Verso
Disclaimer: We do not own House, Chase, Cameron, Cuddy, Wilson or any other character you care to mention they belong to someone else. The following fict is a purely fictional based on the show however; it is not based entirely on the shows canon. The main fict starts one year before the show in 2003, although House has the full season one team.
Summary: This is a reworking of an old fiction we wrote many moons ago. We talked about the characters and where the story would eventually end a lot. It seemed time to go back and rewrite the story. This is an OC and House centric fiction. There is no romantic involvement and she is not his daughter. Please read and review.
Prologue:
Once upon a time, in a land where things were big, adults ruled and it was a sin to eat too many cookies before dinner, there lived a small girl. She lived with her Daddy who laughed lots, told jokes and smelled of peppermint and her Mommy who smiled, spoke softly and stroked her hair while she slept. She was a happy inquisitive child who liked to watch creation, drinking in everything she could see, touch, taste and smell as if afraid that she would miss a crucial moment. And from the first time her small bell like voice chimed out 'why?' demanding to know more from the world around her that just was her parents knew she would one day be destined for great things.
They were the centre of her entire existence and she was theirs, and for a time they were happy together but in the real world darkness is not always overcome by light and more often than not fairy tales, and those in them, must come to an end.
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October 12 1990.
It had always struck her in her long and arduous four years of life how annoying the wind was outside but not on the inside. As she lay amongst the blankets and soft downy pillows of the giant bed and listened to it howl angrily somewhere far off behind the huge red curtains, it came to her that the air inside was very still compared to its cousin.
The stillness did not frighten her nor did the dark of the room, for it was night time and night time was always dark...there was no point in being afraid of something that always happened. No, she was not afraid of the wind or the stillness, if anything they made her feel safer, warmer and oddly at peace.
She sat up under her covers and tilted her head listening. The howling of the wind seemed to be creeping into the house somewhere ruining the stillness, and an overwhelming need to get up and go see overcame her.
The soft pad pad of her feet in the hall carpet brought no one running to cart her back off to bed. She followed the corridor towards the room with the big chairs that smelled of Grandfather's aftershave and tobacco. Her eyes peered around the great oak door, her eyebrows contracting slightly at what she saw there.
Granny sat in a chair, hunched and shivering with her face in her hands as if she was cold. To her right Grandfather stood leaning on the mantle of the fireplace where she hung her stocking at Christmas for Santa. He looked like the cold marble of the fireplace itself, holding his pipe but not smoking it. The room was chilled despite the roaring fire that flickered behind Grandfather.
At the big bay window, the rain lashed relentlessly down obscuring the night in a veil of water and reflecting the room back in on itself. A clock chimed somewhere and she stopped to count. Ten....ten times it rang, was that very late?
She jumped as the ringing grew louder into a shriek and huffed a breath of relief and embarrassment when Grandfather stopped it simply by picking up the telephone.
"Yes this is he..." He rumbled around his pipe. His jaw worked as he chewed its end while he listened. That was odd; she could not ever remember him doing that before. Just as she was wondering why, his expression changed to one she could not place, one she did not have a name for and he spoke again.
"Of course. No we understand....I want the best possible care. Of course, we will meet you there...but I don't think it best to bring my granddaughter....." he trailed off and removing the pipe from his mouth grandfather clenched it. "I understand. Yes. "He put the phone down and replacing the pipe chewed for another minute.
She frowned again and pushed slightly further into the room. He looked up and saw her but did nothing. Instead, he crossed to Granny and placed a hand on her shoulders.
"Elizabeth." He said gently. Granny looked up at him then followed the direction he looked. Her face was red, her eyes tired and watery like she was crying...but Granny never cried.
The older woman twisted pearls on her neck then quickly, fluidly crossed the room to her.
She had time to wonder if Granny had been cutting onions and that was why she was crying before she felt herself enveloped into a hug. The soft rhythmic stroking on her pyjamas wiped the thought from her mind. "Oh petal...." Granny said and shook slightly as she hugged.
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October 13, 1990 1am
The place they had taken her was much brighter than it looked from outside.
She wandered along peering this way and that taking in the strangeness of the place. It smelled like a swimming pool, the air had a similar kind of feel. Hot and clean but with the undertone of something else that made her think of the time she had licked a penny. It was still night outside but she had the feeling it was very very late. They had been here for a while and she had napped on the bench beside Granny while they waited.
