It's noon right now, and in 17 minutes Dr House is going to die.
Right now he sits in exam room 4, explaining to today's idiot that baldness cannot be cured by antibiotics. The man is only half convinced.
The years have gotten on, dragging him in their wake. He's in a wheelchair now, grey-haired and iron eyed. If anything, he seems more formidable than ever. And more miserable. He bullies the man into accepting the truth, chasing him out with grinding wheels.
11 minutes
His arms strain as he pushes himself out of the lift door. He glides towards his office, parting a group of silent doctors like Moses. He doesn't glance at the darkened Diagnostics office.
It's been closed for fifteen years, when his doctors moved on to better thing. Chase a Swedish model, Foreman to some hospital out east.
Cameron…just moved on.
Cuddy hasn't touched the place; she doesn't know what to do with it. It gives him conflicting emotionsjust sitting there, so he chooses to ignore it.
He passes through the doorway to his office. They had to take the door out; it was too hard from a wheelchair. His office has lost its privacy, going from Haven to a Vicodin Storage room. Like everything, it's a painful task to get out his Vicodin and dry swallow. They stick in his throat. He gags, eyes watering. Through the murkiness he sees the post-it note on his computer screen, cheerfully and painfully orange.
Meet you in café at 12:30. W
6 minutes
On the ground floor again. He considered moving his office down to shorten to frequent trips, but hates the thought of admitting defeat. Better to suffer like he always has.
A nurse comes over and asks him kindly if he's looking for someone. He opens his mouth to shove it down her throat, but Cuddy comes and saves her. He glowers at her while she bundles the confused nurse away. She older too, and harsher. There's grey hair at her temples, and her face has bitter lines. She never got her man.
She sees his expression and snaps at him to give her a break. She's sick of salving the wounds he leaves in his wake. They're too tired for banter and innuendo.
They're only still here because they have nowhere to go. No family, no life but this hospital.
How bleak, House thinks.
50 seconds
He's moments away. A blood clot has formed and is heading up, on its way to his brain. It will lodge in the area that controls muscle function, and he will have a stroke.
In the cafeteria, Wilson glances at a watch he got from his fifth wife. Julie took the hint and left with the gardener, and he just sent them a gift for their second child's birthday.
It's a good thing he doesn't hold a grudge.
29 seconds.
Cuddy sees House slump forward, grey head nearly touching his knees.
Inside the brilliant mind of Doctor House, the blood clot falls into place as solidly as a jigsaw piece.
20 seconds, and he's gone.
TBC