A/N: OldSFfan, you will read in the next chapter how House and Reilly make his apartment work for the two of them. :D

2014

"I can't believe I let you talk me into this," House complained. He leaned close to the mirror and ran his finger along the neck of his tuxedo shirt. It felt like an ever tightening noose around his neck.

"It's Kutner's wedding so man up," Wilson told him as he nudged him aside to look in the mirror. "He could have gone the traditional Hindi route and made you wear a Kurta." Reaching up, he smoothed his hair and checked his teeth.

"Jesus, you are vain," House complained as he sank down onto an overstuffed chair in the stuffy, ornate room. "He had to pick the hottest day of the year and a place where the air conditioning isn't working."

Wilson turned his head from side to side as he continued to gaze into the mirror. "They're working on fixing the A/C," he assured House. "And it isn't that hot."

House tugged on his collar again and leaned back in the chair. "I don't even know why he'd ask me to be his best man," he sighed. "He should have asked one of his geek squad to do it."

Wilson turned from the mirror. "You're wrinkling your tux," he commented. House shrugged. "Which you don't care about," he continued as he adjusted his own tux jacket. "Larry asked you to be his best man because you're his friend and you introduced him to Sherry."

"Huh," House grunted. "Think Kutner minds that she was a hooker?"

Wilson's eyes widened and his eyebrows climbed up his forehead. "Sherry was a hooker?" he asked incredulously. "You're letting Kutner marry a hooker?"

House folded his hands behind his head and stretched his legs out. "I'm not letting him do anything. Sherry was leaving my place and Kutner came by so I introduced them. A few days later she asked for his number and I gave it to her. That is the extent of my involvement with their pair bonding."

Wilson put one hand on his hip and squeezed the bridge of his nose with the other. "Does Reilly know that your PT is a hooker?" he grimaced.

"Was a hooker," House clarified. "It's how she paid for school. And yes, Reilly knows. And before you ask, no, she doesn't care what Sherry did to me while going to school. Now I get PT and a massage but no more happy endings. Now I get my happy endings from Reilly and she is fine with that."

Wilson placed his other hand on his other hip and shook his head. "I don't know of any other woman who wouldn't be jealous and demand you fire Sherry."

House blew out some air and looked directly into Wilson's eyes. "Reilly trusts me. She knows I love her and won't do anything to mess things up between us. I trust her, too. We talk about everything going on in our life." He smiled slightly. "I like it. She's not all judgemental like some people I could name."

Wilson ignored the jab and carefully sat down next to House. "How is the renovation going?"

House rolled his neck and groaned. "Never ending. Remember that time the place flooded? Well, all the foundation, subfloors and support beams have to be replaced. The contractor is saying it will be another six months since Reilly told him to gut the place and add on to the bathroom and bedroom. I thought we'd be done by now. We've been living in that crappy rental near the hospital for a year now."

"But, think how great it will look when it's all done."

"If it gets done."

Kutner appeared in the doorway and smiled at them. "Ready?" he asked.

"No." House sighed. "But let's do it anyway."

The ceremony was over quickly and all the guests drove a short distance to a nice hotel for the reception. Reilly and House sat and watched as Kutner danced with his new bride.

"Does this make you want to get married again?" House asked as he took a sip of his scotch and soda.

Reilly glanced at him. "Does this make you want to get married?" she asked in return.

"People get married to procreate," House commented as he watched Kutner and Sherry exchange a kiss. "You've already procreated."

"People also get married because they want to legally tie themselves to another person," she countered. She took a sip of her martini. "I don't need a piece of paper to keep me tied to you."

House tilted his head. "Neither do I."

Reilly smiled and shook her head. How typical of Greg to bring up marriage just to let her know he didn't need to marry her; that what they had was enough.

The newlyweds finished their dance and a large glass box was rolled onto the dance floor. It was filled with water.

"Oh, Jesus," House sighed. "They hired that magician. I don't want to see some hack pull a key out his mouth underwater. I want to eat."

"We just ate during the cocktail hour," Reilly told him. "You went back twice. You can't possibly be hungry."

"I can be bored."

The magician entered and went through his routine. He called a giggly bridesmaid up to test the container and the water. House sighed loudly as the man was lowered, handcuffed, into the water. The magician wriggled around and then went still as a thin stream of blood floated upward in the water. Two men ran forward and broke the glass. The magician slid across the floor unconscious.

Reilly looked at House. "Still bored?" she asked.

"Nope. Looks like we've got a new patient."