But now Granny had fallen asleep and Grandfather seemed to have wandered off to yell at the man in the White coat. That was the trouble with being four years old. No one told you anything assuming you couldn't tell when something was amiss. Adults were so stupid sometimes. Of course having no frame of reference for both this place and what was going on only increased the desire to find out. Sure that Granny was not likely to miss her any time soon she had gotten off the bench, an arduous task at that, and walked to the end of the corridor.
A glance back and then around the corner had revealed...nothing. So she had walked up this corridor to the next corner, and then the next and then again and assumed she would end up back where she had started with Granny still sound asleep. There was no Granny in this corridor and no benches either instead a set of double doors and buttons. An elevator! As if by magic the doors opened and a man with another white coat on exited reading a clipboard. He didn't look up at her. The elevator stood open beckoning her. She bit her lip in indecisiveness but jumped forward and in as the doors pinged and began to close. She waited staring at the buttons then with a small shrug pressed the ones she could reach. Five orbs of light blinked into existence under her hand and off they went.
The first time the door opened there were people and noise and she shrank back from it unsure why, one light went out. The second time the corridor was dark and spooky looking and she waited wide eyed for the door to close again taking with it the second light. The third time the corridor looked very similar to the one she had left but with a desk and a funny looking bed on wheels against one wall instead of a bench. A coke machine stood humming nearby. She walked to it fascinated by the sound and the elevator closed behind her.
For some time she stood in the relative calming combination of hum and light from the vending machine tracing the words on the front with her small fingers. She paused hearing a rattling sort of sound and stepping away from the machine walked a few steps back towards the big empty desk, her head cocked towards the sound which appeared to be coming from the far end of the corridor. So focused on the noise trying to figure out what it was she didn't notice the doors behind her burst open nor the call of the man who was kneeling on another bed on wheels until they were almost on top of her at which point she stood frozen and exposed mid corridor with nothing to do but stare wide eyed at the commotion.
"LOOK OUT!" the man yelled again without really looking at her. A squeak and heavy footsteps sounded to her right and then her sense of equilibrium tilted as rough hands grabbed her and yanked her back. She struggled once the went limp. Inside she screamed outside she was mute her eyes flickering as the trolley hurtled last followed by another, then another and a team of doctors and other people like a train and just as noisy. Exactly over the place she had just stood.
As it faded just as quickly as it had appeared She sucked in a slightly painful breath that caught in her chest. Little heart hammering she swallowed unsure if she was ok or not, if she should cry or not it was all very confusing. As she reasoned it out something niggled interrupting.
"Hey...hey!" A voice behind her said loudly and turned her on the spot to face a pair of legs clad in dark blue trousers, the material almost black.
Her head tilted up and up seeking some form of recognition. The man, because it was a man, wore a dark shirt and jacket over his trousers. She stared at him in silent awe. He was huge. Her dark brown eyes widened watching him cautiously like a rabbit caught in headlights.
"Don't they teach you the rules of the road in kindergarten these days Kid?" he asked her.
She continued to stare up at him, her mouth open in a little 'o' shape. He was a stranger, she didn't know him but she wasn't sure what else to do. She tilted her head slightly to one side and considered him. Would he chase her is she was to walk away? Who was he and what did he do here....he did not have a white coat or one of the other things the grownups here wore around his neck.
She frowned at him and tilted her head further then stepped back slightly as if trying to take in his entire stature from her small height. Her step wobbled uncertainty forcing her to look away from him and frown at the floor.
The man bent down to her height capturing her attention again; he had the bluest of blue eyes she had ever seen. They seemed to be made of ice; they bored into her as the brow above her frowned. He clicked his fingers in front of her loudly "Hey kid...are you listening?"
She frowned slightly and watched him, swallowing once or twice but unspeaking. Who was this man? Was he supposed to be here...He certainly looked like a normal grown up...would he take her back to Granny?
"Anyone lost a kid!?" The man yelled looking up and down the deserted corridor. "Hey this kid belong to anyone?"
She wasn't expecting the loud noise and jumped, clutching her hands together and rubbing them in fright. No one responded causing the man to frown and shout again "Kid for sale, female....bout 3 to 5 years old...free or best offer."
