"The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead." House said as he barged into Chase's room.

Chase shot a glare at him of complete contempt. House was not welcome in his room.

"Albert Einstein said that. He was one smart cookie. Not that you would know anything about that."

Chase chose to ignore House's insult and say nothing. For the first time in ages he was forgiven for his sins. He wasn't about to start right away with House.

"Oh, so you aren't talking again. How convenient. While I would love to sit here and insult you all day, I'm here on a mission. Tell me, how comfy was that fluffy cloud you were sitting on while you watched the priest do his magic on your dying self? None of us told you about it."

Chase was not willing to answer the question at all.

"Come on, the white light, the peace and serenity, the watching the world from afar. Did your dead parents drop in for a visit? You had all damn day to catch up."

"I thought you didn't believe in that stuff. You were pretty quick to discount your own death." Chase didn't buy into House's sudden curiosity of the after life. He knew House was trying to harass him for fun.

"I only had less than two minutes to make sense of it, and my family isn't dead."

"You wouldn't understand what I saw."

"Chase, I'm about the only one that would understand. I still think it was your brain was playing tricks on you, but the priest guess was pretty good. How did you figure that one out?"

"Now why does it really matter? You aren't the religious type. You shouldn't care whether or not my soul was saved."

"How did you find out about the priest?"

Chase knew House wasn't going to let up. He was so tired and wanted him gone. "Fine, I saw it while I was lingering. Actually, I didn't see it. I heard about it. I was in too much pain to actually see it."

"You were in pain? I thought your mighty God healed all those in the great beyond."

"You have no idea what you are talking about. This isn't a subject to be trifled with. Why are you coming to me for such answers? I thought you knew it all."

"You saw something that still doesn't make sense."

"Nothing of consequence to you. Our perceptions are quite different anyway, so you aren't going to see the same things I do."

"Try me. What did you see?"

"It's none of your business." Chase snarled.

House came over to him and looked him straight in the eye. "I don't doubt what you saw you perceive to be real. I just doubt that it is."

"So this is now just a philosophical discussion among two colleagues that both happened to die? How hypocritical can you be? Are you coming to me because I might have the key to a phenomenon that has haunted you for the last 8 years? What do you possibly hope to hear? Do you want me to tell you that it was nothing but an illusion of the mind? Well sorry, despite what you have chosen to believe, it's not a chemical reaction when the brain shuts down. You couldn't be more wrong. Somehow though, I think you have always known that."

"So you think it was real?"

"How could it not be? I saw enough to learn that heaven and hell exist, God has a strange sense of humor and you can still be a screw up in another life."

"You are confusing perception with reality."

"Define reality then!" Chase had enough of House's antagonism. "I just don't have quick flashes here and there. I have vivid, long memories that are now stuck in my head for the rest of my life. I saw my parents in the same sorry state when they left this world. It isn't about smiles and happy reunions with loved ones. It's about judgment and facing up to your failures. That is about as real as it gets."

House stopped to reflect on what he just heard. He sat down in the chair next to the bed. "You're right," he calmly said. "You're explanation of what you saw will never match mine. I still doubt the after life and have no reason to think that our time on earth is just a test."

"I died. Guess what? Life after death does exist, or at least it always will in my mind. You are right though; this isn't just a test. What we do matters here, and it matters there too."

"So your little visions of death will always bother you?"

"Don't your memories bother you?"

House hesitated with his answer. He looked down and then softly admitted, "Yes."

"Sometimes House, we just need to accept that not all things can be explained. I don't want to explain what I saw and why. I just know that it happened."

"Okay, it happened. How do you plan on dealing with it? Does what you saw scare you?"

"It scares the crap out of me. Doesn't your experience scare you?"

"Nope. I'm bothered by it at times, but never scared."

"Why not?"

"A little something happens inside once you have passed into the great beyond. Care to find out what that is?"

Chase nodded.

"Okay, wait here."

House walked out of the room and came back a few minutes later pushing a wheel chair as he hobbled. "Get in."

Chase unhooked himself from all his lines and carefully climbed into the chair. His chest tightness was still pretty bad, but he knew whatever House was up to, this would be worth it.

They got into the elevator and House pushed the button for the first floor. The entire time Chase didn't say a word, but instead had an amused look on his face wondering what House was up to next. House pushed him out on the first floor and kept walking through the entrance of the hospital to the outside. It was rather chilly, but neither man seemed to mind since they were on a mission. They kept going until they were beyond the parking lot and at the crosswalk of the busy intersection that led to the entrance of the hospital complex.

House waited until the signal indicated it was time to cross, and he moved them both into the middle of the road and stopped. He waited until the light turned green the other way, and stood there letting the heavy flow of traffic constantly breeze right past them.

Chase had nothing but a smile on his face. House had gone mad, and he loved it. They both started laughing as cars swept by them beeping their horns.

"So, are you scared of dying?" House asked Chase.

"No."

"That's why I don't let what I saw affect me."

Chase grinned at the sheer madness of his revelation. He had something top it though. "House, you want to know something funny?"

"What?"

"In the after life, you were both God and The Devil."

House broke into hysterical laughter. "No wonder you were so freaked out."

Chase joined him in laughter as traffic became more and more snarled around them. They knew their experience wouldn't last much longer though, as in the distance they saw Cameron, Foreman, and Cuddy running toward them.

---------------

Chase started digging through his closet, trying to find the photo album that reflected his memories of late. His chest still hurt quite a bit so digging through all those items became that much harder.

