Thanks for all the reviews! I appreciate them. Here's the next chapter.
"You okay?" House stood by Cuddy as she sat on the ground. Her back was to the small camp of the other survivors and she refused to make eye contact with House.
"No," Cuddy bitterly answered.
"The woman's brain was exposed, Cuddy," House painfully seated himself beside her. "You knew she wasn't going to make it."
Cuddy brought her eyes, that shone with tears, over to him. "What about that man? Huh? I thought he had time."
House frowned. "He had two very large pieces of metal sticking out of his body. There was nothing you could do except make me waste some of my Vicodin on him."
Cuddy looked away from House. "We should have been rescued by now."
House paused and ran his tongue over his bottom lip. He decided to tell her. "No. We should have been in the ocean."
"What?" Cuddy turned to him.
"Heathrow to Newark," House said. "If we were on schedule, which we were, we would have crashed in the ocean."
Cuddy thought a moment. "So, we went off course?"
"Unless the ocean moved," House replied.
Cuddy gave him a look. "Shut up." She turned and looked at the group of other survivors behind her before she brought her gaze back to House. "Where do you think we are?"
House raised his eyebrows. "That's a very good question."
"Should we tell them?" Cuddy gave another glance over her shoulder.
"Probably," House answered with a shrug.
Cuddy's eyebrows drew together. "Maybe help will still come. Maybe they'll look in the right area. Like Dave said, our plane didn't land. That means they have to be looking now."
"Right." House gave a nod. "In the ocean."
"But, don't they monitor where our plane traveled?" Cuddy kept her eyes on him. "Shouldn't they know where we are? Where we went down? Shouldn't they know we went off course?"
"You would hope so, wouldn't you?" he told her. "After all, there's nothing like being in a plane crash and stranded who knows where while people look for you where you're suppose to be, but aren't. I think I've heard of this before. It's called Lost. Seen it?"
Cuddy glared. "House, stop."
"We've got a doc, a kid," he paused a moment, "Which one do you think is the con-man?" House nodded toward Dave. "I go with MacGyver."
"Stop." Cuddy's tears were nearly spilling over. "Please. This isn't some TV show. Lots of people are dead and are still dying. I'm scared and I don't need this."
House diverted his eyes from her, feeling regret over his words. However, it was the only way he could understand and place perspective on their given situation. He raised his eyes back up to her. "Sorry."
"And no cell phones work?" She ignored his apology. "Nothing?"
"Nothing," House repeated.
Cuddy placed her face in her palms. "I don't want to die here." She lifted her head suddenly and brought her eyes to him. "Maybe we should explore. Maybe there's a town nearby."
"If there was a town nearby, they would have seen, heard, or felt something," he said in return.
Cuddy fell silent a moment and then spoke quietly. "So, what do we do?"
"I don't know," he told her honestly. He gave a nod toward the side of her face. "I should sew up your cheek."
Cuddy shook her head. "It's all right."
"You don't want a scar like that on your face," House replied. "And you have a bigger risk of infection. MacGyver boiled the needles we found."
"Okay." Cuddy let out a sigh as she gave in.
House forced himself to his feet and limped toward the rest of the group. Cuddy placed her fingers to the gash. There was still fresh blood there. She wiped her fingers on the pair of jeans Bill had found for her. They were men's jeans and Cuddy had to wear a belt she notched herself in order to keep them up.
"I'm going to double thread it." House lowered himself down next to her, clutching the needle and thread in his free hand. "Want a Vicodin for the pain?"
"No," Cuddy answered. "Just do it."
House stared at her. "Are you sure, Cuddy?"
"Do it," she insisted quickly.
Drawing in a breath and shaking his head slightly, House double threaded the needle. He had already given three other people pseudo stitches today. Once the needle was threaded, he brought his eyes to Cuddy.
"Are you sure you don't want anything for the pain?" he asked her.
Cuddy gave an affirmative nod. "I'm sure."
House used a wet torn cloth to clean around the cut. Cuddy winced slightly and waited for him to go on. She clutched tightly onto her knee, her fingernails digging into the thick fabric of the jeans she was wearing.
Without giving her a warning, House punctured her skin with the needle. As tears immediately welled up in her eyes, Cuddy tried hard not to cry out. House made three distinct stitches before he gave a swipe at her tears with the wet cloth.
"You're fine," he told her and continued on.
Cuddy closed her eyes, hoping that would keep any tears from falling. She still hadn't uttered a word, but let out an occasional whimper of pain. When House had finished, he carefully cut the thread with a piece of glass.
"Done."
House picked up the utensils he was using and stood back up. Cuddy's fingers went to her stinging cheek where she gingerly touched the stitches. House dropped his Vicodin bottle in her lap before heading back to the group to return the items.
Cuddy turned the bottle over in her hand, but didn't open it. If House was right, if they were in a place where rescue wasn't going to look for them, she figured the more Vicodin he had, the better. As House approached her for the third time, she gave his Vicodin back to him.
"Take any?" He didn't feel like sitting yet.
She shook her head in response. He gave her a gentle jab with his self made cane.
"You'll be all right," he told her. "It'll be all right."
"I hope so," she whispered in reply.
"Hey, Lisa."
Cuddy turned and looked behind her to see Dave and Mark approaching. House rolled his eyes and sat down on the ground. Dave stopped next to Cuddy, while Mark remained behind him, keeping his distance and glaring at House.
"What's up?" Cuddy asked them.
"Just wanted to let you know that Mark and I will be taking shifts to stay up and watch for rescue," Dave said. "So, make sure you get some sleep. By tomorrow, this will all be over."
"What can I do to help?" Cuddy turned herself to face them better. "I'm willing to take a shift."
"You can have the first one," Mark spoke up. "That way, you can sleep after and you don't have to worry about being woken back up for a watch."
"Sure." Cuddy nodded.
Dave extended a watch to her. "It's almost eleven. At one thirty, wake me up."
Cuddy took the watch from him. "Okay."
"If you hear or see anything, wake us up," Mark further instructed.
"I think that's pretty obvious," House muttered.
Mark glared at House again, who only looked away.
"Do you want a fire over here?" Dave asked Cuddy. "It's getting pretty cold."
"I'm going to make one," House said quickly.
"Okay." Dave gave a nod and then looked back to Cuddy. "One thirty."
Dave and Mark departed from them and Cuddy watched as they began to get themselves settled. She looked over the rest of the group, who were already asleep or almost there. Cuddy brought her eyes back over to House.
"You're going to build a fire?" She cocked an eyebrow at him.
"Yes." He sighed as he had to force himself to his feet again.
"Want me to help?" Cuddy offered.
"No," he answered hastily.
"Are you staying up with me?" she asked out of curiosity, but she knew that she wouldn't mind his company.
"What else am I going to do?" he shot back bitterly and began to find tinder for the fire.