Not Everybody Lies

Chapter 3 - No More Air

"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors," the pastor's voice rang loud and clear in the small hot room as Allison listened, with half an ear, but she listened, yet somewhere along the line she'd stopped. She couldn't listen anymore… not when she knew that what followed was a few words from the deceased's friends and family. Not when she knew that the one that had the most right to say a few words about his best friend wasn't there.

She couldn't listen when she could still remember the last time she'd been here: tears rolling down her face; sad, angry but beautiful words being said by a man that deserved so much more; her heart breaking when Stacy Warner spoke of a future she and he both had wanted and never had - a future Allison knew she could have given him, a future he'd never wanted with her - ashes and pain; sorrow and tears; death and cowardice.

No, she couldn't listen anymore… "… now and for ever. Amen."

She picked up Dylan - she had had no one in Princeton to leave him with, so she'd brought him along (God only knows how happy I'm of his age right no - he wouldn't remember a thing by next week.) - and before anyone got the chance to notice her she got up from her chair in the back of the room and made to leave. But someone did noticed and just as she'd turned her back to the gathering ready for her departure Robert Chase's whispered voice from her left stopped her in her tracks. "You alright, Allison?"

Allison sighed. "Dylan need's some fresh air," she lied more easily than she'd thought possible, but maybe the part where she didn't even looked at the man that once used to be her husband made it a that more easy.

"I'll come with," Robert said and there was a sad little smile in his voice, which made Allison cringe - I don't want you with me, she thought of saying, she did say it in her mind, but didn't spoke the words out loud as Robert continued to speak, "I need some fresh air too."

She sighed again, a resigned little sigh, too soft and low for anyone, even Robert, to hear and stared walking, deciding to ignore her ex for the moment at least. She just wanted, no needed, to get the hell out of there. There wasn't enough air in the room, or enough life for that matter, though it was packed with friends and an arsenal of family, yet still, the one person missing, the one person who should have been there but wasn't, the one person she needed to be there and wasn't seemed to suck all the air and life out of the room.

She needed to leave.

Allison barely made it to the door, before her decision of ignoring Robert got taken away from her as he somehow got in front of her and before she knew he was lifting Dylan out of her arms and settling him on his chest.

"Here," Robert cooed at the toddler who shifted for a second in his arms, before settling quite comfortable.

Traitor, Allison mind shouted, though there was no heat to it. How could it be, when once upon a time - and it wasn't even that long of a time ago - she dreamt of this? A blonde bundle of joy, with her and Robert's DNA, a piece of them to love and cherish and rub in House's face to show him what he'd missed by not loving her.

She left them go out the door first, Dylan wasn't even paying her any attention, he was playing with Robert's striped somber tie. It took Allison a second to recognize it and when she smiled - it was the same tie Eric had on at her and Robert's wedding. Nice one, Robert!

As the her ex and her baby left the room she turned once more towards the gathering of those who had once been a part of her life and with a little sigh she whispered her 'Good Bye'. "See you and House on the other side, Wilson. Please take care of him till I get there!"

---

House was standing just outside the funeral home when Chase walked out with …

A baby? What the hell!

He knew math wasn't his strength, never was and never will be, but still he could do some math and five months didn't really added up to a baby - a blonde, blue-eyed, round-faced baby who looked so much like…

Cameron?

He couldn't believe she was there, walking out of the funeral home with tears in her eyes and heading towards the Aussie and what House sure as hell was her son.

Yeah, she'd been Wilson's friend, he thought as he took in her new and, he had to admit it, improved figure - motherhood sure suited her.They've gone on a date once, I think, but… What the hell was she doing back from God-Knows-Where and with the little bugger in toe?

There had to be a reason, there had to be an explanation and he wasn't Gregory House - or Frosty the Snowman, he chuckled - if he wasn't going to figure it out and soon at that.

---

"So…" Robert started to say, but trailed off as Allison walked up to him and squeezing her arms between her son's little body and her ex's chest she scooped the baby out of his arms and settled him in hers.

"I'm back - I have a kid - I'm divorced… again - and that's that," she stated in a soft cooed voice, with her head buried in her son's golden hair, without even looking at the man before her. She didn't need to see him, not now - she already saw enough of him on the way here and she was sure going to get enough of seeing him later, when she'll be back at PPTH, working for none other than Robert Chase, her former colleague and ex-husband. No, she really didn't need to look at him right now - it wasn't even like she even wanted to see him again, but Foreman insisted and she needed to get away from her latest divorce - God, its sounds like I have one every other month! - and she had to admit she wanted to be back. Back to House, or at least the memory of him.

She expected an offended or angry sound, some words, anything that would signal she'd hit home with her new temper. She was disappointed, because she didn't expected Robert's chuckle.

"Good to know! Well, I'm glad you're back - I'm still not a parent, but I'm more than happy for you - I'm divorced too, if you remember, but I'm seeing someone - and that's that."

"Who," she asked even before she realized she was actually curios and that only made Robert chuckle some more.

"Adams - I think you meet her at House's funeral."

"Yeah," she sighed as his words brought House back to the front of her mind - he always was at the front of her mind and that used to annoy the hell out of her. Not now though… not here.

"Still raw," he asked and Allison felt her eyes shifting to his face almost on they're on volition. There was sadness there, in his voice and on his face; almost as if just like her he still missed him. But it couldn't be the same - It isn't the same, she decided as the sadness went away and was replaced by his trademark bright smile, only Wilson and Blythe - maybe Cuddy and Stacy - had it the same (or at least close enough). Not Robert… not Eric… not anybody else. Yet it was there and she found it somehow rewarding to know that no matter how many times Robert had whined about House, how many times he'd bitched about all that he stood for, he still felt something for him; be it only respect and admiration as a doctor - it didn't matter as long it was there. And it sure as hell was his Robert's eyes.

"Yeah," she admitted and squeezed her hands a bit harder around Dylan.