Every Second

A House Fan-Fic

entercreativename

Backstory: Seeing it's been awhile since I've updated, I feel the need to give a brief synopsis. House can't sleep one night so he decides to prank-call some of his colleagues only to discover that Cuddy is over at Chase's apartment. When he gets to work, he decides to tease Cuddy for her late night "booty call" to discover that Chase is in a coma. We find out backstory for House, Chase, and Cameron, as well as meet a Linda Sanford who is both a psychiatrist at PPTH and an old friend of Chase's from Sydney. Sanford also happens to be the daughter of a brilliant doctor/teacher House had worked with in Australia as well. Throughout the story, Sanford withholds important clues to Chase's history and why he is in a coma and we watch the team, minus one member, deal with the emotional difficulty of their colleague being the patient of the week. We open this chapter with House having been tricked into taking Benadryl by Wilson so that House can sleep for awhile.

Chapter 14 - Confrontations

Wilson looked at the clock. It had been fifteen minutes since House had left his office, and he knew that House had taken at least one Benadryl since then. He felt guilty for switching the medications behind House's back, however, he knew that House both needed the sleep, and that Chase needed doctors who weren't as connected to him as House was at this point in time. And, it was really partially Cuddy's idea.

As Wilson had left the administrator's office earlier that night, she ran out and caught him before he could reach the elevators.

"James, wait!" she had yelled from behind him. He had turned around and went back to her office.

"What is it?"

"It's about talking to House; maybe you shouldn't do it. He's not functioning well on this case, at least not his normal way at least. I don't think he's helping it."

"You're right, it's not. He hasn't been himself at all. I've caught him deep in thought more often lately, and I know it's not about Chase's case."

"Yes. His relationship and history with Chase are distracting him. I want to pull him from it, but I know we can't."

Wilson looked at Cuddy silently and then said, "Maybe there is a way."

"What are you thinking?"

"He barely slept last night, and I know I woke him when I came over."

"He didn't sleep the night before either. If we could just get him some sleep, it will help him and Chase."

"I have an idea…"

And thus Wilson and Cuddy devised the plan to get House to finally sleep. Wilson felt guilty about tricking his friend, however, he knew that House would do the same for him should he ever be in the same situation. He walked into House's office suite and saw him asleep in his chair with Chase's file in his hands unopened. He snuck in, closed the blinds to dim the room, took the file from House, and went into the conference room. Just as he sat down at a desk in the corner, Foreman walked in.

Foreman looked over at Wilson and then at the silhouette of his boss asleep in his office and back at Wilson.

"I wouldn't wake him if I were you." Wilson cautioned Foreman.

Foreman shook his head and walked over to the hat-tree. He didn't want to come close to knowing the inner workings of House's personal life, or Wilson's for that matter. "Why not?"

"He's finally getting some sleep."

Foreman went into his briefcase and just tried to ignore Wilson and House. He had learned early on, especially from Cameron, to expect certain oddities from those two doctors. However, the oddities still got to him at times. Like now. Why on earth would anyone sleep at work while they were on a case like this one? Unprofessional. Of course, a number of things they did there in that department would be considered a lot worse than what House was doing now.

House snorted in his sleep, Foreman winced in disgust.

"What is his problem?" Foreman asked Wilson.

"Excuse me?"

"House. I've gotten used to the way he acts, but this week is just different. What's up with him?"

Wilson stopped going through the files just long enough to shoot Foreman the look. "I don't really see why you're complaining."

Foreman sighed. "Don't you see? He's in his office. Sleeping! Now, I've seen a lot from House, and he's suddenly facing a case that involves someone he's working with, and he chooses now to suddenly not perform."

Wilson shot Foreman another glance. "He is responsible for you professionally. Don't you think that he realizes that? Now, he is in charge of you and Cameron while trying to not only figure out what happened to Chase, but trying to do so without his help. The least you could do is try to be a little sensitive to him here."

"Sensitive? You're kidding me, right?"

Wilson shot another glance just as a nurse entered the room and announced, "BP is back up, and creatinine and urea are just above normal. Patient is becoming more lucid, but still comatose."

With that, Wilson stood up and excused himself to go check on Chase and other patients leaving Foreman alone in the office. With the area abandoned, sans the sleeping House, Foreman had nothing else to do but to clean a little. He got to the area near the whiteboard when suddenly he tripped, taking the board as a casualty of the accident. He swore and started to pick up the mess just as a grouchier than normal House emerged groggy from his office.

