Hello there my lovely reviewers! I have to say, I was absolutely floored at the amount of reviews I got for Chapter one. Thank you so much, I really do appreciate it. Anyway, this is chapter two and I must apologised for the delay; I've been tied up working on this play and it's taken up all my energy, however I managed to write most of this chapter while I was backstage and, although I like the first chapter alot better, this one is rather important to the storyline, so bear with me.
Wilson scanned the somewhat preoccupied expression of his best, and possibly only, friend as they, plus Cuddy, sat around the desk of Dr. Gregory House. When they had walked in, House instructed both of them to shut the doors adjoining his office to the hospital, and now they sat in silence. After what had seemed like forever, to Wilson and Cuddy, at least, who refused to make any eye-contact, neither of them having exchanged so much as a word to one another since their encounter in Cuddy's office, House stood up and pressed a button on his answering machine. He turned away to face the window as the three of them listened to a recorded message. The sound was fuzzy, but not inaudible enough to hear as a feminine whimper was let out.
"H-House? It's Allison. I'm not sure where we are-" her voice broke into a small yelp of pain at these words followed by a muffled sort of shout, then the deep voice of a man took over the message.
"Unless you want me to hurt her, you're going to do exactly what I tell you. I'm calling again in an hour." the phone clicked off and was followed by silence. House turned around, and sat himself down at his desk again in one smooth movement, his expression unreadable.
"I got that message 20 minutes ago." Both Wilson and Cuddy seemed lost for words. House returned to his seat and looked at them expectantly
"Well?" He demanded, "Are we going to do anything?" Cuddy was first to recover from a moments shock, and she started to answer choosing her words carefully.
"If you're sure that this isn't just a childish prank, then I think we should go to the police. They'll be of more help than either of us will" She was straight to the point and very businesslike. House turned to Wilson,
"What do you think?"
"I agree with Lisa" He let out a small cough as he said her name and looked nervously to the side. There was an extremely uncomfortable amount of tension in the room, none of which House seemed to notice, but even so, it consumed the minds of his colleagues.
"Not a prank. I called each of their cell numbers at least five times. No answer." House's voice was full of confidence and self-appreciation. Wilson shrugged.
"Batteries could have run out." He glared back at House who gave him a patronizing stare before speaking again.
"Have you met Cameron? Obsessive Compulsive much?"
"Okay, fine. Call the police."
"Mm, no." Exasperated, Cuddy and Wilson both gave House identical looks as if to say 'and?'
"Oh please. You've seen the crime shows. The second they find out about it; Boom, boom, boom," He illustrated this by shooting imaginary people with his thumb and forefinger. Cuddy resisted rolling her eyes and instead settled for an impatient sigh.
"Okay then, What do we do?" House considered this again, much in the same way he had done before. Clearly he hadn't thought about it yet. He shrugged.
"Ask around. Find out where they were last seen. Go from there?" He looked at Cuddy as she rubbed her eyes with the heel of her wrist, obviously tired and not in the mood for an argument.
"Alright. What do you want us to do?" indicating herself and Wilson. This time, House didn't waste a moment before answering with a coy smile,
"You two can take the hospital and I'll take anywhere outside they might have been."
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Wilson caught up with House just as he was entering an elevator. He squeezed in just in time before the door closed and turned to face House.
"Why did you do that?"
"Do what?" House asked as though he were speaking to a child still in kindergarten speaking slowly and over enunciating.
"You know. And you had that annoyingly superior grin on your face the whole time."
"Oh relax, I already know" Wilson turned to face House, a subtle look of alarm on his face.
"How do you know?" He sputtered out before thinking.
"Oh please. It's written all over your face. And besides. You just confirmed it." The bell for the elevator sounded and it's doors slid open, a thing that House took advantage of as he sidled through them leaving Wilson; half confused, half infuriated, in the lift.
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"Tom, Hey, Tom!" A gruff looking bartender shuffled over to where House, a frequent customer of this particular bar, stood; a rather hostile look applied to his expression.
"What can I do for ya, Greg?"
"My employees. Have they been in here today?" Tom paused, his focus on two men in the corner that seemed to have gotten into a heated argument, then returned his attention to the doctor.
"Who?"
"The idiots that work for me"
"Oh, the British one, the black guy and the hot chick?" House raised his eyebrows at this, but took no time in answering.
"That's them."
"Yeah, yeah, I remember cause they left with some weird guy. Kinda odd lookin' He comes in, all dressed in black, then starts talkin' to your friends and they all get up and leave. I had to remind 'em to pay!" House nodded.
