Chapter 3
Behind Blue Eyes

Aiden's eyes slowly opened to a blinding white room. His body felt strangely drained. He simply laid there with his eyes open, too tired to do anything else. He could feel the weight of his street clothes on his frame, the familiar burden of his broken watch, and the rhythmic beating of his heart. After he assessed his immediate areas of concern, he turned his focus to his surroundings.

The surface below him was soft: a bed. The walls radiated a dull shine: a plastic composite. The ceiling was made from the same material, light tubing tracing the cracks between the panels. This light blinded him. He narrowed his eyes. It made him angry. He summoned his strength and rose.

Immediately the wave of pain collided into him, hitting him so hard he curled and cried out. He expected it to be as intense as the Darkness, but it wasn't. Something—someone did this to him.

He stumbled from the bed as the pain dulled to a consistent throb. It hit him again and he fell to his knees with a yell. He attempted to rise once more, but it rushed in and knocked him down. Suddenly, the pressing of eyes became apparent. He glanced around but no one was in the room save him. A wave caught him and he was on the ground again only this time it was much worse. His yell escalated to a scream and a dull drumming entered his conscience.

A prick of an entirely new pain vaguely registered in his mind and a deadening calm spread over him like water over a fire. Aiden's final scream ended with an echo and the rest of the world returned to him blurred as if underwater. He was lifted from the floor and placed on the bed by a group of blurry figures. They were speaking, but the sound was muffled. Ever so slowly the words became clearer and more distinct even as he still could not see the faces.

Dr. Foreman dominated the scene; his voice easily recognizable even through the slurry murk. "There's no way it's…he doesn't…disorders don't cause…needs help," he said. He turned and exited the room, the others following behind.

As they approached the door, it slammed shut. They all stared at it, but Foreman was the only one brave enough to attempt shoving it open. When it refused to open, they all turned to find Aiden on his feet, slouched over, clasping the bed frame with one hand. He still couldn't see very clearly, but his hearing was profound. "What have you done to me?" he asked. The feeling of other eyes caught him again and he glanced around uneasily, slowly circling the outside of the room with a hand on the wall.

"Don't answer him," a voice commanded over the speakers.

The lights flickered as Aiden continued to frantically scan the room. Foreman glanced about uneasily, then spoke to the ceiling, "So what are we supposed to do? He locked us in!"

Aiden backed against a wall, his heart pounding ferociously. He braced his free hand against his chest and cried, "What have you done to me?!" The lights flickered dangerously once more and the bed shook. Even the speakers went berserk, spitting out endless waves of static. "What have you done to me?!" he shouted as the startled group of doctors and nurses stood wide-eyed.

"Don't answer him," the voice cut through the static.

"House, we don't have a choice! He's not going to let us go until we tell him," Foreman replied.

"He's upset. He'll deal with it."

"Any other person maybe, but not him, House," Foreman answered.

"Oh, I forget. You're afraid of him because he has telekinesis. Well stop being an idiot and grow up."

"That's right; I'm an idiot because I'm a little edgy about being in a room with a kid who can control nearly anything with his mind."

A silence followed Foreman's words, then the room exploded with sound as Aiden fell to his knees with a scream, his hand clutching his chest. The lights continued to flicker and an earth-shaking rumble erupted forth. The team rushed forward. As they worked to calm him, House commented, "Now would be the opportune time to shoot him up with some Haldol and escape."

"Except that we can't because the previous treatment we gave to him can have-"

"Severe reactions with the presence of Haldol, yeah, but fortunately for both of us I switched the syringes."

Foreman stared for a moment at the speaker. "You what?!"

"Your idea was dumb, so I did the rational thing and embraced my own. Lucky for you I did; with his latest symptoms he could have had a severe negative reaction."

Foreman shook his head roughly with anger and proceeded to administer the Haldol. When he was finished, he faced the far wall and spat, "Chest pain doesn't necessarily mean his reaction would have been severe. It sure as hell doesn't mean I'm wrong." With that, he stormed out of the room.

Aiden's tension immediately dissipated. His pain dulled, though he doubted it was from the recent injection. The levels of anger in the room had been phenomenal; there was no denying that…

The sensation of watching eyes, which a moment ago had felt so oppressive, didn't feel so foreign anymore. The nurses gently aided him to rise and gave him support to get him back to his bed, but just before they moved away from the wall, Aiden lifted his head and penetrated the composite panel directly across from them with his hard gaze. On the other side of the panel stood Dr. House, who, upon feeling the weight of the young man's gaze, found himself contemplating for the second time that day the fact that maybe he wasn't a complete nutcase after all.