Chapter 25. Here Comes The Sun
When House woke the next morning, he was alone in the double bed. He groggily padded to the bathroom to take care of business. All of Cameron's clothes were gone. He felt a fleeting sense of sadness as he showered to wake himself up, then quickly dressed.
Opening the door to the outside, he was blinded by the bright sunshine. Shading his eyes with his left hand, he saw a group of men and women, including Zach, collecting the debris that cluttered the gas station and the parking lot of the motel and diner. They seemed to have the job well in hand.
He stopped at Room 12 to get his bag and box of chemicals. Pete was gone, and so were all the medical supplies. He stowed his things in the trunk of his car, and glanced again at the industrious people filling large plastic garbage bags with soggy paper and other litter. But rather than join them, his hunger directed him to the diner for breakfast.
House was greeted by a smiling Chrissy. "Morning, Doc," she said. "Dr. Cameron sent all of the patients home about an hour ago."
He nodded and slid into the booth he'd eaten at his first night there. She immediately righted his coffee cup and filled it, handing him a menu. "The electric's still out, but the generator's still going strong."
The diner was pretty full. He saw Ralph and Kelly sitting at the counter next to the couple he'd seen the first morning. Linda was taking their orders. They were all smiling.
House placed his order, the blue plate special of three eggs, three pancakes, bacon and sausage. It couldn't have been more than five minutes before Chrissy delivered it. He was just taking his first bite when Pete took the seat opposite him. "Looks like your fuelin' up before you hit the road," the older man said.
House just continued to eat as the teenager filled Pete's coffee cup and asked, "You want your usual, Pete?"
"Yup. And see if you can add a extra piece of bacon," Pete replied.
When she'd gone, House asked, "Where've you been? I expected you to be here already, or out there helping Zach."
"Nah! Had to go check out my place."
"So?" House asked.
"Well, the house is OK, 'cept for a broken shutter or two and some roof tiles that blew off. But my boat, well, that's another story. Guess I'll have to haul it up to Luther's again," Pete said. "This time he'll really have a job with her." He chuckled at the thought.
"That bad?" House felt a hint of concern. He was surprised that Pete was taking it so calmly.
"Big ole hole in the bottom." Pete shrugged. "Happens in storms like that. And some of the fittings loosened up some."
Ralph and Kelly stopped on their way out. "Dr. Cameron said you'll be taking off today," Ralph said. "We just wanted to say 'Thanks' and 'Have a good trip'."
"We're headin' over to the clinic to see if we can give Doc Cameron a hand," Kelly said. "And to bring her some food and coffee." She held up a Styrofoam container and cup. "You come back sometime soon, Doc," she said, gaily as she left with her husband.
The other couple were close behind them. They stopped, too, and the woman asked Pete, "How'd you make out during the storm? I heard you was sick."
"Yup," Pete said. "Doc House, here, helped Doc Cameron get us all better. Now I jes' have to get my boat fixed up."
The man nodded. "We were at the high school gym through the storm and went down to the house this mornin'." He shook his head and frowned. "Lost a couple of windows, but the worst is the boat. Smashed hull. We brought it to Luther, but he says it'll be days 'til he gets to it. Half the boats in town seem to be in his yard now for repairs."
That wasn't good news for Pete. "Guess I'll have to wait my turn."
"Yup. Well, see you 'round, Pete," the man said and nodded to House.
As they walked away, Chrissy arrived with Pete's food. "Thank you, Chrissy!" Pete said and dug right into a plate even fuller than House's had been.
The girl smiled at him, then left to tend to other customers just as Harry and Vivian entered the diner. They stopped at the booth where House sat with Pete. "Morning," Vivian said brightly.
"We've been helping Zach," Harry said. "Boy, that's hungry work!"
Vivian nodded. "We wanted to thank you, Doctor. For everything."
"Yeah. Not just curing us, but bringing us together, too," Harry said with a smile and squeezing Vivian's shoulder.
House didn't know what to say other than, "Your welcome," and the couple walked away, taking an empty booth further into the diner.
Between bites of egg and pancake, Pete said, "You seem unaccustomed to folks thankin' you." He watched House's face as the doctor tried to think of what to say.
"Doesn't happen that often," House finally said.
"But yer a doctor, must save lots of lives and get thanked a lot!" Pete seemed surprised.
House just shook his head. He watched Pete eat, savoring every bite of sausage and toast.
"Guess you're headin' out after breakfast," Pete said after a while.
"That's the plan." House took the last bite of his food.
"Well, it's been fun meetin' you. Hope you'll come back someday."
House could see the older man was sincere. It wasn't just politeness that led him to say that. "I don't know," was all House could say. As he finished his third cup of coffee, Pete finished his food and rose.
"Well, I gotta load my boat on the flatbed trailer and haul it up to Luther's." He held out a weathered hand. "See you around," he said.
House took his hand and shook it, with a nod. There was so much he still didn't know about Pete. Unless he came back some day, he'd probably never find out.
He called Chrissy over to pay his bill, but she waved his charge card away. "It's on the house," she said, and then giggled at the pun.
"Your family's been feeding me for free for the past couple of days," he protested.
She shrugged. "Better than let the food go to waste. Besides, you and Dr. Cameron have been working so hard to take care of everyone, well, it's what we do 'round here."
In the end, he pulled out a twenty dollar bill and left it on the table as a tip. Chrissy had done more than her share during the storm.
He walked back out, slipping on his sunglasses. The busy beavers were still working on the clean-up. Cars were turning into the parking lot for the clinic, coming from both the south and the north. House got into his car and watched. As he did, they started filling the diner parking spots, too.
But the people weren't going to the diner. They were streaming across wooden planks that had been put over the ditches created by the rain in the alley, and joining the long line of folks snaking out the clinic into the parking lot. There had to be over a hundred and fifty people in line. He could only imagine how many were inside the small space of the outer office and infirmary area.
If he didn't move fast, he'd be blocked in by the flow of cars. And he'd have a hard time getting across the traffic to head south. Somehow that didn't upset him. Do I want to be forced to stay? he wondered.