Dr. Matterson came in his room at what felt like three in the morning but was actually ten.
"Dr. House?" he tried, putting a hand on his arm. House flinched away, startled. The psychiatrist chuckled a little.
"It's just me. Why don't you wake up so we can talk a little?"
Slowly, House opened his eyes. He hadn't been conscious of the pain when he was asleep, which was why he was asleep, but now he was. He grabbed his thigh and moaned. It was stiff from lying in bed all night. They must have given him some kind of sleeping pill.
"Are you OK?" Matterson asked, a note of sympathy clouding his voice. House focused on him hazily.
"Your leg's hurting?" the doctor asked.
"Always...hurts…" House ground out over the searing pain.
"Always?" Matterson asked. House knew he was just trying to get him to talk, like psychiatrists do, but he didn't care.
"Yes...always...having a chunk of muscle ripped out of your thigh will do that to you…" House rubbed his thumb down the indentation and surgical scar. He winced. Even touching it hurt now.
"You had surgery at some point?" Dr. Matterson inferred. House nodded.
"Girlfriend...fucked up…"
"What does your girlfriend have to do with this?"
House grimaced as he held his leg as close to his body as possible, turning away from the psychiatrist and trying to rub out a wicked cramp that was forming. "Dr. House?" he heard distantly, but ignored it in favor of massaging his leg. He felt a hand on his shoulder again.
"Dr. House. Should I get someone?" the psychiatrist asked. House shook his head.
"Won't help…"
"Is your pain always this bad?"
House shook his head. "Vicodin...helps…" He hissed as he tried to press on the sore muscles.
"Well, I'm sure Dr. Lei will find something else that will help and not give you hallucinations if that is in fact the cause of them."
"He thinks...I'm exaggerating...ow…" House curled his head down towards his chest and hoped the British man didn't notice his tears. Every muscle in his body was tensed.
"I don't think you're exaggerating," Matterson assured. "Which is why I'm offering to find you someone that may be able to help you right now. I'm not a medical doctor per say, so I don't know much about pain but it seems like you're in a lot of it and I don't want you to be. Nobody here does."
"Well then you need to give me something stronger than ibuprofen."
Dr. Matterson nodded. "I understand that. I'll make sure that Dr. Lei knows that."
House leaned over his leg more, grimacing. His leg went into a worse spasm and he screamed hoarsely. He tried to massage it out but this only caused him to scream again. He felt hands on his neck and he tried to struggle away from them.
"It's OK; I'm just checking your pulse," Dr. Matterson soothed. His hand went down to his pager and pressed a few buttons.
"Just...get me...something…" House breathed.
"I am. I've paged Dr. Lei to ask for acute pain management and for him to examine you."
"Tell...him…" House trailed off as he felt his heart pounding in his chest at an alarming rate. His head was full of the noise; of the lub dub, lub dub of the organ. He knew it was too fast but couldn't do anything about it. He felt his eyes closing and heard Dr. Matterson's voice getting distant, and then there was nothing.
(LINE BREAK)
"Dr. House...Dr. House…" he heard. It was as if he someone was calling to him from the other side of a long tunnel. He opened his eyes a crack and immediately closed them again against the pain in his leg. Pale hands lifted his eyelids and shone a light into the irises. He winced.
"You gave us quite a scare," an accented voice said. House tried to focus on the source of the voice. It was Dr. Lei, standing above him with a pen light and a concerned look.
"Huh…?" House said dumbly.
"We had to shock your heart back into rhythm. It was beating irregularly and too fast. How do you feel?"
"Did you give me something…?"
"We did. We're starting you on Suboxone for breakthrough pain. It should help combined with the ibuprofen and methadone. Is the pain any better?"
"A little…"
"Good. Well, I'm going to have a nurse stay and monitor you for a few hours to make sure your heart rate is stabilized. I'd also like you to try group tomorrow. You don't have to talk; just go and listen if you want."
"Not a big talker, are you?" he heard a female voice ask. He looked around, and his eyes rested on a tall, blonde woman in the corner of the room. He moaned. Great. Now he was crazy again. He glared at Amber.
"He likes to talk about Taub's height," another voice said. Kutner. Fantastic.
"Wait, are you OK?" the Indian doctor asked. House ignored him.
"Can you give me...something to sleep?" House asked Dr. Lei. If he was asleep he couldn't hallucinate, and if he didn't hallucinate he wasn't crazy, and if he wasn't crazy he could leave sooner.
Dr. Lei nodded and handed him a pill. House propped himself up on his elbows and downed it. He closed his eyes and heard the door close. Then he heard singing.
"Forget your troubles, come on get happy…"
"Oh shut up!" he yelled at Amber's voice, and threw a pillow in her general direction. The singing stopped and he drifted into sleep.