Gentle Knock - Part 18
Title: A Gentle Knock at the Door, Part 18
Author: zeppomarx
Characters: House (of course - duh), Wilson, Cuddy, Chase and Foreman, and new folks.
Warnings and So On: NC-17 for concepts. H/W friendship (perhaps slash if you wear slash goggles)
Summary: A sequel to Priority's Exigencies
, which is a sequel to DIY Sheep's The Contract
, which has now spawned an incredible number of offshoots. The short version: House is a physical and emotional mess, having been wrongly imprisoned and tortured and all sorts of nasty stuff. It's about what happens next, and how House deals with it.
Timeline: Set nearly a year after the beginning of Exigencies.
Earlier parts here: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 , 13, 14, 15, 16, 17
Comments: Be gentle. Flamers begone. Thanks to AW, GM and my medical guru TD, who tells me the medicine is okay, but the procedure is all messed up. Drama trumps medicine, or so I've heard.
Oh, Yeah, the Disclaimer: I certainly don't own House or any of the characters therein, although it would be nice if I did. They belong to David Shore & company. It's just that they waltzed into my head and wouldn't leave until I told their story.
Apologies: Sorry to keep you hanging. Had a run-in with real life.
TEASER: Chaos in the emergency room...
___________________________________________
A Gentle Knock at the Door
Part 18
As Wilson left the hospital parking lot, he pulled over to let an ambulance screech past his car. Frank Parson was stable; he’d be okay till morning. But when he got back to the duplex, he found a distraught Linda McAllister cleaning up blood from the floor and no House.
“Wh-hat happened here? Where’s House?”
“Hospital,” said Linda, answering the second question first. “Don’t know what happened. I tried to get you on your cell. Two FBI agents were taking away a man in handcuffs when I got here, and the third was calling an ambulance. He took off once it showed up.”
“Is-is he okay?” Wilson couldn’t catch his breath. This just wasn’t possible. Had House been right? Was it Thompson?
“I don’t know, Dr. Wilson. He looked pretty bad. I sat with him till the ambulance got here. His pulse was weak.” She stopped abruptly. She was far more upset than she even let on. She’d grown very attached to the cantankerous doctor and very protective of his precarious health.
“Come on!” said Wilson, turning toward the door. “Do you want to take your own car or ride in mine?” She chose her own.
* * * *
When they arrived back at PPTH, the emergency room was in confusion. FBI agents and local cops were everywhere, while Cuddy stood at the center, looking as if she were directing traffic. Outside, he saw television camera crews pulling into the parking lot.
“Wilson!” she called out when she saw him. He and Linda worked their way toward her through the mass of people.
“How’s House?” Wilson asked over the noise, growing increasingly anxious.
“Don’t know yet,” she yelled back.
“What’s happening? What happened?”
“All I know is that Alan Pevey is under arrest. I’m waiting for Roberts to get back so I can find out the rest of the story.”
Pevey?
Leaving Linda in the reception area, Wilson headed toward the back part of the emergency room. Along the way, he ran into Chase, Foreman and Rajghatta. “What are you three doing here?” he asked.
“Stayed late with a patient,” said Chase. “We saw them bring House in. What happened?” Anxiety clouded their features.
“Wish I knew,” said Wilson, above the commotion. “I’m trying to find out.”
Squeezing past a couple of people he didn’t recognize, Wilson made his way into the room where a medical team was working on House. He was lying unconscious on a gurney, surrounded by three ER doctors, a couple of nurses and a bunch of wires and tubes. There was blood all over him.
One of the physicians saw him out of the corner of her eye, and beckoned him over.
“How is he?” asked Wilson.
“Not great,” came the reply. “At the very least, he’s got a fractured skull, a fractured cheek and a broken ankle. We’ve got his neck stabilized in case of spinal cord damage. Some of his old wounds have been re-injured, and he’s covered in contusions on the right side of his body. We haven’t even had a chance to check him out for internal injuries yet. Once he’s stable, we’ll send him through the MRI to check for brain damage.”
Nodding soberly, a dazed Wilson backed out of the room. After updating the kids and Cuddy, he met up with Linda in the waiting room. Cuddy and House’s staff soon joined them.
They tried unsuccessfully to make small talk for nearly 30 minutes, until Wilson saw agent Roberts weaving his way through the throng. Roberts saw them, and immediately came over.
“Dr. Wilson,” he said. “How’s Dr. House?”
“Not great,” said Wilson, echoing the ER doctor. “What happened? I’d just left him a few minutes earlier. Was it Thompson?”
