I know that we're all feeling very emotional this week with the announcement of the show's cancellation. It's going to be hard to see it go. Personally, I've made so many friends - mostly other fan fic writers that you will find on this site: gorblimey, glenlivet, pyewacket, hilandmum, brighid45 among others. I'll be eternally grateful to the show for that alone. But I've also been able to flex my writing muscles because of the fascinating character of Gregory House.

Oh, well, onward...

Chapter 11

Later that night, Julia was lying in bed, thinking about the day: Mrs. Lassiter's funeral and leaving everything to her. It was mind boggling and she thought about what she could do with that money.

She'd been thinking about all evening. She'd come back to the cabin early while House stayed at Tom's and played piano.

When House came back and climbed into bed with her, he wasn't surprised to find that she was still awake.

"If you can't sleep, why don't you try counting your money?" he told her.

"Ha, ha." She curled into him. "I've got lots of things swirling around in my head."

"Understandable."

"What do you think I should do with the money?"

"Nope, you are not getting me to tell you that. It can't end well no matter what I say."

"Well, what would you do?" she asked him.

"Do you really want to know?"

"Yes."

"I'm not a self-sacrificing do-gooder like you. I would get extremely drunk for several days. Then the orgies would follow and the extravagant spending, before I woke up, naked, weeks later somewhere in South America with no recollection of how I got there."

"No, you wouldn't!" she said with a laugh.

"You really don't know me, do you?"

"Maybe I don't. But I think you're more talk than action."

"Right now, I'm thinking, less talk and more action." He said as he moved his hands over her breasts. "I've never had sex with an heiress before."

"Oh, well then…" She put her arms around him and pulled him close to her.

Later that night, as House snored softly beside her, she thought about the money and the man beside her. If there was a way that they two could be connected and could help the island as well…

She'd have to consider that.

The next day, while House tended bar, Julia sat with Tom when he asked her what she intended to do with the money.

"I don't know. Maybe I'll go buy my own island and just live there and stare at the ocean all day."

"Yeah, right."

"What?"

"You could no more do that than I could fly through the air."

She smiled, knowing he was right. "Mrs. Lassiter wanted me to help the island and I think I'd like to do that, but I'm not sure how."

"You'll figure something out."

"Maybe." But she was looking at House while she said that.

"You think that you can make him stay with the money?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. Probably not."

"But you want to?"

She stared at the table, then at House again before saying quietly, "I want to keep him."

"He's not a dog, Julia. You don't get to say if he stays or goes."

"I know."

The older man watched her for a bit. "You like him, don't you?"

She met his gaze. "Do you really think I'd be sleeping with him if I didn't?"

"No, you wouldn't. But he's not the type to stay here, you know that, right?"

She nodded. "I know. But I can enjoy him for as long as I have him, can't I?"

"Sure. But what's going to happen to you when he goes?"

"I'll survive. I've survived worse."

In the next week or so, Julia thought a lot about what to do with her inheritance. But while she was thinking, she went to the house and cleaned it, cleaning it out as she did. She gathered all of the old woman's clothes and donated them to a charity that provided for the poor. She cleared out all the food in the refrigerator and cupboards, disposing of anything that was out of date and giving the non-perishables to the same charity.

Mrs. Lassiter had a few nice pieces of jewelry that were very old-fashioned, but they charmed Julia, so she took those and the little velvet jewelry box with her. House told her to sell them, but she said no. She wanted something to remind her of her friend. There were a few trinkets around the house that she also took, but not much. Others she distributed to people who were also friends with the woman so that everyone could have a memento.

But while she did all of this, she kept thinking about what the island needed and what could be done with the house and the money.

When she got an idea, she started talking to House about it.

"The island really needs some sort of medical facility," she told him.

He was silent, not liking where she was going with that.

"I think the house is big enough to hold a small clinic, don't you?"

"Mmm." He said, non-committedly.

"The master bedroom could hold a few beds if people needed to stay there."

He just stared at her.

"There's enough money in the estate and through the investments to pay a salary for a doctor. Not a huge salary, but enough."

"What doctor is going to want to work for the pittance you want to pay him or her? A young doctor wants to get ahead, so they won't come here. And an older doctor is used to making a lot more money."

"There could be someone. I mean, it wouldn't be hard work, it's not like there are a lot of sick people. There could be someone who needs a change. Who needs to run away from something and wouldn't mind living in paradise while he does it."

He just stared at her for several minutes, then said quietly, "No."

"What? No what?"

"I know what you're trying to do, Julia, and it won't work. I am not the sort of doctor that works in a small clinic, swabbing people's crotch rot."

"Are you the sort of doctor who tends bar and plays piano?"

"For now I am."

"But for how long? I know you won't want to do that forever and you don't want to go back to New Jersey, so why not practice medicine somewhere else."

"I told you, I'm not licensed here and I won't be able to be without revealing where I am."

"Greg, do you really think they are going to extradite you for an extreme vandalism charge?"

"I don't know, but I'm not going to chance it."

"It really wouldn't matter. The government here isn't too picky. They'd be so happy to have any doctor here, they wouldn't look too closely."

"Oh, great! I really want to be a doctor who can't work anywhere else, so he works for the shady government that doesn't care."

"It wouldn't be like that." She protested.

"Julia, give it up."

"But…"

"No. That's enough." He walked away from her.

But she couldn't let it go. She gave it a few more days, then mentioned it to him again. Again, he shot her down, but she didn't give up. Whenever she got a chance, she slipped it in to their conversation. He began to dread talking to her, knowing that she was going to try to convince him to stay there and be the island doctor.