Chapter 19- Waiting (and don't we all hate it?)

AN: When I mean observation room I mean the one where they watch the surgery. Just thought I'd say it just in case…

As the heart monitors screeched with the sound of a flat-lining heart Cameron stood motionless wondering what she should do. She felt so helpless from the observation room overlooking the surgery, all she could think about was whether to page House and get him to come down immediately. Granted, he never came to see other patient's surgeries, but Cameron felt House had a more emotional tie to this case than he let on. So she paged him and waited to see what he would do. Now all Cameron could do was observe the surgery and hope to God that her heart would start pumping again.

"Charging two-hundred" called out the surgeon to his team as he charged up the defibrillator and shocked Katrina's heart for a second time. As the pads sent through the electric pulse, the heart gave out one beat and remained still again.

"Charging three-sixty" and again the pads sent the electrical pulse through but this time the heart started beating.

The surgeon looked to the observation room to see a relieved House leaning against the glass. He gave the surgeon a nod of thanks, and sat on a seat watching the surgery like a hawk. Cameron noticed a slight swelling on House's bottom lip and to help break the silence she questioned him about it.

"What happened?" she asked him in a motherly tone, while she walked towards him to observe the damage.

"Someone hit me."

"A patient in the Clinic?" she went to touch his face with her cool hands but he responded with,

"Move! Your in the way" then he made a swatting gesture as if she where a fly.

Wilson then entered the room breaking the tension between Cameron and House. She awkwardly moved away from House looking guilty and feeling rejected. House however remained as he was, still watching, still waiting.

"How's she doing?" Wilson asked Cameron.

She found it strange that he didn't ask House this question. So she studied Wilson's face carefully trying to figure out what was going on between the two. Obviously they both knew this woman otherwise there was really no point for the oncologist to be there.

"Her heart stopped for a while a minute ago but they restarted it."

Wilson then gave a huge sigh of relief and then looked down at into the operating theatre. He felt sickened by the amount of blood they had to remove from Katrina's body.

Blood had never made Wilson feel screamish. Until now.

He ended up sitting on the opposite side of the room, avoiding House's presence. But both pairs of eyes glued to the pane of glass which separated the pair from their friend, their love.

Separated by an argument but united in the love for their friend.

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Three hours had passed and the surgeon and his team were finally finished, it was now late evening and House's stomach was making noises, he hadn't had anything to eat all day. He'd been living off the Vicodin.

"I can go get you some chips" Cameron offered.

"You should go home." House said tiredly. He was feeling slightly grouchy and was prepared to bite Cameron's head off if she disobeyed him, but Cameron got the message from the weary look in his sad blue eyes, in silent agreement she turned and walked away.

As Cameron left, both men walked into the ICU to watch over the sleeping woman. House remembered how only a few hours ago this woman was in immense pain, but now as she lay asleep she looked emotionless. It was strange to see her pale and lifeless so…vulnerable. He decided to sit by the bed and wait for her to wake up. He didn't care if it took hours or days; he wanted to be there for her when she woke up. He wanted to be the first person she saw; unlike before she was put under. Wilson was the last familiar face she saw, not his.

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Wilson stood on the opposite side of the bed to House, his anger towards his friend still fuming inside of him. Had he been kissing Cameron again while Katrina had been stupidly waiting for him to come and see her before the op? He just didn't know what House was capable of anymore. He thought he'd seen the worst, but this…unfaithfulness to Katrina was the icing on the cake. And the reason for his actions? To get back at her! What kind of an excuse was that?

That was so House. So childish. Yet so harmful at the same time.

The two men sat in silence for half an hour, but it was broken by the sound of Wilson's pager.

It read: J, are you going to be coming home soon? Bed's getting cold without you. Miss you so much and love you always. Jules x

Keeping to his promise of not neglecting his wife, Wilson walked out the room to call Julie and tell her that he would be spending the remaining of his evening at his friend's beside. He hoped Julie would understand.

House was becoming numb from sitting in the chair; he shifted his weight and remembered that his Ipod was in his pocket. He put the earphones into his ears and switched it on. It was better than sitting in this silence, and he could still keep an eye on her for any changes. He also pulled out the bottle of Vicodin pills and swallowed one for good measure.

The music was floating its way through his ear canals. It was so soothing and was great for winding down on a stressful day like this. He was listening to Norah Jones' husky voice singing 'Sunrise'. He closed his eyes and ended up falling asleep with the image of Katrina still lingering in his mind.

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He awoke to the soothing actions of someone stroking his thinning hair. He immediately lifted his head up just to make sure it wasn't Wilson, but it was Katrina.

She too had been in-between the world of awake and asleep and found it therapeutic just stroking his hair. James was to the other side of her and she had taken his hand in hers while he was also asleep. It felt nice to be loved.

"Hello sleepyhead" she whispered to House as Wilson slept on.

"You're awake." He smiled

"Barely. I turned your Ipod off to save the batteries."

"How are you feeling?"

"Drugged up. A bit sore. Tired."

"Go back to sleep then."

"No. Once I'm up I'm up. You shouldn't have stayed here all night, haven't you got a case or something?"

"You are the case."

"But there's nothing weird wrong with me."

"And I hope to God there never will be."

"I thought you were God." She smiled, she then felt Wilson's grip tighten around her hand.

"I know. But God must have a God right?"

"Don't talk in riddles, I'm too morphined up to understand them."

Wilson had awoken and realised a hand was in his own, he gripped it to make sure it wasn't a dream and awoke to hear House and Katrina talking.

"Good morning James" she croaked

"He isn't God" Wilson said nodding his head towards House.

"He's mine" she said.

Wilson decided at that point he had to make a choice. Should he tell Katrina what House had done and make them both unhappy. Or would he keep quiet and let them live on a lie?

From experience Wilson knew that he at the end of his two marriages he had never liked living on a lie. It had never made him happy and it most certainly never made his previous wives happy.

But could House be able to live on a lie himself?

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