"Look, it was an accident."

House gave Foreman a wordless look of conceit. He was tired, angry, and just wanted to sleep. Foreman took House's silent response to mean that he was actually angry at him.

"I'll clean it up, run, and get a new one."

House closed his eyes with a pained expression and held up his hand as he thought of what to say. "You're not allowed, to touch the board," was all he could think of through the cloud of Benadryl in his brain. He sat down and watched Foreman clean up the broken board in front of him. "It'll go faster if you get a broom and dustpan Jeeves!"

That had been it, Foreman had finally taken one last insult. "Why do you keep doing this?" he asked.

"Because it's easier to keep you around than a hooker - try bringing that to the office once!"

"No, that's not it," Foreman put the last of the broken pieces in the garbage and walked over to where House had his feet up on the conference room table, red sucker in his mouth. "Why do you always act so arrogant, conceited, and make us do all the work?"

"How else will you learn?" House answered simply, accentuating the answer with a quick "pop" from the sucker leaving his mouth. "You see my good student, you are here to learn how to be a doctor…" House trailed for a moment in thought, "…and my maid, and my personal assistant. Do I need to continue?"

Foreman gave him a look that could kill as House took his cane and limped out of the office suite away, probably to the chapel to watch television or something. He went back to finishing cleaning up. Why, how, did he manage to break this whiteboard? Just as he was reaching into a corner, Cameron showed up and laughed.

"What are you doing?" she asked. She had reason to as well; at the moment, Foreman looked like a squirrel burying its prized nutty treasure in the ground for winter.

"Great, now you laugh at me too." Foreman stood and addressed Cameron.

"Well, it's not everyday you see your coworkers digging in the corner." Cameron stopped for a moment, realizing that something was missing. "Where's the board?"

Foreman sighed and explained to her what happened. She laughed, which further annoyed him, smiled, and then said, "Eric, relax. We're all having a tough couple of days, you need to lighten up." She motioned for Foreman to sit down. "Let me get you some coffee or something."

"I just don't get it Allison. Everyday of this fellowship, I've come to work, and I've been used in every way possible by House. I've broken into homes for him, I've taken his abuse, hell, I've even covered him when he tried to detox for that week. I'm sick and tired of being the one responsible for House. Why did he even hire me?"

Cameron took a sip of her coffee after giving Foreman his cup and then sitting down to think. "With that question, you may as well as why did House hire any of us?"

"Why did he?"

"Beats me."

The two colleagues sat in silence until Cameron spoke up, "Why did you accept this placement?"

Foreman sat and though for a moment. He had been happy out in California, and coming to New Jersey meant leaving his girlfriend on the east coast. "I thought that it would be prestigious. House had been a big name in the journals when I was in med school. By coming here, I thought it would be the best way to pursue my career."

"Then House hired you to teach you the opposite." With that, Cameron finished her coffee and stood up; Foreman looked frustrated and puzzled. "Look, hard as it may seem, we both know that he is going to push us in a way we don't want to be pushed. Why else does he force me to be the bearer of bad news?"

Foreman still looked puzzled, "You've been speaking to Wilson lately?"

Cameron blushed a little and said, "By the way, labs are back on Chase. He's improving but still in a coma. I just don't get why though. It's as if…"

"…he's taken a medication we don't know about." House finished Cameron's thought and walked in, Sanford following closely behind.

Foreman gave him a look. "What are you saying?"

"Our genius psychiatrist here just told me that our Aussie friend here had been talking with his GP down under."

Foreman and Cameron looked at House in disbelief, and then Cameron spoke up, "So, we know who to get his medical records from?"

"Yes. You Cameron, call up a Henry Winkler in Sydney, Sanford has his number. Foreman, how does Chase get to work?"

Sanford stepped forward, "He drove the other day, but I brought him home afterwards, he had a headache."

House gave Sanford another annoyed look. For being the daughter of a doctor he admired, he thought that just maybe some of those genetics would have carried down a generation. "Foreman, check his car."

Cameron looked up from the phone, "But I thought he always took the bus."

"Ego probably wouldn't let him. Blond hair you know." House retorted quickly. "Well, let's get moving people. Foreman, I'm down with you on this. Page me when you've found his car."

With that, Foreman left the suite, further disgusted, while Cameron and Sanford attempted to get through to Australia on the phone.