A Note for My Readers:

For those who wanted an ending with a bow, I was compelled by your kind reviews to cave in. If you were perfectly happy with the open ending, I invite you to overt your eyes and 'run away, run away.' But for those of you who despise a lack of a perfect authentic cadence, I have added a coda for you that I hope you'll find more satisfying. I am, at the end of the day, a sucker for happy Hameron as much as anyone. So, if you are so inclined, read on.

Thank you, atavares, for your fine eyes overlooking my work! Especially these days that we are so much more disconnected. I really do appreciate your time and support!

Epilogue (Sort of)

They'd been traveling for nearly a full day by the time they pulled into the garage of Don Johnson's home. Thanks to the time change, however, it was mid-afternoon. His home was a quaint modern cottage at the end of a cul de sac in the village of Villip, which was just outside of Bonn. Greg was sleeping hard within minutes of being strapped into the car and didn't even budge when Allison turned to tell him to wake up.

"Let him sleep. We can take the luggage in and you can come back and take him up to bed. He's probably going to be jet lagged for a few days. I always just push through 'till at least nine or ten and it really doesn't hurt so bad the next day. If you decide to nap, you're fucked." House told her as they exited the car and grab their luggage from the boot.

"So this is it," House announced as they entered. "It's a family neighborhood. Richard hook me up with the place before I moved here or I probably would have never picked it for myself. But one of his former employees got a better job and I basically took both his job and his house. I've been renting it since. I guess I was too lazy to find someplace closer to work. And honestly, it's an easy drive. Half an hour on the worst days. Most the time I can make it in under twenty on my bike."

"It's nice," Cameron smiled as she finally let herself breath. They made it and for the first time in weeks she relaxed. She walked to the far wall, past a small open kitchen, to an open living area with a small couch and two walls covered by large bays of windows. They looked out on a field behind the home. A couple of homes flanked the far end of the field. A couple of kids were chasing one another in heavy jackets. She smiled and looked up at House as he stepped up beside her. "I'll go get Greg out of the car. Poor kid. He's completely zonked."

"There are two bedrooms upstairs. I got a bunk bed for him and put it in the room on the left. It's a little bigger and has a view of the field. But he can decide tomorrow if he'd rather have the other room. It's got the guest bed now, but Gretchen can help us switch it up he'd like. The master is on the main floor. Just down that hall," he points and grabs the handle of her roller suitcase. "I'll take our stuff back. You tuck in the kid then come fuck me in." With a wink, he heads down the hall and Allison turns back toward the garage to retrieve her son.

A few minutes later, she'd carried the sleepy boy upstairs and tucked him into his new bed. Pushing his hair aside, she hoped he'd like it here. There was a strong change in a few days there would begin a series of meltdowns before true acceptance would come. Hopefully, she and House could find enough to distract him for long enough for his memories of his old life to fade.

She planted a kiss on his forehead and headed downstairs to find her Don. It was interesting just how easy it was to now first think Don and how quickly she was already reacting to the name Nora and even more surprising Mrs. Johnson.

Missus. Huh. A change from Doctor which was harder to deal with than the loss of Cameron. She'd not wanted to broach real-life on the trip. It was far easier to play the role but now… Well now she was going to — "Fuck your cock is so goddamn sexy," her mouth involuntarily interrupted her thoughts when she entered her new master bedroom to find her husband stroking said cock while lying butt naked in the center of a large bed, wearing nothing but a wicked grin.

"Come here and ride it," he ordered. She was undressing before the words were out of his mouth, closing and locking the door behind her. The room was chiller than she realized and she jogged the small distance to the bed and quite literally jumped him.

Sinking down on him with a satisfied hum, she remembered, "Oh, hey, we totally missed the turning of the year because of flying forward in time. Happy New Year, Don."

His head was thrown back from her first swift stroke, but he looked up and replied to her "It is now. I want to ring in every new year from now on inside your hot little pussy. You make me so hard I hurt, Nora."

"I've been aching to fuck you for as long as I can remember. Feel how wet you make me?" She was already dripping down his balls and they'd barely started. He answered her with a low hum and laid back as she began to ride him. She was so tired she was practically in a trance fueled by instinct. He filled her. It was perfect. No man had ever felt this right beneath her. When his thumb found her clit, she shrieked in response then moaned and ground against him.

She was completely lost in sensation as he sat up and pulled her to him. Grabbing her ass and nibbling at the long tendon on the right side of her neck, he began to rock more frantically with her. His words filtered into her consciousness slowly. "Nora, baby, I'm so close… I want to come inside you. If you don't want it then…" she kissed him and rocked harder. Her logical mind was lost to insufficient sleep and endorphins. She wanted all of him in that moment and didn't give a damn about the consequences. She was lost in his touch, his scent, his kisses, the feel of his cock exploding inside her and the way their sexes throbbed in time.

