Chapter 16

Dr. Chase walked out of the lab with paperwork in hand. He walked over to the elevator and pushed the button. "Dr. Chase," a voice came from behind him.

Chase turned around and saw Dr. Cuddy walking towards him. "Dr. Cuddy…how is House?" he asked her, concerned.

"Taking care of Dr. Wilson," she told him. After a confused look from Chase, she filled him in on the specifics as he presented Natasha's case to her.

"I need to talk with House about this," he told her. Cuddy nodded as she told Chase to follow her.

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The moon stood still

Waters beneath

Sadness everlasting

Until we meet again

House was carefully conducting the endoscopy on Dr. Wilson, who was in and out due to the sedative. "I'm almost done, James," House said softly. House was examining Wilson's esophagus and stomach to find the cause of his bleeding. Outside the door, Drs. Chase and Cuddy waited until he was done.

Putting Wilson's cover across his legs, House, now wearing scrubs over his sweatpants, limped towards the door and sat in the chair.

Entering the room, Drs. Chase and Cuddy observed House's demeanor for a moment before asking about Dr. Wilson. House looked tired and distressing. He never broke his glance from Wilson.

"Ulcers. Four of them. The fucking stress…" House buried his head into his hands and slowly looked back up at him. "The stress is consuming him. All that Julie has been putting him through. Giving him horrendous headaches so he's beefing up on aspirin, which are making these ulcers go nuts." House stopped again and laughed, saying softly, "And me….all I've put him through. Some friend, huh? He's going to have to come back and be monitored to make sure it's not intractable, otherwise he will need surgery to correct it." Standing up, House limped over to his bed, again never breaking his glance to Wilson. "But the medication should cure it. Cure the symptom, not the illness." House never made eye contact with the other doctors as he slowly limped out of the room, holding down his head.

"Greg," Cuddy started walking towards House as he just kept walking. "Greg! It's not your fault. You can't blame yourself." She put a hand on his shoulder as he swung around.

"No? It's not my fault? Who has he been worrying about these last few weeks? He's taken great care to make sure that I am fine. And he," House stopped and looked at Wilson, pointing to him, "he takes care of himself last. That's how he's always been. And look what's it's done to him. Plain as day I see this man's stress on that camera. You know what that feels like? Tangible stress right in my hand." House shook his head and started walking away.

Chase tried to stop him as well as he limped to his office.

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Morning sun

Breathe your life

Stand next to my sorrow

Until we meet again.

House sat at his desk thinking only one thing. I need to be free. I need my life. I need a drink. He stood up and looked out his window. All this time he's been friends with Wilson and enjoying each other's company, he never really told him how much his friendship meant to him.

"Dr. House?" Chase asked as he lightly knocked on the door.

"Yeah." House kept looking out the window.

"Can I talk to you?" Chase came in his office and stopped, unsure if House wanted to be alone.

"Lose your keys again Chase? Look in Forman's locker, I heard he was trying to get even," House told him.

"Are you doing okay? I heard what happened," Chase was concerned that House was back on his feet so soon.

"Peachy, Chase. I thought I'd go tapdancing tonight, wanna join me?" House said dryly.

Chase knew his timing was bad. "I need you to look at something for me." Chase gave the file to House as he opened it and began reading. Tapping his fingers on his desk with one hand, his other hand was rubbing his forehead.

"Let's see. We have a female, age 26, single car accident…" House trailed off when he realized that it was the young girl from the time when he first was admitted. He started sweating slightly as he thought again about Wilson and how he helped him.

"House….are you all right?" Chase asked him.

But House just kept on reading. "She presented with high blood pressure, fever, abdominal pain, headache, swelling, profuse nosebleed and coma. Did you determine which of this was caused by the accident?"

"The CAT scan came back fine, and her BP came back down on it's own so we knew it wasn't hypertension. She has ascites which could explain the pain, high BP and swelling but not the coma," Chase reported to him.

"Let me do an abdominal ultrasound and see what it comes up with," House began and remembering doing the same test on Wilson. His hands started to shake as he felt weak. He put his hand to his head and put the file back on the desk.

"House," Chase said, standing up. "I think you should lie down."

"I'm fine," House told him bluntly as he walked out of the office.

As he walked down the hallway, Chase followed behind him. "House, you have nothing to prove. It's not your fault what happened to Wilson. He's going to be fine." House ignored what he was saying.

"What room is she in?" House asked him.

Chase decided to give it up for the moment. House was obviously in no mood to talk. He motioned House to Natasha's room.

House told Chase to bring in the ultrasound machine. "I didn't find anything when I checked the ultrasound House," Chase told him.

"Can't hurt to check twice," House told him, "you know like Santa. Just without all the pretty presents."

Dr. House stood before the ultrasound machine and looked closely at it. I need a drink he thought. He couldn't get the thought of Wilson being in so much pain out of his head. But he took the ultrasound wand, putting gel on it, and placed it on Natasha's stomach. After about 10 minutes he saw something. "There," House said, looking closely on the screen.

"Where?" Chase asked.

"Gallstones, very small but there," House replied, pointing to the screen.

"House, how could I have missed that?" Chase asked.

"They're small, but it still doesn't explain the coma. Let me look again at the blood tests." House limped over to the table to pick up the chart when his leg bucked from beneath him again causing him to fall to the floor.

"House!" Chase exclaimed as he knelt down to help him up.

"My leg…it's fine. Go in my office and get my pills Chase. I can get up myself." House didn't want help. He wanted left alone. He wanted a drink.

After using the chair to help himself up, House limped over to table to get the chart. House looked at Natasha and weighed all her symptoms. As he was reviewing the chart, she slowly opened her eyes. House went to the side of her bed and looked in her eyes with his light.

"What happened?" she asked softly.

This was the part that House was uncomfortable with. He was brilliant at the diagnosis, but the one on one contact was difficult for him. "You're in a hospital. We're taking care of you," House told her. "Do you remember what happened?"

"No." she replied.

"Are you in any pain?" House asked her

She was quiet for a moment, soaking in what was happening. House could tell by the confused look on her face. "My stomach," she replied.

"You have gallstones. We need to do surgery to remove them," House told her.

Natasha nodded her head and closed her eyes.

House looked at the young girl and was trying to figure out what caused her coma. And all he could think about was when he could drown his sorrow.

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