Chapter 8

It has been twenty minutes before Cuddy arrived in House's room, and by that time, he was steaming. No amount of cajoling, begging, or threats could get Wilson to get him out of the bed. Wilson was waiting for Cuddy's ok before taking House out of his bed. He wasn't going to temp fate twice with the wrath of the Hospital Administrator. He had to stop House twice from taking out his own catheter.

Cuddy could feel the tension in the room as she entered. It was also blatantly obvious, House sitting on his bed, a scowl on his face, and Wilson sitting in the chair in the corner with a long suffering look on his face. She couldn't keep her eyes from rolling as she stepped into the room and grabbed House's chart.

"Took you long enough." House grumbled, "Boy Wonder over there won't let me out of here until you sign off…wuss," the last comment he directed to Wilson. Wilson pointed his finger at House and was getting ready to respond in kind, when Cuddy held up a hand to stop him.

"Shut up House. Let me do a quick examination and then we'll talk about the rules ok?" House just scowled further, but didn't say anything. Cuddy took her time, listening to his chest, checking his pupils, examining his leg, and last making sure that his fingers were pink with circulation on his broken arm. She seemed satisfied.

"Well? Can I go now MOTHER?" This statement produced a rather evil look on Cuddy's face.

"Wilson, have you called his parents yet? I'm sure that they are anxious to see him." At this, she smiled sweetly.

"Nuh-huh, you wouldn't."

"Don't push me House."

"Ok, ok. What about – ", he stopped and gestured toward his catheter bag, "can you send a nurse in to get this out, or better yet, I can just take it out myself."

"Nothing doing. That stays in," Again she held up her and to ward off any arguments. "I want that in through tomorrow in case the episode that you had this morning repeats itself and you have to be sedated."

"What do you mean through tomorrow?"

"I'm keeping you at least another day for observation, and tomorrow for a final CT scan." She could see the color rising in his face, but she headed that off, "Actually, I was thinking that you being around would probably benefit Cameron more than you. Unless you disagree with that?" She continued while he considered her reasoning, "And you know that you are going to need help at home with a broken arm and bum leg," again he opened his mouth to dispute her, and she shook her head, "and I'm sure that your parent's would be more than willing to stay over until you could handle things by yourself."

House snapped his mouth shut, and sneered at Wilson's smug look. "Wipe that stupid smile off of your face and help me into a wheelchair. I haven't had anything to eat since yesterday and it's making me cranky."

"Seriously, what's your excuse for the rest of the time?"

"Shut It." Wilson just rolled his eyes, but refrained from making any more comments.

Cuddy had watched the whole exchange, and was satisfied that her orders were going to be carried out, "I'll check back in later House. Wilson, I'll hold you responsible." With that she left the room, smirking outside knowing that House was going to give Wilson a run for his money. She felt a little bit guilty, but knew that Wilson was just going to dump House in Cameron's care after the cafeteria run. She also hoped that his parents wouldn't show back up, but she wouldn't put it past them. How could she blame his mother, she was probably worried sick about her son, but she wasn't so sure how his father felt.

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Wilson was exhausted. He had helped House struggle into a pair of scrubs, after taping the catheter bag to his leg, and then got him into the wheelchair. When they got down to the cafeteria, House was able to move his own tray along while ordering Wilson what to load the tray with, and the crowning moment on that trip had been getting down to the cashier. House just pointed at Wilson, and shrugged.

"Does it look like a carry a wallet in these pants?"

"Sure…why would I think that you would pay for your own food?"

"Just be glad that Cameron is still on her special diet or you'd be buying two meals instead of just one."

Wilson stared at the tray in House's lap, "All that is just for you?!"

House gave him a cheesy grin, "Of course, growing boy and all." Wilson rolled his eyes and gave up, pushing House out of the cafeteria and toward the elevators. The ride up was unusually quiet, not that Wilson was complaining. Standing behind the wheelchair, Wilson glanced down at House and could see his left hand clutching the tray of food, the tray shook a little.

"House?"

"Don't suppose that you have any Vicodin, do ya Jimmy?" Wilson could hear the strain in his voice even though he was trying to sound casual about it. He moved to look over at House, his face had paled somewhat and a light sheen of sweat had appeared across his brow.

