Chapter Eleven - Stubborness is like poker... mostly about the bluff
Arin was dreaming, a sort of half awake half asleep dream where she stood in an elevator with all of the buttons pressed. Each time the door opened a fresh horror waited for her on the other side. She frowned as the elevator came closer to number four but the door didn't open as instead a bleep bleep sounded and she opened her eyes to the real world. Rubbing a hand over her face she sat up and looked at the offending noises owner. Oh how she was starting to hate that watch.
She groaned and rubbed the palm of her hand over her neck, pushing the sweaty hair away from it a moment. This was hour four of their stalemate and it was shaping up to be as lengthy a conflict of standstill as the First World War at this rate. Cameron had come and gone supplying House with a handheld game that made an unholy assortment of noise itself and with coffee. Robyn had appeared with soda, which House had denied her, and left again at the diagnosticians bidding.
"Not again," she groaned exasperated and becoming more and more exhausted as the hours stacked up. Between the emotional rollercoaster of the day, the stress of the morning and the fever she felt like a well wrung rag.
House remained seated, his eyes fixed upon the small screen of his gameboy advanced. The game was Metroid: Zero Mission and felt both fresh yet provided a healthy dose of nostalgia for people like himself who remembered the NES original; where the game cartridge had been slightly larger than the entire console he currently held. He had heard his watch beep, however, had decided to leave the kid in suspense for a couple of minutes. That and he was in the middle of a boss battle he intended to win. Although letting her stew on this occasion might just help put another chink in her so far impressive armour. Truth be told he had expected her to fold by the time the first hour was up, let alone still digging in after four. If he had known it would last this long he would have ordered Cameron to bring him more snacks and some beer.
Arin waited and when it appeared he was engrossed in his game, she flopped back into the pillows and let loose a sigh that had been sitting in her chest. He hadn't really spoken to her for the last three hours and the silence that at first was welcome, now was beginning to wear on her. She considered the pros and cons of engaging him in conversation. Con: Silent and game playing kept him away from her and their new hourly dance of thermometer, pen light, blood pressure cuff and pulse. So far the fabled stethoscope hadn't appeared which made her sure he was bluffing. Con: silence was boring in both ways if it continued surely he would give it up, get bored and go home.
She pondered. Pro: he was at least interesting, so conversation might also be. Pro: she couldn't sleep and conversation would help with her boredom. Maybe he hadn't heard the beep over the game beeping. She closed her eyes and considered if that meant she would get away with it for another hour uninterrupted.
One final volley of missiles and the boss burst into tiny pixelated fragments. House did a fist pump, claimed his prize for defeating it and then hauled ass to the nearest save station. His progress saved, he turned the gameboy off in order to conserve battery power. If this duel went on much longer he would need to send for a new pack of batteries. Rising from his chair, he stretched off his legs before crossing the short distance to where the nurses trolley sat. He picked up his penlight and prepared for round five.
The game sound ended, no such luck. She lay where she was, eyes closed and feigned sleep for now as she composed herself for his approach. A small part of her brain once more telling the reptilian portion that took over during amygdala hijack, that she'd be less stressed if she gave him his darned tests and that it'd be over with quicker with less pain than the current situation. Round five...ding.
Clicking the penlight on, House reached out a hand and opened one of the kids eyes. Bringing the light up he shone the beam directly at her and watched the pupil dilate.
"Mmmhggh!" Arin said indignantly and tried to push him away and herself upright. "Ok, fine you've checked my pupils already." She tried to blink but couldn't with his fingers rolling the bottom and top of her eye. She frowned. "Quit it House," that's what he had become now. Not Doctor House, just House. As if it were easier to refer to him by the surname alone.
House, who had elected to remain with the tried and tested 'Kiddo', feigned thought for this request a moment and quickly decided to decline, "nah," he said. Keeping a firm grip on her eyelid he brought the light across her line of vision a couple of times, noted the reaction and without breaking stride, expertly switched eyes before she had the chance to react. He gave her a smile that said clearly that she could put a stop to it right here and now.
