Flare

Chapter II:

Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews and story alerts! I already have an idea as to where the story is going, but thanks for the suggestions!

When Cuddy woke up it was to the smell of food. Apparently, House had gone into her bag and gotten out a can of soup. It wasn't her first choice for breakfast but it was better than nothing. It was cooking over the fire, but House wasn't around. Her fingers ached something terrible now and her whole body was sore. How he was able to get up and move around, on his leg, was a big mystery to her.

"Got some berries." He said, emerging from the underbrush. She sighed with relief and then looked at the berries he was holding.

"How do you know they are safe to eat?" She asked, although part of her knew better. He was House, he knew stuff that was beyond her capabilities.

"They're blackberries, Cuddy, not that hard to identify." He said, sitting down next to her. He looked a mess, his hair was wild and his clothes were rumpled and dirty. She didn't suppose she looked any better herself, though. She was still in just her underwear, but she was snuggled in the sleeping bag.

"Did you get any sleep?" She asked, reaching for the berries.

"On and off. The fire was good enough to keep me warm." He said with a shrug. If his leg was bothering him he wasn't making any complaints. She wondered why, usually he complained about anything and everything, especially his leg. It was probably because she actually had broken bones, but then again he wouldn't hand over a vicodin so she didn't know.

"Well we can share tonight." She declared and there was no way she was going to let him tell her no on that one.

"You know the best way to replenish body heat is-"

"We aren't that cold, yet." She cut him off, knowing about crawling naked into a sleeping bag with another person. Neither of them were trying to stave off hypothermia at that point so being naked was not an option for him to have. Yes, if it came down to that she would do it, but not before. She ate a few of the berries and they quenched her massive thirst. Good thing they had brought a small supply of bottled water too. "How's your leg?"

"Fine." He said flippantly, "How's the hand?" Cuddy looked down at her hand and then back to him. She knew he was lying about the state of his leg but if he wanted to play the tough guy then she would let him.

"It hurts, a lot." She replied honestly as she popped a few more berries into her mouth. "I'll be fine. We should set up the tent today."

"By "we" you obviously mean, me." House said, finishing off the food. Cuddy rolled her eyes

"I can help too you know." She said and then got to her feet. She walked over to the pack and unhooked the tent from it. The only reason she had escaped from the plane with the pack was when they started to go down she clutched onto it for dear life, because it was in front of her. She didn't remember this, but her other hand clutched House's bad leg. Just before the impact she put her hand up to brace herself and that was how she broke her fingers.

As she started to pull the tent out she realized that she really had to pee. She didn't want to announce this to House, nor did she really want to have to go in the woods. For the time being she guessed she could hold it and then make some excuse that she was going to look for help and walk off. They were both doctors and she knew he would eventually know about her bathroom routine, but for now she wanted to keep him in the dark.

"You going to help or what?" She asked once the disassembled tent was out on the ground. It was a large one, big enough for three people. She had volunteered to bring the tent, he had volunteered to bring the booze. She had laughed at him for that but when they had actually met up, she found he wasn't joking. It made her almost happy to think that the bag of booze was at the bottom of the lake. They didn't need to cloud their heads at that point.

"Yeah yeah." House said, getting up.

It took a lot of yelling from both parties, and a lot of cussing and insults, but about an hour later the tent was up and ready for usage. By that time Cuddy was dressed in her now dry jeans and shrunken sweater. She felt proud, like she had accomplished something useful. Now she just had to figure out how to make smoke signals. Just when she was about to suggest the idea to House, the urge to pee came on and wouldn't go away. She cursed under her breath and looked over at him.

"What are you waiting for? Permission?" He asked, obviously knowing her predicament.

"No, I just-"

"Cuddy everyone has to pee." House said and then climbed into the large tent. She growled under her breath and headed off into the forest where she would be covered enough, but yet not far enough away that he couldn't hear her scream for help if something happened.

As she was squatting down, emptying her bladder, she thought she saw smoke off in the distance and through the trees. She finished as fast as she could and took off in that direction as she was zipping up her jeans. Alerting House would be the best thing to do but if she was wrong she didn't need to hear any of his stupid quips.

When she drew closer to what she thought was smoke, she realized that it was just the clouds playing tricks on her. A second later, thunder boomed overhead. She screamed out in surprise and turned swiftly. The last thing she wanted was to be caught in the middle of a forest in a thunderstorm. Quickly, she started to run for the clearing where the tent was. She almost made it before her foot caught on the root of a tree. As she fell she heard a loud "crack" and felt bones shift in her foot.

"SHIT!" She screamed and instantly curled up, holding her foot in her non broken hand. "FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! HOUSE!" For a moment there was silence but then the underbrush rustled and she heard something behind her. There was a flash of lightening and another boom of thunder. Quickly she removed her tennis shoe and clasped her hand around her foot.

