The experiment chapter three Vices.
"There are wounds that never show on the body that are deeper and more hurtful than anything that bleeds."
Laurell K. Hamilton, Mistral's Kiss.
"I didn't want to feel the pain anymore."
Those words couldn't escape him, as he knew that kind of pain well.
Sitting on the floor of a tiny but well lit bathroom, on a flight to Japan, House hands Saya a small green pill.
"You're not gonna do that again are you?
The diagnostician asked.
"I mean we're running out of first aid supplies here, and I would very much appreciate it if you do not bleed all over the floor again."
Saya looks indifferent to his line of questioning as she tilts her head in an questioning gesture,
which prompted the rugged man to answer.
"It's a sedative."
Saya shakes her head no.
House was no stranger to pain, even cutting, he knew all too well how one pain can replace the other.
But he also knew sooner or later you either pick your vices, the ones you can live with,
Or the vices will pick you.
And that usually ends up being something that kills you sooner rather than later.
House was also no stranger to drugs, having done just about everything to rid himself of the pain, things Cuddy and even Willson didn't know about.
There was no way around it, everybody needed something to get them through the day.
For some it was sex,
Others alcohol,
Others still drugs,
for Saya, it was cutting.
Vices to House were as normal as air, as knowing that everybody lies and
life is hell.
"You need to relax,
I'm a doctor remember!?"
He told the young woman as he handed her the little green pill again.
Saya shakes her head no once more.
"Okay look," House said in an almost annoyed tone.
"I know you're not going to want to tell me what happened to you, but you need to.
"I also know that I'm not going to want to hear it, but I'm a doctor, so I need to."
"We are 32,000 feet in the air,
I'm all you got,
Deal with it."
"You have now officially become my patient."
House announced.
Saya acknowledged as she takes the pill while grabbing some water from the sink with her hands.
The two leave the bathroom one by one, Saya first as House cleans up, and then he too returns to his seat.
"We're strangers, you and I"
The notebook read.
"We're all strangers until we meet each other at our darkest hour." He said knowing well if she continued down this path that she would end up dead.
"Maybe this is yours" he continued.
"What was yours?" The young lady asked, slowly running out of paper.
And for a split second the rugged man shot a look at her of great pain. He either hasn't had his yet, or he's had too many.
"My mother was sick, she was delusional, she attacked me one day and cut my tongue out with a kitchen knife."
House reads Saya's notes.
"I never saw my mother again after that."
"What about you're father?".
He asked.
Saya's eyes fill with tears as she writes.
"He was a workaholic and worked himself into an early grave."
"I had nobody else so I had to live with my grandmother, on my dad's side."
"You should drink some more water, as you're probably dehydrated from the blood loss and the alcohol."
The diagnostician advised.
"She was bitter and cold, she would punish me for almost anything,
If I was a minute late for dinner, or didn't make up my bed."
Saya wrote as she sucked down a bottle of water.
House remained quiet for a few moments, then he told Saya about some of his own abuse by his father.
Then the young woman began to feel sleepy as the sedative started kicking in.
"I only started cutting because I felt it was something I could control, and when I would bleed I didn't feel anything else, and I didn't think about anything else."
"That locket?"
House inquired.
Saya opens it to show a small picture of herself with her mother.
"It was a trip to the zoo, that was the last time I saw my mother well."
House watched as Saya fell asleep.
Morning had come, and the rugged man was looking out the window seeing the bright yellow orb, and it's powder blue blanket.
From this view the world didn't look so bad, nor did it show the suffering of it's children.
A world that was like a fallen tree with noone to hear it.
The flight attendants announced that the plane will be landing in about 25 minutes.
Saya wakes up,
a spinach souffle awaits her on a small table.
"You need to replace your iron". House told her.
She smiles and after the meal, she reaches for her notebook but it wasn't around her neck anymore.
House stands up and grabs his carry on from the overhead compartment, he sits back down and reaches into it, pulling out a small white board and a marker, he hands it to Saya.
She smiles as she writes.
"Thank you House."
"So what are you going to do now!?" He asked.
"I was called to attend my grandmother's funeral, that's why I am here, but now I think I will return home to my apartment and look for a support group."
"If that doesn't work."
House hands her his business card.
Saya smiles.
"Oh and here is a sample of that sedative I gave you, it should last you until you can see your doctor."
"Yes Doctor House."
Saya writes while grinning widely as the seat belt indicator light flashed on and more announcements of the plane arriving soon at it's destination sounded.
As they were landing House thought about so many of his patients, and the possibility that many of them even after leaving his care did not survive.
They fell back into old habits and old routines.
Allowed themselves to fall victim to their vices once again.
And he wondered if she would make it, if she would be the exception and he wondered if he would.