Arin pushed back into her pillow and withstood the exam in silence as she had the last few hours. After a second or so, she relented and rubbing her temples said,"my head hurts."
Looming over the kid, House couldn't help but be reminded of another old episode of Star Trek. He thought for a moment. Should he...? Too right he should! "I'll quit it if you tell me there are five lights," he said as he let go of the girl's head.
"There are five lights," she said wearily, without pause. She rubbed her eyes as if they itched.
Ok... not what he had expected. Where was the whole, 'THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!' routine? However, if this was her giving up, he'd happily take it. "Hmph, some captain of the Enterprise you'd make," he replied mockingly, before adding, "just to be clear, this is your way of surrendering and letting me have my tests, right?"
Arin shook her head. "No.This is me telling you there are five lights. You were the one who said and I quote, 'I'll quit it if you tell me there are five lights,'" she clarified.
Oh, well, it had been a nice try at least, House mused. Guess it's back to the trenches. "It was a metaphor. I thought you at least had enough intellect to grasp those." he reached for a tongue depressor. He was totally milking what he could do in an hourly vitals check, only needs must. Besides, the kid clearly didn't know enough about this aspect of medicine to be able to call him out over it. "Open wide for me."
She sighed, "and I thought you had enough intellect to know my throat will not have changed since the last time you looked, " but for the first time, rather than argue further she simply rolled her eyes and opened her mouth before he had finished asking.
"Good girl, " House said with genuine delight at the slight wear down. "Very good girl" he emphasised and patted her on the head. He seemed to recall that had gotten under her skin the last time he had done it.
She sighed tiredly and stayed still for him but imagined taking the stick and ramming it...she chuckled to herself.
When the anticipated reaction failed to materialise, he couldn't help but feel cheated. He was about to stick the tongue depressor in her mouth when he heard her quiet laughter. "Something funny, Kiddo?" He asked both out of curiosity and annoyance.
"So have you decided you're talking to me now? This is the most you've said to me in three hours. Am qi wearing you down?" She asked and smiled. Ahah...that had annoyed him, she could see it in his expression. She chuckled again.
"I could say the exact same thing to you. In fact, you were the one that got all indignant after round two and started the silent treatment, " House countered. He did not wait for a response before sticking the tongue depressor into her mouth this time.
"Aaahhhh," Arin responded without prompting.
House shone the light into the bowels of her throat. He was fairly certain he could now map out the entire thing and the more he looked at it, the more pity he actually felt for her. Some of the patients he saw in the clinic, acting like they were at death's door in the throws of infection, looked healthier than this girl's throat did. And her throat looked inflamed and raw now, despite her assurances that it didn't hurt. He didn't believe her, however, he couldn't let the pity show, not when he had an agenda to reach first. Resolved to fixing one Issue at a time with this kid, he held both the light and the tongue depressor in place until it forced her to cough dryly. He removed them as she made a retching sound and felt a moment of triumph as she made a face that clearly said swallowing afterwards from that had actually hurt.
Arin coughed and swallowed a few times as the feeling passed. This time she did sit up properly. "You did that on purpose," she accused weakly.
"It was medically justified, " House replied quickly, discarding both implements and reaching his hands out towards her neck. "Now, hold still and I promise it won't hurt... too much."
She held up a hand in a stop gesture at him, "hang on a second," she said as she kept the hand in place and caught her breath again.
House looked at her outstretched hand and watching her try to come down from the heightened state he had put her in switched to his mocking tone, "oh no, an outstretched hand! However will I find a way past it?" he had to keep pushing. She was proving to be more resilient than he had originally assumed.
"Oh no sarcasm, however will I respond to that..." she countered and then lowered the hand. The second was all she needed to get her barriers back up. "It doesn't hurt at all," she told him in answer to a question unasked. "It just feels uncomfortable."
