A Prank Too Far

Well, this is just a short one that REALLY deviates from the story line I had in the last version.

Mwaha.

Um, I quite like this, I was reading Enlee’s ‘Don’t You Forget About Me’ and this sorta just came to me. if you haven’t read her fic then you should because it’s excellente!!

Uh, not much of the Huddy in this one but that’s been pretty heavy in the last few chappies so I thought we needed a dash of plot to offset that a bit.

Um, READ and REVIEW me!!

I know you’re out there and you lot on adultfan in par-feckin-ticular!

No reviews for the last chapter (weep). I feel neglected. (pained flail).

Anyways, I hope y’all enjoy.


Chapter 12: Escalation


Tawny strode along the third floor corridor with a long purposeful stride. Her heels clacked against the floor and her hair tumbled wild about her shoulders. Having the heavy mass up at her nape definitely looked could but her hair was so thick it felt like it weighed several pounds after a while. She had let it down now that she was safe from board meetings again. She hummed low to herself while powering along and slid to a graceful halt as something registered that she had just caught out of the corner of her eye. She moved to the polished glass door of the conference room and threw it open. She stuck her head inside and took in the sight of three highly intelligent and obscenely overpaid doctors…sitting on their collective asses.

“What are you doing?”

Her approach had obviously been quieter than she had thought because all three of the diagnostic team leapt to their feet, crossword puzzles, romance novels and neurology papers flying everywhere in the wake of the sudden movement. Tawny planted her hands on her hips and arched an eyebrow at them.

“Was I mistaken in believing that you are paid to work?”

“Dr McQueen, um, we didn’t see you there.” Chase babbled.

Tawny gave him a look that clearly stated ‘evidently’.

“Dr House isn’t here to run diagnosis.” Cameron supplied in her ever-so-helpful manner. Tawny’s gaze swung to her and she almost smiled when the younger woman forced herself not to quail in abject terror. She was growing a spine.

Good.

“Do you have a shortlist of patients?” Tawny demanded patiently. At least, it sounded patient to her.

Foreman handed over the stack of files and Tawny frowned in concentration as she flipped through them quickly, taking note of symptoms and history but little else. “Cameron, take the four year old complaining of bowel pains, Foreman you get the middle aged double vision and Chase you get to go to NICU for the three weeks premi-baby.” Tawny handed out the files to the respective doctors and dumped the rest on the table. Okay, hard part done, now she wanted some coffee. She strode to the machine and poured herself a steaming red mug of the black liquid, she turned, freezing with it halfway to her mouth when she saw the whole team staring at her in slack jawed amazement.

“Do I have something in my teeth?”

“You can’t dish out cases.” Cameron squeaked, halfway bold in indignation and abject terror of a woman that really was a lot bigger than her.

Tawny shrugged not understanding. “Why not?”

“Well, House will go nuts for a start.” Foreman pointed out as if it were painfully obvious.

“House isn’t here.”

“But he will be eventually and I’d rather have you pissed at me than him.” Chase said and took his seat again.

Tawny was beginning to feel the low burn of anger in her gut. She was used to, no, expected to be listened to and have her orders carried out to the letter. She was not used to having some flop-haired ponce from the bloody colony tell her what was her right to dish out or not. She marched over to Chase, slapped her coffee down on the table and bent, planting both hands on the arms of his chair so that her face was mere inches from his.

“Dr Chase, allow me to make your position quite clear. If House is annoyed with you, he will make you miserable for a week, get bored and move onto something else. If you suffer from the sheer stupidity of pissing me off then I will make you suffer for the rest of your natural life and enjoy it far more than Dr House would ever be capable of. Am I clear?”

Chase swallowed hard and nodded. She was really scary up close like this. Tawny smiled then and straightened, lifting her coffee and sipping delicately as if nothing had happened. There was stunned silence for a moment as all three doctors stared at her. She rolled her eyes.

“I will take full responsibility. Now go!”

They left with scurrying hurry.

Tawny scowled after them and headed for House’s office. Perhaps if she was lucky she might be able to curl up on the recliner and sleep for half an hour. She yawned to that effect and pushed through the doors and into the dim interior of the House inner sanctum. It was blissfully quiet and peaceful in here. The air was cool as House kept the air conditioning high and Tawny gave a happy sigh as she sank into the plush leather cushioned seat behind his desk. She set her coffee down and frowned as it crinkled on something. Lifting the mug she inspected the large brown envelope. Tawny shut her eyes in dismay. She should have had one of them stay and open the mail.

Opening her eyes she brushed that aside. No, better to do it herself and keep her solitude a while longer. She ripped open the large envelope and frowned as the contents spilled out onto the desk. Photographs. Of House.

