Fic: By The Numbers
Title: By The Numbers
Author: Namaste
Summary: What are you supposed to think when your boss pulls a stunt like House does? Five drabbles from the POV of five remaining fellowship candidates. Spoilers for “97 Seconds.”
House is exciting. He’s also scary as hell.
Ridiculously Old Fraud
“He’s crazy,” Brennan says, and no one answers. “Right?” he asks, but there’s still no answer, nothing but a squeaking chair as someone moves.
Dobson thinks House isn’t any crazier today than yesterday, or last week, or the week before, but doesn’t say anything. Maybe House was crazier when he let him stay, when he didn’t fire him the minute he found out he wasn’t really a doctor.
The first time he heard House’s name, someone claimed he was crazy. The second time someone insisted he was genius. Maybe both are true. He’s still not sure, so he keeps quiet.
--------
6/9
“He electrocuted himself,” Brennan tries again. “That’s not normal.”
Kutner shrugs, “What’s normal?” he asks, but pauses in swinging his stethoscope, the chestpiece dropping into his palm. He holds it, feeling cool metal against his skin.
Brennan’s right. It’s crazy, but that’s what Kutner expected, right? It’s what he wanted. Even before House started hiring, Kutner sought out every story, every rumor about what House had done. It was exciting, nothing like the medicine he was expected to practice, the kind he was supposed to admire.
But electrocution ... he shakes his head. House is exciting. He’s also scary as hell.
-------
The Plastic Surgeon
“Why would he...” Brennan doesn’t finish the question. He doesn’t have to.
Taub almost tells him not to ask. “Don’t judge,” one of his mentors once said. “When someone comes to you for surgery, just smile, say she’ll look beautiful, cash her check and you’ll make a fortune.”
So he didn’t ask why mothers brought in their 16-year-old daughters for nose jobs, or why someone wanted another face lift.
But he doesn’t want that life anymore. He wants to know why, and wonders if House will teach him how to ask, or will just leave him with more questions.
------
The Mormon
“Maybe it was an accident,” Cole says.
He wants to believe that. Why would God give so much power, so much intelligence to a man who’d throw it all away? Maybe that’s an accident, too, he thinks, then can hear his mother’s voice, see her shake her head and claim that God doesn’t make mistakes.
House would only say that there isn’t a God, that no one gave him anything, that House’s intelligence is just a fluke of nature, of genetics.
Cole has never questioned God’s existence. But since meeting House, he finds himself wondering about things only God knows.
------
Cutthroat Bitch
“It was no accident,” Volakis says.
She’s done her time in the ER, done chest compressions until her arms and back ache, knows what it’s like to take the paddles in her hands, shock life back into lifeless bodies.
This was different. When she closes her eyes she still sees the dark room, House lying on the floor, his eyes staring up at nothing. She still feels the warmth under her fingers when she laid them on his neck, felt nothing beneath his skin, no response, no pulse.
Everyone keeps asking, why him? But she can’t stop asking, why her?
Author: Namaste
Summary: What are you supposed to think when your boss pulls a stunt like House does? Five drabbles from the POV of five remaining fellowship candidates. Spoilers for “97 Seconds.”
House is exciting. He’s also scary as hell.
Ridiculously Old Fraud
“He’s crazy,” Brennan says, and no one answers. “Right?” he asks, but there’s still no answer, nothing but a squeaking chair as someone moves.
Dobson thinks House isn’t any crazier today than yesterday, or last week, or the week before, but doesn’t say anything. Maybe House was crazier when he let him stay, when he didn’t fire him the minute he found out he wasn’t really a doctor.
The first time he heard House’s name, someone claimed he was crazy. The second time someone insisted he was genius. Maybe both are true. He’s still not sure, so he keeps quiet.
--------
6/9
“He electrocuted himself,” Brennan tries again. “That’s not normal.”
Kutner shrugs, “What’s normal?” he asks, but pauses in swinging his stethoscope, the chestpiece dropping into his palm. He holds it, feeling cool metal against his skin.
Brennan’s right. It’s crazy, but that’s what Kutner expected, right? It’s what he wanted. Even before House started hiring, Kutner sought out every story, every rumor about what House had done. It was exciting, nothing like the medicine he was expected to practice, the kind he was supposed to admire.
But electrocution ... he shakes his head. House is exciting. He’s also scary as hell.
-------
The Plastic Surgeon
“Why would he...” Brennan doesn’t finish the question. He doesn’t have to.
Taub almost tells him not to ask. “Don’t judge,” one of his mentors once said. “When someone comes to you for surgery, just smile, say she’ll look beautiful, cash her check and you’ll make a fortune.”
So he didn’t ask why mothers brought in their 16-year-old daughters for nose jobs, or why someone wanted another face lift.
But he doesn’t want that life anymore. He wants to know why, and wonders if House will teach him how to ask, or will just leave him with more questions.
------
The Mormon
“Maybe it was an accident,” Cole says.
He wants to believe that. Why would God give so much power, so much intelligence to a man who’d throw it all away? Maybe that’s an accident, too, he thinks, then can hear his mother’s voice, see her shake her head and claim that God doesn’t make mistakes.
House would only say that there isn’t a God, that no one gave him anything, that House’s intelligence is just a fluke of nature, of genetics.
Cole has never questioned God’s existence. But since meeting House, he finds himself wondering about things only God knows.
------
Cutthroat Bitch
“It was no accident,” Volakis says.
She’s done her time in the ER, done chest compressions until her arms and back ache, knows what it’s like to take the paddles in her hands, shock life back into lifeless bodies.
This was different. When she closes her eyes she still sees the dark room, House lying on the floor, his eyes staring up at nothing. She still feels the warmth under her fingers when she laid them on his neck, felt nothing beneath his skin, no response, no pulse.
Everyone keeps asking, why him? But she can’t stop asking, why her?