Their goal of pushing through and avoiding jet lag was screwed. Literally. They were asleep as quickly as they laid back. She still on top of him with him still inside her.

She woke up in the middle of the night to voices in the next room. Rolling over she saw it was just around midnight. "Great," she muttered to herself, having slept the whole afternoon and evening away.

Rolling out of bed, she became aware of the more sticky than normal feeling between her legs. Her hand found her head. "Oh shit."

Oh, shit, indeed and yet, a smile crept up to the corner of her mouth as she remembered how sexy it had been to let him. God, she had it bad. And still, no idea about what it was she was to become here. At the rate she was going, it seemed constantly pregnant Housewife (yes she meant the pun) seemed the likeliest answer.

Sighing, she rose and entered the adjoining bath to take a quick shower.

Ten minutes later, she was dressed in her flannel pants and one of Don's sweatshirts and heading out to the great room.

Don was there with Greg, milling through his cabinets, discussing the differences between Froot Loops in Germany versus the U.S. "Yeah, they don't have all the cool colors because the man has them down. Too many chemicals for the Germans, but they're seriously worth the risk. On the upside, these have more sugar to counterbalance the healthy stuff."

"I dunno, Daddy, dey kinda taste like the chalk at preschool."

Cameron stopped at that. Seemed Greg was still in character. Suddenly, she felt a twinge of guilt. While Greg, House and she were here playing house, Greg's real father would have to know by now that his son was missing.

House turned just then, with a different box of cereal that she didn't recognize and made eye contact. "I don't really want to know why you know how the preschool chalk tastes. This is the only other cereal we have. We can go out tomorrow and get something else if you don't like it." He placed the box with a strange graphic of a pink tornado down on his counter and passed it to Greg. The boy grabbed the box and began pouring it over the other cereal in his bowl.

"You know, he's still a little young to serve himself processed sugar at will. I usually just use that stuff as a topping for the healthy cereal or as a treat."

"What? German Froot Loops have spinach in them." He rolled his whole head and gave her an exaggerated 'duh' face. She crossed her arms incredulously. "Seriously, they grind it up to make food coloring and stuff." He states sarcastically with a wink.

She suddenly felt on the edge of a breakdown and he saw it in her pleading look. "Alright, so not the time for jokes. Greg, I guess we'll let mommy pick the cereal tomorrow. You want some scrambled eggs? Toast? Or not breakfast at all. I mean it is the middle of the night."

"Can you make grilled cheese?"

"Yes, but I don't think I have the stuff for that. Peanut butter sandwich?"

"Um… sure."

"Mommy?" House asks, looking up again at Cameron.

"Yeah, that's fine."

He nods. "So two of them."

Cameron sighed and walked up to the bar, leaning against it next to her son. "No, I meant… I thought you were asking if it was okay for him to eat."

"Right. I did look up his medical records. I know he doesn't have a nut allergy. Look if you've got a list of things I shouldn't feed him…"

"No. It's not… look it's fine if he wants to eat that cereal once in a while. I'm… I'm just… Don can we talk for a minute." She motioned with her head to the far side of the living area where she could watch Greg but he wouldn't understand their conversation.

House nodded and they left Greg to his cereal. She lead him to the far corner, in front of the two bays of windows, which were now covered in heavy dark curtains. In a low voice, she confessed, "I think I'm starting to freak out a little."

"I can see that. My observation skills didn't die with House any more than I did."

She gave him a wry look and exhaled as she leaned back against the curtains. "Everything's starting to hit me about the rest of our lives here."

"Okay. So first off, the thing we did earlier, with the sex and the coming inside you… I think we were both a little high on our successful escape and lack of sleep. I know a local pharmacist. I can call him now and get the morning after pill and we can punt that."

"You know I hate sports metaphors. Do you want to 'punt it.'"

"I'd rather punt before than after I find out that you're leaving me and there really is a football in your stadium."

"I'm not leaving you."

"You say that, but your body language says it could be a lie. You worried about Greg? Ray?"

"Yes and yes. And I'm worried about me. I was so ready to leave my shitty life behind and now I don't know what it is I'm supposed to do now that I have."

House cracked a wicked smile. "Well, that's easy. You're doing me."

His joke went over like a lead balloon. He placed his arms around her and pulled her into his chest for a hug, kissing her on her brunette crown. "Oh, come on Nora, you left the door too wide for me not to walk through on that. I have an addiction to sarcasm, it can't be helped. I have the therapy bills to prove it."