House smirked to himself as he reached out with both hands as if to start palpating her glands. Only at the last moment he changed tact and pressed the first two fingers on his right hand onto the pulse point in her neck. She went stiff as though an electric shock had gone through her.
She noticeably flinched under his finger tips with a sudden frightened gasp. Her pulse thundered under his scrutiny and she tried to move away from him. No, she didn't like that. She couldn't place why, but it was across a very hastily established line of 'Ok' and 'Not ok'.
House drank in her reaction, slightly unexpected but a welcome chink in her shield against his onslaught and pressed his fingers harder against her neck. A part of his brain thinking he might need to reevaluate that, 'not a sadist,' assessment of himself. Regardless, he certainly enjoyed having found a new button to push and the reassertion of his authority over proceedings.
Her heart rate spiked dramatically for just a few seconds, the machine recording gave a quick warning alarm that stopped as her heart rate slowed marginally back down. "Was that punishment because I laughed?" she asked breathlessly.
"No, it was because I needed to measure your heart rate. And if you don't keep quiet, I might lose count and have to start over again. And we wouldn't want that now, would we?"
Arin rolled her eyes and glanced pointedly at the machine that had been recording her heart rate for the last few hours. "Oh golly gee no sir, we certainly don't want that. What if the alarm goes off again and the nurse comes in to rescue me from you, can't have that."
House had to hand it to the kid. For someone with iatrophobia, she certainly had some balls; daring him to think up increasingly terrifying ways of doing basic medical examinations on her. He needed to pull the big guns, she was so getting her lungs listened to this round. He released her and turned away as her hands flew to her neck and covered the area he had just been touching. Maybe to prevent him doing it again...? he couldn't be sure. He fetched the thermometer from the trolley. "You are aware that the nurses are on my side, aren't you? I hope you've not been saving that as your trump card. That would be just downright embarrassing."
As he released her she sighed in relief and watched him, "Hah, from what I gather your team are the only ones on your side, House. The nurses do what they need to do to keep you away. I wonder how loudly I'd have to scream to send one of them scurrying back downstairs to find Doctor Cuddy." She raised her eyebrows and watched him intently, deep brown eyes fixed on his icy blue ones. She smirked slightly and opened her mouth for the thermometer.
"Sorry, Kiddo, but Cuddy probably checked out hours ago. She always goes home early on days where I've caused her serious headache. And boy I caused her a serious headache today. Not to mention, that the nurses are more scared of me than they are of you."
"I guess that happens a lot of the time then, poor Doctor Cuddy. I'm sure they could call her. They don't know me well enough to be scared or not scared..." she tilted her head then as if a thought struck her. "Does it bother you that they are frightened of you?"
"Why would it? It gets me what I want." He wasted no more time in putting the thermometer under her tongue and pushing up her chin closing her mouth with his index finger.
"I think my temperature is down," she said conversationally as the device slid in under her tongue and he closed her mouth around it. Normally this was where he picked up her wrist for her pulse in their new routine but he had deviated this round so who knew what to expect. Clever really.
So, she hoped to engage him in conversation, was that her game? Perhaps the silent treatment had been slowly working after all. When the device beeped, House withdrew it and looked at the display. Surprisingly, she was right, her temperature had actually come down. Although the law of averages dictated that she would make a correct medical assessment sooner or later. This may just have been it.
Arin rubbed her tongue off the top of her mouth and tried to get rid of the sensation of the device. "Done?" She asked hopefully.
House returned the thermometer to the trolly and elected to go back in with his hands, before pulling out the big gun. Reaching out, he took hold of her chin with both hands and began palpating her glands. "Guess again," he mocked.
Again, she made a face as though the pressure was uncomfortable but not painful exactly. She swallowed and winced slightly as he moved up her jawline towards her ear. "You're not going to leave this alone are you. You're going to stay here all night if you have to, right?"
