Author's Note:
New fanfiction, I am a fan of House and spy shows. Sadly I have not read the Alex Rider books, so I am basing his character off the Stormbreaker movie (blasphemy I know). As I am a newbie writer, any comments, suggestions and corrections are welcome. I hope someone somewhere in the world finds enjoyment in my story. All character belong to their respective owners, I am just playing with the characters, I will try and return them in the same condition when I am done with them.
…
"House" Cuddy's voice snapping in anger, she had been calling his name repeatedly for a solid three minutes without as much as a slight acknowledgement from her top diagnostician Gregory House.
"Wwwwhhhhaaaattttt" House finally responded in a childish tone, clearly pretending to be asleep on the brown fabric couch he stole from the staff break room, and ignoring Cuddy wasn't going to work tonight.
"House, do you have a current case?" Cuddy asked impatiently crossing her arms.
House opened one of his piercing blue eyes and glanced toward Cuddy as she stood in the doorway of his office. "Yes. "He responded unnaturally quickly.
"Really? What's the patient's name?" Cuddy knew House is lying.
Closing his eyes again not wanting to miss out on extending his nap he took a deep breath, "The patient's name is …. Jeremy ….. Markussss," purposefully dragging out the S just to annoy Cuddy.
"House," Cuddy's voice showing a hint of annoyance, "You haven't had a case in three weeks, and since you refuse to work any of the dozens of files I have sent to your office, you can go finish your shift in the clinic." She gave a sarcastic smile knowing she had won the argument as she marched off down the hall.
House groaned as he sat up and rubbed his aching leg, pulling his orange pill bottle out of his jacket pocket popping open the cap and downing three pills of Vicodin. Grabbing his wooden cane that was leaning against the arm of the chair, half-heartedly began limping down to the hospital's clinic.
"Doctor House," a tall, short haired brunet nurse in pink scrubs called, waving a deep green file in the air with a smile. She had been expecting him and the clinic could always use another doctor, even if they had to resort to using House.
House limped up to the nurse, glanced at the file in the nurse's hand, "No thank you, I have other urgent matters to attend to." As he continued to walk past the nurse and straight out the clinic doors. He smiled at himself as he got onto his motorbike, he was going to the pub to get himself a drink.
The engine of the motorbike purred as he shifted down gears, pulled up and parked in a car space behind a silver sedan in front of an abandoned seven story red brick newspaper factory. Looking across the road at the pub 'The Irish Leaf' his final destination before going home for the evening.
House slowly began limping across the eerily quiet road towards the pub, suddenly a loud bang followed by the sound of glass shattering came from behind causing House to abruptly turn back towards his motorbike. A figure of a body lay on the roof of the now destroyed silver car, parked in front of his motorbike. House shrugged his shoulders and took another step towards the pub, this was a problem for the local fire fighters, no chance that person is alive.
A faint groan came from the motionless body. House rolled his head back on his shoulders, "aarrrggghhh," annoyed that his evening of avoiding work has now been interrupted, turning around he approached the car. Placing two fingers on the body's neck, checking for signs of a pulse.
"Damit," House groaned glancing at the ground while shaking his head upon feeling a faint pulse. He pulled out his phone dialling the paramedics. Putting his phone back in his grey coat pocket he studied the motionless human before him, it appeared to be a young kid, fourteen, maybe fifteen years old, his blonde hair fluttering in the evening breeze. He is wearing a tailored raven black suit, a white shirt just visible under the high-quality fabric jacket. Red and blue lights from the ambulance suddenly appeared distracting house from his inspection of the boy, the paramedics worked quickly applying a neck brace before removing the kid from the roof of the car and onto a gurney. Just as the unconscious teen was been loaded into the back of the ambulance House thrust his cane against the doors, denying them entry to their own vehicle. House looked down at the boy noticing his lips are a pale shade of blue. House smiled, "Take him to Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital." He ordered, removing the obstruction that is his cane so the paramedics could continue about their job.
Using both hands House pushed open the double doors to Cuddy's office, helping himself into the room without permission.
"I heard you didn't show up for clinic duty." Cuddy remarked, not even glancing up from her paperwork.
"I showed, I just didn't stay." House's sarcastic tone shining as always, "Blonde kid, just admitted to the ER, gimmie."
"Why are you interested in some teenager?"
"I just all of a sudden have a thing for blondes, do you think Chase will get jealous and like me if he thinks I am interested in someone younger?" House spoke as he texted his crew 'Mini Chase in the ER, I saw him first, bring him to me.'
Cuddy sighed, it had already been a long day and she wasn't in the mood to find out House's real motives. "Fine, but make sure you contact next of kin as soon as you get a name, remember he is a minor." Massaging her temples, somehow every time House was in the room she got a headache.
"But mom, you ruin all the fun" House mocked as he hobbled out of Cuddy's office.
The elevator doors opened, revealing Chase, Taub and Thirteen standing on either side of a hospital bed, where the blonde teen lay. The ER had already ruled out a back injury so had removed the neck brace from the unconscious patient.
"Why do we have this random kid?" Taub queried as soon as House joined them in the elevator, repeatedly clicking the close door button so no one else would join them.
"The better question is why don't I have Foreman here, now?" House quickly remarked.
"Family thing out of town." Thirteen spoke up, just as the doors opened on the tenth floor.
Thirteen and Taub walked off to go finish off some paperwork as Chase pushed the teenager down the long hall to an empty room at the very end, House plonked himself on a chair in the room as Chase went about setting up an IV for the kid.
House sat in silane his right hand on his cheek lazily supporting the weight of his head as he studied the teen.
"He doesn't look that bad, what happened to him anyway?" Chase mumbled as he worked.
