Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own imagination
When I Think About You: 3
"Chase!" House called semi loudly as he manovered with difficulty through the rubble, he didn't want to risk the building falling more. The scattered debris giving the house a much larger radius then when it was still standing.
House and Foreman had separated when they came to a waist high divider of rubble that had no doubt once been a wall. The last time he had spoken to Foreman was when he had seen the remainder of the stairs and informed the black doctor that he was foolishly on the wrong side of the house.
House scanned the mess ahead of him once more wondering how Chase was even alive.
"Chase!" They could search for ever unless they got some clue.
"House!" House started at the desperate and weak cry.
"Chase! Hang on and keep calling."
Chase woke to the sound of his name being called in an annoyed yet worried tone, only one person could manage the mix so well. As House instructed him to keep calling he felt itches spreading throughout his body. The kind you get when you force yourself to sit still until you just have to jump up and run.
"Get me out of here!" He screamed as he felt the weight above him shift heavier on top of him. Somewhere in the back of his mind Chase was aware that he was stressing himself out more as his yells caused him to break into racking coughs giving himself a sudden searing pain. As he gasped for breath he felt his pulse speeding up which wouldn't help the bleeding. A pounding in his head and ringing in his ears distracted him as he coughed violently and gasped desperately in-between.
House had no problem locating Chase as he begun coughing through the pounding rain.
"Foreman!" He yelled swiftly before manoeuvring through the heaps surrounding him. It was a miracle that he hadn't slipped or fallen yet. Just as he rounded a man high lump of crap he saw Chase's blonde head. Soaked and shivering he was giving off a sound somewhere between cough splutter an scream as his body and mind fought each other.
All he could see was Chase's right arm and shoulder as he hurried towards him, the water around him was suspiciously reddish.
"Chase! I'm here, it's okay." House reeled off quickly as he awkwardly kneeled by his head and arm. When he received no reaction other then coughing he grabbed Chase's arm. "Chase." The young intensivist looked at him with glazed panicky eyes. "Deep breaths, stay with me here."
It was partly the calm tone of House's voice that encouraged Chase to take a few rasping breaths before returning to, at least stable, shallow breaths.
"Knew you'd find me." he panted out in a vague tone as he sunk his head to the floor, lacking the energy to hold it up any longer. Luckily House caught it before he got a mouthful of water. Moving around House leant Chase's head on his knee.
"Just stay with me okay, when Foreman gets here we'll get you out." House ran his fingers through Chase's matted hair as he struggled to take in air without moving too much. Checking Chase's weak and erratic pulse House begged Foreman to hurry. Chase's tightly shut eyes told House he was hanging on to any last fibres of himself that weren't in panic or shock. He wasn't going to be able to keep it together much longer if he wasn't freed soon.
Whereas House could understand that this was traumatic, he knew there was something other then rubble causing Chase to have to desperately hang on to his sanity.
House peered at the rubble covering Chase's small body, it shouldn't be that hard to shift, he noticed with relief. Nothing that should cause any additional injuries, although probably some irritation of the present ones. As he looked deeper into the rubble he saw something that definitely was not wood.
"Chase, where's the man that shot you?" He asked with the sickening realisation that he didn't have to.
He felt Chase's breath hitch as he shuddered violently and winced, a few unwanted tears started a smooth trail down the already wet face.
"Crap. Foreman!" House yelled as Chase shook and shivered beneath him. hand clenched so tightly House was sure he could see the detailed bone work there.
"I'm here, I'm here." Foreman's indignance at being yelled for was cut short as he saw the tiny portion of visible Chase and his conditioned, as well as a worried and antsy House.
"We gotta get him out of there now!" Foreman exclaimed.
"I know that! Get started. Chase." The shuddering figure turned his head and shoulder awkwardly as he looked up at House. The diagnostic head tried to ignore the pain and tear filled eyes. "Were gonna get you out ok, just try not to move." At Chase's delicate nod House shifted from under his head, grabbed his cane to stand up and begun to help Foreman remove the debris.
Chase couldn't help whimpering softly as the weight was shifted from him, causing slight movements that seemed to grind on his body. The slight spasms of pain made him want to wriggle away, but he wouldn't let House down now that they were reunited. It seemed to Chase that he had been under this weight for ages, and that one more minute would kill him.
His fist clenched tight and he moaned as a piece of wood was moved that shifted his shot arm.
"Hold on Chase, we're nearly there."
"We'd be there sooner if Hose was pulling his fair share of the work." Foreman said in a mutinous voice as he tossed a plank into a another pile of debris.
"Hello! Cripple here!" Chase couldn't help but snort at House's indignant tone.
After a few more bits of rubble House spoke again.
"Your lower left leg is free, can you move it?" Chase tried, only to find that he couldn't even feel his leg, it certainly wouldn't move. He choked back a sob at the thought that he could no longer control his muscles.
House and Foreman share a glance over the shrinking rubble. House hobbled to where he could reach Chase's leg, he gently rolled up the leg of his trousers to be met with a little bleeding where the skin had broken and a horrendous black-red bruise covering the back of Chase's calf.
