CHAPTER FIFTY ONE

Harry stirred on the floor. He shoved Cameron off of him. "You stay away from me."

"I'm just trying to help," Cameron protested.

"By bludgeoning me in the head with a bedpan?" Harry eyed her carefully.

"I didn't..."

"Only because I stopped you." Harry got up. Cuddy was sitting in a chair being force fed water by a worried Chase. "How are you?" He gently pushed Chase aside and knelt before his hero.

"I've been better."

"You killed her." Harry looked over to Stacy's lifeless body. "She was your friend, that couldn't have been easy."

"It might be if you don't keep bringing it up." She tried to smile, but it just wasn't working.

"Sorry, I just thought..."

"You were trying to help. I know. I'd just rather not think about it right now if that's okay."

House finally managed to sit up in his bed. He looked around. "You killed Stacy." He stated with little emotion.

"She was trying to kill you House. She nearly succeeded." Cuddy informed him.

"I know. I'm just surprised you killed her. I'm impressed."

"She doesn't want to talk about it," Harry warned.

"Any sign of Murphy?" Cuddy looked around the room hopefully.

"No." Harry's face sunk. "I'm going to go..."

"Did someone say my name?" Murphy came triumphantly through the door, until she saw the scene before her. "Uh, what happened here?"

Harry took her into the hallway and filled her in on all that had happened.

"She's trying to steal your boyfriend. You'd better get out there and fight for him." House teased.

"He's not my boyfriend." Cuddy snapped back.

"Oh, sure, that's why his pants grow every time you're around." House smiled.

"His pants do not grow..."Cuddy needed a way out of this conversation. "Cameron, go check on Mark Warner. If my information is right, he should have recovered like House and Harry."

"But..."

"GO!" Cuddy pointed to the door. Cameron scurried out in a huff.

In a sudden puff of smoke, a tall, white haired man appeared in the room.

"Bob!" Cuddy hurried toward him. Her first instinct was to wrap him in a big, warm hug, but she stepped right through him. Frustrated she turned and walked around him. "Where have you been?"

"Oh, you'd be amazed." Bob looked at her warmly. "Oh, and thanks for that." He winked. "I see we're all in one piece."

"Bob, you're back." Harry and Murphy had returned to the room after his speed version of what she'd missed.

"Yes. I would have come earlier, but I was waiting for that girl to leave. Is it just me, or is she painfully annoying?"

"It's not just you," Cuddy half whispered, hoping House couldn't hear her.

"I thought not." Bob smiled. "Well, I thought you might like to know that your soul sucking ex wasn't here by coincidence. She was sent here by Erohs, the water demon."

"Water demon? That's new." House was intrigued by this new information. Chase looked around, waiting for someone else to be shocked by all this, only Wilson showed any sign of WTF, but Wilson always showed signs of WTF, so that wasn't much to go by.

"Yes. He is, for some reason, trying to destroy you, Dr. House. Don't ask me why? I find you to be an insignificant little man, but there is no accounting for taste."

"I am not insignificant," House pouted.

"Of course you're not." Bob spoke as to a child. "How dare the big bad ghostie say such a thing."

"You already told us this Bob," Cuddy's warning voice meant to get the ghost back on track.

"Yes, but I was under the assumption then that it was just a trick, to bring the Chosen One, you, out of retirement. But no, this is, oddly enough, all about Dr. House."

"How do you know?" Harry found this as hard to believe as Bob did.

"I've been asking around. There is a bit of a demon war going on, and you, Dr. House, seem to be at the crux of it all." Bob eyed the lanky man suspiciously. "If you've been hiding something, now might be a good time to tell us about it."

"I'm not hiding anything." House protested. What he meant was he wasn't hiding anything he thought was relevant, but just because a pair of power tripping demons were after him didn't mean he was going to start spilling all his secrets. Some were quite embarrassing.

Cameron came barging in. "Mark is fine. I checked all his vitals. He's completely healthy." She seemed amazed, which was reasonable considering earlier today the man had been on deaths door step.

Bob leaned into Cuddy's ear. "Get rid of the twit and meet me at your place. I've got more to tell you." Then he vanished.

"What was that?" Cameron looked at the lingering bit of golden smoke that was slowly fading behind Cuddy.