“No,” said Roberts. “Is there someplace quieter we can talk?”
“How about our conference room?” asked Chase. “It’s just down the hall.”
“Fine.”
Once settled in the Diagnostics conference room, Roberts told them what he knew.
“We’ve been watching House’s place since yesterday afternoon,” he said. “Just didn’t want a repeat of what happened before.”
“Then how could this happen?!” asked Wilson, frantically. “How could this happen?” He felt anger bubbling up like lava. Cuddy placed her hand on his arm. He exhaled and tried to settle himself down.
“I wish I had a good answer,” said Roberts. “Our agents were stationed outside his place in a van. They saw you leave, Dr. Wilson, and then they didn’t see anything again for a few minutes. I got there a little before seven, just to check in, and almost immediately, we heard yelling coming from inside.
“It must have happened very quickly, because by the time we got in there, Dr. House was already on the floor and in bad shape.”
The group sat stunned.
“The irony here,” said Roberts, “is that Thompson had nothing to do with this. It was apparently all Dr. Pevey. From what we can tell, he hatched the whole scheme with Channel 2 to get video of Rainie and make the hospital and House look bad.”
Wilson thought of the mysterious person on the security tape. Pevey?
“So what’s going to happen now?” asked Cuddy, while Foreman simultaneously said, “Now what?”
“Pevey is in jail, charged with attempted murder and aggravated assault, plus conspiracy to commit kidnapping for the incident last night. We’ll add any other charges we can come up with. I want to see that guy locked up so long that Dr. House doesn’t ever have to worry about him again.”
“What about Channel 2?” asked Cuddy. “They’ve done a lot of damage to our reputation, to House’s reputation and to Rainie Adler’s medical care.”
“We’re on it,” said Roberts. “We’re going to throw everything we can at them, from conspiracy on the kidnapping charge to trespassing to assault. By the time we’re done, you’ll smell like roses and they won’t have a reputation at all.”
“How about Dr. House’s reputation?” asked Devi, who had been sitting quietly absorbing all this information. “Is there any way to undo the damage they’ve done to him?”
Cuddy looked thoughtful, and exchanged looks with Roberts. “Some of it we’re just going to have to ride out,” she said, “as disgusting as that is. Earlier tonight, he offered to resign,” she said, “but I’ll be damned if I’ll let him. We’ve really let House down in a lot of ways, but there’s no way I’m going to let these jackals win. House has my, and the hospital’s, complete support.”
“Well, goody for you,” said Wilson sarcastically. “But that doesn’t undo the damage that’s been done, or solve House’s PR problem. They’ve made him look like an unstable incompetent.”
Chase and Foreman looked at Wilson. Clearly, the stress was getting to him.
Roberts interjected. “I think a lot of that will get cleared up once we deal with Channel 2. We’ve got the hospital videos showing Rainie getting moved to the second floor, her fall from the gurney and Pevey-if it was Pevey-entering the room. Plus, we have Pevey’s attack on Dr. House.”
Devi spoke up. “Does anyone know how he found out where Dr. House lives?”
“We think he followed you home, Dr. Wilson,” said Roberts. “Probably waited until he saw you leave.”
Wilson felt sick. He looked at the others; they looked like he felt.
“Is there anything we can do?” asked Chase. “I feel helpless sitting here doing nothing.”
Wilson thought a minute. “Yes,” he said. “Someone needs to contact Rainie’s team, especially Naveen Ajunta, and let them know what’s happened. And I’m sure some of Rainie’s friends saw that newscast. See if you can get House’s cell and coordinate with Ajunta on returning calls.”
Cuddy nodded. “Tell them as little as possible for now,” she added, meaning Rainie’s friends. “I’ll start dealing with the press. Maybe you’d better join me,” she said to Roberts, who nodded.
Rainie’s team was called right away, and most of them rushed to the hospital to see how they could help. Rainie’s friends were concerned, of course, and a couple of them were furious about Channel 2’s report. The kids did their best to keep them calm.
Four hours later, they were all still waiting on word about House’s medical condition. About 90 minutes earlier, he’d been hustled into an operating room for emergency surgery. Karen Langley was in with him. Wilson paced in the observation room above, watching anxiously, while everyone else except Cuddy and Roberts waited in the diagnostics conference room.
Jacey Liu was in with Rainie, who had suffered a bad nightmare. When she woke up to find, not those deep blue eyes and those familiar hands, but someone else, she had been inconsolable and Jacey had to give her another sedative.
It was 3:17 a.m., and Wilson hadn’t slept in 24 hours.