"Did I just hear you say "Fuck House"." He said, getting down by her. She would have punched him had her foot not been screaming at her in pain. "Damn what did you do to your foot?"

She removed her hand from the injury only to see that it was obviously broken, so broken that she might even need surgery. Not that she was going to be able to get that in the middle of nowhere. House came closer to her foot and put his hand on it gently. He started to prod here and there, the last time provoking a scream from her that sounded so unnatural to her own ears that she became scared.

"House..." She said, her voice shaking and tears shimmering in her eyes. Then, without warning, the sky opened up and rain began to pour down on them. It was relentless. Luckily they were mostly covered by branches of trees, but she didn't feel safe, she wanted to get back to the tent. "I think I can walk, I think I can-"

"On that foot? Maybe hop but there's no way you are putting weight on it. Here." He shoved his cane in her direction and helped her until she was upright. Immediately, she tried to put weight on her foot but this elicited the same unnatural scream as before. She didn't see how the cane was going to help her, but House came and put his arm around her waist and then hers around his shoulder. "Come on, to the tent."

It was slow going, and by the time they were in the tent they were both soaked, but Cuddy felt a lot better safety wise. House helped her lay down on the sleeping bag that she had been in the night before and removed her other shoe. "I'm going to take your sock off and check your foot, I'd advise you don't look."

"House I think I can handle-"

"If you were in the ER, probably, but we are a long ways from help." House said to her gently. She was surprised at his tone, only because that statement seemed like something that would have anger or annoyance behind it instead of a reassuring quality. He was probably right though, she wouldn't want to see what the foot looked like, so in the end she laid completely back and closed her eyes.

Silently, he went to examining her foot and he did it like a perfect doctor. She opened her eyes a few times and looked over, but the way he had positioned himself was blocking the direct view to her foot so she couldn't see it anyway. She could have almost thanked him for that. After a few more minutes he looked over to her with something in his eyes that resembled fear and empathy.

"I need to rearrange some bones so that infection is less likely to set in." He said. She didn't like the sound of the phrase "less likely" but knew he was right. He limped over to the first aid kit and then over to her, getting down in a position that couldn't have possibly been comfortable for him and his leg, but he was trying to comfort her and it made her heart ache. "Bite down on this." He held out a wad of fabric.

"House I don't know if I want you to do this." She said, taking the fabric from his hand. It wasn't that she didn't trust that he knew what he was doing, it was that she was scared of the pain that it was going to cause. If they were in a hospital they would probably be prepping her for surgery, she would be on painkillers, and any adjustments that would need to be made would be virtually painless.

"Cuddy, I don't want to do this either, but we both know I have to." He said softly. How easy should she give in? How quickly would it be over? Did she really want to risk more infection? Did she ever want to be able to walk again? Slowly, she took the wad of fabric and placed it in her mouth, biting down on it hard. "On the count of three."

"Mmm hmm." She agreed and closed her eyes tightly. Slowly, House counted to three and then made a quick adjustment to her foot. She heard bones popping, and that made the sickening pain even worse. As loud as she could she screamed into the gag, biting down onto the fabric as hard as possible.

"Once more. I am so sorry." House said to her. Beads of sweat were breaking out over his forehead despite the cool temperature the rain was causing. Her own body was coated with sweat and tears were pouring down her face. She felt like she might vomit. She nodded at him and he started to count to three again.

In another quick motion, and the sound of bones cracking, he adjusted her foot. This time it was even more painful and she saw spots dancing before her eyes as she let out a guttural scream. When he pulled away she laid back completely and closed her eyes. She spit the fabric out of her mouth and was breathing hard and fast, like she had just jogged five miles.

"Water." She begged pathetically. Her eyes closed and she tried to catch her breath. Gently, she felt a hand on her wrist and then a bottle of water being placed in it. Her eyes opened to see House looking down at her, concerned, "Thank you." He helped her sit up a bit and she drank down the water.

"Hey hey, not so fast." House warned her, pulling the bottle back, "You don't want to get sick." She nodded at him and blinked some tears out of her eyes.

"House, we are fucked." She whispered. He reached into his pocket and produced his vicodin bottle. After opening it he poured out two pills and held them in her direction. She was so grateful for this she could have cried had the energy been in her.

"No, you need them more than-"

"Your God-damn foot is broken. Don't be a martyr." House snapped at her with a quirky smile. She smiled back at him and took the pills, downing them with a few more gulps of water. At least now she had him because if she was by herself, if he had died...no, she would not think about that.

"How's your head?" She asked, motioning to the wound.

"Better than your foot." He replied and then situated himself so he was sitting on the ground next to her. "Come on, time to sleep."

"How am I supposed to-"

"Trust me, after all this it'll come." House said to her, reaching up to her face to stroke her hair which was matted to her forehead from stress. In that moment she loved him more than words could describe. She nodded and laid down completely, trying to ignore the searing pain in her hand and foot. They would get out of there, it couldn't be too long before they were reported missing...right?