Hey, thanks to the awesome 15 reviews I received for the one-shot Delusional (which you might have noticed I'm keeping attached to this as sort of a preview I guess), I have decided to turn it into a multi-chapter fic! So here is the first chapter, starring Dr. House (by far the coolest man on TV right now). Oh and this is starting at the beginning of the story, so way before that one shot. Enjoy!
"House." House winced. Normally, he would have enjoyed the sound of his only female employee attempting to wake him up . . . the enticing way her voice called his name . . . the gentle touch of her hand on his shoulder . . .
But not today. Today his leg hurt. More than usual. Last night had been no walk in the park (to use a rather ironic metaphor) as he had been unable to fall asleep despite the Vicodin-and-bourbon cocktail he had gulped down.
Wilson had diagnosed it as "just your usual dose of mid-month misery," and then gone on to explain how his never-happy friend had to be on an especially low low at least once a month just so he could make sure he maintained the title of "most miserable human being on the planet."
House knew there was more to it than that.
"House," Cameron, called again, sounding impatient. House opened one eye to see his entire team peering down at him. He was reclined in the chair at the front of his office. Though it was the most comfortable place to nap (or attempt to nap), as far as visibility goes he was way too exposed.
"The ER is extremely short-staffed and over-flowing with patients," Cameron explained, "Cuddy has asked us to go down there and help out."
"And this was important enough that you had to wake me up, how?" House responded in his signature you're-being-an-idiot tone.
Foreman, Chase, and Cameron shared a look.
"We just thought we should tell you where we are in case you needed us," Chase replied earnestly.
"And there's always the off-chance that you might want to actually help out too," Foreman put in with just a hint of sarcasm.
"Sorry," House was quick to retort, "held the door open for an old woman on my way in this morning, 'fraid that means I've reached my quota for helping people today, too bad. You guys have fun though."
With more than one eye roll, the team turned their backs on their cranky boss and headed down the hall to the elevator.
House closed his eyes and attempted to go back to attempting to nap, but his stomach growled. Cuddy would come looking for him soon anyways. So with an exasperated sigh, he lifted himself out of the chair, wincing as he put some weight on his bum leg.
After a trip to the break room fridge (which resulted in the successful recon mission of somebody else's lunch), House entered the elevator. The ER was on the first floor. House hit the button for the third.
The elevator doors slid open and House poked his head out. After carefully scanning the hall for signs of Cuddy (or anyone that would rat him out to her) and finding none, he stepped out of the elevator, leaning heavily on his cane, and made his way down the hall to the room he retreated to for lunch when he wanted peace and quiet. A coma patient's room.
He headed down the hall. There was only one room on the entire floor that still got cable and the guy that roomed there had been asleep for years. It was the perfect place for House when he wanted to do nothing but be alone and watch his soaps.
House stopped dead in his tracks when he reached the room. Only problem was he couldn't be alone when the patient in the room was wide-awake. Like this one.
Dr. House stared at the black-haired boy sitting up in the hospital bed . . . awake and clearly not in a coma . . . in the room that he planned on getting some much needed sleep in. The room that was now occupied by a noisy teenager.
The boy was staring at the TV. The TV that House had planned on watching his soaps on. The TV that now was in the boy's control, preventing House from watching his soaps.
This was wrong. Coma patients weren't supposed to be wide-awake. And wide-awake patients weren't supposed to be in the coma section of the hospital.
"Why are you here?" House asked aloud.
"Good question," the boy replied, his gaze not once leaving the TV. Okay, so maybe he wasn't noisy. But still, he couldn't sleep with this kid in the room. House took steps closer to the hospital bed. The kid had clearly been in some sort of accident. There were scratches on his face and a large bandage covering his right shoulder and part of his chest. Maybe he was overflow from the ER.
House walked farther into the room to see what was on the TV that had the boy's interest. He looked to be about 14 . . . do they still watch cartoons when they're 14? House looked at the TV. It wasn't cartoons. It was news.
"You're watching the news?" he asked, trying to sound both condescending and disbelieving at the same time. He thought he had succeeded.
"You have a problem with that?" the teen snapped back.
Yet, the boy didn't seem to notice. Or care. Teenagers. House mentally rolled his eyes. "Yes, as a matter of fact I do," he replied and snatched the remote off the kid's bed.
"Hey!" the boy protested as House flicked to the channel General Hospital comes on. "Who are you anyways?"
