September 7, 2012
Speculative Fiction Fandom: "House, MD"
Disclaimers: David Shore, Fox, USA and Bravo Networks and Bad Hat Harry Productions own all the rights I am simply borrowing the characters. Zero monetary profits are being made.
Rating: M for depressing subject matter and adult language. Hey I am being overly cautious here.
Title: "A Favor for a Friend"
Written by Aquarius Seth
Author's Note: This isn't set in any particular season prior to Cuddy's character being written off and the exit of Dr. Nolan. There is no particular episode this is based off of. It can take place during any random day in PPTH. I wanted to write an autopsy report but it wouldn't have fit into the story so sorry, no report.
(Wilson, House)
8:05 a.m.
Kenneth Brooks' autopsy report sat on my desk. I needed to review it and sign off on it. The medical examiner downstairs had already prepared the report, all he needed was for me to sign the damned form. It was waiting for me in my inbox this morning when I walked into the building. I discreetly shifted the manila envelope under the other stack of overnight charts I needed to review. I had three files I needed to get dictated and two I needed to sign off on in order to get Medicare to pay the hospital.
8:06 a.m.
My P.A. called to remind me of the 10 a.m. department head meeting in the Washington Room. I thanked her and asked her to call me with a reminder call at 9:50. That way I had enough time to make notes on whatever file I was working on and time to get down there on time. She told me she would and hung up.
8:08 a.m.
I needed to review Mr. Brooks' file before I signed the autopsy report. I had to call my P.A. and ask for his file. It had to be on her desk or somewhere in her office.
8:09 a.m.
Susan the pharmacy assistant downstairs called me to ask me about Josh Walter's dosages of Zoloft were correct. I keyed in Josh's name and his file popped up on my screen. Yes his dosages were correct. A quick thank you and good bye and a minor crisis averted.
8:10 a.m.
Clark the oncology wing's favorite radiation tech came in with the updated x-rays I needed for seven different patients' files.
8:15 a.m.
Peterson called to remind me that he booked the oncology's MRI machine for two hours today.
8:20 a.m.
I opened Lucy Davis's file. I needed to see her this morning according to my notes. I needed to recheck her vitals and take another blood sample. I needed to run blood panel, her white blood count looked a little odd last night.
8:25 a.m.
Tracked down the blood techs' phone number and got Gary to set aside a microscope and a sediment test for me.
8:29 a.m.
I need coffee so I got up and went to go steal coffee from the diagnostic's conference room next door. Foreman was in the room signing off on a file and the coffee pot was empty. I filled the coffee pot with water and went about making coffee. We talked a little bit as I tried to find some French vanilla creamer. I could not find any so I used the regular stuff as Foreman mumbled to himself as he re-read the patient chart.
8:35 a.m.
The coffee took too long. I got paged down to the pediatric ward and I left without my coffee.
8:40 a.m.
Karen the floor's nurse updated me on six year old Carlos's vitals and I sat with Carlos as he told me about the dream he had that morning. I spoke to Carlos's mom about the significance of Carlos's slightly elevated blood pressure. It wasn't something that she should be worried about. His body was beginning to feel a little bit of pain so his blood pressure went up slightly. I prescribed a dose of Children's Tylenol and left standing orders that his blood pressure was to be monitored for an hour. If it did not drop at least a point in that time, they needed to page me again.
9:00 a.m.
I picked up my While-You-Were-Out notices from the oncology desk and went back upstairs to get that coffee.
9:05 a.m.
I get to the elevator just to have Cuddy page me. I went down to her office and she reminded me that I needed to put in an hour of clinic duty this morning. I nodded and tried to sweet talk Jeffery into getting me a cup of coffee but my pager went off before I could butter him up enough for it. It was Peterson's number. I called him back. He was going to come over at eleven to give me an update on Stacey McGhee's blood cultures.
9:10 a.m.
I signed into the clinic and Nurse Brenda handed me a file. Patient's name: Rosa Buenos. I had almost walked away from the front desk when I remembered to ask Nurse Brenda to page me at 9:45 I had to get out of Clinic by then.
9:20 a.m.
Rosa Buenos left with a diagnosis of a cold and a work excuse.
9:22 a.m.
I finished signing off on Mrs. Buenos's chart after making a few updates on it. I dropped it off at the front desk and asked the nurse to send it up to my office, I was going to dictate that file in the records room. She nodded and I took the next case handed to me.
9:25 a.m.
Patient's name: Florence DeVry. I blinked at her name but I was greeted by an elderly lady with a walker and a purse the size of the Titanic. She had a stack of papers with her and I knew I was going to be late.
10:25 a.m.
Luckily I remembered to put my pager on vibrate and Mrs. DeVry did not hear the faint sounds of it vibrating in my jacket pocket.
10:55 a.m.
