Chapter 6:
"Thank God that's over!" House said, slipping into his chair in his office. He picked up the tennis ball and turned toward his team of doctors.
"Massé wants to listen to music." Cameron said, bursting in the door that very minute. She held a stack of CDs in her hands, taller than her arms were long. "And I don't know which one to choose." She dropped the stack on the glass desk. She pulled on her sleeves so that the cuffs were on her wrists where they were meant to be. The CDs had pushed them up.
"Why don't you just give them all to her?" Chase asked, standing in the row of doctors. Cameron stepped back into the line.
"Good idea. I guess that the fact that there isn't enough room in that whole wing for her to store them until she can listen to them is irrelevant."
"You're tired. You're not thinking right. Go ask her what genre she likes, her favorite artist, and then you have your CD." House rolled his eyes. He was right about Cameron being tired. She had been up all night pulling CDs out of shelves in her house.
"Just give her a CD. She'll listen to anything." Foreman said, not thinking.
"No she won't. She just can't wait until she can slam another person. You would liker her, House." Cameron was irritable, but telling the truth.
"Massé feels that she is better than everyone else. Just because she can play two instruments."
"She can, and she does it well." Chase said, nodding his head to the side, as if thinking.
"But not at the same time." House said, seeming to have thought of something.
"So? Nobody can." Chase said. He stepped out of the line, towards House. He put his hands on the desk in front of him. "So you're thinking that Massé is going to sprout another set of arms so that she can play both?" Chase demanded.
"No. That's just stupid." House stood up and walked through the hole in the line that Chase left by moving.
"Where is he going now?" Chase asked, to nobody in particular.
000000
"So, Miss Massé. Can you play this for me?" House asked, handing her a cheap violin that he had taken from a nurse's locker.
"Where'd you get that?" he asked, scoffing at the lousy instrument.
"I'll tell you after you answer this: Who brings a violin to a hospital to work?" Massé stayed silent. "In their right mind, I mean." House shoved the violin into her hands, and she sat up in her bed, shifting herself so that she had enough room to play.
"Fine. Beethoven or Bach?" She asked, as she propped the bow against the strings. She began to place her left hand on the neck of the violin, and began playing. Her hand would tremor on the strings, making the most beautiful noise. A lingering note, that faded and came back as the other notes played on. She really was good.
She went up and down the scale. Her heart rate climbed as well. House could tell by the machine that began to beep faster and faster.
The scale grew louder and louder, then seemed to stop, but he could still hear it. It was very faint, but he could tell that the notes were going up the scale once more. Flat, natural. F sharp, even higher. Into the second octave. High C. She moved both of her hands faster simultaneously, and her heart rate moved along with it.
Up and up it went. In increments. High E, High G and even up to the C above high C. Above that, the tune went up past the F. She hung on the F Sharp, then up to the A. As soon as she hit the high A flat, her body shook like her fingers on the neck of the violin.
"She's seizing!" Cried house. House hobbled over to the crash cart and pulled out a syringe full of Valium.
"What are you giving her?" Cried one of the nurses.
"What? Are you afraid I started the seizure? Please." The nurse glared at him. "I'm giving her ten mg of Valium. It'll stop her seizure." He said, pushing the medicine into the IV stream. A moment later, the musician had stopped shaking, but was lying atop a crushed violin. "What? Didn't you go to med school?" He glared at the nurse who had asked such a stupid question. The syringe was a special color that indicated that it was Valium. Duh!
"Is this my violin?" Asked another nurse. It was the new nurse that House had met in the clinic.
"Oh, is that whose it was? I was wondering about it."
"I heard someone playing earlier. Did you play that?"
"No. The patient played it. Now, out."
House ushered the new nurse out and sat down on a chair next to the bed. He waited for Massé to open her eyes so she could talk.
But House grew bored after only three minutes of waiting.
000000
"Wha- what happened?" Massé was waking up.
"You had a seizure. You're going to be okay." Chase was the one to respond. House had left a long time ago. He had other things to do…. Or, he said he did, at least.
"I had a seizure? No, that can't be. Where's that violin? I was playing it just a minute ago," She sat up in her bed, but Chase pushed her back down.
"Yes, you were seizing when I got in here. Just lay down, okay?" He sounded frustrated.
"Well, then where is doctor House?" She looked around the room, apparently for House.
"He went back to his office."
"Get him here for me!" She yelped. She glared at Chase and he nodded as he backed away.
"Okay… I'll be right back." He nodded to the nurses as if it were a secret code, and turned to leave the room.
"House," Chase said, wary of the grumpy doctor sitting in his chair. Chase opened the door wider and stepped through the door.
"What?" House asked. He was on his computer, typing on the keyboard.
"Massé wants to see you," Chase said, stepping closer to the desk. He was curious about what House was doing on the computer.
"Well, bring her in here," House replied smartly.
"But she just had a seizure," Chase said, peeking over House's shoulder to see what was on the screen. House reached up to the monitor and pushed the off button before Chase could crane his neck far enough to peek. The screen went black.
"Then I guess I have to go see her," House pushed himself up with his cane, hobbled over to the door, and held it open for Chase. Chase sighed, disappointed, and went through the door. We wanted to see what House was doing.
"Well, what did you find out about Massé?" Chase asked
"I found out that she can play the violin," House said. He didn't seem to really be listening. He seemed in a daze.
"And?"
"And that her music is killing her." He said. Now he was listening.
"How?"
"Stop asking stupid questions, Chase. Ask some good questions for once!" House growled. He got into the elevator, Chase following close behind, and pushed the button to bring him to the floor that Massé was on.
"Okay, then what was it that made her seize?" Chase asked as the elevator lurched.
"Now you're talking!" House encouraged. Chase was a bit confused. "She can't play her music anymore." He said.
"Why? I mean- why can't she play?"
"Because she'll seize!" House hobbled through the door to the hallway. Chase hadn't even noticed that the elevator had stopped moving.
"But what if it's just the violin?" Chase hit the spot. House turned quickly and thought for a moment.
"Okay. Now where can I get a saxophone?" House turned back around and entered her room.
"House," Massé said, sounding relieved. She sat back in her bed, and sighed.
"What? Did you think that you were going to die if I didn't show up in ten minutes?" House pulled up a stool and looked around the room. Lisa Cuddy and Doctor Cameron were standing around the bed, along with a young child that House hadn't seen before.
"Hugh, this is Doctor House. He's going to make me be all better," Massé said to the little child who must have been her son… or some sort of relative.
"Oh, you don't know that. I could just make you seize again and not let you get better. Who knows, I might leave without even saying 'hello'." House stood up and made his way over to the little boy. He looked frightened.
Then the beepers went off.
Beep! Beep beep! Chirp chirp beep! The doctors pulled their pagers and beepers off of their belts and raced out of the room. House, the slowest of all, was caught by the woman.
"What's going on?"
"My little prediction just came true. I'm not even going to greet your son." House raced out of the room. Well, raced as fast as he could.
