"Hey Colin, nice of you to join us" House proclaimed overenthusiastically as the young EMT awoke; truth be told, he was beginning to think maybe he'd overindulged in the painkiller department earlier. 'Hyperactive' was the closest term to how he was feeling at that moment in time – and even that was an understatement.

House couldn't deny that pampering himself with painkillers had been worth the slight respite from agony, although he couldn't shake off the feeling that he'd somehow stumbled into a large oven. His brow further cemented this feeling as it dripped relentlessly, despite being wiped furiously with the sleeve of his t shirt. 'Good job you're on saline – or else you could have dried up completely by now' he though, snickering to himself as he imagined himself as a piece of dried fruit.

"Aren't you…the patient?" Colin croaked as he brought his hand up to feel the throbbing welt on the top of his head. He was slightly disorientated to find himself laying by the gurney in the back of his own ambulance, especially since, at first glance, his ailing patient seemed to have made a miraculous recovery and was behaving rather peculiarly.

"His memory seems to be fine" House called back to Cuddy, who was still doing her 'overly concerned medical act' thing with the driver. He directed his attention back to the man on the floor, "On a scale of one to ten – how would you rate your swimming ability?"

The other man stared at him for a second, his brow firmly knitted in confusion. When it became apparent that he wasn't going to get a reply, House added, "Would you rather rescue a cripple," he gestured to himself, "one of your own – and by that I mean your buddy up front there – or a lady with a rack so large, she'd probably float herself to safety in the middle of a storm over the Atlantic?" he finished by cupping his own chest thoughtfully.

"What happened?" Colin managed to reply after careful deliberation. 'This is obviously some kind of hallucination or vivid dream – you've got to stop working the late shift' he thought desperately as he dragged himself off of the floor, testing everything he touched to make sure it didn't simply turn to dust.

"Evel Knievel in the driving seat, wanted to jump the bridge, we ended up part way down a bank next to the river" House explained, wincing as he took the opportunity, presented as Colin shakily stood, to sit himself down on the gurney; his drug induced euphoria seemed to be heading for a downer, so he didn't particularly want to be standing. "Advice from my colleague is that we should get the hell out of here before we drown…" he added as an afterthought whilst playing around with the IV line in his arm.

"What about Nick?" Colin asked as it began to dawn on him that this might actually be real; he paled as he used the gurney to brace himself, his head was killing him.

"Nick would be…the driver right?" House asked, wondering briefly who else 'Nick' could actually be, 'His pet rat, maybe?'

Colin didn't reply, instead he decided to ignore the strange, sweating man and try to find his colleague himself. He leaned through the small gap through to the front, gasping as he saw his colleague being tended to by Cuddy.

"You're awake – are you hurt?" Cuddy asked cogently, she wasn't in the mood to wait around much longer for the rescue team. The driver wasn't showing any sign of waking up, which indicated the ever-present desperate need for them to get to the hospital as soon as possible.

"I, uh…yeah, I'm fine" the young EMT stammered as he squeezed himself through the gap. The van rocked with the uninvited shift in its centre of gravity; Cuddy held her breath tentatively, just waiting for it to stop moving.

"Please don't do that again" she requested calmly as the shaking came to a standstill, allowing her to relax a little more. "Where's House?" she asked, the polite caution serving as a reminder that her earlier tormentor was being remarkably quiet – suspiciously so.

"Err, House is…the patient?" Colin asked, thinking that the strange name seemed to suitably match his peculiar behaviour in the back.

"That's one way to describe him" she admitted, mumbling as she carefully checked the driver for breath sounds; keeping constantly busy was good for her nerves, it was the only explanation as to why she wasn't an emotional wreck yet.

"He's sitting back there – what happened?" Colin decided he'd have to be direct if he wanted straight answers.

"We crashed" she stated bluntly, "and we need to get out of here."

"And the patient? What happened to his ruptured kidney?" It was becoming horribly clear that this was no dream, despite the strange happenings.

"He took something…courtesy of your locked cabinet" Colin looked down to the keys on his waist band, which were no longer there.

"But…he can't do that!"

"If I had a nickel for every time I've heard that" came the long suffering reply from the exasperated administrator.

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House winced as the first pangs of pain broke through his drug induced protective barrier; he was too exhausted, and now far too wary of his injuries to try and get to the drugs cabinet again. So he sat, hunched over, on the gurney; suffering in silence.

At least, it would have been silent were it not for the insistant whirring of what sounded like helicopter blades overhead.

House groaned. As much as the sound was welcoming because it meant that they were certain to be rescued soon, it also meant he was going to be dragged mercilessly from his fading semi-euphoric cocoon much earlier than he would have preferred.

"Cuddy" he choked, not managing to get the whole name out before it died deep down in his throat. The pain was affecting his respiratory system once again, the 'magic' of his quick fix painkiller disappointing him with its refusal to stick around for long enough. His 'twenty-minute' prediction to Cuddy was failing miserably.

He tilted his head back slightly, still not daring to move much from his hunched position on the gurney for fear of causing himself more pain than he could physically handle. He stared at the drawers on the wall of the ambulance opposite, they were probably meticulously stocked and organised on a normal day…speaking of which – 'I wonder how much hair Wilson's pulled out worrying about this mess…'

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Wilson blew out a shaky breath. It had been 16 minutes and…37seconds since Cuddy had called him. Not that he was counting, because that would mean he was worried – and there wasn't anything to worry about, was there? 'But what if…' Wilson couldn't stop his mind from imagining all kinds of grim possibilities, most of them ended with a coding House and a hysterical Cuddy in the back of a cramped ambulance.

He shook his head in an attempt to clear away the nasty image before striding up to the reception desk. "Have you heard anything from the ER?" he asked the young woman behind the desk just as the telephone began ringing, stealing away her attention.

Wilson began pacing once again, moving over to the large window that overlooked the ER ambulance bay…finding nothing. All of a sudden, the telephone conversation behind him inexplicably caught his attention.

He turned, realising from the enforced formalities from the normally chatty receptionist, that this must be an extremely important call. The disturbing images of House and Cuddy were once again firmly planted in the front of his mind as he peered over at what the receptionist was writing down whilst politely monosyllabically acknowledging whatever information the caller was firing at her.

Catching the fact that the ambulance had been in some sort of accident and that it required the occupants to be rescued, Wilson wasted no time in making a mental note of the location and sprinting off down the hall to get in his car. He needed to be there, even if it was just for his own piece of mind – he had to know that they were both okay…

Author's Note: Super-Wilson to the rescue! Well...maybe not as dramatic as that. But anyway, let me know what you think because I'm lost without all of your comments and feedback...plus, sorry for the slow update (It's bank holiday weekend though – have had no work for three whole days; next chapter will be up much quicker!) Enjoy...