You are mine, and I am yours (Gregory House)

Chapter 29

2009
House stood in front of the whiteboard staring at a set of symptoms. It was just after midnight and they'd all been working since the day before.

"Maybe Greg's soap star really is--" Reilly began when all their pagers went off. She looked down at hers. "Ugh. We have to go down to the ER. Bus crash."

"Well, there's nothing we can do for Brock Sterling right now," House said. "May as well go down and pull glass shards out of people."

As soon as they arrived in the ER, Cuddy rushed over to House and Reilly. Her face was pale and her breath came in short gasps.
"Niamh was on the bus," she began. "A pole impaled her liver and one of her lungs. She also suffered massive head trauma when the bus flipped. We've made her comfortable-"

"Where is she?" House growled as Reilly leaned into him clutching his shirt.
Cuddy led them to a quiet corner of the ER. She pulled back the curtain and stepped back. Niamh lay in the bed, hooked up to an EEG, a heart bypass machine and a respirator.

"I'm sorry," Cuddy whispered. "The damage was too extensive and she lost too much blood before they found her. I made them put her on the machines before I called you."

Reilly gripped the edge of the bed and pulled herself forward until she stood by Niamh's side. She took her aunt's hand and began to sob.

"Get her on the list for a kidney and liver transplant," House said walking around to the other side of the bed. He pulled a stool over and sat down. He looked at Niamh. She was bruised and cut but she looked serene as if she was merely sleeping.

"It's too late," Cuddy told him. She looked at Reilly. "You're her next of kin. You have to decide what you want to do."
Reilly swallowed hard. She looked at the EEG and saw there was no brain activity.

"Unhook her," Reilly said. "She's gone."

"NO!" House shouted. "We get her a new kidney and a new liver!"

Cuddy slipped away closing the curtain. Reilly looked at House.
"Greg," she said softly as tears flowed down her cheeks and dripped off her chin. "Look at the EEG. She's gone."

House laid his head down on Niamh's shoulder and rested his hand on her stomach. "I asked her to stay. She was going to stay."

"I know," Reilly told him. "She loves you so much."

House stood up and turned off the machines. The heart monitor began a long steady beep. He put his fist through it. Reilly ran over to him and took his bloody fist in her hands. He gathered her in his arms and they both cried.

XxXxXxXx

Reilly sat next to House on a plane headed for Ireland. Most of her family filled the seats around them. They were taking Niamh home.
When they arrived in Shannon, Arden was waiting for them. Tad and Gaia both died several years earlier. They all waited in the terminal as Niamh's casket was unloaded from the plane. A large van from the local funeral home drove up to the plane. Two men got out and transferred the coffin to the van then drove away.

"They're takin' Ma to Aunt Branna's house to be laid out for the wake," Arden told them as they made their way to the bus waiting outside the terminal. Porters were loading their luggage into it.

Meara stopped him and cupped his face. "You're allowed to grieve for her," she told him.

He nodded. "I have and I will," he told her. "But now is the time to celebrate her life, right?" Meara nodded and followed Gil onto the bus.
"A bus?" House rasped.

"Greg," Reilly whispered as she took his hand. He gripped it tightly and they got on the bus.

When they arrived at Branna's house, the van was already there and the men were unloading the casket. Branna, who could have been Meara's twin, directed them into the house.
House climbed down from the bus with Reilly behind him. Branna's sons and grandsons unloaded all the luggage from the bus. The bus driver got out once everyone was off and helped carry the luggage into the house.