[Hello everyone. This is one of the chapters that I enjoyed more to write. I hope you enjoy]
They had decided to marry as soon as possible and had opted for a simple ceremony on the beach, with very few guests, in the late afternoon of July 26. House had convinced Cuddy to hire a wedding planner ... he knew how much a perfectionist she was and he didn't want her to overload because her work and pregnancy were already a lot for her to deal with.
The news had spread rapidly in the hospital and the wedding between the Dean of Medicine and the Head of Diagnostics was the scoop of the moment. Cuddy couldn't help but notice the glances and smiles she regularly received every time she passed near a group of nurses ... On the other hand at the time luckily no one seemed to have noticed her belly which was starting to grow as she cleverly hide it under softer-cut dresses. If someone suspected her sweet secret, that voice had not come to her ears yet.
Cuddy was in the Clinic that morning and as usual she was signing some documents at the nurses' counter when she saw the news on live on the television screens set in the waiting room. A bus had collided with a gasoline tanker on the freeway near Princeton causing a fire and a huge collision. Her phone rang ... many wounded people would be transported to all the closer hospitals and the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital was one of those.
"Of course" she said in a serious tone into the receiver "I'm going to immediately alert the emergency ward and all our operating rooms." She turned off her cell and turned to nurse Brenda "I need all the available doctors and surgeons here and right now and... please Brenda go to alert immediately OR and cancel any non-urgent surgery scheduled for today" she had said in a firm tone while the nurse hastened to perform her boss' order.
Cuddy opened the clinic room door without knocking looking at House as he was running out to visit a patient.
"There was a terrible accident on the freeway" she said staring at him with serious eyes "... there are at least a hundred wounded people ... I don't know how many will be brought here but I need all my doctors in the ER ... " she said as he nodded his head staring back.
They walked quickly side by side toward the ER and took the yellow coats starting to get dressed before entering to face that emergency. House looked at her as she wore her coat.
"You shouldn't be here ..." he said in a serious but protective tone
She stare back at him with a serious look before saying in her administrative tone.
"It's an emergency, House! I need all the available doctors here and ... I am a doctor!"
At that time that was the Dean of Medicine speaking... not Lisa ... so House preferred not to contradict her.
The ER was a mess. The less severe patients were quickly medicated and then left in the waiting room. All the medical staff were focused on the most serious cases that kept coming constantly with ambulances.
"What is it?" Cuddy asked to paramedics as she approached a man with a deep wound on his head and left arm and respiratory distress.
"Male. 45 years old. Awake. Glasgow Scale 12. He hit the windshield with his head. Probable chest trauma from impact against the steering wheel. Blood pressure 140/90 mmHg. Heart rate 140 bpm. Respiratory rate 25. Lowering oxygen saturation. "
Cuddy auscultated his chest.
"Pneumothorax" she said "Left collapsed lung. His trachea is deviated. Pass me a thoracentesis kit" she ordered to the nurse at her left side.
She stabilized the patient and sent him to Radiology Unit for a CT scan before turning her attention to another patient.
Three hours later Cuddy had just stabilized her umpteenth patient and sent him to the OR when a man caught her eye. He was screaming and begging doctors to help his wife and son. His face was covered in blood because of a deep cut on his left eyebrow and he clearly had a dislocated shoulder. His arm dangled at his side, but he seemed not to notice it and not to feel pain as his terrified eyes was focused only on the woman that House and Chase were trying to stabilize.
"Woman. 30 years old. Glasgow Scale 11. Twenty-five weeks pregnant and in labor. Her husband's car slipped under a garbage truck. Blood pressure 90/70 mmHg. Heart rate 170 bpm. Respiratory rate 28. Lowering oxygen saturation. "
"Call Dr. Montgomery! and alert Neonatal Intensive Care Unit! " House ordered to the young nurse near him "Bring me the portable X-ray machine! ... immediately!"
Cuddy tried to fix the woman's husband who didn't want to get away from his wife but hampered House and Chase's work. She made him sit nearby and stitched up the wound on his eyebrow before fixing his dislocated shoulder.
She noticed House's gaze as he stared at Chase after having give a look at the young woman's chest X-ray.
"Holy shit!" Chase shoot "diaphragmatic rupture ... she need an urgent surgery or she won't survive..."
"There's fetal distress ..." House said looking at the monitor "we can't save them both ... we have to terminate the pregnancy ..."
"... please... don't ..." the young woman pleaded with labored voice "My baby is too little..."
House looked at her and spoke calmly but firmly "I'm sorry ... but your injury is too serious ... or it dies or you both die. There's nothing we can do...I'm sorry"
Then he turned back to the nurse at his left. "Where's Dr. Montgomery?" He screamed impatiently.
He met Cuddy's gaze before being brought back to reality by Chase and by the sound of the monitor ...
"Damn! Ventricular fibrillation!" House said looking at the monitor and at the young woman who had suddenly lost consciousness "A milligram of epinephrine intravenously. Immediately!"
No result.
Cuddy held her breath as the man next to her was screaming his wife's name begging the doctors for doing something. She couldn't move.
House met her eyes ... they were no longer the Dean of Medicine's eyes...