"He just fell a few stories from an abandoned building, you know, kid stuff," House chuckled.
Without warning the teenager's eyes flew wide open, instantly not recognizing his surroundings he bolted upright ripped off the neck brace while simultaneously scrambling out of the bed.
"It's ok, take it easy, "Chase approached, trying to re-assure the clearly terrified kid.
The teen eyes fixed on the door, he bolted for the exit, his eyes adjusting to the harsh lighting as he continued to run looking for a way out of the building. Doctors in white coats stood out amongst the nurses in an array of different coloured scrubs, as he weaved through a small crowd of civilians he noticed a pain growing stronger in his right side, his ribs burned with every breath and his left shoulder ached dully.
"Stop him," a voice with a strong Australian accent yelled from behind.
A lone security guard pounced on him in an instant, managing to get hold of the teen's suit jacket jerking him to a sudden halt. Instinctively the teen slipped out of his jacket breaking free of the guard's grasp, revealing a white long-sleeve shirt underneath the right side soaked with crimson blood. He ran towards the exit sign at the other end of the hall, seeing freedom within his reach, just as he was about to open the door another guard crossed his path, the teen didn't have time to stop as he slid backwards onto the hard, cream coloured floor with a thud. He felt a hand placed firmly on his shoulder from behind, he reflexes took over and he elbowed the person behind him square in the nose, he heard the bones breaking it upon impact. Scrambling to his feet, he took a defensive stance as he quickly got surrounded by more guards and hospital staff, his gaze suddenly dropping to the floor he slowly raised his hands, deciding it was better to surrender than continue fighting, there are too many children around he didn't want to hurt an innocent. Two guards roughly forcing him against the glass wall of the nearest room restraining him with their strength. While the guard with the freshly broken nose was almost crying in the corner as nurses quickly came to his aid.
House approached his patient a faint smile crept across his lips as the teen shifted uneasily in his captor's hands. Raising his cane, he lifted up the teen's bloodied shirt, revealing gunshot wounds and what appeared to be a deep stab wound, "Well that was unexpected," House commented eyeing the teen, "You got a name kid?" as he placed his cane back on the ground, leaning onto it using both hands.
Shaking his head to get the strands of blonde hair out of his eyes, the teen spoke, "Of course I have a name," his strong British accent almost mocking the man before him trying to hide his pain as fresh blood began dripping onto the floor.
"Are you going to share it with the rest of the class?" gesturing around the room at his fellow staff.
The boy smiled, "That depends, are you going to share yours?"
House took a step forward, thrusting his right hand out offering a handshake, "Doctor Gregory House," looking at the teen directly into his brown eyes, "Oh that's right, your hands aren't free." Lowering his hand while he chuckled to himself, this kid sure is a puzzle, he is going to be fun.
"Alex," he responded, as he dropped his gaze to the ground once again, almost like he was ashamed of giving a name.
"Alex," Chase piped up, his hands in his coat pockets, "What's your full name?"
"You asked for my name and you got it, let's leave it at that," Alex spoke like he has had this conversation many times in the past.
Chase bent down to the teen level, "Alex, we need to contact your parents."
"My parents are dead." His voice so blunt and almost emotionless his eyes fixed on House.
House could tell this conversation was going to go nowhere, "Get this kid to the OR, Chase, patch him up and see if he is hiding any other wounds."
Alex struggled ever so slightly in the guard's grasp as they were dragging him down a very wide hall, then then through several double doors clearly marked with staff only signage. His heart sank into his chest as he was taken into a large operating room, his mind barely having an opportunity to grasp the situation he was in before his hands where been bound in restraints on the table in the middle of the room.
"Are these really necessary?" Alex groaned trying to loosen the restraints and failing miserably as the guards left the room.
"You broke a guard's nose."
The sound of a somewhat familiar voice causing Alex to look towards his left to see whom it was.
Chase was staring at him, holding both hands up as two nurses fussed over him, putting on gloves and tying off his pale blue surgical scrubs, just as a dozen other people entered the room.
Alex shuddered, remembering his past missions' doctors have always been a bad thing and this experience isn't going to be added to his fond memories list.
Within seconds someone was forcing an IV line into his left arm, bright lights shone above and the clanking of small metal objects could be heard echoing through the tiled room.
Alex spoke up, "Last I checked, you can't do anything without my consent."
"Last I checked this was America, emergency medical care can be given to a minor in the event the unaccompanied minor's parents or guardian cannot be contacted." House's voice coming from the two-way speaker in the observation room above, "It's one of them laws we have, helps us doctors deal with kids like you."
Alex looked up, he can see House looking down on him, dam it this man is annoying. "Pretty sure this is not an emergency." He yelled moving forwards, his bound wrists keeping his from moving very far.
House leant up against the glass, "Pretty sure you're not a doctor, a doctor would say someone bleeding out from been shot and stabbed is an emergency." He sighed, resting his forehead on the observation room glass.
Chase glanced up at House, before nodding to the anaesthesiologist, who placed a mask over Alex's nose and mouth.
Alex held his breath, he isn't fond of been knocked out.
"Come on kid, you need to breathe at some point, don't fight this," Chase sounding slightly annoyed that this teenager is been so difficult.
Alex continued holding his breath, he knew he wouldn't win he just wanted to prove a point, plus been able to hold his breath for eight minutes came in handy from time to time.
Four minutes passed before Chase glanced at the anaesthesiologist, "Can we stick him with a ketamine dart or something? I would really like to go home before sunrise."
The anaesthesiologist let out a slight chuckle at Chase's complaint. Stabbing the needle through the kid's black dress pants administering the requested drug within seconds.
Alex inhaled sharply, taken back by the unexpected injection. With his short-lived protest over, he drifted into unconsciousness in less than two minutes.