thinking of reporting it to the police, but she pushed it to the back of her mind and tried to relax and forget about it.

The next week she finally went back to work and the phones calls late at night were forgotten. She was happy to be around her friends again and not alone and sad. It was a Friday night and she was in her car driving over to her friend's house to pick up her son. The sun had just gone down and it was quite cold out being that it was mid December. She shivered and turned the heat up a little bit. The CD player in her car was playing Aqualung, her favorite band and she hummed the tune to herself lightly. Unfortunately, the song was interrupted by a flashing light on her dashboard… she was out of gas.

"Damnit," she said and shook her head.

She grabbed her purse and took out her cell phone, going through her contacts to find her friend's name on the list. In about ten seconds it was dialing and she received an answer.

"Hello?" the familiar voice said.

"Hey, it's Ginny… I ran out of gas, could you come pick me up?"

Her friend laughed, "Sure, where are you?"

"Jackson Road… by that Christmas tree place," she sighed, "only the best place to run out of gas, you know?"

"Yeah, not the best place to be in your situation. At least you aren't too far from me. I'll be right there."

"Thank-you so much, I hate to be such a bother."

"I don't mind, really." She hung up the phone.

Virginia put her cell phone back into her purse and opened her car door. She stepped outside and into the cold. It had snowed the previous night and there was six inches still covering the ground. The road she was on was never plowed. The most the town ever did was throw dirt on it to rid it of some of the snow. She breathed out to see her breathe in the air. It was cold out, but she didn't mind right now. Everything was so peaceful and she was lost in the moment. Across the street she saw a snowman that some kids must have made. It made her remember her past, her childhood; it elevated her mood. Most unfortunately, her cell phone rang and interrupted her.

She picked it up and said hello, but nobody answered. She looked on the caller ID, but the caller's number was blocked.

"Hello?" she asked, "This isn't funny, it's just immature. If you're going to call someone, have the guts to say something when you do it!"

Fortunately, someone did answer and it wasn't who she had expected.

"Gin? Sorry about that, I didn't have any service for a minute. I just wanted to let you know that I'll be right there. Jeffrey is going to watch Aiden for a few minutes while I come and pick you up if that's alright."

Virginia breathed a sigh of relief. For a minute she thought that it was another one of those freaky phone calls she had been receiving.

"Uh, yeah, that's great," Virginia replied, "I'll see you in a few minutes then."

"Bye," he friend said, hanging up her phone.

It was a couple of minutes before Virginia was finally realizing exactly how cold it was outside and she exhaled to see her breathe in the air. Putting on her gloves, she rubbed her hands together to try and generate some heat. This didn't really work and she was standing there shivering. She decided to just go back and sit in her car and wait for her friend.

She grasped the door handle and opened it, but after that everything went black. The very last thing she remembered was seeing the silhouette of a tall figure in the side view mirror of her car.

Author's Note: End of the prologue and next is on to chapter 1. This part of the story is probably kind of weird, but what happens in this ties into everything else that happens. The next chapter will be up as soon as possible… give me at the most a month because I'm really busy right now. Hehe. Thanks! D