"Thanks Tom" and with that dissapeared up the stairs that led him to the street outside, the sun shimmering and casting shadows on almost every surface.
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"James" Dr. Wilson looked around as Cuddy hissed at him again.
"Your office. Now" Wilson hesitated, wanting really nothing more than to run screaming from Princeton Plainsboro. Instead, he reluctantly accepted and followed Cuddy to his office.
Wordlessly, Dr's Cuddy and Wilson exchanged glances, He looked at her dumbfounded and she stared back threateningly as if to say,
"You know what" Sighing, Wilson broke the silence.
"What do we do?" Cuddy cleared her throat, she had been waiting for this.
"I think we should carry on as we used to. Maintain a professional relationship" At this, Wilson snorted. He opened his mouth, but was silenced by an unfriendly vibe radiating off of his boss.
"Well it's not like we can ever be together or anything" Wilson's expression softened.
"Why not? He asked, more curious that anything else and earning him another glare from Cuddy. She stood up, nearly knocking over her chair, infuriated.
"Are you completely stupid? For one you are married. Even if we managed to get over that obstacle there's still the fact that you can't seem to manage to keep a woman for more than a year without screwing someone else" This stung. Wilson got up from his desk and calmly removed himself from the room, leaving the fuming Cuddy still standing there, her hands clenched into fists.
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"Where the hell are we?" came Foreman's voice. Cameron looked around as he said this, trying to sense her way around the darkness that had engulfed the three of them. They had been locked into what seemed to be a large room that contained exactly...nothing. Unless you counted darkness, the reason none of them could see past their noses; not even the crack between the door and the floor was emitting light. Chase, having clawed off most of the rope that had been biting into his wrists, started working on the ties that bound his feet together, finally ending with the soft cotton tied around his mouth.
"Allison?"
"Yeah?" Her voice shook with fear as Chase crawled towards her, helping to remove her bonds, then assisting Foreman with his. When they were all effectively unbound, the sat for several second in silence.
"Hey, does someone wanna turn on the light?" questioned Foreman.
"Yeah, that be a good idea" came Chase's voice as he stood up and stumbled blindly towards what he thought might be a wall. Instead, he managed to trip over Cameron who was still sitting on the ground.
"Ow!" came her muffled cry. Chase rolled off of her and apologized profusely before he returned to his search for a light switch. Encouraging the other two to do the same. Once the three of them had scoured the walls for any trace of light and come up blank, they settled for sitting in a small circle around Chase's watch which which was set to emit a soft luminescent glow without having to continually press the light button.
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"Hey" whispered Cuddy to the frail young woman laying in the hospitable bed. She looked weak and tired, her face a ghostly pallor and her features softened as though she were melting away rather than dying of cancer. She gave Cuddy a sad smile and regarded her older sister with her gray eyes which on a first glance you could tell that they had once sparkled full of life but now they contained nothing more than emptiness and hurt. Her focus shifted to outside of her room and Cuddy turned around to look at what her sister found so interesting. As soon as she looked up, Dr. Wilson lowered his eyes to the ground and headed off in the direction of House's office. She turned back and, seeing the look on her sisters face, glared at her.
"Kathryn don't get any ideas. He's married."
"I know. I saw the ring on his finger. But he's obviously not happily married. And I'd say, that, by the way he's looking at you, you had something to do with it."
"Kathryn" Cuddy said sharply, warning her sister not to continue.
"I'm just saying. Whatever it is between you two, it might be good to get some clarification. You'd be sweet together though" Cuddy squeezed Kathryn's hand and smiled,
"Whoever said there ever was anything between us?" Kathryn looked sadly at Cuddy, then turned her head so she was facing the opposite, shifting her body on her side as well. Cuddy sighed and let go of her sisters hand, then proceeded to walk out the door. But not before she was interrupted.
"I'm dying" Cuddy spun around.
"What?"
"I'm dying and I have no one because I was to stupid to figure out that I loved him until it was too late"
"Who?" Cuddy took a feeble step closer to Kathryn's bed.
"Doesn't matter. You don't know him. The point is that you'll regret it if you don't do anything"
"I...I can't." There was several seconds of silence before Cuddy turned and walked out the door, her heels clacking loudly on the tile floor.
Anyway, I hope you liked it and I'm pretty sure that chapter three won't be as late coming in now that my schedule has freed up a bit.