Foreman and Wilson studied the CT scan results carefully on the monitor; it made for interesting viewing, at least for Foreman it was interesting – Wilson just felt like there was something off about looking at images of his friend's brain, it was pretty personal when you actually knew the patient.
"Aneurysm…there, see?" Foreman said enthusiastically pointing at the blur on the scan, "…and his cheekbone is definitely broken."
"Oh good, now he owes me lunch and $100." Wilson said light-heartedly; at least the bet he made in the car the previous night was one good thing to come out of this ordeal. No doubt House would feign memory loss or something to get out of it; Wilson certainly wouldn't put it past him, even at a time like this.
"He'll need a ventriculostomy to reduce the intracranial pressure; that should fix the bleed in his eye and then you should start to see an improvement." Foreman instructed as Wilson looked over disbelievingly.
"Um, you're talking as though you're dumping him on me" Wilson said knowing full well that it was Foreman's intention to off load House onto him as soon as possible.
"He's your friend; he's less likely to berate you while you're playing doctor with him." Foreman smirked seeing that Wilson would fold.
"Great, thanks…" Wilson muttered.
"Whoa!" Foreman exclaimed as the imaging went completely blurred on the screen.
"What the-"
"He's seizing!"
They both ran round the booth, after Foreman shut down the scanner, to where House was violently seizing; Foreman frantically trying to get his hands under House's head.
"What are you doing?" Wilson yelled as he made sure House didn't fall off of the gurney.
"Trying to stop him doing any more damage to his head; if he ruptures the aneurysm now, he'll die!"
Meanwhile, downstairs in the clinic area…
Neil Howard stalked through the busy clinic; trying to remain calm on the outside when he was edgy and nervous on the inside. He was continually watching and waiting for someone to question him or worse; for the police, who he was sure were after him, to jump out and arrest him for assaulting the doctor.
He was ready for them though; he wouldn't go quietly, not with his .45 in his pocket. Something inside of him had snapped; seeing his son in hospital only reminded him of his wife when she was ill – when she had tricked him and cut him out of her life after his affair. He wanted out and he was going to rob his youngest son of his life savings, again, to escape from his responsibilities as a parent. Only this time he wouldn't spend them on drinking and betting; he was going to find Matthew – and teach him a very important lesson; don't screw your father over.
But first a trip to see Dr Cuddy…
Cuddy sighed warily as she attempted to plough through the mountains of paper work on her desk; at least House hadn't given her any more sick forms to fill in on top of the stacks she had from other doctors – technically he was still at work, even if he wasn't actually working!
She frowned as she spotted the elusive Mr Howard approaching her office; he'd left his son after some very traumatic news and hadn't bothered to return for 12 hours, which deserved a severe telling off in Cuddy's mind.
"Mr Howard." She started pleasantly enough to lure him into a false sense of security, "what can I do for you?"
"Where's my son – you've moved his room." Howard growled, slurring slightly.
"You're drunk?" Cuddy questioned unbelievingly, "Your son has just been told he has cancer and you're drunk."
"I need to see him – where have you put him?" Howard said whilst eyeing the door behind him suspiciously.
"He's in the same room he was yesterday." Cuddy said, "are you sure he isn't there?"
"I looked – he's been moved, I need to see him right now." Howard said shakily, sweat pouring off his brow.
"Is something wrong?" Cuddy asked, not sure she really wanted to know; strange behaviour was usually indicative of something bad in her experience and this guy was really starting to scare her.
"Let's go and find his doctors shall we – they've probably taken him for some more tests or something." She said, silently begging him to follow her into the busy hospital; something about being in her secluded office with Howard was bugging her.
"Okay…" he mumbled as he got up to follow her out of the room…
Meanwhile, on the 4th floor – Diagnostics department…
"Andrew, you're not supposed to be in here buddy." Chase said sternly as he saw the teenager wander into House's office and walk to the door of the conference room.
"Sorry, I was looking for Dr House – wanted to say sorry." Andrew said apologetically as he sat down at the table, pulling over the journal that someone had left lying around.
"Who unhooked you?" Chase enquired as he noticed the lack of leads that had been attached to Andrew just 4 hours before.
"Nurses." He replied with a grin, "I promised them I wouldn't go far…that was about 15 minutes ago"
"Bored huh?"
"Yeah and I wanted to find Dr House."
"You're not the only one" Cameron added as she entered the room carrying Andrew's lab work, "he's disappeared off the face of the earth."
"Have you tried Wilson's office?"
"No I thought I'd leave all the obvious places 'till last." Cameron said sarcastically as she rolled her eyes at Chase who looked pretty gob smacked that she'd snarked at him House style.
"Wow, it was almost like House was back in the room." He replied jokingly as he sat next to Andrew to look at the interesting article on bone fractures in the journal.
"Got Andrew's blood work back…" Cameron said as she attempted to get Chase's attention by waving the file in front of his face.
"And?"
"We can't really talk about it in front of the patient." She said, causing Andrew to look up from the journal momentarily.
"I doubt I'd have a clue what you're on about – so go for it." He offered, letting them know that he was ok with whatever they wanted to do as long as he didn't have to leave, "I'll try not to listen"
"Okay…well House was wrong about the Anaemia; for one thing – it's not improving with our treatment at all." She started, showing Chase the labs.