"Evacuate, in my moment of triumph! You severely overestimate your chances," House said with a smirk before adding, "wait, sorry, that only applies to rebels trying to blow up Death Stars."
She laughed but it was a mirthless sound as he continued to palpate and she winced again. "I'm really tired, and my head really hurts," she told him. It had been hours since the Tylenol.
House did not release his grip. Her glands were slightly swollen. He frowned as he moved his finger tips in small circular motions, they hadn't been like that an hour or so ago. However, she distracted him, her admittance of tiredness at this stage constituted another brick out of her wall. If she fell asleep after round five she would probably cave when he forcibly woke her for round six. However, he was not without feeling. He would of course offer her the opportunity to surrender. "You've had a hard day, you should get some rest. You know what I hear is conducive to a good night's sleep? he asked rhetorically. "A series of medical tests for breakfast," he finished, still palpating her glands. He gave a slight frown. "Do you feel well apart from being tired? I'm genuinely trying to ascertain your health here."
Her stomach sank and flipped over twice as though she were on a ride at the fair. She swallowed again and tried to move out of his grip. "Ow," she said despite herself. Then quickly as if to cover up her momentary lapse of reason she shook her head, slowly her skin seemed to be heating up under his touch. "I just told you I'm really tired, and my head really hurts, no dice, no tests."
One slip, House questioned internally? He locked eyes with her only to be disappointed with her reaffirmation that she intended to continue the fight. This had gone on long enough. "Sit up," he commanded, finally removing his fingers from her glands and straightening up.
The tone he spoke in made her look warily at him again but she did as he commanded and sat up straight. Glad to have her neck free, she rubbed at the area he had been palpating and frowned slightly. Now should be the cuff then sweet reprieve for another hour. What was he doing?
House took hold of her shoulder and pushed her forward slightly. His hand parted her gown behind her back. He stopped, however, and frowned again when he saw the large patches of magenta coloured bruising. There had been no mention of this in the file, hence he could only conclude that it had come from her antics in the mall fountain that afternoon and thus had only recently started to show. Regardless, it gave him a new set of proverbial buttons to push. And when Greg House saw a big reddish button.. he just had to press it.
Arin tuned her head and craned her neck as he leaned over her, as if trying to see what he was doing. A sharp pain followed by an equally sharp hiss escaped her and her head whipped back round against the arm he was using to brace her in the position he wanted her in. She sat poker straight and stared directly ahead. He smelled of soap and bourbon...
House released the pressure at the indication that it had caused her sufficient levels of pain. He visually inspected each mark and said, "apparently I'm not the only one who didn't know that this bruising was here."
A cold sweat broke out over her forehead and down her back, she shrugged her shoulders under him as if trying to get him off of her. However she didn't respond to him and just looked mildly confused as she tried to place the injury.
House gently pressed around the perimeter of each bruise. Not with enough force to cause more pain, but just enough to let her know the locations and extent. "These babies are fresh. You must have slipped and landed on your back during your underwater rescue mission."
She shrugged again. " I slid down the side of the marble side and landed on my back...winded. The water was freezing and I started to cough," she remembered out loud and turned to look at him. " I didn't realise it had bruised. I wasn't keeping it from you or your team; it mustn't have been like that earlier." She turned back to face forward again. "Though I guess it explains the ache," she muttered the last part as if to herself.
House listened to her explanation and might have felt sorry for her apologetic attitude had they not been embroiled in conflict. However, he suspected that her last thought had not been meant for his ears. Although he would have deduced as much anyway. "Is there anything else that hurts?" he asked before moving on.
Arin seemed to ponder this question with a confused look on her face as though she wasn't used to being asked such a thing, not least sure how to answer him. Her hand came up and rubbed the back of her head and down into her neck a second. She shifted slightly back and forth and pulled a face. "My lower back is stiff...it feels uncomfortable if I breathe in too deeply," she said. Her stomach felt like it was in knots but it wasn't really painful. More like mild cramping on and off that she was attributing to his presence and she'd be damned if she was going to give him that. She felt clammy and tried to lean back again.
