Disclaimer: I don't own them I simply borrow them to play with, I didn't ask but I'm sure David Shore won't miss them, least not till September. I'll put them back where I found them when I'm done. I make no money from this so please, no suing the poor college student!
A/N: I worked all weekend to get this chapter out to you. I make no promises on when the next chapter will be ready though. Like I said I have been crazy busy! Though reviews help :D the more reviews I get the more I feel like writing!!
OoOoOo
Redux
OoOoOo
Chapter ten- Musings
OoOoOo
Wilson's second attempt with the artist actually yielded a useable result and an APB had been put out shortly after. How accurate it actually was, was any ones guess but at least it didn't look like anything out of a horror flick.
The experience had left the child exhausted and on edge wanting nothing to do with anyone but Cuddy whom he clung to like a drowning man to a life raft.
If Cuddy was completely honest she would have to say she was almost glad that Wilson had chosen to cling to her as the entire ordeal had left her feeling less then stellar and with House missing she really didn't feel all that comfortable having the other little boy out of her sights.
At the moment Wilson was curled up next to her on the bed. Cuddy was talking to one of the cops who had stopped by to talk to her about the possibilities of a press conference. Sometimes appealing to the public was a good way to get a missing child back, especially if the people who were planning on purchasing House were to see it. If they were simply parents that desperately wanted a child and not hardened criminals, it might appeal to that parental instinct and hopefully not wanting another parent to suffer they would come forward with the child.
The chances, of course, were slim, but it had happened before and it was better than the nothing they could be doing instead.
Still, Cuddy wasn't so sure it was something they should do. It would be bringing very unwanted attention onto House and Wilson and their unique situation. As of yet not even their parents knew they had been downsized and for the moment they had all agreed they wanted to keep it that way.
Who knew what would happen if it got out who House really was and how he had gotten to be the size that he was. Information like that getting out might make it much harder to find him, after all if who ever had him figured out that they had the famous Doctor Gregory House, they may decide to keep him or even ask for ransom thus making a sticky situation even stickier.
Not to mention that Greg would never forgive her if she managed to make his situation public. He didn't want anyone to know he was now an 8 year old.
The fall out of that would be terrible. And they would have to answer all sorts of questions on how they had ended up as children and the hospital would have to make its research public way before they were ready. All the reasons they had chosen to keep the de aging a secret were still very valid and to have to deal with that on top of House being missing was all too much for Lisa to deal with.
Taking all that into consideration, Lisa had a lot to think about as far as ends justifying the means, before agreeing to go along with a press conference.
Jimmy was watching them through slitted eyes, his head in Lisa's lap while he listened to House's iPod. That was a trick that Forman had figured out the night before. Wilson seemed to calm down immeasurably by being allowed to listen to some of House's favorite songs, it also probably helped to cling to one of House's favorite material objects. Like a security blanket in electronic form.
Wilson cradled the thing possessively to his chest as he let it play through House's rather eclectic collection of music.
It was a physical connection to House and it soothed him. He missed House so much it hurt and he could never remember a time he had felt so scared before. Not even when Amber was lying on her death bed. Though that had been scary in and of itself in a similar yet completely different way, he couldn't remember if it had felt nearly this bad.
Maybe his regressed emotions had a part in making this feel so much worse, or maybe the person who he was scared for did. He wasn't sure which but if it was the latter then Wilson was more screwed up then anyone could have guessed given what he had done when Amber was dying.
Those were feelings he wasn't so sure he wanted to contemplate at the moment. After all, this was the person who he had asked to risk his life to save Amber's, and thinking back on that made Wilson's heart ache.
Being only 6 years old he simply could not reconcile the fact that he had asked such a thing of anyone let alone someone who he had claimed was his best friend, nor could he reconcile the fact that House had actually done it. Or maybe being 6 had nothing to do with his inability to reconcile it, maybe it was something wholly un- reconcilable not matter what age he was at, something completely unacceptable.
Thinking on it now made his chest throb unpleasantly. House had loved him enough to risk his life to save someone he cared about, someone it seemed he cared about more than House. And House had thought so little of himself and his own worth that he thought his life was worth less then that persons, and Jimmy had gone and let him think that. Then he had gone on and abandoned him...
After he had risked his life for Wilson, he had up and left him telling him they weren't friends… never had been friends…
Even after all of that House had willingly accepted Wilson back into his life, had actually been glad and relieved to have him back, though James couldn't imagine why after he had treated him in such a way.
Did House really think so little of himself, to think he was dispensable? Not to mention wanting people in his life so badly when it seemed they to thought he was dispensable.
