25 - Snowed In

I sat on the couch with Mrs. Hickson watching an old romance movie.

The doorbell rang and I grabbed some popcorn before getting up to see who was at the door at this time of night.

After looking through the peephole I opened the door slowly to a man dressed in a police's uniform.

'Yes?' I asked curiously, expecting it to be about something unimportant.

Boy, was I wrong...

'Are you a Ms. Frankie Labrada?' He asked sadly.

I nodded. 'Yes, I am. Why?' I asked, completely confused.

'I'm afraid there's been an accident...'

I furrowed my eyebrows, my heart racing. 'What kind of accident?'

'Your brother... He was...'

A stray tear fell from my eye. 'What? What happened?'

'Your brother, Tony Labrada... He was in a car accident. He's on his way to the hospital now.'

'Frankie?'

I gasped as my eyes shot open.

I felt a few tears slip down my cheeks.

Sitting up slowly, I looked around the exam room for the person who woke me up.

For the time being, and since we were at long last snowed in, I had imitated Greg and snuck into exam room four to get some good sleep. Some time away from my nightmares.

So far, no luck.

Greg was standing next to the exam table I was lying on, an actual look of concern on his face. 'Are you alright?' He asked softly.

I nodded, wiping the tears from my face.

'You're lying.'

I smiled weakly. 'Everybody lies.'

He smirked at me. 'Nightmares?' He asked, refusing to let it go.

I let a deep sigh escape me and nodded. 'About my brother.'

He shook his head a little, his eyebrows furrowed. 'Johnny's fine. You don't have to worry about--'

'Not Johnny. Tony.' I said, cutting him off and looking away.

'I'm sorry.'

I looked back at him. 'You're not causing my dreams. It's not your fault.'

He smiled weakly at me.

I smiled back. 'Now you know how it feels.'

He gave me a confused glance in return. 'What?'

I studied him a bit before answering. 'You want to help me.'

He looked a little surprised by my observation.

I smirked at him. 'So, why did you need me?' I asked, scooting myself to the edge of the exam table and letting my legs hang down.

'Cuddy's searching for doctors. I swear, she's out for blood.'

'Why?' I asked, laughing.

'She looking for all the doctors she can find. Some of the patients are whacking out a little, she needs people to help.' He said, shrugging it off as if it were nothing.

'So, you still haven't answered my question. Why are you here?' I asked, smirking at his indifference.

'To warn you, so you can escape. Be free.' He said, doing a waving motion with his hand when he said his last word.

I almost doubled over in laughter and jumped off the table. 'I think I'll go to the psych ward. I can relate.' I joked, walking to the door.

Before I reached it, I turned around. 'If you need me, I'll be on the third floor.'

He laughed softly, knowing what was on the third floor and nodded. 'Ok.'

I was in front of the big wondow on the third floor, looking in on all the newborn babies.

I smiled as they cried and slept and waved their fists in the air.

'So you're one of those.'

I turned my head to face Wilson. 'One of what?' I asked, turning back to the window.

'One of the sentimental people who come up here to look at the newborns.' He stated plainly, walking over and standing next to me.

'Pretty much. So what are you doing at the mushy person's watercooler?' I challenged, raising an eyebrow.

He smiled. 'I can be one of 'those' myself sometimes. When life gets hard.'

I smirked. 'Your secret's safe with me.' I said, leaning into the glass a little.

'I appreciate that.' He joked, holding back a laugh.

My smirked turned into a smile.

'You've gotten to him, you know.' He said, slightly catching me off guard.

I tried to hide my smile. 'How do you know?' I asked, not looking him in the eye.

He smirked. 'Nobody wants to deal with antsy patients, but House especially. Normally, if he heard Cuddy was looking for doctors the first thing he would've done would have been to hide where Cuddy would last think to look for him. Now, he makes sure you don't get caught so you don't have to go through the torture that some patients can be.'

I looked at my shoes intently and finally let a wide smile take over my face.

'Ironically enough, he was the one who Cuddy caught. He's downstairs now, taking care of patients.' He said, looking over at me with his eyebrows raised.

I laughed at the thought of Greg trying to clam a patient down. 'Oh... that's not good. What was Cuddy thinking, making House do something like that?'

'She must've offered him some clinic freedom.' He said, laughing softly.

'I feel bad for that patient.'

I turned a corner and promptly bumped into someone. Hard.

So hard, I fell down.

I looked up to see Greg holding onto the wall.

I saw the look on his face and burst into laughter.

'Well, are you going to help me up or not?' I asked, extending my hand after I had caught my breath.

He took my hand and pulled me up quickly, making me crash into him.

I looked up at him slowly. He had a smirk on his face and one eyebrow raised suggestively.

I rolled my eyes and pushed away from him reluctantly.

'What do you say we get some lunch?' I offered, walking backwards toward the elevator.

A small smile came over his face and he walked with me to the elevator.

Once the elevator doors opened, we walked out slowly.

Everything was dark for half past noon.

'What the hell?' I asked nobody in particular.

'The snow. It's covering at least half of the windows in most places.' He said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

My eyebrows raised a bit. 'I guess we'll be here for a while...'

A/N: Good Lord! We're up to part 25 already! Seems like yesterday I started this fic. Anyway, enough nostalgia. Thanks to all who have read and are still reading. Hugs to all my reviewers! Actually, hugs aren't enough... Dive-tackles! Yeah... Anyway, please R&R and have a well hydrated day :D