Sorry it's been so long since I've posted…with Thanksgiving and all I've enjoyed the time to relax. Hope everyone had a good Holiday, too! Any reviews are always welcomed, appreciated, and cried over. lol
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Elsewhere in Jersey that early evening, Wilson sat on the couch in his living room and stared out the window at the lights reflecting off the windows of the parked cars and busy restaurants across the street. Conditions of the divorce with Julie were finally settled, and the papers had been signed the week before. House wanted to take him out to celebrate, but Wilson didn't look at the divorce as a celebration, but more of as a defeat.
He was lonely. He was tired. He was tired of being lonely. He just wanted the perfect life, a better life: happily married, couple of kids, maybe a dog but definitely some fish … he jumped as his cell phone vibrated on the table – the volume was off but he kept the vibrating option on. He didn't bother looking at it but continued to stare out the window and lose himself in his own thoughts.
A few minutes later the phone vibrated again. He glanced at it only to reach it to throw it across the room when he saw Cuddy's number as the caller and decided to answer, reluctantly of course.
"Hey," Wilson said softly and barely audible.
"Hi, James. It's Lisa," she answered back. Ever since they'd gone to that nerve racking dinner and she went the roundabout way of asking him to father her child they'd been on first name basis, although they both said them a bit nervously. "I won't be coming over tonight. House is showing signs of intracranial bleeding and he needs to be on oxygen, fluids, medication and monitored for the weekend. I'm sure he's going to be none too pleased with that, but …"
"Fine," he interrupted.
Cuddy frowned at his shortness, which he'd never been with her. "Are you okay?" He didn't answer. "Well, the others are taking turns and … damn, I screwed up. I'm covering from now 'til midnight, Foreman 12-4am and both Chase and Cameron from 4-8am. I'll have to call one of them…"
"Fine, but I don't see why you have to bother me with all this crap! I really don't care," he snapped, but coming from Wilson, it wasn't meant to be rude, just a bit frustrated.
"James, are you sure you are ok? I can call Chase to cover my shift …"
"I said I'm fine!" he snapped.
"Okay, fine. I'm going to hang up now," she said, and she did, gladly. 'I don't need this…not now, not from him…'
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Cuddy sighed as she placed the phone on her knee. 'Now it's House's turn; may as well get yelled at by everyone tonight.' First she called Chase to take the 9-12 shift which he was fine with, much to Cuddy's delight. But the worst was far from over because she still had to inform the Worst Patient of the Year Award Winner that he wouldn't be going home for a couple of days.
She walked into House's room and was relieved to find him asleep, lying on his left side and hugging the pillow with his right arm. The I.V. needle was taped to the inside of his left arm and he still had the oxygen tube in his nostrils but it was beginning to slip down to his chin. Seeing House like this was a rare treat: he was as vulnerable as a baby and as innocent as a rose – well, not the rose but more of the thorns. The thorns were fine as long as you didn't interfere with them or touch them to prick your finger.
"House?" she said softly as she reached out to touch is elbow. He didn't respond at first but when she said his name again he opened his eyes and looked at her. "How are you feeling? Can you tell me your name? What year is it?"
House frowned as if confused as to why she was asking him the stupid questions, but realization kicked in and he remembered where he was and what had happened. Groggily he said, "Hey."
She smiled at him and told him that his crew would be in to stay with him and she herself would be in at dawn the next morning. Surprisingly, he didn't argue, or complain, or bargain with her. The only thing he wanted to know was how Kathi was.
"I checked on her before I came here because I knew you'd ask. She's awoken a few times and is coherent, but the prognosis on the damage to her vertebrae is not good. She has no feeling below her waist."
"Is … is it permanent?"
"With the extent of the damage, there's a good chance it is. But the most important thing crucial for her survival is acquiring a liver, which we might have for her by the morning. There's a patient over at Jersey General that has just been put on life support; she won't last the night."
"Have they found the culprits yet?" Cuddy forlornly shook her head. "Unbelievable! You have someone like Tritter that goes after a loser … alledged loser … like me for his own self gratification and those bastards are still running free! Figures."
"Don't get yourself all riled up, House. You need to rest," Cuddy said as she looked at her watch. "Chase should be here any minute."
"Not Chase! Couldn't you send Koko the Signing Ape instead?"
Cuddy knew it was too good to be true that he hadn't complained until now but she found herself smiling. "Just pretend he is Koko. You know the drill – he'll be waking you every few hours…"
"Yeah, yeah, I know," House said sleepily as he closed his eyes.
"Quick question: Do you know what is bothering Wilson?" she asked before he drifted back off to sleep.
"Mmmppphhh-uhhhmmmppp …" he replied, and she took that as a 'no.'
"Okay. We need to get you on a diuretic and Prednisone for the swelling, Succinimide to prevent any seizures and refill your fluids."
Cuddy left House's room determined to find out what was eating Wilson, and the only solution she had was to go to see him face to face. She walked down the hall and turned the corner that led to the elevators mentally going over what she'd say to him.
What she hadn't seen was the man crouched in the corner by the emergency staircase and watching her walk away. 'Nice view', the man thought. He tightly grasped the knife in his hand under his jacket, stood, and headed down the hall to the nurse's station.
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Wilson just finished eating the left over chicken fricaise and rice that he made the night before but never ate it. He wasn't hungry then and he wasn't hungry now. For some reason he felt obligated to go see House but he didn't want to, didn't feel the need to. What he had going through his head was more than he wanted to think about and it scared him. He was never the type for escapism, but he felt the sudden urge and need to now.
Was he crazy for contemplating having a kid with Cuddy? How would he react knowing his coworker was raising his child and he couldn't be the father he'd always wanted to be? He wanted to let Cuddy down gently, but at least he'd made that decision: he wouldn't have a child that he couldn't be a part of raising and to be able to raise as he wanted.
He didn't know what to do. He felt trapped. But he'd been through worse traumas than this, and he'd get through it again.
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Outside in the parking lot, Cuddy parked her car and turned off the lights but didn't immediately leave her car. She had to sit a while to think what she wanted to say to Wilson, and the longer she sat, the less 'words of wisdom' came to her. She took one deep breath, opened the door and walked to Wilson's apartment building.
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Dr. Robert Chase walked into the lobby of PPTH in a foul mood, even though he had eaten, showered and taken a half-hour nap. He was okay with having to get up at 3am to be at the hospital at 4, but when Cuddy called him to come in at 9pm he could only grumble to himself. Chase never faced things up front and avoided them at all costs; he usually put them off as long as he could, but this was one that he couldn't.
He was gratefully relieved when he walked into House's room and found him asleep. He walked to the chair in the corner of the room, set his duffle bag on the floor, pulled out a book and sat down to read for the next four hours. The name of the book was "How to Win Friends and Influence People." If there was any person that was in Chase's life right then that he had to win and influence, it was Dr. Gregory House.
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At the nurse's station nurse Sophie was sitting behind the desk filing through some papers and reading some of them. She looked up toward the sound of a chair leg squeaking on cold, pristine, crystal white hospital tile floor and saw a man now was sitting in House's room, whom she knew to be Dr Robert Chase.
'He'll be easy to maniplulate,' she thought. 'He'll need to make a move soon …' Sophie looked up at a shadow in a darkened corner down the hall and nodded her head. Although the shadow was not easily recognized, she knew who it was.
And she knew what he wanted.
And she'd allowed him the opportunity to finally get what he wanted: revenge on Dr. Gregory House.