Chapter 13

"We Got a Situation…"

Around 6:30, House got paged. When he called back, he got a woman's voice he didn't recognize.

"Dr. House? This is Jessie Hannibal on the third floor. We got a situation going on. You need to get down here right away."

"What is it?" asked House quietly, realizing how very sore his throat was and how hard it was to talk. He rubbed his right hand across the scar on the front of his neck. "Is Rainie all right?"

"Well… you gotta get down here. We already called security."

"Security? What the hell is happening?"

"It's too complicated to explain over the phone. Just get here."

When House hung the phone, he found Wilson looking at him expectantly.

"Help me get dressed and down to the hospital right away. Something's going on. I couldn't find out what."

Fourteen minutes later, they pulled into the back lot by the emergency room, and hustled into the building, House hobbling along on his crutches as fast as he could go.

As they got out of the elevator, House and Wilson saw people milling about outside Room 304—orderlies, nurses, security personnel, maybe 12 or 13 in all.

"What's happening here?"

Some of the crowd turned to look at him, but no one said anything.

"Who's in charge here? Or rather, who was till I got here?"

"I guess I am," came a voice attached to tall, oddly proportioned female in scrubs.

"You're Jessie," he said, not really as a question. "What's happened? Don't give me the excuses; just give me the situation."

She opened her mouth, but nothing came out.

House was getting angry. "Now! Tell me now!" He looked through the glass door into room 304. Rainie's bed was there, but Rainie wasn't in it. "Where is she?"

"That's just it, Dr. House. We don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?!"

He looked around, as if expecting one of the people present to produce her from under their scrubs.

"Where's Cuddy?" asked Wilson. "Did anyone page her?"

"Out of town—conference," said one of the scrub-clad bodies.

"Get me the head of security. NOW! If you have to yank him out of bed while he's fucking his wife, get him here!" said House. This was as bad as it could possibly be.

A voice down the hall suddenly called out. "We found her!"

All heads turned in that direction. Wilson started running toward the voice. "Where?!"

"Down on the second floor. Room 207," came the voice. House turned back toward the elevator and headed into it. Some of the others followed him. Wilson kept running toward the voice, which was at the head of the stairs.

Just as he arrived on the second floor, House saw Bernie Campanella, the head of security, getting off the other elevator and running toward room 207 while Wilson was running from the other end of the hall headed the same way.

"Where the fuck were your people?!" yelled House. "I thought there were supposed to be three guards on that floor at all times!"

Bernie shook his head in irritation. "I don't know, but I'm sure as hell going to find out," he said.

Because of the crutches, House was the last one to reach room 207; as he got to the door, he paused to catch his breath. Let her be okay, he thought desperately. Just let her be okay.

When he finally got into the room, he found Rainie lying curled up on a bed, crying and shivering. There were no monitors in this room, and her IV was missing. Wilson was leaning over, checking her pulse and other vitals. He looked worried. A couple of residents were also hovering.

"Well?" said House as he approached the bed.

Wilson seemed to draw a deep breath. "She seems to be in shock," he said hesitantly.

House drew nearer. Rainie was lying, pale, in her hospital gown, on top of the bed, whimpering. "Cover her up!" he commanded just as Jessie came in the door carrying a couple of blankets and did just that, gently adjust a pillow under her head.

"Her pulse is weak but stable, and her eyes are reactive," said Wilson.

"I want whoever is on duty in ER up here right away," said House. "I want her checked over thoroughly." A resident nodded and ran out the door.

"Next, I want to know who saw her last. If you don't know, find out. I want to know where the three guards were… and are, for that matter… and the nurse who was supposed to be in her room. And last, I want to know how a patient in critical condition under guard came to be out of her room and on a different floor. I want those answers in the next half hour." He looked pointedly at Bernie, who also nodded and left.

"Wherever the hell Cuddy is, someone page her, call her cell, call her hotel, call the conference and get her here. I don't care where she is or what the conference is. Get her here." A nurse ran out of the room.

"Now, I want you all to get the hell out. Send in the ER docs, but everyone else out. Except Wilson."

Through it all, Rainie continued to breathe shallowly and whimper. Her eyes were shut, but House could see her eyes moving beneath her lids.

Wilson, fearful that House was going to topple over, grabbed a chair for him and put it next to the bed.

House sat down with a grunt.

He dropped his crutches to the floor and took a moment to compose himself.

"Rainie?" he whispered. "Rainie, can you hear me?" He reached out a hand and gently laid it on the blanket over her forearm.

Her eyes opened slowly, as if afraid of what she'd see. When she saw House, she drew in a quick breath and then let it out slowly, her body relaxing just a little.

"It's okay. I'm here now," he said. "I'm here. I won't let anyone hurt you."

Wilson watched, fascinated, as his friend, the ever-grumpy Dr. House, the man considered to have no social skills, tenderly and patiently soothed the troubled woman. How did he learn how to do that, he wondered, not realizing House was basing at least some of his bedside manner on his own example.

Her soft cries faded away, and her breathing became more regular. House ever so slowly reached up and stroked her hair, which was matted with perspiration.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

She swallowed. "Okay," she said.

"Good. Now, can you tell me what happened?"

"T-t Tee," she seemed to be saying. Or maybe she was just shivering.

House and Wilson exchanged baffled glances.

Just then, the door opened and two ER doctors came in, hurrying over to where Rainie lay. Wilson reached out an arm to slow them down. "Careful," he said. "Don't frighten her." They slowed their pace and approached her cautiously.

House scooted his chair back to give them room, saying, "It's all right, Rainie. They just need to take a look at you."

She nodded.

House's growing sense of dread was confirmed when the ER docs found new bruises on Rainie's right hip and shoulder. He felt a knot forming in his chest.

Once the examination was done and the room was quiet again, House moved his chair closer and focused his attention again on Rainie.

"What was it you were saying before?" he asked her. "About what happened. Do you know how you got to this room?"

She nodded her head. It sounded as if she said "T-t Tee" again.

House and Wilson looked at each and shook their heads.

"Can you explain?" House asked.

Before she had a chance to answer, the door opened and Bernie Campanella stepped in.

"Dr. House? I've got answers for you. I think we need to talk—privately."

Grabbing his crutches and leaving Wilson with Rainie, House followed Bernie out of the room and into an empty room nearby.

"So…?"

"I know at least part of what happened, but I can't explain it," said Bernie, a hefty, round-shouldered ex-Navy captain who ran the security detail at the hospital like a ship. "All three of the security guards… and the nurse… quit their jobs. In the middle of the night. At the same time. Around 3 a.m. Without giving notice."

House looked at him. The longer he was here, the more surreal this day was becoming. Could he be dreaming again?

"That doesn't make any sense," he said, stupidly. Well, that was the most obvious thing I've said in a long time, he thought. "Have you talked to them yet?"

"Nope. Not yet. I've got my people trying to get through to them right now."

"Are we any further on finding out why she was moved?"

"I'm hoping that if I can get hold of even one of these four, I might get a little more information. No one else seems to have seen anything out of the ordinary, but then it was three in the morning."

House heard this news with dread. "What do you think is going on?" he asked hesitantly. An idea was forming in his mind, an idea he didn't like.

"Well, I think it's pretty apparent that someone has paid them all a lot of money to ignore their duty to this hospital and to this patient. What I need to find out is why… and make sure it never happens again."

T-t Tee. T-t Tee.

Campanella looked over at House, who had turned pale. Very pale.