Chapter 7

"House, what are you doing here?" the Wilson look alike asked as the other closed the door behind him.

"Can't a guy just drop by and see his friend who's been avoiding him?" House said.

"House, I'm with a patient."

"Fine, what's wrong with you?" he asked Rose. She looked at him like he was mad but was able to stutter out, "Sore throat and headache."

"Boring. Allergies. Go home, take a Benadyl and one of these," he said as he took out his Vicodin and handed her a pill.

"Now get going so I can talk to my friend," he said. She looked from him to the other and then nodded and left the room.

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"House, I'm not in the mood right now," the look alike said as he turned around to face House.

He saw that the man had dropped all pretense of comradery and was glaring daggers at the look alike. "Neither am I," he said in a deadly whisper.

"House, what's wrong?" Wilson answered as he backed up a step.

"Something pretty strange happened to me today… I found my friend who had been tortured and chained a basement floor. Looks like he'd been that way for a while. You would happen to know what that was all about do you?"

At first, the other looked very nervous and rather anxious about the encounter, but then, when he realized that he was truly caught, he settled and smiled smoothly at House.

"So, you found me out. Good, he had nearly run out of use for me anyway. Although I am rather disappointed that I'm going to have to kill you now since you I'll never run out of use for."

"I'd like to see you try," House answered as he prepared to take a viscous swing at the creature with his cane. But for some reason, his leg erupted in pain at that moment and he collapsed on the floor. As he gripped his leg, he could just make out a hazy form of what looked like tentacles wrapped around his thigh. He gasped as another terrible wave of pain swept through his leg.

He looked up at the other and was no longer looking at the image of his friend. In fact, he had no idea what it was he was looking at. It was still vaguely in human form, but there were no features to it at all. It looked as if the man who had been standing there had been covered in bronzy liquid goo. The surface rippled as the form seemed to glide closer to House. He could see that the tentacles that were wrapped around his leg were coming from this thing.

Suddenly another, even more excruciating wave of pain rushed through his thigh, forcing a strangled scream from his lips. He had never felt pain like this from his leg. True, he lived with constant chronic pain, but this was worse than anything he had felt before.

Suddenly the Doctor, followed closely by Rose, burst through the door. They stopped at in the doorway and took in the scene before jumping into action. The Doctor rushed past House who was now writhing on the floor. He swept out his screwdriver and shoved it into the tentacle that was wrapped around House's leg. A strange, multi note scream of pain was heard form the creature as it released House.

Rose rushed up to the prone doctor and tried to help him up. It took a moment before he had regained his breath and was able to actually rise. He allowed Rose to pull him farther away from the action as he did so, not wanting to be any where near that thing anymore.

"You're not welcome here anymore," the Doctor said to the creature.

"And who are you to do anything about it?" a deep multi phonic voice asked.

"I'm the Doctor and you're something that was supposed to have died a long time ago," he answered.

Even though the thing had no features, one could still tell that the thing was surprised. "Doctor?" it said.

"Yes, I can tell you've heard of me. Not surprising since it was me who wiped your people out."

By now House was standing and watching the scene with interest. He was trying to figure out why the Doctor didn't just get rid of the thing instead of stalling it. Rose noticed his confusion and whispered to him. "He doesn't know how to kill it yet."

House silently swore to himself. He thought that since the man seemed so intent on bursting into the room earlier he must have had some kind of plan to take the thing out. But apparently, this was not someone who always had a plan.

"What did you mean when you said that you ran out of a use for Wilson?" House asked.

"Gleryth's feed on the pain of others. He had nearly killed your friend extracting pain from him," the Doctor answered.

"And what's to stop me from killing you now?" the creature asked.

"Your fear of me," The Doctor said. "I nearly wiped your people out before, what's to stop me from killing you now?"

The creature seemed to hesitate before it suddenly screamed its horrible scream again and seemed to pour itself upward to the air vent. In a matter of seconds, it had disappeared into the vent.

"Alright, so you killed these things before, why not now?" House demanded.

"I had help before," he answered. "It's a chemical compound that another came up with. I don't remember what it was, but the formula is in the TARDIS computer."

"Tardis?" House asked.

"It's our ship," Rose explained.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" House demanded.

"Right then," The Doctor said as he passed them and headed out of the clinic. As they passed, every eye in the place was on them. Apparently, they had heard the commotion in the room.

"Sorry Barbara, hadn't scared a patient in a while, thought I was about due," House said as they passed the desk. "By the way, you were wrong, Dr. Wilson wasn't in there."

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As they hurried to the stairway, they heard a scream down the hall to the ER. They stopped and wondered what to do for a moment, and then House said, "You two go and get that formula, I'll take care of this."

"What are you going to do then?" Rose asked.

"Well it seems the only thing that we currently have against this thing is words, and I am the master at that," he said and began to head down the hall.

The Doctor and Rose watched him head towards the screams and then went down the stairs heading for the morgue once again.

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Great idea, House thought as he headed to the ER. He wasn't exactly sure what he was going to do, but he knew that the other two had to go and get that formula and someone had to try and keep this thing from hurting any more people. That left him. But how he hated going into something without all the information and any plan…

As he turned the corner, he saw that a few very scared security guards were aiming their guns into one of the rooms. There were a few people around who were fearfully staring into the room including all three of his team. He sighed and boldly walked into the scene.

"What's going on?" he demanded as he walked up. Nobody answered him, but Cameron pointed into the room. House looked and saw the creature in there and then he realized that Cuddy was also in the room in the far corner, staring fearfully at the thing.

As he continued to survey the scene, he realized why it was that his team and Cuddy were even down here, it was Wilson's room. The man was still out of it from the Haldol, but House could never forget the sight of his friend when he last saw him. He silently swore to himself as he signaled for the guards to lower their guns. They didn't seem to get it.

"You can't kill something liquid with bullets you idiots!" House screamed at them. He didn't even wait for the guards to lower the guns before he walked right in front of them and into the room himself.

"House!" he heard a fearful Cameron call after him. He ignored her.

"Why hello again. We just seem to keep running into each other," House said to the thing.

"Where's the Doctor?" it asked.

"Oh he's busy with patients right now, he'll be by to treat you soon," House snipped back.

"Bring me the Doctor or I will kill him" it said as it waved a gelatinous appendage at Wilson.

"Sorry pal, I'm the only doctor you get right now," he answered.

"Wrong answer," it said as it descended on Wilson. The thing engulfed the body and suddenly propelled itself out of the door, with Wilson wrapped inside. It knocked House to the ground as it rushed by and streaked down the hallway, back the direction that House had just come.

"What the hell?!" House heard Chase saying.

"Just another patient I've pissed off," House answered as he got up and followed after the creature. Nobody else seemed to be able to react to what they just saw until House had turned the corner and vanished.

Suddenly Cuddy walked out of the room and said, "Well don't just stand there! Follow him!"

Chase, Foreman and the guards raced after the creature and House but Cameron was still too shaken to react. "Wha... what just happened?" She asked Cuddy as the dean came over to her.

"I've no idea, but somehow it doesn't surprise me that House does."