Chapter 18- The Cat's out of the bag

While riding in the ambulance Katrina had started to feel thirsty.

"Is there any water in here?" she asked.

House just sat silently, never letting go of her hand, now matter hard she gripped. He could tell she was in a lot of pain and the suspicion of internal bleeding was growing every minute. He wondered whether to page Wilson or call him on the cell. The selfish part of him still wanted Katrina to himself, even in a situation such as this.

"He'll be at work" he told himself, knowing full well that Wilson had not shown up this morning.

"How long till we get to the hospital?" she asked warily.

"Not long" he replied looking at her, his eyes filled with concern.

"Don't worry" she smiled trying to grip less on his hand but failing, as she was in so much pain. Her smile lasted only a second as it contorted in pain. He hated to see her like this, feeling pain that was worse than his.

"I'm not worried" she said trying to keep herself and House's spirits up, but he could still see the pain in her eyes, no matter how much she tried to be brave and look brave, he could see what she was really feeling.

"Everybody lies." He chuckled for her benefit.

"Pessimist"

As the ambulance pulled into the hospital entrance the door were opened and sunlight streamed through, Katrina had to shield her eyes from the brightness. Pain exploded behind her eyes and she placed her small hands over them to shield them from the brilliant rays.

To House's surprise Chase was standing at the entrance with his arms folded.

As Katrina was carted out of the back of the vehicle House had let go of her hand. She looked around wildly but the sun still felt like it was burning her eyes.

"Greg!" she shouted out in panic and faced forward to find a blonde doctor looking at her and receiving information from the paramedic as to why she was here. Then she found herself being carted into the ICU. There she found herself alone under blinding lights. All she could do at that moment was place her head under the pillow to block out the light and wait for the morphine to do its work.

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Now the patient was in the ICU Chase walked up to House.

"Why the hell were you in there?" he asked

"I found our case" he lied.

"This is suspected internal bleeding House; you wouldn't consider this a case."

"Well I have done today" he said and began walking away from Chase.

"Why have you…"

"When did I have to answer to you?" House interrupted. "Make yourself useful for once and go ultrasound her abdomen."

"Do you know her?" Chase questioned.

"Do you want to be out of a job?" House asked softly making the sentence sound deadly "Thought not". And with that Chase disappeared from House's sight.

He then walked over to the front desk and asked a nurse of the name Claire if Dr. Wilson had checked in today.

"No I'm sorry Dr. House, Dr. Wilson has not been in today" Claire apologised even though none of it was her fault. House gave a nod of thanks and Claire returned to her work.

House then grabbed the receiver of the phone on the front desk and rung Wilson's cell.

"Wilson."

"House, I don't want to talk right now."

"Are you with anyone?"

"Maybe. Why do you care? You got the woman you love."

"Wilson she's in here."

"In…the hospital?"

"Yeah, some bastard punched her and then tried to drive off. Luckily for him he drove into a tree."

Wilson was speechless; he walked towards his bedroom and leaned against doorframe to look at the sleeping figure of Julie. In his misery he had begged Julie to take him back, he had promised to treat her better and come home as soon as his shift finished. In return she had to be faithful to him. Julie had always been faithful to James; she only became unfaithful because he had started avoiding her. She expected he was having an affair with one of his patients and it wouldn't have been the first time. So this time, she gave him a taste of his own medicine. She had had an affair instead. It had worked, and now here he was crawling back to her, promising her everything she'd ever wanted for him to do in their marriage. He was putty in her hands again.

"Ok, I'm coming down. But I'm not working today. I'm…ill"

"Course you are." House said sarcastically. "Say "hi" to Julie for me" and he put the phone receiver down.

"How does he know these things?" Wilson wondered to himself. He took a t-shirt and a pair of trousers and put them on. He lightly kissed Julie on the cheek and observed her sleeping figure for a second. If he did the right thing it could be like this every morning he thought, minus the fact his friend was in the hospital he worked in.

"Jules" he whispered softly into her ear.

"Yeah" she turned to him eyes remained closed.

"You know my friend Katrina. The one I told you about last night."

"Yeah"

"She's gone into hospital with internal bleeding. I need to go and see her."

"Are you lying to me?"