No shit, Sherlock, House thought and rolled his eyes. However, on instant reflection her tone did not sound like she was being glib. He considered her."There's only one place you've ever heard the phrase 'can you show me where it hurts' and it's not been in a doctors office," he said gently, seeking confirmation that she may not actually have known how to answer the question.
Arin smirked. "I'm not sure Pink's reply would have helped you." She said honestly. "Can I sit back now please." She added
"Lucky then that it's yours that I'm after," House replied. He raised up a hand pressed gently across the back of her skull, watching for reaction. He would wager that the ER doc had been clueless to the fact that she had slipped in the fountain and possibly cracked it. That head MRI was non-negotiable now. "Not until I'm finished," he then added in response to her question.
She shrugged uncomfortably under him but didn't demand he release her. As he pressed her head she added, "It's not sore...but I kinda feel like my headache is more from there than the cut Doctor Cameron sealed, if that makes sense."
Great, House thought. Head trauma all round, why not.
"Sorry..." she added and seemed somehow to shrink smaller into the bed. She felt vulnerable, not being able to see his face and the discovery of these other injuries had unsettled her. Vulnerability was not something she wanted to project but she knew, at that moment, she probably looked it. People examining her wasn't something she was used to...a dull memory pulled at her making her headache worse...
House carefully pulled his stethoscope out of his jacket pocket and placed the plugs into his ears. Like a vampire, he could smell blood and now it was time to sink his teeth in, metaphorically speaking of course. One hand firmly clamped onto her shoulder he brought the diaphragm end of the device up and placed it against the upper lobe of her left lung. "Ok,I know it will hurt, but try to take a deep breath for me."
She jumped, clearly startled as the cold metal of the device touched her and half way through complying with him the memory broke the surface with a rush of confused emotion and pain. She had a slight flash to a younger version of herself in a similar situation and the grumbling voice from above saying "deep breath..." she couldn't form the memory fully but she had asked the voice why...she knew she had asked why, but she couldn't remember if they had answered her.
Her throat went dry and suddenly the memory was flooding her senses. She wasn't in the room in bed anymore. She was in a different room, a different hospital and she could see a huddled lump of wires on a bed in front of her. The bed shifted and the noise, a deep gurgle like rattle that seemed to penetrate down to her very soul. In her memory, an alarm sounded and She could feel her heart rate increase as the machine beside House echoed the noise in her minds eye. It bleeped it's alarm as it too caught onto the race. That only served to add to the image, the bleating of the alarms and machines was overpowering, she felt sick and dizzy. She closed her eyes and shook her head as her breathing under House's scrutiny became more and more erratic. Beads of sweat formed and she wanted him to release her. It was too overbearing, his presence. Her mind and body felt like it was overheating.
House listened intently to the gentle inhale/exhale pattern of the kid's lung. All seemed fine until... The respiratory rate slowly started to increase. What had been nice relatively relaxed breaths turned into short, sharp gasps of increasing pitch. Over the top of this, he could hear the alarm from the heart rate monitor begin to sound. An indication that it had started to spiral out of control. Letting the diaphragm fall he pulled the plugs from his ears and pushed her back to look at her. Screwed up eyes in a chalk white face greeted him, her lips white and her skin clammy and he could see that her head also shook. Instinctively he reached out a hand and clicked his fingers in front of her face. "Hey!" he said loudly.
Without warning, She pulled away from him and in a flurry of blankets and limbs was out of the bed, jerking off the monitor which set it off again on an error message. She didn't make for the door but rather for the corner of the room between the window and closed bathroom door. Where she backed herself in until she touched the door and slowly slid down it into a crouched position on the floor. She put her hands in her hair as she tried to get control of her breathing. After a few seconds she looked up at him, sweating with a flush of scarlet across her features. Fear, pure unadulterated fear. She gasped huge heavy breaths and swallowed once or twice. "You..." she said breathlessly. "Stay away from me." she looked confused as if she was unsure how she had gotten there.