She gave him nothing but silence as she wondered if her faith had been misplaced.

"Alright. I'm…" he pushed her back and leaned down to force her to look him in the eyes. "Look, it's going to be fine. I didn't have time to get all the details in place before I got you out of the country, but I do have a plan. You know me. I can't not overthink a thing. Come sit down, I'll explain and in a few days when you're settled in, we'll start making it all work."

They sat on the couch. She wouldn't look at him. If she did, she knew she'd cry. She was over crying and now wasn't the time for second thoughts. He gave her space, sitting beside her but at arm's length and began to fill her in.

"So, it's not going to be so easy if you want to continue to practice real medicine. I know you. I know you'll want to. But just for the sake of giving you all the options, you should know that finding a lab job is going to be about a million times easier and has way less shit that could go wrong. However, Richard and I think we could find someone to help you get the local experience you need to make it easier to find something that won't bore you to tears down the road."

"Okay. So what exactly does that mean."

"Well, first it means your sucky German is a real problem. So, starting Monday, you and Greg will be having daily sessions with Gretchen."

"You mentioned her before… with the bed. I thought you were talking about having a house cleaner or something like that."

He chuckled as if the idea were funny to him. Cameron gave him a questioning look. "She used to teach English and French part-time at the University. I met her when she volunteered for one of our clinical studies. Read her address and found out she lived a few doors down at another house that Jerk likes to frequent. We started complaining about that damned cat while I was giving her a physical. She agreed on the name with me. Anyway, I guess she's sort of a friend and keeps an eye on the place when I go back to the states and takes care of Jerk. She definitely wouldn't be caught dead washing my dirty underwear. She just understands IKEA better than I do and likes putting things together."

Cameron smiled and he continued. "Anyway, she helped me get the place ready to bring you here and she's going to help you learn German because, and I quote" he put on a German accent, "'they deserve a teacher who's not going to make them feel like scheiße about their progress.'"

Cameron cracked a smile at that. "Ja, das tun wir," she replied, somehow scrounging up a few words of German from the recesses of her memory, but couldn't be sure if she'd pronounced them quite right. "If only he'd picked Spain or France to live in," she thought.

"Yeah, I can't work with that accent and keep a straight face." He teased back. "Look, I've heard you speak Spanish, so I know you have the capacity for languages. I seem to recall your resume listing French as well, but we didn't exactly have a use for it in Princeton."

"Yeah, I actually have more years of French from school, but I had to speak Spanish a few times a day after I transferred to the E.R. so I speak it pretty fluently now. My French is all textbook, but I'd at least be able to communicate right away while I worked on my diction. I know tourist German, but I'd be hard-pressed to do more than find the train station or a water closet."

"Well, as you might imagine, the Germans care if their doctors can speak their native tongue. You can't even get an unpaid internship until your German is as good as your Spanish. They also aren't fond of medical practitioners with degrees from most foreign schools, so once we figure out how to fake yours, you're going to have to go back into training for a few years. If you weren't one of my doctors, you'd probably have to go back to medical school too, but I know you'll pass the equivalency exam once you figure out German. If starting over is really what you want to do."

"Okay. So I'm looking at a few years of what amounts to clinic duty before I might even be able to get a real job in a clinic, much less a job like the one I left."

"That's the size of it. Or you can come work with us in the lab next fall. Richard has one guy retiring and two that are most likely going on sabbatical. I know it's not your specialty, but not everyone on our team is an infectious disease expert. Having an immunologist would complement the team. Richard's never going to call your references and, despite the lack of personal interaction that you love so much, we're less boring than going back to being an intern."

"Okay. You make both options sound so amazing, I don't know how I'll ever choose," she answered with a hint of sarcasm.

"Look, I know it's not ideal. But that gives you about eight months to get your German together and that's a lot of time for us to figure out all the angles. Maybe find some other means of getting your paperwork in order. And," he looked back to the bar, where Greg was finishing his cereal, "it gives you the time you'll need to get Greg through this. He's going to need you once he starts figuring out he's not going back to Ray. And he's going to have to learn the language too, but chances are he'll be more fluent in eight months than you. He's at the perfect age to pick up multiple languages."

"Yeah. He was picking up some Spanish from T.V. and preschool."

"Well, he's going to be around a bunch of polyglots the rest of his life so I'm sure he'll join the party. In three years I doubt anyone will be able to tell his first language wasn't German."

