Chapter 34

Roman Nuptials

The day before my presentation I had followed House to the American Embassy in Rome to' run an errand' he claimed he had to complete. He told me to bring my passport so that I could get into the embassy with him. We went throughsecurity and Greg told the Marine at the desk that we had an appointment with the Ambassador. After calling back to the Ambassador's undersecretary, we were escorted to his office.

Ambassador Carson smiled, shook our hands and said congratulations, asked for our passports, filled in some information on his computer and printed a form. He signed and stamped it, then wished us luck.

I was confused. As we walked towards the exit I asked, "Greg? What's going on? What is that documen and why did he need my passport?"

Greg took me outside before answering the question. "Look, I figure you can keep running around screwing up your life saving my butt, and I can keep running around finding ways to get your attention, like having another infarction, or, we can just call a spade a spade and declare our undying love. It may mean that we're passengers on the Titanic, but I vote for going down together." He held up the paper that the Ambassador had given him. "This document is an 'Osta Nulla.'"

My mouth dropped as I froze in place. "An Osta Nulla! You want to get married?"

"That's what this document says. And to top it off, I bought this ring at Tiffany's in New York. It goes with your key ring." He showed me the most beautiful platinum banded, emerald cut diamond ring I had ever seen. "Kenna, let's get married. I'm tired of all this crap...does he love me, does she love me...don't say it or it's real...blah, blah. I love you and I want to live with you. I don't care about the Board of Directors or PPTH; it's only a job. I can come down and practice with you wherever you go. Will you marry me?"

He was looking at me under the most perfect late-morning summer sun and I thought to myself, should I tell him now or wait until we're married? My throat clamped down as I confessed, "There's something you should know because you might not want to marry me. I've been very selfish." I paused and swallowed hard. "There was a payoff for what I did and I didn't tell you about it because I never envisioned this proposal happening."

"Let me see, could it have anything to do with the fact that when I called your lab, Esteban answered and congratulated me? He told me that I was lucky that it took the first time which meant we could save the remaining four for stem cells if we needed them."

"You know I'm pregnant?"

"Duh...usually when an embryologist tells you, "Congratulations, it took", he's not talking about dying your hair. I know that you stole one of the blastocytes and had it implanted. You know what it means? You need a husband or they're going to call you a hussy. Of course they'd be right, but I can cover for you." He put his hands on my upper arms and stared directly into my eyes. "Look, we don't have all day. It's 11:00 a.m. Our appointment at the civil registrar is at 4:00 p.m. when they open after lunch. We need to find you a wedding dress and get you some lunch." He started pulling me down the street.

As we were rushing down the Spanish Steps, I yelled out, "For the record, yes, I'll marry you Gregory House. But let's make it clear, I didn't help you so that you would marry me. I did it because I love you and didn't want you in pain." He kept pulling me down the stairs. "And, by the way, I'm too excited to eat. "

Greg waved a hand at me. "Blah, blah, blah, blah. I could give a rat's ass why you did it. I know you love me and I'm perfectly happy hearing you say it as your penance for the rest of your life. Everything else is superfluous."

We kissed at the bottom of the steps and then he slipped the ring on my finger. It was a little big but he said he would have it sized when we got home. I took a band-aid out of my bag and wrapped it around the band of the ring to make sure it stayed on while we shopped. House took me straight to Piaza di Spagna. I found nothing in the designer shops, but one of the clerks sent me to a vintage designer shop and I found a tea-length Gucci white gown with short sleeves and lots of lace over a very flowy organza silk. It floated; the slightest of winds would make it billow behind me like a fairy. It was low cut, but very, very feminine. I purhased a wreath of little flowers for my hair and after we went to the hotel for Greg to dress in his blue suit, we went to the registrar and were married.

On our wedding night we only called one person to announce our marriage. I dialed James. I didn't want him to hear it from anyone else.

"James Wilson," he answered.

"James, it's Kenna."

"Kenna, how are you? House told me he was going to go see you in Rome. Are you in Rome?"

"Yes, we're both here." I took a deep breath. "I wanted to call you personally to let you know that this afternoon Greg and I were married." There was dead silence. "James? I'm sorry. I know you're wondering if I ever really had feelings for you. I want you to know that I did. I did love you."

"You just loved House more."

"I realized that I have always been in love with Greg."

His voice was tight, "Well, I hope you both will be happy. I appreciate the heads up. Does Cuddy know?"

"You're the only one who knows; I thought we owed you that. Do you want to speak to Greg?"

"I don't think so, not just yet."

"Ok, I understand."

After I hung up, House looked at me, "Is he pouting?"

"Greg, give it a rest. He's upset. He loved me and you married me. How did you feel when Stacey showed up with Mark? Happy to see her? Happy for the two of them? I doubt it. I bet you wanted him dead."

"Who me?"

I smiled at him and crawled up on the bed to hold him. We fell asleep, me in my wedding dress, Greg in his suit paints, dark socks and white shirt unbuttoned at the collar. When we woke up it was midnight. We undressed, made love and went back to sleep.