Tawny frowned and spread the small cut outs of House, of his face and some of full body shots, obviously from newspapers and possibly medical journals judging by the captions held on some of them. They had all been cut out with great hacking slices from scissors. Each face of Gregory House had been scored with red marker. Some had his eyes cut out and others had limbs removed with red ink further staining them in a gruesome parody of trauma. Tawny swallowed and jumped as a heavy card fell out of the envelope. It was a thick sympathy card with cavorting cartoon puppies on the front. Also with their eyes removed. It was bulky and crinkled as if it had been heavily glued. Tawny edged it open with a cautious finger, dreading what she might find inside and shot backwards in her chair, her hand covering the cry of shock that issued from her as she stared at the card’s contents. Her coffee mug tilted in her slack fingers and the dark contents splattered and pooled on the floor.

Blood. Organs. Entrails.

Some poor animal had been eviscerated, its blood soaking through the card, the tiny intestines - probably from a rabbit – and the organs had each been stapled to another pasted photograph of House, collaged to make it look like the blood and gore were his. The smell hit Tawny first and she bit back a retch, there was something written on it. Something smeared in angry red letters on the ‘clean’ side of the card.

‘WHO’D WANT TO HURT YOU?’

Tawny jerked back from the desk and stared down at the bloody writing. “Good God.” She murmured and looked up almost guiltily as the door crashed open. She flinched at the sound, it shouldn’t sound like a gunshot, but that’s what she heard. House limped into the room with a wicked smile on his face.

“Bon jour my good French surgeon, and who are we cutting toda…” His words died when he registered the look of appalled shock that blazoned across Tawny’s face. His hand fell to his side and something very like concern wriggled through him.

“What is it?”

Tawny could only open her mouth and click it uselessly shut again. She didn’t have the words to tell him and she couldn’t bring herself to look back at that card. It brought to many things back to the surface that she’d rather stay buried. House limped over to the desk and looked down at the mess all over his mail.

“Oh.” He said.


~$$~


Cuddy stood staring at the tall dark woman in front of her and tried to get her brain to compute what exactly was going on. It was safe to say that she was at a distinct disadvantage, her brain having been fried by her…condition and all. She made several attempts before she finally managed to force the words out and paste a smile on her face that might have been construed as welcoming if one had squinted at it.

“Stacy…you’re here.” Alright, so it wasn’t the most eloquent greeting she’d ever come up with but, there it was. “What are you doing…here?” Cuddy hurried on and frowned in dismay when she realised that didn’t sound any better than her opening comment.

“I came for a visit.” Stacy smiled on a nervous shrug and Cuddy forced herself not to narrow her eyes accusingly and then beat the lawyer over the head with her own purse. A wave of possessiveness washed through the dean like a tidal wave of feeling and she was left barely standing afterwards. She really needed to sit down. She was not in the mood, or in any condition, to be dealing with Stacy Werner and all her associated baggage. After all, House wasn’t really hers to be feeling all that possessive about. Cuddy tried to make herself believe this while buying time and sidling behind her desk, desperate to put even that meagre barrier between herself and the ‘other’ woman.

“You drove two and a half hours for a visit? Are you in town for business as well?” She was amazed that her voice sounded so light. Positively jovial, any strain that she heard was just her own nerves she was sure.

“Well, to be honest…”

Oh god, here it comes, Cuddy thought.

“Things aren’t going so well with Mark, I needed to get away for a while and I just…ended up here.” Stacy said on a small laugh that Cuddy didn’t share. Looking back, she was amazed that Stacy hadn’t been murdered by House years ago. The woman was insufferable. She must have some good qualities, statistically at least, House must have seen something in her aside from legs that went all the way up to her armpits.

Then again, knowing House…

“Lisa, are you alright? You look a little flushed.” Stacy asked, her tone dripping saccharine concern and Cuddy couldn’t stand it any longer. She had to get out right now.

“I’m not feeling well. You’re right, I should go home.” Cuddy nodded and shot to her feet. She stumbled as her head spun at the sudden change in altitude. She caught herself on her desk and shrugged away from Stacy’s hand. She knew the other woman was just concerned for her, but even the thought of her laying a hand on Cuddy was offensive. “Leave me…! I mean, I’m fine, just let me get my jacket and I’ll be going.” Cuddy back-pedalled at the look of confused hurt on Stacy’s face. Good lord, it was like kicking a mentally deficient puppy, she would probably burn in hell for daring to be mean to Stacy, but Cuddy really couldn’t bring herself to care.

“You sure you’re okay?” Stacy continued.

“I’ll be fine.” As soon as she got over her unhealthy addiction to Stacy’s ex-boyfriend. He couldn’t be that hard of a habit to kick. Just the thought of House had her blood heating and her knees on the verge of buckling. Cuddy made it to her jacket through sheer stubbornness and tugged it on. Loathing the weight of the extra fabric but belting it tight as if to hold herself in.

“I hope you’re feeling better sometime, I really need to talk to you about something.”

That was it.

