The experiment chapter seven False hope.

"It has been said, 'time heals all wounds.' I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone."

Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy.

It was a bright sunny morning,

the air was a nice comfy warm, the birds were singing, and

the sky was a light powder blue, it looked as if it would stretch on forever.

There was a lot of hustle and bustle at Opulent research facility this particular morning, as it was take your kids to work day.

House was not keen about this situation, it was quite noisy.

That being said, it was the first time he could walk about without the use of his cane.

His medical team had placed him on protein shakes to keep his weight up and build muscle.

It had now been four weeks into the treatment.

In the therapy lounge, House was walking on the treadmill, this was an achievement, without pain and without pain meds.

He couldn't help but grin from ear to ear.

Just then Doctor Keorri walks in.

"Nice to see you up and about House." She said with a rather large smile as she tucked her hair behind her ears.

"Why Doctor Blue, there's a pep in your step!." House proclaimed rather loudly while he too had a large grin about his face.

He watched as she walked about to meet with other patients.

She looked at him from the corner of her eye. Neither one could keep their eyes off the other.

The two had been secretly seeing each other for weeks. Making out pretty much anywhere they thought they could get away with.

There was already gossip among the nurses, but everyone respected Doctor Keorri too much to rat her out. Besides it was too much fun to talk about how crazy silly her face was anytime House walked within her view.

(Beep, goes House's phone, as he receives a text from a number he doesn't recognize.)

"Hello good morning, I am trying to reach Doctor House."

"Yes, what can I do for you?

He asked.

"It's me Doctor House, Saya Kon."

He was surprised by this.

"Is everything alright?"

He asked.

"Everything is great. I'm in a support group, I made some friends too."

Saya replied.

"How are you?" She asked.

"Well um... I'm in a support group too!"

House replied really referring to Keorri, with another grin about his face as he looks her way.

"I'm glad." Saya replied.

"Hey do you think we can go out to lunch sometime?"

She asked.

"Sure, I mean I have to check my calendar, but I'm sure I can fit you in somewhere." He replied with a winking face emoji.

Saya sends a smiley face emoji,

"Ok text you soon."

He continues on the treadmill.

"See you at lunch." Keorri said while she pulled her long black silky hair to the front of her body, walking by slowly as if she wanted him to get a good look at her ass.

"I'll be there, just wear that maid uniform this time." He said with a smirk as Keorri flashes a smile back at him.

Just then there was a large commotion about the area, House walks over to see what's happened. Once there he sees nurses lay a sheet over a patient.

He looks closer,

it was the woman he had seen a couple of weeks ago who was yelling and throwing up.

The doctors turned off the machines. The family is crying loudly while asking why.

But did there need to be a reason?

Yes perhaps for House as he knew there must have been a reason.

Or at least at any given time for most there needed to be a reason to make sense of this tragedy, so one would need an answer to this question. Yet could there be one that would ultimately end their suffering?

Was it complications of this treatment? he questioned.

(At the dining hall.)

"So what's on the menu for lunch?"

House asked as he sat down next to Keorri.

She passes him another miso soup.

"I'm already stuffed thanks to those shakes."

"Then why are you in the dining hall?" She asked.

"I'm here in case you choke or something."

He said.

"You can never be too careful, is there sesame seeds in that?"

"We are surrounded by doctors here

House, and you think you're the only one who can save me?"

Keorri replied with a raised eyebrow in amusement.

"Hey I once preformed CPR on a lizard, shit happens, okay."

He replied back.

Keorri laughs.

Just then there is a pulling sensation up top House's head.

It felt like his brain was being sucked out of his body,

no,

It felt like he was being pulled out by something or someone.

He looks up at the ceiling

to see large spiders about the roof.

It wasn't real, he knew this, it didn't change the fact it was freaking weird.

(That evening.)

"So how is it really going?"

Keorri asked.

"You see me walking right?

Hell I could probably run by now, so great!" House replied.

"And the hallucinations?" She inquired.

"Gone."

He said quickly.

"I know when you are lying House."

Keorri said.

"Look I have to do this, I have to try.

I can't go back to a life of pain,

Of hobbling around while everyone looks at me wondering if I need help.

I can't keep taking pills just to taper the pain off."

He pauses for a moment feeling the world slip away, like the feeling you get when you're falling in a dream.

"The only damn thing the Vicodin did was show me that I could be in less pain." House said as he saw blood dripping from the walls of his room.

He knew it wasn't real, the medications were doing enough to allow him to recognize a hallucination, but it couldn't stop it.

House had bags under his eyes, the lack of sleep was starting to show no matter how much he lied about it.

Despite the protein shakes he was beginning to lose weight again as well.

"Why can't you just be honest with me?"

Keorri asked.

"Why can't you just be honest with yourself for once."

"Do you know that today was the first day in years that I've been able to walk without a cane, I can't even remember the last time I was able to walk on a treadmill,

and you want me to give that up?"

House shouted.

"So many people live with using assistant tools.

canes, walkers, wheelchairs, why should you be any different?"

