"What happened – did you stand up too fast again?" Cuddy ranted as she burst through the double doors to the x ray room where she'd left her 'patient'. If sympathy was what he expected, he would be unpleasantly surprised to find that Cuddy's sympathetic streak had left her some time after he'd used her as his personal crash mat.

House, the patient in question, was groggily attempting to fend off a nurse who was trying to keep him laying on his back. He scowled as he looked up and spotted Cuddy storming up to him, looking every bit as angry as she sounded.

"He didn't fall – he wasn't even sitting up, let alone standing" the attending nurse explained as she gave up on her futile attempts at keeping him down.

"So…he just passed out whilst lying down?" Cuddy asked, usable to hide the concern in her question but still refusing to address House at all; as far as she was concerned, this could easily have been avoided if he was capable of actually behaving normally and letting people know when he was hurting.

"Don't mind me – I'll be off now" House said as he tried to use his cane to drag the nearby wheelchair towards him, unable to compete with the burley orderly who refused to let up his grip on the handles. He groaned miserably as another sharp bolt of pain went searing through his rib cage; he was almost disappointed to see that the orderly didn't seem to care much for his amateur dramatics and he kept his sturdy grip on the chair.

"I came through to help him up but he was unconscious" the nurse explained, ignoring the look of disbelief she was getting from House as he turned his attention back to the conversation, "he was completely unresponsive to stimuli for over two minutes-"

"I was asleep!" House protested feebly from his hunched over position on the gurney; Cuddy turned to face him momentarily, a look of determination on her face. She remained silent but put a finger up to stop him from continuing; House seriously thought she was going to hit him soon, or worse – make him sit through another lecture, so naturally he wanted out of there as soon as possible.

"When he came to, he was confused and disorientated-" the nurse continued.

"You can't be confused and disorientated – they're the same thing!" House complained insistently in the background as he made a grab for his cane, which was conveniently located by the head of the gurney; he could see that Cuddy was going to admit him if he wasn't careful – and there was no way in hell he was going to let that happen, not when he'd already been granted a week away from this place.

"You're not going anywhere" Cuddy said as she put a restraining hand on House's shoulder as he made to stand; it didn't take much to keep him down she found.

"Other people do need to use this room you know" he replied seriously, especially as he thought back to the construction worker and his life threateningly broken thumb; he must have hit a nerve because Cuddy frowned then motioned for the orderly to help him into the wheelchair. "Right"

"Open up the clinic – put him in exam room one" she instructed after watching House fend off the large orderly to collapse into the chair himself, "the last thing I need is more patient complaints" she added, also remembering the poor man with the broken thumb from the waiting area. "I'll meet you in there" she coolly addressed him as he observed her façade from the wheelchair. 'She is so pissed with you right now' he thought as he put on his best fake-remorseful face.

House remained silent as the unfriendly orderly pushed him out through the waiting room without attempting to ask him if he was okay, which suited him down to the ground; he was in no mood for conversation as he desperately tried to recall what had just happened in radiology.

He remembered the nurse telling him to stay still, purely because he'd replied with a sarcastic comment about not feeling up to doing anything but being still at that moment in time. He'd felt something off in his stomach, again. Then there was a blank. He'd come to when he'd felt a firm hand on his shoulder, shaking it to wake him up. Weird…'maybe you did more than just break the damn ribs…' he mused as he ran a hand over the swollen area, giving up when the pain became close to making him cry out in agony, 'maybe that's not such a good idea'

"Err, will you be okay here?" the orderly dared to ask, cutting through the delicate silence that had been maintained so far; House had been curled over in the chair, one arm draped firmly round his waist as he felt more sharp pangs in his ribs…and lower torso. He raised his head to nod to the other man, hoping desperately that he wouldn't have to speak; something told him that talking would be an effort right now. At least he could suffer in peace in the deserted clinic; maybe Cuddy was doing him as much of a favour as she'd done the rest of the hospital by holing him up in there alone.

After the orderly obediently trotted off, House got down to business by standing; he gingerly stripped off his t shirt (for what felt like the hundredth time that day!) and pulled over the flimsy fluorescent lamp over to inspect his, now even more colourful, torso. The swelling seemed to have reached its peak and was slowly subsiding to reveal the true extent of the breakages, the jagged, uneven lines of where his ribs certainly shouldn't be. It looked as though they had a life of their own and were no longer willing to be a part of his body.

"Nice" House growled as he gripped the sideboard a little harder; he took a painfully deep breath to try and clear the dots dancing in front of his eyes. He was forced back down in the chair when his vision completely blacked out, although he was aware of the clicking of Cuddy's footsteps coming through the deadly quiet reception area.

"Wilson's coming to take you home-" she started as she entered the brightly lit room, only to be caught speechless as she beheld the sight of a semi naked, blanched and panting House, for the second time that day.

"Over friendly orderly" House explained whilst trying to reach his t shirt from the counter; Cuddy sighed and passed him the elusive object. She made a brisk attempt at clearing the relatively spotless exam room; only because watching House feebly attempting to dress himself was exasperating beyond belief. She then passed him his x ray films, knowing full well that whatever she said, he wouldn't believe until he'd examined them for himself.

"Shit – well no wonder...!" he exclaimed as he held up the first film to the light; Cuddy turned to take a look, gasping as she saw what had him so excited on the film...