Click here for the next exciting chapter...
Author: zeppomarx
Characters: House (of course - duh), Wilson, Cuddy, Chase and Foreman, and new folks.
Warnings and So On: NC-17 for concepts. H/W friendship (perhaps slash if you wear slash goggles)
Summary: A sequel to Priority's Exigencies
, which is a sequel to DIY Sheep's The Contract
, which has now spawned an incredible number of offshoots. The short version: House is a physical and emotional mess, having been wrongly imprisoned and tortured and all sorts of nasty stuff. It's about what happens next, and how House deals with it.
Timeline: Set nearly a year after the beginning of Exigencies.
Earlier parts here: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 , 13, 14, 15, 16, 17
Comments: Be gentle. Flamers begone. Thanks to AW, GM and my medical guru TD, who tells me the medicine is okay, but the procedure is all messed up. Drama trumps medicine, or so I've heard.
Oh, Yeah, the Disclaimer: I certainly don't own House or any of the characters therein, although it would be nice if I did. They belong to David Shore & company. It's just that they waltzed into my head and wouldn't leave until I told their story.
Apologies: Sorry to keep you hanging. Had a run-in with real life.
TEASER: Chaos in the emergency room...
___________________________________________
A Gentle Knock at the Door
Part 18
As Wilson left the hospital parking lot, he pulled over to let an ambulance screech past his car. Frank Parson was stable; he’d be okay till morning. But when he got back to the duplex, he found a distraught Linda McAllister cleaning up blood from the floor and no House.
“Wh-hat happened here? Where’s House?”
“Hospital,” said Linda, answering the second question first. “Don’t know what happened. I tried to get you on your cell. Two FBI agents were taking away a man in handcuffs when I got here, and the third was calling an ambulance. He took off once it showed up.”
“Is-is he okay?” Wilson couldn’t catch his breath. This just wasn’t possible. Had House been right? Was it Thompson?
“I don’t know, Dr. Wilson. He looked pretty bad. I sat with him till the ambulance got here. His pulse was weak.” She stopped abruptly. She was far more upset than she even let on. She’d grown very attached to the cantankerous doctor and very protective of his precarious health.
“Come on!” said Wilson, turning toward the door. “Do you want to take your own car or ride in mine?” She chose her own.
* * * *
When they arrived back at PPTH, the emergency room was in confusion. FBI agents and local cops were everywhere, while Cuddy stood at the center, looking as if she were directing traffic. Outside, he saw television camera crews pulling into the parking lot.
“Wilson!” she called out when she saw him. He and Linda worked their way toward her through the mass of people.
“How’s House?” Wilson asked over the noise, growing increasingly anxious.
“Don’t know yet,” she yelled back.
“What’s happening? What happened?”
“All I know is that Alan Pevey is under arrest. I’m waiting for Roberts to get back so I can find out the rest of the story.”
Pevey?
Leaving Linda in the reception area, Wilson headed toward the back part of the emergency room. Along the way, he ran into Chase, Foreman and Rajghatta. “What are you three doing here?” he asked.
“Stayed late with a patient,” said Chase. “We saw them bring House in. What happened?” Anxiety clouded their features.
“Wish I knew,” said Wilson, above the commotion. “I’m trying to find out.”
Squeezing past a couple of people he didn’t recognize, Wilson made his way into the room where a medical team was working on House. He was lying unconscious on a gurney, surrounded by three ER doctors, a couple of nurses and a bunch of wires and tubes. There was blood all over him.
One of the physicians saw him out of the corner of her eye, and beckoned him over.
“How is he?” asked Wilson.
“Not great,” came the reply. “At the very least, he’s got a fractured skull, a fractured cheek and a broken ankle. We’ve got his neck stabilized in case of spinal cord damage. Some of his old wounds have been re-injured, and he’s covered in contusions on the right side of his body. We haven’t even had a chance to check him out for internal injuries yet. Once he’s stable, we’ll send him through the MRI to check for brain damage.”
Nodding soberly, a dazed Wilson backed out of the room. After updating the kids and Cuddy, he met up with Linda in the waiting room. Cuddy and House’s staff soon joined them.
They tried unsuccessfully to make small talk for nearly 30 minutes, until Wilson saw agent Roberts weaving his way through the throng. Roberts saw them, and immediately came over.
“Dr. Wilson,” he said. “How’s Dr. House?”
“Not great,” said Wilson, echoing the ER doctor. “What happened? I’d just left him a few minutes earlier. Was it Thompson?”
“No,” said Roberts. “Is there someplace quieter we can talk?”
