Hi, anon Alex - thank you so much for your kind, detailed reviews. I didn't have any other way to answer your questions...

I wanted to be as canon as possible with House. I only knew of the two things I changed - he lives on an upper floor of his apartment building (because I just had to get that elevator scene in) and he doesn't speak German. Because they always say 'write what you know'and it allowed me to create that tension with Gay-Org. (Also, I get sick of wrong German in English fiction and knew mine would be right at least. Peeve time here - my favorite is the published writer - in Asimov's SF - who has a Nazi guard order a prisoner - "Innenseite!" to get inside a room. Obviously just looked up "Inside" in a dictionary and got the noun by mistake, "Innenseite" being "the inside (e.g. of a bowl, a box)" So the Nazi telling this guy to "be the inner surface of a bowl" naturally ruined the story for me - enough, peeve finished). Also I never bought into the emphasis on House's 'amazing' language abilities. You can be a brilliant doctor, physicist, mathmatician, and still not be very good at languages, which seems to use a different part of the brain. Aside from thh fact that the one time House says two words of German (gemütlich and Schande) it was so bad we didn't recognize it as German here the first time and had to rewind and listen again. (Whcih I'm sure is not Hugh Laurie's fault, who would probably have gotten coaching and spoken it perfectly very quickly if anyone had told him it was bad)

Didn't know about the 4th floor office - I'll keep it in mind for the future !

As for the suicide, I can only say I'm very new to ff. I've read so little I didn't know just how much this idea pokes its head up - though I could imagine it's natural with a character like House. As for the method - needed for the plot! the piano keys! artistic freedom! Yes, morphine would have been faster (and my story would have been over) Ah, well...

I live about 20 miles outside of Cologne so yes - a Hochburg. Alaaf! (Eigentlich bin ich kein Karnevalist, sondern fluechte eher jedes Jahr, wenn es soweit ist)...

Alles Gute, Rhonda

Ouch. That was like watching a train wreck in slow motion, very very painful but impossible to look away to spare ones self the horrific sight... Heartbreaking. But rather true to how such a horrible conflict might go. Some very powerful images you created here.

Good heavens, I can't believe WILSON of all people has the nerve of reaming House out for cheating! Well, I can actually- self-rightousness and hypocrisy have been shown to be among his more glaring flaws. But really, James "serial marriages, serial cheater, I spend Xmas without warning or notice away from my wife who made a dinner to hang out at my friends, I wonder why my marriages fail, ** and moving in with my own dying patient" Wilson is the last person on the show with the right to call ANYbody relationship-challenged. Not that it would deter him... So, I guess points for keeping him in character ^_~
Makes his knight in shining armour routine and offense on Dani's behalf less than credible and endearing to me though, especially when he has the nerve to trott it out before other people. Not coming from Mr. "I always told them"

I admit to being slightly let down by the suicide-attempt. Not the act in itself, the idea that House might want to take his life in certain circumstances, don't get me wrong. That seemed plausible within your scenario and the emotional turmoil and self-loathing he was in, leading to him snapping in that moment.
The leading up to, his methodical and yet impulsive terrible destruction of his flat (and all material possessions he held dear) were- uh, I hesitate to use something like wonderful for happenings so dark - powerful, intense.
But the execution, no pun intended, afterwards left me with an unsatisfying feeling of "Again?! Haven't we seen this once already?". Seeing the posting date I'm sure you've seen season 3 with the half-accidental/half don't care if it's fatal Oxycodone-OD. The repetitive choice of exitus and failing (!) lessened the impact considerably for me. I might have felt different if it had ended differently, in this case: tragically. Though I'm not a deathfic-fan, it wouldn't have paralleled "Merry Little Christmas" quite so very closely...
And it might sound weird, but I'd think if House WANTED to die he would be more competent in committing suicide. Even when doing it spontanously. He's a doctor, he knows all about secure, as in reliably deadly, suicide methods - and the high failure ones... I mean, the guy has a ready stash of morphine in his apartment; not just canonically but in your fic too! Why didn't he use that? Because you sure made it sound like it wasn't a "cry for help", that he was deeply desperate and didn't believe in any chance of reconciliation with Dani - or sense of living on without her. That he truly wanted to die at that time. So in a strange way it felt out of character for me.

Not quite sure if I like the supernatural vision/empathic sharing twist. It was well written, no doubt about it, very intense... but somehow over the top given the very rational, mundane, down to earth happings and mood so far. And so very much the anti-thesis of House and his belief-system,mine too btw, so that probably doesn't help either ^_^

Wow. That was amazing!
If I had to give a summary of your story to someone, I would never be able to do it justice. The basic situations you put the characters through have been done by a lot of fanfic writers, but most of them fail.
You have managed to go so deep and be so convincing with seemingly cliché situations, it's startling (writing House in love and staying in character and creating a non-MarySue-ish love interest being only two reasons).

I hope you take this feedback the way it is intended. I'm just trying to say that I've read lots of fics that tried to go the route of meeting the love-of-his/her-life, break-up, suicide attempt or almost fatal accident and so on ...
After spending much time trying to find well written stories, it is a very good feeling to stumble upon and get lost in one that is as capturing as this.

Thank you for sharing and I'm looking forward to the next chapter!

Stupid House. Stupid Stacy. Beautiful writing.

Amazing story - so glad you've decided to continue with it. I just love you way with House's inner monologue - it's so true to character, gives so much insight and is beautifully phrased and blessedly free of cliches.

There are so many wonderful expressions in this story - I love "someone you'd worked into the weave of your soul". And the conversation with Wilson where Wilson dissects House's motivations is one of the best I've read.

Fantastic job! Please don't make us wait too long for more!

This was mesmerizing. You kept me up WAY too late readingin it. I found my heart pounding through the whole thing. I loved the telepathy part. Found myself wondering where you were going with the Houdini thing at the start.

I'm so glad you're still working on this. Waiting anxiously for the next installment.

What a powerful chapter. Amazing! Couldn't take my eyes off of it from the moment I started. Exellent story. Looking forward to your next chapter.

God, this jsut gets better and better! I was literally mesmerized when she saw the piano and knew what was happening to him. I couldn't even breath. It was just wonderful. I'm happt that your not ending it here, there is definitely more to say.
Thank you for this wonderful story.