A few hours later, the gastroenterologist came by to see Casey.

The surgeon carefully pulled the dressing away and examined Casey's abdomen.

For some reason, Casey had been expecting a bigger incision. This was a pleasant surprise.

"This looks good. There isn't any inflammation or discoloration."

The surgeon listened to Casey's abdomen.

"Don't hear anything down here."

"Is that bad?"

"That's normal. It just means you can't eat yet."

"Now what?"

"A nurse is going to come in and redress your abdomen and take out your catheter. We'll get you out of bed and standing up. You are not to get up by yourself!

Only get up with a nurse next to you. Is that understood?"

"Yes – as long as they remove the catheter."

With a nod, the gastroenterologist left.

House was awake in time to hear the gastroenterologist talking to Casey. Apparently Casey was doing well. It would be nice to be young. I would be horrible to deal with cancer at his age, but House sure wished he could heal as fast as young guys. He still felt like total and complete crap that had just been stepped on by an angry rhinoceros.

A few minutes later a nurse came in to redress Casey's abdomen and remove the catheter.

"Halleluiah! It's good to get that thing out."

House couldn't help but chuckle at that.

The nurse scowled at House.

"We're going to get you standing up. First, I want you to ease your legs over the side of the bed. My assistant will take care of your IV and nasogastric tube."

Casey felt really stiff, but he did manage to get his legs over the side of the bed. His abdomen felt a little tender, but he was on a dose of IV morphine, so it wasn't too bad. He felt a little dizzy, but he didn't say anything because he wanted to get out of bed. If he told the nurse, she might make him stop and stay in bed.

"Go slow."

Casey looked over and saw Claudia eagerly looking on.

Now that he was sitting up, House had a good view of Casey. He could tell Casey was definitely dizzy, but trying to suck it up.

Casey tried to stand up, but ended up grunting and sitting back on the bed with his hand against his abdomen.

House couldn't keep his mouth shut, "Casey, hold a pillow lightly against your abdomen and it will help with the pulling sensation."

Casey had never tried that after his previous surgery, but he didn't have the feeling as bad then. How did House know he had grunted from the pulling sensation in specific?

Claudia piped up to the nurse, "Will that help?"

"It won't make anything worse."

Casey grabbed a pillow and tried getting up again.

"Man, that helps." Casey almost grinned at House.

"Yeah, it does." House was contemplative. He really wished he was getting out of bed today.

"Can I go to the bathroom and pee for real?" Casey sounded almost giddy.

"You can try." The nurse didn't sound optimistic.

Casey slowly made his way into the restroom with the nurse at his side. He only went a few drops, but it felt awesome.

"Okay, let's get you back in bed."

Once Casey was safely back in bed, the nurse checked House's vitals and left.

The short walk had exhausted Casey and he started to drift off to sleep.

Now that Casey was asleep, Claudia knew she should talk to Greg.

He was still awake. She stood up and walked over to him.

"Can I sit down?"

"You don't have to ask." House gave her a soft smile.

She turned the chair so that he could see her from his leaned back position. She knew he couldn't shift to look at her.

She tried to avoid staring at his brace or his leg. Up close, the brace looked even bigger. She could only guess that he was probably incredibly uncomfortable.

Claudia grabbed his hand before she could stop herself. "Hey." She gave him a slight smile.

"Hey." House responded with a small smile as well.

Once she stared at his face, she wasn't sure what to say.

"Sorry I haven't talked to you since you woke up."

"You've been busy with your brother. I understand."

Bingo, perfect excuse.

"I've just been so worried about him." This was true, but Claudia put some extra emotion in it. She almost managed to squeeze a tear out.

Greg was stroking her hand in a comforting way. It was actually nice to have someone comfort her.

"What did Wilson say about the cancer?"

"They got it all."

House gave her hand an extra squeeze and smiled, "That's great. That's something to feel good about."

He was right and she did feel good about it. Now what should she say? "He still recommended a round of chemo. I worry so much about complications." She knew complications were unlikely.

"At Casey's age, risk of fatal complications is minimal. The side effects are crappy, but they are rarely fatal in a young adult."

Greg's presentation of the facts was extremely comforting. Claudia hadn't been meeting his eyes, but she looked up.

He was focused on her with an intensity that almost knocked her back. Woah. He was so focused on her even though she could see the wrinkles around his eyes and the slight grimacing that meant he must be hurting. Okay, now what?

"Are you okay?" It just flew out. Great, her plan to not show concern was already unsuccessful.

"Yeah, I just need to call a nurse. You going to be okay?"

Was he seriously asking her if she was okay when he was the one in a hospital bed looking sicker by the moment?

"Sure. I was just feeling a little emotional." (and making a total unsuccessful attempt to somehow tell you that I was leading you on the other night and I'm actually going to avoid a relationship with you)

House pushed the call button and a nurse soon arrived.

"The numbness is wearing off and I'm hurting pretty bad."

