Author: zeppomarx
Characters: House, 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, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23,
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.
TEASER: Nightmares. Just Nightmares...
________________________________________
A Gentle Knock at the Door
Part 24
Part 24
He lay crumpled, as they’d left him, bleeding into the dirt. His face ached from where they had smashed it into the ground, and his right side throbbed with pain from where they had kicked him with their boots. They would be back in a minute, so he had very little time in which to prepare himself for the next onslaught. He’d run if he could, but since he couldn’t run, all he could do was wait.
It would be so much easier to just slip away, to quit struggling, to just die. But that wasn’t an option for him. Life, even an agonized, terrorized life like this, was the only choice he had allowed himself.
Oh, no. Here they come again. He held his breath and tried to get ready. Not that you could ever be ready. The pain was always sudden, always overwhelming, always devastating. He groaned as he saw the foot headed toward his face.
Once, I was a doctor, he thought as he slowly passed out.
It was almost impossible to breathe, the pain was so great. There was blood soaking into the ground, and laughter in the distance. Gingerly, she tried to get up, the noise in her skull pounding like a jackhammer. No, that wasn’t going to work. Maybe she’d just lie still and hope they didn’t come back for a while.
Thump thump thump went her head. Thump thump thump went the boots as they drew closer. No… please no…!
What was it like before this? She could barely remember. She seemed to recall a time when she was a journalist, when she explored the mysteries of the human psyche and used her creativity to illuminate life for her readers. Now, angry laughter and constant pain occupied her entire existence. There was no time to analyze human behavior; she was too busy seeing it close up.
Once I was a writer, she thought as she lost consciousness.
* * * *
Mark St. John looked up when he heard a low noise. Not good, he thought. This is what we were afraid of. Somebody’s having a nightmare. He got up and slipped between the two beds, touching his right hand to Rainie’s neck and then his left to House’s, checking pulses. Both pulses were fast, and the two patients were breathing rapidly and shallowly.
At about the same time, his patients began to moan. He glanced to his right to see Rainie begin to move around, her face expressing pain and suffering. On his left, House thrust his head back against the pillow, contorting his features in distress. The sudden movement caused him pain, and a grunt escaped him. At just that moment, Rainie whimpered softly.
Both of them? Better get help. He buzzed the nurse’s station. Almost instantly, a very young brunette nurse, Kate Marcus, appeared at the door, sliding it open and stepping in. He held his finger to his lips to remind her to stay quiet. She glided across the floor noiselessly.
“What is it?” she whispered.
“Nightmares,” he replied. “Both of them. Thought I’d better be ready in case of a problem.”
She nodded, staring at the two broken bodies and taking a deep breath. Not long out of nursing school, she hadn’t faced many serious injuries before, much less anything like this; it was hard not to stare, not to think about what could have caused marks like those.
“If they both need help at the same time, I’ll handle him; you take her. Got it?”
She nodded again and waited at the foot of Rainie’s bed.
He gently stroked Rainie’s arm with his right hand, and tried to do the same for House with his left, but House flung his arm away.
“Sh-sh-sh… he crooned. “It’s just a dream… Shhhhh… It’s not real… Settle down… It’ll be okay.”
He tried again with House, this time approaching him more slowly and more gently. House allowed Mark’s hand to stay put, but remained extremely agitated.
“Come on… no one’s going to hurt you… it’s just your subconscious.”
He motioned for Kate to go to the other side of Rainie’s bed. Could she touch that hand? Her own feelings bubbling up, Kate gingerly took Rainie’s left hand in her own and began to stroke it. It didn’t even feel like a hand, she thought, sickened, fighting a desire to gag.
Rather than settling Rainie down, Kate’s touch seemed to disturb her. She began to move about, whimpering louder.
Mark turned his full attention to House, who continued to flail around and moan. This wasn’t good, he thought. We seem to be making it worse. Perhaps we should both step away.