The shock of the trolleys ebbed as she registered what he was saying and despite herself she found a reply forming to his yells.
"I'm four stupid!" She clarified indignantly surprising herself how loudly her voice sounded in the empty hallway. "And you're not apposed to sell people that don't belong to you that's bad."
The man tilted his head slightly as if considering her the same way she had been considering him and yelled over her head again, "Four year old kid for sale slight attitude problem will require correction."
" I'm not a kid." She said at him scowling her cheeks flushing.
House sighed slightly then yelled again. "Four year old human for sale you know the rest."
The girl jumped again as he raised his voice. "Stop that!" she declared at him. "What are you anyway?"
"I'm the guy that sells stray children to the highest bidder." He said looking down.
She looked confused for a moment. "You can't have bidders if you say something is free..." she said as if thinking out loud. " And it's illegal to sell children"
He smiled at her "It's only illegal if you get caught." His smile spread, wide and wicked looking. "Ohhhh chiiiillllldddrreeen" he said his voice reaching a higher pitch.
She backed away from the man, strangers were bad...she remembered that now. She didn't dare take her eyes off of him, still facing him she ran backwards, clumsily. Her sneakers caught under her and she tripped, landing hard on the vinyl covered floor with a small oooft as the air left her lungs. A Tight horrible feeling spread across her chest and into her throat making tears spring up as she struggled for a second to get air either in or out. A weird wheezing sound came from her and she wanted it to stop.
"Ow..." she finally said when the air eventually entered and the tight feeling loosened. "Ow..."
"Noooo." The voice of the man said. "You're supposed to run away till you are totally away from the scary bad guy not trip over your own shoes and wind yourself. What kind of heroine are you?"
She didn't move just continued looking at the ceiling waiting for the feeling to totally go away or for the bad man to catch her. He was going to sell her and she'd have to live on a farm and chop wood like Cinderella.
The thump of his footsteps caused a feeling of panic to rise up and she quickly tried to sit up and scramble away from him casting around to see where he actually was. The tight feeling returned as she panicked and struggled to fill her small lungs.
"You don't want to sell me." She gasped out wheezily from the floor. "I'm a lie-billy." She sobbed, was that the right word Daddy used? "It's... not good business." She added for emphasis then coughed.
"Wow, she's intelligent." The man said coming closer. "That changes everything guess we won't be giving you away for free after all."
She backed away on her bum and hands as far as she could get and then stopped short as a wall or something pressed back behind her, she was trapped.
She swallowed and winced as her winded lungs had to stop bringing in air for that split second then said with only a slight wobble. "No! My Granny will look for me and my Daddy! And...and my Grandfather's a really important lawyer and my Daddy too and my Mommy... has... a big stick..." She was lying about that last part Mommy did not like big sticks; she said problems could be solved with words not sticks. Part of her wondered what Mommy would say to this dark clad scary man with the blue eyes if she was here now. She gasped and started to cough again as she tried to get back to her feet using what she could now see was the big desk as support.
"Oh no!" the man said not sounding like he really meant it, "Whatever will I do about some random kids mommy with a big stick." He was almost on top of her, looking down at her attempt to escape. He extended his hands towards her, and the colour drained from her face. She felt faint.
Her heart felt like it was going to explode, she turned her head away and clenched her eyes shut taking as deep a breath as she could she started to build up a scream....there wasn't enough air! It hurt too much, she gasped out the first attempt and tried again as the man's hands closed around her waist.
She felt herself pulled upwards...he was going to tie her up and put her in a sack then a cage then a van and drive her away!! Her imagination spun wildly increasing the dizzy faint feeling. This was the end she wouldn't see Mommy or Daddy or her toys again. He was going to take her far away, he was going to sell her, he was going to....stand her on her feet and brush off her jeans?
She opened one eye to look at him, on one knee now on the floor dusting her off with one hand while the other had a gentle hold of her arm.
" Here's a life lesson Kid, contrary to what your fairy tales tell you bad guys don't stand around and rant about their plans before they do it. They just do it. They certainly don't yell them in busy Emergency department corridors. Even half deserted ones. Understand?"
She stared at him as her heart beat in her ears and some small part of her realised he was not going to hurt her. The relief washed through her and the little colour she had along with her sense of fight drained away so suddenly her little knees trembled then buckled.
The man caught her easily.