"Can you feel this?" He asked, hating himself for what he was doing as he prodded the discolouration. At Chase's yell and jerk from the rest of him House released a breath. Next he removed Chase's shoe and sock to see a few broken toes, but nothing worse. House removed a pen and pressed it to one of Chase's toes. "You feel that?"
"A-a bit." Chase breathed out. House stood up and once again he and Foreman begun to shift the planks.
They reached a particularly large sheet of wood and heaved it up, causing Chase to cry out as his ribs were shifted abnormally. As they tossed it away they saw that Chase was now practically free. The only things on top of him now were a couple of planks, and another body. The huge blood soaked form was twisted awkwardly as it lay over Chase, dwarfing him with it's huge size.
There was no doubt the man was dead as he lay crushing Chase's chest and most of his leg and left arm. Foreman looked slightly repelled from the body.
"Foreman!" House snapped him back to attention as he saw Chase's uncontrolled shivering and knew he couldn't keep it together much longer.
Swiftly they removed the last of the planks off of Chase, who looked like he was about to bolt.
"Don't move until we get him off you, that's an order." Chase's tense body allowed him to nod swiftly as he clenched his eyes and teeth.
Chase whimpered as he felt the shift of flesh and bones above him, moving his body around with it as he felt things shift that weren't supposed to.
It seemed to take agonisingly ages. As soon as he felt the weight off him and a lightness overtake him he squirmed forwards, desperately having to move from that place. He got a few paces forwards by basically using his one good arm before he collapsed further, tears streaking down his face as he fought for breath. The pain throughout his body and fuzz swirling through his head distracted him from other senses.
Chase curled up as best he could an grasped his shot shoulder with his hand, trying to calm down he lay there trembling whilst trying to breath.
House and Foreman quickly reached Chase on the water covered floor.
"Chase, are you with me?" House muttered to the blonde as he pulled him up against his shoulder. At Chase's pained moan House quickly found the bullet wound. "Come on Chase talk to us." House expertly kept the panic out of his voice as Chase's eyelids fluttered unresponsively.
Foreman seemed to suddenly regain the doctor in him and took over. Noting the intensivist pale completion with slightly blue lips he knew the cold would kill him now if he slept. Smartly slapping Chase's cheek (which he had always slightly wanted to do if he were honest) he managed to get Chase to attempt drawing in more oxygen.
House quickly got the idea and pinched Chase's limp neck, hating himself when Chase grasped harshly and whimpered, but he did open his eyes to gaze blearily up at House. The blue-green eyes were glazed with an oncoming fever and kept slipping away as they couldn't focus. But at last they managed to slap him into a more attentive state.
"Chase, were standing up now." House mentioned softly before starting to struggle up with the extra weight. Foreman quickly grabbed Chase and hauled the limp body up, not needing two people with falling injuries on his hands.
Chase felt his knees go as soon as he got up, luckily Foreman held him steady with an arm around his waist and placing Chase's arm round his shoulder. Chase struggled for a few moments to get his legs to cooperate with him and stand up.
"Can't move." He slurred in a heavily accented voice as the room tilted at some crazy angles. "An fever..." He murmured as he collapsed further onto Foreman.
"Man is it a good think your thin and short." Foreman complained as he scooped Chase up like a bride, it was good thing the man was light. Doctors diet, he reasoned.
House led the way out as Chase bit his lip, partly so as not to cry out, partly to keep himself awake.
They managed to escape the rubble fast, hastily but gently laying Chase in the back seat of the car. House slid himself under Chase's head to keep him awake and hopefully stable. Just as they pulled out there was a change to the blonde's breathing.
As the fever set in Chase begun to pant in rasping breaths. House felt the worrying rise in the younger's temperature as he both shook and sweated.
"Stay with me here." He commanded, tapping Chase's face lightly. Chase raised glazed eyes to his boss and focused as best as he could.
"No sleepy till were back at the play pen."
The journey back seemed to take forever. Chase had reached the stage of no longer being coherent, both from the previous blood loss and the fever. Luckily with much pressure House had stopped the bleed, but he had lost enough already to cause some significant problems.
There were two other significant problems facing them, The never ending onslaught of rain was causing Foreman to have to drive slower, no use all of them ending up at hospital. The second was that Chase was unable to keep himself awake any longer, his severe lack of energy was even lessening his chills. This meant House had to keep him awake by either pinching or slapping him, something House had quickly realised wasn't nearly as fun as it should have been.
Chase moaned and whimpered pathetically each time House brought him out of a blissful resting state.
Chase just couldn't understand why House kept hurting him, a severe bought of chills wracked through his body, making him cough and gasp pathetically.
"Why?" He choked out at the blurred figure above him as he slipped back into sleep. House sighed as he moved to once again wake up the blonde. They were about ten minutes from the hospital. He just hoped they all made it.
::Thanks for reading and all the great reviews::
::Song inspiration for this chapter goes to I do I do I do by DDR, tis amusing::
::shadowtheo::