Title: Doppelganger
Summary: Something unknown is plaguing House and things are getting out of control, driving the pessimistic doctor to the edge of his sanity. Can he be brought back in time to save his latest patient? Can he even save himself?
Time Frame: After Vogler, before the Duckling Elimination Game. The time of year is probably completely incorrect, but I don't care. My fanfic, my mess.
Pairings: One-sided Cameron/House relationship (Cameron cares, House doesn't), Chase/Nikki
Author's Message: Hmm. Lots of physical violence in this one. If you don't like it, please skim over it. Thank you. And please excuse the medical inaccuracies, I'm fourteen and I know very little. I'm just improvising here to make a good story, kay? Thanks.
Disclaimer: I own not, I profit not, so please sue me not. I'm fourteen; I can't afford it. However, any characters that you haven't seen before (Nikki, Alex, etc.) are my own creation and belong to me. Hands off please.
"Get the fuck out, you goddamn bastard!" Alex yelled.
Wilson attempts to keep his composure, but fails completely.
"Shut up and stay the hell out my way!" he snarls.
Finally unearthing the Epinephrine after what feels like a decade, Wilson practically throws himself across the room, pushing the needle in Nikki's IV, and pushing the plunger in. Nikki's breathing begins to even out. Cameron takes the tube out of the teenager's throat, the nurse stops the chest compressions and Wilson visibly relaxes, pulling the syringe out of the IV needle.
"What's going on?" Alex asks.
Cameron sighs, drawing a hand across her forehead, before answering.
"Nikki had an allergic reaction to one of the medications we gave her and she went in anaphylactic shock," she says.
"But is everything all right now?"
"Pretty much," Cameron admits.
"Good."
Alex turns to Wilson and punches his brother in the face. Wilson's head snaps to the side with the force of the blow and his hand flies to his face. He hisses with pain as his fingers brush the bruise that is already blossoming around his eye. Alex grins briefly.
"I've always wanted to do that," he murmurs.
"Ass," Wilson mutters.
For a few seconds, it feels to Wilson that they're brothers again. But then Alex's face hardens with anger.
"What are you doing here? I told you to stay out."
"Nikki asked me," Wilson replies. "I swear she did. Look, I saw Nikki when you said not to, you... you sucker-punched me. Can't we just forget those two little bits and start over?"
Alex scowls.
"If Nikki wants to see you, she can, I guess," he says. "But not when she's sick."
"Why not!" Wilson demands.
"I am not having you bother her while she isn't well," Alex snaps. "She knows where you are now, so she can come back when she's well if she really wants to."
"Bastard."
"Fuck off."
"Deal."
Dealing with Alex is worse that dealing with House. If that's even possible. Wilson leaves, closely followed by Cameron. She has a bone to pick with House.
House twirls the ring on his finger, occasionally pulling on it in a vague attempt to get it off. Each time he fails annoys him more. But then Cameron bursts through the door of his office and he has to cover up the ring quickly. He can't let the giver see it any more than she (well, hopefully she) already has. After all, could be Cameron. But wait, she has her 'Little-Miss-Outraged' expression on. He's in big trouble now. More trouble than with Cuddy's 'Little-Miss-Ass-Kick' expression.
"What the hell were you thinking?" she challenges.
"Well, right about now, I was thinking about how much my hooker charges and wondering how I get a dis-"
"I don't care about your imaginary hookers!" Cameron snaps.
When Cameron snaps, you know that something has gone seriously wrong in the world. House grabs his magic 8 ball.
"Now I get to guess what I did wrong," he says.
"House-"
"I said rude words to an old lady."
He shakes the ball. Cameron looks, if possible, even more annoyed. House sighs.
"Apparently not," he reports.
Cuddy now storms through the door with her 'Little-Miss-Ass-Kick' expression. What is this, Everybody Pick On House Day?
"Do you know what you've done?" Cuddy demands.
"Fine, I give up," House says, leaning back in his seat. "Tell me."
Cuddy and Cameron share a quick glance, as if silently deciding who gets to tell him where he screwed up. The duty falls on Cameron.
"You prescribed drugs for Nikki Wilson that sent her into anaphylactic shock!"
"You mean the ones that were supposed to cure the meningitis you said that she has?" House asks.
"Don't blame Cameron for this, House," Cuddy disputes. "You should have checked her medical record for allergies before giving her anything."
House rolls his eyes.
"Fine, fine, I'll check the records."
"It's no good doing it now!"
House stands up painfully and begins limping towards the door as he speaks.
"No," he agrees, "but it's more fun than sitting here listening to you two moan."
He pauses by the door, adding:
"Although if you want to start cat fighting, I wouldn't say no."
The two women's death glares are all he needs to send him 'scuttling' down the corridor towards the diagnostics room. The room is empty except for Cameron's little pink creature, nodding slowly with the light of early evening sun powering its battery. As cute as it may have been in morning light, the thing looked damn creepy in the lower light levels. The file with Nikki's medical records in it is lying on a table. One of his team must have been looking at it earlier. Remembering what Foreman had said earlier about muscle pain, House limps over to the whiteboard and adds the symptom to the list before returning to the folder. Picking it up, he opens the folder.
"What the... shit!" he growls.
The folder is full of torn scraps of paper. Somebody has torn Nikki's medical records to shreds. Now they have no idea which drug she reacted to. But that's not the important question. The important question is: Who did it! The vacuous plastic creature continues to nod, its tiny black eyes staring at House with slowly gaining menace. House isn't usual given to superstition, but that thing is really beginning to give him the creeps. He hears the sound of the door opening behind him, but he doesn't look. It's probably Cuddy or Cameron, ready to complete further bitching. Or Chase to complain about the extra clinic work. Or maybe even Foreman, for some reason or other.
"See? It wasn't my fault," he claims.
Somebody taps on his shoulder. He turns around, annoyed, to see somebody behind him. It isn't one of the Ducklings. It isn't Cuddy or Wilson. It isn't even Vogler. It's House. This person looks exactly like him. Same eyes, same hair, same face, everything. There is only once difference; this House, this double, has no cane. He, it, nods once, as though in greeting, before shoving House in the chest. Taken by surprise, House stumbles backwards, putting weight on his unstable right leg, and it crumples beneath him with a stab of such fierce pain that he cries aloud as he falls to his knees. The double, hands now in pockets, casually puts a foot on House's shoulder and pushes him over. House clutches his leg, trying desperately to stop the pain, his eyes focusing on the face of this strange double as he walks around and into his (House's) line of sight. The double has an expression unfamiliar to the real House's face, one of genuine amusement, with a lazy smile curving the lips, as he crouches down next to the real House and begins to speak in a voice that is identical to House's.
"It wasn't your fault," the double says quietly. "It was mine."
He stands up again, both legs enviably whole, and walks around House again in the direction of the door. House concentrates on breathing, the pain fading in his leg. Suddenly, something slams into his left temple. Fireworks explode in his vision as pain bursts through his skull and the darkness takes him.
Yeah, I know I said that this is the chapter that I hated? Well this is why: Originally, I had this so that the Wilson/Alex thing was completely fine as long as Alex and Wilson weren't there at the same time. But that just seemed far too easy, so it annoyed me. I read it again and changed a few bits of dialogue so that we now have the bad ending that you see before you. AND THE HORROR HAS STARTED. ABOUT TIME.