The magician, Finn, was taken to the ER where he was stabilized before being moved up to the fourth floor. Reilly and Volakis went straight from the reception to the hospital so they could begin running tests. House went home and tired to sleep. He tossed and turned as his mind went over all the reasons a person would lose consciousness after being lowered into a vat of water. Finally around five AM he gave up trying to sleep, showered and got dressed. When he arrived at his office, Cameron, Volakis and Kutner sat around the table.

"Why aren't you cavorting with Sherry on some exotic sandy beach?" he asked Kutner as he tossed his backpack behind his desk.

"We pushed back our honeymoon and we were going to Nova Scotia not a beach," Kutner told him.

House stood in the doorway between the two rooms and leaned on his cane. "What the hell is in Nova Scotia?" he asked.

"Whales and puffins," Kutner told him. "And Sherry's family." he looked up at House. "You didn't know she's from Halifax? We were going to visit her grandmother while we were there."

"Go," House told him. "Frolic with the whales and puffins and Sherry's grandmother. Somebody will update you about your new BFF."

"If you're sure…" Kutner began.

"Go," House said again.

Kutner got up and raced for the elevator. House shook his head and made his way over to the board.

"We examined Finn and he had no symptoms before he went into the water. He is good at card tricks," Cameron commented. She looked up at House and smiled. House looked over his shoulder at her with narrowed eyes.

"Did you do an MRI?" he asked.

Volakis shrugged. "There didn't seem to be any need to. He got in the water, panicked and had a heart attack."

"Where's Reilly?" he asked.

"With Finn," Cameron said. "She wanted to test his lungs."

"Get an MRI," House ordered. "Then, if there is really nothing wrong with him, make him disappear. See what I did there? Magician humor."

Finn lay on the MRI table with his head turned away from Reilly.

"Just cough it up," she said. "I can't do the MRI."

"I don't have a key," Finn muttered.

Reilly sighed and looked over her shoulder at Volakis and Cameron in the imaging room. "This machine is a giant magnet. It will cause internal bleeding and organ damage which we can repair or, if you're lucky, just rip that key right out of you."

"Fine," he muttered and put one finger down his throat. He gagged and a key fell onto the table. Finn looked over at Reilly. "How'd you know I swallowed the key to the cuffs?"

"It's a classic Houdini trick," she smiled as she pressed a button. Finn rolled smoothly into the MRI machine. Reilly walked into the imaging room and sat down. She flicked on the microphone. "Lie still," she told Finn. Volakis began the scan. Halfway through, Cameron leaned forward and looked at Finn on the screen.

"Stop the scan," she ordered. "He's got a massive nosebleed."

"Hey, Red!" Finn called out. "My nose is bleeding!"

"A nosebleed that major means he's actually sick. Means the cardiac arrest was a symptom," House said as he wrote NOSE BLEED on the board.

"Could be cocaine," Volakis said.

"Could be polyarteritis nodosa," Cameron said. "We should biopsy a vessel around his heart since he presented with cardiac arrest."

Reilly leaned back in her chair and chewed on her bottom lip. "He bled out of his mouth at the wedding. Now he has a massive nosebleed." She tapped her nose and then her mouth. "Bleeding out of two orifices means a bleed around the heart."

"If you let our minions break into patients' houses, we'd probably find rabbits which means he has tularemia," House told her.

Reilly continued to stare out into space. "No more breaking and entering. Allison, do the biopsy. Amber, start him on antibiotics."

Once they were gone, House sat down next to Reilly. He ran his finger down her cheek and along the curve of her jaw. "If you let them break in-"

"One of them could get sick again," she interrupted as she tilted her head to allow him to trace the length of her neck.

He leaned forward and placed a kiss behind her ear. "I could hire a thief," he breathed.

She turned her head and kissed him. "You already did that, remember? Now he's in LA making the big bucks."

He pulled the neckline of her scrubs away from her skin and looked down at her breasts. "Foreman always bitched about doing B&Es." Dropping a kiss on her collarbone, he smoothed her top and sat back. "You hungry?"

She nodded and stood. "You buying?" she asked with a slight smile.

He rolled his eyes. "I guess."

After numerous tests, House stood at the whiteboard with a self-satisfied smile on his face. "I finally have a case of lupus." He looked at Volakis with a smile. "Thank you, CB, for giving him the wrong blood type. That helped me solve the case."

"We test for antibodies not type," she grumbled. "And he'd be dead if I hadn't given him that blood. He had type A."

"Yes, but his body was also producing the antibodies for type B so, presto-change-o, he has type AB and therefore lupus."

Cameron looked at him. "You're awfully excited about the fact Finn has a life-threatening disease."

"It's never lupus," he told her. "Until it is."