House took a step back and allowed the kid to scramble away from him and into the opposite corner of the room. Boy, was it ever time for some Ativan. Before doing anything else he turned off the heart rate monitor, effectively cutting out the noise. He had two choices and less than a second to decide, let the nurses deal with it and order the drug or keep trying to work this one out.
Every time he thought he was close to getting around her barriers she threw another in his path. He decided and moved to the door to wave away the sprinting nurses and their crash cart and nosey mermaids. "It's ok," he said holding a hand up. "The monitor came off, my fault..." the nurse in charge gave him a glowering look and glanced at Arin on the floor.
House, for his part, didn't glance over and instead pointed at the raven haired girl who was on her tiptoes trying to see around him, "take her back to her room make sure she stays there. And bring me 500mg of Tylenol and 0.5mg of Ativan."
"She was receiving 365mg..." the nurse started and stopped as House glared at her.
"I know what she was getting. Get what I'm asking," he growled and then turned back into the room sliding the door closed and letting the blinds fall back into place. He moved closer so that he had a clear view of his patient, but kept his distance. He sat in the chair facing her and waited.
A few minutes of silence passed between them in a relative bubble of calm as she slowly relaxed. Finally she looked back up at him. "You...weren't vital checking...you were examining," she accused. "That wasn't part...of the deal."
That's what had set her over the edge? House wondered, he doubted it. He held his hands up. "Look, I found bruising on your back and was only doing what the ER doc would have done had he either a) been able to see it or b) even known to look for it in the first place." While it was not an outright lie, she did not need to know that he had been intending to listen to her lungs anyway. If given the opportunity or incentive, she might decide that suing the hospital might actually be to her advantage this time. Only this time he had a genuine belief that it would be to the detriment of her health.
Arin swallowed and watched him as though only just realising that he was a shark swimming amongst other fish. She was totally a seal and he would eat her alive as soon as look at her. She screwed her eyes up again and shook her head trying to clear it and focus.
House refrained from moving any closer for now. With any other patient he would already have sent for Cameron to come and clean up after him. Only in this situation the addition of a second doctor would probably just aggravate things. He would have to continue on alone for now. The brief look he had got of her eyes from across the distance suggested they had gone glassy and that she now suffered from increased fatigue. Her face had gone scarlet and he did not need the thermometer to tell him that her temperature had spiked again.
After this recent development, he now genuinely felt sorry for her. Such a reaction to something so simple as him listening to her lungs screamed prior trauma. And House knew trauma when he saw it. He'd be willing to bet it linked directly with her iatrophobia. Whether she was aware of it or not. The knock at the door caused her to jump. He held a hand up in a placating gesture and getting to his feet limped to the door. Sliding it open he spoke quietly with the nurse and took a small paper cup from her, he slid the door closed again and returned to the chair holding the cup.
Watching her watch him House settled himself and grimaced as his leg burned briefly. Rubbing it with his free hand He waited for another few moments to both allow her some breathing space, for her vitals to start to regulate and for him to figure out exactly what to say. In the end he came up with nothing better than the old fashioned and often inappropriate, "are you ok?"
A deep inward breath followed by a slow and long exhale was his response.
"Ok, stupid question," he relented. "Tell me how you feel. Do you feel sick, dizzy?"
Slowly her eyes opened and she looked at him, deep brown orbs confused as though again he asked her a question she wasn't used to hearing and didn't know how to answer. She shook her head and he nodded letting it drop for a moment.
After a few minutes she had the feeling that she should say something else. She scrambled for what and went with the only thought in her mind. "I'm sorry..." she said with embarrassment clear in her tone. She shuddered, from fear or the cold floor it wasn't clear, "I'm honestly not a headcase...believe it or not." He would have been within his rights to call for a squad of people in white coats, armed with sedatives to come deal with her here she knew. Yet he had simply sat and waited for her, she became more confused and simply stared up at him. "Please...don't get anyone or...or a sedative."
