This is the product of a prompt from Veronique. It's the start of a short fic (only a few chapters), but I hope you enjoy. It begins a little over 4 years after the finale.
Disclaimer: I believe Huddy actually could have been a catalyst to explore the characters on a deeper, fundamental level and not just as a plot device for a return to addiction and so-called "fun." Obviously I'm not connected with the show.
Last Chance – Prologue
"We need to get four into the burn unit, chest x-ray in five, cat-scan in eight and get the lab techs down here," she said, handing Nurse Amy the a stack of orders and transfers.
"There's another ambulance coming in," Amy said.
"God," she groaned. "How many more?"
"They said it's the last."
The emergency room was chaos, packed with victims and family members from a major pile-up on highway 52. There were seven casualties, but the number injured had been growing for hours. This was not the night for her to fill in for her friend. From now on, she'd reconsider any requests for favors involving taking a shift in the ER.
"Please," a young woman on a gurney cried out behind her. "The man who saved me, is he okay? No one will tell me. Please, I need to know he's okay."
"We haven't heard anything," she heard Nurse Lyn answer as she took the woman's vitals. "Try to calm down,"
"I saw him fall," the woman cried. "He wouldn't stop. He kept helping everyone. I saw him fall. He saved us."
The patient was clearly in shock.
"There was a hero onsite," Amy explained. "He apparently offered some pretty impressive aid. Several of the patients are asking about him."
"Is he in the next ambulance?"
"I'm guessing," Amy said, but she didn't have time to say any more before the doors slid open and another gurney was pushed in from the ambulance that had just arrived. A room had already been assigned and instructions provided over the radio, so the patient was immediately pushed toward the empty room.
She caught a glimpse of him from a distance. He was balding, but what little hair that remained was almost completely gray. He was thin and tall, his feet hanging slightly off the mattress. She frowned as she followed them down the hall. There was something very familiar about him, something that brought with it a presentiment and foreboding she tried to ignore.
The paramedic provided his vitals and all the necessary details regarding what they knew of his condition. She looked over the details as he spoke. This was the hero. He'd been in one of the cars involved and had been injured, but had spent his time rescuing and treating the other victims until help could arrive. He'd assisted the emergency teams until the last victim was loaded then had succumbed to his own injuries. He'd been coming in and out of consciousness throughout the ride to the hospital.
"He's complaining of abdominal pain," the medic finished his summary as they entered the small room and faced the patient. "Last time he woke he said he was a recovering addict. Wanted to make certain we didn't pump him with anything that would set him back."
Her heart skipped a beat as she looked across the room. There was suddenly a deafening ringing in her ears as her heart started up again, pounding, racing. Her knees were going weak as a numb sense of separateness overtook her body, a kind of dissociative experience she hadn't felt for years. She broke out in a cold sweat and suddenly felt as if she might vomit. The blood drained from her face as she stared at the ghost who'd haunted her for so many years, the man she both loved and hated with an annihilatory passion.
"Dr. Cuddy?" She heard someone call her name. She couldn't respond. She was plummeting down a black hole, sucked into an abyss of memories she'd tried so hard to eradicate from her mind, her heart.
"Pull the chair over here," she heard someone say. "Sit her down."
She grabbed the door frame for support, determined not to fall, not to give way to the vulnerability only he could effect.
Dazed and trembling she could only stare at the unconscious man in the bed in front of her.
House.