“How about our conference room?” asked Chase. “It’s just down the hall.”
“Fine.”
Once settled in the Diagnostics conference room, Roberts told them what he knew.
“We’ve been watching House’s place since yesterday afternoon,” he said. “Just didn’t want a repeat of what happened before.”
“Then how could this happen?!” asked Wilson, frantically. “How could this happen?” He felt anger bubbling up like lava. Cuddy placed her hand on his arm. He exhaled and tried to settle himself down.
“I wish I had a good answer,” said Roberts. “Our agents were stationed outside his place in a van. They saw you leave, Dr. Wilson, and then they didn’t see anything again for a few minutes. I got there a little before seven, just to check in, and almost immediately, we heard yelling coming from inside.
“It must have happened very quickly, because by the time we got in there, Dr. House was already on the floor and in bad shape.”
The group sat stunned.
“The irony here,” said Roberts, “is that Thompson had nothing to do with this. It was apparently all Dr. Pevey. From what we can tell, he hatched the whole scheme with Channel 2 to get video of Rainie and make the hospital and House look bad.”
Wilson thought of the mysterious person on the security tape. Pevey?
“So what’s going to happen now?” asked Cuddy, while Foreman simultaneously said, “Now what?”
“Pevey is in jail, charged with attempted murder and aggravated assault, plus conspiracy to commit kidnapping for the incident last night. We’ll add any other charges we can come up with. I want to see that guy locked up so long that Dr. House doesn’t ever have to worry about him again.”
“What about Channel 2?” asked Cuddy. “They’ve done a lot of damage to our reputation, to House’s reputation and to Rainie Adler’s medical care.”
“We’re on it,” said Roberts. “We’re going to throw everything we can at them, from conspiracy on the kidnapping charge to trespassing to assault. By the time we’re done, you’ll smell like roses and they won’t have a reputation at all.”
“How about Dr. House’s reputation?” asked Devi, who had been sitting quietly absorbing all this information. “Is there any way to undo the damage they’ve done to him?”
Cuddy looked thoughtful, and exchanged looks with Roberts. “Some of it we’re just going to have to ride out,” she said, “as disgusting as that is. Earlier tonight, he offered to resign,” she said, “but I’ll be damned if I’ll let him. We’ve really let House down in a lot of ways, but there’s no way I’m going to let these jackals win. House has my, and the hospital’s, complete support.”
“Well, goody for you,” said Wilson sarcastically. “But that doesn’t undo the damage that’s been done, or solve House’s PR problem. They’ve made him look like an unstable incompetent.”
Chase and Foreman looked at Wilson. Clearly, the stress was getting to him.
Roberts interjected. “I think a lot of that will get cleared up once we deal with Channel 2. We’ve got the hospital videos showing Rainie getting moved to the second floor, her fall from the gurney and Pevey-if it was Pevey-entering the room. Plus, we have Pevey’s attack on Dr. House.”
Devi spoke up. “Does anyone know how he found out where Dr. House lives?”
“We think he followed you home, Dr. Wilson,” said Roberts. “Probably waited until he saw you leave.”
Wilson felt sick. He looked at the others; they looked like he felt.
“Is there anything we can do?” asked Chase. “I feel helpless sitting here doing nothing.”
Wilson thought a minute. “Yes,” he said. “Someone needs to contact Rainie’s team, especially Naveen Ajunta, and let them know what’s happened. And I’m sure some of Rainie’s friends saw that newscast. See if you can get House’s cell and coordinate with Ajunta on returning calls.”
Cuddy nodded. “Tell them as little as possible for now,” she added, meaning Rainie’s friends. “I’ll start dealing with the press. Maybe you’d better join me,” she said to Roberts, who nodded.
Rainie’s team was called right away, and most of them rushed to the hospital to see how they could help. Rainie’s friends were concerned, of course, and a couple of them were furious about Channel 2’s report. The kids did their best to keep them calm.
Four hours later, they were all still waiting on word about House’s medical condition. About 90 minutes earlier, he’d been hustled into an operating room for emergency surgery. Karen Langley was in with him. Wilson paced in the observation room above, watching anxiously, while everyone else except Cuddy and Roberts waited in the diagnostics conference room.
Jacey Liu was in with Rainie, who had suffered a bad nightmare. When she woke up to find, not those deep blue eyes and those familiar hands, but someone else, she had been inconsolable and Jacey had to give her another sedative.
It was 3:17 a.m., and Wilson hadn’t slept in 24 hours.
Click here for the next exciting chapter...