He had been home for a week now, but somehow he woke up this morning compelled to find it. Finally, he spotted the album buried in the back. He dusted it off while he made his way over to the bed.

The memories were thick and overwhelming at first. The book was devoted to pictures of holidays in Queensland. With each turn of the page he saw the smiles and happy faces, the playfulness and joy that had filled his early childhood. The pictures paled in comparison to actually being in the landscape of the rolling meadows, but the faces captured more than made up for the lacking background.

As Chase continued to leaf through the photos, his sadness as well as his joy grew more powerful. How did life progress from this to its current state? The fact that he knew why it what increased his sadness. People do wear down. He could only learn from his parent's mistakes now instead of repeating them.

"Good morning, Robert."

Chase looked up startled to see Andie. She looked angelic as usual with her gorgeous long flowing white dress, her golden locks and pure bright blue eyes, but today she had a brighter aura that followed her.

"What are you doing here?" Chase asked.

"Today's the day."

"Really? Today?" Chase had been waiting for so long, he never thought this day would get here. He was glad, but at the same time was rather frightened. "Am I ready?"

She smiled sweetly and joyfully. "Yes, you are ready. It's finally over. You have suffered long enough."

"Okay," Chase stood up and took Andie's hand. "Let's go."

They stood together, all dressed in white. Chase was in his white suit, white shirt, and pale blue tie. They were standing in the back of a hospital room. Looking forward they could see Cameron sitting next to a comatose patient on life support. He was hooked to a respirator that was keeping him alive.

Andie looked at Chase with those pure heavenly blue eyes. "Just remember everything you saw was real because you perceive it to be. It is your perceptions that free your weighted soul."

Chase could only smile sweetly at her observation. "Eventually we all have to face ourselves. I'm humbled to be given this chance."

She reached over and gave him a huge hug. "I was supposed to take you, but they wanted you more. Good luck Robert."

He gave her a soft, sweet kiss on the cheek. "Thank you Andie, for everything."

Everything faded to white.

The coma patient slowly opened his blue-green eyes. Cameron jumped out of her seat in amazement.

"Chase! You're awake. Hold on, I have to page the others." Cameron ran to the phone and called the office. "Get over here and hurry!"

She rushed back to Chase's side with tears of joy rolling down her cheeks. "My God, you're awake. I never thought you would ever come back to us."

Chase looked at her with alert, happy eyes. He couldn't move much hooked to a respirator, but he did reach out his hand to grab hers. She took his hand and broke out into deep sobs.

House, Foreman, and Cuddy all rushed into the room. They were quite stunned to see an alert Chase holding onto an emotional Cameron, trying to offer her comfort.

House wasted no time grabbing his light pen and flashing it into Chase's eyes. He allowed himself to show a small relieved smile. "He looks surprisingly responsive."

"House, come here." Foreman was quick to check the vitals. House came over to see Foreman wearing his own relieved smile. "It's rare to see such strength out of someone that just came out of a long coma. Look at the pulse/ox. I'm willing to bet he can likely breathe on his own now."

House went back to Chase. "You want me to take that tube out now?"

Chase nodded rather enthusiastically. He could tell it had been there a while, so he prepared himself for the pain.

"Okay, you know the drill. Hurt, choking, that sort of thing." House unhooked the air line from the respirator and then proceeded to pull the tube out of his throat. Chase slightly rolled to one side and started choking and recoiling from the burning pain. Everyone stood still, hoping that he would be able to catch his breath.

After 30 seconds of coughing, Chase rolled back over and regained some control. All eyes were on House as he pulled out his stethoscope and started listening. "Breath sounds are normal."

"Thanks." Chase whispered in a very raw voice.

"Don't try to talk too soon," Cameron told him while still clutching onto his hand. She handed him a cup of water.

Chase realized that the pain in his chest was no longer there as he drank the water. He only felt mild tightness and looked down to see no signs of a bleeding wound at all. He also didn't feel weak and tired anymore.

"My chest feels good." Only half of the words came out clear, but Cameron knew what he said.

"You've had a month in a coma for that to heal. A long coma is a perfect way for a chest wound to heal quickly."

"A month?" Chase knew he had been lingering a long time. He had one day in the after life and the rest was drifting and reconciling things within his own mind. He lost track. He couldn't believe it was a month.

"You stopped breathing on your own a day after surgery because of swelling in the brain due to being down for so long during the operation." Foreman explained. "We had no reason to believe the damage was permanent, but it was severe enough where we knew healing would take time."

House was pleased that Chase mentioned his chest pain. "Chase, do you remember what happened?"

He nodded and whispered, "Every bit. I was shot through the heart."

Cameron, Foreman and House all glanced at each other with deep reassurance. They were afraid of memory loss too.

"Well, I don't mind saying that you had us worried sick," Cuddy said watching the others try to be professional doctors. She came over and put her hand on Chase's shoulder. "I'm glad you're okay."

Chase smiled. After his long ordeal, he could finally declare, "Yes, I'm okay."

The End

a/n: When I originally wrote this chapter, Chase died in the end (thus prompting a rewrite). I read it, I cried, I loved it, and realized I would so piss off anyone who has stuck with this story. So, I went the other way. The epilogue shows the alternate ending for all those that were curious.

Thank you for all your comments and devotion to a story that got the inspiration to do while walking to my car from work one day. This has turned out to be my most reviewed story ever!