Eternity Part 5/?

[joeybug.livejournal.com]

Title: Eternity
Author: Joey
Rating: R – for adult situations and swearing
Pairing: House/Wilson
Part: Five
Summary: Will House risk his life to save his leg? Will Wilson support him at his time of need? Established relationship. Hurt/Comfort. Angst. Set after House leaves rehab.
Spoilers: Three Stories, Honeymoon, Tritter arc.
A/N:Medical & Grammar Beta med_anomaly Any other mistakes found are mine.

Part One||Part Two||Part Three||Part Four||



House’s blood pressure rose slowly over the next two hours, not high enough to be considered out of the woods, but enough that Wilson felt he could undergo the biopsy without too much danger. Despite being on his fifth bag of saline, he still wasn’t producing enough urine to keep Wilson from worrying that there might be a problem with his kidneys.

The biopsy room was booked and ready. Wilson had enlisted Chase’s help for the procedure. He’d spoken to House’s fellows and they’d all wanted to help as much as they could, but Wilson had told them that for the moment, House was best left to his care. He had asked Chase for his help because he was the best one for the job, just as he’d asked Foreman for a second opinion on House’s CT scan.

Thankfully, Cameron had been too busy looking over his results to become personally involved with House’s case. She’d offered to sit with him, but Wilson had said that he was so confused at the moment that it was best to keep his visitors to a minimum. He had silently been thankful that ever since they’d come clean about the true details of their relationship, Cameron had seemed to get over her little crush on her boss.

House was only half conscious when they moved him from his private room to the procedure room to perform the biopsy. When he had woken up, he’d been alone, which didn’t help his confusion. He kept looking for Wilson, but couldn’t find him. Things worsened when he saw Chase.

“What’s going on?” House demanded, still looking around for Wilson – who was scrubbing up with the other staff members involved in the bone biopsy. Chase had prepared himself for his boss’s condition, but was still shocked at how frail he looked.

“We’re going to do the biopsy now, House,” Chase explained, speaking softly to try and calm him down.

“Where’s Wilson?”

“He’s just scrubbing up.”

“You’re taking my leg off aren’t you?” House said, starting to panic. His heart rate rose as he spoke, and his oxygen sats slowly decreased as he got more and more wound up.

“House, calm down. We’re doing a biopsy, remember, Wilson explained it to you earlier,” Chase replied, trying to keep his boss calm as he kept an eye on the monitors.

“I won’t let you take my leg,” House yelled, getting more agitated by the second. He started pulling at the wires and tried to sit up. His leg throbbed with pain, but he didn’t care. All he cared about was finding Wilson and getting away from Chase with his leg intact. He pulled at the IV, detaching it, the saline dripping uselessly into his bed. He tired to swing his legs over the side of the bed, but both the bars were up and he hit his right one on the metal bar and howled out in pain. Wilson rushed into the room when he heard this. He was ready to observe the biopsy, but not ready for the scene in front of him.

“What the hell happened?” he asked Chase, as he headed to House’s side. House was lying back on the bed, his brow covered in sweat, gasping for breath with an alarmingly high heart rate.

“He got confused when he saw you weren’t here. He thought we were going to take off his leg, pulled out his IV, tried to get up to leave and hit his leg on the side of the bed,” Chase explained as he watched Wilson assess the damage.

“I need a set of vitals, some morphine, a new IV, and we’re going to have to calm him down before we sedate him. I’m not happy with his present state,” Wilson said, barking out orders at Chase, who complied almost immediately. He headed to the cart and pulled out a new IV set, whilst preparing to take House’s vitals. At the same time, he repeated Wilson’s orders for drugs to the nurse who hurriedly pulled them out of the drug cart.

“House, listen to me. I need you to calm down,” Wilson said, softly, reaching out to stroke his lover’s forehead.

“You can’t have my leg,” House said, slurring his speech slightly.

“We’re not taking the leg, I promise you. We just need to do a test on it, remember?”

“You won’t let them have it?” House asked, sounding almost child-like.

“Of course not, Greg. I wouldn’t do anything like that,” Wilson promised, whilst silently praying that if it was cancer, they didn’t have to take the leg because it really was a promise he didn’t want to break.