He stepped back and whispered for Kate to do the same. It didn’t seem to make any difference. The patients’ agitation continued whether the nurses were there or not. Both of them were shivering, whether with cold or fear Mark wasn’t sure.
Mark quickly paged Dr. Liu.
* * * *
In her sleep, Jacey Liu heard beeping. Suddenly very much awake, she grabbed her pager. “Room 304. Now,” read the screen. She grasped the pair of jeans and t-shirt draped across a chair next to her bed, and ran into the bathroom. Less than five minutes later, she was on her way.
By the time she arrived and got through security, another ten minutes had passed. Anything could happen in fifteen minutes, she thought as she raced toward room 304.
Nothing out of the ordinary could be heard from outside the room, so perhaps everything was okay. Sliding open the door, the volume increased and she heard soft cries. The lights were low, so it took a moment to see what was happening.
Mark and Kate looked up as Jacey came through the door. The last fifteen minutes had been harrowing, with both patients continuing to plunge into all-out nightmares, shivering and shaking and making guttural noises of pain and anxiety. They’d gulped air and cried out, neither of them waking up or waking the other.
Mark had told Kate to follow his lead as he gently stroked the good side of House’s face and body, trying to soothe him, as Kate did the same for Rainie.
If Wilson had been there, he’d have told them there was no point. House was way past the stage where you could intercept his nightmare; you’d just have to ride it out.
As she watched from the doorway and let her eyes acclimate to the darkness, Jacey was planning ahead. Might be time to consider putting them both on clonidine, she thought. Over time, it should help reduce the nightmares and startle reactions. She made a mental note to look at their other medications to check for possible drug interactions.
In the meantime, a crisis was bubbling.
In order to be able to get at his patients, Mark had dropped the inside bed rails on both hospital beds. As Jacey approached, Rainie twisted toward House’s bed, flinging her arm out and hitting him hard in the face with a loud smack.
The two nurses and the psychiatrist froze.
The impact of the blow woke Rainie up. She found herself contorted in the bed, with her hand smarting. She saw it lying near House’s face, which was developing a red mark where she had struck him.
Stunned, House recoiled, groaning with pain. Still asleep, he lashed out with his left arm, waving it around his head as if to ward off further blows, then attempting to curl up, crying out in pain as he did so.
“Ohhh, no…!” Rainie wailed as she realized what she had done. Somehow, the sound of her voice got through to House and he began to rouse, his eyelids fluttering as he drifted toward consciousness.
“No!” he yelled suddenly, startling Rainie, who began to cry. He took in a big breath, and his unseeing eyes opened wide with fear and anger. “No…! Stop…! No more!” As consciousness overtook him, he looked around, frightened, until his eyes lit on Rainie, who was now curled up and whimpering. Breathing heavily, he softened slightly when he saw her.
“I… I’m sorry,” she sighed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…”
Gasping for air, his eyes darting around again, House said nothing, his face altered by pain and torment as he struggled to leave the dream behind and reenter the real world.
Rainie looked at him, at the red mark she’d made on his face.
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry!” she cried again, curling in on herself.
He laid his head back on the pillow with a grimace and stared at the ceiling, still breathing heavily. After a few more deep breaths, he looked over at his patient lying devastated next to him.
It had all happened so fast, Jacey was still standing just a few paces into the room. She approached the two.
“Greg… Greg? Are you okay?” she asked.
His shocked blue eyes finally met hers levelly, the right one merely a slit in the purple lid, and he nodded slowly. One more deep breath.
His voice barely audible, he whispered, “Push the beds together.”
The nurses looked at Jacey questioningly.
“Do it,” said Jacey, after a moment’s hesitation.
Kate nudged Rainie’s bed while Mark pushed House’s until the two beds bumped.
With an exquisite effort and not a few grunts, House rolled onto his left side toward Rainie, who was still crying and shivering.
