Disclaimer: I do not own "House MD". I place the credit of House and all other characters, places, and things related to the TV show in the rightful hands of the owners of "House MD". All other characters aside from those in "House MD" are solely of my creation.
I also do not claim any accuracy in the display of medical knowledge here within. I am not medically trained save in standard first aid.
Prologue
"Mrs. Gray, I'm afraid there's nothing we can do for your son," Dr. Mendike declared in a wonderfully portrayed remorseful tone.
The woman who sat before him bore all the signs of a mother disheveled: her hair was messy and graying in a few places, her face was clean of any makeup and accented by deep bags beneath her eyes, results of long nights of endless worry. Her face still held a hint of youthfulness though the rest of her was aged by grief. Mrs. Gray locked her hopeless eyes firmly into those of the man looking down on her. "Nothing? Nothing? After everything we've been through, you tell me now that there is nothing you can do?!" Her voice wavered as she spoke, but the anger behind it was very evident.
The man in the white coat sighed and hugged his clipboard ever more tightly. "We have no idea what he has. We don't know how he'd react to anything we haven't yet tried, and I'm not willing to play games with him," Mendike answered, not quite sure that it was the right response.
"Why? Because you're afraid they might work?" The hard face didn't flinch at this last sarcastic attack.
"No, Mrs. Gray, it isn't that," the doctor replied.
"Then what the hell could it be?!" she cried out. The end of the fuse had been reached; her face contorted maliciously.
"We won't treat him because he's too dangerous."
The woman's face drained of all expression. She looked away from the doctor to her hands clasped firmly at her knees. After a few moments of silence she ventured, "What should I do?"
"There's a doctor in New Jersey by the name of Dr. Gregory House. He's the head of diagnostics at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. If anyone can help you and your son, Mrs. Gray, it's Dr. House." Dr. Mendike carefully noted some information on a sheet of paper and handed it to her.
Mrs. Gray nodded and held back her tears of frustration as a new hope came to her. She looked up and through the observation window at her seventeen-year old who sat alone at a table, scrawling frantically on a piece of white paper. The sheet quickly metamorphosed into a black monster of fear and beauty as the intricate lines were fashioned upon its surface. The young man at the helm of the pen had hair nearly as white as the paper on which he poured out his soul, but it still held a blonde quality to it. To him, the outside world either didn't exist or didn't matter; it wasn't clear which was true. The other doctors in the room tried to speak with him, but he ignored them. All that mattered at that moment were the paper, the pen, and the ink. As if sensing his mother's watchful eye, Aiden Gray cast his pale icy blue gaze upon her for a moment before returning expressionlessly to his art.
Mrs. Gray finally rested her eyes on the paper in her hand. The scrawls of black ink on white, which had been illegible before this entire affair, spelled out the name of the man who was now her son's last chance.