"I know you're going to need someone to talk to about things and I know that I'm probably the worst person in the world for you to be stuck having to talk to about those things. I have a shrink here. I asked him to meet with you and recommend someone. He knows most of my story without knowing the real story. Probably better to keep it that way. But you'd be surprised how much confessing the almost-truth can help."

"It's so strange. You as Don. The same, but not the same at all."

"I hope that's a good thing."

"It is." She started to lean in to kiss him, but found a little boy crawling between them instead. "Well, get used to that."

"Maybe Gretchen would like to double as a language tutor and nanny until we find a real one. Speaking of which, there are nanny services and a good kindergarten here. I looked into that too, for when we figure out everything."

"Thanks, Don. I think I just needed to know… No one else has ever really bothered caring that much about me."

"Who fixes the fixer when she breaks?"

"Yeah."

Greg thrust his arms around her neck. "I care 'bout you, Mommy. What's broken? I'll help fix it."

She smiled and kissed his cheek. "Oh, baby, I didn't mean you. I know you love me and don't worry about fixing Mommy, she's not broken anymore. So do you like it here?"

He sat back and shrugged his shoulders giving her a surprisingly cute, but accurate assessment of his time in Germany so far. "I dunno. I just woke up."

"Good point," she agreed and reworked her angle. "So if we stayed here, with Don as your daddy for a while, would you like that?"

"Yeah. It's fun to be in the play!" He answered enthusiastically.

"What if Mommy told you it wasn't really a play? That sometimes someone's first dad has to go away, and sometimes, when that happens they get lucky and get a second dad who loves them just as much. Your father can't be with you anymore but Don would like to help you and step in and be your new dad."

His tiny brow furrowed for a moment as if he was considering something more than just her question. "So you got married and now I'm going to live with you all the time?" There was something to the way he said that which turned Cameron's stomach. House picked up on it too.

"So, kid, what exactly do you mean?" House asked and Greg turned to reply.

"Daddy told me that sometimes when a parent dies or when parents don't live together and one of them gets married, a kid can get a new mommy or daddy. He said I if that 'appens kids have t' be strong and love their new parent even if they misses their real mommy or daddy."

House looked up to Cameron and raised an eyebrow, then looked back to the boy. "When did he tell you that?"

Greg took a breath and explained. "Chris got a new daddy for Christmas 'cause 'is mommy got married. 'Is other daddy had t'go live with Jesus. Chris said Jesus sent 'im a new daddy."

Cameron looked up at House and filled in some detail, "Chris is a kid in his Sunday School class. His dad was killed in a car crash a little over a year ago."

House grinned ear to ear. She knew he couldn't help it and that his joy had nothing to do with the man dying. It was the perfect door. Despite Cameron's suspicions that Ray's explanation was in part a way to prep Greg for his own marriage and final break from her, she still didn't have the wear-with-all to fashion the right lie to her son. House's look, however, clearly stated had no moral conundrum in building their story on Ray's well-laid foundation.

House saw Cameron's hesitation. After a moment, she nodded her blessing and he didn't hesitate. "Your father's right. He wanted you to know that if he couldn't be with you anymore that your Mommy would make sure you have someone to be your Daddy even if he can't be anymore. It's not that he didn't want to be. He loves you very much, but sometimes things happen, like with Chris. Daddy's sometimes can't be with their sons. But that doesn't mean you can't have another Dad."

"Did Daddy havta go live with Jesus?"

"Afraid so, kid. I wanted to marry your mommy and become your new dad. So that's why we had to go to Germany, because I live here and now you and Mommy do too. We didn't want you to be sad on the trip, so we told you a fib about the play and pretended to be pretending… if that makes sense. But it's okay if you get sad now. We know you are going to miss your dad, and that you have to get to know me better before you feel like I'm really your dad now."

Greg seemed to take the news in stride, though he hugged his Stuart just a little tighter to his chest. Then again, what three-year-old understands what it truly means when someone is gone forever. Cameron knew in the days to come Greg would begin to miss Ray. She also knew that in a few months his memories of the man would start to fade. At least it wasn't her that would fade completely from his memory.

Two years later. December, 31st 2017, 11:59 p.m.

"I've never done the countdown on a cock before."

"Well, I've never done it with a pregnant chick on my cock before. Ohh, here we go…"

Don grabbed the remote and unmuted the T.V. mounted on the wall at the foot of their bed. "Zehn, neun, acht…" as they counted down in unison with the program, Nora lowered herself slowly over Don's penis, Don snickering when they got to "sechs" because it sounded like "sex" in English. Finally, as the year turned to 2018, Nora was sitting fully on him and breathed a sexy "Happy New Year, Don."

