A/N: My first songfic. Sorry if it bites.
Disclaimer: I own this particular arrangement of these words, but I do not own House, Wilson, Chase, Foreman, or Cameron. I don't own the song "Stories (Down To The Bottom)" by TobyMac and Superchick. There are two bible verses (which I don't own) and they are Proverbs 10:12 and Proverbs 11:16. I hope you like this!
/Stories… We've all got 'em/
/We've been down to the bottom/
/Stories we got 'em, when we hit rock bottom/
/If you've been there, put your hands in the air/
/To let the lost know that someone cares/
House leaned back in his chair, staring at the bottle of Vicodin. A severe O.D. could be fun. Everyone hated him anyway. Who would care if he took a bit of sheet time?
/'Cause we've been down to the bottom/
/Stories, we've got 'em, when we hit rock bottom/
/If you've been there, put your hands in the air/
/And let someone know that the Most High cares/
Cuddy hated him. His patients hated him. Chase hated him so much that he worked in another part of the hospital and called it vacation time. Maybe he'd try a fatal O.D. Who'd care?
/I never knew that it would feel like this/
/When the two that raised you up and call it quits/
/Nobody told me 'bout the emptiness/
/When the place you call home is closed for business/
Chase stared at his reflection in his window. House had found out about his job in NICU. He felt an odd connection to Foreman's ancestors. He would go into work the next day and get verbally beaten almost as bad as some of the African slaves were physically beaten and just have to go on, silently. If he retaliated, his income, barely enough as it was, would be drastically cut.
…He'd been abandoned. Even Cameron didn't care as much as she used to. His dad had hated him. Even in his last will and testament, he had refused to support Chase… Not that he'd ever supported him…
/I push the pain down, I gotta' "get by"/
/Always knowin' in my heart that it ain't gonna' fly/
/Rock bottom's never felt so near before/
Chase looked at the picture of his father on the mantelpiece. He walked slowly towards it, feeling a burning sensation swelling in his chest. He grabbed the picture off the mantelpiece and threw it at the opposite wall.
"You left me!" he shrieked,"I'm alone! That's what you wanted, right! All I wanted was to be like you! To heal the sick! Why can't you be proud of that! Why! You hated me! You probably still hate me!"
/And if pain is God's megaphone, it's loud and clear/
/So hold me now, Father, human love ain't enough/
/I've failed and been failed by the people I love/
/But your faithful arms, they surround me/
/And any other soul who has to sail those seas/
/Of a broken family/
/We've been down to the bottom/
/Stories, we've got 'em, when we hit rock bottom/
Foreman struggled with the coffee maker. He would make coffee if it was the last thing he did.
/If you've been there, put your hands in the air/
/To let the lost know that someone cares/
No one looked at him the same since he'd been sick. They pitied him. Why did they think that he needed that? He was a grown man. He didn't need their phony compassion.
/'Cause we've been down to the bottom/
/Stories, we've got 'em, when we hit rock bottom/
He hit the table, but with the wrong fist. He kicked the table with the wrong foot and yelled out in anger.
/If you've been there, put your hands in the air/
/And let somebody know that the Most High cares/
Wilson watched a patient through the glass walls. They were crying, hugging their family. There wasn't much he could do at this point. They would probably die. He felt hopeless.
/Been so many times that I've been close to rock bottom/
/Tryin' to look for answers, but nobody's got 'em/
/Like the time my mother looked me in the eye/
/Tryin' not to cry, tellin' me that cancer might cause her to die/
/How can this be? I thought that God loved me/
/So why would he try to take my mother from me/
He felt the pang of empathy in his chest and guilt filling him like a sponge, pushing every other feeling out. The weight of a family's world had just been placed on his shoulders and there as so little he could do to keep it from toppling off.
He bit his lip and went back into the room. All eyes turned to him.
"We might've caught this early enough."
And so, he went through the motions, telling them treatment options, trying to hide the misery he shared with them and trying to instill just the tiniest bit of hope in them and himself.
/And as I cry myself to sleep at night, holding on my pillow tight/
/He spoke to me and said that everything's gonna' be alright/
As the family smiled hopefully at him, Wilson felt a renewed guilt, but also, a shining fleck of hope.
/So I tried to fight all of the pain that caused/
/Tried to move on and I try to stay strong/
/So put your hands up if you feel me/
/And put your hands up for everyone to see/
/So put your hands up, we're all a family/
/So put your hands up, in unity, in unity/
/We've been down to the bottom/
/Stories we've got 'em, when we hit rock bottom/
/If you've been there, put your hands in the air/
/To let the lost know that someone cares/
/'Cause we've been down to the bottom/
/If you've been there, put your hands in the air/
/And let somebody know that the Most High cares/
Cameron walked into the lounge, seeing Foreman on his knees, staring at the table.
"Need some coffee?"
/I've been there, too/
/When everything falls apart and the best you can do is/
/Get through each day/
/Wonderin' will this never end? Is it always gonna' be this way/
Wilson walked into House's office, eyes shining, as House was about to dump the bottle of Vicodin into his moith.
"What are you doing?" Wilson asked, knowing full well what he was trying to do.
Something sparked in House's brain:
Wilson cared…
A lot.
He put the bottle down.
"Nothing. Rough case?"
"Yeah, but I'm feeling hopeful."
"Nothing like a "The 'L' Word" marathon to fix that, huh?"
Wilson smiled.
/And the greatest lie you've ever been told/
/Is that you're the only one to walk on this road/
/And that you'll never see the light of dawn/
Chase stared at his father's picture –slightly crumpled- on the floor.
"You may hate me, you may not," he said slowly, "but I still love you. I have all my life, and no amount of your scorn can ever change that, for 'Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers all wrongs'."
He smiled down at his father's picture, allowing tears that had been pent up for years to roll freely down his cheeks. He picked up the picture again and smiled.
"I'm glad we had this talk. Now let's find you a new home."
/So we came together to say 'Hold on'/
/'Cause we've been there and found our way home/
/I promise you that you're not on your own/
Cameron looked at the clock on the wall.
9:07 p.m.
She looked at her phone. 1 voicemail message. From Chase.
"Hey, Cameron, I just wanted to say thanks. You're a really good friend and I- oh, this has got to seem really random- I thought that I should, y'know, tell you. And, even though believe in, like, God or Jesus or any of them, I do, so I wanted to just say God bless and keep you, for 'a kindhearted woman gains respect, while ruthless men gain only wealth'. Sorry. This is stupid. I probably called at a bad time. I guess I'll see you tomorrow, or something."
Cameron looked down at her phone, smiling, only vaguely aware of her mascara running.
"Thanks, Robbie."
/One day this will pass, God will see us all through/
/God will see us all through. God will see us all pass through/
The End…
A/N: Omigosh, that took so long to type. I really hope you guys like it. The idea came to me when I was sick. R&R PRETTY PLEASE!
Explosively Yours,
Pen