"Whoa easy there." His tone changed and his expression softened. He peered at her face again with those icy blue eyes. "I didn't really mean to scare you." he glanced around as if looking for something, his hand on her back now.
She recoiled from his touch and he frowned back down at her. "Are you hurt kid? Can you tell me where you are hurt?"
She stared at him trying to remember how to speak. This seemed to decide something in him.
"Ok, hang on, up you come." he swept her up into his arms and stood. He was going to take her after all; he was just trying to make her look tidy! Her heart started to pound again and she struggled against him.
"Nooooo!" she gasped at him then stopped short as just after the word left her lips she felt a soft, cool leathery texture rise up to meet her. He had put her down on one of the wheeled beds along the wall.
"That's better, thought you had gone mute on me there kid." He said as he released his hold on her. " Ok life lesson number two....while it is true that bad guys lie they don't always lie." The man said.
She stared at him her eyes wide again then tried to dash to the side of the bed. She didn't get far, the dizzy feeling had made her movements slow and clumsy.
"And not all people that pretend to be bad guys are actually bad guys." The man continued as he caught her again and put her back into the sitting position in front of him. Her back to the wall. He was smiling at her clearly amused.
She scrambled again and he caught her by the wrist this time. Small limbs flailing "Careful now. Look calm down its ok. I'm not going to hurt you..." he considered a moment. "Or sell you."
She stopped struggling and looked at him; the deep blue of his eyes seemed warm now, but still as sharp. "You're not?" she asked. "What are you going to do?"
"First I'm going to ask you where you came from, because that's the responsible thing to do." He said helping her back to a sitting position but not letting go. His grip did lessen slightly.
"Second, I'm going to ask you to sit still for me while I check just on the off chance you actually are hurt and those lawyers you mentioned decide to sue me. Third I'm going to help you get back where you came from,"
She looked at him a thousand questions racing through her head and seemed confused for a second then finally settled on one. "Why?" she asked.
If this wasn't what he expected her to say he didn't show it. "Because this isn't a safe place for kids to be running about and also lawyers are scary and lawsuits are bad." He stopped to consider a moment then added. "Or is it the other way round I can never remember. But trust me my girlfriend is one so I know what I'm talking about."
She settled on her next comment quickly. "I'm not hurt." She asserted.
He nodded, agreeing with her. " Yeah kids basically bounce these days. But as the adult here I'm going to do it anyway. And before you ask me why let's say you had a bit of a fright and a fall so I'm going to check anyway. You don't have to be afraid I'm a doctor so it's ok."
She frowned more "What are you going to check?"
"You." The man said carefully, "I'm going to have a quick look at you."
The words triggered something.'Let's have a look at you' she repeated the phrase. " So Like Mommy and Granny do when I fall outside?" she asked brightening slightly.
"Yeah." He agreed readily. "Something like that. Do you fall outside a lot?" He was peering closely at her now.
She shrugged captivated by his gaze. A few seconds passed. The intensity of his eyes was too much. She broke eye contact and looked off towards the side of his head pondering. The man craned his neck trying to peer into her eyes again then gently took her chin and straightened her head to face him.
"Look at me." He said quietly and frowned slightly, cupping the sides of her head in each hand he tilted her ever so slightly left then right, up then down to get a view of her pupils reacting to the light.
She blinked and frowned. "What are you doing?" she asked intrigued, he was odd. Doing odd things but she wasn't as scared of him now. He wasn't scary really just weird.
With his thumbs the man pushed down the bottoms of her eyelids, then rolled the tops slightly before releasing her.
She blinked a couple of times then watched him raise a finger. He touched the tip of the finger very deliberately. "Now look here." He said and when she did, he placed the same finger on the opposite hand on her chin keeping her head still. "Follow my finger." He said.
Her eyes tracked the motion of the tip of his finger all the way across until her head hurt then back again to the other side. After a second or two of this, she took her eyes off it for a moment to watch him.
"Ah-ah-ah..." he said bringing the finger back to the centre. "Noo...look here." He wiggled the digit at her then started again.
With a small frown, wondering why, she did as he asked watching its progress up and down and side to side again. When he released her, she drew breath to question him but stopped as he interrupted.
His hand brushed her hair back from her neck and pressed just under her ear. "So, where'd you come from kid?" he asked shaking back the sleeve of his shirt to look at his watch.
