Title: The Promise

Author: pgrabia

Disclaimer: House M.D. and its characters do not belong to me. I am only borrowing them for entertainment purposes only and I'm not making any money from this.

Genre: Drama/Romance/angst

Characters/Pairing(s): G. House, J. Wilson, S. Warner, E. Foreman and other canon characters, OCs/ House/Wilson preslash, House/Stacy friendship-UST.

Word Count: ~1600

Spoilers/Warnings: General spoilers for all seasons up to and including the series finale, 8x22 "Everybody Dies". Major character death. Drug and alcohol use, coarse language, adult content.

Rating: R (M) (to be safe) unless otherwise advised.

A/N: This is my attempt to deal with my hatred of the final story arc in the series. The characters may be OOC. Sorry about that. Sorry too that this fic includes major character death. I don't usually write about that and if you find it to be a trigger for you then you best not read this.

Unbetaed, sorry.

The Promise

Chapter Six

"Quickly, tell me what you found out, Steve," Bernard asked his private detective over the secure land-line telephone in his office.

Stephen "Steve" Melnik had spent nearly two days in Princeton investigating both Princeton's and Princeton-Plainboro Teaching Hospitals plumbing and sewer systems. Bernard had had a hunch from the start that somewhere between the hospital or the town there was some kind of previous neglect or damage existent prior to House's act of stupidity, flushing tickets down a toilet. In an institution the size of a hospital, one plugged toilet shouldn't result in a catastrophic failure of the entire plumbing system. He'd sent his PI out to nose around and learn what he could in hope that his discoveries would work in Gregory House's favor.

"Your hunch was right, Deacon," the seasoned investigator told him. "The plumbing system had been neglected for years. Three inspections prior to the incident in question listed serious deficiencies and repairs were cited that had to be completed in order to pass. Four warnings were given after the inspection before the catastrophe at the hospital, and from all evidence, those warnings were ignored due to 'budget constraints'. I've got all the documentation you need to prove that the hospital's plumbing system was seriously compromised before the client allegedly flushed those tickets down the toilet."

"Excellent work, Steve," Bernard told him, grinning. "I look forward to perusing those documents, and I'm certain Dr. House will be pleased as well."

"I just sent the documents by special courier so they should reach you by tomorrow morning at the latest," Steve told him.

"Good enough. Talk to you later," Bernard said before hanging up and then placing a call to Stacy Warner's number. Stacy, of course, was the one to answer even though the lawyer knew his client was staying with her.

"I've put you on speakerphone so both Greg and I can hear you at the same time," Stacy informed him.

"Good news," Bernard told her. "Princeton-Plainsboro's plumbing is the pits and was even worse when House was accused of vandalism. My PI has all the documentation we need to cast reasonable doubt. I have an appointment with the ADA tomorrow to put out feelers for the possibility of a plea deal that will be satisfactory and I'm certain this new information will help our case immensely. If Dr. House hadn't been wrongfully accused of felony vandalism, his parole wouldn't have been revoked and he wouldn't have been in a panic to remain free for the sake of his dying friend and lover. Juries eat this kind of thing up. I don't think I'll have any trouble getting the felony vandalism charges dropped."

"That all and good but it doesn't change the fact that I fled from custody and am a fugitive," House pointed out. "How are you planning on dealing with that?"

"That is going to be where it gets a bit tricky," Bernard admitted. "I'll be trying to have the penalty for that reduced because of mitigating factors—namely, the fact that your parole was unjustly revoked and that you fled and faked your death so you could be there for Dr. Wilson and care for him until he passed away. I'll try to convince the ADA that she would be facing a possible sympathetic judge and jury and her best bet would be a plea deal. It won't be as easy as it sounds and I may not succeed. You may end up spending the maximum time in prison, Greg. You have to be prepared for that—but it's not time to panic yet. After my meeting with the ADA, I'll have a better sense of how you should turn yourself over to the authorities and when. It has to happen, Greg. The sooner, the better for your sake."

"I know," House acknowledged quietly. "I won't apologize for running, Bernard. Wilson was the most important person in the world to me, and I would have done anything to be with him at the end of his life. I wasn't going to waste that precious time locked up for flushing some paper down a toilet."

"If we're lucky and I do my job right, both the ADA and the judge might be sympathetic to the situation you found yourself in," Deacon said soberly. "I'd like to see both of you in my office tomorrow afternoon so we can go over the information gleaned by my investigator and further plan our strategy."

"And plan for my surrender," House added, his voice grim.