She questioned him.

"Because it's my life,

it's my leg I have to drag around.

What do you know?

Have you ever woken up in so much pain that you had to take morphine?

Have you ever lost hours, days or even weeks to pain?"

House fired back, still yelling.

"No." she replied.

"Then don't tell me that I could live any other way, this is my option, this is my choice." He insisted.

"A choice that could kill you."

Keorri's voice breaks as her eyes fill with tears.

"Are you not even considering me?"

House says nothing to this.

"How can you be so selfish?"

She added.

"Is it selfish to want to be pain free?

Is it selfish to want to walk around normally?

Why am I selfish for wanting to live with a little less damn misery?"

He asked.

"Because you are not even looking at the statistics of this,

you haven't even looked at the trial reports." She replied with frustration.

"You're not talking about statistics, you're talking about us" he replied back.

"No, I''m not House!

although you should consider us, what I am talking about is the treatment.

If you really paid attention to everything that's going on, I don't think you would have made the decision to come here."

She said trying to get a word in but House cuts her off.

"And if I didn't come here?

then what?

we wouldn't have happened and you wouldn't have an excuse to have this argument now.

This is really about the fact that you can't face who I am and the choices that I make. I don't fit into your world and the idea that you have in your head of me.

And you know what!?

I'm sorry I can't be what you want."

He shouted.

"No, that's not what I'm saying at all, why do you have to twist everything around?"

she replied.

"It's about the fact that you haven't even looked at the reason why the FDA wouldn't approve this treatment.

You haven't looked at the lab results, you haven't looked at the reports."

"Yes," he replied.

"I have,"

"and it doesn't matter"

"Excuse me!

it doesn't matter!?

what are you even talking about;?" she yelled.

"It doesn't matter because those side effects that it mentioned are not only rare, it's common for almost all drugs to have those rare effects.

Look at the side effects of aspirin, the risk of bleeding, the risks of ulcers and yet people take this medication every day." House replied.

"But you're not going to die from aspirin House, it's this treatment that could kill you."

She yelled back at him almost as loudly as he'd been yelling at her.

"Look we could fight about this all night or we can skip right to the make up sex." House said.

Keorri unamused storms out.

House sits on his bed now noticing his skin twisting around it's self, as if someone was wringing him out for a clothes line, and he had no bones.

As if he wasn't a man of flesh and blood.

A samurai stood there with a sword ready,

almost beckoning him to a war,

to a fight,

to the death.

"You're not real, I know it,

so you might as well leave, as I won't listen to anything you have to say."

House replied out loud but to a mind that was breaking under the weight of the treatment, under the weight of this hell.

He fell into a sea of emptiness and delusions as his medical team tried to get him back.

There were Koi fish floating about the room when he began to regain his competency, or at least his awareness of the strangeness.

"Look I don't want to stop the treatment, and I know what you're all going to say.

"House we only want you to be safe, there's no point in you dying over this." Doctor Borvo said.

"So it's a picture show with some flashing lights, nothing I'm going to die over." He replied.

"And the weight loss?"

Doctor Tang added.

"Nothing I can't handle, I've been meaning to lose some weight anyway." He said while looking out the window of his room.

Was the garden now gone?

"So you have an answer for

everything right House!?

And nothing can be wrong?

and you can't be wrong?."

Keorri said with anger.

House growing tired of the arguments suggested.

"Look, what if you put me into an medically induced coma?"

"That is insane." Keorri said.

"It would slow things down."

House added.

"It could work." Doctor Tang replied.

"It would help us better stabilize him." Doctor Borvo added.

"And what if we can't get him back."

Keorri asked.

"It's a risk I am willing to take to complete this thing.

Besides how are you ever going to know if this is working, if I don't go all the way with it?"

House said while looking at Keorri's face, oh shit, she was pissed, I mean really pissed.

Keorri asked everyone to leave the room, and when they were gone she said.

"You are the most selfish inconsiderate person I've ever met."

"Thank you"

he replied almost sarcastically.

"I want you to get better House, I don't want you to kill yourself trying."

She replied her voice breaking again with emotion.

"I came here to try, this is an experimental treatment and you of all people know there are no guarantees."

His voice played out in a tone she didn't recognize, his face almost unrecognizable as if he was half in this world and half in another.

In his room a samurai stood readying his sword to strike him,

as the plum blossoms flew about the room.

House looked at Keorri's face,

there were tears of blood running down her cheeks.

"I just don't want to lose you House."

Keorri said, knowing she could not change his mind, she opted instead to embrace him maybe for the very last time.

Later the rest of his medical team enters preparing his medication to induce the coma.

Keorri looks at him as though she will never see this rugged diagnostician again.

"In the end this won't be for nothing, I know we can still obtain good results and that everything happens for a reason."

House says as he slips into a coma.

(It had now been over six weeks and the team was trying to wake House up.)

With the medications they administered, he should have woken up by now.

Doctor Tang shines a pen light into the rugged man's eyes, he wasn't responding.

"Notify his next of kin."

Doctor Tang said.