She leaned down to kiss him and he had to bend up to meet her around her larger than normal belly. "Happy New Year, Nora." He turned off the T.V. and focused his attention solely on his wife.

After two years together, they'd stopped thinking of House and Cameron. It was hard the first year and there were times Nora had wondered if she'd jumped from the pan to the fire, but through it all Don loved her in his fierce and unyielding way. Getting a practicing license turned out to be more of a mountain then she wanted to climb, so she took the job on Richard's team. Working with Don in that setting was very different that working with House. It was enjoyable to see him solving puzzles again but the lab wasn't for her.

Again, Richard came to the rescue and helped her get a teaching job in the biology department. The timing was perfect. She found out she was pregnant her first week on the new job after running from a morning lecture to the bathroom twice in a day. They seemed to be compelled to have unprotected sex, yet somehow it took more than a year for her to, as Don like to put it "get knocked up." Afterward, she remarked on the luck of their timing. Now their fetus would not be exposed to whatever crazy thing they were trying to cure or treat in the lab.

But more than that, she loved teaching. It was like the final piece of her life fell into place and for the first time in her adult life, she found she was truly happy.

Her drinking problem cropped up from time to time, but with the baby came the reason to finally win out over the last lingering effect from her old life. The last piece of Allison Cameron was gone and Nora was glad of it.

Greg was excited that he was going to have a little sister. He was ready to be a big brother. It was an up and down transition for him, but much like everyone had thought, after a year he barely remembered having a father other than Don. He picked up on German quickly, even more so after they enrolled him a local kindergarten after Nora started work. He made many friends there.

His best friend lived two blocks away and he spent nearly as much time at his friend's home as his own. In fact, he was spending the night there tonight, which suited Don and Nora just fine. Don had meant it when he said he wanted to be inside her to ring in every New Year, even though both of them knew the odds of that happening were rather low, it still was worth the try.

Nora regarded the man beneath her as she rocked. To her, he was still so sexy… "And hard. He is always still so fucking hard," she thought as she made love to him. His hands roamed over her swollen abdomen and he smiled as he grabbed onto her and flipped her with an agileness that still surprised her. After a little repositioning, he had her on all fours and he took her from behind in a slow, hot stroke. "You are so fucking sexy this way," he declared with staggered breath. "So fucking round and fuckable. God, I love your pussy. I hope our daughter doesn't break it on her way out," he teased her.

He was excited about the birth of their daughter in a way she'd never expected of him. He told her early on that he'd hated being an only child and moving all the time. He didn't want that for Greg. It made her love him so much more than she knew was possible when she realized he'd begun to truly love her son as his own and that he wanted a family for them. Now that he would have a biological child, she was excited for them in a way she wished she could have been for her and Ray. Then again, she didn't love Ray and she didn't create her second child by accident.

"Don't worry. My pussy's very flexible."

"Fuck yeah it is." He reached around and started stroking her clit and she came hard. He followed quickly and fell to his left side, pulling her on top of him as he turned on his back. "Love you," he murmured as his hand roamed back to her belly. "Love you too. Sorry if I'm traumatizing you, but your mom is so sexy I can't help it."

"Are you talking to the fetus again?" She teased.

His lips stifled a smile before he looked at her with a fake seriousness. "I am. But in my defense, it's my fetus, so I am sure its cognitive skills are far more advanced than the standard fetus."

"We need to settle in on a name for our fetus," Nora reminded him.

Don snuggled into her and nuzzled her neck as he confessed, "I was thinking it might be cool to call her Allison."

"Or weird," she laughed.

He pulled back and raise an eyebrow, "One does not negate the other."

"I guess," she laughed then had an idea she was sure he'd enjoy. "How about Allison Lenora Johnson. That would make the kids kinda symmetrical."

"Now you're talking." He nodded.

"Do you think it'll cause Greg to remember more than we'd like or tell people how that used to be my name?"

"Dunno. Probably not. It's not like he called you Allison. He barely remembers anything from before, much less your old name. Besides, she'll be Ally most the time." His focused back on Nora's belly again. "I like it. What do you think, Ally?" He directed the question to her stomach and began to feel around.

"She's not going to just kick on cue like we're in a book or something," Nora chided, rolling her eyes at Don's playful attempts to get a kick from their daughter.

"Oh ye of little faith. She's generally feisty after we have sex." His hand found the baby's foot and he gave it a little press and on cue she gave him a small kick.

"You cheated," Nora smiled.

"Pays to be a doctor sometimes," he returned her smile and kissed his wife wrapping her in his arms as they began a new year, in their second lives, together.