House flinched as he felt a hand firmly grasp his shoulder; "Who let you in?" he sleepily mumbled to the angry figure hovering over him; he leant over to grab his bottle of vicodin from the coffee table, swallowing two hungrily.
"I let myself in – I rang your phone, I left messages, I rang your cell, I rang Wilson's cell, I knocked on your door, I let myself in when I received no indication what so ever that you were still on this planet!" Cuddy ranted furiously, "your door was unlocked – I took it as an open invitation to come in."
"What's got your thongs in a twist?" House blurted out before he could stop himself, 'oops – here we go; she's only worried about you, you idiot…'
"House, for I knew, you could have been…where's Wilson?" Cuddy looked around for the oncologist; she felt slightly guilty for yelling at House now that she could see he didn't look all that well – she wanted to yell at his sidekick instead.
"Family emergency…said he'd be back at some point" House lied; 'no point in dropping him in it quite yet' he thought as he leant his head back into the couch, his neck aching after his awkward nap.
"How are you – what's the swelling like now?"
"It's better" House lied, he didn't know what the swelling was like – he'd been asleep for God knows how long!
"You're cold" she noted as she saw the fine hair raised on his arms as he hugged a pillow against his aching body, "probably something to do with the fact you're sitting there wearing nothing but a towel and a t shirt – but it could also be a sign of internal bleeding-"
"Hmmph, could also have a lot to do with the fact that the heating doesn't seem to be on – what time is it?"
"A little after 11" Cuddy replied as she kicked her shoes off and settled down in House's recliner with a magazine, ignoring the incredulous stare being firmly planted on her by the owner of both.
"That late?" House murmured to himself, trying to figure out what time Wilson had stormed off earlier, "What are you doing?" he asked as he watched Cuddy apparently engrossed in the mag.
"Babysitting 'til Wilson gets back" she replied without looking up from the evidently interesting reading material. He pulled a disgruntled face and, seeing that she was happy to ignore him, decided that he'd be more comfortable in his own bed, away from 'the babysitter.'
He sighed, then placed the pillow on the floor by his feet, bracing his arms either side of him, getting ready to stand. Cuddy flicked her eyes up at the movement, about to voice her discouragement at the action before she was silenced by a curse from House as he painfully pushed himself up to his feet.
"Where are you going?" she asked warily, putting the magazine down in favour of watching him instead – she winced as she saw him painfully hop on his good leg, jolting his ribs and his bad leg, no doubt.
"Bed…" he groaned as he leant to grab his cane from its position beside the couch; he drew in a sharp breath as he completely lost focus and stumbled forward. Luckily, Cuddy had foreseen this happening as she witnessed the colour drain from his face completely when he stood; she nimbly ducked under his overbalanced body and attempted to brace his fall the best she could by wrapping one arm around his waist and going down with him onto the other.
"House – you okay?" she gasped, as she found herself crumpled up underneath his limp body; she was rewarded with a groan as he sluggishly dragged his arms out from where they had ended up, partly under her back. "Whoa, just lean back there" she ordered as she gently pushed House into a sitting position against the couch. "I don't need to be a doctor to tell you that your blood pressure just took a nose dive…"
"Just stood up too soon and too quickly" House moaned as he held his head with one hand and his ribs with the other; the fall hadn't been particularly good for the already battered bones. "Help me up" he ordered weakly as he regained his vision.
"What? You expect me to carry you to your room now – I'm calling an ambulance" Cuddy said as she stood up, wincing at the pain that shot through her arm as she reached over to her coat to retrieve her cell phone.
"I don't need an ambulance – I just need to get to my bed" House said slowly, struggling to get each word out between gasping as he leaned to his right in another attempt to get to his feet.
"You might not need one, but I do – and I'm not leaving you here alone"
"What?" House asked blearily, "What have you done?"
"I haven't done anything – you, on the other hand…you seem to have broken my wrist" she said bitterly as she held her poorly wrist in her other hand and fiddled with her cell; 'next time Lisa, just leave him to wallow alone…that way you won't get hurt!' she thought miserably, wincing as she tried to bend her wrist.
"Shit – let me see" House said urgently, giving up on actually trying to stand for the time being.
Cuddy looked at him suspiciously for a moment before sitting beside him on the floor and releasing her bad arm into his care; she couldn't tell if this uncharacteristic concern for another individual was genuine or not.
"Don't stare at me as though I'm some kind of alien – I am capable of acting like a human being…sometimes…" he mumbled as he took her hand and twisted it so her palm faced upwards, making her hiss in pain. "I did say 'sometimes'!" he defended as she glared daggers at him. "It's broken" he concluded.
"Yeah, I already knew that…hence the whole 'needing to go to hospital' thing…"
"Just making sure you weren't faking it to get me there" he admitted sheepishly.
Cuddy shook her head in amazement before standing and ringing through to the service desk at PPTH on the off chance that an off duty ambulance might be in the area; she didn't want to take somebody else's lifeline away from them just for a measly broken bone.
"Damn" she cursed as she snapped the cell closed, "trust you to pick the day when there's an eight car pile up on the interstate" she sighed at defenceless House, who was still stuck on the floor.
"Yeah…this is entirely my fault – I made you come here and get in my way during my second skydiving session"
"Well, if you answered your phone – I wouldn't be here! Now I'm stuck here…"
"I know this goes against everything you've ever lived by…but you do realise that there are other ways to get to hospitals other than ambulances, don't you?"
"I can't drive – and you're definitely not driv-"
"They're called cabs, Cuddy!" House said exasperatedly, wishing that he wasn't stuck on his floor feeling helpless "taxis, cabs – taxicabs…there's a bunch of numbers by my phone over there, ring one."
Cuddy scowled at him before picking through a stack of business cards by his phone, picking one that had the most scribbled dates and times on it – obviously the most regularly used of them all.
She placed the order and hung up; "It'll be here in 10 minutes – it's gonna be $20…"
House sighed realising the implications of the last statement, "If' you'd be so kind as to pass me my pants from…the bathroom, I think – I'll pay for the ride since its 'all my fault'…" he made a point to imitate Cuddy on the last part, not bothering to turn and observe her reaction.
"Thanks…I think" she replied, sitting on the edge of the couch.
"Err; I do want my clothes sometime before the cab gets here"
"Oh yeah" she exclaimed, looking at his bare legs that, surprisingly, still had the towel wrapped firmly around them. "I'll grab you some – hang on"
"I wasn't seriously considering going anywhere" he said to her retreating backside as she ran off down the hall to get his jeans.
House groaned as he felt his vision blur again, 'maybe Cuddy's right about the internal bleeding thing - good job we're heading to the hospital – not that I'm gonna let her know that…'
Author's Note: Yep, I'm still plodding along with this fic…hopefully you didn't fall asleep reading it? Oh well, it's not as demanding as Voodoo Child – even I'm confused by that one! But seriously, let me know what you want and I'll write it in somewhere… x