Claudia found that she wanted to hold his hand and comfort him and she couldn't pull away. He was starting to squeeze her hand now. She noticed the sweat forming on his face. She grabbed a towel from his night table and dabbed his face off. The pain had probably been building for a while.

"Okay. I'm supposed to page Dr. Wilson and Dr. Mathis when your pain returns. They'll be here shortly."

The nurse left – hopefully she was putting in an urgent page because his pain was getting urgent.

Claudia realized she was getting involved again. She had to get away. Doctor coming - perfect opportunity.

She gently eased her hand away. "I'm going to get out of the doctor's way."

He seemed to believe her explanation as he sent her a nod and a pained smile.

Instinctively she wanted to hold his hand and support him until a doctor specifically told her to leave. Even then, she might be stubborn enough to stay anyway.

She had to deny her natural tendencies and get away from him.

She moved over and sat next to Casey, who had just woken up. She couldn't leave the room because she had to know that Greg would be okay.

Mathis came in, "Hello, Dr. House. Is your pain returning?"

"Yeah."

Wilson came in and stood next to Mathis.

"You may have noticed when you woke up from surgery that you were numb. We injected a long acting local anesthetic when we closed. It was a pretty high dose.

We are going to inject a slightly lower dose for the next couple of days until you are past the worst of the post op pain. Do you have the injections, Dr. Wilson?"

"Yes."

"We're going to start with an injection in your thigh near the break in your femur. This will also give me an opportunity to check your incisions. This shouldn't hurt as bad as when I opened the brace you had before your second surgery."

Mathis carefully undid the fasteners on the opening over House's right thigh.

"You ready?" Mathis double-checked with House.

"Yeah." House expected a change in pressure and intense pain like opening the other brace had caused. Since Mathis only opened a small portion of the brace, there wasn't as much change of pressure and it didn't cause a horrible pain spike. This was definitely an improvement.

Mathis removed some padding and then carefully peeled the gauze away from his thigh. House hadn't seen it yet, but he got his first look at his thigh since his surgery on the femur and the artery.

"Yuck. That looks disgusting." House voiced his immediate reaction.

Normally he kept his thoughts to himself, but his barriers were down. His thigh always looked gross, but this was positively repulsive. The maze of stitches across his leg almost turned his stomach. He was used to gross stuff, but this was his own body.

"This actually looks quite a bit better. There isn't near as much drainage or inflammation." Mathis seemed please. House hated to think what his thigh must have looked like before.

"Oh good. That's just fabulous." House's sarcasm was on full bore.

Mathis was carefully cleaning the area with an antiseptic.

"House, see this mark right here?"

"Yes. You're pointing at it – I'm not blind!"

"This is a mark I made to provide a guide for sticking in the needle with the local anesthetic."

"Well, go ahead and inject it!"

Mathis carefully guided the needle in. House could feel the pressure as she injected the liquid.

"Give that a minute to kick in. Once the antiseptic is dry, we'll redress and pad your thigh so that we can close the brace."

"I'm going to open the brace higher up. I've also made a mark for injecting the anesthetic into an area to numb the hip area. Be extremely still."

"It's not like I can move anyway." House was getting very annoyed. His thigh was already feeling better and he wanted the damn injection in his hip!

"Wilson, hold this pillow against his hip to give him some support. He will lose some protection when I unfasten this. There is still a lot of protection around his thigh, but this opening isn't as ideal."

Wilson did as instructed.

The pain got worse at this point, but he was still making it.

After working for a minute, Mathis spoke again. "These sutures look good –they aren't inflamed like the sutures in your thigh have been."

"Maybe it's because I don't have a bunch of scar tissue around my hip."

"I'm about to guide the needle in."

House could feel the needle go in and then the medication.

"Okay. I'll close your brace up now."

Wilson and Mathis set to work closing the brace around his hip. They put gauze and padding on his thigh and closed the brace there, too.

"Feel better now?" Wilson asked.

The relief was fabulous. "Yeah." He wasn't near as numb as he was right after surgery, but this was extremely manageable and he actually felt comfortable.

"This isn't an ideal pain treatment, but it is a temporary solution since you are avoiding narcotics."

House didn't particularly care what Mathis and Wilson had to say at this point because he wasn't hurting much and wanted to enjoy it for a while.

"Here in an hour or so, we're going to turn you."

That was a surprise. "Huh? I thought this was kind of a one position thing." That figures - now that he's comfortable.

"We'll turn you onto your left hip. It'll be a bit of a job, but it's important that you move some. Normally, it would be ideal to get a patient up and out of bed the

day after surgery. It helps with blood flow, lung function, you're a doctor – you know all of this. Since we can't get you up or standing, this is the next best thing."

(NOTE: House may seem a bit out of character, but if he was falling in love, he would probably behave differently toward that person - and I just felt like writing it that way. It is fiction after all.)

Thanks for reading - any reviews are appreciated!