"Relax, I'm a doctor," House assured him, slightly pleased at having finally gotten a reaction from the kid that wasn't dripping with teenage arrogance.
"You don't look like a doctor." And it's back again.
"And you don't look like you're in a coma," House shot back as he settled into a nearby chair, propping his feet up on the bed.
"Uh no," the boy replied, sitting up more in his hospital bed, "why would I-"
"Because this is the coma wing of the hospital," House explained before he could finish asking. "Notice there's only about two nurses on call up here and it's so quiet you could hear a mouse having a myocardial infarction."
"A what?"
"Just proving I'm a doctor," House said with a smug smile. "We know big words like that."
The boy merely slumped back against his pillows, looking defeated.
House's show hadn't started yet and for some reason he felt intrigued by the young intruder (intruder in House's eyes that is). He may not have been as big a mystery as one of House's regular patients, but a little mystery was about all House's sleep-deprived mind could handle right now anyways. He decided to do a little investigating.
"So which doctor was such an idiot that they couldn't tell the difference between someone in a coma and someone who seems to be only suffering from a . . ." House paused to examine the boy's injuries more closely, "I'm gonna say bike accident?"
"Sure," the kid replied, sounding bored.
House thought the answer was odd but continued, "So who was it? If you don't know names, you can just describe-"
"There you are!" House and the still nameless teenager turned to see Cuddy standing at the doorway of their room.
"Well, there's your answer," the boy said.
"Crud, you couldn't have told me sooner?" House complained, annoyed that Cuddy had found him. "'It was the devil herself!' or something like that would have been a nice hint!"
The teen just gave House a weird look and then turned back to Cuddy. "Is he really a doctor?"
Cuddy sighed. "Yes, but don't listen to anything he tells you," she warned, walking over to the bed.
"You. ER. Now." She instructed House.
"But mo-om!" House whined.
"I don't want to hear it," Cuddy snapped. Then she turned on a smile and said to the boy, "How are you feeling? Do you remember anything yet?"
"Uhh . . ."
"Remember anything? You think the kid has amnesia?" House scoffed.
"Well what would you call it when a teenager with multiple trauma wounds is brought to the ER and can't remember how he got them?"
House glanced over at the boy next to him. He was looking down, not meeting either doctor's gaze. "I would call it lying."
The boy still didn't look up.
"There's no reason to assume-" Cuddy started to object.
"He's not scared," House stated plainly.
"Well he was when-"
"When he was around people he knew were doctors?" House guessed.
Cuddy's silence proved him correct.
"What's your name?" House asked the boy.
For a while there was only silence, then a simple, "Doesn't matter."
"Honey, of course it matters," Cuddy cooed, kneeling down to be at her patient's eye level. "Is this about your parents? Do you not want them to know you were doing something dangerous?"
The boy snorted and leaned back with his eyes closed. He dragged his hands across his face with a sigh. "It doesn't matter if you try to call my parents. You won't be able to reach them," he stated quietly.
"What, why?" Cuddy stammered, eyebrows knit together in confusion.
The teen suddenly snatched the remote from House and changed the channel back to the news station.
Cuddy and House had no choice but to watch and gawk at the eerie scene that had filled the screen.
"A strange, purple glowing dome, a force field of some kind, has surrounded the city of Amity Park," a reporter was explaining, "cutting it off from the rest of the world completely. It has become apparent to us now that those trapped inside the city are without any type of phone or Internet service. Any attempts to contact the occupants of the city have failed, as have the efforts to break through the dome. No word yet on what or who may be causing this bizarre situation either. Stay with us as we wait to find out more. I'm Tracy Wells with Channel 5."
"That's why," the boy simply stated.
Before anybody asks, yes, the nameless kid is Danny. I tried to make it obvious. This had to be written from House's point of view so I couldn't just outright say it.
Sorry this was kinda short. I could have kept going but I feel like posting it as is and I'm so busy I don't know when I would get around to finishing it. Better to give ya a little something rather than nothing, I figured. So yah dunno when I'll have time to write chapter 2 but I will try to make it soon.
Special thanks to those 15 reviewers I mentioned earlier: Valek, Neko Danny, Invader Johnny, SamZ, magic tink 101, Luiz4200, definenormalAB, jetblack, rae, Miriam1, WolfDaughter, Zuzanny, SumikaAmayaOblivion, inukagome15, and PunkMichPhantom! Luv you guys! : )