"Foreman, you've outdone yourself." House said with a distinct lack of humour as he watched the drabble of people pour into his room. Foreman shrugged and held up his hands as if to say 'don't ask me!'
Neither of them had time to elaborate on their exchange before Howard roughly pushed Chase and Cameron in the direction of the window. Wilson and House shared a similar confused look as they observed the strange behaviour; House had a bad feeling that his day was about to get considerably worse. He decided that if he stared at Cuddy long enough she'd fill him in; Wilson decided to use the same tactic.
"What's going on?" Wilson asked after a few seconds, fearing that if he didn't ask, they'd end up staring at each other all day and he had places to go, people with cancer to console!
"Mr Howard would like his son's money." Cuddy said shakily as she motioned from Howard to Andrew and then looked expectantly to House.
"Well thanks for letting us know…" House stated monotonously, looking at Cuddy as if she were insane, "now if you don't mind I've got a date with a catheter" he laid back, signalling the end of the conversation…no one made a move except Foreman who was quickly stopped in his tracks when Howard whipped out his gun and aimed it at his chest.
"Just get over there with the other two - and give me your phone." Howard slurred as he held his hand out for Foreman's phone; the tension in the room quadrupled in those 2 seconds.
Foreman handed over his pager, since he didn't have his phone with him, he figured that a pager was a good trade for not getting shot by the lunatic with the gun. He put his hand on Andrew's shoulder and led him over to the window too; there was no way he was going to let him be intimidated by his crazy dad, the boy had enough problems as it was.
Wilson slowly reached for his pager, hoping Howard wouldn't notice; Cuddy shot him a look which made him think twice about trying to use it - instead he opted to place it carefully on the metal table beside House's bed, out of sight.
"You" Howard said whilst pointing at Wilson, "yours too"
Wilson slowly reached for his cell phone and handed it over; he noticed that as well as slurring badly, Howard was sweating and shaking - drunk.
House, who had been holding his tongue for at least the last 30 seconds, was quickly becoming agitated with his new room mates; especially the one with the gun who had assaulted him the previous night. "What is it that you want again?"
"I want the money that my son gave you to hide for him." Howard spat back as he double checked that the blinds were definitely closed; fortunately for him, Foreman had done a good job in keeping everyone away by practically sealing the room off from the rest of the hospital.
"Sorry, you'll have to speak up - I'm bleeding into my brain…" House said casually, making Cuddy, Chase and Cameron gasp in unison; it wasn't the fact that House was actually bleeding into his brain that shocked them - it was nerve he showed by being obnoxious to the guy holding a gun to his head, did he have a death wish?
"Just tell me where the damn money is-"
"Or what? You'll shoot me? Hit me again?" House laughed; Cuddy stared open mouthed, stunned, thinking how typical it was that House had chosen this moment to completely lose his mind, "I'm dead either way; you've got about 5 minutes before the bleed in my brain kills me - you want to shoot me before that, go ahead!" House stated forcefully, trying to out-stare Howard with his good eye.
"What's he talking about?" Howard questioned nervously, freaked out by the ferocity of House's little speech - he wasn't supposed to be scared; he had the gun!
"When he fell yesterday, he hit his head - he needs us to relieve the pressure from the bleed in his brain or he'll die." Wilson said as sternly as he dared while there was a gun now pointed in his direction.
"I only hit him once - I didn't think he'd fall-look just tell me where the money is!" Howard was distressed and waving the gun around in a panic, the four doctors by the window ducked as it aimed in their direction and Wilson took the opportunity to attempt to quietly pick up his pager from the metal table behind his back.
The Oncologist was distracted from his fumbling when he heard House gasping for air behind him; he spun round in time to catch him before he keeled over the edge of the bed seemingly unconscious, "House!" Wilson tried to rouse him by gently shaking his shoulders but House was well and truly out of it.
"What's he doing?" Howard asked nervously as he stopped waving the gun around and focussed his attention back on House.
"Seems he was optimistic about the five minute mark" Wilson said, the panic in his voice clear as he lay House back down and fumbled for his pulse, "I think he just had a stroke."
"Wake him up!" Howard screamed, losing all composure now that his key to freedom had lost consciousness; he knew that if he didn't get that money now then he'd have no chance of getting away from the cops, "bring him back!" he pointed to Foreman as if he expected him to help somehow.
Foreman stood warily, "he needs oxygen and then we need to get the clot out" he said pointing to the stuff he'd laid out for House before they'd all arrived, not wanting to simply pick up the equipment and get shot in the process, "I'll need help"
Howard nodded and backed himself up against the door as Foreman quickly motioned to Chase to get up too; Cameron would probably be pissed that he'd asked Chase considering this was her big chance to shine by saving her boss - Foreman decided he could live with that, Chase was more reliable in a crisis!
Chase wasn't too happy at being selected though as he tried to sort out House's laboured breathing; his hands were shaking and he was nervous as hell. What was it his lecturer had told him to do when he was nervous…'imagine everyone in the room is naked'. He dropped the o2 mask twice before he managed to secure it; the 'thinking naked plan' wasn't helping at all; the image of Cameron and Cuddy both naked in the same room was making him more unfocussed than before!
Foreman ignored Chase's obvious tension as he attempted to make sure House was stable, "we need to link him up" he said to Howard, who shook his head in disagreement when he looked at the monitors.
"Do you think I'm stupid - those machines are linked to alarms out there" he pointed out towards the nurse's station, "No machines."
"How do you expect us to do this - can we use the sonogram at least!" Foreman said exasperatedly.
"Is there one in this room?" Howard said, expecting Foreman to say no.
"Yeah - right there."
Howard made a point of examining the apparatus thoroughly although even he was unsure of what he was actually looking for, "use that - but nothing else" he grunted, seemingly satisfied with finding nothing that may be used to contact the outside world.
Foreman picked up the small micro catheter that he had chosen for the op and regarded it; either this would save House or…he didn't really want to think about the other option.
He briefed Wilson and Chase on what they had to do; no machines meant that they had to monitor House's blood pressure, heart rate and breathing manually, this was more than one step beyond dangerous - it was madness, House would love it…