Chapter 54-Molly is Missing
House wiped his hand down his face. The NCIS team was combing Molly's room for clues that would not be there. All they would find would be the detached anklet. She had let herself be taken but the question was why.
House leaned heavily on the nurse's station desk. "Did you see the petite redhead leave the room?" He asked the nurse stationed there.
"Yeah, but I didn't think anything of it. She was holding hands with a guy." The distracted nurse answered.
"You didn't think of asking them anything."
"No one wants to get involved with any of your patients. Better not to ask questions in case of a law suit."
"Maybe there will be a lawsuit for not asking questions. Ever thought of that?" House growled. "Which way did they go?"
Not waiting for the agents that would shortly be joined by Cuddy who would not be happy with her hospital being turned upside down House went on to do his own investigation.
"You see a redhead go by here?" House asked at the next nurse's station.
"You'll have to be more specific." The nurse responded in a clipped tone.
"Short, short hair, hideous cat sweatshirt."
"Yeah, a bit a go. Why?"
"How did she look? Did she say anything? Do anything?"
"She looked like she had been crying."
"Good anything else?"
"That's all I remember."
"Close your eyes and try to remember more. It could be important."
"She smiled at me for half a second when we made eye-contact." The nurse sighed. She had a busy schedule she did not have time for the infamous Dr. House's games but at least he was not hurling abuse at her.
"Good, good, anything else?" House continued in his condescending tone.
"Nothing. She just threw something in the garbage and kept walking."
"She threw something in the garbage? Why didn't you say that to begin with!" House took his cane and pushed over the nearby trashcan.
"Hey!" the nurse shouted as all manner of medical garbage including a mountain of used tissues issued forth from the overturned can. "Not that one! The one over there!" The angry woman pointed.
House took off towards the other can as the nurse yelled at him to come back and clean up his mess. Of course he paid no heed. He once again knocked over the garbage and rooted through the debris with the end of his cane until something of interest caught his eye. "Gotcha!" He bent over and retrieved the non-descript black phone.
He pushed redial.
"Michael? Was there a problem?" a woman's voice answered.
"This is Mycroft Holmes," House slipped into his unused native accent, "And who would this be?" House let disdain drip from his voice.
House heard a muffled, "It's your brother," in a baffled tone.
"Mycroft?" a familiar voice said in a cautious yet frosty tone.
"Sherly?" House glared at the phone in annoyed confusion. "Did you just have your wife kidnapped?"
"Sherrin-What the devil is going on? You have to stop her Sherrinford! She's-"
Whatever Sherlock had been about to say got lost as the phone went flying from House's hand as he was shoved up roughly against the wall. House tried to grunt out an excuse but his air supply was being cut off from the hand around his throat. He did not have time to wince before a fist punched him in the face.
"You said she was safe!" Gibbs pulled back his fist to punch him a second time but House managed to close his eyes. House scrabbled at the hand at his throat as he waited for the punch to land. This man was strong for an old goat!
Fortunately for House, Tony and Vance managed to pull the grieving angry father off the doctor. House collapsed and tried to regain his breath. He reached out blindly for the phone. "Sherly!" he croaked. "Sherly! Are you there?" He got no answer. He tried to redial the number once more but there was no answer.
"That was our link to her!" House managed to get out of his sore vocal chords. He glared at Gibbs with his one good eye. "I'm trying to help but you need to realize that she chose to go. You were there! You saw her go of her own volition!"
"Who's Shirley?" Vance asked.
"Childhood nickname for my youngest brother."
"Sherlock was on the phone? What? Why?" Vance barked out questions.
"Thanks to daddy over there I don't know!'
"House, what is going on?" Cuddy arrived at the scene with Wilson in tow.
"We're going to need to see any security footage you have of the last hour ma'am." Tony tried to treat the problem as they did all their cases.
"Don't bother." House gasped out. He tried to clear his throat. "They would have shut everything off before their agent arrived."
"You implied Sherlock was involved, maybe it wasn't them?"
"He tried to tell me to stop her. Don't think it was his idea." House continued to wheeze. "I need to get back to my parents. Maybe he'll call. We need to regroup. Cuddy, I need to take the next few days off. You can put my team on clinic hours or give them time off. Unless you trust them enough on their own. You need to," House coughed, "just act like everything is normal."
"Act like everything is normal!" Cuddy screeched.
"You don't want to cause a scene and scare people, do you?" House threatened as he used the wall to push himself to his feet. His ever-faithful friend Wilson retrieved House's cane from where it fell in the scuffle.
"Director," Vance spoke up. "We're sorry for any inconvenience but right now we have bigger problems and I'm afraid we're going to have to take your," Vance eyed House up and down, "doctor into custody." House scrunched his nose up in distaste of the proclamation. "I'm afraid he's right though. You will need to act as if everything is normal. I will call in some nearby agents to help for added security just in case something else happens."
Cuddy made as if to argue but decided against it and held her tongue. "House, what is going on?" She beseeched her somewhat friend in one last ditch effort.
"The less you know the better."
She had heard those words from House many times but never in that tone. His tone usually had a sarcastic teasing note indicating that he was up to no good. This tone was serious, soft, and full of sorrowful regret.
"How can I help?" Wilson asked.
"Same as Cuddy."
"No, no. Molly is my friend and I-"
"If you wanted to help you should have stopped her from being an idiot." House's words were harsh. "The best thing for her is to stay here and help your patients. Not get in the way."
"House," Wilson started to argue.
"Are you a trained agent? Can you handle a gun and shoot to kill no questions asked?" House read everything he needed to on Wilson's face. "I didn't think so. Now stop wasting our time."
"And what about you, House?" Wilson protested. "As I recall you're a doctor too."
"Yes, Gregory House is a doctor, however a Holmes would never be something so mundane and boring. Think about it long and hard Wilson, you'll get there." House turned his back on his friends and headed for his office not checking to see if the NCIS agents were following him.