"Jesus, why didn't you say something earlier?"

"I was probably still coasting on the morphine, I don't know. What does it matter now? My pills are in my room, right?" He looked up to Wilson for confirmation of this fact, and Wilson nodded.

"I'll take you to Cameron's room and then – "

"NO" House took a deep breath, "No, let's go to my room first, let me take two and get this under control. She'll just worry." He didn't say anything else, instead he focused on trying to breath through the cramping of his leg, he couldn't rub it with his left hand, even if he wasn't holding the tray stacked high with food. He found himself momentarily distracted by the fact that he didn't want to dump the tray and focused on keeping it steady. When the next contraction came, Wilson had just pushed him into his room and had the presence of mind to grab the tray, and then grabbed the vial of pills out of the drawer next to House's bed. When he turned back around, House was rocking back and forth in the chair, his left hand rubbing as best as it could, biting his lip so hard that Wilson thought for sure that he was going to draw blood.

Wilson opened the bottle and handed House two pills, which he immediately dry swallowed.

"Do you want me to grab some heat for your leg? I can get the thinner pads, no one would know that they were even there, but I think that it would help in stopping anymore cramping." House didn't say anything, his eyes were closed, he only nodded.

"I'll be right back."

House could feel the pills starting to do their job. He knew that because of his lack of activity, his leg would be stiff and he would probably have these episodes more frequently until he was able to move more. His eyes were still closed, head bowed when he heard the door slide open.

"It's almost gone…I don't think I'll - "

"So you're awake." House's eyes popped open and looked to see his father in the doorway. "Funny, no one called your mother and I. Do you realize how worried she is about your right now?"

House just shook his head, he didn't know what to say. He was too shocked to say anything, suddenly he was ten again. It was at that moment that the door opened up again.

Wilson stopped dead in his tracks, he looked past the Colonel and at House who was facing him. His face was pale, and Wilson hoped that he hadn't gotten there too late to keep anything damaging from happening. At that thought, the man turned to look at Wilson, his eyes narrowing.

"Well, if it isn't Dr. Wilson. Did you or Dr. Cuddy ever plan on calling my wife and I to inform us that our son had regained consciousness?"

Wilson put on his most charming smile. "He hasn't been up that long, as you can see, I'm trying to help him get his pain under control. The leg has been giving him trouble since he has been stuck in bed, I think that we discussed that earlier. I had planned on calling you as I helped him get comfortable."

The Colonel nodded toward the loaded tray that now set on the bed. "After a quick run to the cafeteria?" He turned toward his son, "I'll let your mother know that you are up and seem to be doing fine. We'll be back tomorrow to visit." He turned and walked out of the room. Wilson watched him go and then turned his attention back to House, who had remained silent throughout the entire exchange.

"I've got two chemical heating pads, thin ones. No one will even know that they are there." House just nodded, not meeting Wilson's eyes. "I've got to get you up for a second to get these attached under the scrubs."

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It took about 15 minutes to get everything resituated, the tray once again across House's lap, and they were out the door to Cameron's room. Wilson knew that his friend would talk when he was ready and not before.

"I don't want that mentioned to Cameron."

"Sure, I won't say anything." As they came up to the room, they could both see Cameron staring up at the TV with disinterest. Wilson moved ahead and knocked on the glass before he slid it open and stuck his head in.

"Are you up for a visitor?"

A wide grin lit Cameron's face, that was all that Wilson needed.

"Hey" House smiled at her, how could she have that effect on him? He felt better just seeing that smile. He was supposed to be here to comfort her, not the other way around.

"I missed you today. I can't watch those stupid soaps without you, and then forget watching Jerry Springer…it's no good without the extra snark."

"Wonder-Boy gave me a little extra morphine," He stopped to roll his eyes, "and I couldn't say no to that, slept like a baby! But I woke up starving," indicating the overloaded tray in his lap. Cameron laughed at this, it was so typical House.

"Well, I've got work to do." He exchanged a look with Cameron over House's head, "Call me if you need anything…I'm sure that you won't hesitate House."

"You can go now Wilson."

"Good luck Cameron." House turned to say something in response but Wilson was already gone, the door sliding back into place.

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