House should have hated him for the way he treated him but he didn't, he still loved him and wanted him so badly in his life he had hired a private I to get him back.
Wilson shook his head not wanting to remember the memories that were forcing their way back into his brain.
Jimmy did love House, but he had gone and hurt him in unimaginable ways. He wasn't so sure why now of all times was the first time he had realized just exactly what it was he had done.
Pain and anguish of a completely different type then he had been feeling the last few days bubbled up inside of him and his body began to shake as he tried to repress sobs that were trying to spring free from him.
It was a losing battle, Jimmy didn't think he would have been able to hold the sobs back at 36 let alone at 6 and so, seemingly out of the blue to those watching him, Wilson began to sob.
OoOoOo
House woke up an undeterminable amount of time later in what seemed to him to be the trunk of a car. A tiny beam of light made its way through the seam, were lid met car and House could feel the vehicle moving. The bouncing of the car was making him feel rather nauseous… well more so then he had been feeling previously that is.
House let out a little groan. His head was killing him and he couldn't help but think there were much quicker ways to go about killing a person then starving, freezing, and drugging them. Then again he had already come to the conclusion that his captors were idiots. If they were trying to keep him alive and healthy to sell they were doing a piss poor job of it and if they were indeed trying to kill him they were doing an even more piss poor job of it.
The absurdity of the situation in which House found himself, yet again, made him want to laugh. But laughing was a bad idea, it hurt and so he groaned again.
Covering his mouth with his hand, House strived to be quiet. He wasn't so sure alerting his captors to his state of wakefulness was such a good idea.
Biting his bottom lip he felt around the inside of the trunk for the interior release praying that this model and year of car had one. His heart sank as he found that it did not.
He curled up into a small ball and sniffled a little bit. He wondered if Wilson was ok… had the runt made it back to the hospital alright?
Were they looking for him?
He couldn't imagine they would be. They should all be relieved that he was gone. He was always nothing but trouble and people never let him forget what grief he caused. Where they relieved he was gone? That he was now someone else's problem?
He rubbed at his eyes which were watering annoyingly. It wasn't tears. House assured himself, his eyes were simply red and watery from being sick!
House couldn't say he blamed them. He was a royal pain in the ass. Wilson had made it clear a few months earlier that he didn't even want to be friends. It was only because House was so pathetic that he had even come back. The sick thing was, even after the way Wilson had treated him he had been glad... relieved to have him back in his life.
The boy would be relieved now though he supposed, not to have to worry about House anymore. He could be someone else's problem now. Some other person could deal with taking care of House because Wilson knew better than most, that House seemed incapable of taking care of himself.
He brought grief where ever he went, he was aware of that. It was almost funny to him that someone was going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on him. He wondered if there was some sort of return policy. Some sort of money back grantee.
These people would be very, very sorry for having gotten a child through the black market. House had a way of making people who got involved with him very sorry for having done so.
Heck it was his own fault he was even in this mess, not only was it his stupidity that had caused Jimmy and him to be de aged but it was him that had talked Jimmy into going to the park when they had been told not to. He had no one to blame for this mess but himself and he knew it.
House was startled out of his self deprecating thoughts when the car stopped suddenly sending him jerking about in the small space.
He could hear the muffled voices of his captors but couldn't make out what they were saying other then the voices where getting closer. This was conformed a moment later when the trunk was jerked open and he was face to face with Nigel.
Two large hands reached in and grabbed him by his arms yanking him out of the trunk.
"Time to meet your new mummy and daddy." Nigel said in a way that made House's skin crawl.
Grabbing House tightly by the bicep, Nigel dragged him away from the car they had come in and over to where Thomas was standing with two other people.
The woman was petite with an olive complexion, bright, large brown eyes and short brown hair. She was wearing a handsome pants suit. She looked very professional and friendly enough.
The man, though, gave House a bit of pause. He stood tall, his blue eyes piercing, broad shoulders held up straight, looking every inch the ex marine he was. His dark hair showed the beginning of receding and was cropped very short.
House looked at the man and frowned. Taking in a deep breath that caused him to cough, he sized him up. He hadn't let John House intimidate him; there was no way he was going to let this man do so now.
"His dippady do doesn't work so I have to suffer!" House snarked turning his nose up a bit in defiance.
The man didn't so much as crack a smile but it was apparent to House that he was just barely holding one back, his blue eyes were sparkling with restrained mirth. That confused House, most adults he knew, at least the ex marines, and House was observant enough to know this man was ex military, would have knocked him one for such a comment. Not that that ever stopped him from making them though.
The man merely reached out and pulled House close to him and out of Nigel and Thomas' reach before turning to his wife and saying...
"He's a fine boy, isn't he Now…"