Cuddy whirled at the door and gripped it so hard her knuckles whitened on the wood. She glared at Stacy and didn’t even falter when a look of stupefied surprise swept across the other woman’s face. “Listen, Stacy, you’re having problems with Mark. I don’t care, I’m pretty sure House doesn’t care either but you have got to stop dragging him into your screwed up personal problems. All you ever do is hurt the man and make him miserable. It’s not you that has to watch him fall apart and then let no one else help him get pulled back together again.” She was finding it difficult to breathe properly and get the words out, but this needed to be said.

“Go and speak to House if you want, get back together with him for all I care, hell have both him and Mark, you’re good at multitasking, right? But stop whining and fucking about instead of fixing your problems!” Cuddy’s chest heaved but she still wasn’t done yet. She was actually nearly yelling now and she had to admit that the loss of control felt kind of good.

“You want Mark? Go to counselling. You want House? Go to a divorce lawyer. Either way, stop toying with them because neither of them deserve you.” Cuddy watched as tears slowly fell down Stacy’s face. She knew she would feel ashamed of herself later but all she could muster at the moment was a vague sense of revulsion. “Goodbye, Stacy, I’m going home now.” Cuddy whirled and smacked right into Lorcain’s thin chest, he steadied her with on hand and the checkers on his suit swirled in front of Cuddy, she had a sudden premonition of being violently ill all over the poor boy and pushed past him as quickly as she could.

“Cain, cancel all of my appointments and then show Ms Werner up to Dr House’s office, they have unfinished business to see to.” She didn’t even turn to see him as she issued the instructions and Lorcain and Stacy were left blinking in her wake as she stormed out of the lobby and towards her car.

Lorcain turned to look accusingly at Stacy.

“What the hell did you do to piss her off?”


~$$~



“Has anyone else seen this?” House demanded of Tawny.

“What? No. I just opened it because I knew you wouldn’t and Cameron wasn’t here.” Tawny gestured wildly. “Do you know who sent it?”

“No.” Was the reply and he said it like he clearly expected her to drop the topic. Well, he had another think coming. This had scared the crap out of her and she wasn’t about to just let it lie.

“Have you contacted the police?”

He snorted. “You and I both know that they can’t do anything. Besides, it’s just some psycho with too much time on his hands.”

“So was Charles Manson!” Tawny hissed at him and prodded him in the chest with her finger to emphasise her point. “House, this could be really dangerous. You cannot let this go unreported, when did it start?”

House shrugged, determined not to turn this into a big deal. He wasn’t frightened, why was she so upset? “A couple of weeks ago, that time it was just photographs, last week it was a card with the writing as well and this week…Pet Cemetery.”

“That’s called escalation, House! The man is obviously working up to something bigger. This won’t just go away. ‘Psychos’ like this always push until they are caught. If he’s spilt the blood of an animal, the next step is a human being. You.” Tawny stabbed her finger against his chest again and he glared at her.

“Back off, will you!” He grabbed her finger and pointed it away from himself as if he were afraid it was loaded. “I am not next on the food chain.”

“What are you going to do if someone corners you with a knife? Run away?” Tawny planted her hands on her hips and glared at him like he was a child that had irked her in some fashion and deserved a stern scolding.

House reached down and swept the whole lot of his mail into the trash can with a contemptuous flick of his hand. “There. Problem solved.” He told her sternly, standing mere inches from her. “You don’t mention this again. Especially not to Lisa, she’ll go nuts if she thinks her precious hospital is in danger.”

Tawny glared at him. The man really was an idiot. “Somehow, I do not think it will be the hospital she is concerned for.”

He snorted. Lisa wanted him because she was immersed in drug induced nymphomania, not because she had deep and meaningful feelings for him. She might keep him around the hospital, and many attributed that to her having ‘special’ feelings for him, but it was only so she could use his results for the betterment of Princeton-Plainsboro.

“Whatever.” He snapped at his surgeon and his eye caught on something shining wetly on her golden shirt. “Clean yourself up, you’ve got icky on you.”

Tawny broke her glare away from him and looked down to see the dark splatter of blood drying on the satin of her shirt. She swore viciously and a look of sheer horror came over her face as she saw the ichor blazing over her stomach. “Oh god, get it off.” House frowned at the real note of panic that laced her voice.

“You’re a surgeon and you don’t like blood?” He asked disbelievingly when her jacket was thrust into his hand. Her hands went to the buttons on her shirt and his eyebrows shot up when he realised she intended to remove it right in front of him. “Tawny? Tawny!” He snapped at her his hand going over her, halfway down her shirt, the fabric gaping over the impressive view of her cleavage in cream and red lingerie.

It was that sight that Stacy and Lorcain walked in on when Lorcain shoved the doors open to make way for the lawyer.

“MUM!”

“Greg?!”

Lorcain gaped, Stacy’s mouth fell open and then she burst into tears. House looked at them both and then back to himself and Tawny. Standing six inches apart, her jacket in one of his hands and his other over hers on the buttons of her shirt.

“Well…this is awkward.”

TBC...