CHAPTER NINE – Fear From Within

"Right now, Wilson is in the ER because he got in an accident on your bike!" Cuddy yells at House, who immediately but painfully sits up as much as he can before the pain sears through him. "Wilson would never have used your bike if he didn't have some good reason for it," she says as she starts to pace back and forth at the foot of the bed.

"I don't know what kind of shape he is in yet but I know he's bleeding internally. You'd better pray he makes it through this! Oh, wait, you don't pray, do you?" she says sarcastically, angrily and with no pity at all for House, despite his own injuries. He is dumbstruck when he hears the news and is speechless; not too many things make him draw a mental blank.

"You'd better learn how to pray awful damned quick!" she continues to yell at him.

"When was he brought in?" he finally asks, clearing his throat because it had become severely dry all of a sudden.

"Oh, you do care! I'll be damned! He was brought in 15 minutes ago. I wanted to inform you before I went down to check on him myself."

House shifts his eyes away from Cuddy trying to think of something, anything to say that justified sending Wilson out on a 'hide the drugs' mission. Again, he is wordless.

"What was it, House! You needed your Vicodin? No, you could get that here. What about your…" Cuddy is interrupted by someone clearing their throat in the doorway. She turns around and sees Cameron standing there, her arms crossed and looking very sternly at Cuddy.

"Cameron, how's Wilson?" she asks, regaining her composure and softening her voice somewhat. Cameron hesitates a moment before she answers her.

"He's stable, just went up to surgery," she says quietly, almost in a whisper. She looks at House as she talks. "Broken arm, possible internal bleeding in stomach and concussion."

"Cameron, take me to the observation lou…" House starts to say but Cuddy cuts him off.

"You most certainly will not go! I want you as far away from him as possible," Cuddy protests.

Cameron frowns at her as she doesn't understand exactly why Cuddy is blowing off full steam at House, but she knows Cuddy must have a very good reason. Cuddy then turns to leave and as she passes by Cameron she says, "Keep him away. You are responsible for him."

Cameron turns back and looks at House in total confusion. "Cameron, take me to the observation lounge where he's having his surgery," he tells her.

She doesn't hesitate at all when she says, "I can't do that." House is flabbergasted and she notices his chest turn a bright red, as it does sometimes when he gets extremely agitated or really upset over something.

"I sign your paychecks," he tells her.

"No, you don't. Cuddy does."

"I give them to you," he corrects.

Cameron sighs and walks toward him, stopping just short of his bed. "House, I can't. Cuddy said so."

"Fine, then! I'll get up and take myself." he says.

He pulls the blanket off of him, throws his legs over the side of the bed, albeit slowly and seemingly painfully, puts both hands on the bed and tries to push himself up, almost losing his balance before he sits back down. He moans and groans a few times before he can catch his breath again from the pain that shot through his body.

"Aren't you going to help me?" he asks helplessly.

"No, what makes you think I would?" she shot back, almost proud that she hadn't crumbled and given in to him.

"Oh, you are so fired," House snickers as he sighs and lies back in the bed.

"Wow, that's a relief, House. Now I don't have to quit on you again," she responds as she turns around and walks out of his room, leaving him with his face looking as if he'd just been dumped by Anjelina Jolie, which, in House's mind, would never happen.

HOUSE MD HOUSE MD HOUSE MD

Mom House continues to sit on her sons' bed in shock at the contents of the grey box. She looks over the syringes and first thinks it might be heroin, considering his personality change, but then sees the vial and picks it up. She is relieved, only a little, when she discovers it is Morphine. And the panic didn't fade as she recalled what she and Cuddy had briefly talked about before she and John left the hospital.

FLASHBACK EARLIER…

Blythe and Cuddy sat on the couch in her office, and Cuddy finally got the courage (or nerve) to tell her about House's addiction to Vicodin, but wasn't going to mention the Morphine that showed up on his blood work.

"Mrs. House…"

"Oh, call my Blythe, please," she said with a smile.

"This is very difficult to say, as I was hoping I wouldn't have to, but there is an issue with Hou…Greg…"

"I knew it! Is he ill? I mean, aside from his recent injuries," she asked and seemed to choke on the last few words.

"No, no. He'll make a full recovery, really. But what I'm concerned about, as is James, is the amount of medication he's taking for pain relief. It has gotten way out of control," she finally said, almost relieved to have finally said it, but also a bit ashamed for going behind House's back.

"Vicodin, right? I've heard that is highly addictive but he promised me he wasn't taking a lot of it. But, still, I had an idea he was."

"At first, no, he wasn't taking a lot. But it's gotten pretty bad lately."

"Has it interfered with his job?"

"Aside from getting shot, no."

Blythe's facial expression changed from one of concern to almost hatred toward her. "Dr. Cuddy, if there is anything I can do for Greg I would do it. I think any mother would for their child. I've noticed a difference in him, too, but he never talked to me about it, about anything that was bothering him. When he's up and about I will talk to him, I already told him we needed to," she said as she stood to leave.

Cuddy stood as well and faced Blythe. "That's what I'm concerned about. He is at the point where he won't take anyone's help. I hope, truly, that you have better success than we've had."

"John is waiting for me. And thanks for telling me. I'll talk to him as soon as the time is right," Blythe said as she headed toward the door.

"Soon, Blythe, soon?" Cuddy asked hopefully.

Blythe nodded her head as she walked through the door, the door closing behind her.

FLASHFORWARD TO THE PRESENT…

Blythe hasn't realized she's been crying as her thoughts carry her back to what Cuddy had said to her. Her heart skips a beat as she hears John's voice in the living room and she hollers out that she's almost done. She closes the lid of the box and finds a good place in the bottom of the closet, behind some old shoes and a few storage boxes.

'Not my baby, not my baby…' she says to her self over and over. She straightens her pants and finishes freshening up, suddenly feeling completely physically and emotionally exhausted.

HOUSE MD HOUSE MD HOUSE MD

Wilson is lying on the table in operating room six as Dr. Zhang tries frantically to stop the bleeding.

"More sponges!" he orders loudly as a nurse dabs a sponge in the cut that was made to search for the source of the bleed, which unfortunately he hasn't found as quickly as he'd hoped.

"What's his blood pressure?" he asks.

"124/over/62; we've got to get that back up," the anesthesiologist says.

"I know, I know," Dr. Zhang says exasperatingly. "I can't find the bleed!" He maneuvers his fingers in the opening to feel for where the tear might be when suddenly a high pitched, rapidly steady beeping sound echoes from one end of the table, from the barrage of equipment indication his vitals.

"Bfib, Dr," a voice says.

"Damnit! I can't see…sponge!"

The beep continues and the anesthesiologist informs Dr. Zhang that Wilson's blood pressure is dropping too rapidly.

"Flat line!" someone cries out.

A nurse standing in the corner of the room looks up at the observation room at the faces of Drs. Cuddy, Cameron, Chase and Foreman, who have all turned a shade of pale, out of fear, for the death of their friend and colleague.