Bang!
Howard stumbled forward, grabbing his head in the place where he'd just felt a heavy object hit it; his hand came away covered in blood, "What the-" he managed to groan before being thrown roughly to the ground and disarmed by 2 security guards who had conveniently chosen that second to sneak into the room.
Cuddy stared open mouthed at her normally placid Oncologist who had just managed to save Chase from getting shot; Wilson returned her stare with a slight grin, still holding the small metal table in one hand, admiring his handy work.
House opened his partially good eye and squinted, his curiosity getting the better of him, "Put the table down Wilson." he said bluntly when the figure of Wilson became clearer in his vision.
Wilson automatically complied, still grinning to himself; he had taken it upon himself to act when Howard had pointed the gun at Chase and was pleased that he'd managed to stun him quick enough for security to disarm him.
Luckily the table was the nearest weapon and Howard had been too busy shaking up House to notice Wilson lifting it above his head. Security had entered the room quietly and looked thoroughly confused as to why there were 4 doctors, 2 patients and 1 suspicious looking armed man in there; they'd received a cryptic page about 2 minutes earlier from Dr Wilson saying 'rm312 urgnt'. Fortunately, they had seen enough to know what to do when Wilson swung the table; Cuddy wasn't completely clueless when it came to hiring ex-cops as security.
They picked up Howard, who looked as though he'd have a nasty concussion later, House noted; then they led him away after checking with Cuddy that there were no other matters they were required to deal with. Cuddy waved them off with instructions to call the cops and get Howard behind bars as soon as possible.
"Cameron, Chase – get Andrew to his room; Wilson, Foreman – make sure House is ok." Cuddy ordered, attempting to bring some movement from the room; so far the only one who had moved was Wilson, and that was to drop the table.
The four doctors shook themselves out of their shocked states and quickly went about following orders; Chase and Cameron rushed out to find Andrew a gurney, but not before taking the time to clarify the diagnosis with House.
"You knew he had Iron deficiency Anaemia all along didn't you?" Cameron asked House as she helped Chase lift Andrew onto the gurney.
"Is that a question or a statement?" House replied lazily.
"You wanted to keep him in." Cameron said, smiling and making House uncomfortable, "you knew his dad was abusing him."
"House?" Cuddy cut in, unable to contain her anger, "you knew he was getting abused?"
"I never said that – she did." House replied defensively, wincing at the level of Cuddy's voice; his head was still sore and he felt somewhat hungover.
"Is it true?"
"No! I didn't figure out the Anaemia part 'till this morning."
"I meant the abuse part!"
"I know what you meant." House said calmly, "I would have said something when he was discharged – I didn't figure that his dad was going to come looking for the money."
"What money was he after?" Cuddy asked; clearly she wasn't going to get a straight answer about the abuse from House any time soon, she didn't really want one either; House did things for a reason and she'd rather not know the logic behind his latest cover up.
"If I told you it was Grandma's birthday money I'm guessing you won't buy it?" House asked; Cuddy crossed her arms over her chest in an attempt to look intimidating. "Okay, it was some money he was sent by his brother, Martin-"
"Matthew." Cuddy corrected.
"Whatever – he didn't want the old man to find it; I guess he wasn't as well off as he made out he was...anyway, I told him I'd keep it safe for him..."
"Where?"
"I can't tell you – it's a secret." House stage whispered dramatically.
"House."
"It's safe – in my bank account." House insisted, catching the surprised look Cuddy and Wilson used when they processed this news, "what? Did you expect me to bury it somewhere in the hospital? This isn't the middle ages people!"
"It just sound's so...sensible." Wilson said, looking about as surprised as if House had just admitted to spending all the money on hookers...
"Yeah, well – twelve grand packs a lotta interest."
"Twelve thousand Dollars?" Cuddy and Wilson questioned simultaneously, "I'd better go and sort out the cops." Cuddy said as she attempted to understand why anyone in their right mind would trust House to look after $12,000.
"You're not joking are you?" Wilson said as he pulled House up by his shoulder in an attempt to get him under the covers; he wouldn't say anything to draw attention to it but House had been talking to Cuddy without even trying to cover up what dignity he had left from the impromptu operation.
"No... and where are my pants?" He asked, trying to regain his lost composure; 'damn, Cameron and Cuddy must not have known where to look' he thought, his cheeks flushing in embarrassment; for some reason, unbeknown to him, he could swear that his lower half felt almost numb! "What did you do to me?" he asked quietly, trying not to sound too worried.
"What's wrong?" Wilson said, immediately in panic mode.
"Well, lets see shall we; I pass out, fully clothed and when I wake up, I'm half naked and numb in the lower extremities...I'm pretty sure that's bad right?"
Wilson sighed in relief as he located House's jeans crumpled up in a heap beside the bed; "it's a good thing – trust me." he said as he hooked his finger in the belt hoop and passed the jeans to House, who frowned as he took them.
"What's wrong now?" Wilson asked nervously when House made a point of lifting the jeans up off the bed and putting them back several times.
House scared him further by grabbing his hands and turning to face him with a weird smirk on his face; Wilson hoped he wasn't about to burst into some kind of poetry, then he'd be certain he was brain damaged!
Instead, House squeezed Wilson's hands making him yelp out in pain and pull them back, "what was that for?" he said angrily as he rubbed his sore fingers trying to soothe the pain.
"No more paralysis." House grinned unapologetically.
"You couldn't have just told me?" Wilson said; he sounded annoyed but House could tell that he was pleased.
"If I'd just told you, you'd definitely think I was brain damaged."
"That's true." Wilson conceded as he rolled his eyes yet again; "Were you really going to tell Cuddy about the abuse?"
"He asked me not to – kinda mean to lie to a sick kid don't you think?"
"Yeah I can see how tormented you were over the secrecy keeping." Wilson said sarcastically.
"I never lie!" House said dramatically, "I have been known to withhold the truth from time to time though..."
"You could have died trying to save this kid – what, has he got spoilers for the new episodes of the O.C you were desperate to know about or something?"
House simply grinned and relaxed on the bed, "Hey, he's gotten me out of Clinic for at least a month - it was so worth it!"
"Yeah, possible brain damage and near death experiences – much better than having to do 6 hours of Clinic a week."
"Knew you'd understand." House replied tiredly, already slowly drifting off into sleep; the past two days obviously taking their toll on the poor guy...
The End!
Author's Note: Thanks for reading! I don't know how this became such a long story when I originally planned on it being a one-shot; must be down to the many people who reviewed and asked me to continue...hope I didn't disappoint.
Next story coming soon – it's bound to be a House!hurt fic – I can't help it, I'm sadistic...
Special thanks to Radon65, Embeer2004, BlkDiamond, SamBell, Aqua Mage, Boys Don't Cry, Kyla Ryan, Wuchel1, Labyrinth38, Nayvera and bmax – my regular reviewers (cheers to everyone else who reviewed too-it means a lot!) See you next time I hope!