"I'm sure House won't see it that way." Chase muttered in reply as he saw Cuddy approaching the conference room with Mr Howard in tow…
At the same time back in Radiology…
"House, seriously just answer the questions – do you know where you are?" Foreman asked impatiently; House was mumbling something about his patient which made no sense to Foreman or Wilson at all. They were both worried that maybe he'd done more damage during the seizure than they'd been able to keep him from doing to himself.
"Anaemia…it's his iron…take…" House mumbled weakly.
"Where are you House?" Wilson said loudly and clearly; which seemed to work as House sighed angrily and replied, his strength coming back slowly but surely.
"Hospital."
"Do you know what just happened?"
"Seizure."
"Congratulations, you've just won a speedboat." Wilson said smirking as he said it; glad his friend seemed to be as coherent as he should be.
"Thanks."
"Okay, we've got to get you a gurney."
"No – just get the chair." House groaned as he opened his eyes, "can't lay down, it's killing my head..."
Wilson looked to Foreman who nodded his approval.
"It's probably better that he sits anyway – I'll get a room set up and you can bring him down when you're ready." Foreman said as he completed his neurological checks on House, "Squeeze my hands."
"Get my patient on treatment for Iron deficiency Anaemia." House said to Wilson whilst Foreman pulled him to an upright sitting position by his wrists.
"Squeeze both hands House" Foreman said getting agitated that House was ignoring him.
"I am…" House said, looking momentarily worried; "Todd's paresis – my right side is temporarily rendered next to useless…how will I live?" House feigned being upset at the thought on the outside but secretly was worried out of his mind; 'shit, please be temporary!' he thought frantically, remaining calm as he could see Wilson looking startled enough already.
"Nice of you to let me know." Foreman said angrily, "any other neurological symptoms you think I might like to know about while I'm here?"
"I know you like holding my hand, but really Foreman it can never be – you're my employee and I'm older than you…it really wouldn't work out." House said sincerely before Foreman let go of his hands and rolled his eyes in frustration.
"I'll set up the room and you can bring your patient along whenever you're ready." He said forcefully to Wilson as he left, taking House's scans out with him.
"I think you may have upset him." Wilson stated as he dragged the wheel chair over to where House was precariously situated on the edge of the scanner's bed. It only took an accidental brush of Wilson's arm to knock House off balance and almost send him tumbling to the floor; if it hadn't been for Wilson's quick reactions, House would certainly have landed very painfully, flat on his face.
"Oops." House stated flatly.
"You couldn't even keep yourself upright?" Wilson asked shocked as he held House on the bed by his shoulder.
"Apparently not…"
"Doesn't that worry you just a little?"
"Terrifies me." House said bluntly, looking up at Wilson for the first time since they'd been in the CT room. Wilson could see the fear in House's good eye, the left one was now completely filled with blood.
"The sooner we get you in this chair; the sooner we can lower the pressure of the bleed in your brain." Wilson said supportively; he wasn't sure whether or not to address House's last comment and he defiantly didn't know what to say to reassure him.
"Shame, I was enjoying the whole blindness in one eye thing – made the nausea go down to a much more comfortable level."
"I'll buy you an eye patch."
"Cool." House smirked as he held out his left arm ready for Wilson to help him into the chair.
"You know I could have gotten someone in to help!" Wilson gasped as he nearly landed in the chair on top of House.
"Pfft, you might like the nurses groping you – doesn't mean I do."
Wilson ignored the comment, brushed himself off, let off the brakes on the wheelchair and backed them out of the room.
"Go via my office." House instructed, "Got to see how my patients doing."
"I'm sure he's doing a lot better than you."
"Doesn't anybody care about patients any more?" House mumbled as he attempted to grab at the phone at the nurses desk in Radiology.
"What are you doing?" Wilson cried when the phone brought down an avalanche of papers from the desk that had become caught in the line.
"Ringing my lackeys to let them know what's wrong with my patient…" House said as he started pressing numbers into the phone then cancelling the call repeatedly.
"Because you're worried about your patient?" Wilson asked in a disbelieving tone, "or because you just want to rub their noses in the fact that you diagnosed him whilst seizing in a CT scanner?"
"What do you think? Quick, what's the number, before they figure it out for themselves!" House held the phone out ready to dial.
"230"
"Huh" House said whilst staring at the phone looking puzzled.
"I said 230" Wilson said a little louder.
"I heard what you said…I just…can't tell which number is which…" House said hesitantly, his hand shaking as his eyes bore a hole in the plastic receiver that he used every day; Wilson was glad House couldn't see him grimace as he gripped the handles of the chair tightly in anxiety for his friend.
"We'll go up there and tell them in person." Wilson said as he took the phone out of House's hand and placed it back on the nurses station; he shot an apologetic look to the poor nurse who had just discovered the pile of files strewn about the floor and was shaking her head in disbelief, "We're going, ok House?"
House didn't reply, his mind was in turmoil; 'Oh God, I can't even read numbers – shit, brain damage - hopefully not permanent - please don't be permanent…shit…"