I signed out of Clinic and called Peterson. He told me he would meet me at the ER's front desk. We exchanged files and a brief debriefing on each sticky note on the front cover.
11:05 a.m.
Cuddy calls me into her office and asks me why I didn't make it to the staff meeting.
11:10 a.m.
I am back in my office and glancing at the files I need to get signed. I reshuffle the stack and decide I need to review the patients' cases again before I sign off on them.
11:20 a.m.
Stroven, Mitchell. DOB: 12/23/32. Height: 6'1. Weight: 190 lbs. B.P.: 135/65. Temp.: 98.2 Chief Complaint: Nausea due to medication. He is on Vicodin for pain.
Does House need a refill? Has he come in yet?
Mitchell says there is some blood in his urine and a urine test has been scheduled for later on today in the oncology clinic. His pupils were equal and reactive. There was no sign of fever. His ears and throat were normal. Basic motor tests were within normal ranges for a man of his age. Skin: slightly dry due to weather changes. No hematomas were visible. Foot stimuli normal, balance: leans a little to the left.
Prognosis: Continue medication unless blood results come back with alternative results. Patient is doing well. There are no visible signs of either improvement or deterioration due to pancreatic cancer and treatment. Perform blood tests to check for vitamin deficiencies and infections.
12:00 p.m.
I update my calendar and answer e-mail from Dr. Steven Brown in Chicago concerning Nancy Flemings' x-rays.
12:15 p.m.
Carlos's fever is back up again.
12:30 p.m.
I recheck Carlos's temperature and draw blood in order to rule out an infection.
12:45 p.m.
Cuddy calls me to ask if I know where House is. No I don't.
1:00 p.m.
Chase comes into my office to ask for specifics on Stroven's blood panel. I asked him if he was doing his surgical rounds today. No. He was doing lab work today in order to give Dr. Smith his much needed OR rotation.
1:25 p.m.
Cuddy calls again-I still haven't seen House. I call his cell when she hangs up with me. I get his voice mail. I call his land line-the machine again. I demand he call me back immediately or I will send his team over there to collect him. I glance at my phone uneasily as I hang up and I rub my neck as I move Kenneth's file back to the bottom of my stack.
1:30 p.m.
My P.A. walks into my office with a brand new stack of files for me to review and leaves. My stomach growls and I wonder where House is. He should have shown up by now.
1:32 p.m.
My vision blurs at the sight of dosages and time stamps so I decide to take a break. I set my cell phone's alarm for 1:45. It gives me a little more than ten minutes to check my e-mail and reply if I need to.
1:35 p.m.
Cuddy calls me and asks to see me downstairs. The record's clerk left a stack of House's files in her office and she wants to review them with me. I let her know I am working on my own files and I had a patient coming into my office at 2. Her silence left me no choice. I erased the time stamp and set my alarm to 1:50. Come hell or high water I needed to be back in my office by 2.
1:54 p.m.
My P.A.'s paging me 211. Our code for 'your patient is here, get your ass over here now.' I sprint out of Cuddy's office and take the stairs back up to my office.
3:07 p.m.
Mr. Smith leaves my office with a better idea of what to expect from the radiation treatment we were going to try in order to shrink his breast cancer. It is a stage one carcinoma and there was still hope for radiation therapy. We were going to start on Monday with MRI scans, a blood panel and dye tracking.
3:08 p.m.
My P.A. calls me telling me to get back to Carlos's room.
4:15 p.m.
We were finally able to bring Carlos's fever back down and have it drop two degrees before we left. I went back to the nurse's desk and filled out my notes on his chart. I went back to my office and collected the rest of my files. I needed to go dictate them.
4:20 p.m.
I signed into the recording room and shut off my pager and cell phone. My PA knew where I was so there was no way Cuddy would be able to drag me out of dictating patient files. She tried that once and I fell behind for an entire week because I had to start my recordings over again. The billing and coding department gave her a few scathing remarks in the next department meeting so she knew not to piss them off again. The only person allowed to get me out of the dictating department was House and he never did. He heard through the grape vine how livid I had been at Cuddy for getting behind on my patients' charts and having being reprimanded for something that wasn't my fault. The disciplinary board got memos and reminders every month to never pull me out of recording. I haven't been reprimanded for recording since.
5:45 p.m.
I had finished all of my files except for Kenny's. I had his file with me, I just forgot his autopsy report in my office-yeah, even I didn't believe that one. I sat back and recalled what the man looked like. I remembered his wife always wore a pink pin on her shirt. Her sister had died of breast cancer. I dragged my hand across my forehead and got up to go get that file from my office.
6:15 p.m.
I had stopped to go to the restroom and splash cold water on my face. I looked like hell, my head ached from where I had skipped lunch and my stomach was grumbling. Kenny had tried to be optimistic for his wife. He always told her he was feeling great even when his appetite began to suffer. Kenny had lost his hair and at least forty pounds before he had passed away. He always laughed and told his wife that he found the perfect weight loss treatment-chemo.