"New jersey." She said watching him with interest he didn't look up from the watch. "My Mommy was born in new York though we go there Christmas shopping sometimes."
The man removed the fingers "heart rate's good..." he said quietly to himself and placed his hand over her forehead that caused another frown from him. " I meant how you ended up here."
She shrugged his hand away. " My Mommy and Daddy had sex." She said matter of factly at the same time he muttered.
"A little warm but low grade at best...maybe an overactive mother brought her in..." He stopped and stared at her. "What did you just say?" he asked.
She took a small breath, "When a mommy and daddy want to have a baby the Mommy grows an egg inside her, the daddy grows a special seed. They have sex and the Daddy gives the Mommy his seed that she feeds into her egg and it grows into a baby." She sounded exasperated as if she was sick of explaining this.
The man watched her quietly a moment then. " Did your Mommy bring you here?"
"No. She's at a party with my Daddy."
"Babysitter? Would explain the freak out."
"No. Lorri has exams at school so she couldn't come. My Granny is looking after me."
"Did your Granny bring you?" He was bending her wrists and fingers gently watching her.
"Yes. But she was asleep. Grandfather was talking to the man in the white coat,"
"Another Doctor?"
The girl shrugged and put her hands around her throat as if by habitant lean on her elbows. He watched her again a second. "...is your Granny sick?" She shook her head. " Are you sick?" Again she shrugged with her hands still around her neck as if she didn't think so.
He gently pulled her hands away and pushed his fingers in under her chin. She flinched away from him and resisted the urge to giggle.
The man seemed to mistake her reaction. "Did that hurt?" he asked. He pulled her back towards him and tried again pushing deeper, he followed the line of her jaw on each side. This time she couldn't stop the giggle.
" No it tickles."
He rolled his eyes at her response but kept pressing all the same until he was satisfied. His fingertips pressed into the back of her head and down her neck into her shoulders.
"You said you were Four?" He asked as he felt along her shoulders and into her back. "What kind of four year old calls their Grandfather Grandfather."
"I'm five in the summer. I'm getting a cake." She said as if this explained it.
He smirked slightly. "You know you are remarkably articulate for a four year old."
She blinked at him, she didn't know that word was it a bad thing? Did it mean she was short or smelled or something?
Her lack of response didn't seem to phase him. His fingers pressed into her ribs and she sucked a breath. "Ow..." causing him to pause in his probing and focus more attention on the area.
"Did that hurt?" He asked as again he gently pressed her back and along her ribs. He felt her stiffen again. "Ow..."she said and her eyes welled with tears,
"No no..." he said hastily. " It's ok...don't cry." He turned her slightly and pulling the child's green sweater up inspected the area. There was no lacerations or marks but the spot was tender. Bruised most likely he decided and released the grasp he had on the child.
" It's ok it's bruised from where you fell." He explained then Sighed slightly as a thought crossed his mind. He rummaged in his inside jacket pocket and pulled a tangle of metal and tubing out which seemed to scare the girl.
She watched this New thing with trepidation and looked at him for reassurance.
"It's called a stethoscope." The man said untangling it and putting part of it around his neck. White bits sitting on each side. " You've never seen a stethoscope ?"
She recognised it then from the man Grandfather had spoken to and the others draped across the white coats. She nodded and his frown relaxed slightly. He pulled it into his ears and rubbed a round part on it in his hand before gently leaning her forwards and placing the round part over the side of her bruise.
"Deep breath," he said automatically.
"Why?"
"What do you mean why? So I can hear your lungs. Duh"
"Why do you want to hear my lungs?"
He paused. She couldn't see his face above her only the underside of his chin and the tubing of the stethoscope.
"This is exactly why I'm not a pediatrician." He muttered more to herself than anything. To her he said. "You ask a lot of questions for a four year old. I just do. Now be a good kid and take a nice deep breath like you are going to blow out birthday candles. In and out again..."
Shaking her head at the odd man she did as he asked. In and out again.
"...Good girl. And again." He moved the stethoscope slightly. Paused a few seconds then did the other side. He paused again and closed his eyes as he listened but whatever he thought he heard wasn't there a second time. To be safe he moved back to the first side and repeated the process before stepping back and unhooking the device from his ears. He stuffed it back in his pocket and pulled her sweater back down.
