So here it is: The epilogue; enjoy!

The next morning, Kimberly’s doctor, Dr. Murphy, and Dr. Cuddy both walked into her room.

“We come bearing two different pieces of good news,” Dr. Cuddy explained happily.

Kimberly sat up in bed, curious.

“First,” Dr. Murphy began, “Is that you are going to go ahead and be released tonight.”

Kimberly smiled excitedly and spurted out a “Yay!”

“And second,” Dr. Cuddy explained. “Is that your mom is being released tonight also.”

Kimberly’s eyes opened wide, and she felt wet tears stinging her eyes.

“She is?” she asked.

Both doctors nodded and smiled at the look of pure excitement on Kimberly’s face. But they noticed the look drop when she remembered Doctors Chase and House.

“Wait,” she said quickly when they started to turn around. “How are Dr. House and Dr. Chase?”

Dr. Cuddy turned to Dr. Murphy and kindly excused him from the room. After he left, she sat down on the bed and smiled.

“Dr. Chase is doing well,” she explained. “They put the blood that he had lost back and he looks so much better. Dr. House is recovering also, but his recovery will take longer due to its severity.”

Kimberly smiled. “As long as he’s still alive, then I know that I did my part, and that it’s okay.”

“There’s another thing I forgot to tell you… There is a large number of press out there waiting for you. Apparently, you are a hero. The press keeps saying, ‘We want the girl who got shot saving that doctor!’ Dr. Foreman said there was a lot of press at Princeton General, too.”

“Wow,” Kimberly said. “I didn’t intend to be considered a hero; I just knew that saving Dr. House was the right thing to do. Getting shot – I wasn’t expecting that…” she trailed off and lie back down on the bed.

“Just tell them that they have to wait until tonight,” she said. “I’m exhausted from yesterday still.”

Dr. Cuddy nodded and walked out of the room just as Kimberly fell asleep.

--

Later that night, Kimberly was greeted by her mom, and on her crutches she walked out of the hospital and answered many questions, of course including the questions about her leg and why she risked her life to save Dr. House. She used the same response every time. “I knew that it was the right thing to do.”

Afterwards, she and Carly went home and ate their first real dinner at home that they hadn’t done in months. They shared some laughs and even some tears and terrible stomach cramps from laughing too hard. Kimberly knew life would go on, and so it did.

--

The night after Kimberly’s release, Dr. Chase was released from the hospital shortly after he had gotten fresh bandages on his hand.

He and Dr. Cameron held hands on their way out of the hospital, but of course, she was holding his left hand so she wouldn’t cause him any more pain.

Dr. Cuddy had been walking in when they were walking out and stopped for a while while they talked about Chase’s coming back to work.

“Whenever you are ready,” she said. “Just don’t take too long: there are lots of dying people around the hospital.”

This made Chase chuckle. “It shouldn’t be too long,” he said. “It’s just a flesh wound.”

Dr. Cuddy nodded. “You guys be safe; I’m going to go check in on Dr. House.”

Cameron and Chase waved and kept walking until they were out the doors and in Cameron’s car, driving towards her house.

And so life went on for Dr. Chase.

--

Dr. House, who was no longer staying in ICU, was finally being released, just one week and two days after having been shot in the lung.

Doctors Cuddy and Wilson walked out of the hospital with him and, when they reached the doors, were amazed at the mass amount of people who were there waiting around with cameras, microphones, etc.

All asked basically the same question,” How does it feel to be a hero?”

Dr. House, still weak from his ordeal, simply replied, “Good – it just hurts.”

This made the press laugh.

With that, the three doctors pushed through the crowd and got House into the back of the car.

And everybody’s lives eventually moved on.

FIN 2/28/07 12:51 PM (CST)

I know you guys loved it: so express you love right now with the review button. If you haven’t done it yet, now is the perfect time: right at the end! So go, please?

I’m hoping to start a new story soon, but give me time to get over the depression of having finished a story for once.

To my reviewers:

You guys are amazing! I wish I could thank each one of you firsthand, but I can’t do that. But if I could, I would get down on my knees and just repeat the words “Thank you!” over and over again. You are the people who pushed me through this story, making it my longest (and finished) story ever. So for one last time for this story: THANK YOU!

So wait around for a new story sometime… I’ll be working on it after today!

The Queen of Blank