The advantage I’ve got, he thought, is that I’ve been through this so many times. It’s still new to her. As the latest nightmare began to recede from his memory, he could still feel a few tears tracing paths down his cheeks, running past the stinging spot where Rainie’s hand had marked him.
They were now lying face to face.
“Leave the room,” he said in Jacey’s general direction. “Leave us alone.”
“But Greg…” she began.
“Leave. Us. Alone,” he said, enunciating each word as distinctly as he could. “Now.”
“All right, Greg,” said Jacey, reluctantly, “but we’ll be right outside if you need us.” The three left the room, sliding the glass door shut behind them. Jacey stood outside and watched from the other side of the glass.
Gritting his teeth and breathing around the pain, House looked intently at Rainie.
Instinctively, he reached toward her with his right arm, but the bandaging and the soreness in his shoulder and elbow were too much. “Uuuuuunh ohhhh,” he moaned, his breath hitching as he shifted his position and tried to scoot closer to her. When she heard him cry out, her weeping increased.
“Rainie,” he said, his voice barely audible.
There was no response.
“Rainie,” he repeated.
Her crying slowed and she peeked at him fearfully through wet eyelashes.
“Nightmares,” he said. “Just nightmares.”
She nodded.
“Come here.”
She looked puzzled.
“I tried, but I can’t move any closer,” he said, gently. “You’ll have to come closer to me.”
With infinite care, she inched closer, still not touching him.
“Come on,” he murmured, sliding his left arm beneath her waist and drawing her right up next to him, her body now mostly on his bed.
She looked up at his tear-stained face anxiously. “I’m sorry,” she said again.
“I know,” he replied. “Doesn’t matter.”
With that, she began to cry again, this time out of relief.
Biting his lower lip until his upper incisors broke the skin, drawing a tiny drop of blood; he fought against the pain in his right shoulder to grapple with her blanket and pull it up around her.
When she saw what he had done, she adjusted his blanket and nestled against his good left shoulder, finding comfort in the warmth of his body and the security of his arm around her. Her breathing slowing, she sighed and her eyes closed.
He let out his breath and closed his eyes.
Ten minutes later, after she hadn’t seen any movement in a while, Jacey slid open the door to find her patients cuddled together sound asleep.
* * * *
When Wilson arrived early the next morning, he passed by the security guard at the door, and slipped quietly into room 304.
At first, slightly panicked, he thought one of the beds was missing, along with its patient, until he realized that the two patients were wrapped up together, huddled beneath two blankets on the two beds pushed together.
House lay back on the pillow, his eyes closed, his broken right arm at his side and his head bent so that his undamaged left cheek rested on Rainie’s forehead while he exhaled a low growl. His left arm circled her shoulders. Rainie was asleep curled up at his side, her face buried on House’s left shoulder, her left hand lying on his chest.
Well, I’ll be damned, thought Wilson as he turned and left the room.
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Comments
This story gets better and better as it goes on. I am really enjoying it and look forward to each chapter with its twists and turns.
Damn, got to go back to work, song ending now. More please.
"I used to be a doctor." That line packed a real punch (no pun intended) as well as being lovely and lyrical. I loved the symmetry of the two dreams.
I wasn't expecting Pevey's attack - I was loving the idea of House healing himself and Renie at the same time.
But I hope he can keep going in the right direction, and this chapter gave me hope.
Great job, I'll wait for the next updates.
hey, i was thinking...do you know of anybody who makes fanvids for house? i dont have a clue how to make em, i'm more of a writer, but it would be so cool if someone could make a couple of accompanying fanvids to go along with your story :) i keep thinking of the Rascal Flatts song "Every Day" in terms of House/Wilson friendship, and thinking how appropriate it would be, and how cool to see a video to go along with this fic... :)
anyways, off to enjoy more wonderful ficcage :)
I don't know anything about fanvids -- I barely know anything about fanfic! But I'll go listen to the song...
--zep
--zep