Stray

House laid on the gurney behind walls made of curtains clutching the bedrails while a nurse removed the clothing from the lower half of his body.

"You're ice cold. I'll get more blankets."

She disappeared briefly giving Greg the opportunity to see the damage himself.

"Jesus, no wonder." His whole leg was swollen. It wasn't just his thigh screaming.

The nurse came back with two extra blankets and Cindy in tow.

"Wow, you weren't kidding," She walked past the nurse and ran her finger along the scar tissue.

"Hey, get the hell out of here!" House was outraged and mortified.

"Well, that's gratitude for ya," Cindy turned on her heels and stormed out.

"And YOU! Ever hear of patient confidentiality?"

"I just assu-"

"I don't even know her!"

"I thought you were one of her strays," the nurse apologized as she gently laid the blankets across him.

"A stray," House snorted.

"Yep, Cindy's got a good heart. She just can't leave people laying in the gutter."

"I wasn't in the gutter."

"Pardon me," the nurse feigned embarrassment. "The street, then."

"I'm not homeless, drunk or crazy…or anyone's charity case for that matter."

The nurse moved on to checking his vitals again. "Calm down. You're blood pressure and heart rate are spiking."

"Have you seen the state of my leg? It might have something to do with it," he said snidely.

"Aside from acerbic wit and indignation, is there anything else you'd like to add to your history? No? Then the doctor will be in shortly."

Greg waited in the curtained cubby hole with one wish: to be out of pain. He didn't care if it was hydrocodone, oxycontin or a ball ping hammer to the head. After a year of being Vicodin free, it was all he wanted now.

The front curtain flew open surprising him. "Mr. House, I'm Dr. Radcliffe. How ya doin' tonight?"

House pursed his lips to keep from saying something mean.

The attending took it as a sign that the patient was in a considerable amount of pain and possibly irate. He had heard that Cindy had gotten thrown out of the room already. Now he had to try getting permission to have her come back in.

"I work with an elite team of orthopedic specialists. One of them is with me tonight. Would it be okay if she came in?"

"It's you're hospital." 'That'd be the day I ask if one of my team could sit in,' Greg thought.

The doctor poked his head out the curtain, "Come on in."

Cindy entered tentatively. "Hey," she said sheepishly while waving her hand at Greg.

He felt the slightest smile stretch his lips. "You could have told me you were a nurse."

"I told you I was trained," she shrugged. "And I'm not a nurse. I'm an Ortho Tech."

"Well, after I was called a stray, I thought you might have been a veterinarian."

"Nope. Cindy has a bit of a 'knight in shining armor' complex. Let's see what we got." Radcliff peeled the blankets away to expose House's banged up leg. "That's one hell of a nasty scar. Looks old."

"A little over a decade," Greg flinched as the doctor's hands approached his thigh.

"I haven't even touched you yet."

"I don't like it to be touched."

"Sir, if I'm going to check you out, I have to touch your leg."

"Fine," Greg sighed heavily as he white knuckled the side rails. He focused his attention on the ceiling. The doctor's touch was surprisingly gentle.

"Spasms in all three muscle heads," he mumbled to Cindy who was taking notes in House's chart. "Do you have any pain in your groin?"

Before Greg could answer, the doctor was palpating dangerously close to his family jewels. "Nope." His voice was a little higher than usual.

The doctor moved to his hip. "Mild tenderness around the ilapsoas. Tendons feel stringy and inflamed. We'll take x-rays of the hip and pelvic girdle just to be safe." He spoke to Cindy and the patient at the same time.

"I'm going to move down to your knee."

Greg ventured a response. "Good, 'cause I thought you were going to grab my ass next."

That garnered a smile from both of them as Radcliff pulled back the blanket so he could compare both knees. "Does your knee usually swell like this when you're thigh is in spasm?"

House looked at his knees. "Nope."

Again the gentle touch revealed tenderness and inflammation. Greg was weirded out when the doctor moved his knee cap in the most unnatural way.

"Any pain?"

"Just sore."

"Feels a little arthritic. We'll take a look at that too, while we're at it."

"I know where you're going next, and if you touch it, I swear, you'll be peeling me off the ceiling. So you better give me something to take off the edge."

"Don't need to palpate that to tell you it's broken. Gonna move right to the ankle and see if it's broken there too."

Greg hissed and grimaced as the doctor manipulated his lower leg. He knew it had to be done; he just didn't understand why they wouldn't give him anything for the pain yet.

"Sorry about that, but I can't give you anything for pain just yet. I've got a call in to Dr. Nolan to discuss my options."

"He's going to tell you no opioids. I'm stuck with NSAIDS." House didn't even wonder how they knew to call his shrink.

"There are some other alternatives we can discuss once I run them by him. I just want to make sure we weigh the pros and cons of potential side effects."

"I understand. I don't like it, but I get it." Greg leaned back and tried to relax his upper body. When he wasn't guarding, the pain was intolerable.

"How's your head?" Cindy reviewed his chart for preliminary notes on his arrival.

"Fine."

"You cracked your skull, too? Not having a very good night, are you?"

"When I fall down, I like to make a good show of it."

"He had a knot just below his bald spot," Cindy teased.

"I do not have a bald spot!"

"If you say so."

Dr. Radcliffe had moved his probing hands to House's head.

"Are you going to tell me you have a sub-specialty in phrenology?"

"No depressions, but we should throw it on the list, just to be on the safe side."

Cindy nodded and did some more writing.

"Anywhere else?"

"Isn't that enough," House asked with exasperation.

"Sit tight. As soon as I hear back from Dr. Nolan, we'll get you as comfortable as possible before we start moving you around."

"I ain't going anywhere," Greg sighed heavily. He resigned himself to the fact that no matter how much he needed the nice hazy, fluffy fuzziness of a drug induced numbness, he wasn't going to get it. He was in for a long night of pain and uncertainty. No sense in taking it out on the staff. That would require energy he didn't have.