"What time do you want us to arrive at, Deacon?" Stacy asked and then jotted down the information as Bernard gave it to her. "Okay, we'll see you then," she added before the call ended.

Stacy's hands went to her hips as she turned to look at House. "Things look positive."

"Appearances can be deceiving," House told her, frowning. He knew that she could be right but didn't want to acknowledge that and get his hopes up only to have them dashed to pieces. If he expected to spend the maximum amount of time in prison, when it actually happened it wouldn't blindside him.

HHH

"Gregory House is alive?"

It was the amazed question offered by Assistant District Attorney Laura Preston. She sat up in her desk chair and then stood up, towering above the seated Deacon Bernard. She spoke almost loudly enough to be heard outside her cubbyhole of an office. Bernard did a valiant job of maintaining a calm façade.

"Yes. He is…and he's ready to turn himself in. However, he understandably wants to spend as little time back behind bars as possible. We both know those ridiculous charges of felony vandalism were a farce, Laura. He allegedly plugged one toilet—I have solid proof that the hospital's and Princeton's sewer systems were in shitty condition at the time of the damage done to Princeton-Plainsboro hospital. In court I could get those charges dropped as spurious like that." He snapped his fingers. "A jury of his peers would most likely be sympathetic to the situation he found himself in, unfairly being sent back to prison on unreasonable charges. When they find out he faked his death so he could be with his partner and nurse him in the last months of his life, they'll be putty in my hands and you know it."

"You're not full of yourself at all, are you Deac?" Laura said sardonically, sitting back down at her desk. "He's a dangerous, violent offender who skipped legal custody and committed fraud—"

"Only because he felt he had no other choice," Bernard countered, cutting her off. "He felt cornered by those ridiculous charges against him, charges without any useful evidence whatsoever. As for dangerous, that's debatable. He doesn't impress me as the typical domestic abuser. And might I remind you that the first time he was arrested he turned himself in and didn't fight the charges nor the sentence handed down."

"If he didn't die in that fire, who did?" Preston demanded. "And how did he manage to fool the authorities?"

"I can't go into specifics, of course," Bernard answered calmly, tapping the armrests of his chair with the fingers on both hands, "but the body found belonged to a heroin addict who overdosed and died while House was out cold from his own use of the drug. House came down from the high and woke up to find the other man dead from an obvious overdose and the factory on fire. He has no idea how the fire was started but is certain he had nothing to do with it."

"So he says," Preston replied, scowling. "How do I know he didn't kill the other man so he could pull off his supposed death and escape from custody?"

"You don't," Deacon replied smoothly, "but you don't know that he did, either, and any evidence there might or might not have been burned up with that factory. Personally, I believe his story. I think I could convince a jury as well, not that you would have anything powerful enough to hang on potential charges."

"Why was House using heroin?" Preston asked, sighing.

"His best friend and the man he was in love with was dying of cancer, and those unfair charges against him meant he would be in prison for the last months of Dr. Wilson's life. Being an opiate addict to start with, I think it only makes sense that he would try to escape the pain he felt with heroin. Listen, Dr. House promised his lover before he died that he would continue on with his life after Dr. Wilson's passing. He wants to fulfill his promise. He knows he'll have to spend some time behind bars for what he did and is willing to turn himself in."

"So you're here for a plea deal," Preston concluded drily.

"I think it's for the best," Bernard told her. "If you saw the evidence I have in my possession, you'd drop the felony vandalism charges immediately and I know you're not keen to trust a jury with his story."

"So cough it up," Preston demanded. "What are you looking for?"

Bernard paused only a moment—for effect—before answering. "First, I want the felony vandalism charges dropped. Second, I want him to spend no more than the six months remaining on his original sentence behind bars. He shouldn't have had his parole rescinded to begin with, so I think I'm being very generous with you, Laura."

"He faked his death and was on the lamb for over six months!"

"His lover was dying!" Bernard reacted, forcing himself to remain calm. "He needed to be there with him until the end. He didn't go to that factory with the plan to fake his death—the idea came to him after nearly being killed by a falling beam. It wasn't premeditated. He acknowledges that what he did was illegal and he's willing to go back to prison to finish his sentence. If you force this to trial, I have a very good chance of getting him off and you know it. Don't forget that you owe me for the Durnam case, Laura. Those are my terms."

Preston shook her head in disbelief and exhaled loudly. "I'll take it up with the boss and get back to you."

"The sooner you do, the sooner House turns himself in," Bernard told her, rising smoothly to his feet and walking out of her office without another word exchanged. He could feel Preston's eyes boring resentfully into his back until the door shut and separated them.