House frowned when the apology came and only deepened the longer she spoke. Why she felt the need to ask him not to sedate her, he could not quite tell. There were multiple possibilities for that one, many of which could be clumped together like a scoop of neapolitan ice cream. And he lacked enough information even for an educated guess. "Don't worry, I'm not going to go all Sarah Conner hypo on you. Now, are you ok to stand up and get back into bed?"
Arin swallowed and looked at the bed. "Do I have to?" she asked and glanced at him again.
"It beats sitting on the floor," he replied in a more lighthearted tone. "Besides, if you stay there I might start to think you are crazy...er."
Watching him she gave a slight smirk, "you know the illusion of choice isn't actually a paradigm that I buy into." Despite this, using the wall for support she slowly did stand. Swayed slightly but stayed on her feet.
"It doesn't matter if you buy into it or not. However, getting into bed of your own accord or being hoisted there by orderlies is a choice."
"You said no Sarah Conner" she countered,
"I said no hypo like Sarah Conner." He continued to look at her making his point clear. If she did not comply he would have her drugged and dragged. He was giving her an out.
She stared at him and watched his expression. His facial features didn't move. Slowly, trying to hold what was left of her dignity she walked back to the bed and reorganised the blankets. She climbed into the folds. They felt soft and warm against her skin compared to the floor and it was oddly comforting. She lay back against the pillows and finished calming down.
House took the break in the conversation to approach her. He held the paper cup out to her and she looked up at him. Again a silent exchange between the two before she reached out and took the cup. He turned to pour her some water as she looked at the tablets.
"What are these?" She asked suspiciously.
"Tylenol for the pain and the small triangular shaped one is Ativan." A beat of silence as he held the cup of water to her. "Do you know what Ativan is?" She stared at him and he raised his eyebrows. "It..."
"It helps with anxiety and panic." She stated flatly.
He nodded and took the opportunity to sit back down in his chair and help himself to a vicodin; he'd been standing for too long. "It's a psychiatric drug for anxiety. It'll help you calm down."
She sat looking at the pills. "Are you going to force me to take it?" She asked him quietly without looking up at him.
He opened his mouth to say, 'I won't force you if you let me do my tests now', however, instead took a leaf out of Cameron's book and said, "I'd recommend you do. It'll help." He waited in the silence that followed. "Does that happen a lot?" he asked
"No." She said shaking her head. "Well..."
"It has today?" ge guessed. "Do you want to talk about it?
Arin blinked as though again he asked her questions she wasn't used to and had no way of answering, "no," she said with a level of finality that made it clear she wouldn't budge on the matter. "Sorry..." she added.
The caring and compassionate door slammed closed in House's face and reminded him exactly why he never bothered with that bullshit. The only way he was getting those tests was to revert to his methods and if that made him a sadist then he didn't care. He'd put her through as many of those episodes as it took to get what he wanted.
As if reading his expression she added again. "I...I don't know what IT is to talk about...I..." she looked around, "this whole thing seems so alien and yet at the same time I feel like I've...done this before?" She sighed as if this didn't make any sense to her and made eye contact again. "I honestly don't think I'm ill. I just want to go home. Do you understand why now?" she asked.
Internally House patted himself on the back. Such an admission practically told him that her episode was directly linked with her iatrophobia. Only it did raise one question, "if you've never seen a doctor before today, how can you possibly try and rationalise your argument in a way that suggests you knew this would happen?"
Arin's expression closed down as if the openness over the episode was raw and his question was a pointy stick he had then poked it with. "Doctor House, if you don't mind I'd like to be left alone now," she told him, her tone back to the social etiquette style of their first few meetings.
