"House?" Cuddy panicked when she got no reply; she tried to look at her passengers in the mirror but she couldn't see them so she dared to turn in the seat to see; she gasped when she saw House leaning over an unconscious looking Wilson, "What – what happened?" she stammered before snapping her head back to concentrate on the road ahead, "has he been hit?" she asked, fearing the answer.
"No – he smacked his head on the car when he heard the gunshot, managed to knock himself out." House chuckled, sounding relieved, as he sat back up straight to soothe his ribs, "Relax, I checked him over, he'll be fine – no holes!" he added when he caught the appalled look Cuddy gave him in the mirror.
"They still following us?" House asked, alert all of a sudden.
"I don't know – can't you look, I'm trying to drive here" Cuddy whined as she made a sharp right turn.
"Kinda hard to twist round with broken ribs" House replied bluntly, wincing as he was forced to hold onto the back of the passenger seat so as not to be thrown about in the back by Cuddy's erratic driving.
There was a pause as Cuddy desperately searched in the mirrors for the van, "Yeah, it's still behind us, why couldn't Wilson have a sports car?" she groaned in despair.
"Good" House said triumphantly which wasn't the response Cuddy had expected at all, "don't lose them"
"What, did you hit your head too? There's nothing good about being followed by people with guns House!" she snapped at him as he tried to lean over the seat in front of him to grab Wilson's coat; he couldn't reach it and it defiantly hurt his broken ribs and collar bone trying.
"Pass me Wilson's phone." House ordered sharply when he gave up torturing his body to try and get it himself, "Just chuck his coat here!" he added impatiently when Cuddy fumbled with the coat on the seat next to her unable to find the right pocket fast enough for him.
She passed him the coat and House located the phone and shakily found the number left by the Fed's they'd met in Monmouth the week before, luckily Wilson actually did things like update his phone numbers – House still only had 7 numbers programmed into his cell, that way he never had to call people he didn't want to talk to!
They answered straight away which surprised House, for some reason he'd expected to get an answer machine at 4.15 in the morning – even though it was the FBI!
"Cuddy" he called, snapping her out of her concentration, "Drive out of town, get on the highway, make sure they follow."
"I thought we were going to the police?" she shouted back confused at the sudden change of plan.
"They won't follow us if we go to the station – just get on the freeway, trust me – they're dumb enough to follow us!"
"I don't want them following us!"
"So you'd rather they got away and came back to finish the job another day?" House questioned plainly frustrated.
"Shit, we don't have a lot of gas." She said, growing more and more desperate – she could hear House explaining to the Feds who they were and what was happening over the phone, he had obviously gotten through and help should be on the way, 'please hurry up and arrest these creeps' she silently begged.
"Just keep driving, the Feds will intercept us once we're on the highway – don't lose the van though."
Cuddy didn't think that would be a problem, she could still see the van in her mirrors and she was relieved to see that it wasn't a particularly fast van; she didn't want people shooting at them again like last time!
"Here take this and tell them where we are" House ordered as thrust the cell into Cuddy's hand; he was preoccupied with the small moan he heard coming from the seat beside him.
"Wilson, welcome back!" he cried overenthusiastically.
"Ohhh, what happened?" Wilson groaned holding his head, wincing at the lump that was gradually forming above his brow.
"You nosedived into the car…literally" House replied, trying to hide his relief at Wilson waking up and appearing not to be too badly injured.
"Great…did we get away?" He asked as he took in his surroundings, he wasn't used to travelling in the back of his own car; it was disorientating to say the least – the bump on his head wasn't helping much either!
"We're working on it" House said earnestly; Wilson barely had time to think of his next question before Cuddy swerved the car dramatically past an oncoming car that had drifted over to their side of the road; the driver, who had probably been up all night, had chosen that particular stretch of road to fall asleep at the wheel. The tyres of Wilson's Volvo screeched and Cuddy desperately tried to keep it on the road but to no avail – they hit an embankment and the car came to an abrupt halt, slamming House and Wilson into the back of the passenger seat. Luckily for Cuddy, the airbags cushioned her – plus she had her seatbelt on, gun wielding maniacs or not – safety came first!
"Thanks for the heads up." House groaned to Cuddy as he carefully checked over his body for any new injuries the impact into the seat may have caused, "turn the lights off" he said so urgently it made Cuddy automatically comply. They saw the headlights of the van pass behind them at speed, the driver obviously not realising that they had come off the road because they were masked by trees, keeping them well hidden for now.
Wilson tried the door and was surprised when it opened, considering the amount of mud they had just wedged the car in, he was sure they would be trapped, "You owe me a new car" he said dryly, not sure if he should be aiming at House or Cuddy. Cuddy sighed in relief when she saw that they were both ok, but she panicked slightly when she couldn't open her door to get out; Wilson saw the fear and put his hand on her shoulder in a gesture of comfort, "it's ok" Cuddy relaxed a little, nodded gratefully to Wilson and set about taking off her seatbelt.
"I don't mean to break this touching scene of tranquillity" House growled "but I think it's time we vacated the vehicle."
House had watched the van's taillights disappearing into the distance but he could see brake lights now and knew that the van would be coming back to see where they had gone; he didn't want to be sat in the car waiting for them to return!
Wilson hurriedly dragged House to his feet after he had painfully manoeuvred himself to a position by the opened door; he thought he had it bad when he felt his shoes filling up with sludge until he remembered that House was barefoot and his cast was probably ten time heavier with mud in it. Cuddy had climbed onto the back seat and was wishing she had brought shoes with her too as she saw the deep puddles they had to wade through to get to the bank the other side; she slipped as she stepped out of the car and landed flat on her ass, cursing and groaning.
"When I said I wanted to see you mud wrestling this wasn't what I had in mind." House stated despondently while resting his good shoulder against the car. Cuddy shot him a killer look before she realised why he was so unhappy – there was no way he would make it very far in this mud; if she had slipped getting out of the car then he had no chance getting away.
She and Wilson didn't have time to think of the logistics of getting him over the embankment before they heard the squeal of tyres braking as a vehicle stopped on the road they had just come off…
Author's note: Hey, I think I'm going to be wrapping this story up pretty soon, another chapter or two (well…probably three knowing me!) so let me know if you have enjoyed it and if you'd like to see more stories from me. Thanks to the regular reviewers; radon65, bmax, graybaby1, Boys Don't Cry, Ravenwood85, BlkDiamond, KylaRyan, SamBell, LindafromItaly etc. Not forgetting everyone else who has taken the time to read and review – thank you! If you have anything you'd like to see written about House, let me know because I'm open to any ideas for fics – I'm desperate to start my next fic but don't want to write the same old stories as everyone else!