I walked back into my office and switched on the lights. The file was not on my desk. Startled I looked around the floor to see if my P.A. had moved it by mistake. No she hadn't. She usually leaves all my pending files in a row alongside my balcony wall. There were a few charts there but not Kenny's. Where was it?
"I went down to the morgue and performed my own review on Mr. Brooks. His carcinoma had spread to his respiratory system. His white blood cells were shot to hell. There was no amount of radiation, chemo or surgery that would have saved his life. You did everything you could. The crypt keeper called it right. His notes are correct, sign the chart Wilson." There on my couch was House with Kenny's chart in his hands. House was dressed in black scrubs. The black scrubs were only handed out to doctor's that performed autopsies. Whenever we saw any doctor wearing them we kind of eased out of their way in order to let them pass. A bit morbid but it got the job done very efficiently. My spare white coat hung crookedly on the coat rack just passed the door. He had worn it to avoid nervous patient stares. The morgue usually had a volunteer run to offices with a white coat when doctor's wanted a generic coat to wear down to the morgue. White coats blended into the background in a hospital. It was very rare a patient looked twice. That is why I kept a spare in my office.
I stood there trying to think of a way to say thank you without embarrassing him.
"I even co-signed the form Wilson. It has been reviewed three times by three different doctors." I nodded and noticed a pen in his hands. He held the pen out to me.
"I don't know why I've been stalling about this case House."
"I do. You don't perform autopsies Wilson and for some strange reason you performed one on Mr. Brooks. Unsure of your results you asked Dr. Evans to review your results and the body. Hell you even asked Peterson to be present. Peterson called me and let me know he had already dictated the results this morning.
"I got here at 7:30, found Dr. Evans, and reviewed your chart with him and Peterson. I was in autopsy by 7:45."
"You performed your own autopsy on my patient?"
"Yes, I dictated as I went along re-opening the Y-incision. I weighed all of Mr. Brooks' organs, viewed various samples of skin, organ, blood, brain, bone and muscle tissue under the microscope. We all came up with the same conclusion you were diligent in his care. There was nothing else you could have done Wilson. His body was turning on itself." I nodded and stuffed my hands in my pockets.
"I'm out of Zoloft." I murmured.
"I know. I got you some more from the pharmacy. You need to take it tomorrow at 6 a.m. right?" I nodded.
"Do you still have that bottle in your desk?"
"Yes but I am not letting you have any booze tonight." I nodded he was right. If I were to drink anything tonight I would negate the full effects of the Zoloft tomorrow.
"Can I talk you into getting me some Lunesta then?" I asked as he handed me the file. I reviewed the chart page by page quietly offering my apology to a man I could not help anymore. It took me a long time to drag the pen across the page and sign my name.
"No. I am going to stuff you full of food so you'll fall asleep." I nodded as he took the file back. I stood up and left everything behind, my cell, my office keys and pager. He held open the door for me and handed the file to the floor nurse.
We didn't say anything as we got into the elevator. It wasn't until we were in the underground garage that House finally broke the silence.
"The guy wasn't your brother Wilson. Danny is still in the care of doctors that aren't complete idiots."
"He looked so much like Danny."
"I know."
"What if it had been Danny?"
"I would have handled his case Wilson. I didn't know. Had Peterson known he would have told me. I would have never allowed you to treat Mr. Brooks." I nodded knowing what he said was true. I had been an idiot trying to treat Mr. Brooks like a regular patient, I should have handed him off to someone else. "It would have driven you insane had you handed off his case, Wilson. I know I sound like an asshole but even if you had given the case to anyone else you would have been buzzing around them like a worried mom over her kid. You, for better or worse had to take this case. Now that it's over you can go back to making all those bald kids blind with your ties." I gave him a weak smile.
"They love my ties." He gave me an incredulous look.
"Yeah sure Wonder Boy. They are too traumatized by the sight of them to tell you the truth. Hell my therapy bills go up seventeen bucks every time you wear that one. Nolan loves when I fork over a twenty at the beginning of the session. He wants to take a picture of it so he can buy you another one before Christmas. He says the HMOs are cutting his profits. I doubt it. He's probably hustling pool with it." I take his hand and gently squeeze it, he squeezes back. He grabs my tie and pulls me up towards him. The kiss was firm and chaste compared to the tongue devouring ones he usually gives me.
When he lets me go, I give him a wavering smile and finally give in. I bury my face in his neck and hang onto him as I give up. He says nothing; he just holds me and waits. I want to say thank you and I try repeatedly but he just shushes me and lets me cry. For the first time all day I suddenly realize I had no clue what time it was-it didn't matter House was here. That was all that mattered.
The End.