"Sounds good. You can stop breathing like that now."
The girl took a few experimental normal breaths and continued to watch him. She seemed calmer and her pallor was much better. " Well it looks like you are a bit bruised but no sign of concussion or any real injuries."
"I'm not hurt?"
"No. Unless you can show me anything else that hurts?" He waited almost expectantly but the girl shook her head.
"Good, then since your neither hurt nor sick we will get a nurse to take you back to where you belong and watch where you're going next time Kid." He very gently picked her up and placed her back on her feet on the ground then gave her a slight shove.
"Sorry." She mumbled embarrassed. Another flush of colour bit her cheeks and she looked up finding him frowning at her again as if there was something he couldn't put his finger on.
" Don't be sorry, be careful. It's not like I'm going to be around to save you next time. Remember that your gonna have go learn to save yourself. There not always going to be someone to grab you if you get yourself run over by a lot of gurneys."
She frowned at him then looked at her shoes. He ran a hand over his hair and the slight five o'clock shadow across his face. "Geez.." he began and looking down at her opened his mouth then looked behind him as further up the corridor alarm noises sounded, someone yelled and another commotion started.
"Stay there." He said then hurriedly raced off towards the noise, yelling for things that she could not understand as he went.
She waited holding onto the metal of the Bed on wheels but he did not come back. Totally forgotten about it seemed she walked quickly away towards a quieter corridor, rubbing at her bruises. This place wasn't nice she wanted to find Granny and go home. Mommy and Daddy would be back home by now and they would be wondering where she was.
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October 13th – 1990 – 2am
Getting back to Granny was proving to be much more difficult than she had thought it would be. The corridors here were all the same and the people seemed much too busy and shouty to help her. Besides, she wasn't supposed to speak to strangers and she already had. She bit her lip and chewed slightly wondering if the man would tell on her and get her into trouble. He had said it was ok because he was a doctor but Did that mean the stranger rule didn't apply to him? He was a strange doctor after all. He had also said stay there but there were too many people and she didn't belong. Besides that was a while ago now and his eyes scared her slightly when she thought back on it.
She turned another corner and froze as a familiar smell hit her, Tobacco and aftershave. She spun towards it expecting to see Grandfather and his pipe ready to tell her off for wandering away but she could not see him anywhere. She felt scared, lonely and ground her teeth together, her little fists clenched to stop the water that nipped her eyes from falling.
She sobbed slightly and then stopped as a feeble bleep bleeping noise made her pivot on the spot and stare into the dim greyness of the private room behind her. Slowly she turned, unknowing what she would see and if grandfather would be there hiding in that large, curtained area. The bleep bleeping was coming from the shape on the bed. The smell of the place was getting stronger and the smell of Grandfather fading. A combination of cleaning things and a salty unwashed smell and the taste of pennies on a wafting air that came from the vent in the roof not the windows, properly shut and soaked with rain as if they were crying the tears she had stopped herself spilling
She pushed the curtain aside and found...
...Not grandfather, a person with bruises, and red stuff leaking out of them. A hot burning feeling leapt from her belly to her throat, she turned away quickly then stopped.
Something felt wrong here. Looking back she took a step forwards, towards the bed, her heart hammering with each step almost in time to the bleeping sound that seemed to echo around her. Swallowing she drew level with the bed and looked up at the woman there. Her face was unrecognisable, crossed with lines, wires coming from her as if she was covered in Christmas lights. Yet even watching her the girl felt something stir within her.
"Mommy?" she asked the bleeding, injured creature before her. The water welled again as a strong sense of truth settled over the girl the halo of light around the woman throwing shadows out from her to the edges of the room.
"Mommy?!" the girl said again, water pouring down her face. She held a shaking hand out tentatively to the woman's hand some older part of her brain saying that she could do nothing more, and looked around for an adult. Look for the giant man with the stethoscope thing and the blue icy eyes, for the shouty man in the white coat for Grandfather for Daddy for someone....nothing but the gloom that seemed to press closer and closer arrived to help and for the first time in her life, she was afraid of the dark.
13th October 1990 – 2 am
The grandfather chewed his unlit pipe more for something to do than the actual smoking of it. A nurse, small, red headed girl with a crest in her white tunic that said "Princeton General Hospital" chided him.
