AWAKE..
He could not remember the delusion, the, well whatever the hell it was,
his brain was a blur, images flashing from right to left, left to right, trying to make sense but failing.
It annoyed him, it frustrated him...
His thought process had come up with this so far, patient, swollen tongue, hot wife, exploding balls, exploded upon Chase, Cameron and a drip stand, Cameron on a hospital gurney, Cameron and the machine, Cameron's skin and the machine, Cameron's skin, Cameron's soft seductive sighs, her nervous anticipation, shivering, quivering body whilst ... no.
Could it be real?
Focus, focus, yes, FOCUS...
They had been discussing extremely funny huge swollen tongue guy, as per usually he had the witty repartee, they groaned, became annoyed, until they figured there was good reason for his wit, as it disguised just how puzzling the patient was. God he was good, yes he loved the tease, the driving them to distraction...
The guy had just walked in, walked in and asked, "which one of you is House?"
He had looked, observed, taken in this guy, nothing remarkable about him, didn't recognise him, body language gave nothing away... incidental, move on.
But the guy didn't move, a series of questions, he grew suspicious when he mentioned, knew Cameron and then...
Well he didn't see that coming...
He remembered the first shot, slow motion, the gun had fired and then he felt the bullet hit middle of his right side abdomen, around the right ileac region.
It knocked him back, took his breath away, he heard Cameron gasp, he heard the cold calculated words, words said to him without a single feeling of remorse.
"Shocking isn't it - who'd want to hurt you?"
Then nothing, blackness...
Followed by weird activity, he thought he had been in surgery, he thought he had awoken to Cameron dishevelled, sat patiently at his bedside. There had been this whole series of events, which slowly materialised in his mind to be just that, in his mind, even the exploded upon Chase, ha still funny.
Round and round it all went, what was real, what was truth, he began to doubt, he became confused.
Except for one event, one thought that kept entering his mind, one word that kept repeating in his head... Ketamine... Ketamine...
Was that it, was that the answer to his long never-ending quest, the quest for a pain free life.
Had he solved his puzzle?
His eyes opened, light, blinding white light, motion and noise, the noise came in first... running feet, tap tap tap tap, instructions being shouted, pages over the tannoy system, heavy breathing...
The motion next, he was moving and moving fast, from his guess he was on a gurney...
Then his eyes focused, from the blinding light to the hospital ceiling, to Cameron, her pained expression, she was holding the side of his neck too, he could see her arm now, more coming into view Foreman, Chase...
He whispered to her, " Tell Cuddy to use Ketamin" she looked confused, then focused, she nodded and then nothing back to the blackness again.
The next thing House remembered was noise, a beep beep beep .
It took him a while to hone in on what the noise was and focus his senses on his surroundings, but he didn't open his eyes.
He could hear the shuffling of feet, the hushed tones of others, the droning of other monitors, he realised he must be in ITU.
He did a mental body check, first thing pain, which he always did every morning since, well she ignored his request.
Nothing, must be on morphine, next movement. He slowly, wiggled his toes, then a finger, so on and so fourth... he felt the hard crisp laundered hospital sheets, horrible, uncomfortable with a brick for a pillow.
All systems go, but still he left his eyes closed, didn't want to alert anyone he was awake.. He needed to assess his situation, he needed to stay focused and in control, what had the shooter done to him.
After a few moments he gently opened his eyes, the light filtered through, not as harsh as it had been, with narrowed slits he surveyed his surroundings.
The glass panels, behind which the nurses station sat, the to-ing and fro-ing of staff, moving his head slightly to his right another bed another patient.
Moving his head to his left... Cameron, she smiled.
"Did you tell Cuddy?"
She nodded her head.
He smiled, he knew she would. That was all he needed to know for the present and letting the morphine back in, House slipped back to sleep.