With the emotional option now well and truly off the table, House reverted back to option one; being an ass. "Sorry, no dice," he began, deliberately using one of her own phrases. "I still have a series of tests I need you to consent to, so that I can go about the process of diagnosing you." He paused and glanced at his watch. "Besides, it's almost ten to nine, your next vitals check is due soon."
He sat back in his seat and picking up his cane, began twirling it as he pondered her and her reactions. With his other hand he tugged gently on his bottom lip. Ten minutes passed with him watching her and her sitting staring at the pills. When his alarm went off she jumped and he smirked as he stood, taking his penlight from his pocket. "Ok, Kiddo...let's do this thing," he said.
"No." She stated and shook her head. She felt stupid, part of her thought she had built a rapport with him. Idiot.
"No isn't an option," he said and picked up her wrist. He looked at his watch. She wriggled under his grip and pulled from his grasp. He raised his eyebrows at her. "I'm Starting to rethink the Sarah Conner thing," he said with a sigh.
"Will you leave me alone if I agree to your stupid tests." She asked. "For the rest of the night." She added.
House smirked, she was a quick study this one. "Yes, for the rest of the night," he agreed.
"Fine. Give me your clipboards I'll consent to your stupid tests. I'm not going through the whole rigmarole of you checking my vitals again. That's it, I'm done." She clicked her fingers in a give me it now sort of gesture. "You win. I hope you're happy."
House let out a breath and had to resist the urge to declare, 'Yes!'. It had been a slog and he had almost wavered and succumbed to the light side, but in the end he had won. He picked up the clipboard with the relevant paperwork Cameron had brought and tossed it and a pen in the kid's direction. He then turned and headed out of the door.
At the nurses station, he grabbed the attention of the woman behind the desk. "My patient had her last vitals check at eight, so will need another at midnight. However, once I leave again, no one goes into her room before that, she's going to need to sleep a bit." The nurse nodded at him and with a curt nod in response he turned and walked back into the room.
Arin lay on her side and had turned her back to the blinds. She held the blanket wrapped tight around herself.
He watched her a few seconds then picked up the clipboard from where it had obviously been tossed at the foot of the bed to look at it. A quick glance through the pages showed him she had indeed signed each consent form and he smirked to himself. Placing it on the table alongside his game boy for now, he fished in his jacket for his pen and pulled her chart off the bed. He made three recordings from her 8pm check, noted she hadn't had her blood pressure checked and then ordered the Tylenol to be upped to 500mg. Better than the nonsense she had been given thus far. What was Cameron thinking?
He considered Arin as his pen hovered over the page, she appeared to be sobbing now. He sighed then changed his mind on the Ativan and instead wrote an order for 100 mg hydroxyzine, though an antihistamine. It also worked to reduce activity in the central nervous system and would work as both a sedative and a way to treat the anxiety and tension. And with him gone, the anxiety itself would drop further naturally and she'd go out like a light. He pondered the dosage a moment and glanced up at her again. After the up and down of the day, he would bet she needed to sleep and while Ativan would do that too, he didn't want her to feel like he had 'drugged' drugged her and just left her there. A one time deal wouldn't have any negative effect...and it wasn't Ativan, which is all he had said he wouldn't make her take...and if she were groggy the next morning then all the better for whoever had to deal with her then. He finished writing, for whatever reason, full moon, heatstroke... whatever...he was going soft on this one but thankfully no one would ever know.
He signed the chart, gathered his effects and the untouched cup of meds and left her without another word. He didn't offer comfort or compassion now that he had what he wanted. No, instead he would let her work it out in private. However, he dimmed the lights and closed the door quietly as he left.
Again at the nurses station he handed over the pills and explained she hadn't taken the drugs first time and made sure she would receive the meds he had ordered now, not in ten minutes not in thirty but as soon as he stopped speaking. He also stated that he wanted her heart rate measured before someone checked her pulse and afterwards. That would get him his answer about the spikes.
Task completed, House claimed his prize and leaning on his cane hauled ass to the nearest save station, aka his office. The ducklings could take it from here and he could go home.