"Excuse me sir, you can't smoke that here...this is the SICU sir..."
He chomped down on it without looking at her. "I am aware of where I am and what I may and may not do thank you."
She opened her mouth, to argue with him no doubt, at the same moment the door to the room he had been watching opened and an older man in a lab coat with grey hair walked out. He made a beeline for them both.
With a passing thought that the doctor looked tired and drawn, the Grandfather was forced to walk forwards.
"Jonas." He said in recognition.
The doctor nodded at the nurse who graciously had the sense to leave for now. "Fredric.....I am so sorry for your loss..."
Fredric waved his hand dismissively. He couldn't think of it now....couldn't deal with it in public. Not yet. "Thank you Jonas, I appreciate your kind words. Both Elizabeth and I do. My daughter in law? How is she?"
The doctor seemed to resign himself. He squared his shoulders. "I'm not going to lie to you Fredric she's in a bad way. The surgery went as well as could be expected but there is still internal injuries and the MRI showed bleeding in her brain. We are watching it and we'd like to operate again to both release the pressure if necessary and explore the area."
Fredric gestured with his pipe. "So do it...what are you waiting for...."
"Like i said we need to wait to see if the bleeding continues. Even still Her recovery will be difficult Fredric... surgery after surgery...and no way of telling how much damage has been done. "
"If it's a matter of money Jonas you know..."
"It's not Fredric...I'm not very clear. I know tonight has been a terrible shock but realistically at this stage I'm not even sure if she will wake up. I'm sorry."
Fredric chewed his pipe a moment. "The person on the phone had me bring my Granddaughter...something about a transfusion?"
"No she is too young and it won't be necessary. We used blood from our supplies"
"So what are you telling me to consider organ donation? Therapy? What?"
"Many of her organs were badly damaged..."
He cut the doctor off "But this bleeding may come to nothing. The internal injuries are the major issue so this surgery is her best option?"
Slowly, reluctantly the grey haired doctor nodded. "Yes...but..."
"Then operate dammit...prep whatever you need to do. "
"We can't at the moment Fredric...there are other complications...Her kidneys are not damaged but are shutting down and we aren't sure exactly why...she wouldn't survive a trip to the OR at the moment...she barely came out the first time. "
Fredric listened, listened as the man painted a picture in half speak half medical jargon of his daughter in law, her chances of survival and his idea to consult some other guy, a genius apparently. By the end, he was sure of only two things. Firstly If these people did not know what they were doing, His sons wife, his granddaughters mother would die and secondly that these people were lost in a dark room with a blindfold on. He sighed.
"So what do we do? This specialist fellow...what's he do?"
"Doctor House has been here the past six months he's helped to set up a diagnostics department here, he is also a kidney specialist. He's very good Fredric....he takes on the impossible cases and his results are high."
"So she's an impossible case is she?" Fredric said softly causing the other man to pale and hurriedly try to retract his statement. He waved him off again. "How long until this House Fellow gets here?"
Jonas paled again. "I've had him paged and had the case notes sent to him so he will be aware of what's happening...his current patient is in a critical state in emergency care which is why he hasn't been up to Examine her yet...he will be though very soon...."
The man cut off as down the corridor a woman's startled cry distracted them both. Fredric turned hearing his wife and hurried back up the corridor towards her. Just up from a T-junction where he had left her on some leather sofas she stood looking wild-eyed and pale.
"She's gone Fredric! I drifted off for only a second...and she's gone she was just here and she's not in the bathroom...oh my god...oh oh."
As he clutched her to him, sobbing Jonas picked a phone handset up from the nearby wall.
"This is the SICU we have a missing child. Repeat a missing child aged four, three foot two, brown hair wearing blue jeans and a green sweater with sneakers."
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13th October 1990- 3am
Mommy did not move, just rasped in deep breaths that sounded like she was gurgling water. The girl didn't know how long she stood holding Mommy's hand but it wasn't warm like normal and after a while she brought it up to rub along her own face and dry the tears the way Mommy used to. The way she did, she always would.
She curled up on the floor in the circle of light still holding Mommy's hand staring at the dim that creeped closer and closer towards her and the chill that creeped out from them both almost to meet it.
Something was very very wrong here. Something not right, Mommy wasn't waking up, Daddy wasn't here, and things were just wrong.