“Can I go home now?” House asked, still sounding like a small child. He was so confused, his head hurt, and he couldn’t focus properly.

Wilson sighed, he knew the mood swings and confusion were part of the concussion, but right now he wished he had the old House back, the House who would argue with him over things. Because at least then, he’d know he hadn’t lost the man he fell in love with completely. The House before him now was nothing like that. He seemed frail, child-like, and totally lost, and Wilson wasn’t sure what the best thing to do to comfort him was.

“Heart rate is 110, sats are 95 on oxygen and his BP’s 100/60,” Chase reported.

“Okay, House, we’re going to have to restart the IV. You need the fluids and then the anesthesiologist is going to give you some more medication so you’re not in pain during the biopsy, that sound okay?” Wilson said, taking in the numbers Chase had given him, but not really acknowledging that there was anyone else in the room besides House and him.

House closed his eyes to stop the room spinning and nodded. He felt Wilson take his arm, palpating the skin to find a vein and then tie off the tourniquet. There was a sharp prick of the needle and then he could feel it being secured, before the cool rush of a saline flush. He kept his eyes closed as he heard the others fuss around with drugs.

“All right, we’re starting the anesthesia now House,” Wilson said, as the anesthesiologist set to work. “Don’t worry, it’s just enough to make you sleep through the biopsy.” Due to House’s concussion, it was best to have an anesthesiologist present to monitor him for the length of the biopsy. House could feel the change of syringes and then the rush of another liquid going into his veins. He felt the tug of the sedative pulling at him to sleep, but he fought against it, desperate to stay where Wilson was.

“Don’t. Sleep. Wilson,” he slurred as the full effect of the drug started to hit.

“Just relax, House, let it do its job. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

“Promise?”

“I swear, sleep now and when you wake up, it’ll all be over,” Wilson’s said in a comforting tone. He watched as House’s face went slack and he slipped into a deep sleep.

Once he was sure House was out, he removed his hand from his lover’s grasp and went to rescrub for the procedure. “Watch his vitals,” he said to Chase, who nodded.

Wilson reappeared within a few minutes. House was flat on the bed with his right leg exposed. The MRI was up on the board so that they had some idea about placement. He saw the equipment had all been opened and readied for Dr. Suarez. All he could do now was watch them drill a hole into the leg and take a sample of the tumors for testing.

As Suarez took the first sample and handed it to Chase to be prepared for the lab, Wilson prayed to a God he only spoke to on special occasions that for once, his instincts were wrong and he wasn’t about to diagnose House with bone cancer.

~*~
Once the procedure was over, a sleeping House was moved back to his private room where Wilson kept a bedside vigil, wanting to be there when he woke up so as to avoid the same problem that had arisen in the operating room. The concussion wasn’t severe, but had caused obvious swelling to the brain and until that was resolved there would still be confusion, blurred vision and the sleepiness that House was experiencing. Wilson could only hope that it would be resolved within the next few days and House would return to his normal self. Not that that would make it any easier to treat him, but Wilson at least had more experience dealing with *that* House than the imposter he was treating at the moment.

As House slept, the three small slices of tumor from House’s right leg were being tested, a rush job on Wilson’s orders because he was still concerned about House’s kidneys. His urine output had improved in the last few hours, but not enough for Wilson to be sure something more sinister wasn’t going on.

House was still sleeping three hours later when Chase appeared at the door with the biopsy results in his hands.

“I thought you’d want these as soon as possible,” he said, handing the file to Wilson who nodded, thanking him. “I’ll leave you to it, page us if you need anything. I know you don’t want to leave him until he’s awake, but it could still be a while before he’s fully aware of what’s going on.”

“Thanks, Chase,” Wilson replied, dismissing him and opening the file. The results stared back at him and his world came crashing down around him. House had Osteosarcoma, stage three from the placement and size of the tumors. The only good news was that it was a primary bone cancer, which limited the chances of a spread though he would have to check House’s lymph nodes to be sure it hadn’t spread.

He’d have to talk to Suarez and consult with other orthopedists, but from the size and placement, he couldn’t see that limb salvage surgery was going to work. That meant he was about to break a promise he had made less than an few hours ago…House was going to lose his leg.