"No." he kissed her softly and said his goodbyes. Right now Katrina needed him.

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"What does the ultrasound show?" House asked. He and the ducklings were now in the conference room, but nothing was written on the whiteboard for this case.

"Internal bleeding, just as everyone expected." Chase replied.

"So did you book her in for surgery?"

"Yes."

"Good."

"Why did we even take this case?" Foreman asked frustrated with House for not bringing them some proper work to do.

"Because I said so."

"That is an unethical reason."

"When did I care about ethics?"

"Cameron what do you have to say about this?" Foreman asked.

"This is House's case. He picked it and we should just help the patient get better."

"Why do you never say anything against him?" Foreman shouted.

"He's in change! We're going to end up taking a case that's his anyway. I don't see the point of arguing against it!" Cameron retaliated.

"Your agreeing with him because you still have feelings for him" Chase interjected.

Everyone in the room became silent. House reached in his pocket for his Vicodin and swallowed it in one.

"Wow. If that wasn't a conversation closer I don't know what is." House said breaking the silence. "While you settle this argument amongst yourselves, I'm gonna go find Wilson."

"He hasn't come in yet" Cameron informed him, but not meeting his eyes.

"Duh! I just called him. And he's coming in."

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Wilson walked into the hospital and straight into the ICU. He spotted her immediately. He took a deep breath and seated himself by her bed.

"Kat."

"James, why are you here?"

"I came to see you." He said and took her hand in his.

"You should be hating my guts right now." She smiled.

"I could never hate you."

"I'm sorry."

"It doesn't matter now. When are you going to surgery?"

"As soon as possible. But Greg hasn't come down and seen me, so I'm holding off."

"Katrina."

"You think I should go now. Don't you?"

"Yes I do. I'll explain to him."

Wilson called the nurse who wheeled Katrina up towards the operating theatre.

She gave a small wave before she turned a corner and was gone.

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Cameron had gotten out of the conference room and had entered the observation room for the surgery that the patient was in.

The patient's name was Katrina Flintoff. She was from England and was in her early thirties. Cameron just could not figure out why House had accepted the patient. But he was having a strange day anyway. What did this woman do to get House to take her case?

Family member? She wondered. She knew House had no other siblings so it was possible that she was a cousin from overseas and he didn't want to tell anyone.

Her thoughts where broken by none other than Dr. Wilson.

"What are you doing here?" Cameron asked.

"I could ask you the same question." He replied with a tired smile. "You first."

"I was trying to figure out why House took this case. I mean it's only internal bleeding and he insisted on taking it. If anyone else suggested a case like this we'd get shouted at."

Wilson nodded, should he really tell her why House had taken this case? He decided to let Cameron continue telling him of her thoughts. For some reason Dr. Cameron actually cared about House as a person. It didn't matter how he treated her, she still stood by him. If Katrina hadn't come back into their lives, Wilson was certain House would've eventually got together with Cameron. She was as broken as him. She took all his bad and still saw the good. But Cameron wasn't as tough as Katrina. And that was why House was in love with Katrina.

"Also he was acting weirdly this morning. He went to Clinic duty without being asked and…" she paused wondering if she could confide in Dr. Wilson. She decided she could trust him. If he was a good enough friend for House, he was good enough for her. "Well House kissed me."

Wilson's eyes bulged out of his sockets.

"He did what?" he asked in disbelief.

"I know, but does this mean he's finally accepted he has feelings for me?"

"I'm not sure. I'll speak to you later Allison."

Wilson hurried down a series of stairs and arrived at House's office only to find it empty, quickly he walked over to the phone and paged House saying

I'm in your office we need to talk now.

House appeared in the office with a confused look on his face.

"What do we need to talk about? Surely we should be waiting for Katrina."

"I know what happened with you and Cameron in the Clinic."

"What happened?"

"You kissed her House!"

"Oh! That!"

"Why in the hell did you do it?"

"To get back at her." He replied honestly, regretting his actions.

Wilson lost control of himself and punched House on the lip.

"You bastard! She doesn't deserve you."

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As soon as Wilson's fist had connected with House's lip. Katrina's heart had given out and she was flat-lining.

AN: Same as before…review please!