"You shouldn't stay here ..." he said to her in a serious tone "there's nothing you can do ..."
House injected another dose of epinephrine in the patient's vein.
No result. Again.
They used the defibrillator but still there was no result and the line on the monitor was flat.
Flat line...again and again, until they had to certify her death.
"LISA!... GO AWAY!" he had repeated in an authoritative tone looking straight at her. She did not move.
But as a doctor House had to think first to his patient and there was still one patient to try to save. He took a scalpel from the cart to cut the woman's abdomen. He had to pull out the fetus.
"Where the hell is the neonatologist?" he shouted across the room. Then he turned to Cuddy again "DAMN LISA! .. GO AWAY!"
He saw Wilson leaving his patient and approaching her.
It took only a minute to House to pull out the small body from his mother's womb. He was as big as his hand and he weighed less than 20 oz . His skin was purple and he was motionless. House laid him on a sterile towel and try to revive him massaging his tiny chest with only one finger...
He met Cuddy's eyes again but this time she didn't see him ... She was standing motionless next to the woman's husband. She was pale and kept a shaking hand over her mouth staring in horror of the scene beyond her eyes...
Wilson had just reached her and was trying to talk to her but she couldn't hear him ... she felt as in a trance ...
"DAMN WILSON!" he yelled "TAKE HER IMMEDIATELY OUT OF HERE! OR I'LL KICK YOU ON YOUR ASS!"
Wilson took her by the arm with a decisive gesture and put his arm around her waist. House looked at her as she exited the ER leaning against Wilson for support. He held her up as she could barely walk.
Ten minutes later House entered Cuddy's office. His worried gaze met Wilson's look. He was standing next to the bathroom door.
"Where is she?" He said looking around and approaching the bathroom door.
Cuddy was kneeling on the floor next to the wc.
"She continues to vomit ..." Wilson whispered
House approached her kneeling on the floor next to her. She was sweaty and her body was quivering ... He dabbed her forehead and neck with a wet towel as retching continued to shake her body. He stroked her back and called her by name trying to bring her back to reality "Lisa ..." She slumped exhausted on the floor, taking the left hand protectively on her lower abdomen ... she wanted to speak but could not ... her legs and arms were shaking uncontrollably ...
"Lisa ... breathe!"
She tried to focus on breathing and on Greg's eyes that never had left hers, but the nausea was too strong and she felt as if she were struggling to breathe ... she felt she was going to pass out ...
"C'mon Lisa ... just breathe!"
Her breathing was very fast and shallow.
"I'm going to call Addison ..." Wilson said looking at House and then again at Cuddy, worried about her labored breathing
"No ..." House replied " She's having a panic attack ...Go to take a vial of Lorazepam ... she'll lose consciousness if she'll continue to hyperventilate like this ..."
Wilson left the room quickly while House kept trying to calm Cuddy continuing to stroke her back and keeping his hand on hers on her lower abdomen. ... Cuddy's gray-blue eyes were wide open but she didn't see him ... she kept seeing that little purple motionless body beyond her eyes. She could hear House's voice but still couldn't move ...
She felt the needle as it penetrated her arm and leaned on House's chest while he put his arm around her shoulders. She slowly felt her body relax under the effect of the drug ...
"It's all right Lise" he whispered "I'm here..."
She couldn't tell how long she stayed on the bathroom floor before she felt House holding her in his arms trying to get her up on her feet.
"Can you stand up?" he asked carefully.
She tried to get up but her knees were still too weak and her head began to spin again ... House held her and lifted her in his arms while she rested her head against his chest. He made her lie down on her office couch.
Addison suddenly entered Cuddy's office. Wilson had called her anyway.
She saw immediately Lisa on the couch, motionless and closed eyes, and looked at House who sat beside her.
"What happened?"
"A panic attack ... I gave her 2 mg of lorazepam" House said before telling her what had happened earlier in the ER. Addison nodded her head and exited quickly the room before coming back with a portable ultrasound machine.
"Lisa ... can you hear me?" she asked
Cuddy nodded with her head and opened her eyes looking at her friend.
"Do you have abdominal pain?"
"No ..." she said in a whisper.
She put the ultrasound probe on her abdomen and House felt the tension easing as his babies' images and heartbeats appear on the monitor and . Cuddy could see them too and was relieved even if she still felt so tired that she couldn't move ... it was probably the effect of the anxiolytic.
Addison gestured to Wilson that momentarily left the room before putting on a glove to examine her carefully.
"She just needs to rest, House" she said soothingly taking off her glove "the twins are doing well and she's not dilated, but her uterus is a little clenched ... Take her home ... tomorrow she'll be better ... "
"Thank you ..." he said
"Anytime" she smiled "Call me every time you need and ...I want to see her again in my office tomorrow morning... "
House nodded his head while Addison left Cuddy's office to go back to the Emergency Ward.
"He's gone, is he?" ... she asked in a whisper looking at House's eyes referring to the ER baby.
House nodded his head and she closed her eyes as a tear run down her cheek.
He caressed her face wiping away that tear with his thumb and she opened her eyes looking up at him.
He stare at her as if he could read her thoughts.
"Hey ..." he whispered massaging her lower abdomen "We won't lose them ..."