The bleeping got louder longer, as if it was scared too then suddenly mommy made a funny rattling sound and the bleeping turned into a scream. A high-pitched sound that lasted on, on, and on echoing into the nothingness and back to her from every direction. She leapt up and away, away from the sound and the red stuff pouring out from Mommy's mouth and her ears. She watched it drip out of the tube in her hand along her fingertips and onto the floor.
Scared she ran to the corner of the room behind the big curtain and sat down her hands pressed over her ears and her eyes squeezed shut.
People were running and shouting. The lights came on just as she opened her eyes blinding her. Hurting her head and making the sore red skin under her eyes sting as salty tears poured out again. She shook her head as if to clear it and tried again, everything was a blur of motion and noise that made her feel like her senses were all going to explode at once. There was so much noise, people with machines on metal things with wheels, there were so many people, strangers' men and women in white coats and some not. In the doorway the dark clothed man with the icy blue eyes stood observing passively at the commotion. Maybe that was his job to go watch when there was a lot of noise and tell someone else what happened some part of her reasoned that was quickly ignored.
Someone swore a bad word and then the bleeping made an alarm like a fire drill, red stuff that smelled of pennies was all over their hands, all over Mommy all over the floor someone's shoe print in the small puddle by Mommy's fingers...blood.
The ear-piercing sound went on and on, she felt it inside her building like tight bands pressing into her chest, her throat and finally unable to contain it she let it out. The scream mixed with the blaring of alarms in a sort of morbid harmony.
More footsteps and Hands then, urgent but not rough turned her and lifted her from the floor. Something soft held her close, tight and turned her face away from the sight. The sound of the curtain being pulled, a little metal on metal rasp startled her and she jumped. The person held her head gently from behind holding it into their chest, just under the shoulder another arm under her legs helped keep her aloft. She could not see who it was; it was not Daddy or Grandfather... it smelled of something different she had never smelt before it reminded her of spices at Christmas time. Of apple pie.
"Shhhhh...." A deep reverberating sound from under her ear soothed and despite her fear a deep feeling of calm settled on her. After some time her voice broke and she stopped screaming aloud, the noise refused to leave however and it took a moment to realise that it was inside her. Then, noiseless.
"Time of death....3.30am" a deflated voice said followed by a wall of utter Silence a stillness that was not comfort but ached with both pain and loss.
The comforting smell of spice moved then an gently put her down, having to pull her small clenched fists from its clothes. She blinked her eyes making out only fuzzy images through tears that were half adjustment to light half she did not understand.
The dark fuzzy figure walked away leaving her standing behind the curtain rubbing her eyes and too scared to move though she was not sure really, why or where she was for that matter. She could remember smelling Grandfather but after that.....blank.
"You came too late" a voice said
"I came when I could...I had another patient."
" I paged you an hour ago."
" I had a pediatric case then my original case coded. I made the choice we all have to make."
"Yeah?" the voice demanded. "Well was it worth it?"
The voice responded sounding empty of all emotion. "My patient is 14...because I was there during the seizure I was able to work out the underlying cause...he's going to live. You tell me."
An angry sort of breathing sound followed before the voice interrupted sounding further away.
"By the way there's a kid behind that curtain....she's bruised and in shock."
The curtain noise then and voices and finally the overwhelming smell of Grandfather pressing her close to him.
"Shhhh..." he rumbled. " Shhh...shhh it's ok everything's going to be ok."
Granny's hands stroked along her hair, " Oh oh petal shhh its ok it's ok. How did she even get in here...do you think she...oh no she didn't see..."
"I don't know."
She wasn't really aware of the sobbing, or of their words. The man in the white coat seemed to be having an argument with Grandfather that made him clutch her closer to him.
"Don't you think you've done enough Jonas...you think I'm going to let you poke and prod my granddaughter after what she just saw..."
"She's in shock Fredric....let me give her something to help."
Grandfather didn't answer him instead he reaffirmed his grip on the girl in his arms and walked away. Walked away from it all carrying her along with him and ignoring his wife and the person he once would have counted as a friend.
The girl pulled her face up from his shoulder and watched the man in dark clothes with the icy blue eyes stare at her. Looking as if he wanted to say something but instead he turned, shaking his head sadly and walked away. She watched his shadow grow longer on the floor a thin tall figure it cast. Holding a scythe.